Banks of the Little Eau Pleine, The [Laws C2]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a schoolmarm who is seeking her lost lover Johnny. He tells her Johnny is drowned and buried far from home. The woman curses Wisconsin and Johnny's boss, and promises to give up teaching and any home near water
AUTHOR: W. N. "Billy" Allen (writing as "Shan T. Boy")
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud); the author said he wrote it c. 1875
KEYWORDS: river death drowning curse humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Laws C2, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 5, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 5, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 96-97, "On the Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 10-11, "The Banks of the Little Auplaine" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 118-119, "The Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 578, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 49, "The Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 201-206, "The Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 52, "The Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #28, "Johnny Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 61, "The Little Low Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 23-26, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 48-52,78, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 58, "The Banks of the Little Low Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 432-433, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, Ivan H. Watson, "Folk Singing on Beaver Island," Volume 2, Number 4 (Winter 1952), p. 247, "The Little Eau Pleine" (reference only)
DT 699, EAUPLEIN
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 101-104, "On the Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 57-58, "The Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #706
RECORDINGS:
John Leahy, "Johnny Murphy" (on Lumber01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Little Auplaine
Johnny Murphy
NOTES [154 words]: The Little Eau Pleine River (yes, there is also a Big Eau Pleine) flows into the Wisconsin River between Wausau and Stevens Point in central Wisconsin. About thirty miles long, it is hardly more than a creek.
Cazden et al regard this song as a parody of "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27]. This is somewhat deceptive. It was set, by the author, to the tune of "Erin's Green Shore," but the lyrics are not derived from that piece, though they have links to assorted traditional pieces.
The plot description above sounds serious, and it is, but the song itself veers between humor and pathos -- e.g. the first verse notes that "the mosquito's notes were melodious," and the singer's clothes are described as "His pants were made out of two meal-sacks, with a patch a foot square on each knee."
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy has extensive notes about William N. Allen, whom he met near the end of the latter's career.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: LC02

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