Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm thinking tonight of the old rustic bridge... 'Twas there, Maggie dear, with our hearts full of cheer, We strayed 'neath the moon's gentle gleam." The singer recalls their happy meeting by the bridge, and all the joys they had there
AUTHOR: Joseph P. Skelly (source: Greig/Duncan6 and broadside LOCSheet sm1881 02090)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1881 02090)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1254, "The Old Rustic Bridge" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 124, "The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill" (1 text)
Roud #3792
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1881 02090, "The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill," Spear & Dehnhoff (New York), 1881; also sm1884 04056, "The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill"; sm1881 03842, "Heimweh [and] The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill" (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (theme)
NOTES [382 words]: This feels so much like "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (right down to the name of the girl) that I have to suspect dependence. But they aren't the same song, though they're about equally sloppy.
This was one of the best-known songs of Joseph P. Skelly (though I think his best song may be his other item in the Index, "I'm Just Going Down to the Gate"). Norm Cohen's article "Henry J Wehman and Cheap Print in Late Nineteenth-Century America," found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition, Ashgate, 2014, on pp. 153-154 prints part of the New York Sun's July 2, 1895 obituary of Skelly. After he wrote this song, his mother died, and he seems never to have recovered. He clearly became an alcoholic, and at one time actually wrote a song at Henry J. Wehman's piano in return for a small payment that he promptly drank away -- and drank so much that he ended up in the hospital. It all sounds very like Stephen Foster (a point also made by Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 218, but I noted the fact even before I read Spaeth's remark). except that Skelly clearly wasn't in the same league.
Spaeth, p. 218, says that Skelly was a plumber by training -- and has a tendency to try to pass off obscure British songs as originals.
Spaeth lists some of Skelly's other work. He wrote the tune for George Cooper's "Strolling on the Brooklyn Bridge" in 1883 (Spaeth, p. 172; did Cooper, who also worked with Stephen Foster, have a thing about alcoholic partners?). In 1874 he wrote "Down by the Old Stream," which, when rewritten with a mill added to the stream, became a hit. In 1876, "I've Only Been Down to the Club" was his preview for "I'm Just Going Down to the Gate" six years later. Spaeth claims that "My Pretty Red Rose" (1877) was Skelly's biggest hit; in 1879 he produced "The Gentleman from Kildare," "If My Dreams Would Come True," and "Pride of the Kitchen" (Spaeth, p. 218). Spaeth on p. 219 lists thirteen other songs, most of which sound like potboilers; the only ones that sound familiar are "A Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother" and "They're All Getting Married But Me," both of which are obviously easily-borrowed titles.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Ord124

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