Black Sheep, The

DESCRIPTION: A father has three sons, one honest, two vile. The bad sons convince the father to evict the youngest. Then -- urged on perhaps by their wives -- they evict their father from the house. The third son, the "Black Sheep," comes forth and rescues the father
AUTHOR: William F. Gould (c. 1897) (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1897
KEYWORDS: father children rescue
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 79-80, "The Black Sheep" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 130-131, "The Black Sheep" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 105, "The Black Sheep" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 54-55, "The Black Sheep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 62-64, "The Black Sheep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 173-174, "The Black Sheep" (1 text)
DT, BLCKSHEP*
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 98-99, "The Black Sheep" (1 text)
Roud #4282
RECORDINGS:
[Tom] Darby & [Jimmie] Tarlton, "The Black Sheep" (Columbia 15674, 1931; rec. 1930)
[Blind James] Howard & [Charles] Peak, "Three Black Sheep" (Victor V-40189, 1930; rec. 1928; on KMM)
Ann(ie) Whalen, "The Black Sheep" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [80 words]: Yes, this song DOES sound like "King Lear." Given that it is patently a stage song, I can't help but think that the author was influenced by that play.
For a vaguely similar story, with a Lear-like opening and a happy ending in which the exiled daughter marries a rich man following a Cinderella courtship, see Joseph Jacobs, collector, English Fairy Tales, originally published 1890; revised edition 1898 (I use the 1967 Dover paperback reprint), pp. 51-56, "Cap o' Rushes." - RBW
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