NAME: Nach Mbonin Shin Do
DESCRIPTION: There is no money this year "but we'll drink all we earn, and we'll pay what we owe." "The gentry who fed upon pheasants and wine" will be reduced to eating what we eat. If the markets improve "every stout farmer will draw the long bow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1891 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes Ireland nonballad patriotic food money
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 49, "Nach Mbonin Shin Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9765
File: OLcM049
===
NAME: Nachul-Born Easman: see Casey Jones (I) [Laws G1] (File: LG01)
===
NAME: Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (I)
DESCRIPTION: "My name it is (Jean) and my age is (fifteen)... Yet there's nae bonnie laddie tae tak me awa." The girl describes her clothes and her good dowry, but confesses to having no luck in seeking a man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: loneliness courting
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H230, p. 255, "Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away'" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 315-317, "Nae Bonnie Laddie Will Tak Me Awa'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 102, "(Queen Mary, Queen Mary, my age is sixteen)" (1 short text, which despite the first line appears more likely to be this piece)
Roud #895
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament)" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES: Ford has anecdotal evidence that this was written by Thomas Scott of Falkirk. If this be true, the song has surely wandered far, becoming little more than a singing game in some of the more corrupt versions.
For the vexed relationship between this song and "Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament)," with which it shares much, see the notes to that song. - RBW
File: HHH230A
===
NAME: Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (II): see Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament) (File: HHH230)
===
NAME: Nae Bonnie Laddie Will Tak Me Awa': see Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away; also Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament) (File: HHH230A)
===
NAME: Naebody Comin' to Marry Me: see My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me) (File: BrII185)
===
NAME: Nails
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, this world is like a bag of nails and some are very queer ones...." The singer describes the world in terms of nails: "The doctor nails you with a bill"; "the undertaker wishes you as dead as any doornail...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1838 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(204))
KEYWORDS: work
FOUND_IN: Australia Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 96, "The Bag of Nails" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 182-183, "Nails" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(204), "The Bag of Nails," W. Wright (Birmingham), 1831-1837; also Firth b.26(28) View 2 of 2, "The Bag of Nails"
File: FaE182
===
NAME: Nairn River Banks
DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders by Nairn River banks, where he sees a pretty girl herding her flock and lamenting her soldier. A boy brings her a letter from him, saying he is fighting the French in Spain with Wellington, but hopes to come back to her soon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier Spain
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1809 - Wellington takes command in the Peninsula (to 1814)
1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 314-315, "Nairn River Banks" (1 text)
Roud #3780
NOTES: Ord calls this a "real Bothy Song," though he admits that it is found in broadsides. But the texts generally seem to be in very exact, even flowery, English, with not a hint of dialect; I have to think it is in origin a broadside, and the traditional versions close to the original. - RBW
File: Ord314
===
NAME: Name the Boy Dennis Or No Name At All: see I'll Name the Boy Dennis, Or No Name At All (File: Dean034)
===
NAME: Nancy: see under The British Grenadiers (File: Log109)
===
NAME: Nancy (I) [Laws P11]
DESCRIPTION: The singer offers Nancy his love while confessing his lack of wealth. She is not interested. By the time she changes her mind he has found another love. Nancy warns others against her mistake
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Karpeles-Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting rejection
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws P11, "Nancy I"
Creighton/Senior, pp. 189-190, "Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 60, "Proud Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 77, "Jenny Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 733, DRNANCY*
Roud #1002
RECORDINGS:
Marie Hare, "Jenny Dear" (on MRMHare01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rejected Lover" [Laws P10] and references there
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Dearest Nancy
File: LP11
===
NAME: Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty) [Laws P12]
DESCRIPTION: Nancy rejects the singer's offer of marriage. He expresses the wish that her marriage be troubled. His wish comes true; her husband ignores her. Years later, having grown rich, he rubs it in by giving the now-poor girl money. She regrets her error
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: marriage curse poverty rejection
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE,So) Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws P12, "Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty)"
Belden, pp. 191-193, "The Rambling Beauty" (3 texts)
SharpAp 163, "Loving Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 34, "False Nancy" (1 text, perhaps mixed with "The Banks of Sweet Primroses")
Ord, pp. 176-177, "The Rambling Beauty" (1 text)
DT 496, LVNGNANC
ST LP12 (Full)
Roud #563
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rejected Lover" [Laws P10] and references there
NOTES: This is rather a difficult item, because the family is so fractured. Laws lists neither the Ord nor the Gardner/Chickering text with his piece, and indeed the various texts have few words in common. But the plot is the same, and Laws allows both the Ord and Gardner/Chickering titles. So here they are. - RBW
File: LP12
===
NAME: Nancy B, The
DESCRIPTION: Recitation; the speaker, tired of lumber camps, signs on as cook of the lumber ship "Nancy B." They anchor in the bay. After only one lighter load, however, a storm comes up. The storm last 16 days; it's cold and hard to cook, but no one complains.
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: work cook sailor ship recitation storm
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 102, "The 'Nancy B'" (1 text)
Roud #8883
NOTES: This, like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Be102
===
NAME: Nancy Dawson
DESCRIPTION: "There lived a lass in yonder glen, Wham auld and young did brawly ken." Nancy Dawson's parents would wed her to "the laird o Mucklegear," ancient Bauldy Lawson. She loves a young man; the wedding is set, but she flees with her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: lover courting age beauty elopement abandonment
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 71-75, "Nancy Dawson" (1 text)
Roud #6717
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John of Hazelgreen [Child 293]" (plot)
NOTES: There is a (feeble) poem by Herbert P. Horne called "Nancy Dawson"; they are unrelated.  It may be that this piece inspired that, however; at least, the name "Nancy Dawson" was well enough known that one of the ships involved in the Franklin search was named _Nancy Dawson_. And it can't be named after the Horne poem; Horne wasn't born until 1864.
Linscott says that "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" and "Gathering Nuts in May" use the tune "Nancy Dawson." That does not appear to be this song; though no tune seems to have been recorded, the stanza forms don't match. - RBW
File: FVS071
===
NAME: Nancy from London (I): see Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)
===
NAME: Nancy from London (II): see William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5] (File: LP05)
===
NAME: Nancy Lee
DESCRIPTION: "Of all the wives as e'er you know. Yeo ho! Lads, ho! ... There's one like Nancy Lee, I know..." Chorus: " The sailor's wife the sailor's star shall be, Yeo ho! We go across the sea." Composed song in which a sailor sings the praises of his wife.
AUTHOR: Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848-1929)/Tune: Stephen Adams (a.k.a. Michael Maybrick)
EARLIEST_DATE: 188? (composed); 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: wife husband separation sailor nonballad love
FOUND_IN: Britain US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Harlow, pp. 159-161, "Nancy Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 170-171, "Nancy Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ShaSS170 (Partial)
Roud #5014
NOTES: Adams and Weatherly were a very successful British songwriting team during the 1880s & 90s. Stephen Adams's real name was Michael Maybrick, and he was brother to James Maybrick, one of the favorite contenders for having been Jack the Ripper. - SL
For Weatherly, the reputed author of "Danny Boy," see the notes to that song. - RBW
File: ShaSS170
===
NAME: Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38]
DESCRIPTION: Nancy's father does not want her to marry Jimmy. He is persuaded to allow them to marry AFTER Jimmy completes a voyage. On his way he breaks a lady's heart and is murdered by a man hired by Nancy's father. His ghost reveals the truth, and Nancy dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1818 (Garret, _Merrie Book of Garlands, vol. ii_)
KEYWORDS: homicide courting ghost sailor
FOUND_IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws M38, "Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38]"
BrownII 61, "Nancy of Yarmouth" (1 text)
SharpAp 63, "Pretty Nancy of Yarmouth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 682-686, "Jimmy and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 41, "Jimmie and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 437, JIMNANCY
Roud #187
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Chowan River" (plot)
File: LM38
===
NAME: Nancy Till
DESCRIPTION: "Down in the cane brake close by the mill" lives pretty Nancy Till. The singer goes to serenade her, asking her to come along; "I'll row the boat while the boat rows me." When they part, he bids her to be ready the next time he arrives in the boat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting ship river
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 409, "Nancy Till" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 1 more)
Roud #2836
RECORDINGS:
Eleazar Tillet, "Come Love Come" (on USWarnerColl01) [a true mess; the first verse is "Nancy Till", the chorus is "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low," and it uses part of "De Boatman Dance" as a bridge.)
File: Br409
===
NAME: Nancy Whisky
DESCRIPTION: The weaver sets out to sample the pleasures of drink and a roving life. After extensive drinking, he finds himself broke and despised. He vows to return to weaving, and warns others of the evil of drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1907
KEYWORDS: drink poverty weaving warning
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Kennedy 279, "Nancy Whisky" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H745, pp. 47-48, "Long Cookstown/Nancy Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 372-373, "The Calton Weaver" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 234, "The Calton Weaver" (1 text)
DT, CALTONWV
Roud #883
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(125), "Nancy Whisky," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1880-1900
SAME_TUNE:
It's Very Strange (per broadside NLScotland, RB.m.143(125))
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Calton Weaver
The Dublin Weaver
NOTES: One title for this song is "The Calton Weaver"; Calton was a village, swallowed up by Glasgow in the early 20th century. - PJS
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "The Carlton Weaver" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
File: K279
===
NAME: Nancy, the Pride of the West
DESCRIPTION: "We have dark lovely looks on the shores where the Spanish From their gay ships came gallantly forth...." The singer praises Nancy's beauty, her sighs, her laugh, her everything, and says that she holds a thousand in thrall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (OConor); we have a parody before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.18(188))
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H495, pp. 227-228, "Nancy, the Pride of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 150, "Nancy, the Pride of the West" (1 text)
Roud #7977
NOTES: It gives me a certain amount of pleasure to note that this odious piece probably isn't traditional in origin or, very likely, survival. The evidence of its composed nature comes from several references:
The "shores where the Spanish... came forth": Presumably a reference to the ships of the Spanish Armada, many of which were wrecked in Ireland, generally off the northwest coast (the number is given by David Howarth, _The Voyage of the Armada_, p. 210, as 26). Few of these Spaniards survived long. (There were later instances of Spanish in Ireland, notably at the battle of Kinsale in 1601 -- but Kinsale was in the south, and this is a song about "the pride of the West.")
"The statue the Greek fell in love with": Clearly a reference to Pygmalion and Galatea (Ovid, Metamorphoses, X.254 and following.) - RBW
Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue has no copies of "Nancy, the Pride of the West" but has a parody: Bodleian, Firth c.18(188), "Nancy, the Pride of the East," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(1206), Harding B 15(212b), 2806 c.8(177), Harding B 11(3796), 2806 c.18(217), "Nancy, the Pride of the East."
This Nancy has "eyes ... like rubies so fine" and leaves the East "For Jemmy is the boy I adore ... He is the pride of the North Country" - BS
File: HHH495
===
NAME: Nancy's Courtship: see Two Lovers Discoursing [Laws O22] (File: LO22)
===
NAME: Nantucket Lullaby
DESCRIPTION: "Hush, the waves are rolling in, White with foam, white with foam, Father toils amid the din, While baby sleeps at home." "Hush, the ship rides in the gale... Father seeks the roving whale...." "... Mother now the watch will keep..."
AUTHOR: Words: unknown / Music: Lucy Allison
EARLIEST_DATE: 1943
KEYWORDS: lullaby sailor mother father whaler
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Botkin-NEFolklr, p. 571, "Nantucket Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BNEF571
===
NAME: Nantucket P'int: see Nantucket Point (File: Harl191)
===
NAME: Nantucket Point
DESCRIPTION: "Uncle Josiah and old Uncle Sam, they built them a sloop in the shape of a clam." The sloop is finished and launched but they find that they can't sail her. After much trouble they get the boat moored and swear they won't build any more.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: ship humorous
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Harlow, pp. 191-192, "Nantucket P'int" (1 text)
NOTES: The idea of a ship in the shape of a clam isn't as ridiculous as it sounds. It has been done -- admittedly with mixed success. In the 1870s, the Russian admiral Andrei Aleksandrovic Popov designed the "Popovkas" (or "Popoffkas") -- battleships (eventually named the _Novgorod_ and _Admiral Popov_) with circular hulls for maximum stability as gun platforms. Lincoln P. Paine's _Ships of the World_, p. 424, says they worked well enough, but Richard Humble, _Battleships and Battlecruisers_, p. 41, reports they could only be steered into a current: "They spun like tops when coming downstream and their decks were flooded by the slightest seaway."
A later vessel, elliptical rather than actually circular, proved better. Fritdjov Nansen's _Fram_, built in the early 1890s, was designed for polar exploration; Nansen and Sverdrup used her to make what amounted to a Northeast Passage (see, e.g., Pierre Berton, _The Arctic Grail_, pp. 489-498, especially p. 495), and Amundsen later took her to the Antarctic. But the honest truth was, she wasn't much good for ordinary sailing; her round sides and rounded bottom were designed to keep her from being crushed by ice, and made her very slow and almost useless for other tasks. - RBW
File: Harl191
===
NAME: Nantucket Skipper, The: see The Alarmed Skipper (The Nantucket Skipper) (File: ShaSS198)
===
NAME: Naomi Wise [Laws F31]
DESCRIPTION: (John Lewis) takes Naomi for a ride and throws her in the river. When her body is found, he is arrested but not convicted. He confesses to the murder only on his deathbed
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: homicide river gallows-confession
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1808 - Drowning of Naomi Wise in North Carolina
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws F31, "Naomi Wise"
Eddy 94, "Poor Omie (Leoma Wise)" (1 text, 1 tune) (apparently; Laws does not list Eddy's text with either Naomi Wise ballad, but the pattern fits this one)
BrownII 300, "Poor Naomi (Omie Wise)" (5 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 2 more; it appears that Laws places text "F"  here, but "G" is also this song, with "A," "D," and "H" being "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4])
DT 730, NAOMIWIS
Roud #981
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart & Co., "Naomi Wise" (Edison 51669, 1925) (Columbia 15053-D [as Al Craver], 1926; rec. 1925) (Silvertone 27351926)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4] (plot)
File: LF31
===
NAME: Napan Heroes, The
DESCRIPTION: Twenty-five shantymen watch a fight between Robert Sweezey and Frank Russell. After an hour "a poke in the stomach" makes Russell give in. Sweezy "conquered the champion from old Point Carr. He's the true Napan hero."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: fight sports logger derivative
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 61-62, "The Napan Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 36, "The Napan Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST IvNB061 (Partial)
Roud #1946
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" (theme)
cf. "Twickenham Ferry" (tune)
cf. "Squid Jiggin' Ground" (tune)
NOTES: Ives-NewBrunswick: This is a parody of "Morrissey and the Black." "According to Louise Manny, the fight took place in 1889 and the casus belli was the love of a woman who later married neither combatant." - BS
Manny and Wilson in fact states that the fight took place "about 1889," and describe the tune as "Twickenham Ferry"/"The Squid Jiggin' Ground." - RBW
File: IvNB061
===
NAME: Napoleon: see Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)
===
NAME: Napoleon Bonaparte: see Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)
===
NAME: Napoleon Bonaparte (II): see Napoleon's Farewell to Paris (File: GC089)
===
NAME: Napoleon Bonaparte (III)
DESCRIPTION: "The deeds of famed Napoleon I mean for to relate ... led astray ... Grouchy led the French astray And the great battle of Waterloo was bought with English gold." Having been betrayed by Grouchy Napoleon is banished to St Helena and Louisa laments.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (Ives-NewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: war exile betrayal Napoleon
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 42-45, "Napoleon Bonaparte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1943
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wheels of the World" (for the charge that Grouchy betrayed Napoleon)
cf. "The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes" (for the charge that Grouchy betrayed Napoleon)
NOTES: Ives-NewBrunswick: Other pieces "have the Little Corporal as their hero, [this one] is different in having a true villain, the Marquis de Grouchy, the marshall who failed to keep Blucher from joining up with Wellington at Waterloo." - BS
One suspects broadside origin for this piece, from someone who needed a scapegoat for Napoleon. While the behavior of Emmanuel Grouchy (1766-1847) helped lose Waterloo, he certainly didn't betray Napoleon! His competence can be questioned, but not his loyalty.
Primarily a cavalry officer, Grouchy served well in small roles in Napoleon's first career. Quick to return to Bonaparte's service during the Hundred Days, he was rewarded with a Marshal's baton (the last of Napoleon's Marshals) -- and given command of a third of the army in the Waterloo campaign.
This was a mistake; Grouchy had little infantry experience, and no experience with forces so large (two corps and change). His appointment was one of several organizational mistakes that cost Napoleon dearly at Waterloo.
Napoleon's plan for the Waterloo campaign was brilliant: Two armies, Wellington's (British and Dutch) and Blucher's (Prussian), were concentrating against him. Individually, they were smaller than Napoleon's cobbled-up force,  but together, they were far larger. Napoleon divided his army into three parts, under Ney, Grouchy, and his own direct command. He interposed them between Wellington and Blucher, and proposed to defeat them in detail.
There were actually three battles involved: Ligny and Quatre Bras on June 16, and Waterloo on June 18. At Quatre Bras, Ney was supposed to attack Wellington's rearguard, while Grouchy and Napoleon attacked Blucher at Ligny.
Grouchy's performance at Ligny was competent enough; the Prussians were forced to retreat. But Ney completely muffed the attack at Quatre Bras, first failing to attack when the odds were with him, then going in after the small local force was reinforced. This got him in enough trouble that he took control of d'Erlon's corps, which Napoleon had called upon to polish off the victory at Ligny, and hauled it back to Quatre Bras. Where it didn't fight.
This was disastrous. Napoleon turned his own and Ney's forced to attack Wellington at Waterloo, leaving Grouchy to watch Blucher -- but Blucher had merely been pushed back a few miles. He halted the retreat, marched around Grouchy, and managed to bring up enough of his army to turn the tide at Waterloo.
Grouchy's performance was certainly poor; he lost contact with Blucher, and then just sat rather than trying to find a battle to fight. He did, nonetheless, obey his orders, if woodenly. While his behavior cost Napoleon his last chance to survive at Waterloo, the fundamental fault is Napoleon's for setting up very bad command arrangements -- and, tactically, the fault is almost entirely Ney's (who, indeed, gets the blame in "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon"): He messed up at Quatre Bras, he made it impossible to win at Ligny, and he was in tactical charge at Waterloo but delayed so long that Blucher had time to come up. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Napoleon Bonaparte" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Harte: "This particular song was written almost fifteen years after the death of Napoleon [1821]." - BS
File: IvNB042
===
NAME: Napoleon Bonaparte (IV): see The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes (File: Moyl206)
===
NAME: Napoleon Is the Boy for Kicking Up a Row
DESCRIPTION: Hard times now but "money was plenty as paving stones In the days of General Bonaparte." He far exceeded past great warriors. He returned from Elba but was murdered on St Helena. "But his nephew's on the throne of France"; maybe he will make England pay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1865 (broadside Bodleian, Firth c.16(85))
KEYWORDS: war homicide commerce death Napoleon France royalty revenge
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 199, "Napoleon Is the Boy for Kicking Up a Row" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.16(85), "Napoleon is the Boy for Kicking up a Row" ("Arrah, murther, but times is hard"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1865
NOTES: Napoleon's "nephew's on the throne of France": Napoleon III[1808-1873; president 1848-1852; emperor 1852-1870] was the son of Napoleon's stepdaughter and, nominally, his brother Louis Bonaparte. (source: "Napoleon III of France" at the Wikipedia site).
This ballad claims Napoleon "was sent off to a barren isle, Where he was murdered and ill-treated." Apparently the thought that Napoleon was poisoned is older than the speculation of the past fifty years that he was poisoned intentionally (possibly). (see, for example "Arsenic poisoning and Napoleon's death" by Hendrik Ball at the Victorian Web site).
Moylan p. 151: "Times were good during the Napoleonic era as the war effort generated massive demand for goods and services in Ireland. An economic slump ensued after Napoleon's defeat as the war machine was wound down and armies were demobilized." This is like the lines from "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon": "Napoleon he was a friend to heroes, both young and old, He caus'd the money for to fly wherever he did go." Here also is the main theme of "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose": "Come stir up the wars, and our trade will be flourishing." - BS
It's worth remembering that Napoleon poisoned *himself* -- he tried to commit suicide on April 13, 1814, as the allies closed in on Paris (see Alan Schom, _One Hundred Days_, pp. 2-3). Obviously, he failed -- but he was physically never the same. And he died of what may have been stomach cancer -- the sort of thing that, at the time, could easily have been blamed on poison.
Napoleon did have elevated levels of arsenic in his body when he died (though this was not established until recently, based on neutron activation analysis of his hair). This need not have been the result of poison, however, it turns out his wallpaper contained heavy doses of arsenic in the pigment (see John Emsley, _Nature's Building Blocks_, p. 46).
Saint Helena certainly qualifies as barren; according to the 2001 _Statesman's Yearbook_, it didn't even become a British colony until 1834, more than a decade after Napoleon's death. Even now,the population is less than 10,000, and the lone town, Jamestown, has only about 3000.
The alleged good times during the war with Napoleon are more weak memory than anything else; the British government nearly spent itself into the ground, the economy was weak (see "Ye Tyrants of England," e.g., where the people are promised an improved economy once Napoleon is gone), and if times were so good in Ireland, why was there a rebellion in 1798? The one thing Napoleon did was siphon off Irish youths of military age.
Napoleon III certainly wanted to enhance French power at British expense, but he didn't have much nerve. In the Crimean War, he allied with England against Russia. In the American Civil War, he is said to have wanted to support the Confederacy, but was unwilling to do so without British support -- and the British were too cautious (and their millworkers too anti-slavery). Ultimately, Napoleon III ended up dying in England, having done much to strenghen the British Empire despite himself. - RBW
File: Moyl199
===
NAME: Napoleon Song: see Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)
===
NAME: Napoleon the Brave
DESCRIPTION: "Napoleon is no more, the French did him adore." His victories are listed: "The Austrians he beat." "The Poles he made to flee, and he conquered Italy." "The Hollanders he slew, he Caesar did outdo" ... "There were 14 Kings at war with Napoleon the Brave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(225))
KEYWORDS: war death Napoleon
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann, p. 106, "Napoleon the Brave" (1 fragment)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(225), "Napoleon the Brave," J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 106 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(225) is the basis for the description. - BS
File: BrdNapBr
===
NAME: Napoleon the Exile: see Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)
===
NAME: Napoleon's Dream
DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of sailing past Napoleon's grave. He lands and meets Napoleon. Napoleon recalls his victories. His banner was "the standard of freedom all over the world." He says that "Liberty soon o'er the world shall be seen." The singer wakes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(77b))
KEYWORDS: freedom dream Napoleon
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 207, "Napoleon's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(77b), "Dream of Napoleon" ("One night, sad and languid, I went to my bed"), Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Harding B 16(78a), "A Dream of Napolean"[misspelling in text as well as title]; Johnson Ballads 1146[last line illegible], Firth c.16(97), Harding B 26(153), "[A|The] Dream of Napoleon[!!!]"; Harding B 19(86), "Napoleon"
NOTES: Napoleon says "The nations around you shall look with surprise, When freedom to you my descendant supplies.": Napoleon III[1808-1873; president 1848-1852; emperor 1852-1870] was the son of Napoleon's stepdaughter and, nominally, his brother Louis Bonaparte. (source: "Napoleon III of France" at the Wikipedia site). - BS
Napoleon III, like the first Napoleon, was rather contradictory in this regard. He has been called the "Bourgeois Emperor." He did end up a full-blown Imperial head of state (though under constitutional and parliamentary restrictions). But he also liberalized a lot of laws. If he had been smarter about picking his wars, his government might well have survived. But he fought the Crimean War, wasted a lot of energy installing the Habsburg princeling Maximilian in Mexico -- and then picked a war with Prussia. Or, as it would come to be called, Imperial Germany.
Naturally, he lost that, and was pushed from his throne. But the broadsides show that this song was written when he was still new and appeared a vast improvement over the reactionary Bourbon dynasty.
That seemed almost to be the story of the Bonaparte family. Napoleon himself started as a lawgiver, and ended up power-mad. His son the Duke of Reichstadt (1811-1832) was regarded as incredibly promising, but died young. And Napoleon III came in as a liberal reformer and ended up as another Emperor. - RBW
File: Moyl207
===
NAME: Napoleon's Farewell to Paris
DESCRIPTION: "Farewell ye splendid citadel, metropolis called Paris...."  "My name is Napoleon Bonaparte, the conqueror of nations... But now I am transported to Saint Helena's isle." Bonaparte recalls his greatness and laments his fall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2602)); c.1818 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(139))
KEYWORDS: exile lament Napoleon
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Moylan 186, "I Am Napoleon Bonaparte" (1 text, 1 tune); 187, "Napoleon Bonaparte's Farewell to Paris" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 89, "Bony's Lament" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 82, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (1 fragment)
Creighton-NovaScotia 72, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (1 fragmentary text plus some variants, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1009-1011, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NAPOLBON
Roud #1626
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2602), "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris," T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 20(267), Harding B 15(214b), Johnson Ballads fol. 59, Harding B 16(165c), Firth c.16(87), Harding B 11(2600), Harding B 11(2601), Firth c.26(124), "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris"; Harding B 11(2599), "Napoleon's Farewell"
Murray, Mu23-y1:043, "Napoleon Bonaparte," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y1:107, "Napoleon Bonaparte"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(139), "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris," unknown, c.1818
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Napoleon Bonaparte
NOTES: The rather ornate language of this song (references to "citadels" and "bright Phoebus," etc.) seems to have caused it to be rather liable to corruption; Gardner and Chickering's text, for instance, has the first line read "Come all ye splendid city dells"! Creighton comments on the difficulty her informant had in learning the song, and prints part of a broadside text to show why he had such difficulty. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: GC089
===
NAME: Napoleon's Lamentation
DESCRIPTION: Napoleon says "I was born to wear a stately crown." He recounts his victories until, after Moscow, "my men were lost through cold and frost." Defeats follow. He bids fare well to his "royal spouse, and offspring great" 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: war France Napoleon royalty hardtimes wife children
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 194, "Napoleon's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Napoleon's Lamentation" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
This sounds to me rather like "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" [Laws J5], recast to put it in the mouth of Napoleon the Father rather than Napoleon the Son. Of course, I can't tell in which direction the mixture went -- or, indeed, if there might not be a third song that influenced both. - RBW
File: Moyl194
===
NAME: Napper
DESCRIPTION: "Napper come to my house, I thought he come to see me, When I come to find him out He 'suade my wife to leave me." And similar verses about (Napper's) eccentricities: "Napper went a-huntin', He thought he'd catch a coon... He treed a mushy-room."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: humorous hunting betrayal wife
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 123, "Taffy Was a Welshman" (3 short texts)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 102-103, "Rise, Ole Napper" (2 fragments, the first of which might be "Old Tyler" or something else; the second appards to be this but is too short for certainty and is mixed with the chorus of "Oh! Susanna"; 1 tune)
Roud #7849
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Tyler"
cf. "Taffy Was a Welshman (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: The notes in Brown say that these three fragments are "clearly derived from the familiar Mother Goose rhyme about the thieving Welshman [i.e. 'Taffy Was a Welshman']."
This is a very long stretch; the two have a few similar lines, but *not* the key phrases about Taffy. As they stand, I'd certainly call them separate songs, and possibly not even related.
Brown's "A" text may not be the same as "B" and "C," but it's too short to really deal with separately. The same can be said of Scarborough's miscellaneous one-sentence fragments.- RBW
File: Br3123
===
NAME: Nat Goodwin [Laws F15]
DESCRIPTION: A young mother, sick abed, is denied a last look at her dead baby. Her husband turns her out of the house. He falls in love with another woman and kills his wife. He is executed when his new flame testifies against him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: homicide abandonment baby execution husband wife
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 3, 1897 - Shooting of Mrs. (Walter) Goodwin
May 1898 - Hanging of Walter Goodwin
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws F15, "Nat Goodwin"
Gardner/Chickering 143, "Nat Goodwin" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 770, GOODWIN
Roud #3670
NOTES: Although this song seems to be known only from the text found in Michigan by Gardner and Chickering, the tragedy took place in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. Gardner and Chickering report that after the hanging of Walter Goodwin, "Gertrude Taylor, the girl in the case, did the shooting." They do not report Taylor's eventual fate. - RBW
File: LF15
===
NAME: Nathan Hale
DESCRIPTION: "The breezes went steadily through the tall pines, A-saying o hush...." as Nathan Hale attempts to return to his command. But the British capture him, try him, insult his cause, and hang him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: rebellion war prisoner execution
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 22, 1776 - Execution of Nathan Hale by the British as a spy. 
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scott-BoA, pp. 67-68, "Nathan Hale" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SBoA067
===
NAME: Nation Once Again, A
DESCRIPTION: "When boyhood's fire was in my blood, I read of ancient freemen... And then I prayed I yet might see... Ireland, long a province, be A nation once again." The youth describes the glories of freedom, and hopes it can be regained
AUTHOR: Thomas Davis (1814-1845)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion freedom
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
PGalvin, pp. 42-43, "A Nation Once Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NTNAGN
ADDITIONAL: Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 199, "A Nation Once Again (1 text)
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), p. 305, "A Nation Once Again"  (1 text)
NOTES: Thomas Davis was an Irish poet and patriot. A member of Daniel O'Connell's National Repeal Association from 1841, he started the _Nation_ newspaper in 1842 and was a leader of the "Young Ireland" movement that sought a more modern approach to independence.
Davis died of scarlet fever in 1845, and it never really became clear whether he supported violent revolution or agreed with O'Connell in espousing peaceful reform.
What is truly hard to imagine is the National Ireland that Davis hoped for. As is so often the with Irish leaders, Davis was Protestant. (See Robert Kee, _The Most Distressful Country_, being Volume I of _The Green Flag_, pp. 195-197).
The irony and the problem of the song is that Ireland was *never* a nation; before the English came, it had been a land of many petty chiefs who never united. The closest it came was the period from 1782-1800, when it had a truly independent parliament under the British crown. It proceeded to shoot itself in the foot, with a government so bad that it induced the 1798 rebellion and in turn caused Britain to create a parliamentary union. So the Protestant concept of the Nation of Ireland was one that oppressed Catholics, and the Catholic concept didn't exist.
And, in fact, Ireland never did manage to become the nation Davis wanted it to be, since the Catholic and Protestant parts separated, and each would display strong prejudice toward the members of the other denomination.
The first stanza refers to "Three Hundred men and Three men." The Three Hundred might refer to the Spartans who held Thermopylae against the Persians -- though they're hardly the best example of a free nation, given that the Spartan soldiers were part of an elite class that held down the majority of helots at least as strictly as the British oppressed the Irish.
But three hundred had another significance: It was the number of representatives in the old Irish parliament -- the one which had voted the Union, but which Davis (and O'Connell) proposed to recreate.
The "three men" I'm not sure about; too many possibilities.
For all that I'm carping about the historical accuracy, it cannot be denied that this song, with its stirring tune and brilliant tag line, is a very effective argument for nationalism. - RBW
File: PGa042
===
NAME: National Song Used for Hauling (Russian Shanty)
DESCRIPTION: Russian hauling shanty. Translation: "Let us pull away together, boys, all together it goes - it goes, Pull away, away, together."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong ship
FOUND_IN: Russia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, p. 573, "National Song Used for Hauling" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Hugi573
===
NAME: Native Mate: see Give Me a Hut (File: MA137)
===
NAME: Native Swords
DESCRIPTION: "We've bent too long to braggart wrong, While force our prayers derided; We've fought too long, ourselves among..." The singer briefly recounts the story of Irish rebellion, concluding, "But now, thank God, our native sod Has native swords to guard it."
AUTHOR: Thomas Davis (1814-1845)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
PGalvin, pp. 41-42, "Native Swords" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Thomas Davis (1814-1845) was an Irish poet and patriot. A member of Daniel O'Connell's National Repeal Association from 1841, he started the _Nation_ newspaper in 1842 and was a leader of the "Young Ireland" movement that sought a more modern approach to independence.
He is probably most famous for writing "A Nation Once Again."
Davis died of scarlet fever in 1845, and it never really became clear whether he supported violent revolution or agreed with O'Connell in espousing peaceful reform. - RBW
File: PGa041
===
NAME: Natural Born Reacher
DESCRIPTION: "De white man say de times is hahd, Nigger never worries, 'case he trust in de Lawd. No matter how hahd de times may be, Chicken never roost too high foh me." He recalls "Freeze," who died in a fight and now cuts no ice. He is a "nachel-bawn reacher."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes theft death
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 232-233, "I'm a Nachel-Bawn Reacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ScNF232B (Partial)
File: ScNF232B
===
NAME: Navvy Boots: see The Courting Coat (File: RcWMPBO)
===
NAME: Navvy Boots On: see The Courting Coat (File: RcWMPBO)
===
NAME: Navvy Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: The navvy boy goes roaming, finding work and shelter with a ganger. The ganger's only daughter wishes marry and travel with him. The girl's mother questions this; the daughter says that her father was a navvy.The old man dies and leaves them 500 pounds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rambling mother father marriage money
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H760, pp. 471-472, "The Navvy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NAVVYBOY*
Roud #360
NOTES: It has been suggested that this is a reworking of "The Little Beggarman." There are common elements, but that's quite a stretch. Roud lumps it with "The Roving Irishman," which also has points of similarity but appears a separate song to me. - RBW
File: HHH760
===
NAME: Navvy on the Line
DESCRIPTION: "I'm a nipper, I'm a ripper, I'm a navvy on the line... All the ladies love the navvies, And the navvies love the fun, There'll be plenty little babies When the railway's done." Independent verses generally about the sexual exploits/desires of the navvies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: railroading courting sex bawdy
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 217, "Navvy on the Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA217
===
NAME: Naw, I Don't Want to be Rich: see You Wonder Why I'm a Hobo (File: BRaF461)
===
NAME: Near to the Isle of Portland
DESCRIPTION: A ship "outward bound to the Indies" sinks in a storm. "We were near to the Island of Portland Where our gallant ship went down; There were never a better commander Sailed out of Plymouth town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship disaster storm sailor wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 59, "Near to the Isle of Portland" (1 text)
Roud #17748
NOTES: Portland Bill Lighthouse was built on the Isle of Portland in 1716. Portland is south of Weymouth and about 85 miles by sea east of Plymouth in the English Channel - BS
File: GrMa59
===
NAME: Nearer My God To Thee
DESCRIPTION: "Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee, E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me, Still all my song shall be Nearer my God to thee." Whatever tribulations come, the singer hopes they will cause him/her to come closer to God
AUTHOR: Words: Sarah Fuller Flower Adams (1805-1848)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1841 (Hymns and Anthems)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 353, "Nearer My God To Thee" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 387-388, "Nearer, My God, To Thee"
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 92-93, "Nearer, My God To Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Climax Quartet, "Nearer, My God, to Thee"  (Climax [Columbia] 518, 1900; Harvard 518 [as unidentified Vocal Quartet], 1903-1906)
Elliott Shaw, "Nearer My God to Thee" (Resona 75016, 1919)
Spencer, Young & Wheeler, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (Edison 80074, n.d.)
Unidentified baritone, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (Oxford 397, c. 1909)
SAME_TUNE:
Nero, My Dog, Has Fleas (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 107)
NOTES: The words of this song date from 1841 (or earlier), and proved popular enough that it soon acquired three different tunes.
The standard tune in America is by Lowell Mason, published in 1859; this often bears the name "Bethany." The tune most often used in the Church of England is "Horbury," said by Johnson to be by John Dykes. British Methodists tend to use the tune "Propior Deo" by Sir Arthur Sullivan. If that weren't confusing enough, I have encountered at least one other attempt by a modern composer to abuse the text.
I do not believe any of the results qualify as true folk songs, but the piece is widespread enough that I chose to include it here.
This seems to be the Official Song of People Dying Under Unfortunate Circumstances in the Absence of Corroborating Witnesses. The story that it was played as the _Titanic_ went down is simply false (a story spread by one Mrs. A. A. Dick; see Wyn Craig Wade, _The Titanic: End of a Dream_ revised edition, Penguin, 1986, pp. 61-62 -- the disproof being that the passengers who claimed they heard the song were British and American both; see Walter Lord, _The Night Lives On_, Avon, 1986, p. 110). Johnson reports that William McKinley's doctor claimed these were the dying president's last words. Interesting how none of these claims are ever capable of verification. In the aftermath of the Johnstown Flood, there were newspaper reports of families singing the song in harmony as they were washed away in the flood; see David McCullough _The Johnstown Flood_ (Simon and Schuster, 1968), p. 221. - RBW
File: FSWB353C
===
NAME: Neat Irish Girl, The: see Polly on the Shore (The Valiant Sailor) (File: Wa057)
===
NAME: Neat Little Window, The: see The Bonny Wee Window [Laws O18] (File: LO18)
===
NAME: Neath the Gloamin' Star at E'en: see The Gloamin' Star at E'en (File: Ord066)
===
NAME: Ned Kelly's Farewell to Greta: see Farewell to Greta (File: FaE114)
===
NAME: Needle's Eye, The
DESCRIPTION: "The needle's eye that doth supply The thread that runs so true, Oh many a beau have I let go Because I wanted you." The remaining verses describe how the singer(s) have courted and passed others by; the needle may have "caught" the (girl)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 545, "The Needle's Eye" (2 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
BrownIII 74, "The Needle's Eye" (1 fragment)
Hudson 144, pp. 291-293, "Needle's Eye" (2 fragments)
Linscott, pp. 43-44, "The Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R545 (Full)
Roud #4506
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "The Needle's Eye" [fragment] (on MMacArthur01)
File: R545
===
NAME: Needlecases
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a peddler, is poor and hungry, and offers to sell the listener needlecases. He was once well-off, but is now homeless and friendless; once a farmer, now in rags. Since the listener won't buy, he's off, but asks listener to buy some if he returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Williams)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer, a peddler, is poor and hungry, and offers to sell the listener needlecases. He was once well-off, but is now homeless and friendless; once a farmer, he's now in rags. Since the listener won't buy, he's off, but asks listener to buy some if he returns. Chorus: "Needlecases, will you buy one?/You will buy one, I'm sure/Won't you buy a case o' needles/From Jack that's so poor?"
KEYWORDS: poverty request clothes commerce hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South, North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kennedy 233, "Needlecases" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1300
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Case of Needles
NOTES: We haven't keywords for "peddler" or "street-cry," so "commerce" will have to do. - PJS
File: K233
===
NAME: Neerie Norrie: see Four and Twenty Tailors (File: KinBB13)
===
NAME: Negro Cotton Picker
DESCRIPTION: Composite fragment of cotton-picking items: "Way down in de bottom, when de cotton's all rotten, Can't pick a hundred a day. Aught for aught, and figger for figger, All for de white man an' none for de nigger."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes discrimination
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 211, "Negro Cotton Picker" (1 fragment)
File: Br3211
===
NAME: Negro Reel
DESCRIPTION: "Laws-a-massey, what have you done? You've married the old man instead of his son! His legs are all crooked and wrong put on, They're all laughing at your old man. Now you're married you must obey... Kiss him twice and hug him too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, pp. 134-135, "Negro Reel" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES: This is probably an odd version of "Sally Walker," but as it might be derived from "Oats and Beans" instead, I give it its own category. - RBW
File: San134
===
NAME: Negro Yodel Song
DESCRIPTION: "I love my wife and baby, Each morning so soon. I love my wife and baby." In the Brown text, every other word, starting with "love," is yodelled.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 453, "Negro Yodel Song" (1 short text)
Roud #11794
File: Br3453
===
NAME: Neighbor Jones: see Gossip Joan (Neighbor Jones) (File: Br3144)
===
NAME: Nell Cropsey (I)
DESCRIPTION: One night Nell's former lover Jim (Wilcox) calls on her. She disappears for three months, then her mother sees her body on the river. Her lover winds up in prison
AUTHOR: credited to Bessie Wescott Midgett
EARLIEST_DATE: 1912 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: homicide
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1901 - Murder of Ella Maude "Nellie" Cropsey, presumably by her former lover Jim Wilcox
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
BrownII 307 "Nellie Cropsey" (2 texts)
Chappell-FSRA 61, "Nell Cropsey, I" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 82-84, "Nellie Cropsey" (1 text)
ST MN2082 (Partial)
Roud #4117
CROSS_REFERENCES:
"cf. The Jealous Lover (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II)" [Laws F1]
cf. "Nell Cropsey (III -- Swift Flowing River)"
NOTES: This song is item dF45 in Laws's Appendix II, but should certainly have been listed higher; he did not know the Brown version.
There are extensive historical notes in Brown, which concur with the song in saying that she was very pretty but list her age as 19, not 16 as in the text of the song.
Chappell has four songs associated by title with Nellie Cropsey, but only two (I and IV) mention her name: This one and the Nell Cropsey subfamily of "The Jealous Lover."
To tell this from the Jealous Lover version, consider this first verse:
On the twentieth of November,
A day we all remember well,
When a handsome girl was murdered,
Of her story I will tell. - RBW
File: MN2082
===
NAME: Nell Cropsey (II): see Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)
===
NAME: Nell Cropsey (III -- Swift Flowing River)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, swift flowing river, A secret you hold, Way down in the depths Of the water so cold." The singer begs the river to tell its secret. A "fair girl" is missing, "stolen away in the night." "The secret, Oh River, You surely must know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Elizabeth City _Daily Advance_); reportedly collected 1902
KEYWORDS: homicide river
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1901 - Murder of Ella Maude "Nellie" Cropsey, presumably by her former lover Jim Wilcox
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Chappell-FSRA 62, "Nell Cropsey, II" (1 text)
ST ChFRA062 (Partial)
Roud #4117
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Nell Cropsey (I)" (subject of some versions) and references there
NOTES: Although Chappell lists this as a Nell Cropsey song, and the details (such few as the song contains) fit that case, Cropsey is not mentioned in the text; it might be about another murder.
Roud lumps this with all the other Nell Cropsey songs, but it is clearly distinct. The real question is, Is it traditional? The only collection is Chappell's, from a printed source, allegedly based on a poem (song?) taken down around the time of the murder. - RBW
File: ChFRA062
===
NAME: Nell Cropsey (IV): see The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)
===
NAME: Nell Flaherty's Drake
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my name it is Neil, quite candid I tell, And I lived in Clonmell, which I'll never deny, I had a large drake..." which she describes in loving terms. One day a thief steals (and kills) the drake. The rest of the song is an extended curse of the thief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1851 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2612))
KEYWORDS: animal bird curse thief theft
FOUND_IN: Ireland Australia
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 128-129, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H228b, pp. 18-19, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text, 2 tunes)
O'Conor, pp. 14-15, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 68-69, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text)
DT, NELLFLAH*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 289, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text)
Roud #3005
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (on IRClancyMakem03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2612), "Nell Flaherty's Drake", M. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1838-1850; also 2806 b.11(218), 2806 c.16(21), Harding B 15(216b), 2806 b.11(279), 2806 c.8(306), Johnson Ballads 1220, Johnson Ballads 2696, Harding B 11(2610), Harding B 11(2613), Harding B 11(2614), Harding B 11(2615), 2806 c.16(3a), Harding B 11(2611), "Nell Flaherty's Drake"; 2806 b.9(236), Harding B 26(461), 2806 b.11(132) [lines only partly legible], "Nell Flagherty's Drake"
LOCSinging, as109390, "Nell Flaugherty's Drake", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb30356b, "Nell Flaugherty's Drake"
Murray, Mu23-y1:062, "Nell Flaherty's Drake," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y4:054, "Nell Flaherty's Drake," unknown (Cork), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(142a), "Nell Flaherty's Drake," unknown, c. 1845
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wee Duck (The Duck from Drummuck)" (plot, subject?)
cf. "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" (plot, lines)
NOTES: Tommy Makem describes this as a song about Robert Emmet (executed 1803). I can't prove it wrong -- but if so, it's the most indirect song I know. Certainly later singers (such as those in Australia) seem to have lost consciousness of any anti-British sentiment. For background on Emmet, see "Bold Robert Emmet" and the songs cited there. - RBW
I have not found "Nell Flaherty's Drake" collected in Newfoundland but Johnny Burke's "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" is so close that he must have known "Nell Flaherty's Drake."  There is no entry for "Nell Flaherty's Drake" in _Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index_ by Paul Mercer.
Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(142a): "'Nell Flaherty's Drake' is an anonymous Irish ballad from the nineteenth century. The drake of the title is believed to be a coded reference to Robert Emmet (1778-1803), who helped to plan and led an uprising against British rule in Dublin in 1803. The uprising went wrong after an explosion at an arms depot, and Emmet was captured and hanged for his part in the uprising and the assassination of the Lord Chief Justice. Irish Home Rule was a volatile subject in Britain in the nineteenth as well as the twentieth century, hence the coding in this song."
This song has the same relationship to "The Bonny Brown Hen" [this adds a villain and curses] that "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" has to "Blue Hen" on MacEdward Leach and Songs of Atlantic Canada site, copyright owner Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive.
Broadside LOCSinging as113120: J. Andrews dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: MCB128
===
NAME: Nell of Narragansett Bay: see Little Nell of Narragansett Bay (File: Brew88)
===
NAME: Nellie (I)
DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about Nellie's choice of the lily over the rose. Mountain verses: blueberries grow, a castle light-house on top, at its foot the ocean where green-flagged gunships sail to Newry where his "unkind" sweetheart is.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1954 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection floatingverses nonballad wordplay
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 79, "Nellie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #688
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (lyrics)
NOTES: This song shares one verse with "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" [with which Roud lumps it - RBW], which it corrupts:
At the top of this mountain a castle does stand,
It is decked round with ivy and back to the strand,
It is decked round with ivy and marble stone white,
It's a pilot for sailors on a dark stormy night.
Otherwise it shares a confused story line with that ballad but the confusions are not shared: I don't think this is a version of "Streams."
In the language of flowers the white lily stands for virginity and the red rose stands for love.
Newry is about 35 miles southwest of Belfast. - BS
File: CrMa079
===
NAME: Nellie (II)
DESCRIPTION: "Come, listen to me, a story I'll tell... I once loved and courted a dear little girl." But her parents are opposed, and she marries rich Mr. Brown. He is a drunkard and ignores her. She dies. The singer wants to die for love of her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (JAFL 45, collected from Mrs. Emory P. Morrow)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment drink death
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 142-143, "Nellie" (1 text)
Roud #4212
File: MHAp142
===
NAME: Nellie Dare: see The Two Letters (Charlie Brooks; Nellie Dare) (File: R735)
===
NAME: Nellie Douglas
DESCRIPTION: "It's O and alas, and O wae's me," cries Nellie as she prepares to depart friends and employment. Young Abram bids her cease; she has his heart. She says she cannot wed him; he is above her station. He marries her anyway, and makes her a lady
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting nobility marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 123, "Nellie Douglas" (1 text)
Roud #5547
File: Ord123
===
NAME: Nellie Moore
DESCRIPTION: "In a low green valley where the birds so sweetly sing... Of a summer eve we' launch our little boat. The singer recalls happy days with Nellie, but "Oh, I miss you, Nellie Moore, and my hapiness is o'er... For you've gone from the little cottage home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Shellans)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Shellans, pp. 32-33, "Nellie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7326
NOTES: Shellans suspects that this may be derived from "Darling Nelly Gray," and certainly there are quite a few verbal similarities. But this clearly qualifies as a separate song. - RBW
File: Shel032
===
NAME: Nellie Was a Lady
DESCRIPTION: "Down on the Mississippi floating, Long time I travel on the way." The singer mourns his love: "Nellie was a lady," but "Last night while Nellie was a-sleeping, Death came a-knocking at the door." He will leave Virginia because he mourns so deeply
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1849 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: death love home
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 122, "Nellie Was a Lady" (1 text)
Roud #4273
NOTES: According to Sigmund Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 106, this was "Foster's hit in 1849, now chiefly known as a barber-shop favorite." (And, indeed, nearly every reference I found to it online was to barbershop arrangements). - RBW
File: Dean122
===
NAME: Nelly Bly
DESCRIPTION: "Nelly Bly! Nelly Bly! Bring de broom along, We'll sweep de kitchen clean, my dear, and hab a little song." The singer tells how Nelly makes him happy -- she has the voice of a turtle dove, her step is music, and they have corn and pumpkins in the barn
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1850 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
BrownIII 407, "Nelly Bly" (1 fragment)
Arnett, pp. 64-65, "Nelly Bly!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 144, "Nelly Bly" (1 text)
DT, NELLYBLY*
Roud #13956
File: Arn064
===
NAME: Nelly Ray: see The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)
===
NAME: Nelly the Milkmaid
DESCRIPTION: Nelly, coming home from the wake (a country dance, not a funeral), is seduced, her ravisher, sometimes named Roger, assuring her he was merely "shooting at the cat." In some versions she gives birth to a son whom she names Shoot the Cat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (recording, O. J. Abbott)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex seduction childbirth
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont) Britain(England) US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 169-172, "Nelly the Milkmaid" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 62, "Nellie Coming Home From the Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1606
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "Nellie Coming Home from the Wake" (on Abbott1)
File: RL169
===
NAME: Nelson's Glorious Victory at Trafalgar: see Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson) [Laws J17] (File: LJ17)
===
NAME: Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson) [Laws J17]
DESCRIPTION: Nelson leads his English fleet to battle with the French and Spanish navies off Cadiz. "He broke their line of battle, and struck the fatal blow," but in the melee is shot. He dies knowing he has won and that Napoleon's threat to Britain is ended
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1869 (Logan)
KEYWORDS: war Napoleon injury death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1758-1805 - Life of Horatio Nelson, victor at Aboukir (the Nile), Copenhagen, and Trafalgar
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Britain
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws J17, "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)"
Logan, pp. 67-69, "Nelson's Glorious Victory at Trafalgar" (1 text)
Mackenzie 77, "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar" (1 text)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 94, "Brave Nelson" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 549, NLSNTRAF
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 301, "Nelson's Glorious Victory at Trafalgar" (1 text)
ST LJ17 (Full)
Roud #522
NOTES: Napoleon dearly wanted to capture Britain -- and he was right to feel that way; Britain was his worst enemy and the one that finally defeated him. But he could not invade England unless the Royal Navy could be swept aside. Trafalgar was his attempt to do so, and it failed miserably. The Franco-Spanish navy, under Villaneuve, was slightly larger (33 ships to Nelson's 27), but poorly led and badly trained. Nelson not only had a better fleet, but new ideas. After a game of cat and mouse that had led the fleets all the way to the Americas, the two fleets finally met off Cape Trafalgar in 1805. Nelson's method of "breaking the line" worked, and he heavily defeated the French. In the midst of the battle, however, he was shot by a French sharpshooter and mortally wounded.
Even so, the French threat to Britain was permanently lifted.
Miscellaneous references in the broadside include:
"The hero of the Nile": Nelson's first great exploit against Napoleon occurred before the turn of the century, when he effectively destroyed the fleet that had carried Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. The conflict was known as "The Battle of the Nile" (August 1, 1798).
"Collingwood" was Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood (1758-1810), Nelson's second in command and Chief Assistant Hero of the battle.  - RBW
A distinguishing characteristic of this ballad is that each verse ends "brave Nelson." 
I haven't found this ballad among the broadsides in the Bodleian catalog though there are broadsides on the subject. See, for example, the chapbook printed by J. Pitts (London) with fifteen "admired songs, on the glorious victory off Trafalgar," Bodleian Curzon b.24(98) [not all of it legible]. - BS
File: LJ17
===
NAME: Neptune, Ruler of the Sea
DESCRIPTION: "The Neptune, ruler of the sea, she rides in court today, Filled up with white-coats to the hatch and her colors flying gay.... While bats did rattle on their heads, the murder then began. " Captain Kane's ship returns home with 30,000 harp seals.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Leach-Labrador)
KEYWORDS: hunting sea ship
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Leach-Labrador 81, "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small, p. 119, "'Neptune,' Ruler of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab081 (Partial)
Roud #9979
File: LLab081
===
NAME: Neumerella Shore, The: see The Eumerella Shore (File: MA155)
===
NAME: Neuve Chappelle
DESCRIPTION: "For when we landed in Belgium, the girls all danced for joy, Says one unto the other, 'Here comes an Irish boy.'" The singer reports that the Irish won Neuve Chappelle. The Kaiser and Von Kluck lament that the Irish have arrived
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: war soldier battle derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: March 10, 1915 - Start of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle.
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H526, p. 182, "Neuve Chappelle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8004
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man)"
NOTES: Gale Huntington considered this to be an actual version of "The True-Born Irish Man." Given that the Henry text has only two verses, that strikes me as extreme. But it is clearly derived from that song.
The song describes Neuve Chapelle as a British victory. It was certainly a British battle -- the British 7th and 8th Divisions, plus two Indian divisions. They attacked and smashed the equivalent of less than a German brigade, but then were stopped and the front stabilized. The battle had some effect on British morale (showing that the newly-arriving Territorial troops were solid), but British casualties were much higher than German; it was in no sense a victory for either side.
Von Kluck is General Alexander von Kluck, commander of the German First Army (the right flank element of the German force in France); his, more than anyone else's, had been the task of outflanking the French in 1914, and in this, he had failed.
Kluck continued in command until 1915 (when he was wounded and permanently invalided), but he played no real part in Neuve Chappelle (the real commander on the front by this time was simply defensive doctrine) and would not have been discussing it with the Kaiser. The Western Front was under what amounted to the direct command of the German commander-in-chief, Falkenheyn, who approved all plans and would have been responsible for any talks with Wilhelm II. - RBW
File: HHH526
===
NAME: Never Be as Fast as I Have Been: see The Sporting Bachelors (File: LxU014)
===
NAME: Never Change the Old Love for the New: see My Blue-Eyed Boy (File: R759)
===
NAME: Never Go Back on the Poor
DESCRIPTION: "In this world of sorrow, of toil and regret, There are scenes I would gladly pass oÕer." A great ship sinks as it carries emigrants forced from home by poverty. Divers go to examine the wreck, but make little effort to recover the steerage passengers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck poverty
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 116-117, "Never Go Back on the Poor" (1 text)
Roud #9594
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic (I)"
NOTES: This song nowhere specifies the name of the shipwreck it describes, but it sounds to me as if it describes the _Atlantic_ wreck of 1873: She carried emigrants, losses were large and affected the Steerage in particular, and the captain was asleep at the time of the collision. - RBW
File: Dean116
===
NAME: Never Let Your Honey Have Her Way
DESCRIPTION: "John Henry's dead, And de las' words he said, 'Never let your honey Have her way." "'Way back, 'Way back, Way back in Alabama, 'Way back." "If you  let her have her way, She'll lead you off astray." "De chickens in my sack, Bloodhounds on my track."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: death dog crime escape
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 221, "John Henry's Dead" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rabbit in the Log (Feast Here Tonight)"
NOTES: I've heard this song (or something like it) sung as "Pay Day," in a version quite close to "Rabbit in the Log (Feast Here Tonight)." But I can't swear that that wasn't a modified version, so I'm filing it separately from both "John Henry" and "Rabbit in the Log." - RBW
File: ScNF221
===
NAME: Never Mind Your Knapsack: see We Have the Navy (File: R212)
===
NAME: Never Said a Mumbalin' Word: see Never Said a Mumbling Word (File: LxU102)
===
NAME: Never Said a Mumbling Word
DESCRIPTION: "Oh they whupped him up the hill, up the hill... and he never said a mumbalin' word..... They crowned him with a thorny crown.... They nailed him to the cross.... They pierced him in the side.... Then he hung down his head and he died."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926
KEYWORDS: Bible Jesus religious death
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
BrownIII 578, "He Never Said a Mumbling Word" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 102, "Never Said a Mumblin' Word" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 587-588, "Never Said a Mumbalin' Word" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 759, "He Never Said a Mumbalin' Word" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 60, (no title) (1 text)
Roud #10068
RECORDINGS:
Vera Hall Ward & Dock Reed, "Look How They Done My Lord" (on NFMAla5)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "When My Lord Went to Pray" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Look How They Done My Lord" (verses)
NOTES: According to the Synoptic gospels (Mark 15:5, etc.), Jesus said very little to Pilate (according to Mark 15:2, two words, SU LEGEIS, loosely, "You said [it].") John, however, records an extended conversation. - RBW
File: LxU102
===
NAME: Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door
DESCRIPTION: Singer, an Irishman, admonishes listeners to always keep a horseshoe over the door, and lists misfortunes that befell him when he failed to do so, including his wife's "bringing in a horde of her relations."
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan/Music: Dave Braham
EARLIEST_DATE: 1880 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: humorous family magic 
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 85, "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (1 text)
Roud #8839
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mule (Never Take the Hindshoe from a Mule)," which is a parody of this song
NOTES: The version in Beck is fragmentary; I suspect the original is a good deal longer. - PJS
For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
File: Be085
===
NAME: Never Wed a' Auld Man: see Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)
===
NAME: New Ballad of Lord Lovell, The (Mansfield Lovell)
DESCRIPTION: "Lord Lovell he sat in St. Charles Hotel... A-cutting as big a rebel swell... As you'd ever wish to see." His thirty thousand soldiers dwindle away to a bare handful, and "gallant old Ben sailed in with his men And captured their great citee..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody humorous soldier
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Belden, pp. 52-54, "Lord Lovel"  (3 texts, of which the Ga text is this piece)
JHCoxIIA, #8A-C, pp. 32-37, "Lord Lovell," "Lord Lovell" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "C" fragment is this piece)
Darling-NAS, p. 48, "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell" (1 text)

Roud #7942; also 48
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel [Child 75]" and references there
NOTES: Although the song provides few precise details, it clearly refers to the Federal capture of New Orleans in 1862. The Confederate commander was Mansfield Lovell (1822-1884). According to Shelby Foote, _The Civil War: A Narrative (Volume I: Fort Sumter to Perryville)_ (Random House, 1958), pp. 360, Lovell was a "Maryland-born West Pointer who had resigned as New York Deputy Street Commissioner to join the Confederacy in September. Impressed with the Chapultepec-brevetted artilleryman's record as an administrator, [Jefferson] Davis made him a major general and sent him to... New Orleans."
By the time New Orleans was attacked, the regular garrison of New Orleans had been stripped to reinforce Albert Sydney Johnston; most of them would fight at Shiloh. Lovell's remaining forces consisted primarily of 3000 militiamen, most with no weapons other than shotguns (Foote, p. 361); they had little mobility or ability to fight in the field. The real defenses of New Orleans consisted of river forts and a few small ships. The Confederate attempts to build better, ironclad, ships faltered under their limited industrial capacity; the ships just weren't ready in time. The Federals failed to destroy the river forts with mortars, but Admiral Farragut was able to run his ships past them and deal with the small Confederate fleet (Foote, pp. 364-369), and that left New Orleans undefended under his guns. Rather than risk the destruction of the city, Lovell retreated with such mobile forces as he had. The garrisons of the river forts then collapsed (Foote, p. 370), and Federal troops were able to come up-river and occupy New Orleans even though the city didn't exactly surrender.
After New Orleans, Lovell briefly held corps command in the west, and demonstrated real skill as a commander. But he was relieved soon after due to political pressure.
"Gallant old Ben" is Benjamin F. Butler, the most-hated man in the Confederacy and possibly the worst general ever to serve under the American flag. Butler occupied New Orleans (and subjected it to something close to a reign of terror), but the military skill was all Farragut's. - RBW
File: DarNS047
===
NAME: New Broom Sweeps Clean, A: see As I Walked Out (I) (A New Broom Sweeps Clean) (File: HHH109)
===
NAME: New Bully, The: see references under The Bully of the Town [Laws I14] (File: LI14)
===
NAME: New Bunch of Loughero, The
DESCRIPTION:  Singer meets a lady by the Danube saying "I have lost my Bunch of Loughero" She recalls Napoleon's victories and defeat at Waterloo. Her son says he will raise an army to rescue him. She says "I'll live like chaste Penelope, Still hoping for my Loughero"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1830 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: 
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1815 - Defeat at the Battle of Waterloo forces Napoleon into exile
1821 - Death of Napoleon
FOUND_IN: Napoleon love dialog family political
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 32A, "The New Bunch of Loughero" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Bunch of Roses, O" (theme)
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The Royal Eagle" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
NOTES: Marie Louise of Austria (1791-1847) is Napoleon's second wife and mother of Napoleon II. She returned to Vienna in 1814 when Napoleon is defeated. (source: "Marie Louise of Austria" at Answres.com site)
Zimmermann: Loughero is from Irish luachair = rushes. 
Note the difference between "The Bunch of Loughero" (Napoleon) and "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (Britain) - BS
This song shares with "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" and "The Royal Eagle" the theme of Marie Louisa's grief for her husband. This is romantic, but false; she refused to go into exile with him to Elba, let alone St. Helena.
In fact, even before Napoleon went to Elba, she is reported to have taken General Adam Adelbert Neipperg as a lover. When he came back during the Hundred Days, she not only refused to join him, she wouldn't even allow him to see his son. By the time Napoleon died, Louisa had borne two children to other fathers. - RBW
File: Zimm032A
===
NAME: New Buryin' Ground, The: see Way Over in the New Buryin' Groun' (File: San473)
===
NAME: New Chum Chinaman, The
DESCRIPTION: Irishman Pat McCann, newly arrived in Australia and unable to find work, sees the Chinese working (even if at horrible jobs). He decides to turn himself into "Ah Pat," Chinese immigrant. He describes the steps he will use to take on the part
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966 (collected by Ron Edwards from Mrs. V.Leonard)
KEYWORDS: foreigner emigration unemployment disguise China
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 102-104, "The New Chum Chinaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 134-138, New Chum Chinaman"" (1 text)
File: FaE102
===
NAME: New Electric Light, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer's wife is desperate for electric lights. She wanders the streets seeking them. One night the singer finds a strange man in the house; it proves to be her cousin, who installs lights. She reportedly amuses herself with the light while he's gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: technology humorous husband wife
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 489, "The New Electric Light" (1 text)
Roud #7585
File: R489
===
NAME: New England Cocky, The: see The Inglewood Cocky (File: PASB109)
===
NAME: New Granuwale, The: see Granuwale (File: Zimm029)
===
NAME: New Ireland Song
DESCRIPTION: The clergy order "not to sell whisky upon a Sunday." Mike Leyden and Tim Long go from place to place in New Ireland looking for rum but only find tea. It being very cold, the boys finally give up and go to bed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 116, "New Ireland Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB116 (Partial)
Roud #2784
NOTES: Creighton-SNewBrunswick: "New Ireland is a farming community near Elgin" [in south central New Brunswick less than 20 miles north of the Bay of Fundy]. - BS
This seems to be a local composition based on some other local song. The text is reminiscent of "Sweet Betsy from Pike," but the tune is more like "Darby O'Leary" (which is known in New Brunswick). Of course, the latter is rather like "Sweet Betsy" put in minor. - RBW
File: CrSNB116
===
NAME: New Limit Line, The
DESCRIPTION: "Now we left our own homes, for the woods we were bent...." The singer describes hiring out to the New Limit Line. They reach the line with great difficulty, but work hard and are happy at the camp. Many of the other workers there are listed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work travel
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke-Lumbering # 12, "The New Limit Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FowL12 (Partial)
Roud #4369
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fox River Line (The Rock Island Line)" [Laws C28] (tune)
File: FowL12
===
NAME: New Market Wreck, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Southern Railway had a wreck at ten o'clock one morn, Near Hodge's and New Market ground...." A conductor misreads his orders, and two trains collide. The singer hopes the other conductor is in heaven, and adds other details
AUTHOR: Robert Hugh Brooks
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 24, 1904 -- the New Market Wreck. The conductor of the #15 train admitted to misreading his orders and causing the wreck; reports say that at least 56 people died
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 227-231, "The New Market Wreck" (1 text plus an early sheet music print, 1 tune)
Roud #4904
RECORDINGS:
Mr. & Mrs. J. W. Baker, "The Newmarket Wreck" (Victor 20863, 1927)
George Reneau, "The New Market Wreck" (Vocalion 14930, 1924)
NOTES: According to Cohen, there is a second song about this event, "The Southern Railroad Wreck," by Charles O. Oaks. It seems to be rarely encountered; neither that nor this appears to be traditional. - RBW
File: LSRa228
===
NAME: New Moon, True Moon
DESCRIPTION: "New moon, true moon, Tell me who shall marry me; Tell me the color of his hair, The garments he shall wear."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid)
KEYWORDS: marriage courting clothes hair nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 238, (no title) (1 short text)
File: MH238D
===
NAME: New Mown Hay, The: see TheTossing of the Hay (File: HHH635)
===
NAME: New Organ, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about the new organ and choir being installed in the church. She's served the church for 35 years with money and time, "but now their old new-fangled ways Are coming all about And I right in my latter days Am fairly crowded out"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: music clergy rejection
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 863, "The New Organ" (1 text)
Roud #7534
NOTES: I don't know how many old fogies (or old Baptists) were complaining about the installation of organs in the 1920s, but I know there are plenty of new fogies in the churches complaining that there isn't enough music and that these new ministers never play the familiar stuff. New era, same grumblers.... - RBW
File: R863
===
NAME: New Orleans Jail, The: see The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)
===
NAME: New Prisoner's Song
DESCRIPTION: Singer has seven more to serve, for knocking a man down and taking his watch. He remembers his 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-NovaScotia 141, "Prisoner's Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 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: 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 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
File: RcNPS
===
NAME: New River Shore, The (The Green Brier Shore; The Red River Shore) [Laws M26]
DESCRIPTION: The singer is forced to leave his sweetheart (possibly due to manipulation by her parents). She begs that he return. When he does, he is ambushed by a band of men hired by her father. He wins the battle and goes on to claim the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: separation love fight
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,NE,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Laws M26, "The New River Shore (The Green Brier Shore; The Red River Shore)"
Mackenzie 48, "The New River Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 85, "New River Shore" (1 text)
SharpAp 142, "The Green Brier Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 206, "The Red River Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, p. 412, "Red River Shore" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 57, "Red River Shore" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT 329, GRNBRIER*
Roud #549
RECORDINGS:
Bud Billings' Trio w. Carson Robison, "On the Red River Shore" (Montgomery Ward M-4101, 1933)
Patt Patterson & Lois Dexter, "On the Red River Shore" (Perfect 12650, 1930; Conqueror 7711, 1931; on MakeMe)
Art Thieme, "The Red River Shore" (on Thieme04)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Earl Brand" [Child 7]
cf. "Erlinton" [Child 8]
cf. "The Green Brier Shore (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES: The title implies a relationship to "The Girl on the Greenbriar Shore," but the plot is noticeably different. One rather suspects that the latter piece is a fragment rebuilt almost from scratch (and then, perhaps, further modified by the Carter Family). - RBW
File: LM26
===
NAME: New River Train
DESCRIPTION: "(Honey Babe/Darling), you can't love one (x2), You can't love one and still have any fun, Honey Babe, you can't..." Similarly, "You can't love two and still be true..." "You can't love three and still have me..." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (recording, Henry Whitter)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad infidelity floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 466-471, "New River Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 103, "Darling, You Can't Love but One" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 124-125, "Honey Babe" (1 text, without the chorus,  filed under Child #76 along with a "Pretty Little Foot" fragment and a version of "I Truly Undertand That You Love Some Other Man")
Abrahams/Foss, p. 73, "Darlin' You Can't Have One" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 158-159, "Darlin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 74, "New River Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 143, "New River Train" (1 text)
Roud #4568
RECORDINGS:
Cauley Family, "New River Train" (Perfect 13032, 1934)
Crazy Hillbillies Band, "Leaving on the New River Train" (OKeh 45579, 1934)
Vernon Dalhart, "New River Train" (Columbia 15032-D, c. 1925)  (Herwin 75506, mid-to-late 1920s)
Sid Harkreader, "New River Train" (Vocalion 15035, 1925)
Kelly Harrell, "New River Train" (Victor 19596, 1925; on KHarrell01) (Victor 20171, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Monroe Brothers, "New River Train" (Bluebird B-6645, 1936)
Old Brother Charlie & the Corn Crib Trio, "New River Train" (Mercury 6206, 1949)
Ridge Rangers, "The New River Train" (AFS 1693 A2, 1939; on LC61)
Pete Seeger, "New River Train" (on PeteSeeger24), (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
Ernest V. Stoneman Family, "New River Train" (on Stonemans01); Ernest V. Stoneman, Willie Stoneman, and the Sweet Brothers, "New River Train" (Gennett 6619 [as by Justin Winfield] /Supertone 9400 [as by Uncle Ben Hawkins], 1929)
Wade Ward, "New River Train" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Henry Whitter, "The New River Train" (OKeh 40143, 1924)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mole in the Ground" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "My Last Gold Dollar" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Crawdad"
cf. "Going Around the World (Banjo Pickin' Girl, Baby Mine)"
NOTES: "Honey Babe" and "New River Train" are two versions of the same set of verses, the difference being that the latter has a chorus about the "New River Train" ("Riding on that new river train (x2), Same old train that brought me here Is soon gonna carry me away"). 
It's not clear which is the original form, but I'm guessing the former. - RBW
Well, [you] may be wrong here; the "New River Train" version dates back to at least 1924 (Whitter's recording). And Fields Ward says he learned it c. 1895. - PJS
In any case, "New River Train" is now the more familiar version (see the recording list), so I eventually adopted that title.
Cohen has notes about the origin of the name "New River Train"; there apparently was no line with that name, but several railroads had track in the New River area and would presumably have been given that name informally. What's more, the earliest recordings he cites (Whitter's and Harrell's) are by residents of that part of Virginia. Vernon Dalhart's recording was similar to and likely based on Harrell's, and that no doubt helped put the song in popular consciousness.
