NAME: Let Go the Reef Tackle
DESCRIPTION: The ship sails out the channel as the sailor cries out, "Let go the reef tay-ckle, Let go the reef tay-ckle, Let go the reef tay-ckle, My sheets they are jammed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: sailor work
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Doerflinger, p. 165, "Let Go the Reef Tackle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 170-171, "Let Go the Reefy Tackle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, p. 503, "Slack Away Yer Reefy Tayckle" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 371]
Roud #9145
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Go the Peak Halyards" (form)
File: Doe165
===
NAME: Let God's Saints Come In
DESCRIPTION: "Come down, angel, and trouble the water (x3), And let God's saints come in." "Canaan land is the land for me, And let God's saints come in." The story of the Exodus, and of Moses's role, is briefly told.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 76, "Let God's Saints Come In" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The reference to an angel coming down and troubling the water is assuredly to John 5:4 as it is found in the King James Bible -- though in fact this verse is almost certainly secondary; of the nine earliest manuscripts of John, only one includes it (and it omits part of verse 3).
God's instructions to Moses are in Exodus 3.
The incident in which God shows Moses the backside of his glory, but not his front, is in Exodus 33:22-23, and the passage has been provoking scholars for centuries with its seeming anthropomorphism. - RBW
File: AWG076
===
NAME: Let Her Go By: see Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye (File: BMRF591)
===
NAME: Let Me Call You Sweetheart
DESCRIPTION: "Let me call you 'sweetheart'...." The singer professes his lover in the usual sorts of empty phrases
AUTHOR: Words: Beth Slater Whitson/Music: Leo Friedman
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuld-WFM, p. 327, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart"
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (Columbia 405-D, 1925)
SAME_TUNE:
Don't You Call Me Sweetheart (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 113)
Let Me Call You Lizzie (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 113)
Let Me Call You Sweetheart (I'm In Love With Your Automobile) (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 146)
NOTES: Not a folk song by any stretch I can imagine. It's listed here because of all the parodies it inspired. - RBW
File: xxLMCYS
===
NAME: Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's: see Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's) (File: Doyl3039)
===
NAME: Let Me Fly
DESCRIPTION: "Way down yonder in the middle of the field, Angel workin' at the chariot wheel... Now let me fly (x2), Let me fly to Mount Zion, Lord, Lord." The singer hopes to meet mother in Heaven, and advises avoiding hypocrites
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 364, "Let Me Fly" (1 text)
DT, LETMEFLY*
File: FSWB364
===
NAME: Let Me Go Home, Whiskey
DESCRIPTION: "Let me go home, whiskey, Let me go out that door... Well, I'm feelin' so fine, But I just can't take it no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, p. 20, "Let Me Go Home, Whiskey" (1 text (probably incomplete), 1 tune)
File: CNFM020
===
NAME: Let Me In This Ae Nicht
DESCRIPTION: The (Laird o' Windy Wa's) comes to the girl's window (in bad weather) and begs her, "Let me in this ae nicht." The girl protests. He convinces her to let him in discreetly. She does, and he takes her maidenhead and steals away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (recording, Archie Fisher)
KEYWORDS: sex nightvisit bawdy mother father trick grief courting request rejection storm father lover mother soldier
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 90, "Glaw, Keser, Ergh Ow-cul Yma [It Rains, It Hails and Snows and Blows]" (1 text + Cornish translation, 1 tune)
DT, AENICHT COLDRAIN*
Roud #135
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht" (chorus, theme)
cf. "Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails)" (plot)
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Laird o Windy Wa's
The Laird o Udny
Cold Haily Windy Night
Cold Blow and a Rainy Night
NOTES: This is a complicated story. Kennedy seems to split this song from "Cold Blow and a Rainy Night" but I unhesitatingly lump them. [As do I - RBW.] The plot combines elements of the first three night-visiting songs cross-referenced, but has a distinctly different ending, more reminiscent of "The Barley Straw." 
Kennedy's Cornish words are a revivalist translation from the English. Digital Tradition mentions a 19th-century broadside in Baring Gould's collection, but offers no details, and it's not in Kennedy. - PJS
Archie Fisher and Kennedy both say this is part of a longer song found in Herd. But is it a part, or a relative (compare "Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht")? I flatly don't trust Kennedy's list of versions.
