Tragic Romance

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls a girl he loved long ago; he left her her in the arms of another man. Many years later he meets the girl's brother. He learns she died awaiting his return, never knowing why he left. (The brother was the man who was in her arms.)
AUTHOR: Louis M. "Grandpa" Jones
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (recording, Morris Bros.); Roberts found it in tradition in 1959
KEYWORDS: infidelity love rambling abandonment death family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #70, "Tragic Romance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 41, "Tragic Romance" (1 text with variants, 1 tune)
Roud #25795
RECORDINGS:
Morris Brothers, "Tragic Romance" (RCA Victor 20-1905, 1946)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4] (tune)
cf. "After the Ball" (plot)
cf. "Fatal Rose of Red" (theme)
NOTES [62 words]: When this song first came to my attention, I refused to accept the attribution to "Grandpa" Jones, since the plot is straight from "After the Ball" and the tune is "Omie Wise." Jones, however, confesses, "I had been singing the old 1890s song, After the Ball, and I borrowed the story from that and the tune from the old folk song Naomi Wise and began to work it out." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW041

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