Cohen does report, however, that few versions other than Ernest Stoneman's have much real railroad content. That is the main reason why I thought (and still sort of think) the versions without the New River Train chorus likely to be original. - RBW
File: AF073
===
NAME: New Road, The
DESCRIPTION: "For fifty years I've known a woodland Of patriarchal trees, Their roots grown deep in good land, Boughs swaying in the breeze." The singer recalls how farmers came and made the land their own. But now their fields and homes are being separate by roads.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home farming technology
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 261-262, (no title) (1 text)
File: ThBa262
===
NAME: New Song (I), A: see Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale) (File: K089)
===
NAME: New Song (II), A: see The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve, The (File: Beld431)
===
NAME: New War Song by Sir Peter Parker, A: see Sir Peter Parker (File: SBoa064)
===
NAME: New Yealand: see Lizie Lindsay [Child 226] (File: C226)
===
NAME: New Year's Sermon, The
DESCRIPTION: "Hello, Mr. Jones! We wish you a happy new year -- to you and your wife and your sons... And if our wishes find you good, 'Tis better than the year before the flood." Listeners are warned of times to come, including battles -- and then muskets are let off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: nonballad recitation wassail
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, p. 514, "The New Year's 'Sermon'" (1 text)
Roud #7830
NOTES: A sort of a Missouri wassail, in which the performers went from house to house begging for entertainment -- but perhaps with a bit of a threat element, since they all had firearms.... - RBW
File: Beld514
===
NAME: New York Girls: see Can't You Dance the Polka (New York Girls) (File: Doe058)
===
NAME: New York to Queenstown
DESCRIPTION:  Ship leaves New York Sunday, December 2 and runs into a heavy sea. "The companion and the wheel-house were swept right clean away." At Queenstown the captain reports to "an aged father ... 'Your son fell from our main royal yard, a victim to the sea.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm sailor father
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 20-21, "New York to Queenstown" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Larkin (Bull Yorkens)" (theme)
File: Ran020
===
NAME: New York Trader, The: see Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22] (File: LK22)
===
NAME: New-Chum's First Trip, The
DESCRIPTION: A young drover relates the events of his first drive, which has turned out to be harder work than he expected.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: work travel
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hodgart, p. 232, "The New-Chum's First Trip" (1 text)
Roud #8241
File: Hodg232
===
NAME: New-Mown Hay, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer walks out "one May morning" and spies "a pretty sweet maid All on the new-mown hay." She convinces him not to ravish her at once; "You'll spoil my maiden gown." She eludes him; he advises men not to worry about spoiling gowns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: seduction trick clothes
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,West)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Bronson 112, "The Baffled Knight" (40 versions) -- but #26-33 (his Appendix A) are "The New-Mown Hay," which we tentatively separate, and #34-#39 (his Appendix B) are "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] which is certainly separate
Kennedy 184, "The New-Mown Hay" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MORNDEW3*
Roud #11
RECORDINGS:
William Rew ,"The New-Mown Hay" (on FSB2CD)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112]
NOTES: As far as the plot goes, this is exactly identical to "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112], and some (e.g. Bronson, Roud) have grouped them together. Kennedy, however, argues that they are separate, and the verse form implies he is right. To me, this looks like a cross between "The Baffled Knight" and "Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid)." - RBW
Separate from "The Baffled Knight"? Naah. Never mind "verse form" -- look at Kennedy's verse 3. I call that a smoking gun. - PJS
File: K184
===
NAME: New-Slain Knight, The [Child 263]
DESCRIPTION: A man sees a girl sleeping under a hedge. He tells her of a dead man in her father's garden. His description makes her think it is her love. She wonders who will care for her. The man offers to do so. She refuses him till he reveals himself as her lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1878
KEYWORDS: trick disguise love death
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 263, "The New-Slain Knight" (1 text)
Roud #3887
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76] (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] (plot) and references there
cf. "The Three Ravens" [Child 26]
File: C263
===
NAME: Newburgh Jail, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer is arrested while in a bar. Held without trial for some time, he moves back and forth among prisons. At last he makes his escape (despite the shooting of the guards). He intends to keep moving and not be taken again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: prison escape trial
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
FSCatskills 166, "The Newburgh Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC166 (Partial)
Roud #4606
NOTES: This song is item dE53 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: FSC166
===
NAME: Newcastle Is My Native Place
DESCRIPTION: "Newcassel is my native place, Where my mother sighed for me... Where in early youth I sported... But, alas! those days are gone and past." The singer tells of growing up, taking his first job, getting married -- and regrets the woe of the latter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: youth home work courting marriage lament drink
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 190-191, "Newcastle Is My Native Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR190 (Partial)
Roud #3180
NOTES: This is a rather strange mix: Almost every line of it recalls happy days -- but the singer is grousing anyway. - RBW
File: StoR190
===
NAME: Newfoundland: see Bound Down to Newfoundland [Laws D22] (File: LD22)
===
NAME: Newfoundland and Sebastopol
DESCRIPTION: "Success to France and England! Hurray my boys hurray! Sebastopol is taken And we've nobly gained the day" on September 8, 1855. The battles are recounted. "Here's to the memory of our soldiers ... of that dreadful battle Of September, fifty-five"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: army battle war England France Russia memorial
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 9, 1855 - Fall of Sevastopol following an 11 month siege
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 152, "Newfoundland and Sebastopol" (1 text)
Roud #17747
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sebastopol (Old England's Gained the Day; Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol; Cheer, Boys, Cheer)" (subject, theme)
NOTES: Greenleaf/Mansfield['s version] has no mention of "Newfoundland" in the text. - BS
File: GrMa152
===
NAME: Newfoundland Disaster (I), The
DESCRIPTION: Captain Randall, commander of the Bill, abandons his voyage and rescues twenty-five survivors of the Newfoundland from the ice. Seventy-seven are lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning sea ship wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: March 1914 - Wreck of the Newfoundland (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 967-968, "The Newfoundland Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small, pp. 94-95, "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea967 (Partial)
Roud #9932
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. Pat Maher, "The Story of the Sealing Vessel, The Newfoundland" (on NFMLeach)
cf. "The Newfoundland Disaster (II)" (subject)
cf. "In Memorial of 77 Brave Newfoundland Sealers" (subject)
NOTES: Maher, on NFMLeach, does not sing the ballad but tells the story and tells a ghost story relating to that wreck. - BS
File: Pea967
===
NAME: Newfoundland Disaster (II), The
DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye sons of Newfoundland And shed a tear or two While I relate the hardships great Befell this steamship's crew." The Newfoundland is trapped by a gale, and "nearly 80" men are killed. Listeners are asked to mourn the heroes
AUTHOR: apparently George Humbey
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (Harbour Grace Standard)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship disaster storm death
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 96, "The Newfoundland Disaster (2)" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)" (subject)
cf. Pat Maher, "The Story of the Sealing Vessel, The Newfoundland" (on NFMLeach)
cf. "In Memorial of 77 Brave Newfoundland Sealers" (subject)
File: RySm096
===
NAME: Newfoundland Hero, A: see Captain William Jackman, A Newfoundland Hero (File: GrMa145)
===
NAME: Newfoundland Sailor, The: see Oh, No, Not I (File: DTmarryn)
===
NAME: Newfoundland Sealing Song
DESCRIPTION: The Greenland and Travan arrive at Harbour Grace "Chock up to every hatch" with fur seals pelts. On March 10 Greenland heads north again for hooded seals and "when the day was done Twice seven thousand pelts was flagged." "So now we're home for Easter"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: hunting sea ship shore sailor
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 198-199, "Newfoundland Sealing Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2719
NOTES: Harbour Grace on Conception Bay and Green's Pond on the Northern Peninsula are Newfoundland outports. - BS
File: CrMa198
===
NAME: Newlyn Town: see The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)
===
NAME: Newmill
DESCRIPTION: "It was to Newmill, ayont the hills, Last term I did fee." The master is a miser who feeds and rewards his workers badly: "I chased the barley roun' the plate, And a' I got was three." The master tries to cheat him for his work; he departs happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes food money trick
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 257-258, "Newmill" (1 text)
Roud #5588
File: Ord257
===
NAME: Newry Highwayman, The: see The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)
===
NAME: Newry Prentice Boy, The: see The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)
===
NAME: Next Market Day, The
DESCRIPTION: Woman going to the market meets a man. He gives her three guineas to pay for the yarn, that he might play her a new tune.She goes home with the tune in her head. She will seek him "by land or by sea/Till he larns me that tune called the next market day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Young woman going to the market at Comber, with three hanks of yarn to sell for her mother, meets a young man (apparently a musician), and dallies. He gives her three guineas to pay her mother for the yarn, that he might play her a new tune. They sit together; they gaze lovingly into each other's eyes, and she goes home with the tune in her head. She vows to seek him "by land or by sea/Till he larns me that tune called the next market day"
KEYWORDS: courting love sex commerce music
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Hayward-Ulster, p. 45, "The Comber Ballad" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 158 "The Next Market Day" (1 text)
Roud #6547
RECORDINGS:
Seamus O'Doherty, "The Next Market Day" (Columbia 33289-F, n.d.)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stonecutter Boy" (plot)
cf. "The Haselbury Girl (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl)" (plot)
cf. "The Mower" (plot)
cf. "The Wanton Seed"
File: FSWB158B
===
NAME: Next Monday Morning
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a young girl who says she will be married next Sunday (or other day). He asks her age; she is (12/16/other). He tells her she's too young to marry. She replies that she will be married that day and describes the festivities. End of story.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1850
KEYWORDS: marriage wedding age
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,Lond),Scotland) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Sharp-100E 38, "The Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 137, "Next Monday Morning' (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 173, "I'm Going to Get Married Next Sunday" (1 text)
SharpAp 143, "I'm Going to get Married next Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 165-166, "[I'm Going to Be Married on Monday]" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Peacock, p. 559, "Monday Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 464, "On Saturday night shall be my care" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #161, p. 119, "(On Saturday night shall be my care)"
DT, NEXTMOND* NEXTMON2*
Roud #579
RECORDINGS:
W. Guy Bruce, "As I Walked Out One Morning In Spring" (on FolkVisions1)
Harry Cox, "Next Monday Morning" (on HCox01)
Mrs. Edward Gallagher, "I'm Going to Get Married" (on NovaScotia1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1654), "I Shall Be Married on Monday Morning" ("As I was walking one morning in spring"), Williamson (Newcastle), c.1845
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
I'm Going to be Married on Sunday
NOTES: The Brown text lacks the objection to the girl's youth. Perhaps a deliberate American adaption, where the availability of land meant that teenagers, especially in mountain areas, did marry quite young? - RBW
Perhaps, but the version in Sharp has the objection. - PJS
File: ShH38
===
NAME: Next Song on the Programme, The
DESCRIPTION: "The next song on the programme will be a dance Sang by a female gentleman Sitting on a corner of a round table, Picking carrots out of a sultana pie. Nancy Carter, she's the Tartar And I'm a tomato"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (recording, Albert Smith)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense paradox food
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Albert Smith, "The Next Song on the Programme" (on Voice14)
NOTES: The current description is almost all of the Voice14 text. - BS
File: RcNSOTP
===
NAME: Niagara Falls
DESCRIPTION: "Don't you hear the water rolling?/Ho, ho, ho.../That we're riding off in trouble/Ho, ho, ho...)" Later verses take the form, "Don't you go and tell our father (mother, sister)/.../That we're riding off in trouble..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work disaster worksong
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SharpAp 166, "Niagara Falls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3640
NOTES: Sharp notes, "The words of the song refer to men on a logging raft, which has got out of control and is drifting toward Niagara Falls." - PJS
File: ShAp2166
===
NAME: Nice Little Jenny from Ballinasloe
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets and falls in love with Jenny. He declares his love. She says she is "never inclined to disdain or to tease" but she already has a lover and he has a large dog and gun. The singer bows out. "For ever I'll mourn for beauteous Jane Curran"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1835 (From a Waterford chap-book, according to Sparling)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection beauty dog lover
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 92, "Nice Little Jenny from Ballinasloe" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 326-328, 513, "Nice Little Jane from Ballinasloe"
Roud #5305
NOTES: Ballinasloe is in County Galway, Ireland. - BS
File: OLcM092
===
NAME: Nice Piece of Irish Pig's Head, A
DESCRIPTION: Irish pig's head is a better meal than Christmas goose, spring lamb, beef, mutton, turkey, or ham. It has been used to pay the rent. Frenchmen eat frog, Englishmen eat beef but give Pat pig's head cabbage and spuds, even as a spread for a wedding.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (recording, "Maurice")
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #12932
RECORDINGS:
Maurice, "A Nice Piece of Irish Pig's Head" (on Voice07)
NOTES: This probably consists of making the best of necessity. Even before the potato blights of the 1840s, so many Catholics were on such small farms that they could raise nothing but potatoes. Anything else, including meat discarded by the landlord, would be a treat. Yes, the boar's head was sometimes called a delicacy (see "The Boar's Head Carol"), but that seems to be mostly because the rest of the boar came with it.... - RBW
File: RcNPOIPH
===
NAME: Nickety Nackety: see The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)
===
NAME: Nicky Tams
DESCRIPTION: Singer works as a plowman, always wearing his nicky tams. He courts "bonnie Annie," who admires his nicky tams. A wasp flies up his pants in church; he won't go again without them. He thinks about other jobs, but he'll never forget wearing his nicky tams
AUTHOR: G. S. Morris
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930s (composed)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes farming work humorous bug worker
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland, England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 107, "Nicky Tams" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1875
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "Nicky Tams" (on Voice05)
Jimmy Scott, "Nickie Dams" (on Borders1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Berryfields of Blair" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
The Berryfields of Blaie (File: K339)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
A Pair of Nicky Tams
NOTES: According to MacColl & Seeger, "Nicky tams," aka "yorks," "yaks," or "wull-tams," were leather thongs worn buckled just below the knee, to prevent the trouser legs from dragging in the mud. They were essential parts of a ploughman's attire. - PJS
File: McCST107
===
NAME: Nid de Fauvettes, Le (The Warbler's Nest)
DESCRIPTION: French. I hold this nest of baby warblers. They cannot escape. Their father and mother try to rescue them and I return them. Teach them to fly here and, next year, to sleep in the oak and they will compose songs of youth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lyric nonballad bird
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 791-792, "Le Nid de Fauvettes" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea791
===
NAME: Nigger in the Woodpile: see Old Dan Tucker (File: R521)
===
NAME: Nigger Tune, The: see Push Along, Keep Moving (File: JHCox180)
===
NAME: Night Before Larry Was Stretched, The
DESCRIPTION: "The night before Larry was stretched (hanged), the boys all paid him a visit." They come to commiserate with Larry, the most gallant, sporting -- and rebellious -- of the lot. He dies gallantly, "grow[s] white" at the name of King William, and is buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 377); the tune seems to have been in use by 1803 (implied by its use in Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet, published in _Paddy's Resource or the Harp of Erin_)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution Ireland funeral
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1688-1702 - Reign of William III of Britain, whose victory at the Boyne (1690) solidified British rule over Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
PBB 95, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 208, "The Night before Larry was Stretched" (1 text)
OLochlainn-More 52A, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LARRYSTR*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 289-292, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 475-477, 514, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched"
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 261-263, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched"  (1 text)
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 38-40, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 377, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretch'd"[last 5 lines missing], J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 28(199), "Night Before Larry Was Stretch'd"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Skipper's Wedding" (tune)
cf. "Saint Patrick of Ireland, My Dear!" (tune)
cf. "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet" (partial tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Saint Patrick of Ireland, My Dear! (File: CPS028)
Cats' Eyes (broadside NLScotland, L.C.1269(170b), "Cats' Eyes," Poet's Box (Glasgow?), 1858
Crafty Codger, or The Placehunter Out (Healy-OISBv2, pp. 111-113)
To G. K. Chesterton (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 692)
NOTES: Sparling, p. 514: "Hitherto the 'Night' has, through carelessness or ignorance, been printed incomplete, even by Graves, but the present version is unmutilated. It has been obtained by the careful collation of very many old chap-books and ballad-sheets." OLochlainn-More 52A is essentially the same as Sparling.
[Regarding the authorship:] _Handy Andy_ is a novel Samuel Lover published in 1842. Discussing authorship of street ballads, a character says, on page 468, "'The Night Before Larry Was Stretched' was done by a bishop they say." (The edition is in the _Irish Literature_ series published by PF Collier and Son, under _The Selected Writings of Samuel Lover,_ Vol 6, _Handy Andy_ part 2).
Sparling, p. 514: "Dublin street song, wrongly attributed to Dean Burrows; the only thing at all certain as to its origin is that he did not write it [supported by a reference to A.P. Graves].... The real writer was probably William Maher, best known as 'Hurlfoot Bill,' a worthy of the type he so well describes." - BS
File: PBB095
===
NAME: Night Express, The
DESCRIPTION: "One day I met a little girl beyond the railroad bridge" and asks her about her life and what she is doing there. Her father is an engineer on the train. He asks if she worries about her father. The girl says that God will protect him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1893 (Locomotive Engineer's Monthly Journal)
KEYWORDS: father children train virtue questions railroading family mother gods
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 567-570, "The Night Express" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
[Wilmer] Watts & [Frank?] Wilson, "The Night Express" (Paramount 3007/Broadway 8113 [as by Watts & Wiggins], 1927)
Wilmer Watts & the Lonely Eagles, "Bonnie Bess" (Paramount 3277, 1931; on TimesAint05)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Bonnie Bess
NOTES: No relation to either version of "My Bonny Black Bess." That one's about a horse. - PJS
File: RcTNiExp
===
NAME: Night Guard, The
DESCRIPTION: As cowboys relax around the fire, the night guard sings to the cattle and thinks of his sweetheart. At dawn, one of the steers attacks the guard's horse, which throws him; he is killed by the steer. The girl grieves and seems to grow old prematurely
AUTHOR: Unknown, possibly Jack Webb
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, Jack Webb)
KEYWORDS: grief love death work animal lover cowboy worker
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #11522
RECORDINGS:
Jack Webb, "The Night Guard" (Victor V-40285, 1930; on AuthCowboys, MakeMe, WhenIWas2)
File: RcTNiGua
===
NAME: Night Herding Song
DESCRIPTION: The tired cowboy advises the herd, "O slow up, dogies, quit your roving around, You've wandered and trampled all over the ground." He tells how, whatever method he uses, he can never keep the cattle still. He again urges the cattle to relax
AUTHOR: Harry Stephens
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work animal request
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Larkin, pp. 26-29, "Night Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 193, "Night Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 82, "Night-Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyP, p. 214, "Night-Herding Song" (1 text) 
DT, NITEHERD*
Roud #4444
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Little Dogies" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
Marc Williams, "Night Herding Song" (Brunswick 497, c. 1931; on MakeMe)
File: LoF193
===
NAME: Night I Stole Old Sammy Morgan's Gin, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer steals a jug of gin from Sammy (Sandy) Morgan, drinks it all, and hallucinates -- seven bears, an owl taking tickets, an ape in britches -- before passing out. When he awakes, "someone had stole my head/And left an elephant's there instead"
AUTHOR: C. E. (Hank) Snow
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1936 (composed)
KEYWORDS: theft drink animal humorous
FOUND_IN: Can(West)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MORGNGIN
RECORDINGS:
Hank Snow, "The Night I Stole Old Sammy Morgan's Gin" (RCA Victor 21-0356, 1950; rec. c. 1947)
Stanley G. Triggs, "Sandy Morgan's Gin" (on Triggs1)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Sandy Morgan's Gin
NOTES: The Canadian country singer Hank Snow apparently wrote this before he first recorded in 1936, but didn't record it until 1947; before 1961, however, it had entered oral tradition, as Triggs notes "I learned this song in a logging camp in the Kootenays but know nothing of its origin." - PJS
File: DTMrggin
===
NAME: Night of the Ragman's Ball, The
DESCRIPTION: The ragmen and women have a ball with fights, music, food and drink, and more fights. Many are named. "Black eyes they were in great demand, not to mention split heads at all, So anyone wants to commit suicide let them come to the Ragman's Ball"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (OLochlainn)
KEYWORDS: fight dancing drink food music party humorous moniker
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn 62, "The Night of the Ragman's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 42-45, "The Ragman's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3006
File: OLoc062
===
NAME: Night Visiting Song
DESCRIPTION: Young man comes visiting his love's window, bidding her admit him. She does, and a good time is had by all until daybreak, when they part at the crowing of the cock
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: sex nightvisit chickens
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, NITEVIST
RECORDINGS:
Norman Kennedy, "Night Visiting Song" (on BirdBush2)
Louis Killen, "The Cock" (on BirdBush2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grey Cock" (motif)
NOTES: Lloyd notes that night-visiting and bundling were common customs in country villages until the rise of Puritanism, and that bundling was still remembered in the Orkneys. The mention of the cock's crowing provides a link to "The Grey Cock." - PJS
File: DTnitevi
===
NAME: Nightcap, The
DESCRIPTION: Phoebus, after a tiring ride, unhitches his horses for the night and asks Thetis for something worthwhile to drink. She gives him a cruiskeen of poteen and he goes to sleep happily ignoring the dampness of his bed.
AUTHOR: Thomas Hamblin Porter (source: Croker-PopularSongs)
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1820 (written in 1817 and printed in "a Dublin newspaper or magazine," according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: drink gods horse
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 92-94, "The Nightcap" (1 text)
NOTES: Phoebus (Apollo), among his other tasks, drove the sun. The reference to Thetis is peculiar; as far as I know, she had nothing to do with Apollo. I suspect the reference is rather to Themis, who helped to care for Apollo in his youth. - RBW
File: CrPS092
===
NAME: Nightengale, The: see Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)
===
NAME: Nightingale (II), The: see One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)
===
NAME: Nightingale (III), The: see Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale) (File: K089)
===
NAME: Nightingale, The [Laws M37]
DESCRIPTION: A rich girl's parents force her poorer lover to sea aboard the Nightingale. When the ship sinks in a gale, the boy's ghost appears to the girl and accuses her parents of leaving his body to rot in the Bay of Biscay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1847
KEYWORDS: ship love poverty death ghost wreck
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland,England(North)) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws M37, "The Nightingale"
Doerflinger, pp. 304-305, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H75a, p. 145, "The Nightingale (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 589, NGALEWRK
Roud #1093
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:029, "The Nightingale," John Ross (Newcastle), 19C
File: LM37
===
NAME: Nightingales Sing, The: see One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)
===
NAME: Nimrod's Song, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye friends of Newfoundland Who have a mind to roam O'er the wild and stormy ocean...." The crew sails from Newfoundland to the ice. They have great trouble and sorrow. The crew are listed. The singer hopes Captain Barbour will find a better ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung by Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship hardtimes moniker
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, pp. 74-75, "The Nimrod's Song" (1 text)
NOTES: Not related to "The Wreck of the Nimrod," which obviously is about a shipwreck....
Despite this song, the _Nimrod_ was by no means a failure as a sealer; Chafe reports that she set a record in 1871 with 28,087 seals. It's a good name for such a ship; Nimrod was "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Genesis 10:9).
She also had a distinguished later career: Built in Scotland in 1865, _Nimrod_ eventually was fitted out for Ernest Shackleton's 1907 Antarctic expedition. She returned to England in 1909, and Shackleton sold her a year later to finance future expeditions, including the ill-fated _Endurance_ expedition of 1914. - RBW
File: RySm074
===
NAME: Nine Hundred Miles
DESCRIPTION: "I'm a walking down the track, I've got tears in my eyes, Trying to read a letter from my home. If that train runs me right I'll be home tomorrow night." The singer will pawn anything or do whatever is needed to get home (to his sweetheart)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: train love separation home
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 503-517, "Reuben's Train/Train 45/900 Miles" (2 texts plus exceprts equivalent to about three more, 2 tunes; the first text is close to "Reuben's Train," the second to "Nine Hundred Miles," but the article is mostly devoted to showing how the two songs mix)
BrownIII 285, "The Midnight Dew" (1 text, with an unusual introductory verse but most of the rest goes here)
Lomax-FSUSA 73, "900 Miles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-RailFolklr, p. 464, "900 Miles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 53, "Nine Hundred Miles" (1 text)
DT, MILES900
Roud #4959
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson "I'm 900 Miles from my Home" (OKeh 40196, 1924)
George & Bobby Childers, "Five Hundred Miles" (on FolkVisions2)
Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston, "Nine Hundred Miles" (on AschRec2)
Riley Puckett, "Nine Hundred Miles from Home" (Columbia 15563-D, 1930)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rain and Snow" (opening lines of tune)
cf. "Reuben's Train"
NOTES: Some versions of "Reuben's Train," such as the Grayson/Whitter "Train 45" recording, are so mixed with this song that it's literally impossible to tell whether they are versions of this song or that; those interested should consult the references to both songs. - RBW
"Five Hundred Miles," composed by Hedy West and popular in the 1960s folk revival, is essentially a rewrite of this song with a different tune, but several overlapping verses. - PJS
File: LxU073
===
NAME: Nine Miles from Gundagai (The Dog Sat in the Tuckerbox)
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of his time as a bullock driver. His worst experience happened nine miles from Gundagai, in a cold storm, with the team bogged, the fire out, (the crew fighting). As a final insult, the dog sat (or "shat") in the tuckerbox
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1956
KEYWORDS: Australia hardtimes dog
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 95-96, "Nine Miles from Gundagai" (1 text with no title given)
Fahey-Eureka, p. 184, "Nine Miles from Gundagai" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GUNDAGRD*
Roud #10221 AND 9121
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "The Dog Sat in the Tuckerbox (Nine Miles from Gundagai)" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill the Bullocky" (lyrics)
NOTES: Gundagai was a town of no particular account in itself. Its position at the midpoint of the Sydney-Melbourne road has, however, made it the setting for many folk songs.
A statue in Gundagai commemorates a dog sitting forlornly on a tuckerbox (food box), guarding it for his master.
John Greenway, however, points out the falseness of this picture. He notes that bullock drivers and swagmen "kept dogs only to have something to kick."
He also notes, delicately, "That's what this song is about: a bullock driver who had the ultimate in bad luck -- not only did his wagon axle break and the team get bogged in the mud and his matches get soaked in the rain, but his dog capped the climax by s...itting (there is an aspirate missing) IN -- not ON -- the tucker box!" - RBW
File: MA095
===
NAME: Nine Pound Hammer: see Take This Hammer (File: FR383)
===
NAME: Nine Times a Night
DESCRIPTION: A handsome sailor named "Nine Times a Night" arrives in London after a voyage and is seen by a"handsome rich widow." She entices him to marry her. He "trimmed her sails" five times; she wonders why he can't manage the nine times of his name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1982 (the broadsides are almost certainly Victorian if not earlier)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy marriage sailor humorous
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, NINETIME*
Roud #18411
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(555), "9 times a night," unknown, n.d; also Harding B 17(219a), "9 times a night," unknown, n.d.
NOTES: Field collections of this seem to be relatively few; I might have suspected A. L. Lloyd of writing it had it not been for the broadsides. It's interesting to note that these generally don't admit of a printer -- perhaps to avoid prosecution?
WARNING: Clinincal biology ahead. Sort of graphic, and also one of the areas of science some religions find offensive.
There are sound reasons of evolutionary biology why males cannot do it "nine times a night." It has to do with something called "sperm competition" -- or, rather, the human lack of same. You can read about this in such places as Richard Dawkins's book _The Ancestor's Tale_, pp. 203-211, and (with a more gruesome side quest into infanticide among monkeys) in Matt Ridley's _The Red Queen_, pp. 213-226.
Dawkins, p. 210, has an interesting little graph, of the ratio of body mass to testes mass in primates -- in effect, of how much sperm each species produces. The interesting thing about this ratio is that the species above average all engage in extremely high levels of sexual activity. Ridley's numbers: "a female gorilla will mate about ten times for every baby that is born [whereas] a female chimp will mate five hundred to a thousand times" (p. 217)
This correlates closely with behavior. Male gorillas, which have small testes and low sperm production, keep harems of (if they're lucky) six or so females. These harems are stable; the female will have no other mate while part of one. So the male doesn't have to have much sperm; if the female get pregnant, he knows he's the father.
It's very different in chimpanzees. Male chimps have been observed to murder the offspring of a female who has not mated with them. The only way for the female to prevent this is to mate with as many male chimps as possible, so that all the males might be the father of her child. So the males inevitably have evolved to produce as much sperm as possible in order to try to out-reproduce everyone else. Fatherhood, for chimps, is partly a matter of luck -- but partly a matter of being able to really take advantage of opportunity when it's offered.
This has been shown in many other species. Gibbons are monogamous and have small testes. Monkeys have all sorts of sexual patterns, with sperm production correlating with the number of partners.
Humans -- well, on the graph they are on the low end of the scale. Not as low as gorillas, but definitely among the species that don't engage significantly in sperm competition. That doesn't necessarily mean that we are meant to be monogamous, but it *does* imply fixed pair bonds -- if not lifelong monogamy, then at least something like (polygamous) marriage or serial marriage: Any male "expects" to have near-exclusive access to a female at the time she conceives. So there is no advantage to a male in doing it "nine times a night"; if the first one or two don't do it, the woman probably is at the wrong time of her cycle to conceive.
The conclusion is somewhat ironic: If women want men able to do it "nine times a night," they have to share their favors around a lot more. And, in that case, they wouldn't *need* someone capable of "nine times a night"; they just need the ability to attract lots of men.
And, yes, I know full well I'm spoiling the song....
As for the actual statistics, Olivia Judson's _Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation_ (I use the 2003 Owl Books edition -- and, for all those of you with dirty minds, this is a book about evolutionary biology, even though it's written as a spoof sex guide), p. 31, notes that the typical human male stores sperm equivalent to one and a half ejaculations. So if Jack really did manage five times in one night, he had three times the average male capacity. - RBW

File: RcNinNig
===
NAME: Nine-Thirteen Men, The
DESCRIPTION: "A famous oldtime racing crew... rowed the old 'Blue Peter' in the time of nine-thirteen." They set a record in the Regatta Day race on Quidi Vidi Lake. The singer wishes "those men of nine-thirteen," who are listed, will "ferry souls where Jordan rolls"
AUTHOR: "L.E.F. English, O.B.E."
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Blondahl)
KEYWORDS: racing sports moniker
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Blondahl, pp. 116-117, "The Nine-Thirteen Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Blondahl: "The 'BLUE PETER' made her record 'voyage' across Quidi Vidi Lake (pond), St John's, during the summer Regatta of 1901; her time of 9 minutes 13 4/5 seconds has never been surpassed, or even equalled." - BS
File: Blon116
===
NAME: Ninety-Eight
DESCRIPTION: "Ho! cease our mourning." The victories and defeats of 1798 are recalled. "Let the strife renew ... No longer dally, wake up and rally... What if defeated? Death comes -- then greet it -- Why all must meet it, aye, soon or late."
AUTHOR: "Ned of the Hill" (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1898 (according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion death nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 74, "Ninety-Eight" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Cappa Hill" (tune)
cf. "Anach Cuain" (tune)
NOTES: The "Ned of the Hill" is of course not Edmond O'Ryan, the hero of the song of that name, who died a century before 1798.
The timing of this call for rebellion is strange; by 1898, Irish nationalism had gone relatively quiet, and Gladstone had made his first attempts to pass Home Rule (though they had failed and cost the Liberals control of the British parliament). But, of course, there were always die-hards. - RBW
File: Moyl074
===
NAME: Ninety-Nine Blue Bottles: see Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer (File: R456)
===
NAME: Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer
DESCRIPTION: Need I really tell you? "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, Ninety-nine bottles of beer, Take one down and pass it around, Ninety-eight bottles of beer...." And so on, ad nauseum, drunkenness, or exhaustion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 456, "Ninety-Nine Blue Bottles" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 190, "Ninety-Nine Blue Bottles" (1 text)
DT, BOT99*
Roud #7603
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Eight Little Cylinders" (counting)
cf. "Ten Little Injuns" (counting)
NOTES: Randolph's and Brown's texts, obviously, refers to "blue bottles" rather than "bottles of beer"; might this be an attempt to clean up the song for a temperate audience?
I will admit amazement that neither Randolph nor Brown seems to know this in its common form -- but then, they probably were born in the days before school buses took students on field trips. - RBW
File: R456
===
NAME: Ninety-Nine Years (I)
DESCRIPTION: Singer, while gambling, thinks about how the woman he loves ran away with another man. He kills him (or her), is arrested and imprisoned. He has served forty years, but "still has ninety-nine." When the train rolls by with the woman he loves, he cries
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Jess Hillard)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer sits down to gamble, thinking about how the woman he loves has run away with another man. He does something (kills her? kills her lover?), is arrested, tried and sentenced to prison. He has served forty years, but "still has ninety-nine." When the train rolls by with the woman he loves, he hangs his head and cries
KEYWORDS: grief jealousy infidelity love violence crime homicide prison punishment trial lover prisoner
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Callahan Brothers, "Ninety-Nine's My Name" (Perfect 7-04-63, 1937)
Graham Bros. "Ninety Nine Years [pts. 1 & 2]" (Victor 23654, 1932) 2/23/32
Jess Hillard, "Ninety-Nine Years" (Champion 16398, 1932; Champion 45091, c. 1935; rec. 1931) (Champion 16617, 1933; rec. 1932)
Steve Ledford & Donald Nicholson w. Carolina Ramblers String Band, "Ninety-Nine Years" (Perfect 12787, 1932)
[Asa] Martin & [Bob] Roberts, "Ninety-Nine Years"  (Banner 32426/Melotone M-12436/Perfect 12799/Vocalion 5486 [as Glen Fox & Joe Wilson]/Conqueror 7967, 1932)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner [Mac and Bob] "Ninety-Nine Years, Parts1 & 2" (Brunswick 588, 1932)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio, "Ninety Nine Years" (Banner 32609/Melotone 12520, 1932)
Vagabonds, "Ninety Nine Years" (Victor 23820/Bluebird B-5282/Montgomery Ward M-4307, 1933)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2]" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Elton Britt, "The Answer to 99 Years" (Conqueror 8288, 1934)
NOTES: There is another song with the same title; that one can be identified by its opening lines, "The courtroom was crowded/The judge waited there" and by the line "Ninety-nine years, boys, is almost for life." - PJS
File: Rc99Year
===
NAME: No Balls at All
DESCRIPTION: A young maiden weds a man with no balls at all.  Her mother advises her to seek comfort from a young man.  She does, and a "bouncing young baby was born in the fall to the wife of the man who had no balls at all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1918
KEYWORDS: baby bawdy humorous husband wife
FOUND_IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Cray, pp. 158-162, "No Balls at All" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman II, pp. 677-678, "No Balls at All" (1 text)
DT, NOBALLS*
Roud #10136
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singers, "No Balls at All" [two versions, by different singers] (on Unexp1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "An Old Man Came Over the Moor (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
cf. "Maids, When You're Young"
cf. "My Husband's Got No Courage in Him"
cf. "What Can a Young Lassie"
cf. "The Mormon Cowboy (II)"
cf. ""The Strawberry Roan" (tune, some versions)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
No Hips at All (marginally cleaned-up version)
NOTES: This is one of a large group of traditional songs and ballads dealing with May-December marriages. - EC
File: EM158
===
NAME: No Bread for the Poor: see The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)
===
NAME: No Depression in Heaven
DESCRIPTION: Singer describes the Great Depression in apocalyptic terms, predicting the end of the world. He says he is going to heaven where there's no Depression.
AUTHOR: J. D. Vaughan, according to Bill C. Malone, _Don't Get above Your Raisin'_
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (recording, Carter Family); reportedly written 1932
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 116, "No Depression in Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 227, "No Depression in Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "No Depression in Heaven" (Decca 5242, 1936; Montgomery Ward 8006 [as "No Depression"], 1939)
Charlie Monroe & his Kentucky Pardners, "There's No Depression in Heaven" (RCA Victor 20-2055, 1946)
New Lost City Ramblers, "No Depression in Heaven" (on NLCR09, NLCRCD1)
SAME_TUNE:
No Disappointment in Heaven (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
NOTES: The Great Depression is generally considered to have extended from the stock market crash of 1929 to the beginning of World War II in 1939. However, it is worth noting that conditions for farmers had already been depressed for several years before this. [Due in part to the revival of European agriculture after World War I. In Minnesota, the political side effects are still felt to some extent today, in the relative strength of third party politics.]
This is a reworking of the hymn "No Disappointment in Heaven". - PJS
File: ADR116
===
NAME: No Hidin'-Place: see No Hiding Place AND Sinner Man (File: FSWB370C)
===
NAME: No Hiding Place
DESCRIPTION: "There's no hiding place down there (x2), I ran to the rock to hide my face, The rock cried out, 'no hiding place.'" "The rock cried out, 'I'm burning too... I want to go to heaven the same as you." "Sinner man he stumbled and fell...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Hell
FOUND_IN: US(SE) Bahamas
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 616, "No Hidin'-Place" (2 texts, but the "B" text appears to be "Sinner Man")
Silber-FSWB, p. 370, "No Hiding Place" (1 text)
Roud #3408
RECORDINGS:
Marian Anderson, "Dere's No Hidin' Place Down Dere" [medley with "Every Time I Feel the Spirit"] (Victor 2032, 1940)
Carter Family, "There's No Hiding Place Down Here" (Montgomery Ward M-4547, 1935)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "There's No Hiding Place Down Here" (Victor 27472, 1941)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "There's No Hiding Place Down Here" (Conqueror 9695, 1941)
David Pryor et al, "Time" (AAFS 505 A1, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
NOTES: I am slightly hesitant about including the recording of "Time" under this title. However, it has the recurrent verse, "I went to the rock...The rock cried out 'No hiding place,'" which is close enough for me. - PJS
File: FSWB370C
===
NAME: No Irish Need Apply
DESCRIPTION: "I'm a decent boy just landed From the town of Ballyfad; I want a situation, yes, And want it very bad." He applies for various jobs, but is told time and again, "No Irish need apply." (At last he attacks one of the bosses and gains a job)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: emigration discrimination Ireland nonballad work fight
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Dean, p. 65, "No Irish Wanted Here" (1 text)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 41-42, "No Irish Need Apply" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 364-366, "No Irish Need Apply" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 292, "No Irish Need Apply" (1 text)
DT, NOIRISH*
Roud #1137
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "No Irish Need Apply" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a, AmHist1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "An Irish Laborer" (subject)
cf. "The Honest Irish Lad" (subject)
cf. "What Irish Boys Can Do" (subject)
NOTES: This is a bit of a conundrum, because this song seems to occur in two fairly distinct forms, which we might call "No Irish Need Apply" and "No Irish Wanted Here." In many of the former versions, the Irishman attacks the prejudiced employer. In some of the latter, there is none of that; the worker appeals to the work the Irish did in the Civil War to save the Union.
I was seriously tempted to split the two. But they have common lyrics; while I suspect a deliberate rewrite somewhere along the line, it is not really possible to tell where to draw the line. - RBW
File: DTnoris
===
NAME: No Irish Wanted Here: see No Irish Need Apply (File: DTnoris)
===
NAME: No Letter in the Mail
DESCRIPTION: Singer hasn't received an answer to his love-letter. He has written that he was wrong and to blame, and that he loves her truly. He walks down the road, saying if he doesn't get a letter in the mail, he'll "bid this world goodbye"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (recording, Happy-Go-Lucky Boys)
KEYWORDS: loneliness love abandonment suicide lover
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #11577
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "No Letter in the Mail" (Conqueror 9810, 1941/OKeh 06585, 1942)
Happy-Go-Lucky Boys, "No Letter in the Mail Today" (Bluebird B-8467, 1940)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "No Letter in the Mail" (Bluebird B-8611, 1941)
Martin Young & Corbett Grigsby, "No Letter in the Mail" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Letter that Never Came" (theme)
File: RcNLITM
===
NAME: No More Auction Block: see Many Thousand Gone (Auction Block) (File: FJ030)
===
NAME: No More Booze (Fireman Save My Child)
DESCRIPTION: "There was a little man... He went to the Saloon on a Sunday afternoon And you ought to heard the bartender holler, No more booze... No more booze on Sunday... Got to get your can filled on Monday. She's the only girl I love.... O fireman, save my child."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: drink nonsense
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Sandburg, pp. 208-209, "No More Booze (Fireman Save My Child)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NOBOOZE*
RECORDINGS:
Radio Mac [pseud. for Harry McClintock], "Fireman Save My Child" (Victor V-40234, 1930)
File: San208
===
NAME: No More Cane on this Brazos: see Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos (File: LxA058)
===
NAME: No More Shall I Work in the Factory
DESCRIPTION: "When I set out for Lowell, some factory for to find, I left my native country And all my friends behind." The worker lives a life driven by the factory bell. She plans to leave the factory and go home. She will soon be married and live a freer life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (JAF Vol. 28)
KEYWORDS: work worker hardtimes home weaving factory technology
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 122-124, "The Lowell Factory Girl" (1 text); pp. 125-126, "No More Shall I Work in the Factory" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 331-332, "The Factory Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 128, "The Factory Girl" (1 text)
DT, NOMOFACT
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "A Laundry Song" (lyrics)
NOTES: The oldest version of this song seems to be the "Lowell Factory Girl" text quoted in the description; this broadside is very full. Greenway believes this version originated before 1840; the wages mentioned fit 1830, and the Panic of 1837 killed off many of the small New England farms, meaning that the factory girl would have no home to which to return.
The localized "Lowell Factory Girl" gradually spread and generalized, producing the more universal text "No More Shall I Work in the Factory." As the latter consists almost entirely of verses found in the former, however, they can surely be considered one song.
This should not be confused with the J. A. Phillips song "The Factory Girl" (c. 1895), which begins, "She wasn't the least bit pretty, And only the least bit gay." - RBW
File: Grnw122
===
NAME: No More, My Lord
DESCRIPTION: "No more, my Lord (x2), Lord, I'll never turn back no more." "I found in him a resting place And he has made me glad." "Jesus is the man I am looking for, Can you tell me where he's gone?" "Go down, go down in the floweryard And... you may find him...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
BrownIII 567, "Gwine Down to Jordan" (1 short text); 617, "No More! No More!" (1 short text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 15, (no title; the first line is "I'm gwine down to Jordan -- Hallelu!") (1 fragment, which could be anything; I'm filing it here in desperation based on the similarity to Brown's title)
Scott-BoA, pp. 312-313, "No More, My Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15975
RECORDINGS:
Jimpson, "No More, My Lord" (LoC, 1947; on Babylon)
Sister Marie Knight, "I'll Never Turn Back No More" (Candy 4002, n.d. but post-World War II)
NOTES: According to the editors of Brown, this may have inspired W. C. Handy's "I'll Never Turn Back No More." - RBW
File: SBoA312
===
NAME: No More! No More!: see No More, My Lord (File: SBoA312)
===
NAME: No Room at the Inn (I)
DESCRIPTION: "When Caesar Augustus had raised a taxation, He assessed all the people that dwelt in the nation." Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem, but cannot find a place at the inn. They eventually find a stable, where Jesus is born
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1833 (Sandys)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible Jesus Christmas childbirth
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OBC 114, "No Room at the Inn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 374, "No Room at the Inn" (1 text)
NOTES: I find it hard to believe that this is actually a traditional song; the wording is too ornate and contorted.
The details in this song are either fictional or derived from Luke 2; the birth narrative in Matthew plays no part. Of course, we should also note that the account in Luke 2 is incorrect; there is no record of this particular census, and even if there had been such a census (possible, given the available documentation, but unlikely), the Romans would not allow such a mess in a frontier province threatened with Parthian invasion. - RBW
File: FSWB374A
===
NAME: No Room at the Inn (II)
DESCRIPTION: Song/story -- Mary and Joseph find no room at the inn; the staff treats them haughtily. They return to the stable holding their mule; the animals treat them better than humans had, making room for Mary to give birth, breathing on Jesus to keep him warm
AUTHOR: Song segment unknown; story by Vera Ward Hall
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (interview with Vera Ward Hall)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness poverty travel childbirth Bible religious animal family Jesus
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #13974
RECORDINGS:
Vera Ward Hall, "No Room at the Inn" (on LomaxCD1706)
NOTES: It probably need not be pointed out that the account of Jesus's birth in Luke (the source for all the incidents mentioned) does not say that the staff of the inn in Bethlehem mistreated Mary and Joseph; it merely says there was no room there.
The behavior of the animals in the stable is equally fictitious; the Lukan account not only doesn't mention animals, it doesn't even explicitly mention a stable! We call it a stable simply because it contained a "manger" (though the Greek word, phatne, feed-trough, sometimes extends to mean a stable). - RBW
File: RcNRATI2
===
NAME: No Room for a Tramp: see Willy, Poor Boy (File: CSW112)
===
NAME: No Sign of a Marriage [Laws P3]
DESCRIPTION: The girl says she has been waiting long enough for marriage. Her sweetheart, who thinks marriage too "confining," suggests she find someone else. She does, and invites him to her wedding. He tries to talk her out of the marriage, but it is too late
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding infidelity rejection
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So) Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Laws P3, "No Sign of a Marriage"
Ord, pp. 83-84, "The Tardy Wooer" (1 text)
Randolph 111, "Polly and Willie" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Warner 149, "Indeed Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 203, "No Sign of a Marriage" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 542-544, "A Lad and a Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 725, NOSIGN
Roud #582
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Pretty Polly
NOTES: This is another of the pieces that Laws assigns to Britain on little evidence (there is a mention of a promise of "five hundred pounds"). The only versions known to Laws or the editors of the Brown collection are the two North Carolina texts in Brown.
It may be, however, that this was an error in the printed edition of Laws, because there *is* a British equivalent in "The Tardy Wooer." I initially split these following Laws -- but in fact they even share lyrics, and so are now lumped. - RBW
File: LP03
===
NAME: No Sir! (No Sir!): see No, John, No (File: R385)
===
NAME: No Surrender (I)
DESCRIPTION: The song is about the breaking of the seige of Derry. "Walker's zeal, and Murray's steel Came in their need to cheer them, And sallies from open gate, Soon taught their foe to fear them" The Defenders held the city until relieved by "Browning's vessel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle rescue death starvation patriotic youth
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jul 28, 1689 - Browning's ships break the 105 day seige of Derry (source: Kilpatrick [see Notes])
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 5, "No Surrender" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject: The Siege of Derry) and references there
NOTES: OrangeLark: "'No Surrender' is a phrase often used in Ulster. The song traces its origin to the Seige of Derry and names a few of the city's defenders who have been memorialized in Apprentice Boys Clubs." The chorus is "Then raise the cheer, to freemen dear, And toast each brave defender; For nought imparts to Derry hearts A thrill like 'No Surrender!'"
See Historical References to "The Boyne Water" for a summary of the war in Ireland between James II and William of Orange. [Or see the detailed duscussions under "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" and "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." - RBW]
The Protestant Plantation of Ulster was created after the 1607 "Flight of the Earls" -- heads of the Ulster clans -- to Rome allowed James I to declare their lands forfeit to the Crown. In the Plantation, the City of Londonderry was fortified and gated walls built around it. When James II brought troops from Ireland [to England,] Londonderry was left unguarded. On December 7, 1688, Lord Antrim's Catholic "Redshanks" camped outside the city. With the city government undecided as to how to handle the situation, thirteen young "Apprentice Boys" seized the gate keys, drew up the drawbridge and locked the four gates. Antrim's troops withdrew. Lord Mountjoy's Protestant regiment was allowed to garrison the city. To escape the war, residents surrounding areas flooded into the city. Reinforcements sent by William to relieve Derry in April turned away. Then James's attempt at negotiating with Derry failed. Colonel Murray led Protestant troops to the gate, which was opened for them, and the Derry government, which had been willing to negotiate with James, was overturned. Reverend George Walker and Colonel Henry Baker were appointed joint Governors. The seige began "in earnest" on May 5, 1689. On July 28 three ships on the Foyle broke the seige bringing food; captain of the Mountjoy was Michael Browning, who was killed in the battle. The beseigers left on August 1, 1689. (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Seige of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site) - BS
File: OrLa005
===
NAME: No Surrender (II)
DESCRIPTION: "Behold the crimson banner float" recalling "when Derry's sons ... sung out, 'No Surrender!'" and "her 'Prentice hearts the gate who barred" "Long may that crimson banner wave ... while Derry's sons alike defy Pope, Traitor, or Pretender"
AUTHOR: Lieut. Colonel William Blacker (1777-1853)(written 1817, source: Sparling)
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1895 (Graham)
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland patriotic youth
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES:  Dec 7, 1688 - The "Apprentice Boys" close the Londonderry gates against Lord Antrim's "Redshanks" (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Seige of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site)
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Graham, p. 3, "No Surrender" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 451-452, 495-496, "No Surrender"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "No Surrender (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject) and references there
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Crimson Banner
NOTES: The chorus ("Then here's to the boys that fear no noise And never will surrender, The gates we'll close against her foes On Eighteenth of December") uses the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date, adding eleven days to the anniversary of December 7, 1688.
"This fraternity [The Apprentice Boys Of Derry] celebrates twice anually. This happens first at the "Closing of the Gates". Later comes the "Relief of Derry" parade .... The flag of the Apprentice Boys is a crimson banner, representing the blood that flowed in Derry for freedom and liberty. The Crimson banner is flown from the Memorial Hall in the city and from St Columb's Cathedral, which was built before the siege." (Source: Wikipedia article _Apprentice Boys of Derry_)
Sparling: "Written to a very fine old Irish melody (Joyce, p. 83)...."  I don't recognize Graham's tune.  "Joyce" is P.W. Joyce and the book _Ancient Irish Music_ (Sparling, p. xxvii, refers to the 1878 edition. - BS
For the background of the Siege of (London)derry, see the notes to "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry"; also "No Surrender (I)". Blacker, in addition to this song, wrote the very well known "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." - RBW
File: Grah003
===
NAME: No to be Married Ava
DESCRIPTION: "Our Girzie was noo thirty-six, Though some rather more did her ca', And ane quite sae auld to get married Has little or nae chance ava." The old maid finds herself teased, and desperately offers to wed any man, whatever his faults, rather than stay unwed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid courting husband
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 308-310, "No to be Married Ava" (1 text)
Roud #7161
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
File: FVS308
===
NAME: No Use to Rattle the Blind
DESCRIPTION: This song is part of a cante-fable in which the wife warns her lover that the husband is at home by singing a song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy nightvisit husband wife infidelity
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 342-345, "No Use to Rattle the Blind" (3 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES: This plot first appears in 1353 in Boccaccio's _Decameron_, Day VII, Tale I. It is Type 1419H in the Aarne-Thompson inex "Types of the Folktale" (Helsinki, 1961). - EC, RBW
Legman gives extensive notes to the folktale and cante-fable in Randolph-Legman I. - EC
File: RL342
===
NAME: No-e in the Ark: see Who Built the Ark? (File: RcWBTA)
===
NAME: No, John, No
DESCRIPTION: The man asks the girl if she will marry. She informs him that her father has told her to answer all men's questions "No." After several exchanges, he asks something like "Do you refuse to marry me? Do you want me to leave?" She, of course, answers "No."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: courting questions rejection
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,So) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Randolph 385, "No Sir! No Sir!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy 48, "No, Sir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 138, "No Sir" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 14, "No, Sir" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 98, "'No, Sir, No!'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, p. 81, "No, Sir; No" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 68, "O No, John!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 161, "Uh-Uh, No" (1 text, 1 tune, probably with more than a little of "Wheel of Fortune" mixed in)
Silber-FSWB, p. 345, "No John" (1 text)
BBI, ZN2244, "Pretty Betty, now come to me" (?)
DT, ONOJOHN*
Roud #146
RECORDINGS:
Ron & Bob Copper, "No, John, No" (on FSB1)
Sam Larner, "No Sir, No Sir" (on SLarner02)
Pete Seeger, "No Sir No" (on PeteSeeger14)
Stoneman Family, "The Spanish Merchant's Daughter" (Victor V-40206, 1928; on AAFM3)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Keys of Canterbury"
cf. "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)"
cf. "The Nonsense of Men" (theme)
File: R385
===
NAME: No, My Boy, Not I: see Oh, No, Not I (File: DTmarryn)
===
NAME: No, Never, No
DESCRIPTION: "They sat by the fireside, his fair daughters three, They talked of their father who sailed on the sea." Each list the gift she will give if he never again goes to sea. But he dies in a storm. Each verse ends with the phrase, "No, never, no."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Heart Songs)
KEYWORDS: death drowning gift father children sailor separation
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 556-557, "No, Never, No" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BNEF556
===
NAME: No, No, Never: see Wild Rover No More (File: MA069)
===
NAME: Noah Built the Ark
DESCRIPTION: "Noah built his ark and he built it on the ground, the Lord sent a flood and turned it around. The door flew open and the beasts walked in." The story of the Flood, with chorus, "And I cannot stay away, my Lord, And I cannot stay away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Bible ship flood religious
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', p. 212, "Noah Built the Ark" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Uncle Noah" (subject) and references there
NOTES: For background on the Noah story, see the notes to "Old Uncle Noah."
This may be related to one of the other Noah songs, but it's short enough that it's hard to tell.. - RBW
File: ThBa212
===
NAME: Noah, Noah: see Old Uncle Noah (File: E075)
===
NAME: Noah's Ark (I)
DESCRIPTION: Floating spiritual verses, most of which refer to inequities between the rich and the poor and the inevitability of death. Refrain refers to Noah and the ark but most of the verses don't mention it at all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: death nonballad playparty religious
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 36, "Noah's Ark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3639
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Let the Dove Come In" (lyrics)
cf. "All My Trials" (lyrics)
cf. "De Fust Banjo (The Banjo Song; The Possum and the Banjo; Old Noah)" (theme)
File: WB2036
===
NAME: Noah's Ark (II): see Old Uncle Noah (File: E075)
===
NAME: Noble Duke of York, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Noble Duke of York, He had (ten) thousand men, He marched them up to the top of the hill And he marched them down again. And when they were up, they were up, And when they were down they were down...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1894 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: army nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
BrownIII 99, "The Duke of York" (1 text)
Opie-Oxford2 549, "Oh, the brave old Duke of York" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #201, p. 138, "(Oh, the brave old Duke of York)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 390, "The Noble Duke of York" (1 text)
ST FSWB390B (Full)
Roud #742
NOTES: Since the Dukedom of York is usually bestowed upon the Prince of Wales's oldest brother, or other fairly senior prince, there have been a lot of them in history, and many of them important. This makes it hard to guess which Duke of York (if any) might be the subject of this little satire. I've seen suggestions over the years, but not one was convincing enough for me to remember it until I had to write this entry.
The standard suggestion seems to be that it was Frederick Augustus (1763-1827), second son of George III, who was made a soldier in spite of a clear lack of ability in this department. The Baring-Goulds even specify the hill as Mount Cassel in Belgium. But even they admit the rhyme does not resemble actual events.
In any case, I can imagine candidates going back all the way to Richard, Duke of York from 1415.
(The Shakespeare characterization of that York, it should be noted, is all wrong. He *was* rightful King of England, but he never sought the throne until Margaret of Anjou forced him to do so. Hence a sufficiently anti-Lancastrian partisan could have mocked him for his hesitation.)
Gomme describes this as the music for a game, "Find the Ring."
There is a nursery rhyme, "The King of France went up the hill" (Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #209, p. 144) which looks as if it might be a parody of this. - RBW
File: FSWB390B
===
NAME: Noble Duke, The [Laws N15]
DESCRIPTION: A girl's lover has been pressed to sea. She carefully disguises herself as a duke -- with such success that the ship's crew is afraid of her. She accuses her lover of robbery. He denies it. She reveals herself, and there is a happy reunion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: pressgang cross-dressing ship trick reunion disguise
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws N15, "The Noble Duke"
SHenry H584, p. 331, "The True Lovers' Departure" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 803, NOBLDUKE*
Roud #238
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Simple Ploughboy
The Pretty Ploughboy
File: LN15
===
NAME: Noble Fisherman, The, or, Robin Hood's Preferment [Child 148]
DESCRIPTION: Robin goes to sea as a fisherman. He is scoffed at as a lubber, but when the fishing vessel is approached by a French ship of war his prowess with the bow permits the fishermen to take it and its cargo of gold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1631 (Stationer's Register)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood ship battle
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 148, "The Noble Fisherman, or, Robin Hood's Preferment" (1 text)
Bronson 148, comments only
OBB 124, "The Noble Fisherman or Robin Hood's Preferment" (1 text)
BBI, RZN15, "In summer time when leaves grow green"
Roud #3958
NOTES: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. - RBW
File: C148
===
NAME: Noble Fleet of Sealers, A
DESCRIPTION: "There's a noble band of sealers being fitted for the ice, They'll take a chance again this year though fat's gone down in price...." The ships set out to take the seal. When they get back to St. John's, the sailors hope for good luck and good food
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (Doyle)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship travel
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 162-164, "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, pp. 10-11, "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 74-75, "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small, pp. 114-115, "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FMB162 (Partial)
Roud #4530
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ferryland Sealer"
cf. "The Old Polina" (tune)
NOTES: This song bears many resemblances, in the first verse and the melodic pattern, to "The Ferryland Sealer" -- which also derives from eastern Canada. But this piece has a different chorus, and the latter verses are different, so I tentatively distinguish them. - RBW
File: FMB162
===
NAME: Noble Man, The: see A Gentleman of Exeter (The Perjured Maid) [Laws P32] (File: LP32)
===
NAME: Noble Ribbon Boys, The
DESCRIPTION: "It was on the first of May, my boys, in the year of thirty-one," 63 Ribbonmen went to the commons to fight Billies. On June 5 300 marched unchallenged to the commons. A health is drunk to those in jail and the "Manual and Platoon ... secrecy" is cited.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1831 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 39, "The Noble Ribbon Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 19: "In some parts of Ulster, Protestant and Catholic tenants were mingled and contended for the land; the peasantry was thus divided into two camps, each having its oath-bound association. This led to a sort of religious war. At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen." The "Defenders were succeeded by the "Ribbonmen," (song [Zimmermann] 39). In parts of counties Tyrone and Monaghan, according to Carleton [p. 19 fn. 14: W. Carleton's _Autobiography_, p. 83], the whole Catholic population was affiliated to Ribbonism, and it would have been dangerous to avoid being involved in the system." Zimmermann 34, "Owen Rooney's Lamentation": "My prosecutor swore so stout I was the man he saw, That encouraged all the Ribbonmen that came from Lisbellaw." 
Zimmermann: "The 'Billies' were the Orangemen, whose hero was William of Orange." - BS
For another song of the Defenders and Peep o' Day Boys, see "Bold McDermott Roe." For other songs of the Ulster conflicts of this period, see "The Battle That Was Fought in the North," "Owen Rooney's Lamentation, "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan," and possibly "March of the Men of Garvagh." - RBW
File: Zimm039
===
NAME: Noble Skewball, The: see Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)
===
NAME: Nobleman and Thrasher, The: see Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)
===
NAME: Nobleman, A
DESCRIPTION: "A nobleman lived in a mansion, And he courted his own serving maid." He bursts into her bedroom and tries to seduce her. She refuses his advances; she fears pregnancy. He promises to care for her in that case. She refuses again; he marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1985 (recording, Cathie Stewart)
KEYWORDS: courting nobility rejection clothes marriage servant
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #6326
RECORDINGS:
Cathie Stewart, "A Nobleman" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broom of Cowdenknows" [Child 217] (plot) and references there
NOTES: Somewhat reminiscent of the story of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. Edward, who couldn't see a pretty girl without trying to get into bed with her, attempted to seduce the blonde widow of Sir John Grey, but she allegedly said that she was not good enough to be his wife, but too good to be his mistress. So he married her -- to the great detriment of England, sine the marriage arguably added two more phases to the Wars of the Roses (by irritating the Earl of Warwick, which caused the unrest of 1470-1471, and because Edward, when he died in 1483, left only a teenage son with impossibly grasping relatives as his heir, leading to the usurpation or Richard III).
Of course, no one really knows if Elizabeth Woodville said that, and even if she did, it's probably too early to have inspired this song, since Edward and Elizabeth married in 1464. - RBW
File: RcANoble
===
NAME: Nobleman's Daughter, The: see Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II) [Laws N17] (File: LN17)
===
NAME: Nobleman's Wedding, The (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31]
DESCRIPTION: A man disguises himself to attend the wedding of the girl he loved before he went away. He sings a song that reminds her of her unfaithfulness and promises to return her love token. She swoons and returns to her mother's home. She dies before morning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (Petrie)
KEYWORDS: disguise wedding infidelity death grief hardheartedness jealousy love marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Laws P31, "The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token)"
Belden, pp. 165-166, "The Faultless Bride" (1 text)
SharpAp 105, "The Awful Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H60a, pp. 400-401, "An Old Lover's Wedding"; H60b, p. 401, "The Laird's Wedding" (2 texts, 2 tune, the second mixed with "All Around My Hat")
Ord, pp. 132-133, "The Unconstant Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 164, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 1, "Another Man's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 158-159, "Green Willow" (1 text, probably this piece though not so listed by Laws)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 75, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 691-697, "Nobleman's Wedding" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 30, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 142-143, "To Wear a Green Willow" (1 text)
DT 509, NOBELWED
ST LP31 (Partial)
Roud #567
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Another Man's Wedding" (on Voice06, IREButcher01)
Sara Cleveland, "To Wear a Green Willow" (on SCleveland01)
Maude Thacker, "The Famous Wedding" (on FolkVisions1 -- a very confused version)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Green Willow Tree
NOTES: According to Hazlitt's _Dictionary of Faiths & Folklore_, to wear the willow meant that one had been forsaken by a lover.
Norman Ault's _Elizabethan Lyrics_ claims that the first mention of wearing green willow comes in a poem by John Heywood: "All a green willow, willow, willow, All a green willow is my garland." The manuscript, BM Add. 15233, is dated c. 1545. We also find the notion in Shakespeare's "Othello," IV.iii, and in Salisbury's "Buen Matina" (1597).
Roud lumps this with "All Around My Hat." That's *really* a stretch. - RBW
The "Awful Wedding" subgroup ("I'll tell you of an awful wedding"), despite the similarity in titles, is *not* "The Fatal Wedding." - PJS, RBW
File: LP31
===
NAME: Nobody Cares for Me: see I Wish I Was a Little Bird (Nobody Cares for Me) (File: San338)
===
NAME: Nobody Coming to Marry Me: see My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me) (File: BrII185)
===
NAME: Nobody Knows
DESCRIPTION: The singer complains of being misunderstood: "Nobody knows how heavy my load, Nobody knows how thorny my road, Nobody knows cares if I'm troubled in the way, How dark the night, how dark the day." Only Jesus, who understands, will help
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Warner 171, "Nobody Knows" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa171 (Partial)
Roud #7488
RECORDINGS:
Sue Thomas, "Nobody Knows" (on USWarnerColl01)
NOTES: As Warner notes, this is NOT "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen." - RBW
File: Wa171
===
NAME: Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
DESCRIPTION: "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, Nobody knows but Jesus." "Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down, Oh, yes, Lord, Sometimes I'm almost to the ground...." The rest of the song describes the singer's life, usually in spiritual terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1865 (diary of William Francis Allen; printed 1867)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
BrownIII 615, "Nobody Knows" (1 short text)
Arnett, p. 110, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, p. 97, "Nobody Knows" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 358, "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen" (1 text)
Fuld, pp. 391-391+, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen"
DT, NBDYKNWS
Roud #5438
RECORDINGS:
A. W. Adams, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (OKeh 8361, 1926)
Marian Anderson, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" (Victor 19560, 1925; rec. 1924)
Louis Armstrong, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (Decca 2085, 1938)
Mildred Bailey w. Alec Wilder, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (Columbia 35348, 1939)
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (Conqueror 8360, 1934; rec. 1931)
Vernon Dalhart, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (Edison [BA] 3470, 1918)
Elkins Sacred Singers, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (Cameo 830, 1925)
Excelsior Quartet, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (OKeh 4636, 1922)
Fisk University Jubilee Singers, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (Rainbow 724, c. 1922)
Caroline & May Floyd, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I See" (Champion 15103, 1926)
Jimmie Gordon's Vip Vop Band ("Nobody Knows the Trouble I See", Decca 7764, 1940; rec. 1939)
Musical Artists Quartet, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" (Columbia 1953-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Paramount Singers, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (Trilon 234, n.d. but probably c. 1939)
Paul Robeson, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" (Victor 20068, 1926)
Southernaires Male Quartet, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" (Decca 2859, 1939)
Edna Thomas, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I Sees" (Columbia 1863-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (Victor 18237, 1917; rec. 1915)
File: Arn110
===
NAME: Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls once living high, but is now broke; friends no longer come around. " If I ever get my hands on a dollar again/Gonna hold onto it till that eagle grins." " If I ever get back on my feet again/Everybody wants to be my long lost friend"
AUTHOR: probably Ida Cox - B. Feldman
EARLIEST_DATE: Jan. 1929 (recordings, Aunt Jemima Novelty Four & Pinetop Smith)
KEYWORDS: poverty drink hardtimes friend
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, DOWNOUT
Roud #18521
RECORDINGS:
Aunt Jemima Novelty Four, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Brunswick 7056, 1929)
Louis Jordan & his Tympani Five, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Decca 29018, 1954)
Julia Lee & her Boyfriends, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Capitol 1009, 1950; rec. 1947)
Bessie Smith, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Columbia 14451-D, 1929; Columbia 37577, 1947)
Pinetop Smith, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Vocalion 1256, 1929)
NOTES: There seems to be some uncertainty about the authorship of this piece; the Digital Tradition lists it as by "Jimmy Cox." Given that it came out in early 1929, it might almost have been an anthem for the Great Depressions -- except that hardly anyone could buy records then.
I was surprised at the lack of traditional collections. Maybe it's the unusual melody -- my traditionally-tuned voice finds it hard to follow the intervals despite hearing the songs many times. - RBW
File: RcNKYWYD
===
NAME: Nobody's Business
DESCRIPTION: Singer confesses to all sorts of infractions -- rambling, drinking, gambling -- but says it's "nobody's business if I do." He says he might even kill somebody; his girlfriend "runs a weenie stand..." and drives a Cadillac, but it's all nobody's business
AUTHOR: Porter Grainger, Clarence Williams, Graham Prince, Everett Robbins?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911 (JAFL)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer confesses to all sorts of infractions -- rambling, drinking, gambling -- but says it's "nobody's business if I do." He says he might even kill somebody; morphine, cocaine and women will drive him out of his mind; his money goes to buy his girlfriend fancy clothes; "she runs a weenie stand/way down in no man's land" and drives a Cadillac, but it's all nobody's business
KEYWORDS: sex homicide clothes gambling rambling drink nonballad whore
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Nobody's Business" (Vocalion 5230, 1927)
Jerry Behrens, "Nobody's Business" (OKeh 45564, 1932)
Warren Caplinger's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers, "Nobody's Business" (Brunswick 294, 1929; Brunswick [Canada] 224, 1928)
Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five, "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do" (Decca 27200, c. 1950)
Alberta Hunter, "T'ain't Nobody's Biz-ness" (Paramount 12018, 1923) 
Mississippi John Hurt, "Nobody's Dirty Business" (OKeh 8560, 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Ain't Nobody's Business" (OKeh 45092, 1927, on Rough2)
[Billy] Jones & [Ernest] Hare, "Nobody's Business" (CYL: Edison [BA] 5115, n.d.)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "It Ain't Nobody's Bizness" (OKeh 04962, 1939)
Sara Martin w. Fats Waller "'Tain't Nobody's Bus'ness If I Do" (OKeh 8043, 1923; rec. 1922)
Charles Nabell, "Nobody's Business" (OKeh 40389, 1925)
Riley Puckett, "Nobody's Business" (Bluebird B-6103, 1935; Bluebird B-8621, 1941)
Roy Sexton & his Arizona Hoedowners, "Nobody's Business" (Old Timer 8013, n.d.)
Bessie Smith, "Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do" (Columbia A3898, 1923)
Leo Soileau & his Aces, "Nobody's Business" (Decca 5101, 1935)
Walker's Corbin Ramblers, "Nobody's Business" (Vocalion 01648, 1934)
Lena Wilson, "Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do" (Victor 19085, 1923)
Jimmy Witherspoon, "Ain't Nobody's Business, Pts. 1 & 2" (Supreme 1506/Swing Time 263, 1947)
NOTES: This shouldn't be confused with Will E. Skidmore & Marshall Walker's 1919 "It's Nobody's Business But My Own," which concerned the extracurricular activities of a deacon. Skidmore and Walker copyrighted that song (and Bert Williams recorded it on Columbia A2750 the same year), but the JAF reference precedes that copyright, so it's likely they arranged and adapted a traditional piece. And, while I have not seen the sheet music to the copyrighted version, I strongly suspect it doesn't contain all the verses listed above. - PJS
File: RcNobBu1
===
NAME: Nobody's Darling: see Nobody's Darling on Earth (File: R723)
===
NAME: Nobody's Darling on Earth
DESCRIPTION: "I'm out in this bleak world alone, Walking about in the streets... Begging for something to eat." The orphan lost mother at a very young age. Now "I'm nobody's darling on earth; Heaven have mercy on me, For I'm nobody's darling, Nobody cares for me."
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST_DATE: 1870 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: orphan poverty hardtimes begging
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 723, "I'm Nobody's Darling on Earth" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 471-472, "I'm Nobody's Darling on Earth" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 723A)
Fife-Cowboy/West 56, "Red River Valley" (3 texts, 1 tune, the "B" text belonging here)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 21-23, "Nobody's Darling" (1 text, 1 tune, plus the sequel "They Say I Am Nobody's Darling")
Roud #4338
RECORDINGS:
Cumberland Ridge Runners, "Nobody's Darling" (Conqueror 8162, 1933)
Grayson & Whitter, "Nobody's Darling" (Gennett 6304/Champion 15395 [as by Greysen Thomas & Will Lotty ], 1928)
Kelly Harrell, "Nobody's Darling on Earth" (Victor 20657, 1927; on KHarrell02)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Nobody's Darling on Earth" (Bluebird B-6460, 1936)
Wade Mainer & Zeke Morris, "Nobody's Darling on Earth" (Bluebird B-6423 [as "Nobody's Darling but Mine"]/Montgomery Ward 5028, 1936)
North Carolina Ridge Runners, "Nobody's Darling" (Columbia 15650-D, 1931; rec. 1928; on LostProv1)
SAME_TUNE:
Gene Autry, "Answer to Nobody's Darling" (Melotone 6-08-51, 1936) (Conqueror 8685, 1936)
Gene Autry, "That's Why I'm Nobody's Darling" (Conqueror 8808, 1937)
Patsy Montana & the Prairie Ramblers, "Woman's Answer to Nobody's Darling" (Perfect 6-08-52/Conqueror 8655 [as Salty Holmes w. the Prairie Ramblers], 1936)
Tex Ritter, "Answer to Nobody's Darling But Mine" (Champion 45197, 1935)
NOTES: Note that the Autry and Montana recordings [in the "Same Tune" field] have successive catalog numbers, and both were "answer" songs to the main entry. The record company was clearly milking this song for all it was worth -- and getting fresh copyrights, to boot. - PJS
The Fifes consider their "Little Darling" text ("Come sit by my side, little darling, Come lay your cool hand on my brow, And promise me that you will never Be nobody's darling but Mine") to be a Red River Valley variant. As, however, the chorus does not fit the "Red River Valley" tune, and the rest of the words go with this piece, I classify it here.
Spaeth (in _Weep Some More_, pp. 40-41) has another piece, "Driven from Home," which has the same theme and some of the same words, but no chorus; I can't tell if it's the same or not, or if it's traditional. - RBW
I suspect, without having heard the recordings, that "Nobody's Darling But Mine" is a Same Tune variant. - PJS
File: R723
===
NAME: Noel Girl, The: see The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)
===
NAME: Nonsense of Men, The
DESCRIPTION: "I hate to be teased by the nonsense of men," so the girl accepts her mother's advice to always say "No" to men. But young piper Donnelly wins her heart; after many requests, "I mistook and said Yes!" She lives happily and advises others to say "Yes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection marriage
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H472, pp. 258-259, "The Nonsense of Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1459
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "No, John, No" (theme)
File: HHH472
===
NAME: Nonsense Saw
DESCRIPTION: Nonsense rhymes showing how to pronounce "Arkansas": "I love a girl from Arkansaw, Who can saw more wood than her Maw can saw." "I sing a saw Of maid I saw In Arkansaw." "Her maw can saw, Her paw can saw, And she can saw In Arkansaw."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Allsopp)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonsense wordplay nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 195-196, "Nonsense Saw" (2 texts)
ST FORA195 (Partial)
NOTES: Allsopp reports that there were problems in the 1840s with the pronunciation of "Arkansas." Hence this poem (or complex of poems). It's not clear that they were ever sung, but Allsopp reports that they were genuinely popular. - RBW 
File: FORA195
===
NAME: Noomanally  Shore, The: see The Eumerella Shore (File: MA155)
===
NAME: Nor Will I Sin
DESCRIPTION: "Nor will I sin by drinking gin And cider, too, will never do Nor brewer's beer my heart shall cheer Nor sparkling ale my face to pale. To quench my thirst I'll... bring Clean water from the well or spring... I pledge... hate To all that can intoxicate"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Pinesville Democrat)
KEYWORDS: drink promise
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 336, "Nor Will I Sin" (1 fragment)
Roud #7808
File: R336
===
NAME: Nora Daly
DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Nora Daly driving a donkey-cart on the way to the fair near Miltown Malbay. They part for fear of her father. "After years abroad sojourning" he returns to County Clare and they marry happily.
AUTHOR: Tomas O hAodha (Tom Hayes)(1866-1935) of Miltown Malbay (source: notes to IRClare01)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1974 (recording, Micho Russell)
KEYWORDS: love marriage return reunion separation father
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #8002
RECORDINGS:
Micho Russell, "Nora Daly" (on Voice01)
File: RcNoraDa
===
NAME: Nora Darling: see Barney McCoy (File: R776)
===
NAME: Nora McShane: see Norah McShane (File: HHH157)
===
NAME: Nora O'Neal
DESCRIPTION: "I'm lonely tonight, love without you... I love you dear Norah O'Neal." The singer's love he can never conceal. The nightingale's song reminds him of her. He says he will see her tomorrow; they will kiss. "I'll never be lonely again"
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST_DATE: 1869 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1269(158a)); reportedly composed 1866
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
O'Conor, p. 141, "Nora O'Neal" (1 text)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 63-64, "Norah O'Neale" (1 text)
Roud #4976
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(298)[some words illegible], "Norah O'Neal" ("Oh! I'm lonely to night, love, without you"), T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Harding B 11(3772), "Norah O'Neill"
LOCSinging, as109760, "Nora O'Neal," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NLScotland L.C.1269(158a), "Norah O'Neil," Poet's Box (address illegible), 1869
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Shamus O'Brien" (sequel to this song)
NOTES: Source: Re author -- "The Music of William Shakespeare Hays 1837-1907" on PD Music site. - BS
William Shakespeare Hays was of course an American (born and died in Kentucky), as songs such as "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" attest, so this song is obviously "stage Irish" -- and yet, it seems to appear almost entirely in Irish collections. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as109760: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon141
===
NAME: Norah: see Who Built the Ark? (File: RcWBTA)
===
NAME: Norah Darling: see Barney McCoy (File: R776)
===
NAME: Norah Darling, Don't Believe Them
DESCRIPTION: The singer must leave Norah "but I leave my heart with thee." He tells her not to forget him or to believe another suitor's "flattering wiles," "tale of love" or "treacherous whispers."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 149, "Norah Darling, Don't Believe Them" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(258), "Norah Darling, Don't Believe Them", unknown, n.d. 