Paul Stamler wanted to file this as "Cold Haily Windy Night," on the basis that it's the one best known to folkies, citing recordings by Steeleye Span and Martin Carthy. But I had already assigned the title I learned.... - RBW 
File: DTaenich
===
NAME: Let Me Lose: see If I Lose, I Don't Care (File: CSW187)
===
NAME: Let Me Ride
DESCRIPTION: "Well, I'm a soldier, let me ride (x3); Low down your chariot and let me ride!" "I've been converted, let me ride..." "I've got my ticket..." "I'm bound for Heaven..." "In the Kingdom..." "Troubles over...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Warner 170, "Let Me Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 72, "(Low Down the Chariot and Let Me Ride)" (1 text); p. 250, "Let Me Ride" (1 tune, partial text)
ST Wa170 (Partial)
Roud #7500
RECORDINGS:
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Low Down the Chariot and Let Me Ride"  (on NFMAla5) (on ReedWard01)
NOTES: This became a staple of gospel quartet recordings in the 1940s. - PJS
File: Wa170
===
NAME: Let Mr. Maguire Sit Down: see Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down (File: RcLMMSD)
===
NAME: Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down
DESCRIPTION: When Mick McGuire calls to court Kitty Donahue, her mother makes sure that he, a farm owner, had the seat by the fire. (Once married, Mick spends her father's legacy, or he proves poorer than expected.) Now her mother won't have him sit by the fire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean); c.1845 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1270(020))
KEYWORDS: courting dowry marriage humorous mother money poverty
FOUND_IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 86, "Kate OÕDonahue" (1 text)
Roud #4249
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Let Mr. Maguire Sit Down" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Mick McGuire" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Dinny (Jimmy) Doyle and Larry Griffin, "Let Mr McGuire Sit Down" (on USBallinsloeFair)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(135), "Barney, Get Up from the Fire", unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, L.C.1270(020), "Barney Get Up from the Fire!", unknown, c.1845
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Mick Maguire
Kitty Donahue
NOTES: The 1928 date for USBallinsloeFair is according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #1122.
Broadsides NLScotland L.C.1270(020) and Bodleian 2806 c.16(135) are clearly the same song with the same chorus as the recordings but [have] a different twist. Barney is Kate's brother and tries to blackmail Paddy M'Guire ("I saw you courting Peggy Brown, I'll tell my sister Kate, But if you give me a sixpence, maybe I'll hold my prate.") but mother saves the day; they marry happily and without recriminations on anyone's part. - BS
File: RcLMMSD
===
NAME: Let Old Nellie Stay
DESCRIPTION: The bartender is closing up, and demands that the "old lady in red" depart. As she starts crying, someone explains, "Her mother never told her The things a young girl should know... So do not treat her harshly Because she went too far...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: drink age sin recitation
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 44, "Let Old Nellie Stay" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" (theme)
File: Ohr044
===
NAME: Let Recreant Rulers Pause
DESCRIPTION: "Rouse! Orangemen, rouse! in God be your hope, For England is now allied with the Pope." "The Papists are plotting our Church to pull down." "For wearing a ribbon of Orange and Blue, The prisons were filled with the loyal and true" but we remain loyal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jul 26, 1869 - Irish Church Disestablishment Act
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 18, "Let Recreant Rulers Pause" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Downfall of Heresy" (subject)
NOTES: OrangeLark: "This song is a protest against the proposal [sic] disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of Ireland, which was to take place in 1871." - BS
"Disestablishment" was the process under which Catholic tithes ceased to support the Protestant church and clergy. For the Catholic view of the matter, see "The Downfall of Heresy."
