Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye

DESCRIPTION: A riverman, departing for New Orleans, bids his sweetheart farewell: "I'm going away to New Orleans, Goodbye, my lover, goodbye...." "She's on her way to New Orleans... She's bound to pass the Robert E. Lee...." "I'll make this trip and make no more...."
AUTHOR: T. H. Allen?
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (copyright, according to College Songs)
KEYWORDS: river farewell work separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 274, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text plus a fragment)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 46-47, "Good-bye, My Lover, Good-Bye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 97-99, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 160, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #65, "Good-bye, My Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 591, "Let Her Go By" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #140, "Good-bye, My Lover, Good-bye!" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 152, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 47, "Good Bye, My Lover, Good-Bye" (sic.) (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 37, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 17, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), p. 261, "(The ship went sailing round the bend)" (1 text, an unusual vere but one that clearly belongs here based on the chorus)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 54-55, "Good-bye, My Lover, Good-Bye!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15381
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (Vocalion 5209, 1928)
Kanawha Singers, "Goodbye My Lover Goodbye" (Brunswick 242, 1928)
Bill Mooney & his Cactus Twisters, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (Imperial 1150, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye" (chorus form)
cf. "Sunflower Chorus on Micanopy People" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Sunflower Chorus on Micanopy People (File: Morr012)
Harrison 1888 Campaign Song ("Steamboat coming 'round the bend, Goodbye, old Grover, goodbye") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, 1984-2004, p. 160)
Good-bye, My Party, Good-bye (Farmers Alliance song by Luna Kellie; John D. Hicks, _The Populist Revolt: A History of the Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party_, 1931, p. 169; for background, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom")
Good-by, Old Bilious (Harbin-Parodology, #55, p. 20)
Bought a Little Rooster (Harbin-Parodology, #92, p. 26; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 123)
Election of Officers ("Here comes the boat around the bend, Goodbye, my lover, goodbye") (Harbin-Parodology, #185 p. 49)
NOTES [427 words]: The description above is based on the most coherent version I could find -- although neither the Robert E. Lee nor New Orleans are mentioned in the College Songs texts. Brown's texts, however, have nothing of either plot; both have a verse "See the train go 'round the bend... Loaded down with (railroad/Chapel Hill) men," with the other stanzas floating. Jackson's version is similar: The train comes round the bend filled with CONVICT men. It appears that the simple tune was used for all sorts of floating verse songs.
The Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors version seems to have been particularized for Great Lakes sailors; it begins "A farmer boy stands on the deck" and complains about all the things he doesn't know (e.g. he can't tell various types of sail apart). This may have been influenced by "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye," which is also a sailor song, but that is a separation song, and the Walton version is a taunt, so I don't think they are the same.
This has been attributed to T. H. Allen (so College Songs, and cf. Brown), but I don't know the reliability of the citation.
This song was apparently popular enough in the late 1800s to have played a minor but odd role in politics. The chief issue in the presidential campaign of 1896 was the issue of free silver (for background, see the notes to "Free Silver"). The larger part of the Republican party was in favor of the gold standard, but a substantial minority, especially from agricultural states where high interest rates caused great success, was pro-silver. This became a major issue at the presidential nominating convention, when the Silver Republicans tried to put their position into the platform.
According to PresElections, p. 1803, when the gold standard plank was introduced as an amendment to the Republican platform, the Silver Republicans made it clear that they would leave the party if their position was adopted. This threat was greeted with jeers, including "Go to Chicago!" (site of the Democratic convention), "Put him out," and "Goodbye, my lover, goodbye." And, yes, the Silver Republicans bolted, with some in the audience still shouting this at them as they left (Jones, pp. 172-173). - RBW
There is a parody version ["See the Steamer Go 'round the Bend"]: "See the steamer go 'round the bend, goodbye, my lover, goodbye/They're taking old Sammy away to the pen...And why are they taking old Sam to the pen?...He hit a policeman and hit him again/goodbye, my lover, goodbye." Sam Hinton credits this to his father, who liked to improvise. - PJS
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