File: OCon149
===
NAME: Norah Magee
DESCRIPTION: "Oh Norah, dear Norah, I can't live without you... Come back to old Ireland, the land of our childhood...." The singer laments the absence of Norah, gone over the sea, and hopes she will return someday to Ireland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation Ireland emigration
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H778, p. 387, "Norah Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4718
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(86b), "Norah Magee," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
NOTES: Sam Henry observed that this song was "in great vogue" around 1870, but I know of no other field collections. I do find myself strongly reminded of "Barney McCoy" -- but the similarity is at a level far removed from the details of the songs.
Poverty, of course, forced many Irish to migrate to America, and not just in the nineteenth century. It's not usual for the girl to go without the boy, but it's not unknown, either. And men need the chance to sing lost love songs, too. - RBW
File: HHH778
===
NAME: Norah McShane
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls leaving (Ballymoney), and admits to being "as wretched can be" in the new land. He misses buttermilk, the old mud house, peat fires, and of course Norah McShane. Even with no money, it was a better life than this
AUTHOR: Eliza Cook (?)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1841 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1841 380630); supposedly written 1838
KEYWORDS: emigration homesickness separation
FOUND_IN: Ireland US9Mw)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H157, p. 207, "Norah McShane" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 50-51, "Nora McShane" (1 text)
Dean, p. 105, "Nora McShane" (1 text)
Roud #9059
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2717), "Norah Mc.Sheen" or "I Am Leaving Ballimoney," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 c.15(9/10)[some illegible words], "Norah MacShane"; Harding B 11(3881), 2806 b.11(10), Firth c.26(16), Harding B 11(56), Harding B 11(1814), "Norah M'Shane"
LOCSheet, sm1841 380630, "Norah McShane," C. E. Horn (New York), 1841; also sm1850 650070, sm1850 471280, "Norah McShane" (tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
cf. "Lake Chemo" (parody)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Nora McShane
NOTES: The LOCSheet broadsides note "poetry by [Miss] Eliza Cook" and music attributed either to W. J. Wetmore or Charles Horn Junr. - BS
File: HHH157
===
NAME: Norah O'Neale: see Nora O'Neal (File: OCon141)
===
NAME: Nordfeld and the Raleigh, The
DESCRIPTION: The "Nordfeld" and the "Raleigh" are two ships wrecked close together in the Strait of Belle Isle. The singer tells of the scavenging of both ships and remarks that had he or his listeners been there, they would have partaken in the spoils.
AUTHOR: George Williams
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: wreck ship
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 1922 - Wreck of the Raleigh
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 142, "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle2, p. 47, "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 64, "The Norfeld and the Raleigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6346
NOTES: The HMS _Raleigh_ was a new light cruiser on a tour of the United States and Canada when the captain was persuaded to go off course through the Strait of Belle Isle for some good fishing. It wrecked near the Point Amour lighthouse in Labrador. For these and other details, consult David J. Molloy, _The First Landfall: Historic Lighthouses of Newfoundland and Labrador_ (St. John's: Breakwater, 1994), pp. 94-96. Currant Island, the author's home, is on the Newfoundland side just south of the Strait and not particularly close to the events in the ballad. - SH
File: Doy47
===
NAME: Norfeld and the Raleigh, The: see The Nordfeld and the Raleigh (File: Doy47)
===
NAME: Norfolk Girls, The
DESCRIPTION: "Our topsails reef'd and filled away, All snug aloft we know... Here's a health to all the Norfolk girls, And Portsmouth maidens too." The singer talks of the labors and dangers of a life at sea, always recalling the Norfolk girls and Portsmouth maidens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: sailor work battle
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 172-177, "The Norfolk Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ShaSS172 (Partial)
File: ShaSS172
===
NAME: North Carolina Hills, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the North Carolina Hills, How majestic and how grand, With their summits bathed in glory Like our Prince Immanuel's land." The singer repeatedly praises their beauty and their peoples; he must depart, but hopes to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 402, "The North Carolina Hills" (1 text)
Roud #11757
File: Br3402
===
NAME: North Country Maid, A
DESCRIPTION: "A north country maid to London had strayed Although with her nature it did not agree." She laments the home she has left behind, its trees, its fields, its people. She hopes soon to be able to return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: A maid from northern England (Westmoreland), who has strayed to London, wishes she were home; she sings the praises of the north country and its ways; she vows that she'll not marry until she returns, preferring to wed a north country man. She hopes to return in less than a year. Chorus: "The oak and the ash and the bonny ivy tree/They flourish at home in my own country"
KEYWORDS: homesickness rambling
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 14-15, "O the Oak, and the Ash, and the Bonny Ivy Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 62, "The Oak And The Ash" (1 text)
DT, NCNTRYMD* NCNTRYM2*
Roud #1367
NOTES: This looks like the source for the "oak and the ash" lines that appear in the choruses of many versions of "Rosemary Lane," "Ambletown," "Bell-Bottom Trousers," and other members of that most tangled of song families, typically with no relevance to those songs' plots. If I had my guess, I'd say the recombinant chorus was grafted onto those songs' common ancestor at some point early in its evolution. - PJS
For the complex relationship between this song, "Ambletown," and "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43], see the notes to the latter song. - PJS, RBW
This song does not seem to have any "plot relationship" to the other two traditional songs; the common element is simply the chorus ("Oh the oak and the ash and the bonny ivy tree They flourish at home in my own country"). The language of this piece, however, hints at literary origin; indeed, it looks like a typical pastoral. - RBW
File: LK43B
===
NAME: North Highlands, The
DESCRIPTION: "Down in  yon meadow, I chanced for to spy A bonnie young lassie that pleased my eye.... Bonnie lassie, come to the North Hielands wi' me." He offers lands and wealth; she says her parents would object. He turns to go; she consents to go with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting money father mother separation
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 87, "Bonnie Lassie, Come to the North Hielands" (1 text)
Roud #5565
File: Ord087
===
NAME: North Star (II), The: see The Merchant's Only Son [Laws M21] (File: LM21)
===
NAME: North Star, The
DESCRIPTION: North Star sails from Ireland for America. On December 8, "close to the wild Welsh shore the North Star struck, that very night, upon that fatal rock ... Out of near five hundred passengers, but twenty-one were saved"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(261))
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 94-95, "The North Star" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(261), "The North Star", J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also Firth b.27(109/110) View 1 of 2, "The North Star"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Vivandeer" (tune)
NOTES: Ranson: Tune is "The Vivandeer" on p. 112. - BS
File: Ran094
===
NAME: Northamptonshire Poacher, The: see The Lincolnshire Poacher (File: K259)
===
NAME: Northern Bonnie Blue Flag, The
DESCRIPTION: Northern answer to "The Bonnie Blue Flag": "We're fighting for our Union, We're fighting for our trust.... Hurrah, hurrah, For equal rights, hurrah! Hurrah! for the good old flag That bears the stripes and stars."
AUTHOR: (various)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody patriotic nonballad derivative
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Belden, p. 382, "The Flag with the Thirty-Four Stars" (1 text)
Scott-BoA, pp. 218-219, "The Northern Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7760
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES: This is actually a complex of songs rather than a single piece; various poets evidently made answers to "The Bonnie Blue Flag." I've lumped them because they all had, at best, only the weakest holds on tradition.
The version in Scott, which gives this entry its title, is listed as by Isaac Ball, and is a very short piece praising the freedom fighters of the North. I doubt that it is traditional at all.
Belden's "Flag with the Thirty-Four Stars" technically came from oral tradition, but the informant probably learned it from print; there are just too many names to remember them all. Among them:
"McClellan of Bold Antietam Fame": George B. McClellan (1826-1885), who took over the Army of the Potomac after First Bull Run and led it to defeat in the Seven Days' Battle and marginal victory (despite overwhelming superiority) after Antietam. The approving mention of McClellan (and Burnside) probably dates the song to late 1862; the list by 1863 would have been very different.
"Hooker, Sigel, Kenly too": Joe Hooker (1814-1879), was in late 1862 the Army of the Potomac's most aggressive corps commander. He would go on to failure in high command.
Franz Sigel (1824-1902) commanded German troops all over the place, and almost always disastrously. The troops never gave up on him; hence perhaps the approving mention.
Kenly: The Union had a general John Reese Kenly (1822-1891), who commanded troops in the Shenandoah Valley but who managed to not be involved in most of the big battles. His name is hard to explain. I suspect he might have been confused with Phil Kearny (1814-1862), who though only a division commander was widely regarded as the best officer in the Army of the Potomac -- but he was killed before Antietam.
"Foote, Dupont, Rosecrans": Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote (1706-1863) had led the fleets that attacked Forts Henry and Donelson in early 1862, giving the Union its first major successes in the war. Wounded at Fort Donelson, he never really recovered. It is interesting to note that U. S. Grant, the land commander at Donelson, is not mentioned -- another hint that the song is from 1862, when Halleck shelved him.
Dupont: Samuel F. DuPont (1803-1865), another naval officer, commander of the fleet that took Port Royal (November 1861). In 1863 he failed to capture Charleston (the War Department gave him impossible orders), so his start too was clouded
Rosecrans: William S. Rosecrans (1819-1898). An officer of promise as a subordinate, he had successfully defended Corinth (October 1862). After that, he was given charge of the Army of the Cumberland, where he proved less successful, fighting a bloody draw at Stones River (December 1862) and losing Chickamauga (September 1863)
"Halleck, Burnside, Butler too": Henry W. Halleck (1815-1872) was theatre commander in the west, and after Grant's successes at Henry and Donelson had led the slow advance to Corinth. He was then brought to Washington as General-in-Chief. On paper, his results looked good; in reality, he was far too cautious and never managed to get the Union war machine in gear. He was much more effective as (de facto) chief of staff under Grant. But in late 1862, he still looked like a winner
Burnside: Ambrose Burnside (1824-1881) had led the successful attacks on the Carolina coast in 1862. He then joined the Army of the Potomac, and failed at Antietam, but was given command of the whole army and led it to defeat at Fredericksburg and the Mud March (late 1862/early 1863) -- still more evidence of a late 1862 date. Burnside's real problem seems to have been a complete inability to react to changing circumstances
Butler: Benjamin F. Butler (1818-1893), a political general who was perhaps the worst soldier ever to wear a Major General's stars. In 1862, however, he had "captured" New Orleans (the entire work had in fact been done by Farragut's fleet), and so was an official hero. He was also earning a reputation among the occupied as "Beast" Butler.
"old South Mountain side": The Battle of South Mountain (Sept. 14, 1862) was the first real engagement of the Antietam campaign. McClellan, possessed of Lee's "lost order," knew that Lee's army was scattered behind the South Mountain range, with only a few troops to guard the passes. McClellan, who could have destroyed Lee's army by attacking boldly, instead brought minimal force to bear, forced the passes only because Lee had such weak forces there -- and then sat for two days when he could have defeated Lee piecemeal.
South Mountain did not drive Lee from the north; rather, it gave him time to concentrate his forces at Antietam. Where McClellan again failed to destroy him. - RBW
File: SBoA218
===
NAME: Northumberland Bagpipes, The
DESCRIPTION: "A shepherd sat him under a thorn, He pulled out his pipes and began for to play, It was on a midsummer's day in the morn." A girl comes by, hears him piping, and declares, "Iy thou wilt pipe, lad, I'll dance to thee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1701 (broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(060))
KEYWORDS: music dancing
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, pp.  32-34, "The Northumberland Bagpipes" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR032 (Full)
Roud #3055
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(060), "The Merry Bagpipes," unknown, 1701
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maggie Lauder" (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
March Boyes (per broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(060))
File: StoR032
===
NAME: Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas [Child 176]
DESCRIPTION: Northumberland flees to Scotland and is taken into custody. Despite his protestations of virtue, he is passed from hand to hand, ending in the custody of Douglas. Percy sets sail, believing he will be freed, but ends up under the control of Lord Hunsden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: nobility rebellion escape trick ring wife betrayal prison
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 176, "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley I, pp. 279-294, "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas"  (2 texts, one being that in the Reliques and the other being the manuscript copy)
Flanders-Ancient3, p. 171, "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" (1 fragment, similar to the Child text but so short that it might, from its text, be something else -- e.g. some texts of "Mary Hamilton" have rather similar lyrics; the singer apparently knew more of the song  but would not repeat it)
OBB 129, "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" (1 text)
Roud #4006
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rising in the North" [Child 175] (subject)
cf. "The Earl of Westmoreland" [Child 177] (subject)
NOTES: For the background to Northumberland's flight to Scotland, see "The Rising in the North" [Child 175]. Having arrived in Scotland, Northumberland became a valuable pawn -- and in a nation with a child king and no real government, he wound up being passed back and forth until he came into Douglas's hands.
The Countess of Northumberland, in exile in Flanders, raised money to ransom him. But the English matched the ransom, and Northumberland was turned over to Lord Hunsdon in late 1571 and executed in 1572.
For the complete details of these proceedings, see the notes in Child.
Those desiring to see how Percy converted the manuscript text into the published text, see Nick Groom, _The Making of Percy's Reliques_, pp. 127 ffff. -- though Groom is far too sympathetic to Percy's hack-work. - RBW
File: C176
===
NAME: Norway Bum, The
DESCRIPTION: "I'm a bum and addicted to rum." His father drove the singer from home because "I loved a fair lass far beneath my own class." They married; his wife and child died in a fire in Norway. "To drown sorrow I plunged into rum... And now I am only a bum"
AUTHOR: Joe Scott?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: grief love marriage death mourning drink wife children
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 119-121, 251, "The Norway Bum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13992
NOTES: Ives-DullCare: "No one was killed in the fire that destroyed much of Norway, Maine, in 1894, and there is no evidence to show that the song is based on a real person or incident, but, since Scott was not given to fiction, we can be reasonably sure that he thought his source ... was factual." - BS
File: IvDC119
===
NAME: Norwegian Collier, The
DESCRIPTION: Fragment:  "In the early hours of morning in the foggy atmosphere Our ship was swiftly ploughing through the foam, When a big Norwegian collier, sailing from Quebec, Ran straight into our liner, bound for home,..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck sailor
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, p. 127, "The Norwegian Collier" (1 text)
File: Ran127
===
NAME: Nose On My Old Man, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it's the nose that grows on my old man And it's wonderful to see -- It will live for years in my garden of misery. For it's the one red nose that the boozer knows.... Amid the drink and curse there can be no worse Than the nose on my old man!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 232-233, "The Nose on My Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE232
===
NAME: Nose, Nose, Jolly Red Nose: see Of All the Birds (File: ChWI141)
===
NAME: Nose, Nose, Nose, Nose: see Of All the Birds (File: ChWI141)
===
NAME: Not a Word of "No Surrender"
DESCRIPTION: The singer hears two Orangemen complain "we're ruined by Emancipation; ['Popish Daniel'] O'Connell brave and all his men They're a terror to the nation." About this, he hears not a word of "No Surrender"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: political Ireland
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1829 - Irish Catholic Emancipation Act passes supported by Daniel O'Connell and the Catholic Association
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #6987
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Not a Word of 'No Surrender'" (on IRRCinnamond01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kerry Eagle" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
cf. "Our Orange Flags May Gang to Rags" (subject and some lines)
NOTES: The Catholic Emancipation Act allowed Catholics to sit as MPs and made Catholics eligible for most public offices but disenfranchised many poor Irish (source: "Catholic Emancipation" on The Peel Web site). [I would consider it clearer to say that it failed to enfranchise many poor Irish; at this time, the poor were generally disenfranchised in all of Britain. - RBW]
This song shares a theme and at least four lines with GreigDuncan3 691, "Our Orange Flags May Gang to Rags": "May the old Devil take partial Peel Why did he yield to popish Donnell [Daniel] And Wellington great laurels won How soon he's run for to join O'Connell." Nevertheless, the rest of the songs sharing no line or chorus, I think they should be separate.
GreigDuncan3 p. 685, quoting Edwards, _A New History of Ireland_: "The reversal of Tory policy on the issue of Catholic emancipation can be ascribed to O'Connell's methods. Wellington, the victor of Waterloo, who became Prime Minister in 1828, was obliged to considre what would be the full consequences of a resort to force in Ireland over the Catholic question. The climax came when O'Connell was returned as a member of parliament for Clare and at the bar of the House of Commons refused to take the declaration against transubstantiation and the anti-Catholic oath of allegiance. Tory feelings were aroused to an intense heat, but in their wisdom, Wellington and his home secretary and political heir, Sir Robert Peel, forced George IV to give way."
"No Surrender" is a reference to the defiant declaration attributed to the Williamites defending Derry in 1688-1689. See "No Surrender (I)" and references there. - BS
See also "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry," plus the many Daniel O'Connell songs cited under "Daniel O'Connell (I)." - RBW
File: RcNaWoNS
===
NAME: Not Know How to Court: see Aunt Sal's Song (The Man Who Didn't Know How to Court) (File: LoF101)
===
NAME: Not So Young As I Used to Be: see If I Were As Young As I Used to Be (Uncle Joe) (File: R434)
===
NAME: Not the Swan on the Lake
DESCRIPTION: "Not the swan on the lake or the foam on the shore Can compare with the charms of the maid I adore." The singer praises the girl and her beauty, comparing her to Venus (the planet!), and says he "feast[s]... on the smiles of my love."
AUTHOR: words translated by Ewan MacLachlan
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection; earlier text in Whitelaw 1844)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H707, p. 227, "Not the Swan on the Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1525
File: HHH707
===
NAME: Not-Brown Maid, The: see The Nut-Brown Maid (File: OBB069)
===
NAME: Nothing At All
DESCRIPTION: The singer goes with his daddy to court Kate. He and she are too shy to speak at meeting, or proposal, or answering the parson at the wedding. The problem disappears within a week of the wedding and they offer their assurance to other young folks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(271))
KEYWORDS: courting wedding humorous
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #1607
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Derry Down Dale" (on IRRCinnamond02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(271), "Nothing At All" ("In Derry Down Dale, when I wanted a mate"), J. Ferraby (Hull), 1803-1838; also Harding B 28(233), Harding B 25(1382)[many illegible words], "Nothing At All"
LOCSinging, sb30352a, "Nothing At all," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 
NLScotland, L.C.1269(152a), "Nothing At All," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1855

CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter used in IRRCinnamond02) and references there
cf. "Things I Don't Like to See" (tune according to broadside NLScotland, L.C.1269(152a))
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Firth b.25(271) is the basis for the description: IRRCinnamond02 ends with the "love, honor, obey" at the wedding coming to "nothing at all." 
Broadside LOCSinging sb30352a: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: RcNoAtAl
===
NAME: Nothing To Do With Me
DESCRIPTION: The singer will not denigrate others or interfere in business that has nothing to do with him. The rest of the song is gossip about his neighbors. A policeman, he hints, takes bribes. A girl married to an old man has a baby, he hints, not her husband's.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966 (recording, Martin Gorman)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad police infidelity accusation
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #5315
RECORDINGS:
Martin Gorman, "It's Nowt To Do With Me" (on Voice14)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2958), "Nothing To Do With Me!" ("Kind friends for what I'm going to say on you I will not frown"), unknown, n.d.; also Firth c.26(252), "Nothing To Do With Me"
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Firth c.26(252) says "Sung by Harry Barber and George Gordon." - BS
File: RcNTDWM
===
NAME: Nothing Too Good for the Irish: see Nothing's Too Good for the Irish (File: Wa029)
===
NAME: Nothing's Too Good for the Irish
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his grandmother's last words. She describes, with the full force of prejudice, the roles reserved for each people (e.g. "Negroes to whitewash, Jews for cash"), then turns to her own people, concluding, "Nothing's too good for the Irish"
AUTHOR: J. J. Goodwin/[Monroe H.] Rosenfeld (source: Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 608)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean); Spaeth lists it as published in 1894
KEYWORDS: death foreigner humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Dean, p. 102, "Nothing Too Good for the Irish" (1 text)
Warner 29, "Nothing's Too Good for the Irish" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa029 (Partial)
Roud #7468
NOTES: Presumably the same as the 1894 song by J. J. Goodwin and Rosenfeld, but I can't prove it
The chorus, in John Galusha's version at least (and also in Dean), may be the most concentrated dose of racism I've ever seen:It stereotypes *everyone*.  - RBW
File: Wa029
===
NAME: Nottalin Town: see Nottamun Town (File: WB2006)
===
NAME: Nottamun Town (Nottingham Fair)
DESCRIPTION: The narrator goes to Nottamun Town, meets odd and mad people, and sees impossible and paradoxical sights: "In Nottamun town, not a soul would look up, not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down to show me the way to fair Nottamun town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 18(687)
KEYWORDS: madness nonsense paradox
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 6, "Fair Nottiman Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 446, "Nottingham Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 302-305, "Nottingham Fair" (3 texts, 1 tune)
SharpAp 191, "Nottamun Town" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 69, "Nottamun Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 105-106, "[Nottamun Town]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 5, "Nottamun Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 8-9, "Nottamun Town" (1 text, 1 tune, called "Nottamun town" in the header though "Nottalin Town" in the notes and Index)
DT, NOTTMUN*
Roud #1044
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(687), "The Old Gray Mare" ("As I was a going to Nottingham fair"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 18(214), "The Gray Mare"
LOCSinging, sb30373a, "The Old Gray Mare" ("As I was a going to Nottingham fair"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb20153a, "The Gray Mare" 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Black Phyllis" (lyrics)
cf. "Paddy Backwards" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Nottalin Town
NOTES: There were several episodes of mass insanity in Europe, probably caused by ingestion of ergot, a mold found on rye with hallucinogenic properties. - PJS
(I have also heard this song explained as the effects of the delirium caused by the plague. Compare also the song "Black Phyllis," which uses some of the same words and which appears to be about syphilis. Jean Ritchie thinks it's from a mummer's play and not intended to be understood. - RBW)
This song merges almost continuously with "Paddy Backwards," and there are probably fragments which might go with either song. - RBW
Broadsides LOCSinging sb30373a and Bodleian Harding B 18(687) are duplicates.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20153a and Bodleian Harding B 18(214) are duplicates.
Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 18(687) and LOCSinging sb30373a: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: WB2006
===
NAME: Nottingham Fair: see Nottamun Town (File: WB2006)
===
NAME: Nottinghamshire Poacher, The 
DESCRIPTION: The poacher goes out with his dogs to hunt. (One of his dogs is wounded, but) he catches a deer and takes it to a butcher to skin. When he attempts to sell the meat, he is arrested and tried, but finally set free. He vows to continue poaching
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(311b))
KEYWORDS: dog poaching trial accusation revenge animal judge
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Eddy 53, "Thornymuir Fields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 259, "The Old Fat Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 96, "Thornaby Woods" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E053 (Full)
Roud #222
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "Thorneymoor Woods" (on Briggs2, Briggs3)
Jasper Smith, "Thornymoor Park" (on Voice18)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(311b), "Thorney Moor Wood" ("In Thorney moor woods in Nottinghamshire"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3803), Firth c.19(58), "Thorney Moor Wood"; Harding B 25(1898), "Thorney-moor Woods"; Harding B 11(2692), Firth b.34(206), "The Lads of Thorney Moor Wood"; Johnson Ballads 887, Harding B 28(237), Firth c.19(57), "The Lads of Thorney Moor Woods" 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Thorny Woods
Thornymoor Woods
NOTES: [MacColl and Seeger report that] "Thorneyhaugh-Moor Woods is in the Hundred of Newark, Nottinghamshire, and was once part of Sherwood Forest." - PJS
File: E053
===
NAME: Nova Scotia Sealing Song
DESCRIPTION: In 1894 Director goes sealing, "bound for Yokahama." Before rounding Cape Horn they stop for seals at Staten Island where "for eighteen days we were hove to." They make Cape Flattery in sixty days. Now they are in Victoria waiting to finish the voyage.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: hunting sea ship shore ordeal sailor
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 200, "Nova Scotia Sealing Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2720
NOTES: Staten Island is Isla de los Estados, east of the Argentinian part of Tierra del Fuego. Cape Flattery is on the northwest coast of Washington state across the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Vancouver Island; Victoria is on Vancouver Island. - BS
File: CrMa200
===
NAME: Nova Scotia Song: see Farewell to Nova Scotia (File: FJ044)
===
NAME: November Keady Fair
DESCRIPTION: The singer takes his nanny goat to the November fair at Keady. He sells her for half-a-crown. "She was nineteen times at Jim's auld buck." Now that she's gone he'll miss her wagging tail, her nipping kale in the garden, and their rows at the fireside.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal separation
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 56, "November Keady Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5311
NOTES: Keady is in County Armagh. - BS
The Irish had a rule that a young man could not marry until he had land -- a fairly effective means of population control, since it resulted in a lot of late marriage. It's one reason there are so many songs about lonely young Irishmen out looking for girls. Makes you wonder if this guy didn't come up with a substitute....
The rows at the fireside are also not unreasonable. By the mid-nineteenth century, especially in Connaught, the land had been subdivided into so many small holdings that those who were relatively fortunate enough to own an animal would perforce keep it with them in their hovel (often little more than a sod shack). Pigs were more often kept than goats, from what I've read, but obviously goats were possible too. Though, in that context, it would be unlikely that the house would have kale; all land would go to potatoes. - RBW
File: McB1056
===
NAME: Now Go and Leave Me If You Wish: see Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)
===
NAME: Now I Am a Big Boy
DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy My mother kept me in, But now I am a big boy, Fit to serve the king." "I can fire a musket, I can smoke a pipe, I can kiss a big girl At ten o'clock at night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1842 (Halliwell, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: youth mother family
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 358, "Now I Am a Big Boy" (2 texts, both fragmentary, and the "A" text appears to be "Shady Grove")
Opie-Oxford2 73, "When I was a little boy" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose, p. 27, note 5, "(When I was a little boy)"
Roud #7623
File: R358
===
NAME: Now I Am a Big Boy (II): see Shady Grove (File: SKE57)
===
NAME: Now Our Meeting Is Over
DESCRIPTION: "Fathers, now our meeting is over; Fathers, we must part. And if I never see you any more, I'll love you in my heart. And we'll land on shore, Yes, we'll land on shore, We will land on shore, And be saved forevermore." Repeat with mothers, brothers, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad family
FOUND_IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Warner 84, "Fathers, Now Our Meeting Is Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, p. 571, "Now Our Meeting's Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MEETOVER
Roud #5716
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Meeting Is Over" (on Chandler01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is No Place in the Height of Heaven" (floating lyrics)
File: Wa084
===
NAME: Now the War Is Over (Mussolini's Dead)
DESCRIPTION: The text: "Now the war is over, Mussolini's dead, He wants to go to heaven with a crown upon his head, The Lord says no, he's got to stay below, All dressed up and no where to go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (on Lomax collection)
KEYWORDS: death war humorous political religious gods
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1945 - Death of Mussolini
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, WAROVR
ST DTwarovr (Full)
Roud #12945
RECORDINGS:
Scottish children, "Now the War is Over" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
NOTES: Well, it's a narrative, and it was collected from folk tradition, so what more do you want? Pity we don't have a keyword for rope-jumping songs. - PJS
Mussolini was deposed as Duce of Italy in 1943 (following the Allied invasion, in a staged coup which induced him to resign), but was "liberated" by German commandos led by Otto Skorzeny. He then set up a puppet republic in the north of Italy -- but the key word is "puppet"; he was purely and simply a German tool. (And there is reason to think he didn't like it much.)
In April, 1945, as the German resistance crumbled, the former il Duce was caught by Italian partisans, "tried," and executed. It's rather unfair that this song picks on him, rather than Hitler, who died just weeks later; Mussolini brooked no opposition, but he didn't build any concentration camps, either.
The explanation may lie in the composition of the British army: There were probably more Scots, proportionally, in Italy than on any other front. The North African army was disproportionately  composed of Commonwealth forces, while the "British" force in Normandy eventually consisted of one Canadian and one British army. The British army in Italy had probably the highest proportion of home-grown units, including Scots.
Murray Shoolbraid notes that this is an update of a World War I rhyme in which the Kaiser is the intended victim:
When the war is over and the Kaiser's deid
He's no gaun tae Heaven wi' the eagle on 'is heid,
For the Lord says No! He'll have tae go below,
For he's all dressed up and nowhere tae go.
That version probably didn't endure as well, for the simple reason that the Kaiser survived World War I; he didn't die until 1941. - RBW
File: DTwarovr
===
NAME: Now the Winter Is Past: see Queen of the May (File: SWMS190)
===
NAME: Now, My Bonny, Bonny Boy: see The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)
===
NAME: Now, Wullie was as Nice a Lad: see Willie Was As Fine a Sailor (File: MaWi101)
===
NAME: Number Nine: see The Wreck of Number Nine [Laws G26] (File: LG26)
===
NAME: Number Ninety-Nine: see Jinny Go Round and Around (File: R272)
===
NAME: Number Twelve Train
DESCRIPTION: "Number Twelve train took my baby, I could not keep from cryin'. (x2)" The singer's woman left him; he grieves so much he thinks he is dying. He vows that his next girl "will have to do what poppa say."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: love abandonment loneliness
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 81, "Number Twelve Train" (1 text)
File: FSWB081A
===
NAME: Numerella Shore, The: see The Eumerella Shore (File: MA155)
===
NAME: Nurse Pinched the Baby, The
DESCRIPTION: When the nurse pinches the baby, "Mother [goes] down to the beer saloon to pray." When she catches "the rage from Doctor Dye-O," the same thing happens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Eddy)
KEYWORDS: drink baby
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Eddy 137, "The Nurse Pinched the Baby" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST E137 (Full)
Roud #5337
File: E137
===
NAME: Nut-Brown Maid, The
DESCRIPTION: The man claims that women, given the chance, are never true. The woman cites the case of the Nut-brown Maid. They play through the story. The woman will follow her man, even to the greenwood, and will fight for him, etc. The ballad ends by praising women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1707 ("The Muses Mercury"); earlier found in Arnold's "Chronicle" of c. 1521 and in Richard Hill's manuscript (Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354) before 1537
KEYWORDS: infidelity love dialog outlaw
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 31-47, "The Not-Browne Maid" (1 text)
OBB 69, "The Nut-Brown Maid" (1 text)
ST OBB069 (Partial)
NOTES: Given its elaborate stanzaic structure, regular alternation of speakers, and elaborately formal language, it seems clear that this should be accounted a literary rather than a folk production. I know of no version in oral tradition.
A parody of this song, "The New Nutbrowne Maid," occurs as early as 1520. Obviously this makes the original even older. The earliest date depends on the age of Arnold's _Chronicle_, which is undated. The latest date I have seen is the 1521 date cited above. Garnett and Gosse's _English Literature: An Illustrated Record_, which prints a facsimile, dates the _Chronicle_ to 1502/3.
Garnett is also quite effusive about the merits of the piece, but adds that "One famous ballad stands out prominently from the rest as being, so far as is known, the invention of the anonymous writer. It is _The Nut Brown Maid_...." The only anonymous ballad? Uh-huh.
Percy's version, from what I can tell, appears to come from the _Chronicle_ text, only with several of Percy's pet archaizing tricks (he did at least improve the punctuation to something resembling sense). - RBW
File: OBB069
===
NAME: Nutting Girl, The
DESCRIPTION: A young girl goes out to gather nuts. A farmer stops plowing and begins to sing. The girl hears his sweet voice, and "what nuts she had got, poor girl, she threw them all away." They lie together, then go their ways. The song warns girls against dallying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1895; tune 1792 (Bunting)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction music harvest farming sex pregnancy
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 186, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 214-215, "The Nutting Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NUTGIRL*
Roud #509
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "A Nutting We Will Go" [incomplete] (AFS 4200 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES: The recording lists "Our Goodman" as an alternate title for Ford's recording, but "Our Goodman" it ain't. - PJS
File: K186
===
NAME: Nutting Maid, The: see The Nutting Girl (File: K186)
===
NAME: O A Iu, Nach Till Thu Dhomnaill (O A Iu, Will You Not Return?)
DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer meets Donald while traversing the moors. They flirt, "he threatened to tear my chemise to shreds.... That was not what you promised me ... a ceremony of marriage."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting promise accusation worksong
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 178-179, "Gaelic Milling Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The description is based on the translation of Creighton/MacLeod 69 in _Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia_ which is the same Gaelic text as Creighton-Maritime. Creighton/MacLeod: "There is a more complete version of this song in Craig's 'Orain Luaidh,' p. 66."
Creighton explains "this is a work song, used for milling, or shrinking, cloth." - BS
File: CrMS178
===
NAME: O Adam
DESCRIPTION: Dialog, in which Eve convinces Adam to eat the tree of knowledge. God orders them out of the garden. They lament, and hope to work their way back to Heaven
AUTHOR: W. W. Phelps
EARLIEST_DATE: 1845 (Times and Seasons)
KEYWORDS: religious dialog punishment
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 455-456, "O Adam" (1 text)
Roud #7834
NOTES: The story of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden occupies Genesis 3.
Belden (who calls this a "mystery play") notes that the ending of this song is "curiously unbiblical," and links it with Mormon doctrine. That it is Mormon there is no doubt, and it is true that there is no evidence in Genesis that humans can ever return to the Garden (in ordinary Christian theology this is a form of the Pelagian heresy). But I've seen equally non-biblical statements in hymns used by most Protestant denominations. - RBW
File: Beld455
===
NAME: O Blessed Lord
DESCRIPTION: "O blessed Lord, in the way thou hast gone, Lead him straight to that land above. Give him cheer everywhere to the sad and the low. Fill my way every day with love...." The singer prays for love, help, hope, and guidance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Chappell-FSRA 98, "O Blessed Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16940
NOTES: I suspect this of being an "occasional" item (though I vacillate between thinking it's for a baptism and for a funeral). But I can't prove it. - RBW
File: ChFRA098
===
NAME: O Bud
DESCRIPTION: "I don't like no farmer's rule, says, 'Get up in the morning With the dog-goned mule.' Oh Bud, Bud, Bud, Bud, O Bud." "I'm going up the maple, Coming down the pine, Looking for a woman Got a rambling mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: work
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Warner 175, "O Bud" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa175 (Partial)
Roud #7491
File: Wa175
===
NAME: O Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow: see Bury Me Beneath the Willow (File: R747)
===
NAME: O Canada!
DESCRIPTION: "O Canada! Terres de nos aieux...." "O Canada! Our home and native land." Both French and English versions praise the beauties and freedoms enjoyed by Canada, the "true North."
AUTHOR: French Words: A. B. Routhier / Music: Calixa Lavalee / English Words: Dr. R. Stanley Weir
EARLIEST_DATE: 1880 (English words composed 1908)
KEYWORDS: Canada patriotic nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND_IN: Canada
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 114-116, "O Canada!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 340, "O Canada!" (1 text)
File: FMB114
===
NAME: O David
DESCRIPTION: "O David, yes, yes, My little David, yes, yes, And he killed Goliath...." "My little David... Was a shepherd's boy...." "He killed Goliath... And he shouted for joy...." "O David... Play on, David...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 204-207, "David, David, Yes, Yes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 130, "O David" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6683
NOTES: The story of David and Goliath (actually *two* stories, carefully blended together, in one of which David is Saul's aide/court musician and in another he is a shepherd visiting the battle) is found in 1 Samuel 17. - RBW
File: LoF250
===
NAME: O Du Glade Sjoman (O Ye Merry Seamen)
DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. Verses are of contented sailors sailing out with fond farewells to their sweethearts, and of the faith they have in their ship to bring them home again. Each stanza is repeated as a chorus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor farewell
FOUND_IN: Sweden
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 493-495, "O Du Glade Sjoman" (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
File: Hugi493
===
NAME: O Fathers, It's High TIme You All Are Ready
DESCRIPTION: "O Fathers, it's high time you all are ready, When this world is at an end.... Oh, we do believe in bein' ready (x2), when this world is at an end." Similarly with mothers, brothers, sisters, children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Granville Gadsey)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 216-217, "O Fathers, It's High Time You All Are Ready" (1 text)
File: MHAp216
===
NAME: O Freedom
DESCRIPTION: Recognized by its praise of freedom and the lines "And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free." Most versions simply praise freedom; one speaks of the slave's dead mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931
KEYWORDS: religious freedom slave slavery mother death nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 239-240, "Oh, Freedom!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, p. 33, "Oh Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 108, "O Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 354, "O Freedom" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 295, "Oh Freedom" (1 text)
DT, OHFREEDM
Roud #10073
RECORDINGS:
John Handcock, "No More Mourning (Oh Freedom)" (AFS 3238 A1, 3238 A2, 1937)
Montgomery Gospel Trio, "I'm So Glad" [medley of that song -- 'I'm so glad I'm fighting for my rights' --  and "O Freedom"] (on WeShall1, DownHome)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Free Slave"
File: LxU108
===
NAME: O Gin That I Were Mairrit
DESCRIPTION: "I'm now a lass of thirty-three, As clever a hizzie as ye'll see, And feint a ane a'er courtit me...." "(O gin that I were mairrit, mairrit, mairrit... I raley would do weel, O." The old maid lists her property and describes her skills
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: age loneliness marriage dowry clothes nonballad oldmaid
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 39-40, "O Gin That I Were Mairrit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3786
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
NOTES: This, to me, feels so close to "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" that I thought seriously about lumping them. But while the feeling is exactly the same, there aren't many words in common, and the ones that are are the sort you almost have to use in songs like this. - RBW
File: Ord040
===
NAME: O God, Our Help in Ages Past
DESCRIPTION: "O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast And our eternal home!" The singer hopes for help and protection from God, who has existed since before the world came to be
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748) / Music: Credited to William Croft (1678-1727)
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 35, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17837
File: BdOGOHIA
===
NAME: O I Believe in Jesus: see I Belong to that Band (File: Br3583)
===
NAME: O I Hae Seen the Roses Blaw
DESCRIPTION: "O, I hae seen the roses blaw, The heather bloom, the broom and a'... Yet Mary's sweeter on the green...." The singer praises the girl, wishes he could win her, says he would love anywhere she is, and declares he will wander till she loves him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: love rejection
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 16-17, "Oh! I Ha'e Seen the Roses Blaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR016 (Partial)
Roud #2617
File: StoR016
===
NAME: O I Shall Have Wings
DESCRIPTION: "O I shall have wings, beautiful wings, I shall have wings some day, Bright wings of love from God above, Carry my soul away." "O hallelujah to the lamb, I shall have wings someday, Jesus made me what I am...." The singer looks forward to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Chappell-FSRA 93, "The Good Old Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16938
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Way (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES: It is perhaps worth noting that nowhere in the Bible are angels promised wings; indeed, the word "wing" occurs only five times in the New Testament (it's more common in the Old Testament, but usually is used either of birds' wings or in a metaphorical sense). - RBW
File: ChFRA093
===
NAME: O Johnnie, My Man: see Farewell to Whisky (Johnny My Man) (File: K272)
===
NAME: O Johnny Come to Hilo: see Johnny Walk Along to Hilo (File: Doe072a)
===
NAME: O Johnny Dear, Why Did You Go?: see Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)
===
NAME: O Kings
DESCRIPTION: "O Kings, you've heard the sequel Of what we now describe; It isn't just and equal To tax this wealthy tribe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: money nonballad royalty
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuson, p. 195, "O Kings" (1 fragment, fourth of seven "Quatrains on the War")
ST Fus196D (Full)
File: Fus196D
===
NAME: O Lillie, O Lillie: see Rye Whiskey; also The Rebel Soldier (File: R405)
===
NAME: O Little Town of Bethlehem
DESCRIPTION: The quiet little town of Bethlehem is described, with the note that "the everlasting light" shines in its streets. The song describes the reactions of those who know of the event, and prays for the help of the holy child
AUTHOR: Words: Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1874 ("The Church Porch")
KEYWORDS: Christmas religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND_IN: US Britain
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
OBC 138, "O Little Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 378, "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 402, "O Little Town of Bethlehem!"
DT, LTTLTOWN*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 132-133, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #55, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (1 text)
NOTES: This poem is sung to different tunes in Britain and America.The American tune is by Lewis H. Redner (1830-1908), but in Britain it is usually sung to "The Ploughboy's Dream" ("Forest Green"). There is a third tune by Walford Davies, rarely sung in Britain and hardly at all in America.
Philiips Brooks was most noted as a preacher; he had several volumes of sermons published. Of his poems, only four are mentioned in _Granger's Index to Poetry_, and this is the only one to be widely reprinted.
Bradley notes that Brooks was one of the few hymnwriters to actually visit the holy land. - RBW
File: FSWB378B
===
NAME: O Logie O Buchan: see Logie o Buchan (File: SWMS197)
===
NAME: O Lord, Won't You Come by Here?: see Come by Here (File: Br3621)
===
NAME: O Lulu: see O, Lula! (File: LxU077)
===
NAME: O Madam, I Have a Fine Little Horse: see The Courting Case (File: R361)
===
NAME: O Mary, Come Down!
DESCRIPTION: Shanty, though just barely, really more of a call-out. "Oh Mary, come down with your bunch of roses, come down when I call, oh Mary. Oh Mary come down!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND_IN: West Indies
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Hugill, p. 368, "O Mary, Come Down!" (1 short text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 277]
Harlow p. 29, "A Sing Out" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #9165
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Blood Red Roses" (lyrics)
NOTES: The text of this looks very like a fragment of "Come Down You Roses/Blood Red Roses." But the tune looks different, and there is no chorus, and the purpose is different. Susan Lawlor split them, and I am very tentatively going along. - RBW
File: Hugi368
===
NAME: O My Honey, Take Me Back
DESCRIPTION: "O my honey, take me back, O my dahlin', I'll be true. I am moanin' all day long; O my honey, I love you." "I have loved you in joy and pain, In de sunshine and de rain, O my honey, heah me do, O my dahlin', I love you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, p. 239, "O My Honey, Take Me Back" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San239
===
NAME: O Naaman: see Go Wash in the Beautiful Stream (File: Br3575)
===
NAME: O No, John: see No, John, No (File: R385)
===
NAME: O Sally, My Dear: see Hares on the Mountain (File: ShH63)
===
NAME: O Shepherd, O Shepherd
DESCRIPTION: Shepherd's wife offers a breakfast of bacon and beans if he will come home; he refuses, he must tend his sheep. She offers a dinner of pudding and beef, then a supper of bread and cheese. Finally she offers clean sheets and a pretty lass. He accepts.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906
KEYWORDS: marriage sex food dialog humorous wife shepherd
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland,England(South))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 74-75, "O Shepherd, O Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHEPWILD SHEPWIFE (cf. the notes to BONSTJON)
Roud #1055
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Greensleeves" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Bonnie Saint John (DT, BONSTJON)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Shepherd, O Shepherd
NOTES: This seems to exist in two forms, "O Shepherd O Shepherd" and "The Shepherd's Wife." The two have identical plots, but the latter -- at least as recorded by Gordeanna McCulloch, based on the version in Herd -- *feels* much bawdier, as well as more fun. (Anne Gilchrist thinks it may be derived from a singing game, and it does have rather that feel.)
The distinction is so strong that I thought of calling them separate songs, but I can't imagine a clear dividing line.
The tune of the "O Shepherd O Shepherd" versions is described as a "modal version of Greensleeves." This is a bit strong; the tune has been altered in more ways than the simple removal of accidentals. - RBW
File: VWL074
===
NAME: O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)
DESCRIPTION: German Christmas song, known in English as "Oh Christmas Tree." In praise of the evergreen's ability to keep its needles all year long: "O tannenbaum, o tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine blatter...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1799 (tune, "Melodien zum Mildheimischen Liederbuche"; lyrics published 1820)
KEYWORDS: Christmas nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND_IN: Germany
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 374, "Oh Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 355-357, "Maryland, My Maryland -- (O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!; Lauriger Horatius)"
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #56, "O Tannenbaum" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maryland! My Maryland" (tune)
cf. "Chamber Lye" (tune)
cf. "The Kinkaiders" (tune)
cf. "General Lee's Wooing" (tune)
cf. "Mule" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Maryland! My Maryland (File: RJ19130)
Chamber Lye (File: RL659)
The Kinkaiders (File: San278)
General Lee's Wooing (File: SBoA233)
Lutefisk, O Lutefisk (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 20)
O Tom the Toad (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 50)
P.S. 52 (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 102)
National Embalming School (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 125)
New Mexico, We Love You (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 251)
Mule (File: MHAp225)
NOTES: Ian Bradley, in _The Penguin Book of Carols_, attributes the "O Tannenbaum" words to Ernst Anschutz in 1824, but Fuld offers the 1820 date, and I'm more inclined to trust him. - RBW
File: FSWB374B
===
NAME: O the Bonny Fisher Lad
DESCRIPTION: "O, the bonny fisher lad That brings the fishes frae the sea; O, the bonny fisher lad, The fisher lad gat haud o' me." The youth lives in Bamboroughshire; the singer met him while gathering cockles. She vows she will have the fisher lad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, p. 103, "O the Bonny Fisher Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR103 (Full)
Roud #3150
File: StoR103
===
NAME: O the Oak, and the Ash, and the Bonny Ivy Tree: see A North Country Maid; also Ambletown, Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43B)
===
NAME: O Waly Waly: see Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)
===
NAME: O What a Parish (The Parish of Dunkeld)
DESCRIPTION: "O what a parish, a terrible parish, O what a parish is that o' Dunkeld, They hangit their minister...." After rebelling against the organized church, the people turn the site into a meeting place; the singer wishes that all parishes saw such fellowship
AUTHOR: Adam Crawford ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: clergy humorous execution friend party
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 217-218, "O What a Parish" (1 text)
DT, PARDUNK*
Roud #13081
NOTES: Ford suspects that this song was originally written not of Dunkeld but of Kinkell, where he claims events similar to this actually took place. He offers no dates, however. - RBW
File: FVS217
===
NAME: O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone
DESCRIPTION: "Oh where Oh where is my little dog gone, Oh where Oh where can he be?..." The singer describes the dog, then his tastes... lager beer, the dog, and of course sausage --  but "Dey makes um mit dog und dey makes em mit horse, I guess dey makes em mit he."
AUTHOR: Septimus Winner
EARLIEST_DATE: 1864
KEYWORDS: dog death food humorous
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 57-60, "Der Deitcher's Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, p. 29 (fragments filed under "The Orphan Boys")
Opie-Oxford2 139, "Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone?" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #873, p. 326, "(Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone?)"
Fuld-WFM, p. 406, "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone (Zu Lauterbach)"
DT, LITTLDOG*
ST RJ19057 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Where Has My Little Dog Gone" (Brunswick 187/Vocalion 5183 [as the Hill Billies], 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Dunderbeck" (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
The Jackarse Eat It on the Way (Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 296-297)
NOTES: Septimus Winner for some reason put his own name on this piece and used the pseudonym Alice Hawthorne for his other hits ("Listen to the Mocking Bird" and "Whispering Hope"). Using the tune of the German song "Lauterbach," ("Zu Lauterbach"; "Zu Lauterbach Hab' Ich Mein Strumpf Verloren"; first published 1847), he created this ode (?) to an unfortunate dog.
"Deitcher" is, I believe, dialect for "German" ("Deutscher"). - RBW
File: RJ19057
===
NAME: O Where Will Ye Be?
DESCRIPTION: "O where will ye be when the first trumpet sounds? O where will ye be when it sounds so loud? When it sounds so loud as to wake up the dead?" The singer will be "among the holy," "among the angels," wearing "a royal diadem," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Chappell-FSRA 83, "O Where Will Ye Be?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12344
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Where Shall I Be?" (Victor Vi-23523, recorded 1930)
NOTES: The imagery here seems to be a bit of a conflation. The "first trumpet" phrase is suggested by Revelation 8:7, but that trumpet brings hail and fire mixed with blood. The trumpet as a symbol of resurrection is more reminiscent of 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
This seems to break up into at least two subfamilies. The Chappell text is a confident boast of salvation. The Carter Family version is much less certain; the singer is worried ("Where shall I be?") and warns of the world's sins.- RBW
File: ChFRA083
===
NAME: O Who Will Play the Silver Whistle?: see The Silver Whistle (File: K009)
===
NAME: O-o-oh, Sistren an' Bred'ren
DESCRIPTION: "O-o-oh, sistren an' bredren, Don't you think it is a sin For to go to peel potatoes An' to cas' away de skin? De skin feeds de pigs, An de pigs feeds you, O-o-oh, sistren an' bredren, Is not dat true?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food animal
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 189, "O-o-oh, Sistren an' Bred'ren" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: About as close as traditional music gets to an ecology song, when you think about it. - RBW
File: ScaNF189
===
NAME: O, Derry, Derry, Dearie Me
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls Derry in the springtime. He remembers the sights, swimming in the Moyle, wandering among the bogs. Even in London, he smells the peat and the sea; he wishes he were home
AUTHOR: James Warnock
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H536, p. 209, "Oh, Derry, Derry, Dearie Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH536
===
NAME: O, Jeanie Dear
DESCRIPTION: "O, Jeanie dear, the flow'rs, the flow'rs are springing... the lark is winging... And to my ravished ear his wondrous singing Is all of love... and you."  The singer details how nature rejoices in Jeanie -- and he rejoices even more
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Doey
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love bird nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H545, pp. 225-226, "O, Jeanie Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7974
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air)" (tune)
File: HHH545
===
NAME: O, Lula!
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lula, oh Lord, gal, I want to see you so bad. Gonna see my long-haired baby (x2), Well, I'm goin' 'cross the country To see my long-haired gal." The singer tells how Mr. Treadmill had Mr. Goff pay the boys off; now he is home and happy with his girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: train love
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-FSUSA 77, "O, Lula!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-RailFolklr, p. 447, "O Lulu" (1 text)
File: LxU077
===
NAME: O, Waly, Waly (II): see Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)
===
NAME: O! Alle! O!
DESCRIPTION: Wheat-cutting song: "Watch me whet my cradle, O! Alle! O!" "I'll make it beat de beater, O! Alle! O!" "Watch me throw my cradle... I'se been all over Georgia... The storm clouds arising..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (White)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Darling-NAS, pp. 325-326, "O! Alle! O!" (1 text)
File: DarNS325
===
NAME: O! Blarney Castle, My Darling
DESCRIPTION: Freemason Cromwell mounts a battering ram, grape shot, and bullets against Blarney castle. The Irish have bows and arrows. Cromwell "made a dark signal" freezing the defenders. He and his soldiers walk across the lake. He gives Jeffreys the Castle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (_Cork Southern Reporter_, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion magic Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1641-1653 - Irish Confederate Wars (Irish Roman Catholics rebellion against Protestant British settlers) (source: _Irish Confederate Wars_ at Wikipedia)
August 1651 - Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill defeats the Irish at Blarney after the Battle of Knocknaclashy (source: Croker-PopularSongs).
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 144-148, "O! Blarney Castle, My Darling" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "O, Hold Your Tongue, Dear Sally!" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: "Upon the allusion made to Oliver Cromwell in the second and sixth verses, it is necessary to remark that, according to the popular belief of the Irish peasant, Cromwell was endowed with supernatural powers; and that the fraternity of Freemasons, which was said to be founded by him, were supposed, from the secrecy and ceremonies obseved by them, to be dabblers in the black art."
Croker-PopularSongs: "The name of Cromwell, although associated both in song and story with the taking of Blarney Castle, is obviously used for that of his partisan, Lord Broghill (afterwards the Earl of Orrery). Cromwell, if indeed he ever was at Blarney, could only have paid it a short and peaceable visit."
Croker-PopularSongs: "The Editor has no doubt that this song, and ['Saint Patrick's Arrival'], came from the same pen." See that song if you are interested in Croker's speculations there. However, Croker notes that the song has been "unceremoniously appropriated by Father Prout [Rev Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804-1866)]." Croker prints alternative verses from Father Prout's version. In both versions the castle is given by Cromwell to Jeffreys but, according to Croker, the Jeffreys family purchased the estate from the crown (source: "Blarney Castle" in _The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 396, Saturday, October 31, 1829_, on the Project Gutenberg site quoting Croker, _Researches in the South of Ireland_) - BS
For some background on the horrors inflicted on Ireland by Cromwell, see "The Wexford Massacre."
The fear and hatred Cromwell inspired is reflected in later Irish culture; mothers would threaten their misbehaving children: if they didn't stop, "Oliver Cromwell will get you." - RBW
File: CrPS144
===
NAME: O! Let My People Go: see Go Down, Moses (File: LxU109)
===
NAME: O! Molly Dear Go Ask Your Mother: see The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)
===
NAME: O! They Marched Through the Town (The Captain with His Whiskers)
DESCRIPTION: The girl looks out her window as the soldiers march by. Her eye seizes upon the captain, though she conceals this from her parents. Later they meet at the ball. Though the soldiers later depart, the girl hopes that they will soon return with her captain
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Haynes Bayly / Music: Sidney Nelson ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Randolph; referred to in song in 1863)
KEYWORDS: courting love soldier
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Warner 69, "The Captain with His Whiskers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 228, "The Captain with His Whiskers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 214-215, "The Captain with His Whiskers" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 228)
SHenry H660, p. 273, "The Captain with His Whiskers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 38, "The Captain with His Whiskers" (1 tune)
DT, CAPTWHSK*
Roud #2735
RECORDINGS:
Aaron Campbell's Mountaineers, "The Captain with his Whiskers" (Chamption 45038, 91935)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(38b), "The Captain with the whiskers", H. Disley (St. Giles), 1860-1883; also 2806 c.8(256), "The Captain with his whiskers," unknown, n.d.
NOTES: Although the original version of this song makes no mention of facial hair, it is the revised version ("The Captain with His Whiskers") that seems to have captured the popular fancy. - RBW
File: Wa069
===
NAME: O'Brien O'Lin: see Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)
===
NAME: O'Brien with His High-Water Pants
DESCRIPTION: "My name is OÕBrien from Harlem, I am an Irishman as you may see." As he travels around New York, people observe him and cry out, "There is O'Brien with his high-water pants." He does not seem to notice that he is being teased
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 92, "O'Brien with His High-Water Pants" (1 text)
Roud #9573
File: Dean092
===
NAME: O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)
DESCRIPTION: "Proudly the note of the trumpet is sounding, Loudly the war-cries arise on the gale... On for old Erin -- O'Donnell Aboo!" Tirconnell, and all Ireland, are urged to join O'Donnell in his fight against the English
AUTHOR: Words: Michael Joseph McCann (1824-1883)
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1843 ("The Nation")
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic battle rebellion
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1594 - outbreak of war between the Irish of Ulster and the invading English. (England had already conquered most of Ireland and was attempting to enforce Protestantism. At this time Ulster is still independent, and is fighting to remain so.) The next few years see heavy guerilla war, with both sides devastating the others' property. On the whole the Irish have the best of it, as Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, fights the English when he can and carefully buys time (with parleys and even requests for a pardon) when he cannot
1598 - Tyrone and "Red Hugh" O'Donnell, by a pincer movement, defeat the English at Yellow Ford (this is the first major success of Irish arms). Tyrone is able to call on the rest of Ireland to rebel; he is very nearly the de facto King
1599 - Essex leads an army to Ireland. Outmaneuvered by Tyrone (who uses as "scorched earth" policy to starve out the English), he wastes his army on garrisons which Tyrone besieges and defeats piecemeal. Essex, miserably defeated, goes home to England (without permission), bursts in on Elizabeth -- and winds up completely out of favor (so much so that he eventually raises a failed rebellion).
1600- Essex is replaced by Mountjoy, who sets out to isolate the Irish by building strong positions around Ulster. Tyrone's position worsens as Mountjoy's blockade pinches the people who form his power base.
1601 - Battle of Kinsale. Some 4000 Spanish troops had landed in September but let themselves be besieged at Kinsale. Tyrone, O'Donnell, and the Spanish are defeated by the English. O'Donnell (whose over-aggressiveness provoked the action) flees to Spain and abdicates his title to his brother Rory (Ruaidri).
1602 - Rory O'Donnell surrenders in December
1603 - Tyrone makes peace with England (March 30). The English have already destroyed the O'Neills; Tyrone retains only his English title. The English now rule most of Ireland. Rory O'Donnell also becomes an English lord, Earl of Tirconnell.
1607 - Tyrone, Rory O'Donnell and other Irish leaders go into exile (Tyrone had been summoned to London and feared to come). The English seize their lands in Ulster and begin colonization. Later known as the "Flight of the Earls," this was popularly regarded as the end of Irish hopes, though in fact the 1603 capitulation broke the Irish resistance
1608 - O'Doherty's Rebellion. Sir Arthur Chichester, who was responsible for the government of Ulster, had proposed a limited colonization. O'Doherty's revolt was a pinprick, but it convinced London to take over Ulster and suppress the natives.
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
O'Conor, p. 98, "O'Donnell Abu" (1 text)
PGalvin, pp. 12-13, "O'Donnell Aboo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 319, "O'Donnell Aboo" (1 text)
Healy-OISBv2, pp. 34-35, "O'Donnell Abu!!" (1 text; tune on p. 20)
DT, ODNLABU
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 507-508, "O'Donnell Aboo" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "O Donnell Aboo" (on IRClancyMakem03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2769), "O'Donnell Abu," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 b.10(216), "O'Donnell Abu"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(75a), "O'Donnell Aboo!," unknown, c.1875
SAME_TUNE:
New Words to the Tune of "O'Donnel Abu" ("Workers of Ireland, why crouch ye like ravens") (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 717-718)
NOTES: Zimmermann, p. 112 fn. 100, "According to _The Nation_, 28th January, 1843, "O'Donnell Abu" was meant to be sung to the tune 'Roderick Vick Alpine Dhu' (the 'Boat Song' in Walter Scott's _Lady of the Lake_); it became famous with another tune composed by Joseph Haliday." - BS
First published c. 1843 as "The Clanconnell War Song." The NLScotland site accepts the attribution of the tune to Haliday; few other sources cite a composer.
"Red Hugh" O'Donnell's hatred of England was based on a personal experience; as a teenager, the English had gotten him drunk and taken him prisoner. He escaped a few years later (1591), but the unfair imprisonment affected his opinions for the rest of his life (see Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, _A History of Ireland_, pp. 127-128).
The "O'Neill" of the song is Hugh, third Baron of Dungannon and second Earl of Tyrone, one of the greatest Anglo-Irish barons of the time (1551-1616). He became O'Neill in 1593 when his brother Turlough resigned him the position. Prior to that, he had held the barony of Dungannon from 1569 and the Tyrone earldom from 1587 (see Mike Cronin, _A History of Ireland_, p. 56).
Hugh O'Neill cooperated with the English more than this song might imply. He was more comfortable with English than Irish ways, having lived in Kent when his father was murdered by his half-brother Shane O'Neill, who succeeded to most of the O'Neill lands before the English suppressed him (see Terry Golway, _For the Cause of Liberty_, p. 17; Fry/Fry, pp. 117, 125). Many historians think he was initially loyal, but the threat to his position (Tudor bureaucracy looked likely to overcome the ancient clan loyalties) eventually pushed him toward rebellion. If the rebellion could be said to have a commander (a debatable point), he was it.
The English grip on Ireland still wasn't strong in the aftermath of the rebellion, which is why Tyrone was permitted to keep his earldom after 1603. But in 1607 he was summoned to London (Cronin, p. 64). Too many Irish chiefs had been summoned to London and never returned. Instead of answering the summons, he fled.
The irony is, until the rebellion, Ulster was almost entirely free of English influence. The Flight of the Earls opened Ulster to settlement -- and of course many immigrants came, mostly from Scotland. So this campaign eventually produced the Troubles that still divide Ireland. Don't ask me why an Irish nationalist would write about this most destructive of Irish failures.
It does reveal something about the typical pattern of Anglo-Irish relations, though: The British solved one problem (a bunch of rebellious noblemen) and created another (the Ulster plantation). - RBW
File: PGa012
===
NAME: O'Donnell Abu: see O'Donnell Aboo (File: PGa012)
===
NAME: O'Donnell the Avenger
DESCRIPTION: Phoenix Park defendants are convicted by informer Carey's testimony. O'Donnell kills Carey on the ship Melrose Castle bound for Africa. O'Donnell is tried for the murder, convicted and executed. "As a martyr for his native land quite bravely he did die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: betrayal homicide trial execution Africa Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Chronology of the Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmermann, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-Labrador)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, pp. 27-28, "O'Donnell, the Avenger" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads." - BS
File: OCon027
===
NAME: O'Donovan Rossa's Farewell to Dublin: see Rossa's Farewell to Erin (File: OLoc034)
===
NAME: O'Dooley's First Five O'Clock Tea
DESCRIPTION: "O'Dooley got rich on an aqueduct job And he made a considerable pile." O'Dooley celebrates with a series of parties. Someone spikes the tea at one such event, and mayhem (or at least silliness) follows. O'Dooley vows revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988 (Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous party
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 29-31, "O'Dooley's First Five O'Clock Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOOLYTEA*
Roud #12778
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Jubilee" (theme)
NOTES: Traditional? I'm not sure. This sort of drunken-Irishman song was amazingly common, and of course the Pankakes give no source information. - RBW
File: DTdoole
===
NAME: O'er the Hills and Far Away (I)
DESCRIPTION: (Jocky) the piper "learned to play when he was young," but "the a' tunes that he could play Was o'er the hills and far away." Rejected by Jenny, he laments his fate, declares "I'll never trust a woman more," and intends to spend his life playing the pipes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1706 (Pills to Purge Melancholy)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection music dancing
FOUND_IN: Britain US Australia
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Arnett, p. 17, "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan, pp. 330-334, "O'er the Hills and Far Away" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 248, "(O'er the Hills and Far Away)" (1 fragment)
Opie-Oxford2 507, "Tom, he was a piper's son" (4 texts)
Opie-Oxford2 509, "Tom, Tom, the piper's son" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #127, p. 105, "(Tom, he was a piper's son)" (a long text starting with this fragment but with a completely different set of verses about animals and people Tom -- or someone -- sees while rambling)
DT, OVRHILL4*
ST Arn017 (Full)
Roud #8460
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Over the Hills So Far Away" (lyrics)
SAME_TUNE:
The Hubble Bubble (Logan, pp. 196-198)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Jockey's Lamentation
NOTES: It has been conjectured that this is descended from one or another version of "The Elfin Knight," with which it shares a few scattered lyrics and perhaps a plaintive feeling. But it is more likely that it was inspired by, rather than descended from, the older ballad, as this appears to have been originally a broadside.
Pieces with this name are common; John Gay had one in the Beggar's Opera. This version is characterized by the lines quoted in the description, which seem to show up even in the degenerate forms such as "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (which appears to be nothing more than a dance tune; compare the Baring-Gould text). - RBW
File: Arn017
===
NAME: O'er the Moor amang the Heather: see Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor) (File: HHH177)
===
NAME: O'Halloran Road, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks half a century back to "a cold Saint Patrick's Day, With my father and my mother then And children we just numbered ten." He thought they were lost until "I heard my father say, 'Here's the O'Halloran Road! This is the way [home]'"
AUTHOR: Dan Riley
EARLIEST_DATE: 1996 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: home lyric family father travel
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 237-239, 252, "The O'Halloran Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13993
NOTES: Ives-DullCare: "Gavin's Cross ['And when we came to Gavin's Cross Us children thought that we were lost'] ... is present day Bloomfield Corner ... where the O'Halloran Road branches off from the Western Road." 
Bloomfield Corner is near the north coast of Prince County, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: IvDC237
===
NAME: O'Houlihan
DESCRIPTION: "One day while walking down the street, I met O'Houlihan." O'Houlihan offers to place a bet on the races for the singer; the horse wins, but O'Houlihan never produces the cash. O'Houlihan finds other ways to bilk the singer. The singer promises revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: gambling trick clothes revenge
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 189-191, "O'Houlihan" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MCB189
===
NAME: O'Reilly from the County Leithrim: see O'Reilly from the County Leitrim (File: HHH580)
===
NAME: O'Reilly from the County Leitrim
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a pretty girl and asks her to marry; she says she prefers to live single. He calls her beautiful, and wishes he had her somewhere else. She turns him down again; he is foolish to ask. He says his heart will break, and leaves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Joyce); c.1835 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 340)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H580, pp. 357-358, "Farewell, Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 94, "O'Reilly from the County Leithrim" or "The Phoenix of Erin's Green Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 128, "Young Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4720
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Youghal Harbour" (on IREButcher01)
Mary Delaney, "Phoenix Island" (on IRTravellers01)
Martin Reidy, "O'Reilly from the County Kerry" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 340, "Young Riley ("As I was walking through the county of Cavan"), Frederick Edwards (London), c.1835; also  2806 b.9(31), "O'Reilly from the Co Cavan" or "The Phoenix of Erius Green Isle," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; Harding B 26(486), "O'Reilly from the Co. Kerry" or "The Phoenix of Erin's Green Isle"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Peggy Gordon" (lyrics in common with the "Youth and Folly" texts)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
O'Reilly from the County Kerry
When First I Came to County Limerick
NOTES: "O'Reilly from the County Leitrim" shares many lines with "John (George) Riley (II) [Laws N37]." The difference between the ballads is that in this one the man is not the Reilly she has been waiting for for five years so she won't go with him to Pennsylvania.
Maybe this is what Laws N37 points to for "John (George) Riley II": "According to Cox, this is a modified form of the "Young Riley" ballad found on broadsides by Catnach, Such, no. 83, and Fortey, no. 341 (Harvard VI, 186)."
The lyrics of the first four verses of Pete Seeger's "John Riley" on PeteSeeger02 [John (George) Riley (II) [Laws N37]] and Martin Reidy's "O'Reilly from the County Kerry" on IRClare01 are very close. As noted above, the ballad endings are completely different; in the middle, Seeger's Pennsylvania is "Phoenix Island" here.
Mary Delaney's "Phoenix Island" on IRTravellers01 ends with the rejected suitor wishing to witness the girl's funeral and the girl answering that that will not happen.
Also collected and sung by Kevin Mitchell, "O'Reilly from the County Cavan" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
File: HHH580
===
NAME: O'Reilly the Fisherman: see Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)
===
NAME: O'Reilly's Daughter
DESCRIPTION: The narrator "shags" landlord or bartender O'Reilly's daughter, then assaults father, mother or both.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex family mother father homosexuality
FOUND_IN: Australia Britain(England) Ireland US(Ro,So,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Cray, pp. 101-105, "O'Reilly's Daughter" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 137-140, "One-Eyed Reilly" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Logsdon 53, pp. 249-252, "One-Eyed Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, p. 838, "(One-Eyed Riley)" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment of a raftsman's song, so short that it might be this or something else. The lyrics are different, but the feeling is similar)
Silber-FSWB, p. 172, "Reilly's Daughter" (1 text)
DT, REILLY1*
Roud #1161
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Went Down to New Orleans"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Reilly's Daughter
NOTES: Annotator Legman (pp. 138-139) includes the text of "The Rover," which he dates to 1790, as the forerunner of the modern bawdy ballad. The "C" text in Randolph-Legman I is only coincidentally "One-Eyed Reilly." - EC
This exists in an extremely bowdlerized version [in which the singer wants to "marry" rather than "shag" the daughter, and in which the daughter is the only one to receive his attentions], which was made popular by the Clancy Bros. in the 1960s. The [Silber] entry is that song. - PJS - RBW
Logsdon observes that T. S. Eliot included a verse of this in _The Cocktail Party_.- RBW
File: EM101
===
NAME: O'Ryan (Orion, The Poacher)
DESCRIPTION: "O'Ryan was a man of might when Ireland was a nation." A poacher, he gives a meal to St. Patrick and is promised a place in heaven in return. Told there is good hunting there, he accepts. Now the other constellations fear his shillelagh
AUTHOR: Charles G. Halpine (per O'Conor)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: hunting food humorous
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H823, pp. 58-59, "O'Ryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 23-24, "The Poacher" (1 text)
Roud #13364
NOTES: Needless to say, the mythology in this song is distorted  (as is the astronomy, for that matter; Venus, Mars, and Orion follow separate courses. Even so, the author must have known some astronomy, as he mentions "a lion, two bears, a bull, and cancer" among the constellations -- i.e . Leo, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Taurus, and Cancer the crab).
The story of Orion varies according to different sources, but it is generally agreed that the goddess Eos, not Aphrodite, went after him, and in the end it was Artemis who killed him.
The timing is also wrong, even if you allow that "Ireland was [once] a nation" (it wasn't). Saint Patrick was active in the fifth century of the Christian Era, and we have references to Orion as far back as Homer (Iliad xviii.488 mentions his place in the constellations, and Odysseus encounters his spirit in Odyssey xi.572). - RBW
File: HHH823
===
NAME: O'Shaughanesey: see Brakeman on the Train (File: LLab099)
===
NAME: O'Shaughnessy: see Brakeman on the Train (File: LLab099)
===
NAME: Oak and the Ash, The: see A North Country Maid; also Ambletown, Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43B)
===
NAME: Oak Grows Big, The
DESCRIPTION: "The oak grows big, The pine grows tall; You are my choice Among them all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love playparty
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 231, (second of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
NOTES: Although I don't recognize this and can't find another version, I would bet a good deal that it is part of a singing game. - RBW
File: MHAp231B
===
NAME: Oaks of Jimderia, The: see Long Eddy Waltz, The (File: FSC132)
===
NAME: Oats and Beans
DESCRIPTION: Playparty ."Oats, (peas/and), beans, and barley grow... Do you or I or anyone know... How oats and beans and barley grow." The farmer plants the seed and waits for harvest; young couples marry and must obey each other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty marriage farming
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All), Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Linscott, pp. 46-47, "On the Green Carpet" (1 text, 1 tune, which seems to mix "Green Carpet" and "Oats and Beans)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 84, "(Oats and beans and barley grows)" (1 text)
DT, OATSBEAN (OATSPEAS*)
Roud #1380
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Oats, Peas, Beans
Oats and Beans and Barley Grow
NOTES: Gomme has a table (Volume II, p. 11) showing the distribution of the various crops: Oats, beans, barley, wheat, groats, hops. The second Digital Tradition version comes close to the status of parody. - RBW
File: DToatsbe
===
NAME: Oats and Beans and Barely Grow: see Oats and Beans (File: DToatsbe)
===
NAME: Oats, Peas, Beans: see Oats and Beans (File: DToatsbe)
===
NAME: Ocean Burial, The
DESCRIPTION: The dying sailor speaks of his loved ones and pleads with his shipmates not to be buried at sea. They do it anyway
AUTHOR: Words: Rev. Edwin H. Chapin
EARLIEST_DATE: 1839 (Southern Literary Messenger; set to music 1850)
KEYWORDS: burial death dying sailor
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 162-163, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 437, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 139-143, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 55, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text)
BrownII 261, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 245-248, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 151-152, "Bury Me Not in the Deep Deep Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Fuld, pp. 396-398, "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie"
ST FR437 (Full)
Roud #3738
RECORDINGS:
Eugene Jemison, "The Ocean Burial" (on Jem01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1850 470190, "The Ocean Burial," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1850 (tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" [Laws B2] (rework of this piece)
NOTES: The 1850 sheet music of this piece credits the entire thing to George N. Allen. Since the poem was published under Edwin H. Chapin's name (as "The Ocean Buried!"), this must mean that Allen set the music. Allen's tune, however, is NOT what we know as "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie." Nor is it the related tune Gordon Bok calls the "Texas Song" (see the index entry on "Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament)."
To add to the confusion, Belden lists the author as William H. Sanders, based apparently on Fulton and Trueblood's _Choice Readings_.
The singer Ossian Dodge is reported to have been performing the piece as early as 1845. I have been unable to determine the tune he used.
On the whole, I think we must list the author of the music to this piece as "unknown."
