Few Days

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I pitched my tent on this campground, Few days, few days, And I give old Satan another round, And I am going home. I can't stay in these diggings, few days, few days, I can't stay in these diggings And I am going home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (sheet music published by Miller & Beacham of Baltimore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mining
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 644, "Tree in Paradise" (3 short texts; the "A" version combines "Few Days" with a "Tree in Paradise" text; "B" is too short to classify easily; "C" seems to be mostly "All My Trials"; there may also be influence from "Is Your Lamps Gone Out" or the like)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 566, "Few Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 72, "There Was an Ole Fish" (1 text, 1 tune, probably a conflation -- Roud files it with #7786, "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)," but the form is "Few Days")
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 41 and #3/62, p. 41, "Few Days" (1 text, which looks like it is at least partly a parody)
DT, (FEWDAYS -- the mining parody)
Roud #15561
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Zaccheus Climbed the Sycamore Tree" (lyrics)
cf. "Indian Camp-Meeting Song"
SAME TUNE:
Come, Brothers, Drive Dull Care Away (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 98-99)
Ode ton Neoteron (="Song/Ode of the Young Men") (by H. R. Waite, [class of 18]68) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 18. The text and the song name is in Greek)
My College Course Must Have an End (by F. Browning, [class of 18]61) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 46-47)
Rally, Boys, for Greenbacks ("The workingmen are growing strong, For greenbacks, for greenbacks") (Foner, p. 139)
NOTES [104 words]: This originated as a hymn, and later was adapted by miners to describe their lives. Since, however, the miners' version took over the hymn in its entirety, simply tacking new verses on the end, we really can't separate the pieces.
According to Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, the 1854 sheet music laimed "Music arranged and adapted by Albert Holland," but they note that "Henry McCaffrey also issued an edition by J. H. Hewitt, but the Miller & Beacham version is found in so many volumes that it must have been the accepted version." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LxA566

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