Ox Driving Song

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the hardships of ox-driving in the winter -- an occupation he intends to quit. "It would make any tender-hearted person weep To see my oxen pull and slip." "When I get home I'll have my revenge, I'll land my family among my friends."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (collected from Herman R. Weaver)
KEYWORDS: work cowboy animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 233-234, "Ox-Driving Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 13, "Ox Driving Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 125, "The Ox-Driver" (1 text)
DT, OXDRIVE
Roud #3584
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Ox Driver's Song" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Whipped My Horse" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [99 words]: Perhaps it's hearing the Burl Ives version too many times, but this sounds recently composed to me. - PJS
Every version I've seen seems to go back to the same Lomax field recording. Possibly the informant had worked on it?
Roud lumps this with Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's piece "The Waggoners." There are a few words in common, but only a few, and those of the sort that could float or even occur to an author spontaneously; really, only thing they have in common that I can see is that both involve travel. -I can see Roud's point, but I'm not quite ready to agree. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FCW013

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