Laws does not include this piece as one of his ballads, but gives a text (from oral tradition!) in NAB, pp. 80-81. - RBW
And just to add to the confusion, see the sheet music for "The Sailor Boy's Grave" in the Lester Levy collection, where the boy asks *not* to be buried on land, but rather "let me sleep 'neath the silent waves/The sea-nymphs watching over me." That is credited to "J. Martin, Esq. (of Clifton)," and carries a date of 1841; it seems to be an "answer song" to "The Ocean Burial," although the latter had apparently not yet been set to music. The tune is not the same as "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie," and is in fact rather dull. - PJS
References for "The Sailor Boy's Grave":
LOCSheet, sm1841 381040, "The Sailor Boy's Grave," F. D. Benteen (Boston), 1841; also sm1841 381050, sm1845 401960, "The Sailor Boy's Grave" (tune)
LOCSinging, as112080, "The Sailor Boy's Grave," Thos. G. Doyle (Baltimore), 19C - BS
File: FR437
===
NAME: Ocean is Wide, The
DESCRIPTION: "The ocean is wide an' you cain't step over it, I love you true, an' you cain't help it." "Sure as the grass grows round the stump, You're my darlin' sugar lump." "The ocean is wide, an' you cain't jump it, If your folks don't like it, they can lump it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926
KEYWORDS: love playparty nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 580, "The Ocean Is Wide" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 238, (no title) (1 short text, "The ocean is wide, The sea is deep, And in your arms I love to sleep." The form looks different from Randolph's, but with only three lines and a similar theme, I don't see how to split them)
Roud #7669
File: R580
===
NAME: Ocean Queen
DESCRIPTION: Ocean Queen is lost in rough weather in winter on George's Banks. The crew are all drowned. The captain's wife is left alone; "there's fathers, sons, and brothers that drowned in the deep."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: drowning death mourning sea ship storm wreck wife family sailor disaster
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 27, 1851 - The Ocean Queen, out of Gloucester, sinks at George's Bank (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-NovaScotia 136, "Ocean Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS136 (Partial)
Roud #1835
NOTES: Although the Northern Shipwrecks Database may have found the original wreck described in this song, there are difficulties. Bruce D. Berman's _Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks_ (Mariner's Press, 1972) does not list the wreck; neither does Kenneth Hudson & Ann Nicholls, _Tragedy on the High Seas_ (A & W Publhers, 1979), though the latter is not intended to be comprehensive.
What's more William Ratigan's _Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals_ (revised edition, Eerdmans, 1977), pp. 196-198, prints a different song (reportedly by Kate Weaver) about the wreck of a ship named _Ocean Queen_ (which, in this case, perishes by fire). But Ratigan says there was no known disaster involving an _Ocean Queen_. Griffith thinks the ship involved was actually the _G. P. Griffith_, which burned (according to Berman, p. 245) with the loss of 286 lives on June 17, 1850 -- almost the same time as the George's Bank wreck, note. One has to think there is confusion in there somewhere -- though more likely involving Ratigan's song than this one.
Incidentally, the name _Ocean Queen_ seems to have been singularly ill-fated (a mariner might perhaps explain this on the grounds that the name would be an offense to the sea goddess); in addition to the ships listed above,  Leonard F. Guttridge, _Mutiny: A History of Naval Insurrection_, (Naval Institute Press, 1992;  use the 2002 Berkley edition), p.120fff., tells of a mailship, the _Ocean Queen_, which suffered an attempted mutiny in 1864 -- nearly the only genuine mutiny in American nautical history. - RBW
File: CrNS136
===
NAME: Och, Och, Eire, O!
DESCRIPTION: The Irish exile misses home and his "native bay." He recalls the races and games at Christmas. The new home is "lonely and drear"; there is no call of the corncrake. He wishes he had a boat to row back home
AUTHOR: English translation by Eleanor Hull
EARLIEST_DATE: 1895 (for the Gaelic version; Gaelic Journal)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H819, pp. 219-220, "Och, Och, Eire, O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH819
===
NAME: Ode to Newfoundland
DESCRIPTION: Known by the last verse, "As loved our fathers, so we love, Where once they stood we stand, Their prayer we raise to heav'n above, God guard thee, Newfoundland"
AUTHOR: Words: Sir Cavendish Boyle/Music: C. Hubert H. Parry
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (Doyle)
KEYWORDS: nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Doyle3, p. 7, "Ode to Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, Front-Cover, "The Ode to Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7304
NOTES: "The National Anthem of Newfoundland, written by Sir Cavendish Boyle ... while he was Britain's Governor of Newfoundland between 1901 and 1904 .... First public performance... 1902" [per GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site] - BS
It should be recalled that, at that time, Newfoundland was not a part of the Dominion of Canada. - RBW
File: Doyl3007
===
NAME: Of All the Birds
DESCRIPTION: "Of all the birds that ever I see, the owle is the fairest in her degree, For all the day she sits in a tree... Te-whit, te-whow, to whom drinks thou... Nose, nose, nose, nose, And who gave thee thy jolly red nose? Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves."
AUTHOR: Thomas Ravenscroft?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1609 (Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: bird drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 141-142, "Of All the Birds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 50, "Of all the gay birds that e'er I did see" (1 text) 
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #248, p. 155, "(Of all the gay birds that e'er I did see"); #138, p. 114, ("Nose, nose, jolly red nose")
DT, ALLBIRDS
Roud #496
NOTES: This piece is a curiosity. Published by Ravenscroft, I've never seen a collection from tradition (Roud lists a couple which I cannot verify). But, in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act I, scene v, lines 45-46, we find Old Merrythought singing,
Nose, nose, jolly red nose,
And who gave thee this jolly red nose?
And in lines 51-52, Merrythought follows this up with
Nutmegs and ginger, cinnamon and cloves;
And they gave me this jolly red nose.
Merrythought's songs, where they can be identified at all, are mostly traditional pieces -- and we note that his words are not identical to Ravenscroft's. Nor is the Baring-Gould text identical. This raises at least the possibility that the song is traditional. So I've include it here.
The real question is the relationship between the stanzas. Ravenscroft includes "Of all the birds" and "Nose, nose, (jolly red) nose" in one item. The Baring-Goulds split them, but based on books more recent than Ravenscroft's. If they are songs at all, are they two joined by Ravenscroft or one split by tradition? - RBW
File: ChWI141
===
NAME: Of All The Gay Birds That E'er I Did See: see Of All the Birds (File: ChWI141)
===
NAME: Off to Epsom Races: see Epsom Races (File: K318)
===
NAME: Off to Sea Once More (I): see Dixie Brown [Laws D7] (File: LD07)
===
NAME: Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie
DESCRIPTION: Singer says that one old woman in the town is lying about her, and wishes the old woman would die. "Been all around this whole round world/I just got back today.... Oh, babe, it ain't no lie (x3), (Know) this life I'm living is very (hard/high)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (recording, Elizabeth Cotten)
KEYWORDS: lie nonballad floatingverses hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 121, "Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 184, "Oh, Babe, It Ain't No Lie" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" (on Cotten01)
NOTES: Elizabeth Cotten learned this song from country blues singers around Chapel Hill, NC. - PJS
I would note that the versions I've heard of this piece are very diverse; most seem to consist of floating lyrics (or at least themes) held together by the chorus "Oh babe, it ain't no lie." - RBW
File: CSW121
===
NAME: Oh But I'm Weary
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, but I'm weary, weary waitin'... Oh, mither, gie me a man Will tak this weariness away." The mother suggests a plowman, mason, miller, etc.; the daughter rejects each (e.g. a plowman's wife works too hard); she wants a man who lives "by the pen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: mother children marriage work
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 150, "Oh, But I'm Weary" (1 text)
Roud #5555
NOTES: One rather suspects this was written by some weedy young poet trying to convince a girl he was a better catch than a more handsome fellow with a lower-class job.
Wish I'd thought of that trick way back when.... - RBW
File: Ord150
===
NAME: Oh California
DESCRIPTION: "I come from Salem City with my washbowl on my knee. I'm going to California The gold dust for to see." A parody of "Oh! Susanna," telling of the sea voyage to San Francisco. The singer of course expects to get rich
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: gold derivative humorous ship travel
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1849 - California gold rush
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 114-117, "I Come from Salem City" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OHCALIF*
Roud #8824
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune)
File: ShaSS114
===
NAME: Oh Charlie, O Charlie: see Charlie, O Charlie (Pitgair) (File: Ord216)
===
NAME: Oh Death (I): see Death and the Lady (File: ShH22)
===
NAME: Oh Death (II): see Conversation with Death (Oh Death) (File: R663)
===
NAME: Oh Death (III)
DESCRIPTION: Known mostly by the chorus, "(Oh death/Lord), Spare me over till another year." Despite the worries about dying, the singer praises the afterlife; God or Jesus or someone will has "made for me a home in heaven," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 201-203, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OHDEATH*
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Conversation with Death (Oh Death)" (lyrics)
NOTES: Although this shares lyrics with "Conversation with Death (Oh Death)," the feeling is very different. - RBW
File: ThBa201
===
NAME: Oh dem Golden Slippers: see Golden Slippers (File: RJ19144)
===
NAME: Oh Fudge, Tell the Judge
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, fudge, Tell the judge, Mother's got a baby. Oh, joy, It's a boy, Father's nearly crazy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid)
KEYWORDS: mother father baby judge nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 239, (no title) (1 short text)
File: MHAp239C
===
NAME: Oh Judy, Oh Judy
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Judy [Judas], oh Judy, hit's time that I go, I know you will 'tray me though I love you so." Jesus tells Judas to buy food for the poor, but Judas sells Jesus. Jesus condemns Judas for his betrayal
AUTHOR: unknown ("collected" by John Jacob Niles)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: Jesus betrayal death money
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Niles 16C, "Oh Judy, Oh Judy" (1 text, which Niles considers part of Child 23, but this is clearly not the case)
File: Niles16C
===
NAME: Oh Lily, Dear Lily
DESCRIPTION: "My foot is in the stirrup, My bridle's in my hand, I'll go court another And marry if I can. Oh Lily, oh Lily, my Lily fare you well. I'm sorry to leave you, For I love you so well." "So fare you well, (Molly), I'll bid you adieu, I'm ruined forever..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: love separation floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 731, "Oh Lily, Dear Lily" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
BrownII 139, "Sweet Lily" (1 text)
Roud #7583
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. ""The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell, Sweet Mary" (floating lyrics)
cf. "My Foot Is in the Stirrup"
NOTES: I don't think there is a single line in Randolph's texts that is not paralleled elsewhere. But he treats this as a separate song, and he collected it, so I follow his lead. Similarly the longer version in Brown; the editors give notes about all the various parallels. The possibility must be admitted, however, that this is a worn-down form of something else -- or even that Randolph's two versions, and Brown's one, are separate pieces. - RBW
File: R731
===
NAME: Oh Lord, What a Morning: see When the Stars Begin to Fall (File: LoF237)
===
NAME: Oh Molly, I Can't Say That You're Honest
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Molly, I can't say that you're honest, You've stolen my heart from my breast." "I know that you father is stingy... 'Tis mighty small change that you'll bring me Exceptin' the change of your name." He throws a rock at her window to say he was there
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: love courting father mother humorous
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H82, p. 262, "An Irish Serenade" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 14, "Oh Molly, I Can't Say You're Honest" (1 text)
Roud #6918
File: HHH082
===
NAME: Oh Mother, Take the Wheel Away
DESCRIPTION: "Oh (mother/father), take the (wheel/cow) away And put it out of sight, For I am heavy-hearted And I cannot (spin/milk) tonight." The rest of the song apparently concerns the lover the singer has lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation work
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 814, "Oh Mother, Take the Wheel Away" (2 fragments)
Roud #7430
NOTES: This is probably a fragment/remnant of something else -- but Randolph's texts are so fragmentary that we cannot tell what. - RBW
File: R814
===
NAME: Oh My Darling Clementine: see Clementine (File: RJ19148)
===
NAME: Oh My Little Darling
DESCRIPTION: "Oh my little darling, don't you weep and cry/Some sweet day a-coming, marry you and I" "Oh my little darling, don't you weep and moan/Some sweet day a-coming, take my baby home" "Up and down the railroad, 'cross the county line..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (recorded from Thaddeus C. Willingham)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness courting love marriage reunion separation dancetune nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Thaddeus C. Willingham, "Oh My Little Darling" (on AFS 3115 B1, 1939)
Mike Seeger, "Oh My LIttle Darling" (on MSeeger01)
NOTES: Nonballad, but it's attained sufficient popularity among old-time musicians, beginning with Mike Seeger, to warrant its inclusion. - PJS
File: RcOMLD
===
NAME: Oh Then: see I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)
===
NAME: Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?: see Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (plus related references, e.g. The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76]) (File: C076A)
===
NAME: Oh Write Me Down, Ye Powers Above: see Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)
===
NAME: Oh Ye Young, Ye Gay, Ye Proud
DESCRIPTION: "Oh ye young, ye gay, ye proud, You must die and wear a shroud, Death will rob you of your bloom, He will drag you to the tomb, Then you'll cry I want to be Happy in eternity."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 639, "Oh Ye Young, Ye Gay, Ye Proud" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7564
File: R639
===
NAME: Oh You Caint Go to Heaven: see Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More (File: R300)
===
NAME: Oh You Who Are Able....
DESCRIPTION: "Oh you who are able go out to the stable And throw down your horses some corn If you don't do it the sergeant will know it And report you to General Van Dorn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: Civilwar horse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 1862 - Earl Van Dorn appointed to command the Confederate armies in Missouri and Arkansas
Mar 7-8, 1862 - Battle of Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern. Despite superior numbers, Van Dorn cannot dislodge the Federals
Oct 3-4, 1862 - Battle of Corinth. Van Dorn abandons the field after failing to break the Federal line. Although cleared of charges of mismanagement, he is transferred to the cavalry
May 8, 1863 - Murder of Van Dorn, allegedly for seducing the wife of a local resident
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 250, "Oh You Who Are Able..." (1 fragment)
Roud #7716
NOTES: I can't escape the feeling that this song is somehow connected to Van Dorn's reputation as a flashy ladies' man without a great deal of depth or ability (Shelby Foote, _The Civil War: A Narrative; Volume I, Fort Sumter to Perryville_, p. 725, quotes an unnamed senator as saying, "He is the source of all our woes, and disaster, it is prophesied, will attend us as long as he is connected with this army. The atmosphere is dense with horrid narratives of his negligence, whoring, and drunkenness, for the truth of which I cannot vouch; but it is so fastened in the public belief that an acquittal by a court-marshal of angels would not relieve him of the charge." Indeed, Van Dorn would later be murdered by an irate husband who accused him of an affair with his wife. And he lost both of his major battles as an infantry commander, at Pea Ridge and Corinth). But I can't prove the connection based on the fragment I've seen.
There is a fragment in Fred W. Allsopp, _Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II_ (1931), p. 227, "It was at the battle of Elkhorn, Van Dorn he lost his hat, And for about a half a mile He laid the bushes flat." I can't identify it with anything else; the mention of the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern might connect it with "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, or The Pea Ridge Battle [Laws A12]," or perhaps with one of the General Price songs -- but if I had to guess, I'd guess it goes here; the feeling is right. - RBW
File: R250
===
NAME: Oh, Absalom, My Son: see David's Lamentation (File: FSWB412B)
===
NAME: Oh, Baby, 'Low Me One More Chance
DESCRIPTION: "A burly coon you know Who took his clothes an' go, Come back las' night. But his wife said, 'Honey, I'se done wid coon, I'se gwine to pass for white.'" He promises to reform, to be satisfied with little, even to do the cooking. She does not relent
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: abandonment home rejection
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 275-276, (no title) (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" (theme)
NOTES: Sort of a "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" with the gender roles reversed and the proper ending to the piece. - RBW
File: ScNF275B
===
NAME: Oh, Be Ready When the Train Comes In
DESCRIPTION: "We are soldiers in this blessed war, For Jesus we are marching on, With a shout and song." "We are sweeping on to claim the blessed promise... Oh, be ready when the train comes in." Harlots, idolaters, loafers, jokers will not be allowed aboard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 258, "Oh, Be Ready When the Train Comes In" (1 text)
NOTES: Very little of this is actually Biblical (smoking, e.g., is not mentioned in the Bible, and the Bible isn't entirely unhumorous -- the book of Jonah, e.g., contains many farcical elements). The one fairly clear allusion is to the "land of Beulah" -- a reference to Isaiah 62:4, where the King James version leaves the word beulah -- "married" -- untranslated. - RBW
File: ScaNF258
===
NAME: Oh, Bedad Then, Says I: see I Don't Mind If I Do (File: MA263)
===
NAME: Oh, Brother Will You Meet Me?: see probably The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)
===
NAME: Oh, Captain, Captain, Tell Me True: see The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)
===
NAME: Oh, Dat Watermilion: see Watermelon on the Vine (File: Br3454)
===
NAME: Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?
DESCRIPTION: "Oh dear, what can the matter be? (x3), Johnny's so long at the fair." Johnny had promised to bring the singer various gifts, such as "blue ribbons... to tie up my bonny brown hair," but he is long in coming
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1792
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain US(SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
BrownIII 122, "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 85, "Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 280, "Johnny shall have a new bonnet" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #158, p. 118, "(Johnny shall have a new bonnet)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 150, "Oh, Dear! What Can the Matter Be"" (1 text)
Fuld-FFM, pp. 398-399, "Oh! Dear, What Can the Matter Be?"
DT, ODEARWHA* ODEARWH2
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #78, "Oh! Dear1" (1 text)
Roud #1279
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(103/104), "Dear! What Can the Matter Be," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2743), Harding B 11(2743), "Oh! Dear What Can the Matter Be"
LOCSinging, sb10024a, "Bunch of Blue Ribbons," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sailor Boy (A Sailor Boy in Blue)" (theme)
cf. "Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint)" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Seven Old Ladies (File: EM119)
Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint) (File: Moyl038)
NOTES: Fuld reports this song appearing, almost as if by magic, in sundry editions and manuscripts between 1770 and 1792. None list authors, and few can be dated exactly. The origin of this song, clearly more popular for its tune than its banal lyrics, must therefore remain a mystery. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10024a: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: FSWB150B
===
NAME: Oh, Freedom!: see O Freedom (File: LxU108)
===
NAME: Oh, Give Me a Hut: see Give Me a Hut (File: MA137)
===
NAME: Oh, Give Me a Hut in My Own Native Land: see Give Me a Hut (File: MA137)
===
NAME: Oh, Ho, Baby, Take a One On Me!: see Take a Whiff on Me; also perhaps Take a Drink on Me (File: RL130)
===
NAME: Oh, Honey, Where You Been So Long?
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, honey, where you been so long? Oh, honey, where you been so long? 'I been round the bend and I come back again, Oh, honey, where you been so long?" "Oh, honey, where you been so long? (x2) And it's when I return with a ten dollar bill, it's Honey..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad return money
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 317, "Oh, Honey, Where You Been So Long?" (1 short text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (lyrics)
NOTES: Every word of Brown's text of this is found in "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground," and my first inclination was to include it as a worn-down version of that song. But the notes in Brown say there is a longer version in Gordon, so here it sits. Tentatively. - RBW
File: Br3317
===
NAME: Oh, How He Lied
DESCRIPTION: An "old villain" sits by a girl and smokes his cigar. She plays her guitar. "He told her he loved her but oh how he lied." They agree to marry, "but she up and died." She goes to heaven, he to hell ("sizzle, he fried"), listeners are warned against lies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Joe Foss & his Hungry Sand Lappers)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage music death lie Hell humorous
FOUND_IN: US Australia
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 130-131, "Don't Tell a Lie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 257, "She Sat on Her Hammock" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 31, "Oh, How He Lied" (1 text)
DT, HELIED*
Roud #13621
RECORDINGS:
Joe Foss & his Hungry Sand Lappers, "Oh How She Lied" (Columbia 15268-D, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Oh How He Lied" (on PeteSeeger31)
NOTES: Meredith/Covell/Brown notes that the tune for this is a waltz by Joseph Granz Karl Lanner. - RBW
File: FSWB031B
===
NAME: Oh, How They Frisk It: see Under the Greenwood Tree (File: ChWIII053)
===
NAME: Oh, I Used to Drink Beer
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I used to drink beer, But I throwed it all away (x3), Oh I used to drink beer, But I throwed it all away, And now I'm free at last." "Oh, I used to chew tobacco." "Oh, I used to love sin." "Oh, I gave hell a shake When I came out de wilderness."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 618, "Oh, I Used To Drink Beer" (1 text)
Roud #11920
NOTES: The real keyword for this song should probably be "obnoxious-unconvincing-moralizer." I don't drink or smoke -- but this is the sort of song that almost makes me wish I did. - RBW
File: Br3618
===
NAME: Oh, I Wish I Were Single Again: see I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again (File: Wa126)
===
NAME: Oh, I'll Never Go With Riley Any More
DESCRIPTION: Singer's friend Riley, just paid, invites him on a spree; they wind up in a fight. Riley punches a policeman; the singer ends up jail. Riley gets killed: "Oh, he thought the wire was dead/But it was full of life instead." Singer won't go with Riley again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (recording, Pat Ford)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer's friend Riley, just paid, invites him on a spree; they wind up in a fight. Riley punches a policeman but the singer, badly bruised, gets put in jail. Riley, meanwhile, gets killed: "Oh, he thought the wire was dead/But it was full of life instead." Singer says he'll never go out with Riley any more
KEYWORDS: fight prison death technology drink injury friend police
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #15473
RECORDINGS:
Pat Ford, "Oh, I'll never go [out] with Riley anymore" (AFS 4211 A3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES: The [AMMEM] index includes the word "out" in the title, but the page devoted to the item itself does not. - PJS
File: RcOINGOW
===
NAME: Oh, Johnny, Johnny
DESCRIPTION: A conversation between two former lovers, comprised mostly of floating lyrics. The singer tells Johnny that she loves him; he was the first boy she ever loved. He tells her that she betrayed him, and he now has a new sweetheart. He regrets her infidelity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H16, pp. 392-393, "Oh Johnny, Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Fair and Tender Ladies" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Tavern in the Town" (floating lyrics"
NOTES: If one had deliberately set out to create an amalgam of every lost love cliche in folk song, one could hardly do better than this. Without even trying, I observe elements of "Waly, Waly," "Love is Teasing," the "Tavern in the Town" cluster, and "Fair and Tender Ladies," as well as parallels to everything from "Peggy Gordon"  to "Barbara Allen."
I suppose one of these songs is the "original," and all the others simply offered verses to be incorporated into the whole, but at this point there is no telling the original source. - RBW
File: HHH016
===
NAME: Oh, Lawd, How Long: see Oh, Lord, How Long (File: R615)
===
NAME: Oh, Lord, How Long
DESCRIPTION: "Before this time another year, I may be (dead and) gone, Down in some lonesome graveyard, Oh Lord, how long!" "Just as the tree falls, just so it lies; Just as the sinner lives, just so he dies." "My mother broke the ice and gone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Odette & Ethel)
KEYWORDS: religious death family nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 615, "Oh Lord, How Long!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 586-587, "Oh, Lawd, How Long?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, p. 169, "Oh Lord, How Long?" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R615 (Full)
Roud #7546
RECORDINGS:
Sister L. Brown & congregation "Before This Time, Another Year" (on MuSouth09)
The Chosen Gospel Singers, "Before This Time Another Year" (Specialty 848, n.d.)
Cleveland Simmons and Mr. Taylor, "I May Be Gone" (AAFS 422 A2, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
Odette & Ethel, "Befo' This Time Another Year" (Columbia 14169-D, 1926)
NOTES: This is really a chorus with extra lyrics. Bessie Jones sang a version with irregular lines (interspersed with the phrase "how long"?), which broke into the chorus at random intervals. The Lomax text proceeds in double lines, but of different lengths. Some of the versions are regular. But the song is recognized by the chorus "Before this time another year, I may be gone...." - RBW
File: R615
===
NAME: Oh, Lord, I'se Steppin' HIgher
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lord, I'se steppin' higher; Doan' let de ladder break. Saint Peter, open up de do' An' gib mah han' a shake!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 619, "Oh, Lord, I'se Steppin' Higher" (1 text)
Roud #11922
File: Br3619
===
NAME: Oh, Lord, Send Us a Blessing
DESCRIPTION: "Oh Lord, send us a blessing, And oh Lord, send us a blessing, And oh Lord, send us a blessing, And send it down today."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 649, "Oh, Lord, Send Us a Blessing" (1 fragment)
Roud #7570
File: R649
===
NAME: Oh, Love is Teasin': see Love is Teasing (File: Rits024)
===
NAME: Oh, Lovely, Come This Way
DESCRIPTION: "I had an old shoe, it had no heel (x3), I looked like a preacher with a mouthful of meal." "Oh, lovely, come this way (x3), Never let the wheels of the church roll away."  Other verses often extravagant and floating, e.g. "Whip old Satan round the stump"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty floatingverses devil clothes
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 98, "Oh, Lovely, Come This Way" (1 text)
Roud #8372
NOTES: About half of the verses in Brown are paralleled in the Woodie Brothers recording "Chased Old Satan Through the Door," but as that piece has a different chorus, form, and apparent purpose, I classify them separately. - RBW
File: Br3098
===
NAME: Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep
DESCRIPTION: "If I could I surely would Stand on the rock where Moses stood, Pharaoh's army got drowned, Oh Mary don't you weep." Verses describing the Exodus and how God cares for humanity, with the "Pharaoh's army..." chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (recording, Fisk University Male Quartette)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
BrownIII 545, "Pharaoh's Army" (4 texts, mostly short)
Sandburg, pp. 476-477, "Pharaoh's Army Got Drowned" (1 short text, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 200, "Pharaoh's Army Got Drownded" (1 short text, with chorus "Pharaoh's army got drowned In the deep blue sea"; it might be a separate song, but is too short to classify on its own.)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 78, "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 354, "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (1 text)
DT, OHMARY
Roud #11823
RECORDINGS:
Biddleville Quintette, "Pharoah's Army Got Drowned" (QRS 7073, 1929)
Birmingham Jubilee Singers, "Pharoah's Army Got Drowned" (Columbia 14203-D, 1927)
Leo Boswell & Merritt Smith, "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" (Supertone 2825, n.d.)
Fisk University Male Quartette, "O Mary, Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn" (Columbia A1895, 1915)
Georgia Yellow Hammers, "Mary Don't You Weep" (Victor 20928, 1927)
Morris Family, "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" (Vocalion 5465, 1940)
Richmond Starlight Quartette, "Mary, Don't You Weep" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
Pete Seeger, "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep" (on PeteSeeger15, 2 versions) (on PeteSeeger17); "Mary Don't You Weep" (on PeteSeeger24);  "O Mary Don't You Weep" (on PeteSeeger26)
Southern Four, "Good News, Chariot's Comin'! and O Mary, Doan You Weep" (Edison 50885, 1921)
Ex-Governor Alf Taylor & his Old Limber Quartet, "Pharoah's Army Got Drownded" (Victor 19451, 1924)
Virginia Female Jubilee Singers, "O Mary, Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn" (OKeh 4430, 1921)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Can'cha Line 'Em" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't You Hear My Hammer Ringing" (lyrics)
cf. "Heaven and Hell" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Lord, I Never Will Come Back Here No Mo'" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Although loosely based on the stories of the Exodus, there is a lot that is non-Biblical here (e.g. there is no reference in the New Testament to Mary ever wearing a chain. The closest reference I can think of is Luke 2:25, where Simeon tells Mary, "A sword will pierce your own soul too").
The reference to the "rock where Moses stood" is, I believe, to Ex. 17:5, where Moses stood on the rock and struck it to bring forth water.
Moses, according to modern interpretations, did not "smite" the Red Sea (or "Sea of Reeds"), but in Ex. 14:15 he may have stretched the staff over the sea (in Ex. 14:21, 26-27 he simply "stretched his hand over the sea"; it's worth noting that most scholars think there are two mixed accounts here, one where a wind blew the water aside and one where the waters miraculously parted).
God gave the sign of the [rain]bow in Gen. 9:13f. - RBW
In every version I've heard of this song, the word in the chorus is "drownded," not "drowned." - PJS
Same here. On the other hand, I've only heard Pop Folk sorts of versions. Of Brown's four versions, two (including the most substantial) have "drowned," two have "drowneded." - RBW
File: San476
===
NAME: Oh, Mister Revel (Did You Ever See the Devil?)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mr. Revel! Did you ever see the devil With wooden spade and shovel A-digging up the gravel With his long toe-nail?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: devil work nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
BrownIII 141, "Oh, Mr. Revel" (2 short texts)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 284, (no title) (2 fragments)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 252, "Did Ye Ever See the Divil" (1 short text)
Roud #16319
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Did You Ever, Ever, Ever" (theme)
File: Br3141
===
NAME: Oh, My God, Them 'Taters: see Whoa Back, Buck (File: LxU067)
===
NAME: Oh, No, Not I
DESCRIPTION: A "Newfoundland sailor" and a noble lady meet. He asks her to marry; she say, "Oh, no, not I"; his birth is too low. When she bears a child nine months later, she writes to ask him to come back; he tells her, "Oh, no, not I," and bids her go begging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1375))
KEYWORDS: pregnancy separation rejection marriage nobility
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf,Que)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Fowke-Lumbering #56, "No, My Boy, Not I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 304-305, "Oh No, Not I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 112, "Hello, My Boy, Not I" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARRYNO
Roud #1403
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1375), "No, My Love, Not I," J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.18(293), Firth b.34(208), Firth b.34(97), Harding B 11(2715), Harding B 17(220b), "No, My Love, Not I"; Firth c.13(169), Harding B 25(1340), "The Newfoundland Sailor"; Firth c.18(292), Harding B 25(1422), 2806 c.18(223), Harding B 20(119), Harding B 11(1635), "O No My Love, Not I"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yellow Handkerchief (Flash Company)"" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Courting Coat" (floating lyrics)
cf. "You Say You Are of Noble Race" (theme)
cf. "The Roving Shantyboy" (plot)
cf. "Barley Raking (Barley Rigs A-Raking)" (plot)
NOTES: Recorded by Margaret Christl and Ian Robb, who in turn inspired Stan Rogers to record it (nearly the only traditional song he ever recorded). Kenneth Peacock found it in Newfoundland, and other versions are few (by my standards; Roud has many in his list, but many appear to be different songs with common lyrics). Fowke calls it a "neat localizing of a popular British ballad that appeared on many nineteenth-century broadsides as 'O No, My Love, Not I.'" - RBW
File: DTmarryn
===
NAME: Oh, Once I Had a Fortune
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes how drink has cost him money and sweetheart: "Oh, once I had a fortune, All locked up in a trunk. I lost it all in a gambling hall One night when I got drunk. I'll never get drunk any more...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: drink poverty
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 316, "Oh, Once I Had a Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 203-205, "I Had a Handsome Fortune" (1 text)
BrownIII 36, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More" (4 texts, all mixed, but  the "D" text is mostly this piece, and "C" probably originated with this also)
Roud #7792 and 1993
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "Once I Had a Fortune" (Edison 51935, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5357, 1927); Ernest V. Stoneman and His Blue Ridge Cornshuckers, "One I Had a Fortune" (Victor, unissued, 1928)
File: R316
===
NAME: Oh, Pretty Polly: see When He Comes, He'll Come in Green (File: Br3070)
===
NAME: Oh, See My Father Layin' There: see I Have No Loving Mother Now (Oh, See My Father Layin' There) (File: Br3622)
===
NAME: Oh, Susanna (II)
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Swedish version has a sailor leaving his true love and (for a change) actually returning after she has pined for a while. Another (English) fragment has two verses referring to "the Sovereign of the seas." Both use the familiar Foster tune.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: fo'c'sle sailor shanty return derivative
FOUND_IN: US Sweden
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 116-117, "Oh, Susanna," "Susannavisan (The Susanna Song)" (3 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune)
NOTES: Hugill got the Swedish version from _Sang under Segel_ (Sternvall, 1935), which has notes claiming that this text and melody can be traced to the 1750s. If that's true it would put a rather different light on both the Stephen Foster and the gold rush connection. - SL
I have to admit that I don't buy this. I donÕt know what Sternvall's evidence is, but Foster exuded tunes the way a politician exudes falsehoods about what is mathematically possible. If he'd been better at writing lyrics, he'd have had probably twice as many hits. So I strongly doubt he would have had to steal a tune.
Could the dating somehow be related to _The Sovereign of the Seas_? There were sundry ships of that name, including an American clipper built in 1852 -- but the most famous ship of that name was Phineas Pett's great battleship of 1637. It was not a very successful ship -- it was too big for the shipbuilding techniques of the time, and as a result was very slow -- but it was so big that it established a reputation based on sheer size and gunpower. - RBW
File: Hugi116
===
NAME: Oh, the Brave Old Duke of York: see The Noble Duke of York (File: FSWB390B)
===
NAME: Oh, the Heavens Shut the Gates On Me
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the heavens shut the gates on me, Oh, the due time, shut the gates on me, Sometimes I weep, sometimes I mourn, Sometimes I do nary one. Oh, the heavens shut the gates on me, Oh, the due time, shut the gates on me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 620, "Oh, the Heavens Shut the Gates On Me" (1 text)
Roud #11923
File: Br3620
===
NAME: Oh, They Put John on the Island
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, they put John on the island When the Bridegroom comes, They put John on the island when he comes." "They put him there to starve him." "But you can't starve a Christian." "They fed him on milk and honey." "Oh, look down Jordan river."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious food floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 546, "Oh, They Put John on the Island" (1 text)
Roud #11824
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Weep After Me" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This song contains an odd mix of elements -- the final verses in Brown seem to be imports, and insignificant. But the early verses seem a conflation.
According to Revelation 1:9, John was "on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." Note that there is no sign he was exiled there; indeed, the general sense is that he voluntarily fled there (probably during the persecution of Domitian, reigned 81-96 C.E.).
Nowhere, however, do we read of John being miraculously fed, let alone with milk and honey (in 10:9-11, he is fed a scroll that tastes like honey, but that's hardly the same thing!). The closest parallel I can think of is in the gospels: In Matthew 4:11, after the temptation by the Devil, "angels came and tended [Jesus]." No mention of milk and honey, though. - RBW
File: Br3546
===
NAME: Oh, What a Beautiful City: see Twelve Gates to the City (File: PSAFB081)
===
NAME: Oh, When I Git My New House Done: see Sail Away, Ladies (File: CSW203)
===
NAME: Oh, Where Is My Sweetheart?
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, where is my sweetheart? Can anyone tell? (x3) Can anyone, anyone tell?" "He is flirting with another, I know very well." "He told me he loved me, he told me a lie." "I've found me another I love just as well." "...I love him, I wish he was mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 303, "Oh, Where Is My Sweetheart?" (2 text plus an excerpt)
Roud #11319
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Br3303
===
NAME: Oh, Ye've Been False, or, The Curse
DESCRIPTION: "As I cam' in by yon bonnie waterside... There I spied my ain dear love, And I left my heart wi' him." Finding him false, the singer curses the church where he will marry, hopes his wife buries five sons, and wishes mortal wounds to she who "sinnert" them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: betrayal curse rejection
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 173-174, "Oh, Ye've Been False; or The Curse" (1 text)
Roud #5584
File: Ord173
===
NAME: Oh! 'Tis Pretty to be in Ballinderry: see Ballinderry (File: HHH080)
===
NAME: Oh! An Irishman's Heart
DESCRIPTION: "Oh! an Irishman's heart is as stout as shillelah." Invaders beware, "but the battle once over, no rage fills his breast." "Give poor Pat but fair freedom, his sweetheart and whisky, And he'll die for old Ireland, his king, and his friend"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad fight
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 117-118, "Oh! An Irishman's Heart" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kinnegard Slashers" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
File: CrPS117
===
NAME: Oh! Blame Not the Bard
DESCRIPTION: Don't blame the bard for his songs of love rather than glory. Don't blame him if he "should try to forget what he never can heal." "But though glory be gone, and though hope fade away, Thy name, loved Erin! shall live in his songs"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1846 (_Irish Melodies_ by Thomas Moore, according to Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad minstrel
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Zimmermann, p. 77, "Oh! Blame Not the Bard" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 180-181, "O, Blame Not The Bard"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 375-376, "Oh Blame not the Bard"  (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 269-270, (no title) (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(281), "Oh! Blame not the Bard" ("Oh, blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 77 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian 2806 b.9(281) is the basis for the description. 
Zimmermann [uses] this song to illustrate his point that "the mission of the bard is to weep for his country." - BS
File: BrdOBNtB
===
NAME: Oh! Breathe Not His Name
DESCRIPTION: Someone who must not be named has been buried "in the shade Where cold and un-honoured has relics are laid! ... And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls, Shall long keep his memory green in our souls"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1846 (_Irish Melodies_ by Thomas Moore, according to Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: grief memorial nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 159, "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(20), "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" ("Oh! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade ," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
LOCSheet, sm1879 06663, "Oh, Breathe Not His Name ," Edw. Schuberth (New York), 1879 (tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "She is Far From the Land" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "When He Who Adores Thee" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "The Man from God-Knows-Where"  (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 77 Fn. 11 speculates that this is "perhaps inspired by Lord Edward Fitzgerald's death." Moylan 159 in _The Age of Revolution_: "This, the third of Moore's songs on [Robert] Emmet, seems to echo Emmet's dying request from the world for 'the charity of its silence'. [Lord Edward Fitzgerald [1763-1798], head of the military committee of the United Irishmen died June 4, 1798, in Newgate, Dublin after being wounded and arrested by Major Henry Charles Sirr on May 19; Wexford Rebellion begins May 26, 1798 (source: The Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site entry for [Lord] Edward Fitzgerald)] [Robert Emmet (1780-1803) "Irish nationalist rebel leader. He led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1803 and was captured and executed." (source: "Robert Emmet" at the Wikipedia site)]
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(20): H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
The song is so short (two stanzas, neither of which describes the dead man beyond noting that he's dead) that we cannot be dogmatic about the man being memorialized. On the one hand, Emmet asked that no epitaph be written for him (see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet"), but if he were meant, I'd think the song would be a little more specific. Still, if it is certain that Moore's other poems were about Emmet, then he seems the best candidate. And we should note that Moore knew Emmet; according to Robert Kee, who quotes this song on p. 168 of _The Most Distressful Country_ (being volumeI of _The Green Flag_), Moore was "Emmet's old friend and fellow student at Trinity." Kee regards Moore as having "set the tone" for Emmet's legend. - RBW
File: BrdOBNHN
===
NAME: Oh! Gin I Were Where Gaudie Rins: see Where the Gadie Rins (I), (II), etc. (File: Ord347)
===
NAME: Oh! I Ha'e Seen the Roses Blaw: see O I Hae Seen the Roses Blaw (File: StoR016)
===
NAME: Oh! My! You're a Dandy for Nineteen Years Old: see Oly Nineteen Years Old (File: RcOn19YO)
===
NAME: Oh! No, No
DESCRIPTION: "Come here, dearest Peggy, you're my whole heart's delight... So fain I wad bide, love, but away I must go." He says he would guard her if they were together. She goes into frenzies of grief; he stops her, saying he will not leave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation trick
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 136-137, "Oh! No, No" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #832
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie" (lyrics)
cf. "The Manchester Angel" (lyrics)
NOTES: This guy is enough of a jerk to make John Riley look good.
Roud lumps this item with "Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie," and there are lyrics in common. But this has no chorus, and does have a happy ending -- if you believe that it's a happy ending when a man taunts a girl needlessly and then declares it a joke. There is kinship, but it doesn't look like the same song to me. - RBW
File: Ord136
===
NAME: Oh! Steer My Bark to Erin's Isle
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I have roamed o'er many lands ... In Erin's isle I'd pass my time." If the singer's home were England or Scotland, he'd love that home; "pleasant days in both I've past," But he'll "steer my bark to Erin's isle, For Erin is my home."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Haynes Bayly
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1869 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(537))
KEYWORDS: home travel Ireland lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 155, "Oh! Steer My Bark to Erin's Isle" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(537), "Oh, Steer my Barque to Erin's Isle", J. Moore (Belfast), 1852-1868; also 2806 c.15(318), 2806 c.15(257), "Oh, Steer my Bark to Erin's isle"
NOTES: Bodleian makes the author N.T.H Bayly; O'Conor has F.H. Bayly. - BS
The latter, of course, is an easy misreading of "T. H. Bayly." Spaeth's _A History of Popular Music in America_ also credits the lyrics to Bayly (p. 85), adding that the tune is German, arranged by Ignaz Moscheles.
Curiously, the uncredited book _The Library of Irish Music_ (published by Amsco) credits the *music* to T. H. Bayly with words by "S. Nelson"!
Incidentally, there seem to be conflicting dates for Bayly; Spaeth says he lived 1797-1829. - RBW
File: OCon155
===
NAME: Oh! Susanna
DESCRIPTION: Nonsense song about a man going to see his beloved Susanna. The singer tells his love, "Oh Susanna, Oh! don't you cry for me, I've come from Alabama, wid my banjo on my knee." The song describes the impossible means he took to reach her
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1848
KEYWORDS: love travel dream humorous
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 152-155, "Oh! Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 408, "Oh, Susanna!" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 4 more; the "E" text has a chorus from elsewhere)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 103, (no title) (1 fragment, with a verse probably from "Napper" but the chorus of this song)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 198, "Susanna" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 244, "Oh, Susanna" (1 text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 46, "Oh, Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 404-405, "Oh! Susanna"
DT, OSUSANNA*
ST RJ19152 (Full)
Roud #11745
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Oh Susanna" (Romeo 539, 1928)
Vernon Dalhart w. Carson Robison & Adelyne Hood, "Oh! Susanna" (Victor 21169, 1928)
Light Crust Doughboys, "Oh! Susanna" (Vocalion 03345, 1936)
Chubby Parker, "Oh, Susanna"  (Silvertone 25013, 1927; Supertone 9191, 1928)
Riley Puckett "O! Susanna" (Columbia 15014-D, c. 1925; rec. 1924; Silvertone 3261 [as Tom Watson], 1926)
Rice Brothers Band, "Oh Susannah" (Decca 5804, 1940)
Pete Seeger, "Oh, Susanna" (on PeteSeeger18)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Prospecting Dream" (tune)
cf. "Oh California" (tune)
cf. "Oh, Susanna (II)" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Oh California (File: ShaSS114)
Oh, Susanna (II) (File: Hugi116)
NOTES: This song is one of the best examples of Foster's bad luck as a businessman. The first (unauthorized) printing never mentioned Foster's name, though it associates the song with the Christy Minstrels. Foster then gave the piece away; the next printing had his name on it, but if he received any money at all, it was a flat up-front fee.
This was one of Foster's very earliest pieces, and (along with "Uncle Ned") one of his first big hits. According to Bernard DeVoto, _The Year of Decision: 1846_, Little, Brown and Company, 1943, p. 134, 'in March of [1846] a twenty-year-old Pittsburg youth failed of appointment at West Point, and so at the end of the year he went to keep books in his brother's commission house at Cincinnati. He took with him the manuscripts of three songs, all apparently written in this year, all compact of the minstrel-nigger tradition. One celebrates a lubly collud gal, Lou'siana Belle. In another an old nigger has no wool on the top of his head in the place whar de wool ought to grow.... And in the third American pioneering was to find its leitmotif for all time: it was 'Oh Susanna!'"
The early popularity of this song seems to be indicated by the existence of a Gold Rush version, a fragment of which is quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in _Little House in the Big Woods_ (chapter 13):
Oh, Susi-an-na, don't you cry for me,
I'm going to Cal-i-for-ni-a,
The gold dust for to see. - RBW
File: RJ19152
===
NAME: Oh! When a Man Get the Blues: see When a Woman Blue (File: San236)
===
NAME: Ohio
DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers the dead at Stones River. He recalls finding a dying youth. The soldier sends greetings to his family, then dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Eddy)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar dying
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 31, 1862-Jan 2, 1863 - Battle of Stones River/Murfreesboro
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Eddy 127, "Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E127 (Full)
Roud #5343
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Stone River" (subject)
NOTES: It is hard to say who won the Battle of Stones' River/Murfreesboro. The battle pitted William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland against Braxton Bragg's Confederate army. Rosecrans had been advancing into Tennessee, and Bragg set out to stop him.
In the first phase of the battle, on Dec. 31, Bragg drove back but did not destroy Rosecrans's right. Jan. 1, 1863 was quiet, but Bragg tried again on Jan. 2. Again he failed to decisively defeat the Federals.
After spending the day of Jan. 3 on the field,  Bragg's army retreated. The federal army had been so badly mauled that it would be half a year before it moved again -- but Rosecrans held the field and his gains. - RBW
File: E127
===
NAME: Ohio River, She's So Deep and Wide
DESCRIPTION: "Ohio River, she's so deep and wide, Lord, I can't see my poor gal from the other side." "I'm going to river, take my seat and sit down, If the blues overtake me, I'll jump into the river and drown." "I've got the blues... I ain't got the heart to cry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: separation floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MWheeler, p. 81-83, "Ohio Rivuh, She's So Deep an' Wide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10028
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Abilene" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Kansas City Blues" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This is one of those songs composed entirely of floating lyrics. But since there doesn't seem to be a dominant "ingredient," it gets listed separately. - RBW
File: MWhee081
===
NAME: Oil of the Barley, The: see (references to tune under) Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)
===
NAME: Ol' A'k's A-Movin', The: see The Old Ark's A-Moverin' (File: LoF248)
===
NAME: Ol' Arboe: see Old Arboe (Ardboe) (File: HHH505)
===
NAME: Ol' Gen'ral Bragg's a-Mowin' Down de Yankees
DESCRIPTION: The master (?) tells the slaves that Bragg is defeating the Yankees, and warns them to behave. But then the southern troops appear to be running. Master runs off to the swamps, "while Dinah, Pomp, an' Pete dey look As if dey mighty pleas'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar slave battle freedom
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownII 233, "Ol' Gen'ral Bragg's a-Mowin' Down de Yankees" (1 text)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 104-105, "Old Massa He Come Dancin' Out" (1 text)
Roud #6619
NOTES: It is difficult to correlate this song with any particular Civil War battle. Braxton Bragg (1817-1876) commanded at four major conflicts: Perryville (Oct. 8, 1862), Murfreesboro/Stones River (Dec. 31, 1862-Jan. 2, 1863), Chickamauga (Sept. 19-20, 1862), and Chattanooga (Nov. 23-25, 1863).
None of these battles fit the song. Perryville ended with Bragg retreating, but it was a voluntary retreat -- and it was in Kentucky anyway, where the slaves were not freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.
Stones River also ended with Bragg retreating, but again, his forces retreated in good order; there was no running.
Chickamauga was an overwhelming Confederate victory; only the Yankees fled.
The best fit, then, is Chattanooga, where Bragg at first held the Federals easily -- he held an overwhelmingly strong position on the ridges above the town) but then saw his troops fall apart. (He was relieved afterward.0 -- But the area through which the Confederates fled had been in Union hands previously, and was not good planting country; there were few slaves in the area.
According to Greenway, the mother of collector Merton Knowles learned the song after the Civil War. - RBW
File: BrII233
===
NAME: Ol' John Brown: see Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)
===
NAME: Ol' Mars'r Had a Pretty Yaller Gal: see Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)
===
NAME: Ol' Mickey Brannigan's Pup: see Brannigan's Pup (File: FSC122)
===
NAME: Ol' Rattler: see Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)
===
NAME: Ol' Virginny Never Tire: see Old Virginny Never Tire (File: ScaNF109)
===
NAME: Olban (Alban) or The White Captive [Laws H15]
DESCRIPTION: A young woman (Amanda) has been taken captive by Indians. She is about to be subjected to torture or death when one of the tribe (the chief, young Albion?) rescues her and brings her home, (asking no reward but his food)
AUTHOR: Rev. Thomas C. Upham
EARLIEST_DATE: 1818 (The "Columbia Sentinel" of Boston)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) rescue
FOUND_IN: US(NE,SE,So,Ro)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws H15, "Olban (Alban) or The White Captive"
Randolph 674, "Her White Bosom Bare" (2 texts)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 160-163, "Young Alban and Amandy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 761, WHTCAPTV
Roud #657
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Lamanda" (AFS 4203 B1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Captive" (theme)
NOTES: Several scholars have sought for the events which lie behind this ballad. One even connected it with a story by James Fennimore Cooper! Given that all the accounts disagree, and that the Cooper story ("Wish-Ton-Wish") was not published until 1832, each must probably be taken with a grain of salt. - RBW
In Ford's version, Olban (called "Alvin") asks for food for his people rather than himself. - PJS
File: LH15
===
NAME: Old Abe Is Sick
DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe is sick (x2), Old Abe is sick in bed. He's a lying dog, a dying dog, With meanness in his head." "He wants our cotton... He shall have it, he will have it, Some tar and feathers too." "Down with Old Abe... And all his Yankee crew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: political Civilwar
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 388, "Old Abe is Sick" (1 text)
Roud #11754
File: Br3388
===
NAME: Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness
DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness, Out of the wilderness, Out of the wilderness, Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness, Down in Illinois."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: political parody nonballad derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1809 - Birth of Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky . He later moved to Illinois
1860 - The Republicans, looking for a candidate who does not carry much baggage, nominate Lincoln for President. In a four-way race, Lincoln receives 40% of the popular votes and enough electoral votes to be elected President. The result is the Civil War
1864 - Lincoln is re-elected President
1865 - Lincoln assassinated
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Sandburg, p. 168, "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, p. 17, "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 287, "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (1 text)
Thomas-Makin', p. 53, (no title) (1 short text, probably a fragment of a modified version of this song)
Roud #11629
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" (tune)
cf. "I Wait Upon the Lord" (tune, structure)
File: San168
===
NAME: Old Abe's Elected
DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe's elected so they say Along with Darkey Hamlin, The Yankees think they'll gain the day By nigger votes and gamblin'." (To the tune of Yankee Doodle)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political parody
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1861-1865 - Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin are President and Vice President
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 245, "Old Abe's Elected" (1 text)
Roud #7712
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Honest Abe" (subject)
NOTES: Abraham Lincoln hardly needs introduction. Hannibal Hamlin was Lincoln's vice president; a former Democrat, he joined the Republicans over the issue of slavery. He was replaced as vice president, in Lincoln's second term, by Andrew Johnson.
This piece clearly shows the level of political rhetoric that was being fired about during the election of 1860; Hamlin was anti-slavery, but not radically so; certainly neither he nor Lincoln had, at that time, any plan to enfranchise the southern slaves. And, at this time, a referendum in New York to grant Blacks the franchise failed miserably. For background on the amazingly complex election of 1860, see the notes to "Lincoln and Liberty." - RBW
File: R245
===
NAME: Old Adam
DESCRIPTION: "I'm very sorry for old Adam, Just as sorry as can be, For he never had no mammy For to hold him on her knee." "And I've always had the feeling He'd a-let that apple be If he'd only had a mammy For to hold him on her knee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: Bible mother
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, p. 339, "Old Adam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4566
File: San339
===
NAME: Old and Only in the Way
DESCRIPTION: "When you walk along the street, how often do you meet Some poor old man who's getting old and gray?" Poor old men find that their children do not care for him, and rich old men have heirs waiting impatiently. The singer complains about the young
AUTHOR: P. J. Downey and L. T. Billings
EARLIEST_DATE: 1880 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: youth age money work
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Rorrer, p. 83, "Old and Only in the Way" (1 text)
DT, OLD&GRAY
Roud #6440
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Old and Only in the Way" (Supertone 9639, 1930)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Old and Only in the Way" (OKeh 40181, 1924) (OKeh 45273, 928; rec. 1927) (Bluebird B-5959, 1935)
Byron G. Harlan, "Always In the Way" (CYL: Edison 8501, 1903)
Kentucky Girls, "Old and Only in the Way" (Columbia 15364-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Oliver Moore [pseud. for Ted Chestnut], "Old and Only in the Way" (Challenge 422, 1928)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Old and Only in the Way" (Columbia 15672-D, 1931; rec. 1928; on CPoole03)
File: DToldgra
===
NAME: Old Arboe (Ardboe)
DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the powers to help him praise Ar(d)boe. He praises the land, the waters, the wildlife, the winds. He talks of the holy days they celebrate. The singer has traveled the world, but has seen no better place
AUTHOR: James Cairnes ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H505, p. 157, "Old Ardboe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 82-84, "Ol' Arboe" (1 text)
OBoyle 20, "Old Arboe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2984
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Cross of Ardboe" (subject)
NOTES: Sam Henry has notes on the various feast days mentioned in the song. These seem more accurate than the geography of the Biblical references to "the shores of Cana and Galilee"; neither name was proper in the author's time, and Galilee had no true seacoast (the "sea of Galilee" is a lake). Cana is not on any shore at all; it was half way between the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee. - RBW
For the cross reference [to The Old Cross of Ardboe"] see Bell/O Conchubhair, _Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland_, pp. 38-39, "The Old Cross of Ardboe" attributed to "the 'Poet' Canavan." The songs are close in theme and approach, but share no lines. Here is a description of "The Old Cross of Ardboe": The singer bids farewell to the places in Tyrone "where I spent my childhood days" He wonders if he will ever return. "May the star of Freedom smile ... And the shamrocks verdant grow Green around those graves near Lough Neagh's waves, And the Old Cross Ardboe." - BS
File: HHH505
===
NAME: Old Ark's A-Moverin', The
DESCRIPTION: "O the old ark's a-moverin... an' I thank God." Sundry verses on the flood, salvation, and those who are too proud, e.g. "How many days did the water fall? Forty days and nights and all." "See that sister dressed so fine? She ain't got Jesus on her mind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911 (recording, Fisk University Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad flood
FOUND_IN: US(Ap) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 213-214, (no title) (1 text, with this chorus though many of the verses are about Jesus; it may be conflate, but in the present state of Thomas's text it's hard to tell)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 7, (no title) (1 fragment, the "Paul and Silas bound in jail" lyric but with an internal chorus that might be this -- or might not); p. 28, "The Ol' A'k's A-Movin'" (1 short text, with a slightly different form but too similar to classify separately)
Lomax-FSNA 248, "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 77, "The Old Ark" (1 text, 1 tune, with first verse and chorus from "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" and additional verses from "Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly)")
Silber-FSWB, p. 360, "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" (1 text)
Roud #11948
RECORDINGS:
Alphabetical Four, "The Old Ark's a-Moverin'" (Decca 7546, 1938; on AlphabFour01)
Atlanta Harmony Singers, "The Old Ark's a Moverin'" (Champion 15616, 1928)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "The Ole Ark" (Victor 16840, 1911)
Homer Rodeheaver, "The Old Ark's a-Moverin'" (Silvertone 5141, c. 1927)
Virginia Female [Jubilee] Singers, "The Old Ark's a-Moverin'" (OKeh 4482, 1922; rec. 1921)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Built the Ark?" (floating lyrics)
SAME_TUNE:
Pete Seeger, "We'll All Be A-Doubling" (on PeteSeeger48)
NOTES: For the statement that the rain fell for forty days during Noah's flood, see Gen. 7:12 (the total duration of the flood is given in 7:17, 8:6? as 40 days and in 7:24, 8:3 as 150 days; the different numbers are believed to have come from different sources). The landing on Mount Ararat/Uratu is mentioned in 8:4. - RBW
File: LoF248
===
NAME: Old Arkansas: see The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)
===
NAME: Old Arm Chair, The: see Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)
===
NAME: Old Aunt Dinah
DESCRIPTION: "Old Aunt Dinah, ho pee, ho pee, Old Aunt Dinah, ho pee ho! Gwine away to leave yer..." "Old Aunt Dinah -- sick in bed, Eegisty -- ogisty! Send for the doctor... said, 'Git up Dinah... You ain't sick... All you need... is a hickory stick."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: separation doctor disease
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 487, "Old Aunt Dinah" (1 fragment)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 187-188, "Ole Aunt Dinah" (1 fragment, plus a second which inserts Aunt Dinah into an "Old Dan Tucker" stanza)
Roud #11803
NOTES: There is no particular reason to associate the Brown and Scarborough fragments, since they describe different events and have different nonsense refrains. But both are about Aunt Dinah, both are fragments, both have nonsense refrains, and both seem unique; reason enough to file them together, I think. - RBW
File: Br3487
===
NAME: Old Aunt Kate
DESCRIPTION: "Ole Aunt Kate she bake de cake, She bake hit 'hine de garden gate; She sift de meal, she gimme de dust, She bake de bread, she gimme de crust, She eat de meat, she gimme de skin, An' dat's de way she tuck me in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food humorous
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 99, "Ole Aunt Kate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11617
NOTES: Scarborough reports that this is an "elaboration" from "Juba." Be hard to prove either way. - RBW
File: ScaNF099
===
NAME: Old Aunt Katy
DESCRIPTION: "Old Aunt Katy was a good old soul, Patched my breeches right full of holes." "Up the ridge and down the ridge And run old Katy home." "Old Aunt Katy was a good old soul, Crossed the bridge and paid her toll." "Old Aunt Katy dressed mighty fine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 323, "Old Aunt Katy" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #15889
NOTES: The notes in Brown suggest that this is a play-party. It feels more like a fiddle tune to me. But with no tune and no gaming instructions, we can't say. - RBW
File: Br3323
===
NAME: Old Aunt Mariar: see Aunt Maria (File: BSoF705A)
===
NAME: Old Bachelor (I), The
DESCRIPTION: Singer, an old bachelor ignorant of women, marries a 16-year-old, primarily to keep him warm at night. She wants more from him, which baffles him until her mother tells him the facts of life. He obliges; a fine son results, to his surprise and delight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (Grieg)
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex bawdy humorous mother bachelor
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland,England(North))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Old Bachelor" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" (theme) and references there
File: RcTOB
===
NAME: Old Bachelor (II), The: see Stern Old Bachelor (File: R481)
===
NAME: Old Bachelor (III), The: see A Bachelor's Lament (File: JHCox160)
===
NAME: Old Bachelor (IV), The: see The Brisk Young Bachelor (File: ShH69)
===
NAME: Old Bangum: see Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)
===
NAME: Old Bangum and the Boar: see Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)
===
NAME: Old Barbed Wire, The (I Know Where They Are)
DESCRIPTION: "If you want to find the privates, I know where they are (x3) -- They're up to their knees in mud (or: "Hanging on the old barbed wire"). I saw them...." Meanwhile, the captains, colonels, and generals enjoy themselves and stay away from the fighting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: soldier war
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Sandburg, pp. 442-443, "Where They Were" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. "If You Want to Know Where the Privates Are" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BARBWIRE
Roud #9618
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
If You Want to See the Captain
NOTES: Internal evidence clearly dates this to the First World War, with its trenches and barbed wire and mud that threatened to swallow the Allied armies whole. What's more, until WWI, officers -- including brigade and sometimes even divisional officers -- were expected to lead their men from the front. Only in the twentieth century did officers become so valuable that they were allowed to "lead" from the rear. - RBW
File: San442
===
NAME: Old Bark Hut, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer, whose name varies, relates, "I once was well to do, but now I am stumped up, And I'm forced to go on rations in an old bark hut." There follows a list of the ways the singer makes do or tolerates the poor conditions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 105-106, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 126-127, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 298-302, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 87-89, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 133-134, 290-291, "The Old Bark Hut" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NOTES: This is sort of the Australian version of "The Old Chisholm Trail," with nearly infinite verses. Henry Lawson reports riding on a train from Bourke to Sydney with a band of shearers, who sang the song the whole time without repeating a verse. - RBW
File: MA105
===
NAME: Old Bee Makes de Honeycomb: see Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb (File: Br3479)
===
NAME: Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb
DESCRIPTION: "Old bee (makes the honey comb/sucks the blossom), Young bee makes the honey. (Poor man/Colored folks) plant the cotton and corn, (Rich man/White folks) make the money."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses work bug
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
BrownIII 479, "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" (1 fragment); also 480, "Hard Times" (1 text, massively composite: Chorus from "Lynchburg Town" and verses from "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" and the "White Folks Go to College" version of "Hard to Be a Nigger")
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 165, "Old Bee Make de Honeycomb" (1 text, with this stanza but many more associated primarily with "Raccoon")
cf. Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #194, p. 136, ("God made the bees")
Roud #5029
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Haul Away, Boys, Haul Away" (lyrics)
NOTES: Reportedly found also in _Uncle Remus_, this is one of those floating verses that seems to exist in many songs. Since Brown has it as a standalone, it files here, with many cross-references.
The nursery rhyme version, which I suspect is close to the original, runs:
God made the bees
And the bees make honey.
The miller's man does all the work
But the miller makes the money.- RBW
File: Br3479
===
NAME: Old Beggar Man, The: see Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)
===
NAME: Old Bell Cow
DESCRIPTION: Humorous description of a cow that's difficult to milk: "Went down to the cornfield to pick a mess of beans, Along come the bell cow a-pecking at the greens." "Some of these days when I learn how, I'm gonna milk that old bell cow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (recording, Dixie Crackers)
KEYWORDS: farming work humorous animal
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 110-111, "Old Bell Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Dixie Crackers, "The Old Bell Cow" (Paramount 3151, 1929; on CrowTold01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Old Bell Cow" (on NLCR10) (NLCR16)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Bell Cow
NOTES: It has long been a custom to tie a bell around a cow's neck so she can be found easily. - PJS
File: CSW110
===
NAME: Old Betsy Lina: see Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina) (File: R552)
===
NAME: Old Betty Larkin (Betsy Larkin, You Stole My Pard, Steal Partners, Stole My Partner)
DESCRIPTION: "Hop around, skip around, old Betty Larkin (x3), and also my dear darlin.'" "Steal, steal, old Betty Larkin...." ""You take mine, and I'll take another...." "Needles in a haystack, old Betty Larkin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting abandonment playparty dancing nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 15, "Old Betty Larkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 586, "You Stole My Pard" (1 fragment)
Roud #7404; also 7673
NOTES: Randolph's is only a two-stanza fragment: "You stole my pard to my dislike (x3), And also my dear darlin'." "I'll have her back or fight all night (x3), And also my dear darlin'." It may be a separate piece (Roud separates them). But that key line about the "dear darlin'" seems to me to link his text with the Ritchie Family "Betty Larkin" texts. - RBW
File: R586
===
NAME: Old Bill: see Tell Old Bill (File: San018)
===
NAME: Old Billy Dugger
DESCRIPTION: "Old Billy Dugger he looks mighty cross; He shot at a man and killed Jack's hoss."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: soldier death horse
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 283, "Old Billy Dugger" (1 text)
Roud #6642
NOTES: Reported to be based on a Civil War incident -- but it's a soldier's joke I've seen elsewhere. - RBW
File: BrII283
===
NAME: Old Binnie
DESCRIPTION: Old Binnie is urged to come see the Irishman work with his penis
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: bawdy
FOUND_IN: US(Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cray, p. 264, "Ditties," of which the first is "Old Binnie"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune)
File: EM264
===
NAME: Old Black Alice
DESCRIPTION: "Old Black Alice are my name, Wellshot are my station. It's no disgrace, the old black face, it's the colour of my nation." The singer tells how she can dance, points out that God made her as well as whites, and notes the several men who like her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: Australia discrimination
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 92-93, "Old Black Alice" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
File: PASB092
===
NAME: Old Black Booger, The: see Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)
===
NAME: Old Black Duck, The: see The Fox (File: R103)
===
NAME: Old Black Hen, The
DESCRIPTION: "Master had an old black hen, Black as any bear, Laid and set in an acorn shell, Eighteen inches square."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 159, "The Old Black Hen" (1 text)
File: Br3159
===
NAME: Old Black Joe
DESCRIPTION: "Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay, Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away, Gone from the earth to a better land I know, I hear their gentle voices calling 'Old Black Joe.'" The singer, having outlived so much, says "I'm coming"
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1860
KEYWORDS: age nonballad death
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 156-159, "Old Black Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saunders/Root-Foster 2, pp. 99-102+428, "Old Black Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 126-127, "Old Black Joe" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 407, "Old Black Joe"
DT, OLDBLACK*
ST RJ19156 (Full)
Roud #9601
RECORDINGS:
Criterion Quartet, "Old Black Joe" (CYL: Edison [BA] 3092, n.d.)
Edison Quartette, "Old Black Joe" (Edison 8823, 1904)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Old Black Joe" (Victor 35097, 1909)
Ford Hanford, "My Old Kentucky Home and Old Black Joe [medley]" (Victor 18767, 1921)
Riley Puckett, "Old Black Joe" (Columbia 15005-D, 1924)
SAME_TUNE:
Come Up, Dear Dinner, Come Up (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 121)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Poor Old Joe
NOTES: By the time Foster wrote this piece, his parents were dead, his marriage was troubled, and he was in bad financial shape. It has been theorized that this put him in a nostalgic mood. As always, he set it on the plantation -- but for once not in dialect. - RBW
File: RJ19156
===
NAME: Old Black Steer, The: see Windy Bill (II) (File: TF02)
===
NAME: Old Blacksmith's Shop, The
DESCRIPTION: "Some people ramble to lands far away... But the place I love best and am longing to see... And there I forever could stop... In the old village blacksmith's shop." The singer recalls visiting and playing with the blacksmith, but now the man is long dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work worker loneliness age
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H541, p. 207, "The Old Blacksmith's Shop" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH154
===
NAME: Old Blind Drunk John: see Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)
===
NAME: Old Blind Horse, The
DESCRIPTION: Old man's will leaves everything to Uncle Bill and an old blind horse. When the horse finally dies "we took his skin for to make some shoes" and give the rest to the crows who "crawed" as they flew by "old horse you had to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: death horse bird
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 130-131, "The Old Blind Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2703
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Horse (III)" (theme)
NOTES: Creighton-Maritime first verse "If you'll join the chorus whilst I sing This very night I'll make this old shanty ring" would seem to put it in a logging camp. The chorus, "And its come, come along with me For the moon is fast a climbing, Young girls, young girls, can't you see? For the dew on the grass is shining" is reminiscent of "Raise a Ruckus." - BS
File: CrMa130
===
NAME: Old Blue
DESCRIPTION: "I had a dog and his name was Blue...." The singer tells how Blue aided him in 'possum hunting, then goes on to describe Blue's death and burial.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913
KEYWORDS: dog death burial hunting
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Randolph 295, "Old Blue" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
BrownIII 220, "Old Blue" (1 text)
Hudson 74, pp. 201-202, "Old Blue" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 7, "Old Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 157, "Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 738, "Old Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 396, "Old Blue" (1 text)
DT, OLDBLUE
Roud #4313
RECORDINGS:
Jim Jackson, "Old Dog Blue" (Victor 21387B, 1928; on AAFM2) (Vocalion 1146, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Old Blue" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
Art Thieme, "The Split Dog" [combines song and tall-tale] (on Thieme01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Deep Blue Sea (II)" (floating lyrics)
File: R295
===
NAME: Old Blue Was a Gray Horse: see Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)
===
NAME: Old Bo's'n, The: see The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)
===
NAME: Old Bob Ridley (Hobo Diddle De Ho)
DESCRIPTION: "When I was young we crossed the mountains, Crossed so many I quit a-countin', Hobo diddle de ho, An' a hobo diddle de ho." "We seen the buffalo a-comin', Seen so damn' many I couldn't count 'em...." "(Ho/oh), (old) Bob (Ridley/Bridely)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1853 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1853 550030)
KEYWORDS: travel humorous talltale
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 499, "Hobo Diddle De Ho" (1 text)
BrownIII 194, "Old Bob Ridley" (4 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 162, "(Old Rob Ridley)" (1 short text)
Roud #753
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Carolan, "Young Bob Ridley" (on Voice07)
Henry Griffin, "Holler Jimmy Riley Ho" (on HandMeDown1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(358), "Bob Ridley, oh!," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.27(30), "Old Bob Ridley O!," unknown, n.d.
LOCSheet, sm1853 550030, "Old Bob Ridley," J. E. Boswell (Baltimore), 1853 (tune)
LOCSinging, as110090, "Old Bob Ridley, O," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also cw104110, as110080, "Old Bob Ridley"; sb30400a, "Old Bob Ridley O" 
NOTES: This was a popular minstrel piece that crossed the Atlantic. - PJS
According to the notes in Brown, it became a corn-shucking song in the U. S. The North Carolina versions are certainly very diverse. The British version had talltale elements, with Bob Riddley doing the impossibly in humorous ways. - RBW
Hall, notes to Voice07, re "Young Bob Ridley": "American minstrels first visited Britain and Ireland in the mid-1830s and subsequently local professional and amateur minstrel troupes remained popular until the Great War, contributing tunes and ditties to the traditional repertory."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(358) includes the verse
At boxing I am sure to gain on,
A tousand times I've lick'd Jack Heenan;
And for winding up the belt affairs,
Next I'm going to belt Tom Sayers.
Dis Bob Ridley, oh!
Since John C. Heenan fought Tom Sayers in 1860 the dating of the broadside is certainly incorrect.
Broadside printer John Pitts died April 15, 1844. While the old ballad stock continued to circulate the house name did not continue. (source: Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts: Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_ (Private Libraries Association, c.1969), pp. 75,84).
Broadside LOCSinging as110090: J. Andrews dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: R499
===
NAME: Old Bog Hole, The: see The Ould Bog Hole (File: FVS290)
===
NAME: Old Brass Wagon
DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Circle to the left, Old Brass Wagon, You're the one, my darling." "Swing oh swing, Old Brass Wagon...." "Promenade home...." "Shottische up and down...." "Break and swing...." "We'll all run away with the old brass wagon...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911 (JAFL 24)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 527, "The Old Brass Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 159, "Old Brass Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 388, "Little Brass Wagon" (1 text)
ST San159 (Full)
Roud #5034
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian)" (tune)
File: San159
===
NAME: Old Brig, The
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Verses relate various problems with the ship, an inept and/or drunk bosun, captain and/or cook, bad food. The usual sailor complaints, some of them probably justified. Hugill had four different language texts for this, all basically the same song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Opsang fra Seilskibstiden)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Verses relate various problems with the ship, an inept and/or drunk bosun, captain and/or cook, bad food. The usual sailor complaints, some of them probably justified. Hugill had four different language texts for this, all basically the same song. Different versions listed were "Svineper" (a.k.a. The Dirty Old Pig, The Old Brig)-Norwegian, "Den Gamla Briggen"-Swedish, "Die Gut Alte Brigg"-German.
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty ship cook
FOUND_IN: Norway Sweden Germany
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 232-234, "Svineper" (2 texts-English & Swedish, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Waiting for the Day" (same theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Dirty Old Pig
The Old Brig
Den Gamla Briggen
Die Gute Alte Brigg
The Good Old Brig
NOTES: A note in Knurrhahn says this is an "old Scandinavian sailor song, of about 1800; known to many old-time seamen in other languages."
To second PJS's comment [in the notes to "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?"], if we can't have "bitching" as a keyword, how about "complaining," or even "whining"? - SL
File: Hugi232
===
NAME: Old Brown Coat, The
DESCRIPTION: "...Come listen while I sing about The old brown coat and me." Having worked long on his father's farm, the singer at last gets his own property. The girl he loves favored another, but he proved guilty of theft. She turns to the singer; they live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1918 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes marriage family home work
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 791, "The Old Brown Coat" (1 text)
JHCoxIIB, #26, pp. 190-192, "My Old Brown Coat and Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R791 (Partial)
Roud #3114
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence Older,  "My Old Brown Coat and Me" (on LOlder01)
File: R791
===
NAME: Old Brown Sat in "The Rose and Crown"
DESCRIPTION: Brown in the pub is talking about the war and drawing the lines on the table with beer. "Five minutes" is called. Not enough time, complains Brown. "'For another half pint and we'd been in Berlin. Do you want us to lose the war?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (recording, Albert Smith)
KEYWORDS: war drink humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Albert Smith, "Old Brown Sat in 'The Rose and Crown'" (on Voice14)
File: RcOBSIRC
===
NAME: Old Bullock Dray, The
DESCRIPTION: The bullock driver is preparing for a good life in the bush. He seeks a wife, and prepares to head out to find land. He urges others along: "So it's roll up your blankets, and let's make a push; I'll take you upcountry and show you the bush...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: Australia travel settler
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 127,  "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 66-67, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 140-141, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 143-149, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "The Old Bullock Dray" (on JGreenway01)
NOTES: Settlers in Australia had two major problems: Lack of women (since most convicts were men) and lack of land (since the good properties had been snatched up by early settlers and the wealthy). In 1861, Sir John Robertson (the "Jackie Robertson" of some versions of the song) promoted the New South Wales Free Selection Act, which made at least some land available to newcomers. Although it didn't really solve the problem, it promoted the era of good feeling apparently described in this song.
