When I First Came To This Land

DESCRIPTION: Immigrant comes to the USA, gets a shack, cow, duck, wife and son, and sings about them in a cumulative fashion: "Called my wife 'Run for your life'; called my duck, 'Out of luck'", etc.
AUTHOR: English words translated by Oscar Brand from Pennsylvania Dutch song
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Oscar Brand, "Our Singing Holidays")
KEYWORDS: animal cumulative emigration farming marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 109-113, "When I First Came to This Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 68-71, "Wann ich vun dem Land rei kumm (When I Came to this Country)" (1 German text plus non-poetic translation, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 13, "When I First Came to this Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 120 "When I First Came To This Land" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 392, "When I First Came to This Land" (notes only)
DT, FIRSTCAM
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 157-159, "When I Came to This Country (Wann ich vun dem Land rei kumm)" (1 non-poetic English translation)
Roud #16813
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "When I First Came to This Land" (on PeteSeeger24)
NOTES [14 words]: This should not be confused with the traditional "When First To This Country." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: PSAFB013

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