Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)

DESCRIPTION: Man about to be hanged laments his life. Says, "Hang me, oh hang me, and I'll be dead and gone/It's not the hangin' that I mind, it's layin' in the grave [or jail] so long." In some versions he describes his life as a gambler.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: execution punishment death gambling gallows-confession lament
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 472-473, "The Gambler" (1 text)
Randolph 146, "My Father Was a Gambler" (2 texts, 2 tunes); 348, "Since I Left Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 173-175, "My Father Was a Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 146A)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 232, "The Gambler" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 92, "I've Been All Around This World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 57, pp. 130-131, "The Gambler" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #16, "Rovin' Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune); #54, "My Daddy Was a Gambler" (1 short text, 1 tune, which Roberts thinks is a "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)" fragment although it looks more like "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] to me)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 298, "John Henry-I"; 299, (1 text, 1 tune, containing a large portion of "Been All Around This World" or a relative)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 129-130, "I've Been All Around the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GAMBLR2
Roud #3416
RECORDINGS:
Justus Begley, "I've Been All Around This World" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
Grandpa Jones, "I've Been All Around This World" (King 524, 1946)
Art Thieme, "Cape Girardeau" (on Thieme02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't Let Your Watch Run Down" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Horse Trader's Song" (tune, floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cape Girardeau
I've Been All Around This World
The Hobo's Lament
The Hobo Blues
NOTES [40 words]: Laws regards Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's and Randolph's versions of this as a ballad, "The Gambler," which he lists as dE43. But the text seems much more diffuse than Laws's small and highly specific subset. - RBW
File: R146

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