The "depot" mentioned in some texts is the compound at Parramatta where female immigrants were kept. Referred to as the "Female Factory," it allowed settlers to come in and seek wives. - RBW
File: MA127
===
NAME: Old Bumpy: see Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)
===
NAME: Old Camp Meetin'
DESCRIPTION: "Long ago, when but a boy, at old camp meeting time, How my heart would leap with joy...." "I like the old time preachin', prayin', shoutin', singin'...." The singer remembers his father celebrating
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (collected by Shellans from Ruby Vass)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Shellans, pp. 93-94, "Old Camp Meetin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7334
File: Shel093
===
NAME: Old Carathee
DESCRIPTION: Sean McNamara from County Down looks for a wife in Carathee. First, Red Danny shows him his selection. He picks Julia, a hawker. The first month they are happy. The second they argue. The third she beats him. You can find such a wife in Carathee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1967 (recording, John Reilly)
KEYWORDS: marriage violence humorous wife
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #3377
RECORDINGS:
John Reilly, "Old Carathee" (on Voice15)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] (theme)
NOTES: Hall, notes to Voice15: "'Old Carathee' tells of an Irish traveller, who chooses for a wife at a fair, thinking she would make him a good hawker." 
Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Reviews - Volume 15" by Fred McCormick - 27.2.99: "John Reilly's 'Old Carathee,' is about a bachelor who obtains a wife at a horse fair and ends up with a less than blissful match. Matrimonial bargains of this kind were common in Ireland at one time and survive into the present with the famous matchmaking fair at Lisdoonvarna in County Clare." - BS
File: RcOlCara
===
NAME: Old Chimney Sweeper, The: see I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper (File: Wa189)
===
NAME: Old Chisholm Trail, The: see The Chisholm Trail (I) (File: R179)
===
NAME: Old Chizzum Trail, The: see The Chisholm Trail (I) (File: R179)
===
NAME: Old Church Yard, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh come, come with me to the old church yard, I well know the path through the soft green sward, Our friends slumber there we were wont to regard." The singer recalls the dead, gone from their troubles, and points out that they will rise again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (McDowell)
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 620, "The Old Church Yard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3386
NOTES: Randolph was told that this was a Millerite (early Adventist) hymn. If this was typical of their music, that might go almost as far to explain the failure of the Millerites as the fact that Miller's predictions of the end of the world were consistently wrong. - RBW
File: R620
===
NAME: Old Circus Song: see Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)
===
NAME: Old Cloak, The
DESCRIPTION: In winter, the old wife urges the old man to go out and bring the cow in from the cold. He protests; his cloak is too old and thin. She reminds him of their history, and of the dangers of pride. At last he, to end the strife, goes out to care for the cow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: dialog husband wife
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Percy/Wheatley I, pp. 195-198, "Take Thy Old Cloak About Thee" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 188-189, "The Old Cloak" (1 text)
OBB 170, "The Old Cloak" (1 text)
ST OBB170 (Partial)
Roud #8207
NOTES: One of Percy's stanzas, beginning "King Stephen was a worthy peer," is quoted in Shakespeare's Othello (II.iii.80). But this stanza has nothing to do with the general plot of this song; I can't help but wonder if it is not some broadside-maker's insertion. - RBW
File: OBB170
===
NAME: Old Colony Times: see In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)
===
NAME: Old Coon Dog: see Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog) (File: R350)
===
NAME: Old Corn Licker: see Cripple Creek (I) (?) (File: San320)
===
NAME: Old Country Party, The
DESCRIPTION: "Say, did ye iver go till an ould country party." The singer describes his first. He describes the food and punch, music and dancing until "the bottle was dry." Now he's away from home and "the tears rushes into me eyes" when he thinks of those days. 
AUTHOR: Harry M Palmer
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging sb30374b)
KEYWORDS: homesickness dancing drink music party nonballad moniker
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 95, "The Old Country Party" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb30374b, "The Old Country Party", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as202780, "The Old Country Party" 
Bodleian, Harding B 18(380), "The Old Country Party", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Irishman's Shanty" (tune)
NOTES: Broadsides LOCSinging sb30374b and Bodleian Harding B 18(380): H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon095
===
NAME: Old Cow: see All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)
===
NAME: Old Cow Died, The (Little Girl)
DESCRIPTION: Dialog/game: "'Little girl, little girl,' 'Yes, ma'am," "Did you go over the river?" "The old cow died, sail around." "Did you give her hot water? Yes, ma'am." "Did you send for the doctor?" "Did she die of the cholera?" "Did the buzzards eat her?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal death dialog playparty food
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 396, "The Old Cow Died" (1 text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 141-142, "Little Girl" (1 text)
Roud #11598
NOTES: The Scarborough and Silber texts are noticeably distinct, Silber's being about the death of the cow while Scarborough's is intent upon the dialog and an adult asking a child about her activities (harvesting an egg, making corn pone, eating it, etc.) But the form is close enough that I've lumped them; the details of such songs are easily remade. - RBW
File: FSWB396A
===
NAME: Old Cowboy, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the hardships of his life as a cowboy "I've drunk water from the cow tracks, boys, when you bet it tasted good"; "I've starved and ate of the prickly pear"; "Been tortured by the Apaches." But now new cowboys are replacing him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: cowboy work hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fife-Cowboy/West 110, "The Old Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11088
File: FCW110
===
NAME: Old Daddy Fox: see The Fox (File: R103)
===
NAME: Old Dan Tucker
DESCRIPTION: Vignettes: Old Dan Tucker arrives to court the girls, sell his produce, and/or get drunk. Example: "Old Dan went down to the mill / To get some meal to put in the swill. / The miller swore by the point of his knife / He never seen such a man in his life."
AUTHOR: attributed to Daniel Decatur Emmett
EARLIEST_DATE: 1841
KEYWORDS: bawdy playparty talltale
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Australia
REFERENCES: (16 citations)
Randolph 521, "Old Dan Tucker" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 431-433, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 tune, 3 texts)
BrownIII 509, "Nigger in the Woodpile" (1 two-line fragment, probably this though the vulgar idiom of the title  is obviously common to many songs)
BrownIII 82, "Old Dan Tucker" (6 texts)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 188, (no title) (2 fragments, one clearly this and the other a Dan Tucker stanza but with "Ole Aunt Dinah" in Dan's place); also p. 199, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, with a verse from this song though it has a chorus about "Sambo")
Brewster 86, "Old Dan Tucker" (4 short text)
Fuson, p. 163, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Cambiaire, p. 140, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 fragment)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 263, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 160-162, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 27, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 258-262, "Old Dan Tucker" (2 texts, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 52, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 240, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 81, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
DT, DANTUCKR
ST R521 (Full)
Roud #390
RECORDINGS:
Bentley Ball, "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia A3087, 1920)
Harry C. Browne "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia A1999, 1916)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Old Dan Tucker" (OKeh 40263, 1925; rec. 1924)
Pat Ford, "Old Dan Tucker" [fragment] (AFS A 4211 B2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Old Dan Tucker" (Brunswick 295, 1929; rec. 1928)
Charlie Jones & his Kentucky Corn Crackers, "Old Dan Tucker" (Rondo R-168, n.d., prob. late 1940s)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Old Dan Tucker" (Vocalion 15033, 1925)
Pete Seeger, "Old Dan Tucker" (on PeteSeeger17)
Judge Sturdy's Orchestra "Old Dan Tucker" (Victor 20102, 1926;  rec. 1925)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia 15382-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Clear the Track" (tune)
cf. "Johnny, Get Your Gun (II)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The End of Big Bill Snyder" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Clear the Track (I) (File: SCW48)
The End of Big Bill Snyder (Greenway-AFP, pp. 30-31)
The Workingman's Train (Greenway-AFP, pp. 87-88)
Henry Clay (Hudson, p. 211; cf. "Henry Clay Songs," File: SRW039)
NOTES: Randolph-Legman I offers a few bawdy verses to this otherwise immaculate dance tune. - EC
This was originally published as by "Dan Tucker Jr.," but it is generally believe that it was by Dan Emmett -- his first significant work. - RBW
File: R521
===
NAME: Old Darling
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a mule-driver, describes driving his team at a fast pace when Old Darling (the boss) reproaches him for breaking the rules. The singer offers to break Mr. Darling; then tells listeners not to tow to Slocum, because the food is rotten.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: warning work boss animal
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 31, "Old Darling" (1 text)
Roud #8855
NOTES: In the early days, the teamsters in the pinewoods drove oxen, later horses and (less often) mules.
The last verse is almost certainly tacked on from a completely different song. - PJS
File: Be031
===
NAME: Old David Ward
DESCRIPTION: Singer describes working in a lumber camp for David Ward, including a thieving foreman, an unpleasant employer, and a crooked scaler. The singer vows to leave and not return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: work lumbering logger nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Gardner/Chickering 115, "David Ward" (1 text)
Beck 14, "Old David Ward" (1 text)
Roud #6498
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" and references there
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (lyrics)
NOTES: David E. Ward lumbered much territory north of Cadillac, Michigan; a small island village in the Manistee River, "Deward," is named for him. - PJS
File: Be014
===
NAME: Old Doc Jones: see Doctor Jones (File: Br3090)
===
NAME: Old Dog Blue: see Old Blue (File: R295)
===
NAME: Old Dog Tray
DESCRIPTION: "The morning of life is past, And evening comes at last, It brings me dreams of a once happy day... Sporting with my old dog Tray." The singer notes that people come and go, but dogs stay faithful. He concludes he will never have a better friend
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1853
KEYWORDS: dog age nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 396, "Old Dog Tray" (1 text)
Roud #2667
File: FSWB396B
===
NAME: Old Doorstep, The: see Goodbye to My Stepstone (File: R853)
===
NAME: Old Dumpty Moore
DESCRIPTION: (Old Dumpty/Darby) rides his mare everywhere, until it grows too (old/stubborn) to ride. The mare goes down into the swamp and dies. The neighbours cook it, and "From the top of her head to the end of her tail Old Dumpty ate his way!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: animal horse death food
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 427, "Old Dumpty Moore" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7633
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)" (plot elements)
File: R427
===
NAME: Old Dun Cow, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the home of Dolly, "the girl I would like to make my spouse." He is bemused by the sight of her "milking her old dun cow." He hopes to win her love; "I'll get married very soon, tomorrow afternoon, for I feel in the humour now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage animal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H492, p. 238, "The Old Dun Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9473
File: HHH492
===
NAME: Old Dyer, The: see The Dog in the Closet (The Old Dyer) [Laws Q11] (File: LQ11)
===
NAME: Old Early Camped at Fisher's Hill: see Battle of Fisher's Hill (File: ThBa058)
===
NAME: Old Elm Tree, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls old elm tree by the mill where he courted Laura. They become engaged, he goes to sea. In his absence, others convince her he was untrue. She dies for love and is buried beneath the old elm tree
AUTHOR: Words: Sarah S. Bolton/Music: Joseph Philbrick Webster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1871
KEYWORDS: courting sea death burial
FOUND_IN: US(MW,NE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Dean, pp. 27-28, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text)
Belden, p. 221, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text)
Randolph 708, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 174-176, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 47, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDELM*
Roud #2795
RECORDINGS:
Eugene Jemison, "The Old Elm Tree" (on Jem01)
File: R708
===
NAME: Old England's Gained the Day: see Sebastopol (Old England's Gained the Day; Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol; Cheer, Boys, Cheer) (File: SmHa041)
===
NAME: Old English Chantey: see The Sailor's Alphabet (File: RcTSAlp)
===
NAME: Old Erin Far Away: see The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II) [Laws J7] (File: LJ07)
===
NAME: Old Farm Gate, The
DESCRIPTION: "The old farm gate hangs sagging down"; it is old, rusty, and almost useless. Once children played on it, lovers courted by it, funerals passed through it. But all this was long ago, and "Time passes so quickly away"
AUTHOR: L. C. Wegefarth ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 852, "The Old Farm Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 476-478, "The Old Farm Gate" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 852)
Roud #7452
File: R852
===
NAME: Old Fat Buck, The: see The Nottinghamshire Poacher (File: E053)
===
NAME: Old Father Gray
DESCRIPTION: "You've all heard of old Father Gray, Traveled over land and traveled over sea. (Chorus:) Wheel around and drive the Yankees back And make them know their places." The Yankees are driven back, and the girls encouraged to give their seats to gentlemen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting battle playparty
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 567, "Old Father Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7660
File: R567
===
NAME: Old Father Grimes: see Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)
===
NAME: Old Fish Song, The
DESCRIPTION: Humorous retelling of the Jonah myth. Jonah is ordered by God to preach repentance to Nineveh. Not wanting the job, he goes to sea. God raises a storm; the sailors throw Jonah overboard. He is swallowed by a whale. Children are warned to obey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (field recording, Blind James Howard)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: God sees that the people of Nineveh are wicked, and sends Jonah to preach to them. Jonah says he's a hard-shell Baptist and refuses to go, being against foreign missions. He gets on a ship, but God, angered, raises a storm and the sailors throw Jonah overboard, where he's swallowed by a whale. The whale has indigestion, and vomits Jonah back out; Jonah heads for Nineveh and preaches and prophesies until the population repents. The moral is that one should be obedient: "When you disobey mammy, remember this tale/When you run off from home, bud, look out for a whale/There's varmints to get you on sea and on land/And a boy can be swallowed lots easier than a man."
KEYWORDS: captivity travel prophecy Bible humorous religious whale gods 
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 124-125, "The Old Fish Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDFISH
RECORDINGS:
Blind James Howard, "The Old Fish Song" (AFS 74A, 1933; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Old Fish Song" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1)
NOTES: This hilarious song almost certainly began its life as a printed "ballot." - PJS
Book of Jonah, ch. 1-3. In the Bible, of course, it's a great fish rather than a whale. - PJS
Interestingly, the story leaves out most of chapter 4 of Jonah, in which the repentance of Nineveh causes Jonah to get mad at God again. Perhaps it's the author who's the hard-shell Baptist. - RBW
File: CSW124
===
NAME: Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)
DESCRIPTION: The "darky" remembers the "old folks at home" on "de Swanee ribber." Now forced to wander, he still longs "for de old plantation." He recalls growing up on the plantation, playing with his brother, and listening to the banjo. He hopes to go home.
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1851
KEYWORDS: home exile family slave
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 163-166, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 125-126, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Hill-CivWar, p. 218, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Krythe 5, pp. 74-99, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 407-408, "Old Folks at Home"
PSeeger-AFB, p. 83, "Swanee River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 268-269, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 258, "Old Folks At Home" (1 text)
DT, OLDFOLK
ST RJ19163 (Full)
Roud #13880
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Swanee River" (OKeh 45139, 1927; on TimesAint02)
Monroe Quartet, "Old Folks at Home" (OKeh 45133, 1927)
Riley Puckett, "Swanee River" (Columbia 15003-D, c. 1924)
Virginia Rea & Elias Breeskin, "Old Folks at Home" (Brunswick 10013, 1920)
Paul Robeson, "Old Folks at Home" (HMV [UK] B-3664, 1930)
Pete Seeger, "Swanee River" (on PeteSeeger24)
Unidentified quartette, "Old Folks at Home" (Imperial [UK] 44961, c. 1906)
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" (Vocalion 04387, 1938)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1232), "The Old Folks at Home!," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also Firth b.26(85), Firth b.26(240), Firth b.26(339), Harding B 20(268), Firth b.27(171), Firth c.16(291), Firth c.12(366), Firth b.26(378), Harding B 11(2797), "The Old Folks at Home[!]"
LOCSheet, rpbaasm 0473, "Old Folks at Home," Firth, Pond & Co. (New York), n.d. ["written and composed by E.P. Christy"]; also sm1875 03964, sm1885 23541, "Old Folks at Home" ["by S. C. Foster"] (tune)
LOCSinging, sb30401b, "Old Folks at Home," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as110190, "Old Folks at Home"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Refrain" (recalls this song)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Way Down upon the Swanee River
NOTES: The first sheet music version of this piece credits it to E.P. Christy. This was with Foster's consent; he sold Christy the right to claim authorship for $5. (Fortunately, Foster at least got the royalties on the song.) It finally appeared under his name in 1879 when the copyright was renewed.
In Foster's first draft, the river was the "Pedee," but he concluded that that didn't sound right. So he and his brother Morrison scouted an atlas for a better name, finally distorting "Suwanee" (a river in south Georgia and northern Florida) into "Swanee."
Phillips Barry posits that this tune is derived from "Annie Laurie." If so, there was a lot of reworking done along the way. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30401b: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
LOCSheet, sm1853 700590, "Old Folks at Home," Firth, Pond & Co. (New York), 1853 does not include words and has the attribution "Composed by Stephen C. Foster"
Another warning about relying on broadsides for anything: Bodleian, Firth b.27(171), "The Old Folks at Home!," unknown, n.d. has the note "AIR -- 'Old house at home'" - BS
File: RJ19163
===
NAME: Old Geezer, The: see The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)
===
NAME: Old Geezers, The: see The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)
===
NAME: Old General Lane
DESCRIPTION: "Here sits a young lady all down to mourn, She's mourning the loss of her own true love, It has been said that he was slain In the service of old General Lane (or "was shot A-fighting for old General Scott") Oh no.... He'll come back and be my beau"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: war battle death love separation
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 560, "Old General Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #940?
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie Light Horseman"
NOTES: This piece instantly makes me think of the Napoleonic War-era piece "My Bonnie Light Horseman," but the link is tenuous.
If the soldier was shot in the army of General Scott, the war is presumably the Mexican War.
If instead we refer the song to "General Lane," it probably refers to General Walter Payne Lane, who fought in the Mexican War and served in the Confederate cavalry in the west (Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge) and was commissioned Brigadier General in 1865. There were, however, several other Generals Lane in the Civil War: James Lane (brigadier in Lee's army), and John Lane (brevet Brigadier in the Army of the Cumberland). There was also Senator James Lane, who had been Major General of the (Unionist) Kansas Militia. - RBW
File: R560
===
NAME: Old General Price
DESCRIPTION: "Old General Price is a mighty fine man, From women an' children he steals all he can, It's damn any man that will follow his trade... These hard times"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes Civilwar thief
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 224, "Old General Price" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Roud #7828
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sterling Price" (subject)
NOTES: Sterling Price (1809-1867), a former governor of Missouri and Confederate commander of Missouri troops, was almost certainly not a thief. His troops, however, were undisciplined and therefore even more likely to loot than the average soldier. Their depredations may account for the attitude toward Price shown in this fragment.
I have the strange feeling that "Old General Price" and "Sterling Price" are a single piece, one being adapted from the other -- but since we don't have a single complete stanza of either, and only one tune, this is beyond proof. - RBW
File: R224
===
NAME: Old Girder Bill
DESCRIPTION: "I'll write you a poem of an old mountaineer, Who spent his life hunting for raccoon and deer." Girder Bill goes hunting and sees a buck and doe; he shoots the buck and goes home, "A buck on his shoulder, a doe left for seed."
AUTHOR: Lije Littleton?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: hunting
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', p. 124, "Old Girder Bill" (1 text)
File: ThBa124
===
NAME: Old Glory
DESCRIPTION: "Say, have you heard the joyful news of Burnside's expedition...?" "The other day at Roanoke... The boys, to play a Union joke, ran up the flag of glory." The singer praises the Union soldiers, taunts the Confederates, and calls for their hanging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Feb. 7, 1862 - Burnside's North Carolina expedition approaches Roanoke Island
Feb. 8, 1862 - Burnside defeats Henry Wise's local troops to capture Roanoke Island
Mar. 14, 1862 - Burnside takes New Bern
Apr. 26, 1862 - Burnside captures Beaufort
July 3, 1862 - Burnside and some 7500 of his troops are transferred to the Army of the Potomac
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
JHCox 71, "Old Glory" (1 text)
Roud #5461
NOTES: Burnside's expedition against the North Carolina coast was one of the first Union amphibious expeditions, and was quite successful (almost the only Union success in the war to this time). A large strip of North Carolina coast stayed in Union hands, which helped tighten the Union blockade.
This song was almost certainly composed in the early months of 1862 -- probably before the Battle of Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862), where Burnside had a chance to win the war, and muffed it. Certainly it must have been composed before the Battle of Fredericksburg that winter, when Burnside lost the last shreds of his reputation. The North Carolina campaign had been a pushover, requiring little but energy (which Burnside had). Defeating Robert E. Lee took brains (which Burnside didn't have). - RBW
File: JHCox072
===
NAME: Old Gospel Ship, The
DESCRIPTION: "I have good news to bring and that is why I sing... I'm gonna take a trip on that old gospel ship And go sailin' through the air." The singer advises others not to be ashamed of him/her, and admits to an inability to wait
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 351, "The Old Gospel Ship" (1 text)
DT, GOSPSHIP GSPLSHIP
Roud #7383
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Gospel Ship"  (Melotone 6-07-56/Conqueror 8692, 1936; rec. 1935)
Leverett Bros. "Old Gospel Ship" (Country Church CC3/4, n.d.)
Monroe Brothers, "On That Old Gospel Ship" (Bluebird B-7273/Montogmery Ward M-7312, 1937)
Speer Family, "Old Gospel Ship" (Columbia 20418/Columbia 38155, 1948; rec. 1947)
Ruby Vass, "The Old Gospel Ship" (on LomaxCD1704)
File: FSWB351B
===
NAME: Old Grampus: see Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)
===
NAME: Old Granddaddy's Dead: see Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)
===
NAME: Old Grandma
DESCRIPTION: In praise of Grandma, who raised 21 kids right and lived the good life. "Old Grandma when ... infants came and times got bad, She stuck right on to old Grand-dad." "But young girls now are the other way: They're up all night and sleep all day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: mother children family
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf,West)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Peacock, pp. 81-82, "Old Grandma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 94-95, "Old Grandma" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRTGRNMA*
Roud #4543
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Great Grand-dad"
File: FJ094
===
NAME: Old Grandma Hones
DESCRIPTION: The Liza leaves Sydney for Halifax and "Missus Hone's." Grandpa Hones tells tales. The girls welcome the sailors home. Grandma goes to bed and "leaves us all night with her daughters to sport"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: sex ship shore humorous whore sailor
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 83-84, "Old Grandma Hones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9952
File: Pea083
===
NAME: Old Granite State, The
DESCRIPTION: "We have come from the mountains (x3) From the Old Granite State; With a band of music (x3) We are passing 'round the world." The song introduces the singers, their state of New Hampshire, and their progressive ideas
AUTHOR: Elaborated, and probably written, by the Hutchinson Family
EARLIEST_DATE: 1843 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1843 391270)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home family drink
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, GRANITST*
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1843 391270, "The Old Granite State," Firth and Hall (New York), 1843 (tune)
NOTES: The Hutchinson Family, according to Spaeth (_A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 95) used this song to introduce their act and their family.
The Digital Tradition says that the verse, "Yes, we're friends of Emancipation And we'll sing the Proclamation" is "an obvious later addition." This is not as clear as it sounds. It was Lincoln who put the two words together -- but the Hutchinsons were campaigning for emancipation (and other liberal causes such as temperance) well before the Civil War. The exact wording may date from 1862, but the family certainly was proclaiming abolition by the 1840s -- and would have felt Lincoln's half-emancipation completely inadequate.
The family's own history, by Joshua Hutchinson, credits the song to Jesse Hutchinson (the ninth child of Jesse Sr. and Mary Hutchinson), though the sheet music lists the whole family and is copyrighted by John (child #13; all told, the parents had 19 children, 16 of whom survived infancy).  - RBW
File: DTgranit
===
NAME: Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal)
DESCRIPTION: "Old Granny she rose in the morning so soon,.. Saying, 'They're wronging my children that's over the sea." She meets Lord Cornwall, Lord Bute, Lord North, Lord Granville, and complains about the Tea Act. They argue; she wishes her children success
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1823 (Green Mountain Songster, according to Stanchfield)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad America nobility
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 18, 1775 - Battle of Lexington. A British force routs the American Minutemen. The
   colonials gain some revenge as the Redcoats advance on Concord
June 17, 1775 - American defeat at the Battle of Bunker Hill
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, GRNWALE2 (cf. GRNWALE.NOT)
Roud #2817
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Granuaile" (character of Granuaile) and references there
cf. "Revolutionary Tea" [Laws A24] (subject of the tea tax)
NOTES: It appears that there is only one traditional collection of this song, by Bessie Mae Stanchfield, taken from Elma Snyder McDowell of Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Stanchfield published this version in _California Folklore Quarterly_ Volume 4, Number 4 (October, 1945), pp. 393-397. McDowell had it from her father; based on Stanchfield's notes, this would appear to mean it was in circulation in Minnesota around 1880.
Stanchfield, in researching the song, consulted very many eminent folklorists (I have seen the letters she wrote; they are in the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society). They proved very unhelpful; none even noted the connection with Grace O'Malley, known as Granuaile (for whom see "Granuaile" and the related songs). Stanchfield's speculation was the Granny Wales either Benjamin Franklin (an "old granny" who was for a time, in effect, the American representative trying to negotiate with the British parliament) or perhaps the country of Wales itself.
I have no doubt, however, that Old Granny Wales is in fact Granuaile, and in this I am confirmed by Bruce Olson (Digital Tradition notes on Granny Wale), John Moulden (private communication), and Kenneth Porter (Notes and Queries, in _Western Folklore_, Volume 13, Number 1 (January,1954), p. 51; note that _Western Folklore_ is the successor of _California Folklore Quarterly_). All four of us reached this conclusion independently: This is a song of the Irish wishing the Americans well in their rebellion.
Apart from Granuaile, the characters and events mentioned in the McDowell text are:
Lord Cornwall: Cornwall is properly a duchy, and I know of no one named Lord Cornwall in this period; I suspect this is an error for General Cornwallis. (Unless it's a sort of geographical error for the Earl Dartmouth, Secretary for the Americas when the troubles began.)
Lord North, Lord Granville, and infamous Bute: Frederick, Lord North, later second Earl of Guilford (1732-1792), was Prime Minister 1770-1782. His behavior toward the colonies was much better than this song might imply; he actually *repealed* most of the Townshend Duties which had made the colonies so restless, keeping only the tea tax as a sort of token of British sovereignty (the tea tax, according to Stanley Weibtraub, _Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire_, Free Press, 2005, p. 4, was a quarter of the tax charged in England; on p. 19, he notes that total taxes on Americans were only about 1/25 the effective tax rate paid by British subjects) and also as an attempt to get rid of a lot of tea stuck in East India Company warehouses (see Don Cook, _The Long Fuse: How England Lost the American Colonies, 1760-1785_, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995, pp. 166-167; Albert Marrin, _The War for Independence: The Story of the American Revolution_, Atheneum, 1988, p. 33). His real problem was that he was George III's Prime Minister, so he had to do something to keep that unwise monarch happy. For more on these guys, see "Taxation of America."
Lord Granville: George Grenville (1712-1770), MP from 1741, Secretary of State 1761, Prime Minister 1763-1765. He came into office with a big problem: According to Robert Middlekauff, _The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution 1763-1789_ (Oxford, 1982), p. 57, he came into office with the national debt up to 122 million pounds (the result of the expensive battles of the Seven Years' War/French and Indian War). Britain was taxed to the limit, and the government felt that it needed to keep troops in America. Somehow, they had to be paid for. It was decided that the Americans would have to pay a share. After some fiddling with various tarriffs, Grenville imposed the Stamp Act, which was the first major cause of American revolutionary unrest (Marrin, pp. 14-15). (It is ironic to note that he lowered other duties, such as that on molasses -- Middlekauff, p. 58 -- but did his best to make sure it was collected.)
Infamous Bute: John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute (1713-1792). Prime Minister 1762-1763. He had been the tutor of the future George III from 1755, and his influence with that monarch was felt to continue long after he left office (see John Cannon, editor, _The Oxford Companion to British History_, Oxford, 1997, p. 145). He was, however, hated by just about everyone except the King (Cook, pp. 30-31), and he drove many Lords out of government.
Middlekauff, p. 20, has much to say of Bute, "The friendship [between George III and Bute] seems to have developed easily -- in part, we may suppose, because George craved affection and kindness and Bute responded with both. Yet... Bute held the upper hand: he was twenty-five years older, strongly opinionated, obviously intelligent, and he was in charge of the prince's education.... Bute himself knew much but did not understand men or human conduct. His pride reinforced the prince's; his propensity to judge others by abstract principles... strengthened a similar tendency in the prince. Master and pupil then and later commonly mistook inflexibility for personal strength and character" (p. 20).
It was Bute who first started building up the peacetime army (Cook, p. 34, attributes this to a desire to place George III), forcing the raising of money to maintain them. This started the cycle of taxes, continued by Grenville, which caused so much trouble with the colonies. Especially since Bute did nothing to make it clear why he did what he did.
Lexington Battle: The Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 18-19, 1775. Note that the colonists did not win at Lexington (where British regulars tore the Minutemen to pieces); the victory came in the guerilla actions on the way to Concord.
Bunker Hill: The Battle of Bunker Hill, fought on June 17, 1775 at Breed's Hill (not Bunker Hill). The British won, in that the Americans had to evacuate the site, The claim that 1200 Britons lay dead is exaggerated: This is about the number of actual casualties, but Cook, p. 226, says 232 British were killed and 950 wounded. For Bunker Hill, and Joseph Warren who died there, see "The Sword of Bunker Hill."
Darby. Bixby, and Graves: I'm guessing that Darby is Captain John Derby, whose ship brought the first word of Lexington and Concord to England (Cook, pp. 219-221). Bixby I can't identify, There were naval officers named Graves later in the war, though I don't know why they would be mentioned in 1775, which seems from internal evidence to be the date of this song. - RBW
File: DTgrnwl2
===
NAME: Old Gray Goose (I), The (Lookit Yonder)
DESCRIPTION: Concerning a man's dead wife, whose return he fears: "On Saturday night my good wife died, On Sunday she was buried, But Monday was my courting day, And Tuesday I got married. Now, lookit here, and lookit there, and look way over yonder..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: wife husband death marriage humorous floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
FSCatskills 147, "Lookit Yonder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy 153 (last of several "fragments of Irish songs" - 1 text, which could be this or "My Wife Died on Saturday Night")
DT, LOOKYOND*
Roud #3619
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Turkey Hen" (plot, lyrics; the two may be slightly modified forms of the same song)
cf. "I Had a Wife"
cf. "John Styles and Susan Cutter" (tune)
cf. "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (words)
cf. "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (floating verse)
NOTES: The first verse quoted here is the same as "My Wife Died on Saturday Night"; they are distinguished mostly by the chorus.
To add to the confusion, there is a nursery rhyme (Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #131, p. 106):
I married a wife on Sunday,
She began to scold on Monday,
Bad was she on Tuesday,
Middling was she on Wednesday,
Worse she was on Thursday,
Dead was she on Friday,
Glad was I on Saturday night,
To bury my wife on Sunday.
The Baring-Goulds also compare the well-known poem of "Solomon Grundy." - RBW
File: FSC147
===
NAME: Old Gray Goose (II), The: see Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)
===
NAME: Old Gray Goose Is Dead, The: see Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)
===
NAME: Old Gray Horse Come Tearin' Out o' De Wilderness: see The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)
===
NAME: Old Gray Horse, The: see The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)
===
NAME: Old Gray Mare (I), The (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)
DESCRIPTION: Concerning an old gray mare (old gray horse, little black bull) that came out of the wilderness (down the meadow, etc.) in Alabam/Arkansas/A long time ago/On to Galilee. Other animals may also be involved. May be used as a playparty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1858 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: horse animal nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Randolph 271, "The Old Gray Horse" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune); 559, "Out of the Wilderness" (1 short text, 1 tune); also possibly 429, "John the Boy, Hello!" (1 text, 1 tune, so short that one cannot tell whether it is the same piece or a different one)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 231-232, "The Old Gray Horse" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 271A)
BrownIII 174, "The Old Grey Horse Came Tearing Through the Wilderness" (3 short texts; "A" adds an unusual chorus, "Roll, Riley, roll (x3), Oh, Lord, I'm bound to go")
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 13-14, "Old Gray Horse Come Tearin' Out o' De Wilderness" (1 text plus bits of others, 1 tune); p. 183, (no title) (1 short text)
Sandburg, pp. 102-103, "Old Gray Mare"; 164-165, "Hoosen Johnny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 65-68, "Down in Alabam' or Ain't I Glad I Got Out de Wilderness"" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 45, "In the Wilderness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 336-338, "Tearin' Out-a Wilderness" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Silber-FSWB, p. 397, "Hoosen Johnny"; p. 398, "The Old Gray Mare" (2 texts)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 63, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, tune referenced)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 408-409, "The Old Gray Mare -- (Get Out of the Wilderness)"
Roud #751
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "The Old Grey Mare" (Conqueror 8686, 1936)
Al Bernard, "The Old Grey Mare" (Vocalion 15643, 1927)
Milton Brown & his Brownies, "The Old Grey Mare" (Decca 5260, 1936)
Fiddlin' John Carson & Moonshine Kate, "The Old Gray Horse Ain't What He Used to Be" (OKeh 45471, 1930)
Lew Childre, "The Old Grey Mare" (Champion 16093, 1930)
[Arthur] Collins & [Byron] Harlan "Old Grey Mare" (Victor 18387, 1917) (Emerson 7298, c. 1917) (Columbia A2382, 1917) (Little Wonder 780, 1918) 
Vernon Dalhart, "The Old Grey Mare" (Perfect 12421/Conqueror 7071, 1928) (Banner 2180/Jewel 5187/Perfect 12421/Regal 8469/Conqueror 7071/Conqueror 7169, 1928; rec. 1927)
Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band, "The Old Grey Mare" (Victor 18369, 1917)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers[/Clodhoppers], "Old Gray Mare Kicking Out of the Wilderness" (OKeh 45183, 1928; rec. 1927)
Jimmy Johnson's String Band, "Old Blind Dog" (Champion 16541 [possibly issued as by Andy Palmer], 1932; on KMM)
[Billy] Jones & [Ernest] Hare, "The Old Grey Mare" (Edison 51618, 1925)
Elmo Newcomer, "Old Grey Mare" CroMart 101, n.d. but prob. late 1940s - early 1950s)
Land Norris, "Old Grey Mare" (OKeh 45047, 1926)
Obed Pickard, "The Old Gray Horse" (Columbia 15246-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "The Old Gray Mare" (Columbia 15170-D, 1927)
University Quartet, "The Old Gray Mare" (Pathe 20267, 1917)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (tune)
cf. "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" (tune)
cf. "The Big Black Bull"
cf. I Ain't a-Scared of Your Jail (tune, structure)
cf. "Horsie, Keep Your Tail Up" (lyrics)
cf. "Go in the Wilderness" (tune, structure)
cf. "Old Virginny Never Tire"
SAME_TUNE:
Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness (File: San168)
Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts (File: PHCFS133)
Flaotin' Down the Delaware (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 157)
I Don't Give a Darn for the Whole State of Iowa (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 251)
I Ain't A-Scared of Your Jail (on PeteSeeger35)
Aren't You Glad You Joined the Republicans? (Republican campaign song, c. 1860; cf. e.g. Allan Nevins, _The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War 1859-1861_ [volume IV of _The Ordeal of the Union_] (Scribners, 1950, p. 315))
NOTES: The 1858 sheet music credits this to "J. Warner," but no information about Warner has been recovered, and there are indications that the song was in the Black traditional repertoire before the 1850s.
A common bit of folklore claims that this is based on the exploits (?) of an animal that took fright during the Second Battle of Bull Run in 1862. The date of the sheet music, of course, proves this false. - RBW
Sam Hinton traces this to an African-American spiritual, "I Wait Upon the Lord" ("If you want to get to heaven go in the wilderness... and wait upon the Lord"). - PJS  [See now the Index entry for "Go Into the Wilderness." - RBW]
Are you sure this is the same ballad as "Little black bull come down the meadow/Hoosen Johnny, Hoosen Johnny"? I think they're part of the same family, but maybe we should split them. By the way, there's a great bawdy version of "Hoosen Johnny" called "Houston, Sam Houston", with sound effects. - PJS
It's another case of the extremes being different but the intermediate versions being too mixed to clearly distinguish. Easier to lump the whole family here. If we don't, we *will* mess up. Or, at least, I will. The versions of this song are so diverse that it gets to the point of parodying itself.... - RBW
File: R271
===
NAME: Old Gray Mule, The (Johnson's Mule)
DESCRIPTION: "Mr. Thomas had an old gray mule, And he drove him to a cart, And he loved that mule and the mule loved him." The song describes how Thomas mistreats the mule (currying it with a rake, feeding it on boot tops). The mule kicks and eventually dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: animal death work
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
LPound-ABS, 103, pp. 213-214, "The Old Gray Mule" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 186, "Johnson's Mule" (1 text)
BrownIII 512, "Johnson's Mule" (1 short text)
Roud #3704
NOTES: Reading Pound's text, I can't help but believe that parts of it were originally about a goat, not a mule. But I can't locate similar "goat" stanzas. In any case, many of the same lines appear in Gardner and Chickering.
Brown's text is also about a mule, but the few lines it contains are all goat-applicable. - RBW
File: LPns213
===
NAME: Old Grey Beard: see Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)
===
NAME: Old Grey Goose, The: see Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)
===
NAME: Old Grey Horse Came Tearing Through the Wilderness, The: see The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)
===
NAME: Old Grey Mare (II), The
DESCRIPTION: "Once I had an old grey mare (x3), Saddled her and rode her there." "When I got there she got tired, She laid down in an old courtyard." The singers in the yard scare her, and she flees; she singer finds her "in a mud hole flat on her back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1913 (JAFL26)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: "Once I had an old grey mare (x3), Saddled her and rode her there." "When I got there she got tired, She laid down in an old courtyard." The singers in the yard scare her, and she flees; she singer finds her "in a mud hole flat on her back." In other versions, the singer tells that the gray mare  was blind and deaf; he takes her out to plow, but she doesn't know how; she runs away, he follows her and finds her on her back in a mudhole. She may get that good old-time religion
KEYWORDS: horse travel disability escape farming humorous animal
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 175, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text)
SharpAp 223, "The Old Grey Mare" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #3442
RECORDINGS:
Buell Kazee, "Old Grey Mare" (on Kazee01)
Maude Thacker, "Once I Had an Old Grey Mare" (on FolkVisions1)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)"; in that song the horse comes out of the wilderness.
Buell Kazee allegedly recorded this in the 1920s, but I can't find it in the catalogs. And Sharp is said to have printed a version, but I haven't seen it yet. So, for the moment, the earliest date stands. - PJS
File: Br3175
===
NAME: Old Grey Mare (III), The
DESCRIPTION: .".. of traitors now beware There's none but men would glory win can ride my old Grey Mare. In Erin's Isle in ancient times She was rode by Brian Boru" and other heroes and others "not long ago" and "Brave Bonaparte" as well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn); first half 19C (Zimmermann) 
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic talltale horse Napoleon
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1014 - Battle of Clontarf; Brian Boru defeats a mixed force of Vikings and their Irish allies (but is killed in the battle)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OLochlainn 35, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmermann 44B, "The Sporting Old Grey Mare" (1 text)
Moylan 164, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3039
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wonderful Grey Horse" (theme)
NOTES: Zimmermann: "The song probably has no emblematic meaning."
For a broadside with the same theme but different ballad see NLScotland, RB.m.169(243), "The Wonderful Grey Horse," unknown, c.1840. The similarity extends even to leading up to support of the Irish Home Rule Movement. - BS
File: OLoc035
===
NAME: Old Grimes (II): see Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)
===
NAME: Old Grimes Is Dead: see Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)
===
NAME: Old Grumbler: see Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)
===
NAME: Old Gum Boots and Leggings: see Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)
===
NAME: Old Hal o' the West: see Henry Clay Songs (File: SRW039)
===
NAME: Old Hannah: see Go Down, Old Hannah (File: LoF286)
===
NAME: Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow: see Hen Cackle (File: RcOHCRGC)
===
NAME: Old Hewson the Cobbler: see The Cobbler (File: R102)
===
NAME: Old Holly, Crab, and I
DESCRIPTION: "We work for Hay and Company; we try to do what's right. We start at six in the morning and quit at six at night." The three workers, "old Holly, Crab, and me," work hard, then relax in the evening
AUTHOR: Ron Sisson ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke-Lumbering #25, "Old Holly, Crab, and I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4465
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "We Work for Hay and Company" (subject)
File: FowL25
===
NAME: Old Honest Abe
DESCRIPTION: "Old honest Abe, you are a babe In military glory. An iron fool, a party tool, A traitor, and a Tory." The singer challenges Lincoln to "whup us if you're able." Scott and Wool cannot win his battles; Scott can never defeat his mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1863 (Songs of the South)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 356-357, "Old Honest Abe" (1 text)
Roud #7767
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Abe's Elected" (subject)
NOTES: Belden says this song was published in _Songs of the South_ in 1863. Internal evidence implies that it was written rather earlier -- my guess would be around September or October of 1861, after the Confederates had won Wilson's Creek (August 10) and first Bull Run (July 21), making possible the claim of beating the Federals in every battle, but before Winfield Scott gave up the Commander in Chief's post in November of that year.
The "Scott" of the song was of course Winfield Scott (1786-1866), the original commander in chief of the Federal armies, who was a Virginian (hence the gibe about his inability to defeat his mother). Although Scott was soon pushed aside, we might note that his "anaconda plan" was the basic scheme by which the Union won the war.
"Wool" is John E. Wool (1789-1869), like Scott a veteran of the War of 1812, and considered the #2 Federal officer starting the war. He would serve until he retired in 1863, but he didn't really do much in the War; at no point did he command an important army. - RBW
File: Beld356
===
NAME: Old Horny Kebri-O (Shaggin' Away)
DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out and has "good luck," having sex with 14 women. He has less fortune at home, having only animals available. Other verses may involve other exploits of his "old horny kebri-o." Chorus: "Shaggin', shaggin', shaggin' away...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: sex animal whore bawdy nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Logsdon 49, pp. 235-237, "Old Horny Kebri-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10104
File: Logs049
===
NAME: Old Horse (II): see The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)
===
NAME: Old Horse, Old Horse: see The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)
===
NAME: Old Hoss: see The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)
===
NAME: Old Hoss Kick, The
DESCRIPTION: "De old hoss kick And a hippy-doodle. De old hoss kick And a hippy-doodle. The old hoss kick hard in the stable, And he couldn't git his foot out Because he wasn't able!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 185, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScNF185A
===
NAME: Old Hoss, Old Hoss: see The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)
===
NAME: Old Hulk, The
DESCRIPTION: "When age has rendered some old hulk Unfit for merchant use, She's sold at auction, bought in bulk, Just for a whaling cruise." The singer described the dreadful conditions on a whaling ship, and laments that after all the toil he is still poor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1854 (Journal from the Governor Carver)
KEYWORDS: whaler work hardtimes
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 32-33, "The Old Hulk" (1 text)
Roud #2007
File: SWMS032
===
NAME: Old Hundred
DESCRIPTION: "All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice." Alternately, "Make ye a joyful sounding noise, Unto Jehovah, all the earth." The listener is reminded that Jehovah is God, and is advised to enter "his courts with thankfulness."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1560
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(NE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 28-29, "Psalm 100 (A Psalm of Praise)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 366, "Old Hundred" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 409-410, "Old Hundred"
DT, (OLDHUND*)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 26-27, "All People That On Earth Do Dwell" (1 text, 1 tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Hymn for Syttende Mai (Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 18-19 -- though the words have to be squeezed pretty hard to fit)
The Dogsology (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 156)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Old Hundredth
NOTES: This tune is now better known as "The Doxology," but those words are relatively recent. The source and age of the original words are subject to slight debate. Fuld reports that the music is said to have been provided by Louis Bourgeois for Psalm 134 in the 1551 Genevan Psalter. However, no copies of this book survive, and the 1553 edition lacks the song.
The first certain printing, the 1560 edition "Psalms of David in English," has the piece with words credited to William Kethe. (The "doxology" stanza is from Thomas Ken, and is later.) According to Johnson, William Kethe was a Scotsman, but apparently he ended up in England, because he "fled before the persecution of Mary 1555-1558 [presumably, by the dates, Mary Tudor of England, not Mary Stuart of Scotland] and found refuge in Geneva."
Johnson also reports that this song "was suggested to us by the McCormick Theological Seminary as expressing Calvin's and Presbuterian/Reformedhymn concepts in much the same way as _A Mighty Fortress Is Our God_ could be said to represent Luther's."
The version printed by Scott (from the Bay Psalm Book of 1640) has the curious trait of using the name "Jehovah" rather than the theologically correct "the LORD" or the phonologically correct "YAHWEH." This version does have the advantage of being noticeably closer to the Hebrew in meaning.
The Missouri Harmony has a song, "Old Hundred" (as well as a "New Hundred") which doesn't seem to match any version of this I've ever seen in either text or tune.- RBW
File: SBoA028
===
NAME: Old Hundredth: see Old Hundred (File: SBoA028)
===
NAME: Old Indian, An (The Indian Song)
DESCRIPTION: "An old Indian sat in his little canoe, / A-floating along o'er the water so blue. / He sang of the days when these lands were his own, / Before the palefaces among them were known." A lament for the loss of the Indians' land and culture
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) lament
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Warner 30, "An Old Indian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 86-88, "The Indian's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 81, "The Indian's Lament" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 157-158, "The Indian's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 121, "Indian Song" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
ST Wa030 (Partial)
Roud #1846
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Tom Sullivan, "The Indian's Lament" (on Ontario1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Steals of the White Man" (theme)
cf. "Logan's Lament" (theme)
cf. "The Fair Captive" (plot elements)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Poor Indian
File: Wa030
===
NAME: Old Inishowen
DESCRIPTION: The singer says there is no place in the country to match Inishowen's beauty. He lists the places nearby: Tyrconnell, the castle of Cahir. He laments that O'Donnell (of Tyrconnell) and O'Doherty (of Inishowen) are dead. He blesses his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H824, p. 166, "Old Inishowen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13477
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeting of the Waters" (tune)
NOTES: For O'Donell of Tyrconnell, see the notes on "O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)." - RBW
File: HHH824
===
NAME: Old Ireland
DESCRIPTION: "In the northwest of Europe there lies a green isle" land of majestic hills and fertile fields. The singer came from Columbia to view Ireland, and now praises Saint Patrick for a land without snakes. The singer bids farewell but says his heart will stay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home travel nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H658, pp. 175-176, "Old Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13536
File: HHH658
===
NAME: Old Ireland Far Away: see The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II) [Laws J7] (File: LJ07)
===
NAME: Old Ireland I Adore
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Erin's Isle, my heart's delight, I long to see thee free." O'Connell fought to make Ireland free. "If you were free as once we were How happy would we be! No foreign landlord then would dare To lord it over thee"
AUTHOR: James Walsh
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 12(242))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 113, "Old Ireland I Adore" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(242), "The Exile's Lament", J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 b.10(82), Harding B 11(2918), 2806 c.15(287), Firth c.26(235), "The Exile's Lament"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls" (tune)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)"  (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
File: OCon113
===
NAME: Old Jack
DESCRIPTION: Charles thinks his horse Old Jack should win a silver cup. Old Jack is a bag of bones, always hungry to eat anything. Nevertheless, he wins a trotting match race.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: racing humorous horse food
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 85-86, "Old Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9953
File: Pea085
===
NAME: Old Jesse
DESCRIPTION: "One cold and frosty mornin' Just as the sun did rise, The possum roared, the raccoon howled, 'Cause he'd begun to freeze... Old Jesse was a gentleman among the olden times." Remaining verses are floating stanzas about a Black's learning and life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible humorous animal
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 71-72, "Old Jesse" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ScaNF071 (Partial)
Roud #3439
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "On a Cold Frosty Morning" (lyrics)
cf. "Walkin' in the Parlor" (lyrics)
NOTES: This is one of those impossible items. Roud lumps Scarborough's text with "On a Cold Frosty Morning," presumably on the basis of the first line. But the next two verses ("Nigger never went to free school Nor any odder college..." and "Nigger used to pick de banjo, He play so berry strong...") are typical of "Walkin' in the Parlor."
The chorus, about Old Jesse (the father of David) is unique.
What's more, I have a recording of George and Gerry Armstrong, with the first verse and the Old Jesse chorus, combined with "Bye and Bye."
I really don't know what to make of the result. Separate song, or just a conflation? When in doubt, we split. If I had to file it somewhere, I would probably go against Roud and file it with "Walkin' in the Parlor" rather than "On a Cold Frosty Morning." - RBW
File: ScaNF071
===
NAME: Old Jig-Jog, The: see The Castlereagh River (File: MA045)
===
NAME: Old Jimmy Sutton
DESCRIPTION: Bill took the gun, Bill went a-huntin'/Bang went the gun, down went the mutton, baa!" and similar verses about an inept farmer. Cho: "Can't dance that, can't dance nothin'/I wouldn't give a blank for the old Jimmy Sutton, baa!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Grayson & Whitter)
KEYWORDS: hunting dancing food dancetune animal horse sheep farming
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #7878
RECORDINGS:
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Old Jimmy Sutton" (Gennett 6436, 1928, on GraysonWhitter01)
Vester Jones, "The Old Jimmy Sutton" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Glenn Smith, "Old Jimmy Sutton" [instrumental] (GraysonCarroll1)
NOTES: Just enough plot to avoid the nonballad keyword by a whisker. - PJS
File: RcOJiSu
===
NAME: Old Joe Camp
DESCRIPTION: "Old Joe Camp when he came to town, He enlisted under Captain Brown, Brown swore him on the very first slap, And sent him off to Manassas Gap." Brown rides Joe, who vows to desert, is captured (?), and is "fired back" to Brown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar desertion
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
JHCox 79, "Old Joe Camp" (1 text)
ST JHCox079 (Full)
Roud #5463
NOTES: Despite the title, the stanza form implies that this is not a version of Old Joe Clark.
Cox's version is badly defective, and there don't seem to be other versions, so it's hard to tell what this is really about, except that it seems to involve an "old soldier" of the Civil War who does his best to avoid work -- and, when that fails, attempts to desert.
The only specific in the song is the reference to Manassas Gap; this is not enough even to allow speculation about the source of the song.
It was quite common, in the Civil War, for a well-to-do or well-connected man to volunteer to raise a company (or even a regiment), and become its commander as a result. It would seem that Brown was just such a company commander. - RBW
File: JHCox079
===
NAME: Old Joe Clark
DESCRIPTION: Old Joe Clark, a "fine old man" and a "preacher's son," lives an improbable life of courting, gambling, drinking, and sundry accidents. Versions range from the thoroughly clean (often involving animals) to the significantly bawdy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1842
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale nonballad animal playparty floatingverses bawdy dancetune
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Randolph 533, "Old Joe Clark" (10 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 399-401, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 533A)
BrownIII 86, "Old Joe Clark" (5 texts); also 111, "Wish I Had a Needle and Thread" (7 text, of which only "E" is really substantial; it is certainly the "Italy" version of "Going Across the Sea." The other fragments contain verses typical of "Shady Grove," "Old Joe Clark," and others)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 428-430, "Old Joe Clark" (5 texts, 1 tune)
SharpAp 183, "Old Joe Clarke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 25, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune -- plus the modern adaption "Round and Round Hitler's Grave")
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 277-279, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 814-818, "Old Joe Clark" (1 collated text, 1 tune)
JHCox 174, "Old Joe Clog" (1 text, partly from "Old Joe Clark" and partly floating verses, several of them from "Shady Grove")
Abrahams/Foss, p. 89, "Old Joe Clark" (1 partial text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 35, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 249-250, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 206, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text)
DT, JOECLARK*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 209, "(Old Joe Clark)" (1 text)
Roud #3594
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Old Joe Clark" (AFS 200 A3, 1933)
H. M. Barnes & his Blue Ridge Ramblers, "Old Joe Clark" (Brunswick 313, 1929)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Fare You Well Old Joe Clark" (OKeh 40038, 1924; rec. 1923) (OKeh 45198 [as "Old Joe Clark"], 1928, rec. 1927)
James Crase, "Old Joe Clark" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Old Joe Clark" (Gennett 6223/Challenge 333/Herwin 75565, 1927; on GoingDown)
The Hillbillies, "Old Joe Clark" (OKeh 40376, 1925) (Vocalion 15369, 1926)
Vester Jones, "Old Joe Clark" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Bradley Kincaid, "Old Joe Clark" (Brunswick 485, c. 1930; Conqueror 8090, 1933)
Clayton McMichen & his Georgia Wildcats, "Old Joe Clark" (Varsity 5029, 1942)
John D. Mounce et al, "Old Joe Clark" (on MusOzarks01)
Glen Neaves & band, "Old Joe Clark" (on HalfCen1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Old Joe Clark" (on NLCR05, NLCR11)
W. Lee O'Daniel & the Light Crust Doughboys, "Old Joe Clark" (Vocalion 02975, 1935)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Old Joe Clark" (AFS 197 A1, 1933)
Fiddlin' Powers and Family, "Old Joe Clark" (Victor 19434, 1924) (Edison 51662, 1925)
Riley Puckett, "Old Joe Clark" (Columbia 15033-D, c. 1925)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Old Joe Clark" (Victor 20302, 1926); Ernest V. Stoneman Trio, "Old Joe Clark" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "Joe Clark" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Old Joe Clark" (Columbia 15108-D, 1926)
Wade Ward, "Old Joe Clark" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Cuckoo Waltz" (floating lyrics)
SAME_TUNE:
Fare You Well, Old Ely Branch (by Aunt Molly Jackson) (Greenway-AFP, pp. 268-269; on PeteSeeger13)
NOTES: Randolph-Legman I offers some of the rarely printed bawdy verses to this familiar square dance and quatrain ballad. - EC
Since this piece is often played as a fiddle tune, and since the verses are usually improbable, often come from other songs, and rarely show any connection to each other, this song has been suspected of having begun life as an instrumental. - RBW
Seeger states that Joe Clark was "an actual person, a veteran of the War of 1812." - PJS
I'd love to know what evidence there is to prove that this soldier inspired the song.... - RBW
This shouldn't be confused with the fiddle tune "Old Joe," which is separate. "Old Joe" is reported to have been a nickname for syphilis. - PJS
File: R533
===
NAME: Old Joe Clog: see Old Joe Clark (File: R533)
===
NAME: Old Joe's Barroom: see Saint James Infirmary (File: San228)
===
NAME: Old John Booker
DESCRIPTION: "Old John Booker, call that gone!" (repeated frequently, usually in groups of three). "I'm goin' down to telephone!" "Old John Booker, he feel like this!" "I'm goin' down -- on the farm!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 187-188, "(Old John Booker)" (1 text); p. 287, "Old John Booker" (1 tune, partial text)
File: CNFM187
===
NAME: Old John Wallis
DESCRIPTION: John Brown had an old mare. He wasn't bid one farthing for her at Caister fair. He had a cow that gave only enough milk for his sow. His hens got in his corn; he shot at them but killed his mare. He killed another mare running her head into a tree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1967 (recording, Bob Brader)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous nonballad nonsense chickens horse floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #294
RECORDINGS:
Bob Brader, "Old John Wallis" (on Voice14)
NOTES: John Wallis's part in this song is only to ask John Brown "do you think this mare will die?" The rest of the song has to do with John Brown's misadventures. I list only a few of those in the description. He has others that I don't begin to understand. For example,
Old John Brown he went to plough,
And when he got there he didn't know how.
At every end he gave meows
He said he could plough from light to dark.
and
Old John Brown he had two fools
And he said he would make them lead his winter cows.
And if they didn't get back by noon,
He would eat the treacle and swallow the spoon.
I hope this is not supposed to make sense. - BS
I wonder if it isn't some sort of "song of all nonsense songs," with some garbling as the various elements came together. Roud lumps it with "Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn)." I'm reminded of versions of "The Swapping Boy." Mix in a little of "Little Brown Dog" and a dead horse song, and voila! - RBW
File: RcOlJoWa
===
NAME: Old Johnny Booger
DESCRIPTION: Johnny Booger takes a wife. Doctor tells Johnny to rub her bad leg with gin. He thinks that a sin so he drinks the gin and rubs her leg with the bottle. Johnny falls in the river and there is no one to pull him out. He dies but can't get in heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960s (recording, Jack Elliott)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous wife death river drowning
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #1329
RECORDINGS:
Jack Elliott, "Old Johnny Booger" (on Voice14)
NOTES: Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 14" - 8.9.02: "When I first came across this song, from a singer in Oxfordshire, the title was 'Old Johnny Bigger', the final word rhyming with the now unacceptable word 'nigger'. I presume that the song comes from the American Minstrel stage of the mid-19th century."
Jack Elliott's chorus on Voice14 is "Singing I do believe; I will believe. That old Johnny Booger was a gay old bugger And a gay old bugger was he." 
It is tempting to lump this [Roud #1329] with "Johnny Booker" [Roud #3441] but the verses and tune here have nothing in common with what I've read and heard. Yet another complication is the relationship of this song to "Johnny Boker" (I) [Roud #353]; for tune, text and structure's sake, I would keep it separate as well. - BS
File: RcOlJoBo
===
NAME: Old Johnny Booker Won't Do: see Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R268)
===
NAME: Old Johnston Thought It Rather Hard
DESCRIPTION: "Old Johnston thought it rather hard To ride over Beauregard; Old Johnston proved the deuce of a battle, And it's clear beyond a doubt That he didn't like the rout, And the second time he thought he'd try another." The Great Galena is also mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier battle
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run/Manasses fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard
April 6-7, 1862 - Battle of Shiloh. The army of U.S. Grant is forced back but, reinforced by Buell, beats off the army of A.S. Johnston. Johnston is killed. Both sides suffer heavy casualties (Shiloh was the first battle to show how bloody the Civil War would be)
May 15, 1862 - Battle of Drewry's Bluff
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 224, "Old Johnston Thought It Rather Hard" (1 fragment)
Roud #6618
NOTES: The editors of Brown conjecture that the first verse of this song, at least, refers to the Battle of Shiloh. Given the fragmentary state of the text, this is possible -- but I wonder.
There were two battles in the Civil War in which a southern general named Johnston was in command over Beauregard: At Bull Run/Manasses, where the Johnston involved was Joseph E. Johnston, and at Shiloh, where the Johnston was Albert Sydney Johnston.
To me, the song seems slightly more likely to refer to Bull Run. J. E. Johnston, arriving on the field with reinforcements, could have taken command over Beauregard, but generally deferred to his junior as Beauregard knew the ground. In addition, the Confederates at Bull Run were wavering when Johnston's troops arrived; there was no such rout at Shiloh. (There, it was the Union troops which ran.)
I hasten to add that this is pure conjecture. If true, however, the song may link vaguely with the "Bull Run" song of Cox; there are some metrical similarities.
If the song refers to the eastern campaigns, it would also explain the references to the _Galena_, a Union ironclad launched in 1862. She operated on the James River during the Peninsular Campaign, and she and the _Monitor_ (either of which, though probably the latter, could be the "Naval Wonder" of the song) tried to ascend the river to attack Richmond after the destruction of the _Merrimac/Virginia_ on May 9.
The attack on Drewry's Bluff failed; the Union vessels could not elevate their guns high enough to attack the Confederate works. The _Monitor_ suffered little damage (except that her crew was driven inside by sharpshooters, leaving them breathing foul and very hot air; see Harold Holzer and Tim Mulligan, Editors, _The Battle of Hampton Roads_, Fordham/Mariner's Museum, 2006, p. 48), but the _Galena_ proved very unsafe. James L. Nelson, Reign of Iron: The Story of the first Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merimack_, Perennial, 2004, p.89, records an officer writing of her, "She is not shot-proof; ball came through, and many men were killed with fragments of her own iron."
Professor James Russell Soley, U.S.N., writing in volume II of the famous nineteenth century series _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, p. 270., writes that in the battle of Drewry's Bluff, "In this position the _Galena_ remained for three hours and twenty minutes until she had expended all her ammunition. She came out of the action badly shattered, having been struck 28 times and perforated in 18 places." In the end, she was converted to an unarmored gunboat.
Another perspective on Drewry's Bluff, however, comes from John Taylor Wood, who was first a lieutenant in the Confederate Navy and then a Colonel in the army. He too wrote an article in _Battles and Leaders_ (found in the short edition abridged by Ned Bradford in 1956; I use the 1979 Fairfax Press edition): He declares that Drewry's Bluff had not been fortified until the _Virginia_ was scuttled, and manned only by a few guns, served mostly by the _Virginia's_ former crew. He considers the _Galena_ to have been very skillfully handled, But his summary of the battle (p. 108) is as follows:
"The _Monitor_, and others anchored just below, answered our fire deliberately; but, owing to the great elevation of the battery, their fire was in a great measure ineffectual, though two guns were dismounted and several men were killed and wounded. While this was going on, our sharp-shooters were at work on both banks.... Fining they could make no impression on our works, the _Galena_, after an action of four hours, returned down the riger with her onsorts.
"This was one of the boldest and best-conducted operations of the war.... Had Commander Rogers [of the Union navy] been supported by a few brigades,landed at City Point or above on the south side [of the James River], Richmond would have been evacuated. The _Virginia's_ crew alone barred his way to Richmond...." - RBW 
File: BrII224
===
NAME: Old Jones: see Put the Traffic Down (File: R334)
===
NAME: Old Judas
DESCRIPTION: "Old Judas was a traitor and the worst of his kind. He had a bag of money that he carried all the time." The singer details Judas's betrayal of Jesus, and his death, wonders why Jesus chose such a disciple, and warns others against love of money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Collected by Shellans from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious money lie betrayal
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Shellans, pp. 87-88, "Old Judas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7336
NOTES: The statement that Judas had "a money bag" seems to be based on John 13:29. where Judas is said to have what the NRSV calls "the common purse," and also John 12:6. This also refers to Judas having the common treasury, and refers to him as a thief who steals from it. 12;6 is also the verse in which, after the anointing of Jesus's feet, he complains that the money was not given to the poor. (In the version of the story of the anointing in Mark 14:3-9 and parallels, it is not Judas who questions the behavior, but the crowd in general).
There is no evidence that Judas had been a thief prior to his involvement with Jesus, except for songs such as "Judas" [Child 23].
It is not really clear whether Judas betrayed Jesus for a high price or a low. Only Matthew tells the story (Matt. 26:15), and the text says literally "thirty of silver" -- hence thirty silver coins, but it it not clear which sort of silver coins. If, as is likely, we are meant to think of the Greek denarius (which was a silver coin massing 3.8 grams), the price -- while not "lordly" as in the source in Zech. 11:13) -- was not trivial; it represented a month or more of income for a hired worker. And it was allegedly enough to buy a field near Jerusalem, where land prices must have been high (Matt. 27:7).
In Matthew 27:3-4, Judas tries to return the money before his death. The song tries to reconcile the two incompatible versions of his death; Matt. 27:5 says he hanged himself, clearly dying in the process, with no broken ropes involved; his death by violent disease, in a field he himself bought, is told in Acts 1:18-19). - RBW
File: Shel087
===
NAME: Old Judge Duffy
DESCRIPTION: Judge Duffy "knew nothing about rules of the law," but "of judges he was one of the best." When the town's only blacksmith is clearly guilty of murder, Duffy orders a Chinese laborer hanged instead, because the blacksmith is needed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978
KEYWORDS: execution reprieve foreigner lie
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 51-52, "Old Judge Duffy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JDGEDFFY*
Roud #4780
File: MN2051
===
NAME: Old Keg of Rum, The
DESCRIPTION: "My name is old Jack Palmer, I'm a man of olden day, And so I wish to sing a song To you of olden praise. To tell of merry friends of old...." The singer describes his mates who gathered around "the old keg of rum," their work and their drinking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: drink moniker
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 249-253, "The Old Keg of Rum" (1 text)
NOTES: The text Paterson/Fahey/Seal appears likely to be based on "The Days of Forty-Nine," but without a tune, it's impossible to be sure. - RBW.
File: PFS250
===
NAME: Old Kentucky
DESCRIPTION: "You may go east, you may go west And sighs so grand you'll see. But after all, Kentucky is The place you'll wish to be." The singer describes the scenery, the "women always fair," the hospitality, the farming, etc. and hopes to be buried in Kentucky
AUTHOR: Billie Menshouse?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 174-175, "Old Kentucky" (1 text)
File: ThBa174
===
NAME: Old King and His Three Sons, The: see In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)
===
NAME: Old King Buzzard
DESCRIPTION: "Old King Buzzard floating high, 'Sho do wish old cow would die.' Old cow died, old calf cried, 'Oh mourner, you shall be free.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food bird animal
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 193, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScNF193A
===
NAME: Old King Cole (I)
DESCRIPTION: Cumulative: "Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he. He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl and he called for his --- three." Sundry (soldiers/courtiers) are called in, make suitable remarks, and wait for the next rank
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1776 (Herd); the nursery rhyme form is quoted in William King's "Useful Transactions in Philosophy" (1708/9)
KEYWORDS: cumulative soldier drink humorous bawdy
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So) Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Kennedy 302, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 151-153, "Old King Coul" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 107, "Old King Jimmy" (1 text, in which the same first stanza is repeated several times: "Old King Jimmy called for his wine And called for his fiddlers three," "Old Farmer Jimmy called for his wine..." "Old Preacher Jimmy..." "Old Sailor Jimmy...")
Randolph-Legman I, p. 158, "Old King Cole" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge II, pp. 171-173, "Old King Cole" (1 tune, which may or may not be related as no text is given)
Creighton-NovaScotia 91, "Old King Coul" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 112, "Old King Cole" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #206, p. 143, "(Old King Cole)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 278, "Old King Cole" (1 text)
DT, KNGCOLE* KNGCOLE2*
Roud #1164
RECORDINGS:
Martin Gorman, "Old King Cole" (on Voice07)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(269), "Old King Cole," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866 ; also Harding B 11(2808), "Old King Cole"
SAME_TUNE:
Old King Cotton (Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II, p. 199)
NOTES: Randolph-Legman I has a bawdy version of the drinking song and nursery rhyme. - EC
Various explanations have been offered for "King Cole." Colchester is said to have been named after a third century kinglet named Cole (Geoffrey of Monmouth's history, v.6, describes a "Coel Duke of Kaercolun/Colchester" as living in the time of Constantius the father of Constantine the Great -- but Geoffrey made up most of his history. He also gave us King Lear and much of the basic story of King Arthur).
Scotland had a King Colin (967-971). Various merchants and minor noblemen have also been suggested. Needless to say, none of these identifications is convincing. - RBW
Parody: Bodleian, Harding B 11(2809), "Old King Cole," J. Sharp (London), c.1845 - BS
File: K302
===
NAME: Old King Cole (II)
DESCRIPTION: "Old King Cole was a jolly old soul And this you may tell by his larnin', He eat corn bread till his head turn red And his old yellow cap needs darnin" Other verses are floaters: "My pretty little pink," "Coffee grows," "I'll take my knapsack on my back"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: nonballad royalty floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 42-43, "[Old King Cole]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 81, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1164
NOTES: Roud lumps this with the standard "Old King Cole." But while the theme is similar, the lyrics and the meter are different. It's really more a floating verse collection than anything else; of Ritchie's 20 lines (five stanazas of four lines each), I would consider *at least* fourteen to be from other songs -- and I suspect in fact that the original was a composite song from which the singer forgot a few lines and patched in replacements. - RBW
File: JRSF042
===
NAME: Old King Coul: see Old King Cole (I) (File: K302)
===
NAME: Old King Jimmy: see Old King Cole (I) (File: K302)
===
NAME: Old Kingston Jail
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the conditions in Kingston Jail. The inmates talk of their desire to leave. Most of the song is devoted to the varied characters found in the prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: nonballad prison moniker
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 25-27, "Old Kingston Jail" (1 text)
ST FO025 (Partial)
Roud #4675
File: FO025
===
NAME: Old Kitarden
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a restless logger, leaves "Kitarden" (Katahdin), Maine. Arriving in Michigan, he is set to cooking instead of logging; he reminisces; when he and his friends arrive in Saginaw they will "make the taverns roar" with toasts to Kitarden and the girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer, a logger, leaves "Kitarden" (Katahdin), Maine, because he is restless. He arrives in Michigan, but his cohorts put him to cooking rather than logging; he reminisces about Maine, and vows that when he and his friends arrive in Saginaw they will "make the taverns roar" with toasts to Kitarden and the "girls that we adore."
KEYWORDS: lumbering emigration logger work home cook
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 44, "Old Kitarden" (1 text)
Roud #8876
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy" (lyrics)
NOTES: Maine, New Brunswick, and Ontario lumberjacks commonly came to Michigan for the season, or sometimes permanently. - PJS
File: Be044
===
NAME: Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump
DESCRIPTION: "Old Lady Sally wants to jumpty-jump, Jumpty-jump, jumpty-jump... And Old Lady Sally wants to bow." The singer says to throw in a hook to catch a girl, notes there are "many fishes in the brook," and describes a preacher trying to preach his way to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (recording, children of Lilly's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad courting
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 153-154, "(Old Lady Sally Wants to Jumpty-Jump)" (1 text); pp. 275-276, "Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #11003
RECORDINGS:
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
File: CNFM153
===
NAME: Old Lady Sittin' in the Dining Room
DESCRIPTION: A ring-skipping song. "Choose the one the ring go round, Choose the one the morning, Choose the one with the coal black hair, And kiss and call her honey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 705, "Old Lady Sittin' in the Dining Room" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Another "Weevily Wheat" variant? - RBW
File: BSoF705B
===
NAME: Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
DESCRIPTION: Singer says he knows an old lady who swallowed a fly; "I don't know why she swallowed that fly/Perhaps she'll die." She swallows a succession of animals, each to catch the last. At the end, "I know an old lady who swallowed a horse/She's dead, of course."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: death cumulative humorous animal bird bug horse
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, SWALLFLY*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "I Know an Old Lady (Who Swallowed a Fly)" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" (on SeegerTerry)
SAME_TUNE:
Pete Seeger, "Young Woman Who Swallowed a Lie" [feminist parody] (DT, SWALLLIE; on PeteSeeger45; on PeteSeeger47)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
File: RcIKAOLW
===
NAME: Old Lead (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John II)
DESCRIPTION: "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Killed Old Lead and home he run, Old Lead was eat, and John was beat, And Mary ran bawling down the street." How a drifter named John killed a tree dog named "Old Lead" and was punished for it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal death
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 76, (no title) (1 fragment)
cf. Baring-Gould-MotherGoose p. 221, note 74 "(Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)"
File: ScaNF076
===
NAME: Old Leather Bonnet, The: see Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)
===
NAME: Old Leather Breeches, The
DESCRIPTION: "At the sign of the bell, on the road to Clonmel, Paddy Hegarty kept a night shaybeen."  When a party arrives demanding food and drink, Paddy supplies liquor, but for food can only cut up his leather breeches. When the trick is discovered, a riot ensues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (OConor); 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as110230)
KEYWORDS: drink clothes party
FOUND_IN: Ireland Australia Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 232-233, "The Old Leather Breeches" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 75, "The Old Leather Breeches" (1 text)
OLochlainn 67A, "The Old Leather Breeches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 71-72, "Leather Britches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 37, pp. 123-125,171, "The Old Leather Britches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 22-24, "The Ould Leather Breeches" (1 text)
Roud #923
RECORDINGS:
Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), pp. 14-15, "The Ould Leather Breeches" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2266 recorded Feb 6, 1931)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as110230, "Old Leather Breeches!," unknown, 19C
NOTES: Morton-Maguire: "It is common throughout Ireland and I have heard [it] in the Border's of Scotland."
