Dark Girl Dressed in Blue, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a "dark girl dressed in blue" on a stagecoach. She fools him into paying her fare. They go to a bar. She hands him a banknote to pay their bill. She leaves; he is arrested for passing a bad bill. He is freed but forced to pay the bill
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton?
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (sheet music); the HooleysBlackStarSongster version is from 1865
KEYWORDS: money courting trick clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 388, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 text plus a fragment)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 76-78, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 47-49, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #424, p. 28, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 reference)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 55, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
BillyMorrisSongs, pp. 8-9, "The Gal in Blue" (1 text, rewritten as a minstrel song); pp. 17-20, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 text, the Harry Clifton version)
HooleysBlackStarSongster, pp. 35-36, "Dark Gal Dress'd in Blue" (1 text, clearly modified but it appears to be the same song)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Dark girl dress’d in blue, The"
ST R388 (Full)
Roud #7022
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(073), "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue," unknown, c. 1860; also RB.m.168(133)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Girl Dressed in Check" (apparent parody)
SAME TUNE:
The Gal with the Waterfall ("As we do walk about the streets, Dressed up in fasions gay") (BillyHolmesComicLocalLyrics, p. 5)
NOTES [137 words]: The authorship here is an interesting question. It is not unlikely that the American versions derive from Harry Clifton, who was apparently the source of the 1868 sheet music. This was sung by Tony Pastor.
But then there is the Scottish broadside, dated 1850-1870. It is undeniably the same song (same plot, same chorus, many of the same words). But it is set in Glasgow rather than New York, the vehicle is an omnibus rather than a stagecoach, etc. More significant, the woman is caught in the end, with a "reversible dress." Original or derivative? I could argue for either; each text has parts which appear to have been excised from the other.
The first version in BillyMorrisSongs, "The Gal in Blue," is in minstrel dialect and involves a "yaller gal"; it is clearly a rewrite, but it is still recognizably this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: R388

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