Peter Gray

DESCRIPTION: Peter Gray, of Pennsylvania, loves Lucy Annie Pearl. Her father sends her west; he considers suicide, but instead goes west himself and is scalped by Indians. She takes to her bed and dies. Chorus: "Blow ye winds of morning, blow ye winds heigh-o."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Duke University broadside, https://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm_cP478G/)
KEYWORDS: courting separation father Indians(Am.) death humorous
FOUND IN: US(So,SW) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 252-253, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 53, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1897, "Peter Gray" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 359, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1870, p. 126, "Peter Gray" (1 reference)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 56, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 240, "Peter Gray" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 33, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
BillyMorrisSongs, pp. 31-32, "Peter Gray" (1 text)
ShillingSongBook3, p. 76, "Peter Gray" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 45 and #2/64, p. 45, "Peter Gray" (1 text); #22, p. 37, "A Warning to Parients" (1 text)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Peter Gray"
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part III, p. 38, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSWB240C (Full)
Roud #4307
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Johnny Gray" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow Ye Winds in the Morning" (chorus lyrics, tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Gray
NOTES [104 words]: Yes, I said humorous [in the keywords]; this is a reworking of a classic ballad plot unto the absurd. - PJS
And the versions I've heard sung are performed with great bathos, just to make sure we get the point.
FolkSongAndMusicHall says that the earliest sheet music version attributes it to E. W. Mackay, who also sang it, but notes that there were earlier versions from the 1840s. Mackay probably helped popularize it, and rewrote it for the stage, but I wouldn't consider him "the author."
Steve Roud lumps this with "Squinty Dan," which has some similarities in form, but I certainly wouldn't consider them the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: FSWB240C

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