The absurdity of the claim that Britain was allied with the Pope is shown by the fact that, to this day, Catholics are excluded from the British succession. Not only is it illegal for a Catholic to be the crowned monarch, it's illegal for one even to marry a Catholic. - RBW
File: OrLa018
===
NAME: Let That Liar Alone
DESCRIPTION: On the theme of the wickedness a liar can do. "Come to your house, stay all day...." "Tell you such a lie it'll surprise your mind...." Sometimes the liar is Satan. Cho: "If you don't want... to get in trouble...You'd better let that liar alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recordings, Rev. Edward Clayborn, Rev. Isaiah Shelton)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Words vary, but always on the theme of the wickedness a liar can do. "Come to your house, stay all day" "Tell you such a lie it'll surprise your mind/Mix a little truth just to make it shine" Sometimes the liar is Satan. Chorus: "If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble...You'd better let that liar alone"
KEYWORDS: lie nonballad religious devil
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #5120
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Let That Liar Alone" (Vocalion 5229, c. 1928)
Carlisles, "Leave That Liar Alone" (Mercury 70109, 1953)
Carter Family, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 5518, 1938, rec. 1937)
Rev. Edward Clayborn, "Let That Lie Alone" (Vocalion 1093, 1927)
Fairfield Four, "Better Leave That Liar Alone" (Bullet 253, n.d.; rec. 1946)
Golden Gate Quartet, "Let That Liar Alone" (Bluebird B-7835, 1938)
Rev. Anderson Johnson, "Leave That Liar Alone" (Glory 4016, n.d., rec. 1953)
Mound City Jubilee Quartette, "Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 7058, 1935)
Rev. Isaiah Shelton, "The Liar" (Victor 20583, 1927; on Babylon)
Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (OKeh 8667/Velvetone 7078/Clarion 6052/Diva 5175, 1929; rec. 1928)
Rosetta Tharpe, "Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 48023, n.d.; rec. 1943)
Trumpeteers, "Leave That Lie Alone" (Score 5057, n.d.; rec. 1946)
Rev. T. E. Weems, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (Columbia 14469-D, 1929; rec. 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Satan's a Liar (Ain't Gonna Worry My Lord No More)" (theme)
NOTES: This is a messy song; the verses vary all over the place, sometimes secular, sometimes religious, but the chorus is constant. - PJS
File: RcLTLA
===
NAME: Let the Back and Sides Go Bare
DESCRIPTION: Beggar sings of the pleasures of his life -- drinking, starving, sleeping in filth, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: drink begging starvation humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland,England)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Sharp-100E 78, "The Beggar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT BCK&SID2*
Roud #1573
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Begging I Will Go" (theme)
cf. "Jolly Good Ale and Old (Back and Sides Go Bare)" (chorus)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Beggar's Song
NOTES: The chorus, "Let the back and the sides go bare, go bare/let the hands and the feet grow cold/but give to the belly, boys, beer enough/whether it be new or old" appears in _Gammer Gurton's Needle_ (1575), but the verses are quite different. -PJS
The themes are rather similar, though; I suspect the dependence is literary. - RBW
File: ShH78
===
NAME: Let the Bullgine Run (I): see Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run) (File: LoF029)
===
NAME: Let the Bullgine Run (II): see Run, Let the Bullgine Run (File: Hugi342)
===
NAME: Let the Cocaine Be: see Take a Whiff on Me (File: RL130)
===
NAME: Let the Deal Go Down
DESCRIPTION: "Let the deal go down, boys, Let the deal go down." (Sound effects indicate cards being dealt.) "If your cards ain't lucky, Y' oughta be in a rollin' game." "I want to win for my sweet mama, She needs a new pair of shoes." Verses about (problem) gambling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Hurston, Mules and Men)
KEYWORDS: gambling cards
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 296, "Let the Deal Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Zora Neale Hurston, _Mules and Men_ (New York,1990 (paperback edition of 1935 original)), pp. 271-272, "Let the Deal Go Down" (with tune)

NOTES: Not to be confused with "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down." - RBW
The game referred to in this and similar songs is the "Skin Game" or "Georgia Skin Game." -PJS
File: LoF296
===
NAME: Let the Dove Come In
DESCRIPTION: "(Oh,) Noah, hoist the window (x3), Hoist the window, let the dove come in." Describes how Noah's neighbors scorned him for his work, but he had the last laugh.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: ship Bible
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, p. 45, (no title) (partial text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Noah's Ark" (lyrics)
NOTES: In this song from the Georgia Sea Islands, the name "Noah" is pronounced "Norah." - RBW
File: CNFM045
===
NAME: Let the Lower Lights Be Burning
DESCRIPTION: "Brightly beams our Father's mercy, from his lighthouse evermore." "Let the lower lights be burning, Send a beam across the wave, Some poor fainting, struggling seaman, You may rescue, you may save." In a dark night of sin, many are seeking light
AUTHOR: Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1871 (first published, according to Dright Boyer, Ships and Men of the Great Lakes)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sailor
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 214-216, "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOWERLTS
Roud #16709
NOTES: Many P. P. Bliss hymns have some sort of story associated with them (see, for instance, "Hold the Fort," inspired by a message General Sherman sent to a subordinate). Dwight Boyer, _Ships and Men of the Great Lakes_ (Freshwater Press, 1977) devotes a whole chapter to Bliss and this song., and tells the story on pp. 41-42 (also found in Walton/Grimm/Murdock). Apparently, in this case, a ship was trying to make Cleveland harbor. But the crew could not see the lights of the town (the "lower lights") in the storm, and failed to navigate into the harbor, and the boat was lost.