The date and master id (GB-2648-1/2) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
File: MCB232
===
NAME: Old Leather Britches, The: see The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)
===
NAME: Old Lord by the Northern Sea, The: see The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)
===
NAME: Old Lover's Wedding, An: see The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)
===
NAME: Old Lyda Zip Coon: see Hallelujah (File: R421)
===
NAME: Old MacDonald Had a Farm
DESCRIPTION: (Old MacDonald's) farm features a wide variety of livestock, described cumulatively, e.g. with the pig making an oink here and an oink there, the cow a moo-moo here and there, etc. until the entire farm is sounding off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Tommy's Tunes)
KEYWORDS: animal farming cumulative nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Randolph 457, "The Merry Green Fields of the Lowland" (1 text); 458, "Old Missouri" (1 text)
BrownIII 125, "McDonald's Farm" (5 text)
Kennedy 310, "When I Was a Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, p. 83, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 389, "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 120, pp. 238-240, "Sweet Fields of Violo" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 410-412, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm"
Roud #745
RECORDINGS:
Warren Caplinger's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers, "McDonald's Farm" (Brunswick 224, 1928)
Englewood Four, "Old McDonald Had a Farm" (Champion 15451/Challenge 396, 1928 [as Henry County Four]; rec. 1927)
Sam Patterson Trio, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (Edison 51644, 1925)
Dan Russo's Orioles, "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" (Columbia 2647-D, 1932)
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, "Old McDonald Had A Farm" (Columbia 15204-D, 1927)
SAME_TUNE:
Golly, Ain't That Queer (Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 171-172)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Farmyard Song
NOTES: Are the pieces listed here really one song? It's not immediately obvious. The British and American versions are often very distinct, but there are intermediate versions, e.g. Randolph's.
Neither of Randolph's texts conforms to the common version of "Old MacDonald," and "The Merry Green Fields of the Lowland," in particular, looks older (It probably derives from the George Christy version "In the Merry Green Fields of Oland," from 1865; compare Sharp's "Merry Green Fields of Ireland" and Pound's "Sweet Fields of Violo"). But the cumulative pattern is the same (indeed, something very like it is quoted in _Pills to Purge Melancholy_ in 1707), so I assume the family is a unity.
Gilbert claims the piece (in which "My Grandfather," rather than "Old MacDonald, is the farmer) comes from a busker of the 1870s called "the Country Fiddler," but gives no details to verify this.
I use the "Old MacDonald" title because it is the best-known, though Fuld reports that this version did not appear until 1917 (and even then, it was "Old MacDougal"). - RBW
File: R457
===
NAME: Old Maid and the Burglar, The [Laws H23]
DESCRIPTION: The old maid prepares for bed by removing her teeth, wig, and glass eye. She then discovers the burglar hiding under her bed. She threatens to shoot him if he will not marry her. He answers, "Woman, for the Lord's sake, shoot!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1925 (recording, Riley Puckett)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid robbery humorous
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws H23, "The Old Maid and the Burglar"
BrownII 192, "The Burglar Man" (1 text)
Hudson 110, pp. 249-250, "The Old Maid and the Burglar" (1 text)
DT 780, OLMDBURG
Roud #658
RECORDINGS:
Reubin [Reuben?] Burns, "The Burglar Man" (Champion 15376, 1928; rec. 1927)
Bob Carpenter, "The Burglar Man" (on LomaxCD1702)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Burglar and the Old Maid" (OKeh 45259, 1928)
Bill Clifton, "Burglar Man" (Blue Ridge 403, n.d.)
Frank Hutchison, "The Burglar Man" (OKeh 45313, 1929; rec. 1928)
Riley Puckett, "Burglar Man" (Columbia 15015-D, 1925; rec. 1924)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Old Maid and the Burglar" (Edison 52369, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5531, 1928)
Arthur Tanner, "Burglar Man" (Silvertone 3514, 1926)
Henry Whitter, "The Burglar Man" (OKeh 45063, 1926); Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "The Burglar Man" (OKeh, unissued, 1926)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Warranty Deed" (theme)
File: LH23
===
NAME: Old Maid Song (IV): see I Wonder When I Shall Be Married (File: CoxII16)
===
NAME: Old Maid, The: see I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)
===
NAME: Old Maid's Lament for a Husband, The: see The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)
===
NAME: Old Maid's Song (I), The
DESCRIPTION: An old maid laments her state, noting that her (two) sister(s were) popular, but she's been ignored all her life. She says she'd accept almost any man, and lists the good things she'd do for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1636 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: loneliness marriage nonballad family oldmaid
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,NE,So) Ireland Britain(Scotland) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 65, "The Old Maid's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H138, p. 256, "The Black Chimney Sweeper" (1 text, 1 tune, in which a "black chimney sweeper" finally marries her)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 87-88, "The Black Chimney Sweeper" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, p. 102, "Sisters Susan" (1 text)
Logan, pp. 353-355, "The Old Maid's Lament for a Husband" (1 text, which is not lyrically similar to the usual versions of this song but has all the same plot elements)
Kennedy 210, "The Poor Auld Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, p. 461, "I Long to be Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 21, "Black Chimney Sweeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 186, "Old Maid's Song" (1 text)
DT, OLDMAID1 (OLDMAID2) OLDMAID6*
Roud #802
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2011), "Chimney Sweep's Wedding," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861; also Firth c.20(31), "Chimney Sweeper's Wedding"; 2806 c.7(10), "Chimney Sweepers Weding"[sic]
LOCSinging, as102060, "The Chimney Sweepers Weding"[sic], P. Brereton (Dublin), n.d. 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Betsy Bell" (theme)
cf. "I'll Not Marry at All"
cf. "Time to be Made a Wife"
cf. "The Old Maid's Song" (II)
cf. "A'body's Like to be Married but Me"
cf. "No to be Married Ava" (theme)
cf. "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (theme)
cf. "O Gin That I Were Mairrit" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Take Her Out of Pity
The Old Maid's Lament
NOTES: Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "An Old Maid in a Garret" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001))
Broadsides LOCSinging as102060 and Bodleian Harding B 11(2011) are duplicates. - BS
File: R364
===
NAME: Old Maid's Song (II), The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Father, I'm sixteen years of age; I'm weary of my life.... I think it's almost time for me to be made a wife." Her father calls men liars; she points out that her mother married younger and her sister also. She says, "Don't let me die a maid"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Karpeles-Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: marriage oldmaid
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 162-163, "Time to be Made a Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 79, "Young Men, Come Marry Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDMAID5
Roud #2304
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
File: FJ162
===
NAME: Old Maid's Song (III), The: see I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)
===
NAME: Old Man and a Young Man, An: see I Wouldn't Have an Old Man (File: R401)
===
NAME: Old Man and the Door, The: see Get Up and Bar the Door [Child 275] (File: C275)
===
NAME: Old Man and the Oak, The: see Says the Old Man to the Oak Tree (File: BGMG071)
===
NAME: Old Man at the Mill, The
DESCRIPTION: "Same old man, sitting at the mill/Mill turns around of its own free will...ladies go forward and the gents fall back." This is followed by floating verses, many taken from "The Birds' Courting Song (Leatherwing Bat)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (recording, Clint Howard et al)
KEYWORDS: courting floatingverses nonballad playparty
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #733
RECORDINGS:
Clint Howard et al, "The Old Man at the Mill" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This certainly shares a good deal with "The Birds' Courting Song (Leatherwing Bat)," but there are enough differences that I have split them. - PJS
Roud, interestingly, lumps it not with that song but with "The Miller Boy (Jolly is the Miller I)," presumably on the basis of the first verse. The result may well be a complex composite of the two. - RBW
File: RctOMatM
===
NAME: Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)
DESCRIPTION: The singer's mother tells her to open the door to an old man. He is come to court her; she will not have him; he is too old. The girl's mother makes her to offer him various attentions; she does, and the old man spoils each. (At last he is sent home)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1724 (Ramsey)
KEYWORDS: age courting rejection humorous clothes
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (19 citations)
Belden, p. 264, "The Old Man's Courtship" (1 text)
Randolph 66, "The Old Black Booger" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 129-131, "The Old Black Booger" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 66C)
Eddy 42, "An Old Man Who Came Over the Moor" (3 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 171, "The Old Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownIII 9, "The Old Man's Courtship" (5 texts)
Brewster 48, "The Old Man Who Vame Over the Moor" (2 texts)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 128-129, "The Carle He Cam' Ower the Craft"; p. 130, "The Dottered Auld Carle" (2 texts)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 152-154, "The Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 165, "Old Grey Beard" (1 text, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 9-10, "There Was an Old Man" (1 text)
FSCatskills 131, "Old Shoes and Leggings" (1 text)
JHCox 169, "The Old Man Who Came Over the Moor" (1 text)
SharpAp 108, "My Mother Bid Me" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 87, "Mama Told Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 190-191, "The Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 76-77, "The Old Man from Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 139, "Old Grey Beard" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDSHOE*
ST R066 (Full)
Roud #362
RECORDINGS:
Frankie Armstrong, "The Old Man from Over the Sea" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
Burnett Bros., "Old Shoes a-Draggin'" (Victor 23727, 1932)
[The Stoneman Family and] Uncle Eck Dunford, "Old Shoes and Leggins" (Victor V-40060, 1928; on AAFM1)
Betty Garland, "Old Gum Boots and Leggings" (on BGarland01)
Otis High, "Old Gray Beard A-Flappin'" (on HandMeDown2)
Lawrence Older,  "Old Shoes and Leggings" (on LOlder01)
Jeannie Robertson, "Old Grey Beard Newly Shaven" (on FSB1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
cf. "The Brisk Young Lad" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
An Old Man Came Courting Me
The Young Lass contra Old Man
The Carle He Came o'er the Croft
The Auld carle
I'll Not Have Him
The Old Man from Over the Sea
His Old Grey Beard Kept Waggin'
Overshoes and Leggin's
File: R066
===
NAME: Old Man Fox: see The Fox (File: R103)
===
NAME: Old Man from Lee, The: see Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)
===
NAME: Old Man from Over the Sea, The
DESCRIPTION: An old man courts a young woman, whose mother advises her what to do when they are married -- all to no sexual avail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy marriage age
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 336-339, "The Old Man from Over the Sea" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man"
cf. "Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)"
cf. "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
cf. "My Husband's Got No Courage in Him"
NOTES: Legman provides significant notes on, and references to, ballads about May-December marriages in Randolph-Legman I. - EC
File: RL336
===
NAME: Old Man in the North Countree, The: see The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)
===
NAME: Old Man Kangaroo, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer and Bill Chippen are out of food when they spot a kangaroo. Chippen attacks the beast, which seizes him. The singer shoves his tucker-bag over the 'roo, then cuts off its tail. The animal drops dead; the two feed on its tail
AUTHOR: "Tom Tallfern," according to _The Australian Journal_
EARLIEST_DATE: 1871 (_The Australian Journal_, according to Paterson/Fahey/Seal)
KEYWORDS: animal fight Australia
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 40-41, "The Old Man Kangaroo" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 303-305, "Tailing a Kangaroo" (1 text)
File: MA040
===
NAME: Old Man Rocking the Cradle: see Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)
===
NAME: Old Man under the Hill, The: see The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)
===
NAME: Old Man Who Lived in the Woods, The: see Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)
===
NAME: Old Man, The: see Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)
===
NAME: Old Man's Courtship, The: see Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)
===
NAME: Old Man's Lament (II)
DESCRIPTION: "When I was young and in my prime, I could get a hard on any time," but now he is old and is almost non-functional. The singer tells of all the things he used to be able to do, and warns listeners, "The time soon will ome when you'll be the same as I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: bawdy age nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Logsdon 50, pp. 238-240, "The Old Man's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10105
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Brown Jug" (tune)
File: Logs050
===
NAME: Old Man's Lament, The: see Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)
===
NAME: Old Man's Three Sons (Jeffery, James, and John)
DESCRIPTION: "There was an old (wo)man had three sons, (Jerry) and James and John. Jerry was hung, and James was drowned, John was lost and never found, And there was the end of (her) three sons, Jerry and James and John."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1632 (Choice of Inventions, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: mother father children death drowning
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 540, "There was an old woman had three sons" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #262, p. 160, "(There was an old woman had three sons)"
Roud #4661
NOTES: Opie-Oxford2: "This is the first of fourteen verses in _The Old Woman and Her Three Sons_, a toy book with coloured illustrations published by John Harris in 1815. It is a verse which was certainly current in the reign of Charles I, and may go back to Elizabeth's time." - BS
File: BGNG262
===
NAME: Old Marse John
DESCRIPTION: Lyrics about a slave promised freedom by his mistress -- but the freedom does not arrive as scheduled. Many floating verses about southern life. Chorus: "O mourner, you shall be free... When the good Lord sets you free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925
KEYWORDS: slave freedom animal food clergy floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 271, "Old Marse John" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 471, "Jigger, Rigger, Bumbo" (1 fragment)
Roud #6707
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (lyrics)
cf. "My Ole Mistus Promised Me" (lyrics)
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hard Time in Old Virginnie"
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: About half of this song, as found in Lomax, is identical to "Raise a Ruckus." But the chorus is different, and the similarities could be due to the Alan Lomax's "improvements." So I've classified them separately.
The Brown fragments "Jigger, Rigger, Bumbo" is another mystery unto itself. It has the "Raise a Ruckus"/"My old marster promised me" opening, and a chorus, and that's it. At some point, there comes a limit on separating songs based on nonsense choruses. So I tossed it here. Roud appears to have a whole category (#11723) of fragments around the "My old master/mistress promised me." - RBW
File: LoF271
===
NAME: Old Massa He Come Dancin' Out: see Ol' Gen'ral Bragg's a-Mowin' Down de Yankees (File: BrII233)
===
NAME: Old Mayflower, The
DESCRIPTION: Mayflower runs ashore with its cargo of dry fish and ale. After the cargo is stolen we take the pail, jars, kettle, and, finally, the wood. "And that was the end of the old Mayflower"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck humorous theft
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 87-88, "The Old Mayflower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9954
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mariposa" (theme)
cf. "The Teapots at the Fire" (theme)
cf. "The Middlesex Flora" (theme)
cf. "The Irrawaddy" (theme)
NOTES: I find myself wondering if Stan Rogers didn't have this or one of the other songs in the cross-references somewhere in the back of his mind when he wrote "The Wreck of the Athens Queen." It's interesting to see how many songs on the theme of, shall we say, extremely rapid and perhaps premature salvage come from Newfoundland. - RBW
"The Hoban Boys" mentions the looting of a ship _Mayflower_. Whether they are the same ship I do not know. - RBW
File: Pea087
===
NAME: Old Miller, The: see The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)
===
NAME: Old Missouri: see Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)
===
NAME: Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo (Song of the Pinewoods)
DESCRIPTION: Singer lands in America in 1844 and works in the pinewoods. An Irish girl offers him whiskey and looks him over. He describes the teamsters with whom he works. Song may have many floating verses and a nonsense chorus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work emigration floatingverses music
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Beck 22, "Song of the Pinewoods" (1 text)
Hugill, pp. 340-341, "The Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo"  (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 255]
Sharp-EFC, IV, pp. 4-5, "He-Back, She-Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDMOKE*
Roud #862
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Whoa Back, Buck" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I'm a Rowdy Soul" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
He-bang, She-bang
Tapiocum
NOTES: Clearly we have a muddle here. Beck notes that this song can have a huge number of verses, but he lists only four, and the song makes little sense as a result. The chorus, meanwhile, is a reworking of "Shule Agra", with a last line close to "Tighten on the Backband (Whoa Back Buck)." Ah, the folk process! - PJS
A muddle indeed, and one with bounds very hard to define. Beck's refrain for this piece runs
Shu-li, shu-li, shula-racka-ru
Hacka-racka, shacka-racka, shula-bobba-lu
I'm right from the pinewoods. So are you
Johnny, can't you pick it on your banjo?
The more common chorus to this seems to be something like
Hooraw! What the hell's the row?
We're all from the railroad, too-rer-loo,
We're all from the railroad, too-rer-loo,
Oooh! The ol' moke pickin' on the banjo!
This chorus occurs, with variations, in Hugill and Sharp. - RBW
Hugill cites a Negro shanty titled "Tapiocum" found in v.3 of the _Folk Song Journal_. He only quotes one verse but believes that it is a variant of "Old Moke." - SL
File: Be022
===
NAME: Old Molly Hair (sic): see Old Molly Hare (File: R277)
===
NAME: Old Molly Hare
DESCRIPTION: Fiddle tune with words, often of the form, "Old Molly Hare, What('r) you doin' there?" followed by a reply, e.g. "Sitting in the briarpatch, combing out my hair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1881 (Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings)
KEYWORDS: animal fiddle nonballad dancetune
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 277, "Old Molly Hare" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 238-239, "Old Molly Hare" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 277)
BrownIII 167, "Old Molly Hare (Mr. Rabbit)" (2 texts plus 4 fragments, 1 excerpt, and mention of 2 more; the "C," "D," and "E" fragments, plus probably "B," are "Old Molly Hare," "I" is "Mister Rabbit"; "A" and "G" mix the two)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 283-284, "Old Mother Hare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 108-109, "Old Molly Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MOLLHARE
Roud #7781
RECORDINGS:
Clayton McMichen & Riley Puckett, "Old Molly Hare" (Columbia 15295-D, 1928; on CrowTold01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Old Molly Hair" (on NLCR05)
Fiddlin' Powers & Family, "Old Molly Hare" (Okeh 45268, 1928; rec. 1927; on Cornshuckers2)
Riley Puckett, "Old Molly Hair" (Columbia 15295-D, 1928)
NOTES: Joel Chandler Harris quoted the first stanza of this song in "Mr. Rabbit Gorssly Decieves Mr. Fox," published in 1881 in Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings:
Ole Molly Har'.
W'at you doin' dar,
Settin' in de cornder
Smokin' yo seegyar? - RBW
File: R277
===
NAME: Old Moses Smote de Waters: see Old Moses Smote the Waters (File: R290)
===
NAME: Old Moses Smote the Waters
DESCRIPTION: "Old Moses smote the waters, Hallelujah! Old Moses smote the waters, huh!..." "The waters they divided...." "The children passed over...." "Old Pharaoh's host got drownded...." "I see that ship a-coming...." "She'll take us on to glory...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious travel freedom
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 290, "Old Moses Smote de Waters" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII [612], "Moses Smote the Waters" (1 fragment, printed in the notes to Brown #610)
Roud #7822
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sinful Army" (lyrics)
File: R290
===
NAME: Old Mother Hare: see Old Molly Hare (File: R277)
===
NAME: Old Mother Head's
DESCRIPTION: Adventures of staff and guests at Mother Head's. "Nobody knows what the sailors eat; Cast no remarks about your meat; But eat your pie, and close your mouth, In the hungry starving boarding house"
AUTHOR: Joe Broadfield
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt)
KEYWORDS: food hardtimes humorous nonballad sailor
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Smith/Hatt, p. 11, "Old Mother Head's" (1 text)
Roud #9414
File: SmHa011
===
NAME: Old Mother Hubbard
DESCRIPTION: "Old Mother Hubbard Went to the cupboard To get her poor dog a bone, But when she got there The cupboard was bare And so the poor dog had none." Additional verses tell of Mother Hubbard's efforts for the dog and how almost all fail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1797 (cf. Baring-Gould-MotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: dog death food humorous home commerce clothes
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 365, "Old Mother Hubbard" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #134, pp. 111-113, "(Old Mother Hubbard)"
cf. DT, MERRYLND
NOTES: This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so it does have a musical tradition of sorts.
In addition, though most of us hear only one verse of this, the Baring-Gould text is 14 stanzas long, though many of the stanzas are silly:
She went to the tailors
To buy him a coat,
But when she came back
He [the dog, note] was riding a goat.
Still, there is a plot in the early stanzas. The whole looks like a song, if an absurd one. - RBW
Opie-Oxford2: "It is now clear that the first three verses of Sarah Catherine Marin's 'Old Mother Hubbard' were taken from tradition, and that her contribution was to write eleven more verses, and to illustrate the whole. The first three verses had appeared in sheet-music form as one of Dr Samuel Arnold's _Juvenile Amusements_ (1797), and were certainly not new then." - BS 
File: BGMG134
===
NAME: Old Mountain Dew
DESCRIPTION: The praises of mountain dew are sung. "Oh, they call it that good old mountain dew, And those who refuse it are few...." Doctor, preacher, conductor, lawyer (and, in some versions, Uncle Nort, Aunt June, Brother Bill) derive various benefits from it.
AUTHOR: Bascom Lamar Lunsford
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
KEYWORDS: drink family 
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 736, "Good Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 289, "Good Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, filed with "Real Old Mountain Dew"="Good Old Mountain Dew")
Silber-FSWB, p. 236, "Mountain Dew" (1 text)
DT, MTDEW3*
Roud #9133
RECORDINGS:
Delmore Brothers, "Old Mountain Dew" (Decca 5890, 1940)
John Griffin, "Real Old Mountain Dew" (Columbia 33145-F, n.d.)
Grandpa Jones, "Mountain Dew" (King 624, 1947)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "Mountain Dew" (Conqueror 9249, 1939) (on CrowTold02; this may be the reissue of the Conqueror recording, but it's not certain)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Mountain Dew" (Brunswick 219, 1928); "Old Mountain Dew" (on BLLunsford01)
NOTES: Botkin's text is from a 1949 field recording. He says Lunsford composed and recorded it in the twenties, but that it has already changed substantially in oral tradition. - NR
Some have thought that Lunsford took a traditional song and made it his own. His recording, however, remains the first known version -- and there is no evidence that Lunsford did this with any other song. - RBW
Lunsford himself said he wrote it in the early years of this century, and that it was made up out of whole cloth, not adapted. It should not be confused with the traditional Irish song usually called "Real Old Mountain Dew" [or "Good Old Mountain Dew"]. - PJS
File: BSoF736
===
NAME: Old Mud Cabin on the Hill: see The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill (File: HHH207)
===
NAME: Old Nantucket Whaling Song
DESCRIPTION: Description of a whaling voyage. Crew faces months of cold and storms. Upon spotting a whale they give chase, harpoon and fight with the whale, trying to avoid being swamped or crushed. Gives detailed descriptions and is written in future tense.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: whaler ship sea work hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Harlow, pp. 216-219, "Old Nantucket Whaling Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9153
File: Harl216
===
NAME: Old Napper: see Old Tyler (File: JRSF069)
===
NAME: Old Ninety-Seven: see The Wreck of Old 97 [Laws G2] (File: LG02)
===
NAME: Old Noah: see De Fust Banjo (The Banjo Song; The Possum and the Banjo; Old Noah) (File: R253)
===
NAME: Old Noah Built an Ark
DESCRIPTION: "Good old Noah built an ark, To save the soul of man; A vessel built of gopher wood, By God, the father, planned. Noah preached for years and years To change their awful ways." The flood comes; Noah is saved; listeners are advised to turn to Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Bible ship flood Jesus religious
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 101-105, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Uncle Noah" (subject) and references there
NOTES: For background on the Noah story, see the notes to "Old Uncle Noah."
This song has enough points of contact with that that I suspect common ancestry. But that song is humorous and this so brutally "straight" that I can't see any option but to split them.
Incidentally, "gopher wood" is not a reference to the small mammal. We don't know what sort of wood it is; the word occurs only in Genesis 6:14, and no cognates are known in related languages. So translations tend to just transliterate the word rather than guess at a translation. - RBW
File: ThBa101
===
NAME: Old Oak Tree, The [Laws P37]
DESCRIPTION: (Betsy) sets out from home to meet her love and never returns. Her widowed mother, after a long search, dies of grief. The girl's body is found during a hunt with the murderer's knife still there. He confesses the crime and (dies/kills himself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: homicide suicide gallows-confession
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Laws P37, "The Old Oak Tree"
Doerflinger, pp. 283-285, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H207, pp. 417-418, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Ulster 15, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 49, pp. 141-143,175, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 11, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 33, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 55, "Squire Nathaniel and Betsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 628-629, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 12, "The Old Oak Tree" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 80-81, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 66, "Eliza Long (The Old Oak Tree)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 514, OLDOAKTR
Roud #569
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Old Oak Tree" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Warde Ford, "Beneath the Old Oak Tree" (AFS 4195 A1; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Tom Lenihan, "The Old Oak Tree" (on IRTLenihan01)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Squire
NOTES: Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue appears to have two broadsides for this ballad
Bodleian, Harding B 40(5), "The Old Oak Tree" ("The night was dark, cold blew the wind"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899; also Harding B 26(481), "The Old Oak Three," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
However, I was unable to read either of them. - BS
File: LP37
===
NAME: Old Oaken Bucket, The
DESCRIPTION: "How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, When fond recollection presents them to view...: The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, The moss-covered bucket That hung in the well." The singer recalls being refreshed by its water
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel Woodworth
EARLIEST_DATE: 1818
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 167-170, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 256, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 413-414, "The Old Oaken Bucket"
DT, OAKBUCK
ST RJ19167 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
David Bangs, "Old Oaken Bucket" (Berliner 0600, rec. 1895)
Columbia Stellar Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Columbia A-1820, 1915)
Jimmie Tarlton [Darby & Tarlton] "By the Old Oaken Bucket" (Columbia 15763-D, 1932; rec. 1930)
Edison Male Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Edison 2216, 1897)
Haydn Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Berliner 023-N, 1899)
Haydn Quartet w. S. Dudley, "Old Oaken Bucket" (Berliner 0873, 1898)
Honolulu Strollers, "Ole Oaken Bucket" (OKeh 45226, 1928)
Kaplan's Melodists, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Edison [BA] 5155, c. 1926)
Knickerbocker Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Edison [BA] 2046, n.d.)
Peerless Quartette, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Zonophone 696, 1907) (Pathe 40032, 1916)
Standard Quartette, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Columbia 2239, rec. c. 1895)
Anon. [Sterling Trio] "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Little Wonder 268, 1915)
SAME_TUNE:
The Old Family Toothbrush (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 160)
Nat Wills, "Parody on 'Old Oaken Bucket'" (Victor 16661/Victor 5659 [as "Old Oaken Bucket (parody)"], 1909)
The Old Oaken Bucket (As censored by the Board of Health) (Hazel Felleman, _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_, p. 386)
NOTES: Samuel Woodworth's only other noteworthy composition was "The Hunters of Kentucky." His novels and plays are mercifully forgotten.
Woodworth originally published this poem under the title "The Bucket." It soon acquired several (rather feeble) tunes and the title "The Old Oaken Bucket." Around 1850, it was fitted to the tune "Araby's Daughter" by George Kiallmark; that somehow rescued it from the dustbin of nostalgia and made it into a highly popular song. - RBW
File: RJ19167
===
NAME: Old Orange Flute, The
DESCRIPTION: A Protestant man marries a Catholic woman, but his flute refuses to convert, and continues to play Orange songs. Ultimately it is burnt at the stake as a heretic.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1895 (Graham)
KEYWORDS: marriage music fire
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Hodgart, p. 216, "The Old Orange Flute" (1 text)
OLochlainn 50, "The Old Orange Flute" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 112-113, "The Ould Orange Flute" (1 text)
OrangeLark 27, "The Ould Orange Flute" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham, p. 12, "The Ould Orange Flute" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 318, "The Old Orange Flute" (1 text)
DT, OLDFLUTE*
Roud #3013
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Protestant Maid" (subject: religious conversion) and references there
NOTES: OLochlainn: "Learnt in Belfast about 1912; the tune is another version of Villikens." - BS
File: Hodg216
===
NAME: Old Orange Tree, The
DESCRIPTION: King William brought the Orange tree and planted it near London "and frighten'd Popery." He took the plant with him to the Boyne where it frightened King James and his men. Winter cropped the tree but in spring it will flourish, and bloom on July 12.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: England Ireland patriotic political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 38, "The Old Orange Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: For William of Orange and the Battle of the Boyne, see the notes to "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." - RBW
File: OrLa038
===
NAME: Old Paint (I): see I Ride an Old Paint (File: LxU063B)
===
NAME: Old Paint (II): see Goodbye, Old Paint (File: LxU063A)
===
NAME: Old Palmer Song, The
DESCRIPTION: "The wind is fair and free, my boys... The steamer's course is north, my boys, And the palmer we will see." The singer encourages his listeners to come with him to the gold fields; by working together, they can prosper
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: river gold travel
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1875 - Discovery of gold in the Palmer River in Queensland. The influx of people from all over the world meant that few grew rich -- and many starved in the inhospitable terrain
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 38-39, "The Old Palmer Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PASB038
===
NAME: Old Pete Bateese
DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Pete Bateese is chased by wolves. He climbs a tree. The wolves fetch beavers to gnaw it down. Pete pours out some "hooch"; the beavers get drunk and chew up the wolves instead. Pete comes down and cries for the wasted hooch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Pete Bateese is chased by wolves one night; he climbs a tree, so the wolves fetch beavers to gnaw it down. Pete pours out some "hooch"; the beavers get drunk and chew up the wolves instead. Pete comes down and "cry and cry to t'ink for where/His one-quart hooch she go."
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale drink animal
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 75, "Old Pete Bateese" (1 text)
Roud #8851
File: Be075
===
NAME: Old Petticoat, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees "an old petticoat hanging high" and hangs his trousers near to "keep that old petticoat warm" He says "'Old trousers, I hope you're on form!'" "The night of the wedding ... the father he's dead; he was shot with a gun"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975 (recording, Paddy Tunney)
KEYWORDS: sex clothes humorous
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 54-55, "As I Was Going into the Fair of Athy" (1 text)
Roud #12940
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, The, "The Old Petticoat" (on Voice10)
File: RcOldPet
===
NAME: Old Plaid Shawl, The: see The Red Plaid Shawl (File: OCon084)
===
NAME: Old Polina, The
DESCRIPTION: "There's a noble fleet of whalers a-sailing from Dundee... There's not another whaler that sails the Arctic Sea Can beat the old Polina, you need not try, my sons." The singer describes all the various ships which failed to outrace the Polina
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (Doyle)
KEYWORDS: ship whaler racing bragging
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: March 1884 - Loss of the Polynia (believed to be the model for this song) in the Straits of Belle Isle
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 165-166, "The Old 'Polina'" (1 text, tune referenced)
Fowke/MacMillan 15, "The Old 'Polina'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 22-23, "The Old Polina" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, pp. 44-45, "Old Polina" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FMB165 (Partial)
Roud #285
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" (tune)
cf. "Save Our Swilers" (tune)
NOTES: GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site claims the song was written in the 1880s.
The notes to A.L. Lloyd's _Leviathan!_ for "The Balaena" makes this whaler R. Kinnes's _Balaena_, the "largest and fastest" of the 1873 Dundee whaling fleet. According to the Dundee City Council site, it "sailed its last voyage in 1892 under Captain Alexander Fairweather." That's a different explanation than the sinking of the Polynia proposed by the GEST site. - BS
It's worth noting that Lloyd's seems to be the only one calling the ship the _Balena_ or anything similar. One suspects either an error of hearing as the song transferred to Britain or a Canadian adaption. The notes in Fowke/Mills/Blume also associate the song with the _Polynia_, lost in the Straits of Belle Isle in 1884. . - RBW
File: FMB165
===
NAME: Old Ponto Is Dead: see Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)
===
NAME: Old Port Rockwell
DESCRIPTION: "Old Port Rockwell has work to do, So he saddles his sorrel and rides away... the waiting wife... shrinks in terror as down the night Comes the wailing of Port's dread war cry, 'Wheat!'" Rockwell's cry means that a wife and children will be orphaned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: homicide mother orphan
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 114-115, "(Old Port Rockwell)" (1 text)
Roud #10880
NOTES: Burt lists Orrin Porter Rockwell (1813-1878) as a bodyguard to both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, but he was evidently a dangerous tough also. He was the most famous of the Sons of Dan, or Danites (see  Dale L. Walker, _Legends and Lies: Great Mysteries of the American West_, Forge, 1997, p. 209), which also apparently included John D. Lee, the alleged main perpetrator of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (for which see "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]).
Rockwell's cry "Wheat!" is reputedly derived from the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30): The wheat was to be kept, the tares (weeds) to be burned.
According to Wallace Stegner, _The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail_, pp. 37-38, "Rockwell had been promised by Joseph [Smith] that no bullet would ever touch him. He wore his hair long in remembrance of that prophecy, and in a long life that his enemies said included upwards of a hundred holy murders (his most scrupulous biographer guesses twenty) the promise held good. He was illiterate, nerveless, tireless, dedicated, an utterly dependable zealot."
Even Fawn M. Brodie, herself a Mormon, calls his appearance "sinister"; see Fawn M. Brodie, _No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith_, 1945, 1971 (I use the 1995 Vintage edition), p. 322
At the time Burt and Stegner wrote, however, there do not appear to have been any really good biographies of Rockwell. The first appears to be Harold Schindler, _Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God/Son of Thunder_ (with illustrations by Dale Bryner), University of Utah Press, 1966, 1983 (I use the 1993 paperback edition).
Little is known of Rockwell's early life, except what is found in church and other official records; he was born in 1813 in Belcher, Massachusetts, the second of nine children. At the age of ten, he broke a leg, and the doctor who set it did a poor job, leaving him with a lifelong limp (something he shared with his idol Joseph Smith) Early in life, his family moved close to the home of Smith, and he seems to have fallen under the Prophet's spell even while Smith was compiling the Book of Mormon, working in the fields to help the Prophet's work. Apparently the first record of him as an individual is as a rambunctious youth of 17, in 1831, as he is found running off his energy on a boat on the Erie Canal. He was already a Mormon at this very early date -- indeed, he was one of the first converts, and helped to bring his mother into the fold (Schindler, pp. 2-6).
Rockwell was one of the Mormons who moved to the colony in Independence, Missouri, where he married his first wife Luana Beebe in 1832 -- "the first Mormon wedding in Jackson County" (Schindler, p. 8). He came to work as a ferryman, which finally closed off any possibility of schooling; Rockwell never did learn to read or write (Schindler, p. 9). According to Schindler, pp. 10-11, it was Rockwell and his father who ferried the toughs who perpetrated the first assault on the Missouri Mormon colony. It was this that brought the state's Lieutenant Governor, Lilburn W. Boggs, to the area, where he made it clear that he wanted the church destroyed. The Mormons promised to get out, then sought relief from the courts -- and found themselves under even more severe assault.
The Missouri brutality was personal to Rockwell -- his brother-in-law and a neighbor were beaten in one of the assaults (Schindler, p. 15). A later attack destroyed, among others, the homes of Rockwell and his father (Schindler, pp. 16-17). The Mormons scattered to other parts of the state; Rockwell ended up in the Mormon Community of Far West in 1838; his wife had borne him two daughters, Emily and Caroline, in the interim (Schindler, pp. 23-24).
It was in this context that the Sons of Dan were formed. After some experimentation, they settled on their name based on Genesis 49;17, which calls Dan a serpent in the road that bites at horses' heels. It is also noteworthy that the name "Dan" means "judge" -- though that is not evident from the King James Bible, and there seems to have been no one in the Mormon church with the Biblical learning to realize that (had there been, someone would surely have told Joseph Smith of the fact that the Greek and Hebrew, unlike the King James Bible, are not full of archaisms; they were in the ordinary language of the times they were written. Maybe that someone would also have told him that Hebrew is an actual language, not something in which one could arbitrarily make up words).
Little is really known of the Danites; it's not even clear whether Joseph Smith was aware of their founding (Schindler, p. 32). It is known that, contrary to legend, Rockwell was not their chief (Schindler, p. 33). But we have testimony that they were sworn to work for the "utter destruction of apostates" and to keep the group's secrets at all costs (Schindler, p. 36).
Meanwhile, the war in Missouri was just getting hotter as the Mormons began to fight back seriously. Bands of Danites were important to this process. It is thought that Rockwell may have fought his first battle in a raid on the Crooked River, though we cannot be certain he was present (Schindler, pp. 45-46).
Lilburn Boggs [this is the spelling used in most histories; the _Dictionary of American Biography_ prefers "Lillburn"] made anti-Mormonism one of his key issues, and rode it to the Missouri governorship in 1836. In 1838, he issued an  "Extermination Order" against the Mormons (see Bernard DeVoto, in _The Year of Decision: 1846_, Little, Brown and Company, 1943, p. 83; Schindler, p. 49, prints the order and notes that it was not rescinded until 1976!). We know that Rockwell was prepared to fight the battle which followed the Boggs order (Schindler, p. 52), but Joseph Smith decided to yield in Missouri.
Smith ended up in prison, where Rockwell visited him regularly (Schindler, p. 56). After that, Smith, Rockwell, and most other Mormons headed for Illinois.
Rockwell's father died in 1839, but Rockwell the Younger -- whose wife bore a son around this time -- was clearly becoming an important figure in the Church; when Smith sent a petition for relief to Martin van Buren (which the president rejected as politically inexpedient), Rockwell was one of those sent to convey it. It sounds as if his real role was bodyguard (Schindler, p. 59), but still, he was clearly a trusted bodyguard.
His looks probably contributed. By this time, he worse his beard long and his hair longer -- well below his shoulders; he really did have the look of an Old Testament prophet. The one problem with the image was his voice, which went into the falsetto when he became worked up. Schindler, p. 61, reports that he tried very hard to control his emotions as a result.
In 1842, with his fourth child about to be born, Rockwell headed back to Missouri to be with his wife wife and her parents. He was well enough known by now that he chose to use the pseudonym "Brown" rather than his own name (Schindler, p. 66).
Of course, returning to Missouri also brought him back into the state of Lilburn Boggs.
In 1842, someone attempted to kill Boggs by shooting through his window (Walker, pp. 207-208). If the murderer didn't manage to kill him, it wasn't for lack of trying; he had a heavy pistol loaded with buckshot, and fired it through Boggs's window. Boggs suffered four wounds, the worst being to his head and neck; he was thought to be doomed, and it was considered miraculous that his six-year-old daughter, who was in the room at the time, was not injured (Schindler, pp. 67-70). Boggs gradually recovered, but left Missouri in 1846 to settle in California.
Rockwell, who had been in Missouri for only a few months, was quickly credited with the assassination attempt, though no absolute proof was offered at the time. Indeed, Schindler is not entirely sure Rockwell committed the crime, though he cites strong evidence for it (p. 73). Brodie, pp. 323-324, notes only two points of evidence: That Rockwell had briefly visited Missouri at the time, and that Rockwell seemed to come into some money after his return -- and Smith had offered $500 for anyone who killed Boggs. But she also notes that Rockwell's improved circumstances seemed to be derived from the work he did for Smith, not from any payment for the attack on Boggs. Will Bagley, _Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young an the Massacre at Mountain Meadows_, University of Oklahoma Press, 2002, p. 13, is certain Rockwell did it, though he admits in the footnote that he couldn't prove it at law.
As a result of the attempted murder, a newsman dubbed Rockwell "The Destroying Angel." Rockwell later threatened the writer John Cook Bennett for the charges published against him (Schindler, p. 72) -- though much of Bennett's information in fact came from Boggs, who swore to an affidavit charging Smith with being an accessory to murder (Brodie, p. 324)
The Nauvoo authorities (in effect, Smith) ignored the charge against Rockwell (and against Smith himself), refusing to extradite them to Missouri (Schindler, pp. 74-76). Eventually Rockwell ended up with a price of $3000 on his head. Although he remained free, he was unable to find employment in the world outside the church, and spend some time wandering around the Midwest; his wife left him at this time (Schindler, p. 79). Eventually the Illinois authorities tossed out the warrant against Smith -- but Rockwell was apprehended (Schindler, p. 82). The trip back to Missouri had comic aspects; the driver was so drunk that he twice cracked up the stage, and Rockwell, with his knowledge of horses and carts, twice had to repair and rescue the vehicle (Schindler, pp. 84-85). He was imprisoned in dreadful conditions while awaiting trial (Schindler, pp. 85-87), attempted an escape which failed mostly because his companion was too slow (Schindler, pp. 88-89) -- and, upon his recapture, was shackled so tightly that he could not even stand up straight (Schindler, p. 90). 
Ironically, Rockwell was eventually cleared of the murder charge, but was forced to stay in prison because he had attempted to escape (Schindler, p. 95). After much more maneuvering, an apparent attempt to kill Rockwell, and most of a year in prison, he finally came to trial. The case finally went to the jury, which sentenced him to "five minutes in the county jail" (Schindler, p. 99). After a few hours of last-minute attempts to file new charges, Rockwell went free. Of course, he was still stuck in Missouri, and vigilantes were after him. Broke, and with his shoes in tatters, he had to walk most of the way to Nauvoo (Schindler, pp. 100-101). This was considered to fulfill one of Smith's visions, though if God were really watching over Rockwell, I'd have to say, that should have included taking care of his badly injured feet....
When Rockwell arrived in Nauvoo, he went to visit a party being held by Smith. And it was there that Smith made his prophecy: "you -- Orrin Porter Rockwell -- so long as ye remain loyal and true to thy faith, need fear no enemy. Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee!" (Schindler, p. 102, who notes the obvious similarity to the tale of Samson -- who, in the Book of Judges, had superhuman strength and avoided capture and death until his hair was shaved).
The prophecy would come to inspire its own folklore; Schindler, p. 351 n. 52, tells two well-known stories about Rockwell which he understandably does not believe. In one, he put a gang of desperadoes to flight and then shook himself, to have several bullets fall out of his coat. According to the other, a man stuck a pistol in his face -- and Rockwell calmly asked if he would try to fire a pistol without a firing cap. While the other hesitated and glanced at the weapon, Rockwell shot him.
For a brief time, Rockwell served as a bartender in Smith's large hotel -- until Smith's wife Emmy convinced the prophet that the head of a church shouldn't himself be serving liquor (Schindler, pp. 103-104). Smith then started a police force of sorts. Or perhaps we should call it a secret police (Schindler, pp. 105-108).
Rockwell's first unquestionably criminal act came as a member of this force. Joseph Smith's authoritarian rule of the Mormon Church led to the founding of a sort of opposition newspaper, the _Nauvoo Expositor_. Among other things, it carefully documented Mormon polygamy (see Brodie, pp. 374-375). Smith determined to suppress it, taking a posse to the offices, where the press was destroyed, the type pied, and the whole office burned (Brodie, p. 377). Rockwell was one of those involved in the destruction, reportedly kicking in the office door (Schindler, p. 116).
The affair was to prove a fatal mistake; Smith ended up in prison in Carthage, Illinois, where he was lynched (Brodie, pp. 382-395).
Rockwell had a curious part in this final tragedy. When Smith realized the Illinois authorities were coming for him, he decided to flee west, leaving his senior wife Emma and the entire Mormon colony behind to suffer the rage of the citizens of Illinois. Rockwell was one of the handful he took with him as a guide, and it was Rockwell who was to get them across the Mississippi. But before Smith left the western shore of the river, Rockwell was sent back to the Illinois side -- and brought back word of the fears of the people of Nauvoo. Smith relented and returned to his martyrdom (Brodie, pp. 384-386; Schindler, pp. 119-121). Rockwell was curiously passive in this, accepting whatever Smith decided -- but did not accompany Smith to Carthage, and so survived even though, in terms of raw violence, he was surely as guilty as the prophet. This was apparently at Smith's command; he wanted Rockwell in Nauvoo to rescue him if need be (Schindler, p. 121). Obviously that didn't work out.
Rockwell did end up being arrested not long after, but immediately escaped (Schindler, p. 136), His first unquestioned killing came soon after this: Lieutenant Frank Worrell, one of those who took part in the capture and killing of Smith, pursued Rockwell and a companion, and was fatally shot during the pursuit (Schindler, pp. 138-139).
Schindler notes that the death of Smith turned Rockwell "aggressive, even belligerent"; he went so far as to appropriate the wife of fellow Mormon Amos Davis at gunpoint (Schindler, pp. 142-143). This at least technically made him guilty of bigamy (polygamy being of course normal Mormon practice at the time), but his first wife, as we know, was no longer with him (Schindler, p. 145). Curiously, I found no mention of the former Mrs. Davis in Schindler's pages after this; she seems to disappear the moment he had won her favors.
When the Mormons began their exodus to Utah (for which see, e.g., "Brigham Young"), Rockwell was given the important task of carrying messages between those already on their way and those who had not yet departed; the logic seems to have been that he would be hard to stop along the way (Schindler, p. 146). Eventually he was captured by Gentiles in Nauvoo -- and found to have so many guns that he could have fired 71 rounds without having to reload (Schindler, p. 147).
Schindler, p. 148, describes this as a sort of publicity stunt. With Rockwell on trial, attention would be shifted away from the rest of the Mormons. The trial was moved to a neutral county, and there were no witnesses against Rockwell (Stegner, p. 90, though he seems to think Rockwell intimidated the witnesses while Schindler gives him a more complex defence). Rockwell went free. He then became one of the pioneers Brigham Young brought along to search for the site of the New Zion (Schindler, pp. 152-153). Rockwell did much hunting and scouting on this trip. When Young selected the site of Salt Lake City, Rockwell was chosen to accompany and protect Ezra T. Benson when the latter was sent to lead the remainder of the Mormon exodus (Schindler, p. 167).
Salt Lake City, of course, was barren, and the Mormons arrived with very little. It was a desperate time. Eventually, an expedition was sent to California to try to purchase much-needed supplies, with Rockwell along as a scout. The planning for this expedition was utterly botched (Schindler, p. 171), and in the end it wasted a lot of money without bringing in much in the way of food. Rockwell, before it was over, had parted company with the commander of the expedition (Schindler, p. 172).
Rockwell soon after went on another expedition to California, to collect tithes from Mormons there (Schindler, pp. 184-185). Rockwell, left on his own while the financial types did their work, apparently tried panning for gold, then brought in whisky for a saloon (Schindler, pp. 186-187). He also won a rifle contest, which resulted in his name (which he had concealed) being revealed (Schindler, p. 190); he barely avoided lynching. Charges of murder would greet him when he returned to Utah, but of course the Mormon hierarchy supported him.
It supported him also when he led a group to settle a contract dispute, and in the complications which followed, ended up executing four Indians (Schindler, p. 196).
In 1854, Rockwell married Mary Ann Neff, who was about half his age (Schindler, pp. 197, 205). She bore him a daughter in March 1855 (Schindler, p. 217), and another in August 1856 (Schindler, p. 238).
Soon after the birth of that first child came another Samson-like incident: He had, until then, worn his hair very long. On a trip to California, he met the widow of one of Joseph Smith's brothers, who had lost her hair due to illness. Having nothing else to do for her, he cut his hair to make her a wig. From then on, he claimed, he could no longer control his urge to drink and swear (Schindler, p. 220). Of course, he soon grew his hair out again.
Despite his reputation in the Boggs affair, Rockwell's career to this point had been relatively tame. But "as the year 1855 came to a close, Rockwell, now a man of forty-two, was entering the most exciting period of his checkered career -- a time when his name would become synonymous with the mysteries and terrors of Mormonism described in the dime novels of the day" (Schindler, p. 223). Though it appears that, at first, he was more sinned against than sinning. He was nearly lynched while carrying the mail between the Mormon colony and the rest of the United States (Schindler, p. 240).
That didn't last long; the Utah War soon followed, in which the United States tried to guarantee its control over the independence-minded Mormons. The Mormons were sadly deficient in trained military officers; theoretically their forces were commanded by a Lieutenant General (a typical piece of Joseph Smith fiction; he had appointed himself to that rank because it would make him senior to every officer in the United States Army), but their actual forces would have been more suitable to a brigadier -- if they'd had anyone competent even to that office (Schindler, p. 293, quotes Captain Albert Tracy, who observed their formations: "They little seemed to know or heed the modern system of deploying of skirmishing.... [T]he 'corrals' of rock which they had erected... would have been knocked about their ears, and rendered untenable in but a brief time...").
In such a setting, it is little surprise that Rockwell, though he had never commanded troops, was given command of a cavalry company (Schindler, p. 251); he may have been illiterate, impetuous, and not particularly bright, but he was a survivor and knew both horses and weapons.
"Selecting five reliable men, Rockwell set out on the first Mormon action against the United States government" (Schindler, p. 255). He started a panic among the expeditionary force's transport mules -- only to have the mules head back for the Federal lines when the soldiers sounded the Stable Call. To add to the embarrassment, the Mormon's own horses proceeded to follow the Federal mules back to camp, leaving the raiders without mounts (Schindler, p. 256). So they slipped into the Federal lines again, and stole horses for themselves -- only to be told on their return that the horses had earlier been stolen by the Federals from the Mormons (Schindler, p. 257).
Rockwell had better luck later; the Mormon plan was for a "scorched earth policy" to deny the Federals any supplies, an Rockwell was one of those involved in clearing the land of any useful material (Schindler, p. 260). He also was involved in additional raids, depriving the Federals of much  livestock; late in the year, he would lead over 600 head of cattle into the Mormon ranks (Schindler, p. 264).
This was the period of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (for which see "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]). Rockwell does not seem to have had any part of it -- but he did participate in the killing of the Aiken party, a group of (apparently) gentile con artists who had hoped to get rich preying off the Federal army (Schindler, p. 276). It will tell you something about relations between the Mormons and Gentiles at this time that Rockwell, an active guerilla and now undeniably a murderer, was still permitted to preach in church (Schindler, p. 283 n.).
He did find himself again under federal charges. A federal judge with a grudge against the Mormons had induced a grand jury to frame treason charges against much of the Mormon community, mostly unnamed -- but Rockwell was one whose name was given explicitly (Schindler, p. 284). Fortunately for him, he was included in the amnesty which ended the Utah War (Schindler, p. 288). During the negotiations which followed, Rockwell continued to serve as scout, sentry, and messenger for Brigham Young; at the beginning of the negotiations, it was Rockwell who escorted the Federal commissioners into the Mormon camp (Schindler, p. 292). As relations improved, Rockwell -- who became the father of a son late in 1858, then another in early 1860 -- began to look for a way to pick up money, and went back to serving liquor (Schindler, p. 294).
Later in 1860, two men engaged in a scheme to produce counterfeit quartermaster's notes which they could use to requisition supplies. Both would end up dead by gunfire. Schindler, pp. 307-308, seems uncertain just what happened -- but it was possible that Rockwell fired the shots.
It is interesting that it is only on p. 309 that Schindler first mentions Rockwell's slogan "Wheat!" The famous explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton, who had earlier visited Mecca and who had an interest in non-standard religion, decided to see what he could learn in Salt Lake City. There he met and drank with Rockwell -- and the Mormon said "Wheat!" because he enjoyed the contents of his glass (Schindler, p. 309). Rockwell is also said to have used the phrase "Old wheat in the mill" in referring to an easy task (Schindler, p. 347), and to have said "Wheat!" when discussing a court case with his lawyers -- seemingly to indicate disinterest in the charges against him (Schindler, p. 365).
In this period Rockwell also worked to track criminals. Schindler, p. 317, describes him winning a shootout with one wanted fugitive, and tells (p. 319) how two of the fugitive's colleagues also ended up dead by gunfire, though not shorty until after Rockwell had turned them in.
After the Utah War, Rockwell found success managing a mail-carrying outfit as well as running his inn. Schindler, p. 321, writes, "This brief interlude in Rockwell's otherwise violent existence may have been his most enjoyable era, but destiny did not plan a quiet life for Orrin Porter Rockwell." As early as 1862, he was back to fighting Indians (in this case, the Shoshone); he was one of those who lured them into what proved to be a set-piece battle against United States (Schindler, p. 327 -- though Bagley, pp. 252-253, thinks that Rockwell may have been trying to lure the Federals into an ambush).
The result was a slaughter of the natives known as the Bear Creek Massacre, which resulted in the death of at least 250 Indians. But the Europeans came close to destruction themselves due to the weather; the commanders credited Rockwell with saving them by bringing up enough transport (Schindler, p. 331). Indeed, Rockwell and the federal officer became close friends -- so close that some sources claim Rockwell confessed to him of the attempted murder of Boggs (Schindler, pp. 332-333, though it sounds as if he doesn't believe it). He continued to work with the Federals in their Indian wars in the coming years, but managed to father another daughter on Mary Ann in 1863 (Schindler, p. 335).
The Indian conflicts had, however, resulted in the death of one of Mary Ann's close friends; she insisted on leaving the area, so Rockwell moved back to Salt Lake City, then filed a claim on some ranchlands west of Sheeprock Mountain (Schindler, p. 337).
His fame, or infamy, continued to grow. Newspaper reports at this time credited him with forty or more murders (Schindler, pp. 340-341), though this may have been just an attempt to sell more papers.
In 1866, Mary Ann experienced her sixth pregnancy, dying in childbirth on August 24, with the boy dying soon after (Schindler, p. 344). Rockwell then moved again, the better to hand his contract carrying the mail (Schindler, p. 346. It is not clear to me who was watching the children during all this. Rockwell eventually was involved in a dispute over payment, but his lawyers managed to collect in full; Schindler, p. 360). It appears, though, that he mostly sold alcohol, living as quietly as a man in that occupation can do (though he once threw one of his assistant bartenders through a window; Schindler, p. 355. This brought him up before the law). He did manage to get a stake in a silver mine that became the successful Rockwell Mining Company (Schindler, p. 356).
Through it all, he remained intensely loyal to Brigham Young. When Young was charged in a murder conspiracy, and the court tried to set thing up so that he would be found in contempt for not being in court on time, it was Rockwell who rode a race to inform the Prophet of the trap and hurry him back to the court (Schindler, p. 359).
In his later years, Rockwell turned to ranching (Schindler, pp. 361-362). He also, in 1870 or 1871, took a fourth wife (Schindler, p. 360), his former housekeeper, who was 34 years old (he was 59 at the time). She bore him three girls, though the first died shortly after birth.
As long as Brigham Young was alive, he was never brought to account for his previous activities. After Young died, however, Rockwell was charged with the murder of John Aiken and arrested in 1877. Released on bail, he died of natural causes in 1878 (Schindler, pp. 365-366) -- meaning that Joseph Smith's prophecy came true: No bullet did touch him.
I wish I knew what to make of Rockwell. Schindler's biography is unhelpful -- the only assassination he seriously discusses is that of Boggs, and he nowhere says that Rockwell did it (though he does leave the impression of Rockwell's guilt). Rockwell, it is true, shot at a few others, but all in legitimate circumstances. It is, I suppose, possible that Rockwell never did go after anyone else. But it feels as if Schindler is hiding evidence -- his portrait of Rockwell is just too favorable. Rockwell's reputation was surely exaggerated, but presumably it was based on something.
Schindler, p. 362, lists two ballads about Rockwell: This one, which he knew from Burt [Roud #10880], and one beginning "Have you heard of Porter Rockwell, the Mormon Triggerite?" [Roud #10879]. - RBW
File: Burt114
===
NAME: Old Prospector's Crime, The
DESCRIPTION: "Gather round me, people, While I speak this last one word, I am on the gallows And I'll ne'er again be heard." The singer and Hard Rock Jim are miners; the singer finds a claim, tricks Hard Rock Jim into a fight with a bear, kills him, and is executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: homicide animal mining gold execution
FOUND_IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 90-91, "(The Old Prospector's Crime)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Burt090
===
NAME: Old Rattler
DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Here, Rattler, Here." Rattler is a great tracking dog. When (Old Riley) escapes from prison, Rattler is put on his trail, and finds the man despite many distractions and even (the Brazos River) in the way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (recording, George Reneau)
KEYWORDS: dog manhunt prison escape captivity worksong chaingang floatingverses prisoner
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 104-105, "(Here, Rattler, Here)" (1 text, perhaps composite, plus apparently a portion of another version)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 66-67, "Ol' Rattler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 66, "Old Reilly (In Dem Long Hot Summer Days" (1 text); p. 395, "Old Rattler" (1 text, with the chorus of this song though the verses are those of "Old Tyler")
Roud #6381
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Here Old Rattler Here" (on Cotten01)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt & James "Iron Head" Baker, "Old Rattler" (AFS 208 B1, 1934; on LC8)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Old Rattler" (AFS 205 B2) [this is a solo recording, as opposed to the duet with James "Iron Head" Baker]
George Reneau, "Here Rattler, Here" (Vocalion 14814, 1924)
Texas state farm prisoners, "Here Rattler Here" (on NPCWork)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer" (lyrics)
cf. "Long John (Long Gone)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Poor Lazarus (Bad Man Lazarus)" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Long Hot Summer Days
Here, Rattler, Here
NOTES: The "Old Reilly" version is officially credited to Huddle Ledbetter. This looks to me like Lead Belly's adaption of "Long John" -- but of course there is Lomax influence. Given that "Long John" is also derived primarily from the Lomaxes, it's hard to have any confidence about the relationship between the songs, or even their folk status. - RBW
Seeger reports that the Texas state farm prisoners from whom he collected a version of the song believed it described the escape of the prisoner Riley from Clements State Farm. - PJS
File: CNFM104
===
NAME: Old Rattler (II): see Old Tyler (File: JRSF069)
===
NAME: Old Reilly: see CNFM104 (File: CNFM104)
===
NAME: Old Reuben: see Reuben's Train (File: Wa133)
===
NAME: Old Riley: see Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)
===
NAME: Old Robin Gray : see Auld Robin Gray  (File: Pea482)
===
NAME: Old Robin of Portingale [Child 80]
DESCRIPTION: Old Robin's young wife arranges with her lover Sir Gyles for 24 men to kill Robin. Warned by a page, he kills Gyles, then cuts off his wife's breasts and ears. He makes the page his heir, burns a cross into his shoulder and goes to the holy land.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: betrayal husband wife injury death fight travel lastwill
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 80, "Old Robin of Portingale" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 50-58, "Old Robin of Portingale" (2 texts, the second being that of the folio manuscript and the first being Percy's rewrite)
OBB 53, "Old Robin of Portingale" (1 text)
Roud #3971
NOTES: This ballad is so thoroughly nasty, I'm surprised it isn't more popular. - PJS
The likely explanation is that it is literary; there is no evidence that it ever entered oral tradition. And the moral, that young women should not marry old men, is adequately taught in other songs. - RBW
File: C080
===
NAME: Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey)
DESCRIPTION: (Old Bumpy) is dead and buried. An apple tree grows from his grave. An old woman comes to gather apples. Bumpy arises from his grave and kicks the woman for her temerity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1876 (sheet music); some similar text from 1849 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: burial humorous supernatural playparty
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(All)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Belden, pp. 509-511, "Old Grumbler" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 569, "Old Bumpy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 411-413, "Old Bumpy" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's #569)
Hudson 138, pp. 284-285, "Old Grampus" (1 text plus mention of 4 more)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 136-137, "Old Ponto Is Dead" (1 text plus a fragment which might be part of this, 1 tune)
Eddy 65, "Old Granddaddy's Dead" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 182-183, "The Tommy Song or Apples are Ripe" (1 text)
Fuson, p. 186, "Old Grumbler" (1 text)
SharpAp 259, "Old Roger" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Botkin-NEFolklr, p. 585, "Pompey" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 114, pp. 232-233, "Poor Robin" (1 text)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 16, "Poor Toby is Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R569 (Full)
Roud #797
RECORDINGS:
Dora Richards, "Pompey is Dead" (AFS, 1940; on LC55)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Old Limpy
Old Grimes
NOTES: Eddy quotes John Powell as writing, "This is not a song but a singing game, 'Old Roger is Dead.' It is a relic of an ancient pagan ritual...." Randolph gives details on how the game is played.
Botkin believes this originated with "Pompey! A Famous End Song," with words credited to "Mrs. K. B." and music by W. R. Dehnoff. This is possible, as I know of no collections prior to the 1876 publication of that song. But the degree of variation makes me suspect it is older.
This should not be confused with "Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead)," which also goes by the title "Old Grimes"; the forms are different, and "Bohunkus" has a plot about two competing brothers. - RBW
File: R569
===
NAME: Old Rosin the Beau (Bow): see Rosin the Beau (File: R846)
===
NAME: Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill, The
DESCRIPTION: "I'm thinking tonight of the old rustic bridge... 'Twas there, Maggie dear, with our hearts full of cheer, We strayed 'neath the moon's gentle gleam." The singer recalls their happy meeting by the bridge, and all the joys they had there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 124, "The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill" (1 text)
Roud #3792
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (theme)
NOTES: This feels so much like "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (right down to the name of the girl) that I have to suspect dependence. But they aren't the same song, though they're about equally sloppy. - RBW
File: Ord124
===
NAME: Old Sailor's Song
DESCRIPTION: No tune given, basically a poem recounting the various travails of sailors. Nine stanzas; begins "Come listen unto me a while and I will tell you then, the hardships and the misery of life on a merchantman..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: sailor work hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Colcord, pp. 138-140, "Old Sailor's Song" (1 text)
ST Colc138 (Partial)
Roud #4705
NOTES: Colcord says this was secured from Fannie Hardy Eckstorm, co-author of _Minstrelsy of Maine_ (though it is not in that collection), which would date it to around 1927. - SL
Curiously, the song does not appear in Jean Patten Whitten's description of the Eckstorm folk song collection (_Fannie Hardy Eckstorn: A Descriptive Bibliography_), at least not under this title or filed under Colcord's first line.
The lyrics fit "Bold Jack Donahoe"/"Jim Jones at Botany Bay," and there are enough similarities that I think that may have been the tune intended. - RBW
File: Colc138
===
NAME: Old Sally Walker: see Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)
===
NAME: Old Sam Fanny: see There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)
===
NAME: Old Satan's Mad: see Free at Last AND Down by the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: FSWB368A)
===
NAME: Old Scout's Lament
DESCRIPTION: "Come all of you, my brother scouts, And join me in a song." The singer notes that "but few" old scouts  are left alive. But the elk and buffalo are gone, and the Indians driven away: "We won great homes for gentle ones, And now, our West, goodbye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: age Indians(Am.) animal cowboy work farewell
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ohrlin-HBT 18, "The Old Scout's Lament" (1 text)
DT, OLDSCOUT
Roud #4631
File: Ohr018
===
NAME: Old Section Boss, The: see Jerry, Go and Ile that Car [Laws H30] (File: LH30)
===
NAME: Old Settler's Song,The: see Acres of Clams (The Old Settler's Song) (File: LxU055)
===
NAME: Old Settoo, The
DESCRIPTION: A rich farmer's daughter courts a beggar wearing an old settoo. Her father tries unsuccessfully to dissuade her. She joins the beggar begging. They get married. "The cold of winter she never knew, For every night I rolled her in my old set-too"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage clothes begging father
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 26A, "The Old Settoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The White Cockade" (tune)
cf. "A-Begging I Will Go" (theme and some lines)
NOTES: OLochlainn 26A: "Settoo = Surtout, Overcoat."
OLochlainn-More 26A shares lines with "A-Begging I Will Go": "Above all trades going sure begging is the best, When a man is tired he may sit down and rest," "When night comes on for lodgings we seek, They will put us in the barn us both to sleep" - BS
File: OLcM026A
===
NAME: Old Shawnee, The: see Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5]
 (File: LF05)
===
NAME: Old Sheep Went to Sleep
DESCRIPTION: "Old sheep went to sleep And left the lambs a-feeding, Little mouse jumped over the house And set his nose a-bleeding." Other verses also tell of off moments in animal life: A mare kicks a bear, a goat jumps into a boat, a goose breaks loose
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: animal sheep humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Gardner/Chickering 191, "Old Sheep Went to Sleep" (1 text)
ST GC191 (Partial)
Roud #3709
File: GC191
===
NAME: Old Ship of Zion (I), The
DESCRIPTION: Following the form of "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain": "The old ship of Zion, when she comes, when she comes." "She rocks so steady any level when she comes." "Have your lamps trimmed and burning." "Have oil in your vessels."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 623, "The Old Ship of Zion" (3 texts, but only the "A" text is certain to be this piece)
Roud #4204
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Old Ship of Zion" (Vocalion 15033, 1925)
Ernest Phipps & his Holiness Singers, "Old Ship of Zion" (Victor 20927, 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (form, tune, lyrics)
NOTES: The references to a trimmed lamp and having oil in one's vessels are clearly an allusion to Jesus's parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, Matt. 25:1-13. - RBW
File: Br3623
===
NAME: Old Ship of Zion (II): see The Ship of Zion (I, II, etc.) (File: FSC083)
===
NAME: Old Shoes and Leggings: see Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)
===
NAME: Old Smite, The: see The Wreck of the Semmity (Yosemite) (File: Pea983)
===
NAME: Old Smokey: see On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)
===
NAME: Old Smoky: see On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)
===
NAME: Old Soap-Gourd, The
DESCRIPTION: "Here we go round the old soap-gourd, theold soap-gourd, the old soap-gourd, Here we go round the old soap-gourd, Earlye in the morning." "The old soap-gourd likes sugar in his tea" as he finds a girl: "Rise and give me your lily-white hands."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (copyrighted by Jean Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting drink
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 62, "The Old Soap-Gourd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7387
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (form)
cf. "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes" (form)
NOTES: This appears to be another variation of the "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush"/"This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes" tune group and game. But the lyrics are entirely different, so I split them. - RBW
File: RitS082
===
NAME: Old Soldier, The: see The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)
===
NAME: Old Soldiers Never Die (I)
DESCRIPTION: "There is an old cookhouse not far away Where we get sweet damn all three times a day. Ham and eggs we never see, damn all sugar in our tea, As we are gradually fading away. Old soldiers never die... They just fade away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: soldier army age
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 277, "Old Soldiers Never Die" (1 text)
DT, OLDSOLDR*
Roud #10521
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is a Happy Land Far Away" (tune)
NOTES: The verse quoted above seems to be the only item truly characteristic of this piece. But other verses exist, often bawdy and/or scatological, describing the difficulties of army life or veterans' affairs. - RBW
File: FSWB277A
===
NAME: Old Southwester: see My Father's Old Sou'wester (File: Doyl3042)
===
NAME: Old Sow Song, The: see The Sow Took the Measles (File: LoF015)
===
NAME: Old Sow, The
DESCRIPTION: "And the old sow went to the barn to pig, (whistling) barn to pig, And the old sow went to the barn to pig, But never cry di dry do cry da. For old Susanna is a pretty woman." The sow and piglets may try to escape, but are stopped by the wall.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND_IN: US(SE) Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 178, "The Old Sow" (1 fragment)
DT, OLDSOW
Roud #1737
RECORDINGS:
Albert Richardson, "The Old Sow" (on Voice07)
Cyril Smith, "The Old Sow Song" (Castle [UK?] 1259, n.d.)
Rudy Vallee & his Connecticut Yankees w. Cyril Smith, "The Old Sow Song" (Bluebird B-7078, 1937)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Susannah's a Funny Old Man
NOTES: The Brown text and that from the Digital Tradition have little in common, but they both mention Susanna, are about sows, and contain a lot of nonsense; it seems pointless to separate them.
The editors of Brown seemed helpless to expain their text (quoted in full in the description, though they note that several lines are apparently missing), notably the verb "to pig." I wonder if it isn't an error for "to dig." Alternately, presumably, it means "to live as a pig" or "to have piglets." - RBW
The latter, according to the Random House Dictionary. - PJS
File: Br3178
===
NAME: Old Spencer Rifle,The
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of Johnny's visit, and his "shooting" her with his gun, no less than seven times. John does the mother too and goes off with his gun-barrel bent.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 128-129, "The Old Spencer Rifle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11499
NOTES: Annotator Legman in Randolph-Legman I asserts that the melody of this apparently unique ballad is "unmistakably" similar to "Yankee Doodle." In fact, it directly quotes "Cotton-Eyed Joe." - EC
File: RL128
===
NAME: Old Spotted Cow, The: see The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)
===
NAME: Old Stable (Sable) Jacket, The: see Wrap Me Up in my Tarpaulin Jacket (File: FR439)
===
NAME: Old Stepstone, The: see Goodbye to My Stepstone (File: R853)
===
NAME: Old Stone Wall, The
DESCRIPTION: "Outside Casey's cabin there is an old stone wall." The singer recalls the sights the wall has seen: Friends meeting, youths singing, pipers playing, lovers meeting. He wishes he could live on the wall; not even a throne would be better
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H83, pp. 156-157, "The Old Stone Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13453
File: HHH083
===
NAME: Old Stormey: see Stormalong (File: Doe082)
===
NAME: Old Stormy: see Stormalong (File: Doe082)
===
NAME: Old Stumper
DESCRIPTION: Leo B MacCormack and his brother Archie agree to dig Uncle Stones's well in exchange for "skin and bones" nag Stumper. When title is questioned Stumper asks "did you get a clear receipt?" At the trial title is settled in MacCormack's favor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: bargaining trial work humorous horse
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 17-18, "Old Stumper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12481
NOTES: The song dates delivery of the summons March 17, 1892. - BS
File: Dib017
===
NAME: Old Swansea Town Once More: see Swansea Town (The Holy Ground) (File: Doe152)
===
NAME: Old Tamarack Dam, The: see The Wild Mustard River (Johnny Stile) [Laws C5] (File: LC05)
===
NAME: Old Testament in Verse (The Books of the Bible)
DESCRIPTION: "In Genesis the world was made, In Exodus the march is told, Leviticus contains the law, In Numbers are the tribes enrolled." And so on to "...And Malachi of John his sign, The Prophets number seventeen And all the books are thirty-nine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 875, "The Books of the Bible" (1 fragment)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 204, "Books of the Old Testament"; p. 205, "Books of the New Testament" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7540
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(073), "The Books of the Bible: A Literary Curiosity" ("In Genesis the world was made by God's creative hand"), Poet's Box (Dundee), n.d.
NOTES: In general the summaries in this song are accurate, though it is very clearly Protestant Christian -- the Catholics, e.g., add assorted deuterocanonical books to the Old Testament.
The Jewish canon contains the same books as the Protestant, but organize them differently. The number of books is not 39, but 24 (or 22): 5 books of the Law (Genesis-Deuteronomy), eight of the Prophets (Former Prophets=Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings; Later Prophets=Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve), and the rest, with some reorganization, form the Writings (note that Daniel is not one of the Prophets).
The texts in Pankake are NOT the same song as in Randolph, but they are so thematically close (and so unlikely to be looked up separately) that I just decided to lump them in here. Their two texts simply list the books of the Bible in order -- both in the Protestant order of the King James Bible (a traditional Greek Bible would put the "Catholic Epistles" of James through Jude with Acts, and might place Hebrews after 2 Thessalonians rather than Philemon).
A third anonymous poem on this general theme, "Names and Orders of the Books of the Old Testament," is found on pp. 602-603 of Hazel Felleman's _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_.
The greatest myster of all may be the relationship between the Randolph text and the NLScotland broadside. They have very many common lyrics, but the Randolph text is in short lines and the Scottish version in long. A rewrite seems likely, but how it proceeded is unclear at best.- RBW
File: R875
===
NAME: Old Texas: see Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament) (File: FCW066E)
===
NAME: Old Timbrook Blues
DESCRIPTION: Race between Timbrook & Molly; Timbrook races "like a bullet from a gun", while Molly creeps along "like a criminal to be hung." Singer addresses jockey Johnny Walker. Timbrook beats Molly "to the hole in the wall." Singer says old mistress lost her "mon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, John Byrd)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Race between Timbrook & Molly; Timbrook races "like a bullet from a gun", while Molly creeps along "like a criminal to be hung." Singer addresses jockey Johnny Walker, telling him to hold Timbrook's reins tight. On the windy race day, "you couldn't see old Timbrook as he come darting by." Everyone shouts, but Timbrook beats Molly "to the hole in the wall." Singer says he loves his racehorse; "old mistress went to the racecourse, lost all of her mon." Song also incorporates the "fourth day of July" verse from "The Cuckoo"
KEYWORDS: gambling horse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 4, 1878 - race between Ten Broeck and Miss Mollie McCarthy (won by Ten Broeck)
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
John Byrd, "Old Timbrook Blues" (Paramount 12997, 1930; on StuffDreams1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (subject)
cf. "Timbrook" (subject)
 cf. "The Cuckoo" (inexplicable floating verse)
NOTES: Obviously this describes the same events as "Molly and Tenbrooks" and "Timbrook." However, it does not share lyrics or tune with either of those songs, so I classify it separately. So far as I know, it's the only occurrence of the story in African-American tradition -- unless you count Henry Thomas's "Run, Mollie, Run," which includes the title phrase but none of the story.
