New Prisoner's Song

DESCRIPTION: Singer has seven more years to serve, for knocking a man down and taking his watch. He recalls home and family. Chorus: "Sitting alone, sad all alone/Sitting in my cell all alone/A-thinking of those good times gone by me/A-knowing that I once had a home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Dock Boggs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, in prison for seven years, has seven more to serve, for knocking a man down in the alley and taking his watch. He remembers his home and family, and wonders if they think of him. Chorus: "Sitting alone, sad all alone/Sitting in my cell all alone/A-thinking of those good times gone by me/A-knowing that I once had a home"
KEYWORDS: captivity homesickness crime prison robbery family prisoner
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 141, "Prisoner's Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 121, "The Prisoner's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11730
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "New Prisoner's Song" (Brunswick 133A/Vocalion 5114 [5144?], 1927); (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Slim Smith, "Sad and Alone" (Vocalion 05082, c. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)"
NOTES [112 words]: Although the plots are virtually identical, this is quite distinct from the "Prisoner's Song." That has the chorus "If I had the wings of an eagle," which this does not, although I strongly suspect it was composed in flagrant imitation. [Borrowing a few items from "Botany Bay" along the way. - RBW] Mike Seeger, incidentally, notes that there is at least one other recording of this song from the 1920s, presumably Slim Smith's. - PJS
Roud, of course, lumps this with the "other" Prisoner's Song. - RBW
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia has the "Lonely and sad, sad and lonely" chorus but also has as the final verse "I wish I had the wings of an eagle...." - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcNPS

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