Up a Tree

DESCRIPTION: Once I had friends that "came to dine and drank my wine." Now that I'm poor "when they see me on the Clyde They pass me on the other side." "While you have it keep it, or you'll soon be 'up a tree'." If I recover, "preserve me from my friends"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.27(66))
KEYWORDS: poverty money drink abandonment hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 63, p. 3, ("Once I could drive my four-in-hand") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 668, "Up a Tree" (2 fragments)
Roud #6095
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(66), "Up a Tree" ("You see before you one who's been in life through many a changing scene"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1868
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. " Hard Up and Broken Down" (theme) and references there
cf. "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime" (theme)
cf. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (theme)
cf. "If But One Heart Be True" (theme)
NOTES [38 words]: Greig/Duncan3 entries are fragments; broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(66) is the basis for the description. - BS
"Passing by on the other side" is pretty clearly a reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:30-35. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3668

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