Billy Barlow (III - Civil War)

DESCRIPTION: "Good evening, kind friends, how do you all do? 'Tis a very long time since I've been to see you." Billy has volunteered for the Union. He goes to Richmond, where Jeff Davis is jealous of him. He describes his hard times in the army
AUTHOR: Words: various versions by Ed Clifford, H. Angelo, Moses Gibler, and perhaps others
EARLIEST DATE: before 1870 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar humorous soldier courting derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 314-316, "Billy Barlow"; p. 316, "Billy Barlow -- On the TImes" (2 texts, 1 tune, the texts being different versions but with the same general ideas)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #141, p. 11, "Billy Barlow o. 2" (X references)
NOTES [88 words]: Billy Barlow was a popular enough character in the Civil War era to inspire multiple imitation songs, as shown by the two songs cited by Wolf:
-- Billy Barlow No. 2, "Good evening, kind friends, how do you all do," eight verses and chorus, credited to Ed Clifford, with at least two editions by de Marsan, and
-- [New] Billy Barlow, "O, good evening, gentlemen, how do you do," seven stanzas and chorus, "composed and sung by Moses Gibler, at various concerts."
It seems pretty clear they were borrowing things from each other. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: SCWF314

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