Pride of Logy Bay, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in love. His love's father comes to him and threatens to send his daughter away if the two continue to see each other. Her father arranges for her exile, but -- after many years of seeking -- the two find each other and are married.
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love exile separation reunion father
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 61, "The Pride of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 47, "The Star of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 134, "The Star of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Star of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 25 in the 2nd edition, pp. 59-60 in the 3rd; pp. 55-56 in the 4th; pp. 40-41 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 110, "The Star of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, p. 58, "Star of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STARLOGY*
ADDITIONAL: Newfoundland Stories and Ballads, Volume III No. 1 (Summer/Autumn 1956), p. 21, "The Star of Logy Bay" (1 text)
Roud #4421
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Star of Logy Bay" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
The McNulty Family, "The Star of Logy Bay" (on "The McNulty Family Entertains with Irish Songs," Copley Records DWL 9-604 LP (n.d.))
Clare O'Driscoll, "The Star of Logy Bay" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
May Whalen, "The Star of Logy Bay" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen" (lyrics)
cf. "I Am a Newfoundlander" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
I Am a Newfoundlander (File: RySm089)
NOTES [272 words]: Logy Bay is in Newfoundland, a short way north of Saint John's - RBW
According to GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site the author is "unknown, but probably Mark Walker."
May Whalen's tune follows the McNultys's. Clare O'Driscoll's drifts but ends like the McNultys's. In any case, neither is like Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland.
The McNultys were popular in Newfoundland and their records were available in St. John's (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports pp. 266-268).- BS
The main source for the attribution to Mark Walker seems to be the article by Philip Hiscock, "Ten things to consider about "The Star of Logy Bay" in Canadian Folk Music Bulletin, Summer 2003, Vol 37.2, p. 7. Mark Walker is listed as the author of several popular Newfoundland songs, "Tickle Cove Pond," "Fanny's Harbour Bawn," "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove," and "Lovely Katie-O." Apparently it is family tradition that attributes this song to him. Hiscock's "ten things" are mostly pieces of evidence that support the possibility that Walker wrote this song. These are mostly stylistic. All would affirm his authorship, if we had anything other than family tradition to go on, but I do not find any of them individually compelling.
Michael P. Murphy, Pathways through Yesterday, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, p. 147, has another attribution, to "Michael Power," but admits that the attribution has never been proved.
The Newfoundland Stories and Ballads magazine, which attributes almost everything else it prints, says it was "written many years ago" (as of 1956) but lists no author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSC061

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