Red Wing (II)

DESCRIPTION: Red Wing, the unafraid Indian maid, allows the cowboys intimacies, until she is made pregnant.
AUTHOR: original version by Kerry Mills and Thurland Chattaway
EARLIEST DATE: original version copyright 1907
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody whore childbirth Indians(Am.) derivative
FOUND IN: Australia US(MW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 214-216, "Red Wing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 566-570, "Red Wing" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 212, "Redwings" (sic) (1 tune, which Meredith et al seem to associate with the bawdy version)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 39, pp. 207-210, "Red Wing" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text is "Red Wing (I)" while the "B" text is one of the bawdy parodies)
DT, REDWNG2*
Roud #4784
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Red Wing (I)" (tune, form) and references there
cf. "The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin" (lyrics)
NOTES [156 words]: As with most bawdy parodies, there may be several elements combined here. Cray-EroticMuse's version and most of Randolph's involve the Indian Maid quickly losing that distinction at the hand of cowboys. Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2's fragment of text talks about the ragged clothes of Charlie Chaplin (presumably in his "Little Tramp" role). Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging's "B" text has the girl so "afraid some buckaroo would ram it up her flue" that "she crammed it full of sand" to make sure he would not "reach the promised land" -- but it has the Charlie Chaplin chorus. How these elements came to combine, or separate, would need a more detailed study than I am in position to give. The "Charlie Chaplin" verse circulates separately (see "The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin"), usually sung to this tune, but one suspects that this song is older and that the Chaplin parody verse just floated in. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: EM215

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography