Skewball [Laws Q22]

DESCRIPTION: (Skewball) and one or more other horses run a race; the crowd favors another animal. (Half way through the course), Skewball tells his rider he will win. He pushes on to victory (and drinks a toast with his rider)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B25)
KEYWORDS: horse racing promise
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE,SO) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws Q22, "Skewball"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 136, "Skew Ball" (2 fragments)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 136, "Skew Ball" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 51, pp. 88-89, "Skewball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 253, "The Noble Skew Bald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 34, "Skewball" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 172-174, "The Noble Sku-ball" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 68-70, "Stewball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 62-64, "The Noble Skewball" (1 partial text plus a British version in a footnote, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 102-110, "Stewball" (4 texts, 1 tune, linked to this by the horse's name Stewball though the versions often seem to pick up pieces of other racing songs, notably "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27])
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 151-152, "Stewball" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 8, "Squeball" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 395, "Stewball" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 230, "Stewball" (notes only)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 90-91, "Big Day in Atlanta" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 349, STWBLHOR STWBLHR2
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 72, "Stewball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #456
RECORDINGS:
"Bowlegs" [no other name given], "Stewball" (AFS 1863 B4, 1933)
Texas Gladden, "Old Kimball" (AFS 5233 B; on USTGladden01)
Harold B. Hazelhurst, "Stewboy" (AFS 3143 B3, 1939)
Harry Jackson, "Old Blue Was a Gray Horse" (on HJackson1)
Ed Lewis & prisoners, "Stewball" (on LomaxCD1703)
A. L. Lloyd, "Skewball" (on Lloyd3, Lloyd06)
Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon, "Stewball" (on ClassAfrAm)
Pete Seeger, "Stewball" (on PeteSeeger43)
Guy Wolff, "Skewbald" (Piotr-Archive #469, recorded 01/26/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 999[some lines illegible], "Skew Ball" ("Come gentlemen sportsmen I pray listen all"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(3533), Harding B 15(289a), Harding B 15(289b), Harding B 15(290a), Firth c.19(78), Firth c.19(79), Harding B 11(73), Firth b.26(236), "Skew Ball"; Harding B 28(274), Harding B 25(1784), Harding B 25(1785), Harding B 6(54), G.A. Gen. top. b.29(24/2) [some words illegible] "Skewball"; Firth b.25(297), Johnson Ballads 1406, 2806 c.18(282), Firth c.26(51), "Scew Ball"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (plot)
cf. "Little Dun Dee" (plot)
NOTES [19 words]: This seems to have given rise to a work song fragment, "Old Skubald"; see Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 325. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LQ22

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