White Wings

DESCRIPTION: "White wings, they never grow weary, They carry me cheerily over the sea, Night comes, I long for my dearie, I'll spread out my white wings and fly home to thee." The singer longs for his Maggie Darrow, and hopes the winds will carry him to her.
AUTHOR: Banks Winter ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (sheet music published by Willis Woodward & Co. of New York)
KEYWORDS: love bird reunion
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 123, "White wings, they never grow weary" (1 fragment)
Randolph 779, "White Wings" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 48-52, "White Wings" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 144-145, "White Wings" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 7, "White Wings" (1 excerpt)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 101, 195, 251, 416, "White Wings" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, p. 26, "White Wings" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST R779 (Full)
Roud #1753
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Black Socks/White Sails" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #382, recorded 12/14/2022; "White Sails" is a variant on "White Wings")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black Socks" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Black Socks (File: PHCF035)
NOTES [109 words]: Randolph quoted Jay House to the effect that this song was written by Banks Winter in 1884. Gilbert-LostChords offers the story that Winter bought it from another singer for $20. James J. Geller lists this other singer as Joseph Gullick, and dates the composition to 1882. Little supporting evidence is offered for either story.
The title is reported to derive from the novel White Wings by William Black. (The final wife of the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh was also named, in translation, "White Wing," but I doubt many people in the late nineteenth century knew that.) - RBW
So *this* is what "Black socks, they never grow dirty" is a parody of! - PJS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R779

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