Little Maud
DESCRIPTION: As the singer sleeps on some lumber, a policeman awakes and arrests him. He says he has lost his pocketbook and money, his crops are damaged, and he doesn't have a cent to his name. Chorus: "Little Maud, little Maud/She's the dearest darling of all"
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas B. Albrich / Music: J. P. Webster
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers), but in existence by the 1870s, when Edward Harrigan parodied it
KEYWORDS: captivity poverty love prison farming police hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #18483
RECORDINGS:
Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers, "Little Maud" (OKeh 45177, 1928, rec. 1927; on GoingDown)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willy, Poor Boy" (floating verses, some similarity in the tune)
SAME TUNE:
Little Fraud (by Edward Harrigan; see the notes to "Babies on Our Block")
NOTES [33 words]: To say that this song is disjointed would be an understatement. The verses sound like floaters, but aren't. - PJS
The original song was coherent; it seems to have lost something in oral tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcLitMau
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
The Ballad Index Copyright 2024 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.