The verse from "The Cuckoo" ("The cuckoo was a fine bird, hollered when he fly/But he never hollers cuckoo til the fourth day o' July") makes no sense until you note that the race between Ten Broek and Miss Mollie was held on July 4, 1878. - PJS
File: RcOTimbB
===
NAME: Old Time Cowboy (Melancholy Cowboy)
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you melancholy folks wherever you may be, I'll sing about the cowboy whose life is light and free." We are told "his heart is gay," "they're a little bit rough... but if you do not hunt a quarrel you can live with them in peace," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: cowboy nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Thorp/Fife XIX, pp. 240-243 (40-41), "Old Time Cowboy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HBT 17, "Old-Time Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8046
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Come All Ye Melancholy Folks
File: TF19
===
NAME: Old Time Religion, (The): see That Old Time Religion (File: R628)
===
NAME: Old Time Sealer's Song
DESCRIPTION: "We'll sound the hardy sealers praise, a wild and cheerful strain...." The singer notes that merchant vessels stop travelling in winter, but sealers work through all the dark. stormy months. At last they can come home from the ice
AUTHOR: "Mr. Webber... of Harbour Grace" ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1902 (Murphy, Songs and Ballads of Newfoundland, Ancient and Modern); dated by Murphy to 1842
KEYWORDS: hunting ship work
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, pp. 18-19, "Old Time Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RySm018 (Partial)
File: RySm018
===
NAME: Old Time Sealers, The
DESCRIPTION: "The bells they are ringing, the sirens are screaming... The sealing fleet's ready to leave port once more." As snow blows in, the fleet sails. The singer tells of the hunt; he says sealers face dangers  greater than mountain climbers or big game hunters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Newfoundland Stories and Ballads)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship bragging
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, pp. 138-139, "The Old Time Sealers" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RySm138
===
NAME: Old Timer's Song, The: see The Day Columbus Landed Here (File: FJ178)
===
NAME: Old Tippecanoe
DESCRIPTION: "The times are bad and want curing, They're getting past all enduring, Let us turn out old Martin Van Buren, And put in old Tippicanoe." A political song, this piece points out the depressed economic conditions and Tippicanoe's humble origins.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: political hardtimes derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 2, 1840 - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren
Mar 4, 1841 - Harrison (the first Whig to be elected President) is inaugurated. He gives a rambling inaugural address in a rainstorm and catches cold
April 4, 1841 - Harrison dies of pneumonia, making him the first president to fail to complete his term. After some hesitation, Vice President John Tyler is allowed to succeed as President
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Warner 73, "Old Tippecanoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa073 (Full)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (tune) and references there
cf. "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" (subject)
cf. "Tippecanoe" (subject)
cf. "Harrison Campaign Song" (subject)
NOTES: When Andrew Jackson stepped down as President, he hand-chose Martin Van Buren as his successor. It was Van Buren's misfortune to suffer the consequences of Jackson's questionable economic policies. May 10 is traditionally considered the first day of the Panic of 1837, in which hundreds of banks failed. The economic consequences lasted until the early 1840s, and made Van Buren extremely unpopular.
Harrison's campaign was far from honest. He ran as a frontiersman (his election strategy is referred to as the "Log Cabin and Cider" campaign) even though he was a southern aristocrat. He also ran as a successful soldier, even though his only military exploits were the slaughter of Tecumseh's Shawnee and allies on the Tippecanoe River (and that only because Tecumseh himself wasn't present and in his absence the warriors attacked Harrison's defensive position; see John K. Mahon, _The War of 1812_, pp. 24-27; also p. 63, which notes that Harrison actually resigned his commission due to the controversy over the battle) and some minor maneuverings on the Great Lakes during the War of 1812 after the Battle of Lake Erie (for which see "James Bird" [Laws A5]) had opened the way.
But it didn't matter; people would have taken anything in preference to Van Buren. This song, sung to the tune of "I Won't Be Home Until Morning/The Bear Went Over the Mountain," betrays the simplistic popular view of the campaign.
To be as fair as I can (probably fairer than Harrison deserves), his exploits against the Indians did open the way for much American expansion. Pierre Berton, _The Invasion of Canada [Volume I], 1812-1813_, Atlantic-Little Brown, 1980, pp. 53-68, tells how the great Shawnee Tecumseh, and his brother the Prophet, were gradually building a coalition of tribes that might be strong enough to halt American expansion. Harrison was determined to stop it -- and his timing was brilliant: He waited until Tecumseh was too far away to interfere, and then lured the Prophet into battle.
According to Berton, p. 69, "The Battle of Tippecanoe is not the glorious victory that Harrison, down through the years, will proclaim. It is not even a battle, more a minor skirmish, and indecisive, for Harrison, despite his claim, loses far more men than the Indians. Overbolown in the history books, this brief fracas has two significant results: it is the chief means by which Harrison will propel himself into the White House... and, for the Indians, it will be the final incident that provokes them to follow Tecumseh to Canada, there to fight on the British side in the War of 1812.
"Tippecanoe is unnecessary. It is fought only because Harrison needs it to further his own ambitions." Furthering his own ambitions is something at which he was always amazingly successful.
Berton, pp. 75-76, describes the casualties of Tippecanoe as follows: "Harrison has lost almost one-fifth of his force [pf roughly a thousand men].Thirty-seven white corpses lie ssprawled on the battlefield. One hundred and fifty men have been wounded of whom twenty-five will die of their injuries.... No one can be sure how many Indians took part in the skirmish. Nobody know howmany died. Harrison, like most military commanders, overstimates the enemy's losses, declar[ing] that the Prophet's casualties run into the hundreds. This is wishful thinking; only thirty-six Indian corpses are found." Harrison did, however, hold the field, and as a result was able to burn the Prophet's settlement -- and the food supplies left there; he may have caused more casualties by starvation than he did in the battle.
But he also increased Tecumseh's desire for blood, and Tecumseh is a much more formidable leader than his brother the Prophet could ever hope to be. - RBW
File: Wa073
===
NAME: Old Tobacco Box, The (There Was an Old Soldier)
DESCRIPTION: "There was an old (soldier) and he had a wooden leg. He had no tobacco; no tobacco could he beg." He asks a comrade for tobacco, and is refused. He is told to save; then he will have tobacco. He gets even by stabbing the other with a splinter from his leg
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: soldier humorous begging
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Warner 182, "The Old Geezer" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 143, "The Old Tobacco Box" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster 93, "The Soldier's Song" (1short  text)
Sandburg, pp. 432-433, "There Was an Old Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, p. 50, "The Auld Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, p. 32, "There Was an Old Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 91, "The Old Geezers" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 242, "There Was An Old Soldier" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, p. 258, "The Old Soldier" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. ,143 "The Was an Old Geezer" (1 text, tune referenced; this is a partial parody but consists mostly of traditional elements)
DT, (TURKST2)
Roud #3342
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES: This piece is often sung to the tune of Turkey in the Straw, and the lyrics often float back and forth, but also exists on its own with its own tune (as was vehemently pointed out by the Warners' informant, Tom P. Smith; Jerome S. Epstein calls it similar to "The Red Haired Boy," but it's Ionian).
It is often listed as a Civil War song, and probably is, but I have not been able to find any Civil War reference to this which clearly distinguishes it from "Turkey in the Straw."
On the other hand, the Civil War is one of the few wars in which a man with a wooden leg really could be on fairly active duty. As the war dragged on, and the number of crippled soldiers rose, the Union in 1863 decided to recruit an "Invalid Corps," later renamed the "Veteran Reserve Corps" (see Bruce Catton, _A Stillness at Appomattox_, Doubleday, 1953, pp. 143-144). The men were classified as "first battalion" men, considered to be fit for garrison duty away from the front lines, and "second battalion" men, who were no longer fit enough even to carry a musket (they were supposed to serve in hospitals as nurses and cooks, according to Mark M. Boatner, _The Civil War Dictionary_, McKay, 1959, article on the "Veteran Reserve Corps").
Yet Catton, pp. 144-146, tells how 166  of these poor second battalion men were once sent out to march and fight at Belle Plain. They naturally had to travel without knapsacks (more than half the men in their unit had been unable to march at all), so it would have been perfectly reasonable, on that occasion, for a soldier with a wooden leg to be in the front lines and begging for tobacco. I doubt that explains the origin of the song -- but it *could* have happened.
(We might note that there were also a fair number of officers with wooden legs, the most senior being Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Ewell and full General John Bell Hood. As officers, however, they were permitted to ride rather than march -- Hood, in fact, had to be strapped to his horse, though Ewell was able to mount and dismount on his own. We might also add that, though both had been fine division commanders before being wounded, neither performed very well following amputation and promotion. Ewell's hesitation at Gettysburg may have cost the Confederates that battle; Hood's performance in the Atlanta and Nashville campaigns finally doomed the Confederacy.)
The versions called "The Soldier's Song" should not be confused with the song of that name which is the national anthem of Ireland. - RBW
File: FSC143
===
NAME: Old Tom Bolen (Tom Boleyn II)
DESCRIPTION: "Old Tom Bolen, his horse Beaver, Forked Deer and Hatchee River, My wife's dead and I'm a widower, And I'll go back to Rollin' River."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: animal death
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 425, "Old Tom Boleyn" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7632
NOTES: Randolph tentatively links this song to the minstrel piece "Way Down South in Alabama," containing the lines "My wife's dead and I'm a widder, All de way from Roarin' Ribber." Since we're speculating, is there any possibility that these are the fiddler's mnemonic for "Forked Deer"? (I concede the tunes are not the same.) - RBW
File: R425
===
NAME: Old Tom Cat, The
DESCRIPTION: "An old lady sat by the fire, An she thought no one was nigh her... And she pulled up her petticoat higher." "The old tom cat saw something naked, an for a rat or a mouse did take it," and attacks, with raucous results
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: bawdy animal fight humorous
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Logsdon 46, pp. 228-229, "The Old Tom Cat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10102
File: Logs046
===
NAME: Old Tommy Kendal: see This Old Man (File: FSWB390C)
===
NAME: Old Travelling Man, The: see Traveling Man (Traveling Coon) (File: RcTMTC)
===
NAME: Old Turkey Hen, The
DESCRIPTION: "Seven years a-boiling, Ho-ma-hala-way, Seven years a-baking, Ho-ma-hala-way." "They blowed the horn for dinner... The people could not eat her." "They carried her to the old field... The buzzards could not eat her...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird food humorous
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 203, "The Old Turkey Hen" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)"
NOTES: Paul Stamler suggests that this is a version of "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)." There are similarities of both plot and lyrics; he may well be right. In fact, I think it more likely than not that he's right. But just enough doubts remain that I'm tentatively keeping them separate. - RBW
File: Br3203
===
NAME: Old Tyler
DESCRIPTION: "Old (Tyler/Napper) was a good old dog, We thought he'd treed a coon, But when we come to find it out Old Tyler was barking at the moon...." The song tells of Tyler's eccentricities and how Allegheny finally shot the animal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Hudson)
KEYWORDS: dog death animal
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Hudson 76, p. 203, "Old Napper" (1short  text, mostly floating verses)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 69-70, "[Old Tyler]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 395, "Old Rattler" (1 text, evidently this song from the verses, though it has the chorus from "Old Rattler")
Roud #5712
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Napper"
NOTES: This is a bit of a conundrum. The Ritchie family's "Old Tyler" is a coherent song, but its first verse floats, and the other songs here are all mixed up. And, of course, the name of the dog varies, e.g. Hudson's text seems to call him "Napper."
Then there is the Brown collection, which has a pair of fragments about "Napper" or "Old Napper." It's clearly not the same as Old Tyler; Napper is a human who fools around with the singer's wife. But the form hints that there is continuous variation between the two. - RBW
File: JRSF069
===
NAME: Old Uncle Noah
DESCRIPTION: "Old Uncle Noah built him an ark / He built it out of hemlock bark... The animals went in two by two / The elephant and the kangaroo... Mrs. Noah she got drunk / She kicked old Noah out of his bunk..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: Bible humorous nonballad flood
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 181, (no title) (1 text)
BrownIII 544, "Noah's Ark" (2 short texts, both of the "Gideon's Band" type)
Eddy 75, "Old Uncle Noah" (1 text)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 44-45, (no title) (partial text, which may go here or elsewhere); pp. 246-247, "Noah, Noah" (1 tune, partial text, same as the reference on p. 44)
ST E075 (Partial)
Roud #5355
RECORDINGS:
Al Hopkins & His Buckle Busters, "Gideon's Band" (Brunswick 295, 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "One More River" (lyrics)
cf. "Who Built the Ark?" (subject)
cf. "Old Noah Built an Ark" (subject)
cf. "Noah Built the Ark" (subject)
cf. "In Frisco Bay (A Long Time Ago; Noah's Ark Shanty)" (subject)
NOTES: The account of Noah and the ark occupies Genesis 6-8. One should perhaps note that, while Genesis 6:20 records that Noah took two of every animal, 7:2 tells Noah to take SEVEN pairs of all clean animals.
The Bible also records that Noah "was the first to plant a vineyard" (Gen. 9:20 -- after the flood, one might note). 9:21 records his first episode of drunkenness -- but there is no record of his wife ever drinking; indeed, she is never mentioned in the Bible except in references to Noah's whole family.
The "Gideon's Band" subfamily (marked by the chorus "Do you belong to Gideon's Band, Here's my heart and here's my hand") is quite distinct and may contain verses not about Noah (as, e.g., in the Buckle Busters recording), but since it seems always to include the Noah's Ark verses also, it can't really be split off. - RBW
File: E075
===
NAME: Old Virginny Never Tire
DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "There is a gal in our town... The hollow of her foot makes a hole in the ground." "As I was walking... I met a terrapin and a toad." Chorus: "Old folks, young folks, clear the kitchen (x2), Old Virginny never tire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal floatingverses nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 413, "Clare de Kitchen" (1 text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 109, "Ol' Virginny Never Tire" (1 text, 1 tune); also some fragments (of this or something) on p. 110; also pp. 110-112 (no title) (1 unusually long text, attributed to T. Rice; curiously, this appears to be identical except for orthography to the version in Hazel Felleman, _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_, pp. 466-467)
Roud #751
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)"
cf. "Charleston Gals" (style)
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This, like "Charleston Gals," is one of those hard-to-assess songs, since nearly ever word floats. Roud lumps it with the even more amorphous "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" family. It appears to me, though, that the chorus is distinct enough and widespread enough that the two should be kept separate. - RBW
File: ScaNF109
===
NAME: Old Wether's Skin, The: see The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)
===
NAME: Old Widow's Broom, The: see Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times) [Laws H25] (File: LH25)
===
NAME: Old Wife of Slapsadam, The (The Wily Auld Carle; The Old Woman in Dover; etc.): see Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)
===
NAME: Old Wife, The: see Auld Wife beyont the Fire, The (File: CW128)
===
NAME: Old Woman: see Crockery Ware (File: Pea257)
===
NAME: Old Woman All Skin and Bones, The: see Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady) (File: R069)
===
NAME: Old Woman and Her Pig, The: see There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)
===
NAME: Old Woman and the Devil, The: see The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)
===
NAME: Old Woman and the Little Pig, The: see There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)
===
NAME: Old Woman and the Little Pigee, The: see There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)
===
NAME: Old Woman and the Pig, The: see There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)
===
NAME: Old Woman from Boston, The: see Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)
===
NAME: Old Woman in Dover, The: see Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)
===
NAME: Old Woman of Blighter Town, The: see Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)
===
NAME: Old Woman Who Went to Market, The (The Old Woman and the Pedlar)
DESCRIPTION: "There was a little woman, as I've heard tell, Fol loll, diddle diddle dol, She went to market her eggs for to sell." She falls asleep along the road. A peddlar cuts off her skirts at the knee. Panic ensues when she awakens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1784 (Wallis, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: humorous drink theft thief disguise
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Linscott, pp. 258-259, "The Old Woman Who Went to Market" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 534, "There was a little woman" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #257, p. 159, "(There was an old woman, as I've heard tell)"
Roud #3740
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(253), "The Little Woman and Her Eggs," J.Crome (Sheffield), c.1817
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wee Wifikie" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES: This has to be related somehow to "The Wee Wifikie." But the nature and direction of the dependence is unclear. If I had to guess, I'd say this came first, because the idea of a peddlar cutting off the woman's *skirt* (which obviously has sexual implications) might be softened by having him cut off her hair. - RBW
File: Lins258
===
NAME: Old Woman, Old Woman: see The Deaf Woman's Courtship (File: R353)
===
NAME: Old Woman, Old Woman, Shall We Go A-Shearing?: see The Deaf Woman's Courtship (File: R353)
===
NAME: Old Woman, The: see Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)
===
NAME: Old Woman's Blind Husband, The: see Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)
===
NAME: Old Woman's Story, An: see Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)
===
NAME: Old Yellow's Dead
DESCRIPTION: "Allen says, 'Ma, bring here a pry, I think Old Yellow's a-going to die.' Louis says, 'What'll I eat with bread, For they tell me that Old Yellow is dead.'" The crew sets out to skin the animal; Allen blisters his hands tanning it; they haul the hide away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: animal death
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuson, pp. 102-103, "Old Yellow's Dead" (1 text)
ST Fus102 (Partial)
Roud #4285
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jawbone Song" (chorus form)
NOTES: I have a strange feeling that this is somehow related to a historical event -- perhaps a political piece. But the references are too local for me even to hazard a guess as to what. It's one of those pieces that makes nonsense out of context.
If it is a political piece, it was probably built around "The Jawbone Song." - RBW
File: Fus102
===
NAME: Old Zip Coon
DESCRIPTION: "Ole Zip Coon he is a larned scholar (x3), Sings possum up a gum tree an coony in a holler." Chorus: "O Zip a duden duden duden zip a duden day (x4)." The remaining verses are quatrains about the people and animals of the south
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1834 (five different sheet music editions)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous nonballad
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Americans under Andrew Jackson defeat British troops under Pakenham (the event is referred to obliquely in stanza 6 of the sheet music)
FOUND_IN: US(NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 258-260, "Zip Coon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 101-103, "Old Zip Coon" (1 tune plus dance instructions)
BrownIII 418, "Old Zip Coon" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Belden, pp. 505-506, "Zip Coon" (1 text, minus the chorus but with the other characteristics of the piece) 
Lomax-FSNA 49, "Turkey in the Straw" (2 text, 1 tune, the second being "Zip Coon")
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 17-19, "Zip Coon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 591-592, "Turkey in the Straw (Zip Coon)"
ST RJ19258 (Full)
Roud #4358
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "Old Zip Coon (Vocalion 5384, c. 1930)
Hindermyer & Tuckerman [Goldy & Dusty], "Zip Coon" (Edison 51830, 1926)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Old Tobacco Box (There Was an Old Soldier)" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "The Ould Bog Hole" (tune)
NOTES: Generally regarded as a the forerunner of "Turkey in the Straw." And its lyrics are absurd enough to make "Turkey" seem eminently sensible.
At least three people have claimed authorship of the song: George Washington Dixon (mentioned but not credited on the earliest sheet music), George Nichols, and Bob Farrell. All three were early blackface performers of the piece (Farrell was actually called "Zip Coon," and is reported to have sung the song in 1834). The dispute over authorship probably cannot be settled at this time. - RBW
File: RJ19258
===
NAME: Old Zip Coon (II)
DESCRIPTION: "White man in his cotton field, doin' pretty well; Nigger in his melon patch, givin' his melons -- Hallelujah, Old Zip Coon, keep singin'...." "Lord made Adam and Eve, An' they done pretty well, Soon as he turned his back on Eve, she gave them apples --"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal religious wordplay
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 293, "Old Zip Coon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4358
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Hallelujah" (technique)
File: R293
===
NAME: Old-Time Cowboy: see Old Time Cowboy (Melancholy Cowboy) (File: TF19)
===
NAME: Old-Time Sealing Fleet, The
DESCRIPTION: "Newfoundland has many stories that can make a heart beat fast." The singer recalls how the sealing fleet excited him as a boy. He tells how seeing seals inspired them, and of past disasters. He says that Newfoundlanders can still dream of heroic deeds
AUTHOR: A. R. Scammell
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Scammell, Songs of a Newfoundlander)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship disaster
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, pp. 140-141, "The Old-Time Sealing Fleet" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RySm140
===
NAME: Olden Days
DESCRIPTION: Kate is married in "1602." There's a dance followed by drink, partying, and a friendly fight.
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: wedding fight dancing drink music party humorous
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 79-80, "Olden Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9951
NOTES: Peacock writes "Chris Cobb is, of course, kidding about the date '1602.'  The wedding party actually took place in Barred Islands, and Cris composed this song to commemorate the event and to entertain the people who had been there." - BS
File: Pea079
===
NAME: Olden Memories
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "thrilling stories of the past." "Round the cairns where great ones lie, Their bold requiem, 'No Surrender' lives while soulless slanderers die" Past heroic deeds are like seedlets that may flower in the present.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 1, "Olden Memories" (1 text)
NOTES: OrangeLark: "As the original air was unknown this song has been set to the Hornpipe, 'The Humours of Enniskean.'" OrangeLark does not cite sources. It may not have been sung.
For the reference to "No Surrender," see "No Surrender (I)." - BS
(See also "The Siege of Derry," about the event which inspired the slogan. - RBW)
File: OrLa001
===
NAME: Ole Aunt Kate: see Old Aunt Kate (File: ScaNF099)
===
NAME: Ole Banghum: see Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)
===
NAME: Ole from Norway
DESCRIPTION: Dialect song in which Ole describes coming to the north woods and gives a few details of how he works driving logs down the river. "Ay yus come down from Minnesota/Ay been in this part 'bout three year" but protests that Ole is not his name.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MW,Ro)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Rickaby 36, "Ole from Norway" (1 text)
Beck 8, "Ole from Norway" (1 text)
ST Be008 (Partial)
Roud #8867
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Swede from North Dakota" (theme)
NOTES: Without a tune it's impossible to be sure, but the verses suggest that this is a variant of "The Swede from North Dakota" with an added chorus. - PJS
I thought the same thing upon seeing it, but the version in Rickaby doesn't quite fit the tune of "The Swede." It may also be older; Rickaby's informant claimed to have learned it c. 1895. If anything, I suspect the dependence goes the other way. - RBW
File: Be008
===
NAME: Ole Lady: see Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)
===
NAME: Ole Mars'r Had a Yaller Gal: see Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)
===
NAME: Ole Marse John: see Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)
===
NAME: Ole Massa's Going Away
DESCRIPTION: "Ole Massa's goin' away, boys, He's goin' to see his brother. We'll wait till he gets out of sight, Then we'll throw down the hoe and shovel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work slave brother
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 215, "Ole Massa's Going Away" (1 fragment)
NOTES: Despite the fact that this seems to be spoken by slaves, I suspect this is a minstrel tune. Most slaves on a plantation large enough to have multiple field workers would be bossed by overseers, not the master. - RBW
File: Br215
===
NAME: Ole Mister Rabbit (I'll Get You Rabbit)
DESCRIPTION: "Ole Mister Rabbit, You're in a mighty habit, Gwine in mah garden, Cuttin' down mah cabbage. Um-hum -- um-hum." "Ole Mister Rabbit, Your hair look brown, You'se gwine so fas', You'se hittin' de groun'." The singer tries to get back at the rabbit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal food nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 174-175, "Ole Mister Rabbit" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
ST ScaNF174 (Full)
Roud #10058
NOTES: Roud links together several rabbit songs under one number: "Mister Rabbit," "Ole Mister Rabbit (I'll Get You Rabbit)," even "Rabbit Hash." All are about rabbits raiding gardens (something they certainly do) and the attempts to punish them for it (rarely successful, even with modern technology). But the forms are quite distinct, so I split them. - RBW
File: ScaNF174
===
NAME: Oleanna
DESCRIPTION: The singer sings the praises of "Ole, Oleanna," where "land is free," the crops grow themselves, the livestock cooks itself, and "the poorest wretch... becomes a king in a year or so."
AUTHOR: (English words by Pete Seeger and others)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (tune)/1955 (English words -- recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: emigration farming money talltale nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 42, "Oleanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 47, "Oleanna" (1 text)
DT, OLEOLEAN*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Oleanna" (on PeteSeeger10) (on PeteSeeger12)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Neddeen" (absurdist sorts of claims for the town)
NOTES: Ole Bull was a Norwegian fiddler who tried to found a colony in Pennsylvania. Despite his extravagant hopes for the settlement (satirized in this song), it was too poor and too far from transportation arteries, and eventually failed. - RBW
The town now calls itself "Oleona," and contains a museum celebrating the colony. - PJS
File: LoF042
===
NAME: Oliver's Advice (Barossa)
DESCRIPTION: As storm, night, and the enemy approach, the soldiers are advised, "Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry." The soldiers are reminded of all God did for the Israelites. They should trust in God also
AUTHOR: Words: William Blacker ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1834 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: soldier religious nonballad Spain
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: March 5, 1811 - Battle of Barrosa
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
SHenry H98a, p. 64, "Barossa/Oliver's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-More 72B, "Oliver's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 134, "Oliver's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
OrangeLark 20, "Oliver's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-OISBv2, pp.35-38, "Oliver's Advice" (1 text; tune on p. 20)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 83-86, "Oliver's Advice"
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 453-456, 495-496, "Oliver's Advice"
Roud #2182
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Barossa" (subject)
cf. "Barrosa Plains" (subject)
cf. "The Maid of Castle Creagh" (tune, according to Moylan)
NOTES: The "battle" of Barrosa was more of a skirmish; the forces involved were small, though the British won a clear victory. Most short histories of the Napoleonic Wars don't seem even to mention it.
The 87th Royal Fusiliers (the regiment allegedly described in the song, though there isn't a single specific reference in the piece) was raised in 1793; its separate history ended when it was combined with the 89th foot in 1881 to form the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Barrosa was its second battle honor, and a tune called "Barossa" remains one of the Royal Irish Fusiliers' official quick marches.
The song is called "Oliver's Advice" because Oliver Cromwell is reported to have said, "Put your trust in God, but mind to keep your powder dry."
The song contains assorted Biblical references to God going before the Israelites as a "pillar of cloud... by day... and a pillar of fire... by night"; see, e.g., Exodus 13:41. For parting the Red Sea, see Exodus 14:21-29. - RBW
Nobody seems to attribute this to anyone except Colonel Blacker (1777-1855). Duffy and, probably as a result, Sparling date this "Orange Ballad" 1834. - BS
File: HHH098a
===
NAME: Oma Wise: see Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)
===
NAME: Omagh Town and the Bards of Clanabogan
DESCRIPTION: The singer "caroused and gambled" many places but his "heart was achin' for Omagh Town!" Even wined and dined in London and New York City he longs for Omagh Town. "When life is over ... I'll never grumble If Heaven's as charmin' as Omagh Town!"
AUTHOR: Michael Hurl (source: Tunney-SongsThunder)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (OBoyle)
KEYWORDS: homesickness rambling drink nonballad rake
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 66-68, "Omagh Town and the Bards of Clanabogan" (1 text)
OBoyle, p. 26, "Sweet Omagh Town" (1 fragment)
Roud #3383
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Sweet Omagh Town" (on IRRCinnamond03)
NOTES: Omagh is in County Tyrone. - BS
File: TST066
===
NAME: Omie Wise: see Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)
===
NAME: Ommie Wise: see Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)
===
NAME: On a Bright and Summer's Morning: see The Sally Buck (File: SKE70)
===
NAME: On a Cold Frosty Morning
DESCRIPTION: "On a cold frosty morning a nigger feels good; He shouldered up his axe and went off to the wood." He all but freezes in the cold. (Various other observations about his life.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Black(s)
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 283, "On a Cold Frosty Morning" (2 texts, 1 tune)
BrownIII 474, "Cold Frosty Morning" (1 fragment)
Roud #3439
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Jesse" (lyrics)
File: R283
===
NAME: On a Cold Winter's Eve
DESCRIPTION: "On a cold winter's eve when the snow was fast falling, In a small humble cottage a poor mother lay, Although wracked with pain, she lay there well-contented, WIth Christ as her friend...." She bids farewell and says her family will meet again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cambiaire, p. 33, "On a Cold WInter's Eve" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 203, "On a Cold Winter's Eve" (1 text, probably from the same source as Cambiaire's)
Roud #12637
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
One Cold Winter's Eve
File: Camb033
===
NAME: On a Dark and Doleful Night
DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a dark and doleful night, When power of hell and earth arose... And friends betrayed him to his foes." "Before the mournful scheme began, He took the bread...." "This is my body broke[n] for sin." "[He] took the cup...."
AUTHOR: Isaac Watts?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Brown); fragment in the Missouri Harmony (1840)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus Bible food drink
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 626, "On a Dark and Doleful Night" (1 text)
Roud #11927
NOTES: The story of the Last Supper is told in all four gospels, but the institution of the Eucharist is described only in Matthew, Mark, and Luke (with a partial parallel in 1Corinthians 11:23ff.)  with significant verbal variations, often with variations from what we read here.
In Matthew 26:26f., Jesus's words over the bread were simply, "Take, eat, this is my body." Of the cup, the King James version says, "Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament" (i.e. "covenant," as the song renders is, but the best manuscripts omit "new") "which is shed for many, for the remission of sins."
Mark 14:22f. is closely parallel to Mark: "This is my body... This is my blood of the covenant [again, the KJV reads"new testament," based on late manuscripts] which is shed for many."
In Luke 22:19f, we find the phrasing "This is my body which is given for you." (Note that, even here, it's not given "for sin.") The cup is "the new covenant in my blood."
In the Missouri Harmony, the first verse of this appears with the tune "Bourbon. - RBW
File: Br3626
===
NAME: On a Monday: see Almost Done (File: LxU094)
===
NAME: On Board of a Man-of-War (Young Susan)
DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears "a maid complain for the losing of her dear," gone to sea aboard a man-of-war. She dresses as a sailor to follow him. After seven years they come home and live happily ever after
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation love cross-dressing disguise
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H556, p. 326, "On Board of a Man-of-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1533
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The British Man-of-War" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES: This is closely related to the songs of the "British Man-of-War" family, and almost certainly derives from the same sources. But the two songs don't share many actual words, and this is one of several versions in which the girl dresses herself as a sailor to follow her love. I decided this was reason enough to split them. - RBW
File: HHH556
===
NAME: On Board of a Ninety-eight
DESCRIPTION: The singer was a rake at sixteen when his parents, afraid he would waste all their money, ship him on a man-of-war. When battle begins, he wishes he could run away but at Trafalgar he fights well. Now "I'm too old to sail, for I'm almost ninety-eight"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2843))
KEYWORDS: age battle navy war father mother rake sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar ends Napoleon's hopes of invading Britain
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 1012-1013, "On Board of the Ninety-eight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1461
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2843), "On Board of a Ninety-Eight," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 2728[a few words illegible], Firth c.12(398), "On Board of a Ninety-Eight"
NOTES: "Ninety-eight" refers to the number of guns carried by the ship.  For example, at Trafalgar, Nelson's flagship Victory, with 100 guns, led but with two ninety-eight gun ships, _Temeraire_ and _Neptune_, in close support. Source: _Horatio Nelson_ by Tom Pocock, quoted on The Nelson Society site. - BS
(We should note, incidentally, that the number of guns on a ship was somewhat nominal, with light guns, e.g., being under-counted; an official "98" might have in excess of 110 actual weapons. In addition, ships came in nominal rates -- 64 guns, 74 guns, 98 guns, etc. The 100 guns of _Victory_ made it a heavy man-of-war, but there were more heavily-armed ships. Though usually not very seaworthy ones....) - RBW
File: Pea1012
===
NAME: On Board of the Victory
DESCRIPTION: "I am a young girl whose fortune is great." Her father has her lover, "below my degree," impressed. After a fight with the press-gang he is shipped aboard the Victory. She dreams of being with him on board and prays for his return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.13(280))
KEYWORDS: courting war ship father mother sailor pressgang grief loneliness love navy separation sea lover nobility
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar, the greatest naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars. H.M.S. _Victory_ is Nelson's flagship in that battle.
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(MW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Peacock, pp. 484-485, "On Board of The Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 41, "Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 42, "On Board of the Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 95-96, "On Board the Victory" (1 text)
Roud #2278
RECORDINGS:
Grace Clergy, "On Board of the Victory" (on MRHCreighton)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(280), "On Board the Victory," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(898), Firth c.12(220), Harding B 11(1911), Harding B 11(2901), Harding B 26(474), "On Board the Victory[!!]"; Harding B 25(1420), Harding B 11(2846), Firth c.12(222), "On Board of the Victory"; Harding B 20(178), "The Victory"
NOTES: Ironically, Mr. Clergy's family is of French descent. - PJS
HMS _Victory_ was launched in 1765, commissioned in 1778, and served in the wars with France associated with the American Revolutionar. She served in the Mediterranean during the early phases of the French revolution. She was withdrawn from sea service in 1812, and dry-docked in 1922. It will be evident that many young men served on her at battles other than Trafalgar -- but, as most Napoleonic songs mention Waterloo, so most naval songs of the era seem to assume a setting at Trafalgar. - RBW
[In] broadside Harding B 20(178), [the girl's]  sweetheart is killed with Nelson at Trafalgar. - BS
File: Peac484
===
NAME: On Board the Bugaboo
DESCRIPTION: Singer joins the Bugaboo at the James's Street canal. They "plow the raging surf ... to get a full load of turf." In a storm the captain, smoking in bed, starts a fire. The helmsman, asleep, lets the fire burn. The ship sinks with 1000 sods and 60000 men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: canal commerce ship fire storm wreck humorous talltale sailor
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 17A, "On Board the Bugaboo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9775
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
File: OLcM017A
===
NAME: On Board the Gallee: see The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)
===
NAME: On Board the Kangaroo: see The Good Ship Kangaroo (File: MA060)
===
NAME: On Board the Victory: see On Board of The Victory (File: Peac484)
===
NAME: On Buena Vista's Battlefield
DESCRIPTION: "On Buena Vista's battlefield A dying soldier lay, His thoughts was on his mountain home Some thousand miles away." The wounded soldier bids farewell to (family and) sweetheart and prepares for the end
AUTHOR: Words: Colonel Henry Petriken/Music: Albert G. Emerick
EARLIEST_DATE: 1848 (Emrick's Songs for the People)
KEYWORDS: death war battle
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Feb 22-23, 1847 - Battle of Buena Vista. 5000 troops under Zachary Taylor defeat 15,000 Mexicans under Santa Anna
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Belden, pp. 340-341, "Buena Vista" (1 text, fragmentary)
Randolph 225, "The Battle of Vicksburg" (the second, fragmentary, text is "On Buena Vista's Battlefield")
Roud #2829
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Vicksburg" (tune & meter, theme)
File: R225A
===
NAME: On Christmas Day It Happened So
DESCRIPTION: A farmer goes out to plow on Christmas day. Jesus meets him there and asks him what he is doing. The farmer nervously says that he needs to work. Obviously this is not acceptable; the farmer is swallowed up by the ground and his family dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911 (Gillington, Songs of the Open Road)
KEYWORDS: religious work Jesus curse
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
PBB 6, "In Dessexshire As It Befel" (1 text)
ST PBB006 (Partial)
Roud #1078
NOTES: Yet another example of fine Christian charity. This one, fortunately, is apocryphal, with almost no parallel in scripture. There is one instance of the earth swallowing up people (Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Numbers 16:28-32). The rest has no parallel at all, except a curious passage in the early but periphrastic Gospel manuscript Codex Bezae (D/05). After Luke 6:4 it adds, "That same day, seeing someone working on the Sabbath, [Jesus] said to him, 'Fellow, if you know what you are doing, you are blessed, but if you don't know, you are cursed and a transgressor of the law.'"
I wonder if this didn't somehow arise out of the Puritan movement. During the commonwealth era in England, it was declared that Christmas was a work day, and those NOT working on that day would be punished. This produced a great deal of resentment -- but the policy long continued; Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" partly in response to this.
Not all such stories are associated with Jesus himself. In Ireland, there is a field associated with the Irish St. Maeve. A ploughman once vowed he would plow the field despite its association with the saint. The ground is said to have swallowed horse, plough, and man, burying them in a depression still visible today. - RBW
File: PBB006
===
NAME: On Ilkla Moor Bah T'at
DESCRIPTION: On the dangers of visiting the moor without a hat: One singer tells the other he has been (courting) on the moor without a hat. He is told he'll die of cold. They will bury him, and worms will eat him; ducks will eat them, people eat ducks, and so it goes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: clothes courting disease death
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North),Wales)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 303, "On Ilkla Moor Bah T'at" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 26, "Ilkley Moor Baht 'At" (1 text)
DT, ILKLAMOR
Roud #2143
NOTES: Kennedy reports, "The author of this local dialect song is supposed to have been a Thomas Clark who wrote it in 1805 to the hymn tune Cranbrook. Who he was or how the song came to be are not known. Yorkshire men all the world over regard the song with ritualistic respect." - RBW
File: K303
===
NAME: On Jordan's Stormy Banks: see Bound for the Promised Land (File: LxU099)
===
NAME: On Lac San Pierre: see The Wreck of the Julie Plante (File: FJ174)
===
NAME: On Longside Road (Auld Lang Syne)
DESCRIPTION: "On Longside Road I've often trod... 'Twas there I spied another maid In the arms of my dear." The singer hisses her anger: "You think I that I could love you still?" She is resolved "to shun your company." But she would take old lovers into her home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 172, "On Longside Road; or The False Lover" (1 text)
Roud #5583
NOTES: In the course of the song, the girl says she would not forgive her false love were he "fair as Absalom." According to 2 Samuel 14:25, David's son Absalom was the most beautiful man in Israel. - RBW
File: Ord172
===
NAME: On Meesh-e-gan
DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Singer reports work in the Michigan lumber camps, but it's exhausting, the pay is irregular, there are diseases and snakes. Chorus: "Come all you great beeg Canada man/Who want fin' work on Meesh-e-gan...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Singer tells fellow Frenchmen there's work in the Michigan lumber camps, but it includes the exhausting job of "sacking", the pay is irregular, there are diseases and snakes. Chorus: "Come all you great beeg Canada man/Who want fin' work on Meesh-e-gan/Dere's beeg log drive all troo our lan';/You sure fin' work on Meesh-e-gan."
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Beck 72, "On Meesh-e-gan" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 334-335, "On Meesh-e-gan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8856
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Come to Michigan" (theme)
File: Be072
===
NAME: On Monday Morning: see The Holly Twig [Laws Q6]; also The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: LQ06)
===
NAME: On My Journey: see Don't You Weep After Me (File: R262)
===
NAME: On My Journey (II) [Mount Zion]
DESCRIPTION: Song of religious ecstasy. "On my journey now, Mount Zion/Well I wouldn't take nothing, Mount Zion/For my journey now." Singer is walking along, the "elements opened and the love come down"; he goes to the valley; "my soul got happy/And I stayed all day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Paul Robeson)
KEYWORDS: religious floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Paul Robeson, "On Ma Journey" (Victor 20013, 1926; Victor 25547, 1937)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesus Says 'You Goes and I Goes Wid You'" or "Jesus Says Go" (floating verse)
cf. "Hold the Wind" (floating verse)
NOTES: Just enough of a narrative that I didn't use "nonballad." - PJS
File: RcOMJMZ
===
NAME: On My Journey Home (I)
DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I feel like, I feel like I'm on my journey home." Verses are floating: "When I can read my titles clear...." "Should earth against my soul engage...." "Let cares like a wild deluge come...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-FSNA 126, "On My Journey Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6679
NOTES: This appears to be a different song from "I'm On My Journey Home," which appears in various editions of The Sacred Harp. - PJS
File: LoF126
===
NAME: On Patrick's Day in the Morning
DESCRIPTION: The singer, 20, meets a spinster, 70. He says he's wealthy. She proposes, having money of her own. On the way to a dentist to fix her only tooth they stop for a drink, jump into the river, "and I lost her forever, On Patrick's day in the morning"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1970 (Morton-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage drink humorous oldmaid youth age river
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Morton-Ulster 5, "On Patrick's Day in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2895
NOTES: May-December romances in which the man is the older (and usually incapable of performance) are common in folklore; (See, e.g., the various cross-references under "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man"). Old maid songs are also common. There aren't many where the old woman finds a young man, though.
Of course, he may have just been kidding her along. Or -- perhaps more likely -- going for her money. This phenomenon is relatively well-attested; an English example comes from the reign of Edward IV. According to Paul Murray Kendall, _Richard the Third_ (Norton, 1956), p. 61, "Sir John Woodville [the brother of Edward's wife Elizabeth] was given a marriage that even in that opportunistic age created a scandal: still in his teens, he wedded the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, a lady venerable enough to be his grandmother, but very rich."
The details of this marriage are a little vague; Elizabeth Jenkins, _The Princes in the Tower_ (Coward, McCann & Geoghan, 1978), p. 31, says that Woodville was twenty and the Dowager Duchess between seventy and eighty. But there is no doubt that she was too old to bear children, and that he was in it for the money. According to Jenkins, p. 53, Woodville eventually was executed for his behavior (by the Earl of Warwick, the nephew of the Dowager Duchess).
Thus, ironically, the Dowager Duchess outlived her strapping young husband. By more than half a decade, in fact; lin the late 1470s, she was negotiating to marry her granddaughter Anne Mowbray (the heir to the Norfolk dukedom) to Richard of York, the younger son of Edward IV (Jenkins, p. 113). Which implies that the Dowager Duchess was still of sound mind. (Which makes me wonder if she might not have been a little younger than everyone thinks.)  - RBW
File: MorU005
===
NAME: On Saturday Night Shall Be My Care: see Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)
===
NAME: On Some Foggy Mountain Top: see Foggy Mountain Top (File: CSW042)
===
NAME: On Springfield Mountain: see Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)
===
NAME: On That Other Bright Shore: see The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)
===
NAME: On the Banks of Allan Water: see The Banks of Allan Water (File: DTalanwa)
===
NAME: On the Banks of Sweet Dundee: see The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary) [Laws M25] (File: LM25)
===
NAME: On the Banks of the Murray
DESCRIPTION: "In a neat little cot on the banks of the Murray Lived a wife of a family with children so poor." One lad is sent to the Dardanelles and fatally wounded. He makes his will and dies; his little daughter and the entire family grieve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: Australia war death lastwill
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 258-259, "On the Banks of the Murray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 267-268, "The Banks of the Murray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5476
File: MA258
===
NAME: On the Banks of the Ohio: see Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5] (File: LF05)
===
NAME: On the Banks of the Old Omaha
DESCRIPTION: "I will sing you a song of sweet Julia... I never shall forget the first time we met On the banks of the old Omaha...." One day she heard a knocking at the door, and died that night. The singer's heart is still by her grave in that far-off valley
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: death separation love burial
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 260-261, "On the Banks of the Old Omaha" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA261
===
NAME: On the Banks of the Old Pedee: see Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5]
 (File: LF05)
===
NAME: On the Banks of the Old Tennessee
DESCRIPTION: If the singer were a bird, he would fly to his love; if a fish, he would take her hook. But now she is dead and buried, and he is no longer willing to stay "on the banks of the old Tennessee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting animal death burial separation family
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 700, "On the Banks of the Old Tennessee" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 515-516, "On the Banks of the Old Tennessee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 700A)
MWheeler, p. 117, "On the Bank uv the Old Tennessee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7374
RECORDINGS:
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "On the Banks of Old Tennessee" (Victor V-40235/Bluebird 7072/Zonophone 4329, 1929; on GraysonWhitter01)
NOTES: Randolph's four texts are rather confused, and not one tells the full story. The only common element is the line "on the banks of the old Tennessee." The chorus varies (one even borrows lines from "My Sweet Sunny South"!), as do the presence of the floating-verse-like stanzas about being beast or bird. Cohen thinks the "A" and "D' texts are one song, and "B" and "C" another, probably related to "Free Little Bird."
The Grayson & Whitter recording doesn't help much; the verses are stereotyped: "I have no (brother/sister/true lover/mother) in this world (x2), (He's) sleeping tonight where the moon shines so bright, On the banks of old Tennesee (x3), He's sleeping tonight... On the banks..."
Wheeler's version is just a fragment, and adds nothing to the discussion.
In other words, it's possible that this is more than one song. But I think it all goes back to one piece, with a lot of importation and forgetfulness along the way. - RBW
File: R700
===
NAME: On the Banks of the Pamanaw [Laws H11]
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees an Indian girl sitting alone but unafraid. She explains that her family is dead and her lover has abandoned her. He offers to take her "to a better land, to a pale-face countree." She will not come; she has vowed to stay there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) promise abandonment home family grief seduction lie lover
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws H11, "On the Banks of the Pamanaw"
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 451-452, "The Banks of the Pamanaw" (1 text)
Beck 46, "On the Banks of the Pamanaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 424-426, "The Banks of Penmanah" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-Labrador 95, "Banks of Panama" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 792, PAMANAW
Roud #2196
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Banks of Pondamah
NOTES: Just to prevent mistakes: Yes, that is "Pamanaw," not "Panama." - RBW
Labrador-Leach is indeed "Panama," not my typo.
The "Baltic Line" may refer to Admiral Charles Napier's Baltic excursion against the Russians in the Crimean War [cf. broadside Bodleian, Harding B 13(181), "Bold Napier," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; tune: "Low-Back'd Car"] - BS
File: LH11
===
NAME: On the Banks of the Sacramento: see Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento) (File: E125)
===
NAME: On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away
DESCRIPTION: "'Round my Indiana homestead wave the cornfields... But one thing there is missing from the picture, Without her face it seems so incomplete." The singer misses his mother and his sweetheart Mary, left in the graveyards of his home on the Wabash
AUTHOR: Paul Dresser (1857-1906)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1899 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death mother love separation home rambling
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Dean, p. 117, "Banks of the Wabash" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 45, "On the Banks of the Wabash" (1 text)
Geller-Famous, pp. 166-169, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9595
NOTES: This piece is now Indiana's state song. Dresser (originally Dreisser; he was Theodore Dreisser's brother), who ran away to join a medicine show rather than enter the priesthood, was also the author of "The Letter That Never Came" and "The Pardon Came Too Late."
According to Sigmund Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, pp. 276-277, Dresser was "widely remembered as one of the most lovable characters in the history of Tin Pan Alley. A huge mountain of a man, with a heart as big as his body, his generosity was notorious. Whatever he had he shared with others, and most of his debtors never paid him back.... Like most of the songwriters of his day, Paul Dresser had a throroughly naive outlook on life.... He believes the sentimentalities he put into his songs."
Spaeth considers 1895 to be the peak of his career; in that year he produced "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me," described as "enormously popular" though it has had little impact on tradition.
It was Theodore Dreisser who suggested to his brother that he write a river song about Indiana, and this was the result.
Spaeth, p. 281, says that "by 1903 the Dresser gift had definitely declined," and he started to try to work the business end of the music trade. But Dresser, no businessman, managed to die in poverty in 1906 despite many hits. Spaeth, p. 282, cleaims that he died "at the home of his sister in Brooklyn, where he had been living for some time in obscurity. Regardless of any physician's diagnosis, hismalady was a broken heart." - RBW
File: FSWB045
===
NAME: On the Bluff (Alligator Song)
DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the bluff In the state of Indiana, Dat's where I useter lib." The singer is a good fisherman, but partial to drink; he fights with an alligator, only to find it is a log. He hides from a white man by playing a mile-post. At last he buries master
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: river fishing drink slave humorous burial
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 72, "'Twas on de Bluff" (1 text)
ST ScaNF072 (Partial)
Roud #7493
NOTES: There is a song in the Edith Fowke collection which appears to be a version of this, so it appears to have been known in Canada as well as wherever it was that Scarborough located it. But I can't absolutely prove it at this time.
It might be objected that Indiana is not a slave state, and this is true -- but it was also quite anti-Negro, and locals might have looked the other way at a slaveholder. Or, of course, the actual location of the song might have been Kentucky, across the river from Indiana. Though it's hard to imagine alligators on the Ohio River.
In any case, this looks more like a minstrel piece than a real folk song. - RBW
File: ScaNF072
===
NAME: On the Charlie So Long: see Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)
===
NAME: On the Dummy Line: see The Dummy Line (II) (File: LSRai485)
===
NAME: On the Eighth Day of November: see Saint Clair's Defeat (File: E116)
===
NAME: On the First Day of Christmas: see The Twelve Days of Christmas (File: FO213)
===
NAME: On the Green Carpet: see Green Carpet; also Oats and Beans (File: Lins46)
===
NAME: On the Lake of the Poncho Plains: see The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)
===
NAME: On the Lakes of Ponchartrain: see The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)
===
NAME: On the Plains of Manassas: see The Red, White, and Red (File: Wa022)
===
NAME: On the Plains of Mexico: see Santy Anno (File: Doe078)
===
NAME: On the Road Again
DESCRIPTION: Singer comes home, finds the window propped, the door locked, and another man in his bed. He fires a shotgun; the man runs off. Another man arrives. Chorus: "(S)he's on the road again (just as sure as you're born)/Nat'chl born easeman on the road again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Memphis Jug Band)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer says his woman's evil. He comes home, finds the window propped, the door locked, and another man in his folding bed. He fires a shotgun through the glass, and the man takes off running. Another man comes to call, the wife tells him her husband's on the way to the pen. Chorus: "(S)he's on the road again (just as sure as you're born)/Nat'chl born easeman on the road again"
KEYWORDS: jealousy adultery infidelity sex violence prison wife
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Memphis Jug Band "On the Road Again" (Victor V-38015, 1929; rec. 1928; on TimesAint01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16]," especially the "Kassie Jones" text (floating verses)
cf. "Skinner's Song" (form)
File: RcOtRAg
===
NAME: On the Road to Bethlehem
DESCRIPTION: A "merry company" comes to Bethlehem to obey the decree of "the governor." Mary and Joseph seek the inn, but there is no room. They go to a stable, where the baby Jesus is born. Eastern kings and shepherds come to visit
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Hugh Benson / Music: Sir R. R. Terry
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible childbirth
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H59, p. 76, "On the Road to Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9052
NOTES: With the sole exception of the reference to "Eastern kings," every item mentioned in this song comes from the Gospel of Luke (chapter 2).
The form of this song, and the first couple of verses, don't seem quite suitable for the content; I wonder if the author didn't fix up a non-religious poem. - RBW
File: HHH059
===
NAME: On the Road to Gundagai: see Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai) (File: DTgundag)
===
NAME: On the Road to Mandalay: see Mandalay (File: Fuld415)
===
NAME: On the Schooner John Joe
DESCRIPTION: "Beware of George Farrin his schooner John Joe." Breakfast and dinner is fish soup. Supper is "thin hard bread." The singer had to fight George to get a decent meal from the cook. But, when he gets home it's back to "hard bread."
AUTHOR: Tom Evans (ca 1890 per Peacock)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fight fishing sea ship food ordeal hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 140-141, "On the Schooner John Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9966
File: Pea140
===
NAME: On the Shores of Havana
DESCRIPTION: "Many hearts were filled with sorrow and with sadness, Many hearts were torn with anguish and pain... for the heroes of our battleship, the 'Maine.'" A brief account of the destruction of the Maine, with comments about the lives of the sailors killed
AUTHOR: Andrew B. Sterling
EARLIEST_DATE: 1898 (broadsides & songbooks)
KEYWORDS: sea disaster ship
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
April 25, 1898 - Congress declares war on Spain
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
FSCatskills 21, "On the Shores of Havana" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 235, "The Battleship Maine (I)" (1 text)
ST FSC021 (Partial)
Roud #4615
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "On the Banks of the Wabash Far Away" (tune & meter)
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (subject) and references there
NOTES: When the Cubans rose in revolt against inept Spanish rule, the U.S. government -- spurred on by William Randolph Hearst's newspapers -- took a keen interest. Eventually the U.S.S. _Maine_, a rather rickety coastal defense vessel, was sent to apply pressure to the Spanish. (The _Maine_, it should be noted, was not a battleship; originally designed as an armored cruiser, it lacked the coal capacity for that role and wound up as an unsatisfactory battleship/cruiser hybrid.)
When the _Maine_ blew up with a large loss of life, Hearst and his minions pounced quickly. Never mind that the Spanish had nothing to gain from destroying the ship. Never mind that the most likely cause of the disaster was an internal explosion. Spain had to be punished!
The Spanish did all they could to avoid war; after brief delays to save face, they gave in to every American demand. The Americans would have none of it. On April 11, President McKinley asked for a declaration of war; on April 25, he received it. Americans set out to "free" Cuba and the Philippines. (The Philippines, in particular, were so thoroughly "freed" that they did not achieve independence until 1947.) "Remember the Maine" went the battle cry.
The U.S. army was pitifully small and ill-organized; the vast majority of its losses in the war were caused by disease and supply problems -- but so bad were the Spanish forces that by the end of the summer both the Philippines and Cuba were under U.S. control. In December the humiliated Spanish were forced to accept the equally humiliating Treaty of Paris, and the war ended. The U.S. was now an imperialist power -- and all because of songs like this one and Hearst's headlines. - RBW
File: FSC021
===
NAME: On the Steps of the Dole Office Door
DESCRIPTION: "The songs that we sang were about old Jack Lang On the steps of the Dole Office door. He closed up the banks, it was one of his pranks, And he sent us to the Dole Office door. We molested the police till they gave us relief..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: unemployment hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 225, "On the Steps of the Dole Office Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 138-139, "Clem Murphy's Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: On the face of it, it is hard to equate the two Meredith versions of this song; all they have in common is a Depression setting. But Meredith, who has direct experience of the songs, thinks them one. Both fragments describe how people survived the depression and attempted to get by on the dole. - RBW
File: MA225
===
NAME: On the Trail to Mexico: see Boggy Creek or The Hills of Mexico [Laws B10b] (File: LB10B)
===
NAME: On the Twenty-First of May: see The Bold Pirate [Laws K30] (File: LK30)
===
NAME: On the Wallaby Track: see The Springtime It Brings on the Shearing (On the Wallaby Track) (File: MA186)
===
NAME: On This Hill: see The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)
===
NAME: On to Richmond (II): see We Have the Navy (File: R212)
===
NAME: On to the Morgue
DESCRIPTION: "On to the morgue, that's the only place for me (x2). Take it from the head one, he sure is a dead one. On to the morgue...." "Where will we all be one hundred years from now? (x2) Pushing up the daisies (x2), That's where we'll all be...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: death parody
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, p. 199, "On to the Morgue" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #13614
NOTES: Sandburg calls this a "travesty on the Chopin funeral march." - RBW
File: San199
===
NAME: On Tom Big Bee River: see The Gum Tree Canoe (File: R787)
===
NAME: On Top of Old Smokey
DESCRIPTION: "On top of old Smokey, All covered with snow, I lost my true lover, From courting too slow." The singer laments (her) lover's infidelity, saying that a "false-hearted lover is worse than a thief." (She) claims one cannot trust one in a thousand
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection lyric warning floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (22 citations)
Belden, pp. 473-476, "The Unconstant Lover" (3 texts, 1 tune, none of which mention Old Smokey; the second mixed with "The Cuckoo" and the third short enough that it might be any of the "never place your affection on a green willow tree" songs)
BrownIII 253, "Old Smoky" (2 texts plus 3 excerpts and mention of 3 more); also 248, "The Inconstant Lover" (5 texts plus a fragment, admitted by the editors to be distinct songs but with many floating items; "A,"  "B," and "C" are more "On Top of Old Smokey" than anything else, though without that phrase; "D" is primarily "The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted)," "E" is a mix of "Old Smokey" and "The Cuckoo," and the "F" fragment may also be "Old Smokey")
Hudson 50, p. 166, "Jimmy" (1 text, more this than anything else but starting with "A-walking, a-talking, a-walking foes I, To meet pretty Jimmy, he'll be here by and by" and continuing with many floating verses, e.g. "The cuckoo is a pretty bird," "If I am forsaken, I am not foresworn, And he is mistaken who thinks I will mourn")
Randolph 49, "The Cuckoo" (4 texts, of which "A" is about half "Inconstant Lover/Old Smokey" verses and "B" never mentions the cuckoo and appears to be mostly floating verses; 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 117-118, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 49A)
Cambiaire, p. 38, "Sweet Willie" (1 text, six verses derived from at least two and probably three or four songs; the largest portion is "On Top of Old Smokey" but there is a bit of "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" and something from one of amorphous the "courting is a pleasure" group)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 2-3, "Old Smoky" (1 text, starting with a full "On Top of Old Smokey" text and then including a long set of verses from "The Roving Gambler" or perhaps "The Wagoner's Lad"); pp. 18-19, "Pretty Polly, Pretty Polly, I'm Going Away" (with five verses of "Old Smokey" preceded by two "Roving Gambler"-type floaters); p. 33, "Advice to Girls" (a pure "Old Smokey" version)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 272-282, "The Waggoner's Lad" (9 texts, 6 tunes on pp. 428-431, but the entry combines many songs; A (no title), B ("My Fortune's Been Bad"), and E ("My Horses Ain't Hungry") are extended versions of "The Wagoner's Lad"; C ("The Last Farewell") is a short text probably of "The Wagoner's Lad"; D ("Old Smokie") combined one "Smokey" verse with three "Wagoner's Lad" verses; "F" ("Old Smoky") is a very long "Old Smokey" text which seems to have gained parts of other songs; G ("A False Lying True Love") is "Old Smokey" minus the first verse; H ("I'll Build My Cabin on a Mountain So High" is "Old Smokey" with a first verse from a drunkard song and a final floating verse supplying the title; I (no title) is a fragment probably of "Old Smokey")
SharpAp 78, "I'm Going to Georgia" (2 texts, 2 tunes; as with many pieces listed above, I've filed the SharpAp "I'm Going to Georgia" songs here for want of a better place for them, using the "never place your affections" line as the delineator. - PJS)
Brewster 89, "The Unconstant Lover" (1 text, with no mention of Old Smokey and many floating verses)
Leach, pp.738-740, "The Wagoner's Lad" (2 texts, with the "B" text being a composite of "Wagoner's Lad" and "Old Smokey" verses)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 1, "An Inconstant Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, pp. 119-120, "Old Smoky" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 18, "Old Smoky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 112, "Old Smokey" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 60, "On Top Of Old Smoky" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Silber-FSWB, p. 165, "On Top Of Old Smoky" (1 text)
JHCox 143, "A Forsaken Lover" (1 text, which appears to be a compound: Three verses of a forseken lover song, followed by an Old Smokey text less the first verse)
JHCoxIIB, #13, pp. 151-152, "Old Smoky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 121, "The cuckoo is a merry bird" (text 2 is "The Forsaken Lover" which omits the "Old Smokey" lines; dated c.1780 (The Merry Gentleman's Companion, according to Opie-Oxford2))
Fuld-WFM, p. 416, "On Top of Old Smokey"
DT, OLDSMOKY
Roud #414
RECORDINGS:
Bob Atcher, "Old Smokey" (Columbia 20484, 1948; rec. 1947)
Cramer Brothers, [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart and -- probably -- Carson Robison] "On Top of Old Smokey" (Broadway 8071, c. 1930)
Gerald Duncan et al, "On Top of Old Smokey" (on MusOzarks01)
I. G. Greer, "Old Smoky" (AFS; on LC14)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Old Smoky" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
Buell Kazee, "On Top of Old Smoky" [fragment] (on Kazee01)
Bradley Kincaid, "On Top of Old Smokey" (Supertone 9566, 1929)
George Reneau, "On Top of Old Smokey" (Vocalion 15366, 1926)
Pete Seeger, "On Top of Old Smoky" (on PeteSeeger17) (on PeteSeeger23)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad"
cf. "The Little Mohee" [Laws H8] (tune)
cf. "Lee's Hoochie" (tune)
cf. "I'm Sad and I'm Lonely" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Blackbird and Thrush" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Shot My Poor Teacher (With a Big Rubber Band)" (tune)
cf. "Sailing Out on the Ocean" (floating lyrics)
cf. "A Warning to Girls" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Once I Loved a Bonny Boy" (floating lyrics)
SAME_TUNE:
Up in Old Loray (Greenway-AFP, pp. 135-136)
I Shot My Poor Teacher (With a Big Rubber Band) (File: PHCFS093)
The Little Mohee (File: LH08)
Lee's Hoochie (File: EM407)
On Top of Old Smoky (Davy Crockett) (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 111)
On Top of Old Smokey (All Covered with Blood) (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 126)
On Top of My Headache (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 111)
On Top of Old Baldy (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 144)
On Top of Spaghetti (by Tom Glazer) (DT, OLDSMOK2 -- but if this is the Tom Glazer version, I've actually heard a folk-processed form -- RBW)
NOTES: The relationship between this song and "The Wagoner's Lad" is problematic. The two are occasionally listed as one song (e.g. by Leach, Scarborough, and implicitly by Shellans; also, at least in part, by Roud); indeed, this was done in early versions of this Index. This was done under the influence of the Lomaxes, who classify the songs together.
Further study, however, seems to show that almost all versions which have common material are derived from the Lomaxes, and the minor exceptions are usually fragments of floating verses. The plots of the two songs are different, their tunes are distinct, and there does not seem to have been any overlap in ordinary versions. It would appear that the identification of the two is purely the result of the sort of editorial work the Lomaxes so often committed.
Due to this inconsistency, it is suggested that the reader check all versions of both songs, as well as both sets of cross-references, to find all related materials.
It also appears that certain key lines, beginning "A meeting's a pleasure, a parting's a grief, And an (unconstant young man) is worse than a thief," predate this song, as they appear in several British texts which otherwise bear little resemblance to "Old Smokey." For the moment, these British Isles variations are filed under "The Blackbird and Thrush," at least until I find a more authoritative source.
Another interesting question: Does this song refer to the Great Smoky Mountains, which run along the North Carolina/Tennessee border? This seems reasonable based on the geographical distribution. The flip side is, the highest peak in the Great Smoky Mountains is Clingmans Dome, 6643 feet/2025 meters, the highest point in Tennessee. My information is that it is not snow-covered in summer; it is low enough and far enough south that the snow melts every year. Hardly anyone lives near Clingman's Dome, but if it's the highest point in the Smokys, what are the odds of year-round snow on some other peak in the range? Of course, the song could have taken place in winter, when there is snow in the Smokys, but it seems an odd way of identifying the place. - RBW
File: BSoF740
===
NAME: On Top of Old Smokey (II): see The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)
===
NAME: On Yonder Hill There Sits A Hare
DESCRIPTION: A worried hare sits "o'er her lodgings." A huntsman sets his dogs on the hare. She escapes from the best dog. "Merrily as she trips the plain, And may she live to run again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (recording, Geordie Hanna)
KEYWORDS: escape hunting animal dog
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #5173
RECORDINGS:
Geordie Hanna, "On Yonder Hill There Sits A Hare" (on Voice18)
File: RcOYHTSH
===
NAME: Once I Had a Daughter
DESCRIPTION: Father has a daughter who leaves for Germany and returns and says "I have my sweetheart here." Father replies "I have no time to chat And I have no time to talk And I do not like the vagabond Who by your side does walk."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: love war soldier cross-dressing separation Germany
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 106, "Once I Had a Daughter" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2778
NOTES: The current description is based on the Creighton-SNewBrunswick fragment. - BS
File: CrSNB106
===
NAME: Once I Had a Sweetheart (I)
DESCRIPTION: "Once I had a sweetheart, A sweetheart brave and true, His hair was dark and curly, His cunning eyes were blue." But her sweetheart wanted to roam; he gave her a ring and departed (to become a soldier). He is killed far from home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation mourning soldier battle death war
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
BrownII 140, "Once I Had a Sweetheart" (1 text)
[Randolph 796, "Once I Had a Sweetheart" -- deleted in the second printing]
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 527-528, "Once I Had a Sweetheart" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 796A)
Roud #4477
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Rodgers, "The Soldier's Sweetheart" (Victor V-20864, 1927 -- a World War I adaption)
NOTES: A generic plot, and floating lyrics too! But it seems to be a separate song -- though it's hard to believe it originated in the U. S., as the notes in Brown imply.  - RBW
File: BrII140
===
NAME: Once I Had a Sweetheart (II): see As Sylvie Was Walking (File: VWL014)
===
NAME: Once I Had Plenty of Thyme: see In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)
===
NAME: Once I Loved a Bonny Boy
DESCRIPTION: The singer and her lover vowed to marry but "all vows and protestations between us he broke." He's on the ocean and, though some say he'll not prosper, she wishes him "safe sailing and a fair wind to blow." Meeting is pleasure, parting grief, and so on.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond03)
KEYWORDS: courting love parting warning floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #6998
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Once I Loved a Bonny Boy" (on IRRCinnamond03)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smoky" (floating verses)
File: RcOILaBB
===
NAME: Once I Was Happy: see The Flying Trapeze (File: RJ19069)
===
NAME: Once More a-Lumb'ring Go: see Once More A-Lumbering Go (File: Wa031)
===
NAME: Once More A-Lumbering Go
DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on "all you sons of freedom" to "range the wild woods over and once more a-lumbering go." He briefly describes the work of cutting the trees, the sleighing and hunting, and the joyful return to their families
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (R. P. Gray, "Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks")
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(West)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Warner 31, "Once More A-Lumbering Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 48, "Once More a-Lumb'ring Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 4, "Once More a-Lumbering Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-Lumbering #4, "A-Lumbering We Go" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixed text starting with two stanzas of "Once More A-Lumbering Go" and continuing with a version of "Bung Yer Eye" minus the chorus)
DT, LUMBERN* LUMBRIN2*
Roud #591
RECORDINGS:
Carl Lathrop, "Once More A-Lumbering Go" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
Lawrence Older,  "Once More A-Lumbering Go" (on LOlder01)
Pete Seeger, "Once More A-Lumbering Go" (on PeteSeeger29)
File: Wa031
===
NAME: Once There Lived a Captain
DESCRIPTION: A sea captain sails before he can marry. He returns and finds the girl has left her father's house for a nunnery. There he finds she has gone to an asylum. At the asylum he finds she died the previous night. At her side he kills himself with his sword.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1967 (recording, John Reilly)
KEYWORDS: courting return separation death suicide father sailor
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #3376
RECORDINGS:
Jean "Sauce" Driscoll, "The Sea Captain" (on IRTravellers01)
John Reilly, "Once There Lived a Captain" (on Voice17)
File: RcOTLACa
===
NAME: Once There Were Three Fishermen (The Three Jews)
DESCRIPTION: "Once there were three fishermen (x2), Fisher fisher men men men (x3) Once there were three fishermen." The three fishermen are named, and their voyages described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: fishing nonsense
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 176, "The Three Old Jews" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 185, "The Three Jews" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 85, "Three Jolly Fishermen" (1 text, tune referenced)
Silber-FSWB, p. 240, "Once There Were Three Fishermen" (1 text)
Roud #3708 and 12776
NOTES: This is rather confusing, because the change of one word significantly changes the song. In several texts (Gardner and Chickering, Greenleaf and Mansfield), the three heroes are Jews. But in Pankake, as well as the version printed by Silber, they are fishermen. The latter version is very much a children's song, I've only encountered only two versions of this, and they differ in most particulars: In the Silber version, the sailors are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they sail for Amsterdam (with resulting comments about naughty words); Ed McCurdy sings a version with different sailors, in which Halifax is the destination.
In this case, Roud splits the two versions. But the verse form, as well as the names of the characters, says they are the same. - RBW
File: FSWB240A
===
NAME: One and Twenty
DESCRIPTION: "My father was a farmer gay, With beef and corn in plenty, I hoed, I mowed, I held the plow, And I longed for one and twenty." Of age at last, the singer enlists. Army life makes him wish for home. He loses a leg, is captured, and goes home crippled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: farming youth soldier battle injury home disability
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Gardner/Chickering 96, "One and Twenty" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GC096 (Partial)
Roud #3367
File: GC096
===
NAME: One Bottle More
DESCRIPTION: "Assist me, ye lads... To sing the praise of old Ireland's isle." England taunts our simplicity but we would share our last bottle. At Candy's six Irishmen had four bottles each, a fight brought a fifth and a resolve to have 12 bottles more the next night
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1815 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(10))
KEYWORDS: virtue drink Ireland
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 23, "One Bottle More" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(10), "Irish Hospitality", J. Whittle and R. H. Laurie (London), 1815 
LOCSinging, sb40474a, "One Bottle More", Louis Bonsal (Baltimore), 19C 
SAME_TUNE:
Town and Country (broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(10))
File: OCon023
===
NAME: One Bottle of Pop
DESCRIPTION: "One bottle (of) pop, Two bottles (of) pop, Three bottles (of) pop...." "Don't throw your junk in my back yard... my back yard's full." "Fish and chips and vinegar...." Composite children's round
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988
KEYWORDS: nonballad food humorous
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 232-233, "One Bottle Pop" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, POPBOTTL
NOTES: Obviously quite recent (at least with the current words), but it seems to qualify as a children's folksong. - RBW
File: DTpopbot
===
NAME: One Bottle Pop: see One Bottle of Pop (File: DTpopbot)
===
NAME: One Cold Winter's Morning
DESCRIPTION: Singer laments having to leave his love, perhaps never to return. (Friends try to persuade him to stay.) "When I lie down at night all for to take my rest/Trouble and sorrow still rolls across my breast." "O she is the only girl all in this world so wide"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer laments that he must leave his love and travel far away, perhaps never to return. (Friends try to persuade him to stay.) "When I lie down at night all for to take my rest/Trouble and sorrow still rolls across my breast." "For the first time I saw her I gained her by my charm/The second time I saw her I rolled her in my arms/O she is the only girl all in this world so wide/She is the only girl can ever be my bride"
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness courting love marriage sex parting travel lover
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SharpAp 146, (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #3626
NOTES: Yes, the plot is well-worn and found in multiple other songs, but this one seems distinct; significantly, Sharp lists no relatives or antecedents, but he did find two versions, both in Kentucky. - PJS
File: ShAp2146
===
NAME: One Day More: see One More Day (File: FSWB086B)
===
NAME: One Day of Turkey and Six Days of Hash
DESCRIPTION: Philosophical; for every silver lining there's a dark cloud. "For one faithful friend there are dozens who sneer/For one happy laugh there is always a tear...For one gentle dog there are dozens that bite...For one day of turkey there's six days of hash."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: warning humorous nonballad food dog
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 92, "One Day of Turkey and Six Days of Hash" (1 text)
Roud #8848
NOTES: This cynical little masterpiece is worthy of Tom Lehrer. - PJS
File: Be092
===
NAME: One Dime Blues
DESCRIPTION: "I'm broke an' I ain't got a dime (x3) Ev'rybody gets in hard luck sometime." "You want your friend to be bad like Jesse James (x3) Git two six shooters, highway some passenger train." "One dime was all I had (x3) that was the meal before last."
AUTHOR: Blind Lemon Jefferson
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Blind Lemon Jefferson)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes poverty money
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 310, "One Dime Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ONEDIME*
RECORDINGS:
Blind Lemon Jefferson, "One Dime Blues" (Paramount 12578, 1927)
File: LoF310
===
NAME: One Fine Day
DESCRIPTION: Floating verse song: "One fine day I went to mill, I got stuck on Badger's Hill; I hawed my horses... But to save my soul I couldn't get a start." "There was a frog lived in the spring." "The black cat spit in the white cat's eye."  Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Garnder/Chickering)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Floating verse song: "One fine day I went to mill, I got stuck on Badger's Hill; I hawed my horses... But to save my soul I couldn't get a start." "There was a frog lived in the spring." "The black cat spit in the white cat's eye." "Now maybe you think there's another verse To this here song, but there ain't." Chorus: "Oh where you come from, knock a nigger down, A wagon full of bum shells, knock...."
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Gardner/Chickering 201, "One Fine Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3711
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kemo Kimo" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Gray Cat on the Tennessee Farm" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: No, the tune is *not* "Turkey in the Straw." - RBW
File: GC201
===
NAME: One Fine Summer's Morning: see The Banks of the Clyde (File: HHH812)
===
NAME: One Fish Ball: see One Fish-Ball (One Meat Ball, The Lone Fish-Ball) (File: SRW074)
===
NAME: One Fish-Ball (One Meat Ball, The Lone Fish-Ball)
DESCRIPTION: A single man (who perhaps has abandoned his wife?) wanders into a restaurant, but finds he has only money for one (meat/fish) ball. Waiters and company abuse him, and he is told, "You get no bread with one fish ball"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1862 (parodied; see notes)
KEYWORDS: food poverty
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 74-75, "The Lone Fish-Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 580-584, "The Lone Fish-Ball" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus assorted items on the same theme)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 22, "One Fish Ball" (1 text, tune referenced)
Silber-FSWB, p. 264, "One Fish Ball" (1 text)
NOTES: According to the Caxton Club (Chicago) edition of _Il Pescoballo_ (1899), the one-act opera buffa with Italian words by Francis James Child and English translation by James Russell Lowell was first performed in 1862 to raise money for the Civil War Sanitary Commission (precursor to the Red Cross).  The authors of the _jeu d'esprit,_ to quote Charles Eliot Norton's introduction, were originally given only as "Maestro Rossibello-Donimozarti."
