Faded Coat of Blue

DESCRIPTION: "My brave boy sleeps in his faded coat of blue, In a lonely grave unknown lies that heart that beat so true." Dying, he bids farewell to mother. The singer is confident they will meet in heaven "Where a robe of white is given for a faded coat of blue."
AUTHOR: J. H. McNaughton
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music published by Penn & Remington, Buffalo, NY)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 126, pp. 266-267, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #152, "In His Faded Coat of Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 104, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 161-163, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 227-228, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 26-27, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #587, p. 39, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (1 reference)
DT, FADECOAT*
ST HCW227 (Full)
Roud #4293
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Faded Coat of Blue" (Bluebird B-5974/Montgomery Ward M-4543, 1935; Regal Zonophone [Australia] G22656, n.d.; rec. 1934)
Buell Kazee, "Faded Coat of Blue" (Brunswick 206/Brunswick 3802, 1928; Supertone S-2045, 1930)
John Thomas, "Faded Coat of Blue" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
SAME TUNE:
Thirty Cents a Day ("In a dim-lighted chamber a dying maiden lay, The tide of her pulses was ebbing fast away") (Foner, p. 162)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Coat of Blue
NOTES [89 words]: Written during the Civil War (or so I've heard, though I've also seen claims that it's a Spanish-American war song), this was apparently collected by A. P. Carter and recorded by the Carter Family in 1934. I know of no other collection in tradition. - RBW
[A]s far as the Carters' being the only collection in tradition -- doesn't Buell Kazee count? His record was issued made and issued in 1928, or six years before the Carter Family's. - PJS
And, of course, we can now add Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi's and Grieg's versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HCW227

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