Wait for the Wagon (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer invites Phyllis "to yon blue mountain free." He describes his cabin and the fine lands around it. Another suitor offers wealth, but he offers youth and health. He bids her to "Wait for the wagon (x3) And we'll all take a ride."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (copyright registry and LOCSheet sm1851 501260; the relevant sheet music is dated 1850)
KEYWORDS: courting home money farming pioneer playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 222-225, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 514, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 98-99=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 202-203, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 563, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 196, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 285-286, "Wait for the Wagon" ( text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 193-195, "Wait for the Wagon"; pp. 195-196, "The Old Union Wagon"; pp. 196-197, "The Southern Wagon" (1 text plus 2 parodies, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 175, "Wait For The Wagon" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 46 and #1/64 p. 44, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 81-82, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 609-610, "Wait for the Wagon"
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 178, "Wait for the Waggon" (1 text, from the "Victoria Songster", a comic adaption)
DT, WAITWAGN* (WAITWAG2* -- Confederate Parody)
ST RJ19222 (Full)
Roud #2080
RECORDINGS:
Wenatchee Mountaineers, "Wait for the Wagon" (Banner 32868/Melotone M-12795/Perfect 12940/Romeo 5269/Conqueror 8195, 1933; Oriole 8336Melotone [Canada] 93041, 1934; Minerva M-920, 1936)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1137, "Wait for the Waggon" ("O come with me, my Phillis dear"), A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(4007), Harding B 15(354b), Harding B 15(354a), 2806 c.15(21)[some words illegible], Harding B 19(12)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(4008), Firth b.25(420), Harding B 11(735), 2806 d.31(45), Firth b.34(305), Firth b.25(584), Firth b.26(91), Firth c.18(218), Harding B 16(298c), Firth b.26(482)[chorus omitted], Wait for the Waggon"
LOCSheet, sm1851 501260, "Wait for the Wagon", Peters, Webb and Con (Louisville), 1851; also sm1851 500740, sm1851 500790, sm1851 681810, sm1852 520240, sm1852 520810 , sm1853 561470, sm1854 550760, sm1854 741360, sm1856 630350, " Wait for the Wagon" (tune)
LOCSinging, as114480, "Wait for the Wagon!" ("Will you come with me my Phillis, dear, to yon blue mountain free"), W. S. & J. Crowley (Baltimore), no date; also sb40585a, "Wait for the Wagon"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brass-Mounted Army" (tune)
cf. "We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho)" (tune)
cf. "The Southern Wagon (Union)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Wait for the Wagon (Free Silver version) (File: McIn021A)
California Ball (File: LDC094)
Wait For the Dragon (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 229)
Ballad of the 117th New York (broadside regarding a Civil War regiment by D. Prosser)
The Old Union Wagon (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 195; Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 390; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets pp. 116-117)
The Southern Wagon (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 196)
Wait for the Wagon, or, A Hundred Thousand Northmen (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 120)
Good Morning, Master Lincoln! (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 52)
The News Boy ("Oh! 'tis early every morning, about the break of day") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 109)
The Sons of New Jersey ("There was a call for Volunteers sometime in last year") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 148)
Sparking Sarah Jane ("Sitting on the sofa, leaning on my breast") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 149)
That's What's the Matter ("They say Johnny Bull is sending") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 155)
That's What's the Matter #2 ("If down South they'd hear to reason") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 155)
Wait for the Lager. A Parody on "Wait for the Wagon" ("Will you come with me, my Billy, down into the cellar, near") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 167)
Bull's Run ("Says Greely to Scott, to Richmond, why not") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 187)
Dodge's Police ("Come all ye Southern lassies") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 188)
Song of the Baltimore Rebels ("Let us join the army, let us join the army") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 194)
Hurrah for Ann Arbor ("A song! hurrah, my jolly boys, let's make Ann Arbor ring") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 75)
The Socialists are Coming ("Come, all you toiling nations And listen to my song") (Foner, p. 298)
Plow Boy of Ohio ("We'll rally from the mountains, We'll rally from the glen") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 17)
NOTES [199 words]: Many authorities credit this piece to R. Bishop Buckley (1810-1867). Certainly there are editions which record that it was sung by Buckley's Minstrels starting in 1843. The earliest printing, however, (from 1850) gives the music as by "Wisenthal"; the words are by "a lady." The next printing, in 1851, gives the name of "G. P. Knauff" (at least, that is what it appears to say; several scholars consider Knauff the arranger). A few editions give only the letters "GAS."
It's worth noting that it was already popular enough in 1853 to be copied into the journal of the Smyrna.
Personally, I think we simply cannot list an author. Which is probably just as well; the sundry parodies (both sides in the Civil War, for instance, produced knock-offs) would likely have produced lawsuits otherwise. - RBW
Wiltshire WSRO: "Alfred Williams [writes] "... An old man named Jonathon Keene, of Wanborough, told me he remembered when the song came out: that would have been about the year 1824." The dated broadsides I have seen are all much later than that.
Cited in Hubert Gibson Shearin and Josiah Henry Combs, A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-Songs (Lexington, 1911 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 23. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19222

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