"One Fish Ball," upon which the opera buffa was based, was written by a Harvard Latin professor, identified by Norton only as "Lane."  It was a "local ballad which had had great vogue, written not many years before."  Norton asserts Lane based the song on "an adventure of his own."
The Caxton Club edition prints a tune, crediting it as a "volkslied." - EC
Lewis Becker adds that Loesser's _Humor in American Song_ dates the song to about 1854 and claims it is "Founded on a Boston Fact."
Dick Greenhaus reports that the "One Meat Ball" version was popularized by Josh White in the 1940s. Popularized enough, in fact, that they taught it in my grade school! - RBW
File: SRW074
===
NAME: One for the Blackbird
DESCRIPTION: Folk wisdom: "One for the blackbird, Two for the crow, Three for the cutworm, An' the rest for to grow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923
KEYWORDS: harvest bird nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 275, "The Crow Song" (with only the "E" fragment belonging here)
File: R275
===
NAME: One Forsaken, The: see The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)
===
NAME: One Horse Open Sleigh, The: see Jingle Bells (File: RJ19093)
===
NAME: One Kind Favor: see See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (File: ADR92)
===
NAME: One Little Frog
DESCRIPTION: "One little frog a-settin' on a log, Waitin' for its brother, Its eyes were red from the tears it had shed, And it jumped right into the water." Repeat indefinitely: "Another little frog a-settin' on a log...." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: animal brother separation nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 581, "One Little Frog" (1 text)
Roud #7668
File: R581
===
NAME: One Man Shall Mow My Meadow
DESCRIPTION: Singer states that various numbers of men shall mow her meadow and gather it together, as well as shear her sheep. The song is cumulative, hypnotic, and loaded with symbolism.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909
KEYWORDS: cumulative nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Sharp-100E 100, "One Man Shall Mow My Meadow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 291, "The Counting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 90, "Me One Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ONEMANMW
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928, notes to #218, ("One man shall mow my meadow") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 50, "One Man Shall Mow My Meadow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #143
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mower" (imagery)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Me One Man
Mowing Down the Meadow
One Man Shall Shear My Wethers
NOTES: It's hard to decide whether there's a ritual element here, or whether the song itself is the ritual. -PJS
And here I thought it was just a dirty song covered with pastoral symbols.... - RBW
File: ShH100
===
NAME: One Man's Hands
DESCRIPTION: "One man's hands can't break a prison down, Two men's hands can't tear a prison down, But if two and two and fifty make a million, we'll see that day come 'round." Similarly, "One man's voice can't shout to make them hear," etc., with topical references
AUTHOR: Words: Alex Comfort / Music: Pete Seeger
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 376-377, "One Man's Hands" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (MANSHAND)
File: SBoA376
===
NAME: One May Morning: see Tripping Over the Lea [Laws P19] (File: LP19)
===
NAME: One Meat Ball: see One Fish-Ball (One Meat Ball, The Lone Fish-Ball) (File: SRW074)
===
NAME: One Misty, Moisty Morning
DESCRIPTION: Daniel courts Dolly, a milk maid. Before she will marry he must have her father and mother's consent. "Her parents being willing, all Parties was agreed, Her Portion thirtie shilling, they marry'd were with Speed" and have a public celebration.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1700 (Pills to Purge Melancholy, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: courting dowry wedding father mother
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 359, "One misty, moisty, morning" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #140, p. 114, "(One Misty, Moisty Morning)"
DT, HOWDYEDO*
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(256b), "The Wiltshire Wedding Between Daniel Do-well and Doll the Dairy-maid" ("All in a misty morning"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES: The description is from broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(256b).
See "One Misty Moisty Morning" by Steeleye Span on "Parcel of Rogues." Chrysalis CHR 1046 (1973). - BS
The Digital Tradition notes that this tune is used in the Beggar's Opera. This appears to be a reference to Act II, Air 5, "Before the Barn Door Crowing," which has the tune "All in a misty morning" and ends with the lines
WIth how do you do, and how do you do,
And how do you do again. - RBW
File: OO2359
===
NAME: One More Chance
DESCRIPTION: "Late last night, When the moon shone bright," the singer visits his honey. She declares she has gone to bed. He points out that he paid her rent, begs for one more chance, offers to take her to a ball. He then pulls out a ten dollar bill, and is admitted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: sex courting home rejection money whore nightvisit
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 274-275, (no title) (1 text)
File: ScNF274B
===
NAME: One More Day
DESCRIPTION: Shanty: "One more day, me johnnies, One more day, Come rock and row me over, Johnny, one more day." The voyage has been hard, the captain cruel, but the sailors are almost home and soon will be able to visit their girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor home hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Colcord, p. 115, "One More Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 41-42, "One More Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 489-491, "Only One More Day," "Rock 'n Row Me Over" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, 362-365]
Sharp-EFC, XV, p. 18, "One More Day (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, p. 88, "One Day More" (1 text, 1 tune, which, despite Shay's title, has the usual chorus "One more day... only one more day")
Silber-FSWB, p. 86, "Rock 'N' Row Me Over " (1 text)
DT, ONEMRDAY*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919)."One More Day!" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Roud #704
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Charlie, One More Day
File: FSWB086B
===
NAME: One More Kiss Before I Go
DESCRIPTION: "Such a happy girl am I, And I'll tell you the reason why:" She has a love who is always courting her and asking for "One more kiss before I go." They will marry soon. She tells boys that girls expect "a loving kiss And a word or two like this..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mae Hardin)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 168-169, "One More Kiss Before I Go" (1 text)
Roud #6375?
File: MHAp168
===
NAME: One More River to Cross
DESCRIPTION: Counting up the contents of Noah's Ark: "The animals went in one by one... two by two... three by three...," often with odd groupings listed. Chorus: "One more river, and that is the river Jordan, One more river (for) to cross."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1897
KEYWORDS: Bible animal nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
BrownIII 455, "One More River to Cross" (1 short text)
Randolph 294, "One More River" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 250-252, "One More River" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 294A)
Silber-FSWB, p. 392, "One More River to Cross" (1 text)
DT, ONEMORER
Roud #4458
RECORDINGS:
Lt. Jim Europe's Four Harmony Kings, "One More Ribber to Cross" (Pathe 22187, 1919)
Uncle Dave Macon, "One More River to Cross" (Bluebird B-5842, 1935)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Uncle Noah" (lyrics)
cf. "Who Built the Ark?" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Cohen notes that a piece, "Dar's One More Ribber for to Cross" was composed in 1881, with words by James Husey and music by Thomas P. Westendorf. I am unable to verify that this is the same as this song. - RBW
File: R294
===
NAME: One Morning Clear: see Searching for Lambs (File: LO09A)
===
NAME: One Morning in May (II): see Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (File: LQ26)
===
NAME: One Morning in May (III): see The Rebel Soldier (File: R246)
===
NAME: One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14]
DESCRIPTION: A (soldier) and a pretty girl meet; they chat and he plays on the fiddle for her. When she asks him to play more, he says it is time to leave. She asks him to marry; he already has a wife and children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: soldier courting separation marriage fiddle
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(Scotland,England(Lond,South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (29 citations)
Laws P14, "The Nightingale (One Morning in May)"
Belden, pp. 239-244, "The Nightingale" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts and a reference to 1 more, 2 tunes)
Randolph 58, "One Morning in May" (3 texts plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt, 1 tune plus a fragment)
BrownIII 13, "One Morning in May" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 2 more)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 310-311, "One Morning in May" (2 texts, with local titles "See the Waters Gliding," "One Morning, One Morning, One Morning in May"; 2 tunes on pp. 438-439)
Eddy 103, "One Morning in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 164-165, "The Banks of Low Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 594-595, "The Soldier and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 77, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach, pp. 744-745, "One Morning in May (The Nightingale)" (1 text)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 68, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire, p. 92, "The Nightingale" (1 text)
JHCoxIIA, #24A-C, pp. 94-98, "The Nightingale," "One Morning in May" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
FSCatskills 130, "A Bold, Brave Bonair" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 145, "The Nightingale" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 47, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 40-41, "See the Waters A-Gliding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 136-138, "One Morning in May" (2 texts, 1 tune, but only the "A" text is this piece; the "B" text is "The Rebel Soldier")
Kennedy 185, "The Nightingales Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 210-211, "To Hear the Nightingales Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 198, "The Wild Rippling Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 52-53, "Fiddling Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 3, "The Wild Rippling Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 237, "The Wild Rippling Water" (1 text)
MacSeegTrav 45, "The Lady and the Soldier" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Darling-NAS, pp. 137-138, "One Morning in May" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 166, "One Morning In May (The Nightingale)" (1 text)
BBI, ZN277, "As I went forth one Sun-Shining day"
DT 340, NTNGALE NTNGALE2* NTNGALE3* NTNGALE4
Roud #140
RECORDINGS:
Raymond & John Cantwell, "The Soldier and the Lady" (on FSB2, FSB2CD)
Liam Clancy, "The Nightingale" (on IRLClancy01)
Coon Creek Girls, "The Soldier and the Lady" (Vocalion 05404, 1940)
Bill Cox, "Fiddling Soldier" (Melotone 7-08-70, 1937)
Betty Garland, "One Morning in May" (on BGarland01)
Mrs. Jack [Vera] Keating, "The Weaver" (on Ontario1)
Neil Morris, "The Irish Soldier and the English Lady" (on LomaxCD1707)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Soldier and the Lady" (on NLCR13)
Shorty & Juanita Sheehan, "The Soldier and the Lady" (on FineTimes)
Marvin Thornton & Fort Thomas group, "The Soldier and the Lady" (AFS, 1938; on KMM)
Doug Wallin, "The Nightingale" (on Wallins1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gentleman Soldier" (plot)
cf. "Across the Blue Mountains" (theme)
cf. "The Crystal Spring" (plot)
cf. "1913 Massacre" (tune)
cf. "Harbour Le Cou" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Bold Grenadier
The Nightingale's Song, or the Soldier's Rare Musick and Maid's Recreation
File: LP14
===
NAME: One Night As I Lay On My Bed
DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of his love; the dreams torment him so much that he goes out and calls at her window, bidding her to let him in. She demurs, saying her parents will punish her. He says they're asleep and won't hear; she lets him in.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: courting sex nightvisit
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 79,  "One Night as I Lay On My Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 81, "Go From My Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LAYBED*
Roud #672
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "One Night as I Lay On My Bed" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4]
cf. "Farewell to Bonny Galaway" (lyrics, theme).
cf. "Go From my Window, Go"
NOTES: [The earliest known version of this was a] fragment found by Burns [and] published in Johnson's "The Scots Musical Museum." - PJS
File: VWL079
===
NAME: One Night As I Lay on the Prairie: see The Cowboy's Dream (File: R185)
===
NAME: One Night Sad and Languid (Dream of Napoleon)
DESCRIPTION: "One night sad and languid I went to my bed... When a vision surprising came into my head... I beheld that rude rock... O'er the grave of the once-famed Napoleon." The singer recalls the deeds of Napoleon and how he was "sold... by treachery."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon dream death
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 215-216, "One Night Sad and Languid" (1 text)
Warner 143, "Boney on the Isle of Saint Helena" (one fragmentary text in the notes to the song)
ST SWMS215 (Full)
Roud #1538
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:056, "Dream of Napoleon," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
File: SWMS215
===
NAME: One of the Has-Beens
DESCRIPTION: "I'm one of the has-beens, a shearer I mean. I once was a ringer and I used to shear clean... But you may not believe me, for I can't do it now." The shearer recalls the greats he used to shear with, and remains determined to shear as long as he can
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (Stewart/Keesing, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sheep work age
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 156-157, "One of the Has-Beens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 194-195, "One of the Has-Beens" (1 text)
ST FaE156 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "One of the Has-Beens" (on JGreenway01)
File: FaE156
===
NAME: One of Tonight
DESCRIPTION: "One of tonight! We will all pray togeyther Like de one of tonight." "Moan, oh, moan, We will all moan together... Ninety and nine and de ninety-ninth...." "Shout, oh, shout." "Bow... Like de Israelites bow." "Pray... Like de Israelites." "Cry...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 625, "One of Tonight" (1 text)
Roud #11926
File: Br3625
===
NAME: One Penny Portion: see The Constant Lovers [Laws O41] (File: LO41)
===
NAME: One Pound Two
DESCRIPTION: "Now, Maggy dear, it's I do hear you have been on the spree." Johnny asks his wife for an accounting of how she spends his salary of one pound two. She lists it all: meal, potatoes, sugar.... Nothing is wasted or unaccounted. He is satisfied.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1852 (broadside, NLScotland, LC.Fol.187.A.2(052))
KEYWORDS: virtue dialog wife money food
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 20, "One Pound Two" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(126), "One Pound Two", J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866 ; also Harding B 16(190a), Firth c.20(127), Firth c.20(128), Firth c.26(129), "One Pound Two"
Murray, Mu23-y1:093, "One Pound Two," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, LC.Fol.187.A.2(052), "One Pound Two," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1852-1859; also RB.m.169(058) [damaged copy of preceding], L.C.1270(007), "The One Pound Two," unknown, c. 1845
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Contented Wife and Her Satisfied Husband" (broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(138a), "The Contented Wife and her Satisfied Husband" ("Ye married people high and low, come listen to my song, I'll show to you economy and not detain yu long"), Muir (unknown), c. 1850
File: OCon020
===
NAME: One Thing or the Other, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer's mother tells him, at 21, to choose a wife; he's always thinking on "the one thing or the other." He courts a girl and marries her; she gets pregnant. It's twins; he complains of the squalling of the one thing and the other
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Sharp mss)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer's mother tells him, at 21, to choose a wife; he's always thinking on "the one thing or the other." He courts a girl and marries her; they're happy in their daily occupation "at the one thing or the other." After a year, she gets pregnant. "It's a son", cries the sister; "It's a daughter" cries the mother; singer says it's the one thing or the other. It's twins; he complains of the squalling of the one thing and the other
KEYWORDS: courting marriage pregnancy baby mother wife humorous twins
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 209, "The One Thing or the Other" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 94, "The Twins" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 312-313, "The One Thing or the Other" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2131
File: K209
===
NAME: One-Eyed Reilly: see O'Reilly's Daughter (File: EM101)
===
NAME: One-Eyed Riley: see O'Reilly's Daughter (File: EM101)
===
NAME: One-Hung Lo
DESCRIPTION: Recitation: Prostitute Hoo Flung Shit is masturbating when One-Hung Lo crawls in and insultingly asks her for sex. She tells him to "go fuck your hat"; he tries to have sex with his hat and mashes it;  he falls on the floor; she urinates down his throat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (referred to by Jarvis)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Recitation: The prostitute Hoo Flung Shit is masturbating with a candle when the client One-Hung Lo crawls in and insultingly asks her to have sex with him. She tells him to "go fuck your hat"; he bangs his penis on the floor, tries to have sex with his hat and mashes it (the hat or the penis) in the door; finally he falls on his back on the floor, and she urinates down his throat
KEYWORDS: shrewishness sex request rejection bawdy recitation whore
FOUND_IN: US Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Unidentified reciter, "In Crawled One-Hung Lo" (on Unexp1)
NOTES: Whew. That this piece had entered oral tradition (if the phrase is appropriate) is shown by the memoirs of one William E. Jarvis, who recounts that when he served in the US navy at Shanghai, 1947, he had a friendship with a girl named Amy Lo, and his shipmates taunted him by referring to her as "One Hung." - PJS
File: RcOnHunL
===
NAME: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
DESCRIPTION: "One, two, buckle my shoe; Three, four, (open/shut) the door; Five, six, pick up sticks; Seven, eight, lay them straight...." And so forth, to ten or twenty or even beyond; there is naturally increasing variation as the numbers grow larger
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 385, "One, two, Buckle my shoe" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #615, p. 246, "(One, two, buckly my shoe)"
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 239-240, (no title) (1 text)
Roud #11284
File: BGMG615
===
NAME: One, Two, Three
DESCRIPTION: The singer teaches his girl to dance. "'Twas easy just as easy as A B C, She'd done it when I taught her like one two and three." In demand by the ladies at a ball he realizes that "without her for a partner I would never dance again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2608)
KEYWORDS: courting love dancing
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Packy Dolan and The Melody Boys, "One, Two, Three" (on USBallinsloeFair)
File: RcOne23
===
NAME: Only a Brakeman
DESCRIPTION: "Far out in Texas... This boy fell a victim.... Only a brakeman, gone on before, Only a brakeman, we'll never see more." The accident that cost him his life is alluded to; his grieving family is mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death railroading train family
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 679, "Only a Brakeman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 445-447, "Only a Brakeman" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 679)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 173-174, "(Only a Brakeman" (excerpts from 7 "Only a Brakeman" songs; the last is this piece)
Roud #4147
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Only a Miner" [Laws G33] (theme, meter, floating lyrics)
NOTES: This song is item dG49 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: R679
===
NAME: Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner) [Laws G33]
DESCRIPTION: A miner is trapped under a falling boulder; no one can help him. Most of the world doesn't care; he's "only a miner," though he leaves a wife and children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Kentucky Thorobreds)
KEYWORDS: mining family death
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,Ro,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Laws G33, "Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner)"
Randolph 680, "Only a Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, p. 141, "The Hard-Working Miner" (1 text)
Green-Miner, pp. 63-65, "Only a Miner" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 437-438, "The Hard-Working Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, p. 263, "Poor Miner's Farewell" (1 text)
DT, ONLYMINR (ONLYMNR2?)
Roud #2197
RECORDINGS:
Ted Chesnut, "He's Only a Miner Killed in the Ground" (Gennett 6603/Champion 15587 [as Cal Turner]/Supertone 9180 [as Alvin Bunch], 1928; on KMM)
Kentucky Thorobreds "Only a Miner" (Paramount 3071, 1928; Broadway 8070 [as Old Smokey Twins], n.d.; rec. 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Only a Brakeman" (theme, meter, floating lyrics)
cf. "Just a Poor Lumberjack" (theme)
NOTES: Greenway credits this to Aunt Molly Jackson. This can hardly be accepted. The version Greenway prints is, however, noticeably different from from the other texts listed; the final verse is unique, and the others show variants. Presumably Jackson touched up the existing song. - RBW
As enumerated by Green, the song was collected many times by the Archive of Folk Song and others, with various informants placing the date they learned the song in the 19th century, the earliest being 1888. - PJS
File: LG33
===
NAME: Only a Soldier: see The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)
===
NAME: Only Nineteen Years Old
DESCRIPTION: Singer fell in love with, and married, "a virgin only nineteen years old." Next morning she took off her paint and revealed her hump, wig, false leg and fingers. Before marrying, he says, examine your intended: she may be ninety.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1972 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: age courting marriage beauty disguise money humorous
FOUND_IN: Ireland US(SW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 15, "Only Nineteen Years Old" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon 36, pp. 197-199, "Oh! My! You're a Dandy for Nineteen Years Old" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4792
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Only Nineteen Years Old" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Warranty Deed (The Wealthy Old Maid)" [Laws H24] and references there
NOTES: Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan: "Tom's sister Margaret used to sing this when she was home on holidays from America." - BS 
File: RcOn19YO
===
NAME: Only Remembered
DESCRIPTION: "Up and away like the dews of the morning, Soaring from earth to its home in the sun, Thus would I pass from the earth and its toiling, Only remembered for what I have done." An exhortation to good works, with a promise of reward for those who do them
AUTHOR: Words: Dr. H. Bonar/Music: W. W. Bentley
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 627, "Only Remembered" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ONLYRMBR*
Roud #7557
NOTES: Although this song has been fairly popular with folk revival singers, it bears noting that it does not conform with the theology of any major branch of Christianity. Catholics and Orthodox believe in the salvific power of the church, as do (for the most part) Anglicans. Lutherans believe in justification by faith alone; the Reformed churches (e.g. Presbyterians) believe in predestination to grace.
Indeed, as it says in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you are being saved through faith... not because of works, lest someone should boast...." - RBW
File: R627
===
NAME: Onward Christian Soldiers
DESCRIPTION: "Onward, Christian Soldier, Marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus Going on before." The Christian "army" is urged forward, bypassing temporary earthly structures for the eternal kingdom of God
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) / Music: Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1864 (Church Times)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 352, "Onward Christian Soldiers" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 416-417, "Onward, Christian Soldiers"
DT, ONCHRST*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 80-81, "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Haydn Quartet, "Onward Christian Soldiers" (Victor 521, 1901)
Old Southern Sacred Singers, "Onward Christian Soldiers" (Brunswick 166, 1927)
SAME_TUNE:
Onward, Christian Bedbugs (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 105)
NOTES: Yes, the Sabine Baring-Gould who wrote this is the same fellow as collected English folksongs. And whose descendents are responsible for the Annotated Mother Goose cited frequently in this index. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1864, and produced quite a bit of Christian poetry and analysis, though this hymn is nearly the only part to have achieved any popularity. - RBW
File: FSWB352A
===
NAME: Onward, The
DESCRIPTION: The Onward and her crew from Troon to Larne was bound"; she tries to reach Lamlash for shelter in a storm. "Between Dromore and the Ailsa Craig The Onward she went down... unseen all from the shore; no rescue life could save."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1943 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, p. 90, "The Onward" (1 text)
NOTES: Ranson: "'The Onward' was wrecked off the Ayrshire coast of Scotland in 1881."
Troon is on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland; Larne is across the North Channel on the coast of County Antrim. - BS
File: Ran090
===
NAME: Oor Cat's Deid
DESCRIPTION: "Whirry, whirra, the cat she's deid, And whirry, whirra, there's a sod on her heid, And in a wee hole we'll bury them a', And for wee puss we'll sing for a'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: lullaby death burial animal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H40b, p. 17, "A Child's Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13025
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lingle Lingle Lang Tang (Our Cat's Dead)"
File: HHH040b
===
NAME: Oor Dochter Jean
DESCRIPTION: "Oor dochter Jean cam hame yestreen, Wi' rosy cheeks an' lauchin' e'en." Asked where she has been, she replies, "Wi' Fermer Joe o Auchinglen." There is a ring on her finger. Fermer Joe arrives to ask her hand; all happily agree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage farming
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 49-50, "Oor Dochter Jean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3789
File: Ord049
===
NAME: Open Book, The
DESCRIPTION: "You've been tamped full of shit about cowboys; they are known as a romantic breed...." The reciter proceeds to dispel these myths, talking about cowboys' sexual exploits, their local peculiarities, and their folly
AUTHOR: Curley Fletcher
EARLIEST_DATE: 1985 (Logson)
KEYWORDS: cowboy recitation nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Logsdon 16, pp. 108-117, "The Open Book" (2 very long texts, one Fletcher's original bad-language version, the other his later cleaned-up text)
Roud #10092
File: Logs016
===
NAME: Opeongo Line, The
DESCRIPTION: "On the Opeongo Line I drove a span of bays One summer once upon a time For Hoolihan and Hayes. Now that the bays are dead and gone And grim old age is mine... Ay, dreaming, dreaming, I go teaming On the Opeongo Line."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: travel logger
FOUND_IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke-Lumbering #65, "The Opeongo Line," (1 fragment)
Roud #4565
File: FowL65
===
NAME: Opossum, The: see Kemo Kimo (File: R282)
===
NAME: Opsang for Jonas Anton Hjelm
DESCRIPTION: Norwegian shanty. "Hurrah for Jonas Aston Hjelm, He was for Norway, helmet and spear, till at last he celebrated peace." Other versions are general sailing rhymes with a choruses of "Sing salio!" or "Sing sailor-O!" or "Singsalli-joh!"
AUTHOR: Henrik Wergelands
EARLIEST_DATE: 1839
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty
FOUND_IN: Norway
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 558-559, "Opsang for Jonas Anton Hjelm" (4 texts-Norwegian & English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Sing Salio
Siste Reis
NOTES: Jonas Anton Hjelm was a Norwegian laywer who was instrumental in the fight for national control while Norway was under Swedish rule (1814-1905). In particular he argued in 1834 that the Act of Union provided that a Norwegian minister had to be present whenever the Swedish ministers discussed Norwegian affairs. Edvard Greig also wrote a piece called "Sailor's Song - Hurrah For Jonas Anton Hjelm," but the melody bears no resemblance to the tune given in Hugill.
Hugill speculated that Wergelands may have based his poem on an earlier shanty (though the poem predates any available shanty collection). The possible earlier version Hugill gave was spoken from the view of a ship -- "The Resolution was a demon, and the name I got at baptism...." - SL
File: Hugi558
===
NAME: Oran Do Cheap Breatainn (Cape Breton is the Land of My Love)
DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Now I live in the mountains but I am singing about "the land of the glens": birds, cows, thoughts of winter "the time for weddings and milling frolics" and people I knew in my youth who have died.
AUTHOR: Dan Alex McDonald (per MRHCreighton)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1956 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 184-185, "Oran Do Cheap Breatainn" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John Ranny McReigen, "Oran Do Cheap Breatainn" (on MRHCreighton)
NOTES: The description is based on the translation of Creighton/MacLeod 17 in _Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia_. - BS
File: CrMa184
===
NAME: Oran Na Caillich (Our Auld Wife)
DESCRIPTION: Scottish Gaelic. My wife is dour, sour, and the devil's own. I must have been bewitched to be drawn to her. She's so ugly. I have to drink to stand it.
AUTHOR: Allan McDougall [Ailean Dall] (1750-1829)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink humorous wife
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 793-794, "Oran Na Caillich" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Peacock notes that this "is called a milling song ... used to accompany the work of shrinking wool homespun. The wet cloth is alternately kneaded and pounded on a large table by several people either seated or standing. A leader sings the verses, and everyone comes in on the chorus." "Milling wool" and "waulking tweed" is the same process.  For a note on the process and the songs see "Waulking" by Craig Cockburn at the Silicon Glen site.
The description is based on a translation by Malcolm MacFarlane available in the hard-cover edition of _The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands_ ed Alfred Moffat (Bayley & Ferguson, London & Glasgow, ca 1908), pp. 76-77. This song is not in the soft-cover edition issued ca. 1960. - BS
File: Pea793
===
NAME: Orange and Blue
DESCRIPTION: "When Brethren are met in orders so grand, What a beautiful sight for to view." Singer describes his induction, in code. But, "what a shameful disgrace on a lodge it doth bring To see Brethren each other subdue." Join "in defence of the Orange and Blue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: ritual religious
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 34, "Orange and Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (Masonic symbolism) and references there
NOTES: OrangeLark: "Another much used song which has the effect of stirring the blood of those who sing it." - BS
File: OrLa034
===
NAME: Orange and Blue, The: see Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)
===
NAME: Orange and Green
DESCRIPTION: "The night was falling dreary in merry Bandon town...." To an Orangeman's door comes a Green, pursued by an angry crowd. The Orangeman shelters him -- then learns he has killed his son. He still does not retaliate Years later, they meet in peace
AUTHOR: Gerald Griffin (1803-1840)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1850 (David Charles Bell, _The Modern Reader and Speaker_)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political homicide promise reprieve reunion
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 41-43, "Orange and Green" (1 text)
Roud #9556
NOTES: Given that Dean's seems to be the only traditional text of this, and that I have found no sign of sheet music, I suspect this is actually a recitation rather than a song. I also suspect Dean took it from a literary source. Finally, I have to suspect its inclusion was inspired by the horrid Irish troubles that were taking place at the time Dean was assembling his book: The conflict of Orange and Green was at its worst, because by this time England would probably have walked away from Ireland -- except that the Orangement of Ulster wanted no part of an independent Ireland.
Gerald Griffin had an interesting career: Born in Ireland, the ninth son of a brewer, his family moved to America to escape poverty (so it's just possible that he would have heard the story of Duncan Campbell which this so resembles). He spent time as a journalist in Lonon, and finally ended up teaching in Ireland for the Society of Christian Brothers. His posthumous collected works occupied eight volumes, though most of his works have fallen into obscurity. (Benet's _Reader's Encyclopedia_, which is as close to comprehensive as any literary reference I've seen, doesn't even mention him.) He did produce a version of "Eileen Aroon," reportedly taken from the Gaelic (see the Notes to that song); also, his novel _The Collegians_ (1829) was made into a play, _Colleen Bawn_. Patrick C. Power _A Literary History of Ireland_, Mercier, 1969, calls it "a very good novel" but says that after that he "never again wrote anything as good." - RBW
File: Dean040
===
NAME: Orange Lark, The
DESCRIPTION: The lark "is true Orange bird" who cheered William on July first and "sang him an Orange hymn." The nightingale sings sweetly but the lark's song comes "from the soldier's drum." The eagle is too aristocratic; the lark's "is the song of the free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic bird
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 40, "The Orange Lark" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OrLa040
===
NAME: Orange Lily-o, The
DESCRIPTION: Did you go to the flower show? The prize is won by the Orange Lily. "The Viceroy there was so debonair ... And Lady Clarke" approached Ireland's Orange Lily.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1895 (Graham)
KEYWORDS: Ireland flowers political
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OLochlainn 70, "The Orange Lily-o" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, p. 116, "The Orange Lily-O" (1 text)
Graham, p. 7, "The Orange Lily,  O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3003
NOTES: Georges Denis Zimmermann, _Songs of Irish Rebellion_ , 2nd ed. (2002), p. 303: "The great emblem of the [Orangemen], the Orange lily, is celebrated like the shamrock in nationalist songs. [Fn.45 'The Orange Lily O!' in _The Protestant or True Blue_, pp. 45-46, and in every Orange song book thereafter.]"
What message is hidden here?
OLochlainn: "I heard an older and more pungent ballad but could not find it printed. All I remember is 'D'ye think I would let, a -- Fenian -- Destroy one flower of the Lily O?"
The "Songs Collected by Donagh MacDonagh" site has two versions. The first version is, essentially, the same as OLochlainn 70. A long description of version 2, as far as I can state it is:
At the show Lady Clarke approaches the lily. The viceroy is reluctant to give it the prize. Sir Charley is also unhappy but "horse master Billy" laughs to think his ex should be bothered by the lily. "With moistened eyes" the Viceroy gives the prize to the lily. "Toast the health of Billy" who won "on Boyne's red shore The Royal Orange Lily O!"
Which Viceroy and Lady Clarke? Who are Sir Charley and horse master Billy? And what is the Royal Orange Lily? And do these versions all refer to the same "flower show?"
The following notes, quoted with permission, are from John Moulden, researcher at the "Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change" at National University of Ireland, Galway whose subject is "the printed ballad in Ireland":
"I take it that it is a satire concerning the reluctance of one of the Lords Lieutenant of Ireland (aka the Viceroy) to award first prize at a flower show to an Orange Lily. The distaste of the Victorian establishment for the Orange Order was much the same as today.
"The Orange Lily was a symbol of the Royal House of Orange, official or not, but clearly adopted as such in Ireland.
"Specifics are a bit more difficult - the likelihood is that Lady Clarke was Olivia Owenson, sister of Lady Morgan; c. 1785-1845, and that therefore the Viceroy in question was one of: [See Wikipedia for the list of the 16 Viceroys from Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke: 27 April 1801 to William Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury: 17 July 1844] but obviously after Lady Clarke's marriage and probably after 1819 when she had a very poor play acted in Dublin.
"Horse Master Billy may refer to the equestrian statue of William of Orange which stood in St. Stephen's Green in Dublin until being blown up in the (I THINK) 1830s.
"There is of course a possibility that the song refers to an event other than a flower show, such as a parade of ladies.
"The Chief Secretaries at the same times were: [a list of 22 between 1798 and 1845, including a number of "Sirs" and a number of "Charles"--Charles Abbot 1801-1802, Charles Long 1805-1806 and Charles Grant 1818-1821] but there are no Sir Charleys among them."
The last verse from Graham may refer to King William: "Then come, brave boys, and share her joys, and toast the health of Willy, O!  Who bravely wore, on Boyne's red shore, the Royal Orange Lily, O!"   That is reminiscent of the last verse sometimes sung to "The Aughalee Heroes": "And when that we landed in Aughalee, Our brandy in gallons did shine, The toast we often repeated Was to William that crossed the Boyne." - BS
File: OLoc070
===
NAME: Orange Maid of Sligo, The
DESCRIPTION: A tiny boat is driven by wind onto the shore of the Bay of Sligo. "At the bow there sat a girl... the 'Orange Maid of Sligo.'" An Orange youth sees an orange lily on the water and gives it to her. They marry. 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1970 (Morton-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: marriage sea ship shore flowers Ireland patriotic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Morton-Ulster 34, "The Orange Maid of Sligo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ORGSLIG*
Roud #2910
NOTES: The "aisling" is common on the Green side of the Irish conflict. Here the Orange Maid stands for Orange Ireland and the Orange Lily is its symbol. See the discussion of "aisling" in the notes to "Eileen McMahon." "The Orange Lily was a symbol of the Royal House of Orange, official or not, but clearly adopted as such in Ireland." (source: John Moulden; for the full note see "The Orange Lily-o"). - BS
File: MorU034
===
NAME: Orange Riots in Belfast, The
DESCRIPTION: "Emancipation first tortured them [Orangemen] sore But O'Connell's procession it grieved them far more," so they took it as an excuse to burn Dan's effigy and "to murder and tear Saint Malachy's Chapel." They should consider their own July 12 parading.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1989 (Leyden); 19C (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(270))
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 8-23, 1864 - Belfast riots about Dublin Daniel O'Connell statue (source: Leyden).
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leyden 42, "The Orange Riots in Belfast" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(270), "The Orange Riots in Belfast" ("Rejoice sons of Erin all over the land"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of the Navvies" (subject)
NOTES: Leyden: "The protagonists in these disturbances were the Protestants of Sandy Row and the Catholics of the nearby Pound area (now the Divis Flats area)." The Catholic navvies were "engaged in the excavation of the New Docks." "Never before had there been rioting on such a scale with widespread shooting, intimidation and looting of gunsmiths, resulting in death, injury and destruction."
The conflict began when the foundation stone for a statue of Daniel O'Connell was laid in Dublin. That evening Sandy Row Protestants burned an effigy of O'Connell in Belfast. St Malachy's Chapel was the meeting place for Catholic navvies reacting to the effigy burning. Following an attack by the navvies on Brown Square School, Protestants "headed for St. Malachy's to seek revenge." (source: Leyden) For notes on Daniel O'Connell see "Erin's Green Shore [Laws Q27]."
See the notes to "The Boys of Sandy Row" for comments on sectarian riots earlier and later in the same Belfast area. - BS
File: Leyd042
===
NAME: Orange Yeomanry of '98, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer's father fought with the Orange Yeomanry in 1798. The Orange peasant and artisan imitate "the gallant Orange Yeomanry." The Orangeman "relies upon his Bible and his gun." Preferring peace, the Orangeman would fight if necessary
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1882 (_The History of Orangeism_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nonballad patriotic political derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 137, "The Orange Yeomanry of '98" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Memory of the Dead" (lyrics)
NOTES: One verse 
"Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?"
This was the silly note
Of one who was afraid to put
His name to what he wrote;
The reference is to John Kells Ingram's "The Memory of the Dead," which begins "Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?" The point is that Ingram's song was published anonymously. "The Orange Yeomanry of '98" was also published anonymously before Ingram openly acknowledged authorship of "Memory of the Dead." (source: Moylan) - BS
And, of course, this well sums up the attitude of groups such as the Orange Order, which eventually led to partition -- and the Troubles. - RBW
File: Moyl137
===
NAME: Orangeman's Apology, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am a loyal Orangeman, in this I take delight, Though long before I firmly swore to those who did unite." Green being out of date, the singer calls the Pope a hog and swears what he's told. "For it's my rule, and I'm no fool, who's miller, I'll be dog"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1809 (Cox's _Irish Magazine_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: Ireland humorous nonballad political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 49, "The Orangeman's Apology for Quitting the Croppies and Turning Loyalist" (1 text)
File: Moyl049
===
NAME: Oranges and Lemons
DESCRIPTION: "Oranges and lemons, Say the bells of St. Clement's. You owe me five farthings.... When will you pay me? Say the bells of Old Bailey...." "I'm sure I don't know, Says the great bell of Bow." A threat (to chop off a head) may follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1744(Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: money playparty
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 392, "Oranges and lemons" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #640, pp. 253-254, "(Gay go up and gay go down)" (a conflate version probably containing material not relevant to the song)
DT, ORANGLEM
Roud #13190
NOTES: Opie-Oxford2: "Whether or not the terminating lines ['... Here comes a chopper to chop off your head'] have special significance, they do not appear in the song's earliest recording (c.1744)" - BS
Whatever the significance of the song, it appears to have inspired a lot of descendants. Many folkies will know Idris Davies's "Bells of Rhymney," set to music by Pete Seeger. Eleanor Farjeon (of "Morning Has Broken") fame also used it as a starting point for a song about a memorial for World War I soldiers called "The Children's Bells": "Where are your Orangers? Where are your Lemons? What, are you silent now, Bells of St. Clement's?" For the full text, with background, see Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #184, "The Children's Bells." - RBW
File: BGMG640
===
NAME: Ordeal of Andrew Rose, The: see Andrew Rose (File: Pea825)
===
NAME: Ore Knob
DESCRIPTION: "Come, blooming youth in the midst of day And see how soon some pass away." Just before their shift ended, two miners, Sherley and Smith, die in a rockfall. The singer quotes the New Testament and says that it is all God's plan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster religious
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 211, "The Ore Knob" (1 text)
Roud #6556
NOTES: The editors of the Brown collection are unable to link this to any actual event, though it appears to be based on reality. The song probably would have been more successful if it weren't so sickeningly blatant. - RBW
File: BrII211
===
NAME: Organ Grinder, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer in successive stanzas has sex with his girl friend in various places, each more outlandish than the last.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous sex
FOUND_IN: US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cray, pp. 341-344, "The Organ Grinder" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, p. 369-370, "My Little Organ Grinder" (1 text, 1 tune); II, pp. 592-594, "My Little Organ Grinder" (2 texts)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Horny Kebri-O" (form)
File: EM341
===
NAME: Orkney New Year's Eve Carol: see Queen Mary's Men (New Year's Eve Carol) (File: MSNR200)
===
NAME: Orkney Style of Courtship, The
DESCRIPTION: Recitation: Speaker says that the Orkney style of courship looks odd from outside, but "let them court the way they choose." Others may sit around to court; he prefers to court by jumping in bed with the girl; it saves time after a long day at work.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Recitation: Speaker says that the Orkney style of courship looks odd from outside, but he says to "let them court the way they choose." He says that those who like to court in an armchair after the old folks have gone to sleep are free to do so, but he himself prefers to remove his boots and coat and jump into bed with the girl. He explains that this saves time after a long day at work.
KEYWORDS: courting sex family nonballad recitation
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #3087
RECORDINGS:
John Findlater, "The Orkney Style of Courtship" (on FSB2, FSB2CD)
NOTES: And I'm sure it does. - PJS
File: RcTOSOC
===
NAME: Orphan Girl (II), The: see The Orphan (File: Beld278)
===
NAME: Orphan Girl (III), The
DESCRIPTION: The ship Orphan Girl, out of London for Liverpool "with her cargo of cement," is "stranded on a place called Sea-field shore...; four of her crew were saved." A heroic boy is lost, the captain is cowardly, "but we may blame the Coast-guards."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 22, 1881: "... schooner Orphan Girl ... wrecked at Ballymoney"; the crew were rescued. (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 45)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 64-65, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Alfred D. Snow" (tune)
NOTES:  Ranson: Tune is "Alfred D. Snow" on p. 116. - BS
File: Ran064
===
NAME: Orphan Girl, The (The Orphan Child)
DESCRIPTION: The orphan girl at the rich man's door cries, "No home." Ragged, hungry, and cold, she begs for help, but the rich man turns her away. In the night she freezes to death, "but her soul has gone to a home above where there's room and bread for the poor"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: poverty orphan rejection death
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (14 citations)
Belden, pp. 277-278, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text plus an excerpt from another, 1 tune)
Randolph 725, "The Orphan Child" (2 texts, 1 tune)
BrownII 148, "The Orphan Girl" (3 texts plus mention of 11 more)
Chappell-FSRA 117, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
Brewster 63, "The Orphan Girl" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 177-178, "Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, pp. 106-107, "The Little Orphan Girl" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 26-27, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 124-125, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 364-366, "The Little Orphan Girl" (2 texts; 2 tunes on p. 454)
Sandburg, pp. 316-319, "Mag's Song" (2 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
JHCox 153, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, p. 368, "The Coal Miner's Child" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 481, "The Orphan Girl" (source notes only)
ST R725 (Partial)
Roud #457
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Orphan Child" (OKeh 7006, 1924)
Buell Kazee, "The Orphan Girl" (Brunswick 211, 1928; Supertone S-2045, 1930; on KMM)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "The Orphan Girl" (Vocalion 5369, 1929)
Len Nash & his Country Boys, "The Orphan Girl" (Brunswick 387, 1929)
Riley Puckett, "The Orphan Girl" (Columbia 15050-D, 1926; rec. 1925)
Ernest Stoneman, "The Orphan Girl" (OKeh 45044, 1926) (Edison 52077/Edison [BA CYL] 5367, 1927)
NOTES: Stephen Foster wrote a piece, "No Home, No Home" (1862), but this song is much more detailed and does not resemble Foster's.
The Darling text, "The Coal Miner's Child," has been localized to mining conditions without in any way distancing it from the other versions of this song. This adapted version, however, bears a special resemblance to "The Miner's Doom" [Laws Q36]. - RBW
File: R725
===
NAME: Orphan Gypsy Girl, The: see The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)
===
NAME: Orphan, The
DESCRIPTION: "Will you hear my mournful story? All my friends are dead and gone. Father is no more, nor mother; I'm an orphan left alone." The singer recalls mother's death, and her dying injunction to obey the Bible. She visits the graveyard, and hopes to join mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: orphan mother death burial mourning
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Belden, pp. 278-279, "The Orphan" (2 texts)
BrownII 152, "The Orphan" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Fuson, p. 147, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
ST Beld278 (Partial)
Roud #4193
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fisherman's Girl" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Orphan Girl
File: Beld278
===
NAME: Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone)
DESCRIPTION: "Two little children, a boy and a girl, Sat by the old church door." The ragged, dirty children tell of their poverty: "Papa was lost out on sea long ago... Mama's in heaven, angels took her away." They are too young to work. They die before morning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: orphan death
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
BrownII 150, "Two Little Children" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Cambiaire, p. 32, "Two Little Children" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 126-127, "Two Little Orphans" (1 text)
DT, ORPHNLAM
Roud #458
RECORDINGS:
Betty Garland, "Two Little Orphans (or Left Jim and I Alone)" (on BGarland01)
Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "Two Little Orphans -- Our Mama's In Heaven" (Edison 51935, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5338, 1927); "Two Little Orphans" (OKeh, unissued, 1927); Ernest V. Stoneman and His Blue Ridge Cornshuckers, "The Two Little Orphans" (Victor 21648)
Arthur Tanner, "Two Little Children" (Columbia 15180-D, 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Row Us Over the Tide" (subject)
cf. "I Saw the Pale Moon Shining on Mother's White Tombstone" (subject)
File: BrII150
===
NAME: Ot Azoy Neyt A Shnayder (Weary Days Are a Tailor's)
DESCRIPTION: Yiddish: The immigrant singer tells of the hard work and long hours in a sweatshop: "From dawn till dusk he sews away." "Hunger and pain are all he knows." He thanks the union for better conditions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes foreigner labor-movement nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scott-BoA, pp. 286-287, "Ot Azoy Neyt A Shnayder (Weary Days Are a Tailor's)" (2 texts (English & Yiddish), 1 tune)
File: SBoA286
===
NAME: Ot Kraya i Do Kraya (From Frontier to Frontier)
DESCRIPTION: Russian: The listeners across the land are called upon to take up rifles to defend their homeland. They are urged to fight "for country and for freedom." They are warned to be ready for danger and sorrow, and are asked to fight to the end.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940s (recording, Paul Robeson)
KEYWORDS: war political nonballad patriotic foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 22, 1941 - German troops invade the Soviet Union without warning
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scott-BoA, pp. 356-357, "Ot Kraya i Do Kraya (From Frontier to Frontier)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
From Border To Border
NOTES: When the Germans first invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin appealed to the people to save the Communist state. As propaganda, it failed miserably.
Eventually the Soviets started appealing to the people to save Holy Mother Russia. Songs like this were emblems of that appeal. Combined with widespread (and true) reports of Nazi atrocities against Slavs (whom Hitler regarded as only marginally human), Stalin eventually built up enough patriotic fervor to allow the nation to survive. - RBW
File: SBoA356
===
NAME: Other Bright Shore, The
DESCRIPTION: "I have a mother gone to glory (or: ...mother over yonder) (x3), On (that) other (bright) shore." Similarly with father, sister, etc. "Some bright day we'll go and meet them...." "Won't that be a happy meeting..." etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious death reunion family
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
BrownIII 539, "John Saw de Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand" (1 text, perhaps not this song but too close to separate (it starts "John saw the Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand" and has the chorus "I can't stay away," but the rest appears to be this); also 576, "Gwine Down Jordan" (1 text, also possibly separate as it has the chorus, "I'me gwine down Jordan, hallelo," but the verses seem to belong here); also 648, "We Have Loved Ones Over Yonder" (1 text, which appears to be exactly this song except that it uses the phrase "over yonders ocean" rather than "on the other bright shore")
Chappell-FSRA 90, "Over Yonders Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 611, "On That Other Bright Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 47, "I've Got a Mother Gone to Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 217-218, "Oh, Brother Will You Meet Me?" (1 text, 1 tune, in which all meet "On Canaan's happy shores.")
Lomax-ABFS, p. 572, "The Other Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, p. 170, "Over Yonders Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4213
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Howard Finster, "Some Have Fathers Over Yonder" (on FolkVisions2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Hear the Lambs a-Cryin'" (words)
cf. "Departed Loved Ones" (theme)
cf. "I Have a Father Gone to Glory (I Am Alone in this World)" (lyrics)
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land)," which seems a bit strong. But there is no denying that this is a song with a great willingness to transfer verses; it's possible that some of the items listed here actually derived from other songs. - RBW
File: R611
===
NAME: Other Shore, The: see The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)
===
NAME: Other Side of Jordan: see Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel (II) (File: CSW188)
===
NAME: Other Side of Jordan, The: see Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel (File: R305)
===
NAME: Otto Wood the Bandit
DESCRIPTION: Otto Wood has a quarrel with and kills a pawnshop clerk. Sheriff arrests him; he's imprisoned. He breaks out but is recaptured (and shot). In another break, he's shot dead. Chorus: "Otto Wood why didn't you run/When the sheriff pulled out that 44 gun?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Slim Smith)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Otto Wood has a quarrel with a pawnshop clerk and pistol-whips (shoots?) him to death. Sheriff arrests him; he's sentenced to the penitentiary. He breaks out but is recaptured (and shot in the process). In another break, he's shot dead. "He loved the women and he hated the law/Just wouldn't take nobody's jaw." Chorus: "Otto Wood why didn't you run/When the sheriff pulled out that 44 gun?"
KEYWORDS: captivity crime homicide law manhunt prison punishment trial escape death police prisoner 
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, OTTOWOOD*
Roud #11543
RECORDINGS:
[Walter "Kid" Smith & the] Carolina Buddies, "Otto Wood the Bandit" (Columbia 15652-D, 1931; on RoughWays2)
Slim Smith [pseud. for Bernard Smith], "Otto Wood the Bandit" (Victor 23526, 1931)
NOTES: Otto Wood was a local boy in the same area of North Carolina as Charlie Poole's band; the song tells his story pretty accurately.
Pity there isn't a keyword "ineptitude." - PJS
File: DTottowo
===
NAME: Ou Som Souroucou
DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Ou Som Souroucou, qui ca ou gagnien, gagnien pou' bpi' do l'eau?"  Ou Som Souroucou, asked why he drinks so much water, replies that he has eaten corn and has to drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Peterson, "Creole Songs from New Orleans")
KEYWORDS: drink foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, p. 222, " Ou Som Souroucou" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LxA222
===
NAME: Oughta Come on the River
DESCRIPTION: "Oughta come on the river Long time ago, I don't know partner, Say, you oughta know, You'd catch plenty trouble Everywhere you go." The Captain threatens the members of the gang. The singer dreams of freedom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: work chaingang freedom
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, p. 103, (no title) (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos"
NOTES: There are many, many elements of "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos/Go Down, Old Hannah" in this piece -- but it appears to be different. Assuming Courlander didn't cut something essential, anyway. - RBW
File: CNFM103
===
NAME: Oul Bog Hole, The: see The Ould Bog Hole (File: FVS290)
===
NAME: Oul' Dunloy
DESCRIPTION: The singer reports being sick of the city, and wishes he were back in Dunloy. The city is loud and strange, and the people look unhealthy.  He misses his neighbors, who made life a joy. The corncrake cries, "Come back, come back to Dunloy."
AUTHOR: Andrew Doey
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H498, pp. 211-212, "Oul' Dunloy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH498
===
NAME: Oul' Rigadoo, The: see The Little Beggerman (Johnny Dhu) (File: K345)
===
NAME: Ould Bog Hole, The
DESCRIPTION: "O, the pigs are in the mire and the cow is at the grass And a man without a woman is no better than an ass." The singer courts Judy; she calls him a rake; he says he will be reform and hopes for as many children as there are "days in Lent." She consents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford); broadside Harding B 20(293) appears to be nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 290-292, "The Ould Bog Hole" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 65, "The Old Bog Hole" (1 text)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 36-37, "The Ould Bog Hole" (1 text)
Roud #6128
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(293), "Old Bog Hole", T. Taylor (London), 1859-1899; also Harding B 26(489), "Ould Bog Hole"; Harding B 17(228b), "Oul' Bog Hole"
Murray, Mu23-y1:013, "The Oul Bog Hole", J Bristow (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y1:036, Mu23-y1:037, "The Oul' Bog Hole," James Lindsay, 19C  [not the same as the preceding]
NLScotland, LC.Fol.187.A.2(067), "The Oul' Bog Hole," unknown, c. 1860
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Zip Coon" (tune)
File: FVS290
===
NAME: Ould Father Dan
DESCRIPTION: "I once knew a dodger, whose name was Father Dan ... to purgatory he's gone long ago." "The Repealers of their cash were shorn And Repeal with Dan sent below." "There is no more rent for ould Father Dan, He is gone where the rest all will go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: death Ireland humorous political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 28, "Ould Father Dan" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Grand Conversation on O'Connell Arose" (subject) and references there
NOTES: OrangeLark: "The song celebrates the death of Daniel O'Connell, leader of the mid-19th century movement aimed at breaking Ireland's integral union with Britain. The Repeal movement was financed with money raised from the Roman Catholic masses. The song points to the irony of a popular leader whose income derived from these collections and from the rents of his tenants." - BS
By the looks of it, this is a parody of "Uncle Ned." A vicious one, obviously. But probably produced almost the moment Stephen Foster's song came out; Daniel O'Connell died in 1847, and "Uncle Ned" was copyrighted 1848.
Incidentally, this is an illustration of how violently biased Irish Protestantism could be. I am not Catholic, and I find very many Irish nationalists to be utterly ridiculous -- but O'Connell sought only civil rights for the people, and did not believe in violence, and did not want separation from the British crown. It's hard to see how anyone even vaguely rational could condemn him. - RBW
File: OrLa028
===
NAME: Ould Heelball You're Boozing Again
DESCRIPTION: The singer, McShaw, is "a decent shoemaker ... but I've lately took on to the booze," as his friends comment at every chance. He was once well-to-do but now his wagon wheel is broken, his horses sold, and his wife has taken his watch and chain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1970 (Morton-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Morton-Ulster 48, "Ould Heelball You're Boozing Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2915
File: MorU048
===
NAME: Ould Ireland, You're My Darlin'
DESCRIPTION: "Ould Ireland, you're my jewel sure." The singer blesses "each manly son... But hang the knave and dastard slave So base as to deny thee." He pledges "a love that ne'er can perish."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 18(388))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 126, "Ould Ireland, You're My Darlin'" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(388), "Ould Ireland You're My Darlin'", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864 
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(388): H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon126
===
NAME: Ould Lammas Fair, The
DESCRIPTION: "At the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle long ago, I met a little colleen who set my heart aglow." He recalls the girl even while looking at the lasses of Flanders. Now he is glad to be at home with her, playing the fiddle and recalling the fair
AUTHOR: John Henry Macaulay
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting fiddle reunion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H101, pp. 275-276, "The Ould Lammas Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9051
NOTES: The reference to courting Flemish girls could date this to several wars, but the reference to "resting from the war," and the fact that the soldiers spent much time there, clearly implies a World War I date. As one would expect of a song composed during Sam Henry's collecting days. - RBW
File: HHH101
===
NAME: Ould Leather Breeches, The: see The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)
===
NAME: Ould Man of Killyburn Brae, The: see The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)
===
NAME: Ould Orange Flute, The: see The Old Orange Flute (File: Hodg216)
===
NAME: Ould Piper, The
DESCRIPTION: An old Irish piper, who played before Moses, can only play one tune. He dies and goes to Hell The devil puts him in the frying pan; "This is another ould piper I've found/Put him down with the rest for to play." (For a chorus, the singer imitates pipes.)
AUTHOR: Carl Hardebeck
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1912 (OLochlainn-More learned from the author)
KEYWORDS: death music Hell Devil
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 70, "The Piper Who Played Before Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3091
RECORDINGS:
Frank McPeake, "The Ould Piper" (on FSB3)
File: RcTOlPi
===
NAME: Ould Plaid Shawl, The
DESCRIPTION: "Not far from old Kinvara in the merry month of May ... came ... a little Irish cailin in an ould plaid shawl" A man "enchanted with her beauty" greets her. She "shyly passed me by" He can't forget her. "I'll seek her all through Galway and ... Clare"
AUTHOR: Francis A. Fahy
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: love separation beauty courting
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 106, "The Ould Plaid Shawl" (1 text)
Roud #6351
NOTES: According to the Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site, an arrangement by W.B. Haynes was published in London in 1896 - BS 
File: GrMa106
===
NAME: Our British Troops: see The Dying British Sergeant (File: Wa010)
===
NAME: Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers)
DESCRIPTION: "Our Captain called all hands and away tomorrow, Leaving those girls behind." She says "What makes you go abroad fighting for strangers?" Stay here "free from all danger." He leaves. In grief "she fell like one a-dying."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1832 (Journal of the Bengal)
KEYWORDS: grief love request rejection war parting death family lover separation
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 416-417, "All Hands Away Tomorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 99-100, "The Captain Calls All Hands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #602
RECORDINGS:
Pop Maynard, "Our Captain Calls All Hands" (on Voice01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(636), "The Distressed Maid" ("Our captain calls all hands away to morrow"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.18(93)[a few illegible lines], Firth c.12(210), Harding B 25(525), "The Distressed Maid"; Firth c.12(208)[illegible lines], "The Distress'd Maid"
NOTES: This is not "The Bold Privateer." [I agree, and so does Roud, though Huntington implies that they are the same. - RBW]
Vaughan Williams used the tune to set the words of John Bunyan's hymn starting "He who would valiant be 'gainst all disaster" (see Southern Life(UK) Sussex villages site for Monk's Gate). - BS
The title "Fighting for Stranger" is not, to my knowledge, found in tradition, but since that is the title Steeleye Span used, in what is probably the best-known recording, I've listed it here. - RBW
File: Pea416
===
NAME: Our Cheerful Voices (Separation)
DESCRIPTION: "Our cheerful voices let us raise, And sing a parting song, Although, dear friends, I'm with you now. I can't be with you long."  The singer hopes to meet friends again, wishes the Lord would come, and hopes to be taken away by the last Trump
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Granville Gadsey)
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 204-205, "Our Cheerful Voice" (1 text)
Roud #13951
NOTES: This piece is titles "Parting Friends" in the Sacred Harp, but is not to be confused with "Farewell My Friends (Parting Friends; I'm Bound for Canaan)." - RBW
File: MHAp204
===
NAME: Our Cherries
DESCRIPTION: An allegory. The fine cherries [of true religion] are guarded from birds and infidels by a finely woven net. Some would propose to loosen the net. The result would be that birds, Methodists, and Baptists would get the fruit -- an unacceptable result
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Eddy)
KEYWORDS: religious political
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Eddy 141, "Our Cherries" (1 text)
ST E141 (Full)
Roud #4449
NOTES: Eddy, following Tolman, regards this as a bit of theological satire. I wonder if it's not a bit more complicated -- "Testy" is presumably the Test Act -- a law passed in Britain in 1673, requiring public officeholders to demonstrate a commitment to Anglicanism. The Act was repealed in 1829. The reference to Methodists implies a date not much before that. Perhaps this piece was involved (as a broadside?) in the efforts to repeal the Acts.
The reference to "Arian's flock" is, I presume, an error, referring to the Arian heresy (which held that God the Son was inferior to God the Father). The founder of this group was, however, Arius, not Arian. - RBW
File: E141
===
NAME: Our Father's Gone to View That Land: see My Father's Gone to View That Land (File: Fus209)
===
NAME: Our Fathers They'll Be There
DESCRIPTION: "Our fathers, our fathers they'll be there, Yes, our fathers they'll be there, When we all meet around God's bright throne. What a meeting, what a meeting that will be... When we all meet...." Similarly with mothers, brothers, sisters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 627, "Our Fathers They'll Be There" (1 text)
Roud #11928
File: Br3627
===
NAME: Our Fifer Boy: see The Dying Fifer (File: BrII227)
===
NAME: Our Fleet: see The Dying British Sergeant (File: Wa010)
===
NAME: Our Goodman: see Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)
===
NAME: Our Island Home
DESCRIPTION: "Then here's to ... Prince Edward Island, Sweet garden of sunshine, ... our beautiful Isle in the sea." The singer has "roamed far and wide over mountains and prairies" but prefers the people, the land and the beauty of "our Island"
AUTHOR: Father Mathias Smith
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: home lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 117-118, "Our Island Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12461
File: Dib117
===
NAME: Our Island Is Covered with Fog
DESCRIPTION: Spring. Snow melts. Frantic activities start now "our island is covered with fog": trouting, gunning, chopping; people and animals are rushing around
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing hunting humorous nonballad animal
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 89-90, "Our Island Is Covered with Fog" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Peacock: "The island referred to in the song is Fogo Island off Newfoundland's northeast coast." - BS
File: Pea089
===
NAME: Our Jack's Come Home Today
DESCRIPTION: Jack, (after many years at sea), is coming home (in some versions, "blind drunk"). Everyone rejoices at the sailor's return. His sweetheart, it is reported, "ne'er despaired, Though all hope within her died," but now the two will be married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor separation return reunion marriage
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Doerflinger, pp. 169-170, "Our Jack's Come Home Today" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1983
File: Doe169
===
NAME: Our Lady of Knock
DESCRIPTION: An apparition in the church of Knock in County Mayo: Saint Joseph, Mary, and Saint John appear to a few. Now "hundreds come from far and near Our Lady's help to seek ... deaf and dumb ... born blind" and are cured. The three are asked to intercede
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: healing Bible religious
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 21, 1879 - "15 people, from the village of Knock, witnessed an apparition of Our Lady, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist at the South gable of Knock Parish Church." (source: Museums of Mayo site, Knock Folk Museum)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 11, "Our Lady of Knock" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 78, "The Lady of Knock" (1 text)
Roud #9759
NOTES: For more information see _The Apparition at Knock 1879_ at Museums of Mayo site, Knock Folk Museum.
Apparently broadside Bodleian, Harding B 26(692), "A new song on the wonderful apparitions, of the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and St. John, in Knock Chapel County Mayo" ("Attend you faithful christians give ear to what I say," J.F. Nugent and Co. (Dublin), n.d.) is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
File: OLcM011
===
NAME: Our Ship Sails Ready to Bear Away
DESCRIPTION: The singer's ship prepares to sail. He bids Nora farewell and hopes to meet again. He thinks of all the places in Ireland he will miss: Dublin's hills, Killiney's mount, Wicklow, Avoca's Vale, Delgany, Bray,... and knows he'll remember Ireland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond03); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(164))
KEYWORDS: love emigration farewell sea ship Ireland nonballad home
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #2995
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Our Ship Sails Ready to Bear Away" (on IRRCinnamond03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(567), "The Emigrants Farewell to his Country" ("Our ship is ready to beare away"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Remember Me" (shares opening verses)
NOTES: Wright-Irish (_Irish Emigrant Ballads and Songs_) pp. 111, 170-173, has two versions of "Our Ship Sails Ready to Sail Away" and one of "Remember Me" and considers them to be variants of the same song. His longest version of "Our Ship ..." and his "Remember Me" share three verses almost exactly; "Our Ship ..." adds six 4-line verses and "Remember Me" adds five 4-line verses and, in these lines, the songs share no lines. "Our Ship ..." is a farewell to Nora, and besides to Dublin, Delgany and Wicklow; "Remember Me" is a farewell to old Ireland boys, and besides to Killarney. My inclination is to keep them as two separate songs. - BS
File: RcOSSRBA
===
NAME: Our Ship She Is Lying in Harbour
DESCRIPTION: The impressed singer, his ship ready to sail, hopes his girl will be safe. The girl laments the departed youth; the father is glad her is gone. Her love returns after seven years. The father offers her money not to marry him, but they are married anyway
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: sailor love separation pressgang father
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 124-125, "Our Ship She Is Lying in Harbour" ( text)
Roud #1011
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lowlands of Holland" (lyrics)
NOTES: There are several songs on this theme, but this doesn't quite seem to match any of them. Several early verses are found, almost verbatim, near the END of some texts of "The Lowlands of Holland." It's almost as if someone took the end of that song as the starting-off point for this. - RBW
File: SWMS124
===
NAME: Our Street Car
DESCRIPTION: In abysmal verse, the singer points out, "Let moderns preach, 'We need more street' With themes and schemes -- ah! scorner." The singer would rather praise "Our street car! Ours to honor." The singer describes its virtues and mourns its passing
AUTHOR: Lucie Mullan
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: technology nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 248-249, "Our Street Car" (1 text)
NOTES: Thomas implies that the author sang this piece, but I find it hard to believe this mess could fit a regular tune. - RBW
File: ThBa248
===
NAME: Our Wedding Day: see She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day) (File: K165)
===
NAME: Out In the Moonlight (I Will Love Thee Always)
DESCRIPTION: The young man bids the girl goodbye in the moonlight, promising, "I will love you always... Through life and death I'm faithful to thee." Returning home (a year) later, he finds her married to another. He leaves a note and shoots himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Rutherford & Burnett)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage separation betrayal suicide
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 803, "Out in the Moonlight" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #3445
RECORDINGS:
Burnett & Rutherford, "Under the Pale Moonlight" (Challenge 420, 1928; on BurnRuth01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Skon Jungfrun Hon Gangar Sig Till Sogsta Berg (The Pretty Maid Climbs the Highest Mountain)" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Forsaken Love
NOTES: The Burnett & Rutherford version of this differs so strongly from the versions in Randolph (lacking, e.g., the suicide ending; also, the the girl is not yet married when he returns home) that I was sorely tempted to classify it as a separate song. The essential plot is the same, however, and some of the words, and I know of no other versions of the recorded song. So they stay together. - RBW
File: R803
===
NAME: Out of the Wilderness: see The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)
===
NAME: Out of the Window: see She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day) (File: K165)
===
NAME: Out on the Lone Star Cow Trail
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a cowboy, meets a comrade and kills him although "he was dear to me." The judge sends him to prison. He asks listener to tell mother and sweetheart that he's in the "dark city jail";  his sweeheart should bail him out. Chorus: "Hoo-hoo-hooo-oo-oo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Dick Devall)
KEYWORDS: captivity violence crime homicide prison punishment trial friend lover cowboy judge
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Dick Devall, "Out on the Lone Star Cow Trail" (Timely Tunes [Victor] C-1563, 1931; on MakeMe, WhenIWas1)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "Lone Star Trail." - PJS
File: RcOotLSC
===
NAME: Out on the Silvery Tide: see The Silvery Tide [Laws O37] (File: LO37)
===
NAME: Out to Dark Harbour
DESCRIPTION: "Now boys I'll tell you it's a wonderful time Out to Dark Harbour in the old summer time." The singer picks dulse and sells it at Eastport.
AUTHOR: John Guptill (of Grand Manan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: sea commerce nonballad food
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 117, "Out to Dark Harbour" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB117 (Partial)
Roud #2785
NOTES: Creighton-SNewBrunswick: "Dulse is an edible seaweed that grows in profusion on Grand Manan, and it is of such a high quality that it is shipped to world markets." 
Grand Manan is an island at the southernmost end of New Brunswick, south east of Eastport, Maine. - BS
File: CrSNB117
===
NAME: Outharbour Planter, The
DESCRIPTION: The narrator lights his pipe and extols the virtues of the "outharbour planter." This apparently dead breed of men was not well refined but had many virtues of industry and honesty.
AUTHOR: M. A. Devine
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: recitation virtue
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 136, "The Outharbor Planter" (1 text)
Doyle2, p. 78, "The Outharbour Planter" (1 text)
Roud #6354
NOTES: A typical song about the archetypal hardy Newfoundlander. The dictionary defines a "planter" as a person who settles or colonizes a new area. I believe that this is the closest definition here because the "outharbour" is probably synonymous with "outport" which is a very small settlement far away from cities. They are probably leaders of a kind because there are some references in the song being made to his selling and providing people with food and clothes and using his house as a meeting hall. - SH
File: Doy78
===
NAME: Outlandish Knight, The: see Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)
===
NAME: Outlaw Dunny
DESCRIPTION: The cook's rattling arouses Dunny, and he and the rest of the herd take off. By the time the poet catches them, breakfast is cold. The boss then orders the poet to ride Dunny. He makes the attempt, but naturally is thrown. He quits on the spot
AUTHOR: Jim McElroy
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy recitation work
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 75, "Outlaw Dunny" (1 text)
File: Ohr075
===
NAME: Outlaw Murray, The [Child 305]
DESCRIPTION: The King of Scotland demands that the outlaw pay him homage for his holdings in Ettrick Forest. Murray refuses; he won the land by his own valor. The King calls up his forces to attack Murray. A compromise is reached; Murray becomes sheriff of Ettrick
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1791 (Glenriddell mss.)
KEYWORDS: outlaw royalty bargaining reprieve
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 305, "The Outlaw Murray" (3 texts)
OBB 84, "The Outlaw Murray" (1 text)
Roud #3296
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" [Child 287] (theme)
File: C305
===
NAME: Outlaw of Loch Lene, The
DESCRIPTION: The outlaw lives in the wood. "All the wealth that I sought, one fair kind glance from my love." His lover lives down by the lake. He remembers when his lover swam Loch Lene to find him. He imagines them alone, "far off on the deep"
AUTHOR: unknown (translated by J. J. Callanan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad lover outlaw separation
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
OLochlainn-More 55, "The Outlaw of Loch Lene" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 228, 496, "Outlaw of Loch Lene"
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), p. 42, "The Outlaw of Loch Lene" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #365, "The Outlaw of Loch Lene" (1 text)
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: "One of J.J.[Jeremiah Joseph] Callanan's [1795-1839] best translations of Gaelic songs." - BS
There is a certain amount of confusion about this author. Most sources list his name as James Joseph Callanan, but he is also sometimes listed under the name "Jeremiah" (and, yes, it is known that it is the same guy). Most sources agree that he was born in 1795, but his death date seemingly varies; Hoagland and MacDonagh/Robinson give 1829. He wrote some poetry of his own, but is probably best known for his translations from Gaelic. Works of his found in this index include "The Convict of Clonmel," "The Outlaw of Loch Lene," "Sweet Avondu," "The Virgin Mary's Bank," "Gougane Barra," and a translation of "Drimindown." - RBW
File: OLcM055
===
NAME: Outward and Homeward Bound
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Verses enumerate the ports to be visited and the girls being left behind. The singer says the purser will supply their needs, and looks forward to returning home after (three) years. Chorus: "We're outward bound, Hurrah, we're outward bound."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: shanty farewell travel
FOUND_IN: Britain US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Harlow, pp. 136-139, "Outward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 541-543, "Outward and Homeward Bound" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 387-389]
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 147-148, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #927
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Homeward Bound
NOTES: Most if not all versions of this share a verse with "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!Ó; at one time I lumped Shay's version with that song. We've now split them, but it seems clear there is some sort of borrowing going on. Given that "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!" is apparently a composed song, the best bet may be that that is a rewrite of this. - RBW
File: Hugi541
===
NAME: Ouzel, The
DESCRIPTION: Ouzel sails from Dublin for Tripoli. "Somewhere down by Algiers, on the coast of Barbary, The Ringsend sailors fought and failed against black piracy." Years later they escape, take over Ouzel again, and return to Ireland with pirate gold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: sea ship captivity slavery pirate escape
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1695 - Ouzel sails from Dublin for Smyrna but is not heard from until she returns five years later (see Notes)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 113-114, "The Ouzel" (1 text)
NOTES: "The crew said the ship had been captured by Algerian pirates who used it to terrorise the Mediterranean seas, although it was rumored in some quarters that Captain Massey might have been indulging in a spot of piracy himself!! The offic[i]al story went on to relate how the Irish crew, who had been spared, managed to escape from captivity and regained control of the ship and the pirate's booty" (source: site of The Ouzel Galley Society on IrishShips)
Irish Architecture Online site: "Ringsend is named from the Gaelic Roinn Aun, meaning Sea Point. In the 17th century it took over from Dalkey as Dublin's main port." - BS
File: Ran113
===
NAME: Ovaltine: see Uncle Joe and Aunty Mabel (File: EM374)
===
NAME: Over the Garden Wall
DESCRIPTION: The young couple court "over the garden wall": "Over the garden wall, The sweetest girl of all, I'll never forget those eyes of jet, You may bet I'll never forget, Over the garden wall."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1937 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 867, "Over the Garden Wall" (1 text)
Roud #3765
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Over the Garden Wall" (Montgomery Ward M-7354. c. 1937)
NOTES: A piece by this name was published by G. Fox-Hunter in 1879. - RBW
File: R867
===
NAME: Over the Hills at the Poorhouse
DESCRIPTION: "Over the hills at the poorhouse In the twilight so dim and so gray, A woman is quiely lying, Breathing her life away." She "blesses" her children while whining that they never listen; when she is buried, the children find excuses not to attend
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: mother death burial hardheartedness children rejection
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 280-281, "Over the Hills at the Poorhouse" (1 text)
Roud #5496
NOTES: Belden notes that there is a poem by Will Carleton with a similar title and theme, but regards them as separate (the Carleton piece, which is 22 stanzas long, begins "Over the hill to the poor-house I'm trudgin' my weary way -- I, a woman of seventy, and only a trifle gray..."), and also (correctly) treats a piece in Brown and Dean (given here as "Over the Hills to the Poor-House") as separate. One rather hopes so; this strikes me as just another "young folks these days are so..." potboiler. - RBW
File: Beld280
===
NAME: Over the Hills So Far Away
DESCRIPTION: "Possum ran from under the barn, Fiddle bow under his arm, The only tune that be could play Was Over the hills so far away." (x3) "The old cow died in the forks of the branch, Over the hills so far away; Possum had a regular dance, Over the hills...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal music dancing
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 165, "Over the Hills So Far Away" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "O'er the Hills and Far Away (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES: Almost certainly derived as some degree from "O'er the Hills and Far Away (I)," but since the outcome is an animal song, I classify this separately. - RBW
File: Br3165
===
NAME: Over the Hills to the Poor-House
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, yes, it is true they have driven Their father so helpless and old; Oh, God! may their crime be forgiven For driving him out in the cold." The father, "helpless and feeble," recalls his love for wife and children, and sadly sets out for the poorhouse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: home betrayal children father poverty age
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownII 171, "Over the Hills to the Poor-House" (1 text)
Dean, pp. 121-122, "Over the Hills to the Poorhouse" (1 text)
Roud #5496
RECORDINGS:
Bert Peck, "Over the Hills to the Poor House" (Brunswick 522, c. 1930)
Peg Moreland, "Over the Hills to the Poorhouse" (Victor 21548, 1928)
NOTES: Belden notes that there is a poem by Will Carleton with a similar title and theme, but regards them as separate, and also (correctly) treats this piece as different the Missouri text ("Over the Hills at the Poorhouse") he himself printed. - RBW
File: BrII171
===
NAME: Over the Hills to the Poorhouse: see Over the Hills to the Poor-House (File: BrII171)
===