Bliss made an analogy: God manages the "great lighthouse," but people are the "lower lights" which help with parts of the navigation, and hence should present the best light they can.
According to Boyer, p. 41n., no such boat wreck can be identified, but of course it doesn't really matter for purposes of the song.
Walton/Grimm/Murdock claims that several Great Lakes sailors recalled this song, but cites no names; it appears the version in the book is from print. So I have not listed the Great Lakes in the "Found In" field; I am not convinced this song is genuinely traditional
Nonetheless Walton/Grimm/Murdock did not invent the Great Lakes association, since Boyer also describes it.
Boyer on p. 40 says of Bliss "was best-known for his golden-voiced renditions of hymns he himself had composed. So beautiful and emotional was his delivery that tears would often stream from his eyes, and his audiences frequently reacted likewise.
According to Charles Johnson, _One Hundred and One Famous Hymn_s (Hallberg, 1982), Bliss (born July 9, 1838) sold his first song to Root and Cady in 1864. He even worked for that time for Root and Cady before becoming choir director of Chicago's First Congregational Church. He went on to woek with Dwight L. Moody.
In 1874, Bliss published his collection _Gospel Songs_ -- apparently the first substantiated use of this term.
Bliss died in 1876 in a train wreck. He and his family were making a trip through Ohio on December 29 when the train went off the track near a bridge in a snowstorm (Boyer, pp. 43-46). As the train cars fell, they caught fire. Boyer says that 92 passengers were killed and 64 injured. Bliss and his wife were among them. A legend I saw somewhere says that he was killed while going back into the inferno to rescue other passengers. (Johnson, p. 145, says he was trying to rescue his wife)
Daniel Webster Whittle, who also wrote "Neither Do I Condemn Thee," posthumously published the memoirs of Bliss; that book seems to be the major source of information about him.
Among songs in this Index, Bliss is responsible for "Hold the Fort," "Pull for the Shore," and "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning"; he also supplied the tune for "It Is Well With My Soul." Brown attributes "Little Birdie in the Tree" to him; it doesn't sound much like his style to me, though. - RBW
File: WGM214
===
NAME: Let Us Be Merry Before We Go: see The Deserter's Lamentation (File: OLcM087A)
===
NAME: Let's Go a-Hunting: see Billy Barlow (File: SBoA165)
===
NAME: Let's Go a-Hunting, Says Richard to Robert: see Billy Barlow (File: SBoA165)
===
NAME: Let's Go to the Woods: see Hunt the Wren (File: K078)
===
NAME: Letter Edged in Black, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer cheerfully greets the postman, only to be handed a letter edged in black. The letter is from his father, informing him that his mother is dead.
AUTHOR: Hattie Hicks Woodbury (Hattie Nevada)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1897 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death mother mourning
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 703, "The Letter Edged in Black" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 475-476, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 703A)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 169-171, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 38-39, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 267, "The Letter Edged In Black" (1 text)
DT, LETTRBLK
Roud #3116
RECORDINGS:
Cotton Butterfield, "Letter Edged in Black" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Letter Edged In Black" (OKeh 7008, 1924)
Pete Cassell, "The Letter Edged in Black" (Majestic 6007, c. 1947)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Letter Edged in Black" (Lincoln 2426, 1925) (Edison 51649, 1925)  (Victor 19837, 1925) (Cameo 809, 1925)  (Banner 1653, 1926; Challenge 560, 1927; Conqueror 7074, 1928) (Bell 396, 1926) (Challenge 160/Challenge 319, 1927) (Champion 15906, 1930; Champion 45096, 1935; rec. 1928) (Brunswick 2900, 1925; Supertone S-2000, 1930) (Columbia 15049-D [as by Al Craver], c. 1926) (Brunswick 6799, 1934) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5085 or 5086, 1925) (Durium 9-2, n.d.)
Bradley Kincaid, "Letter Edged In Black"  (Bluebird B-5895, 1935; rec. 1934)
Frank Luther, "Letter Edged in Black" (Decca 435, 1935)
George Reneau, "Lettter Edged in Black"  (Vocalion 14998, 1925/ Vocalion 5058, c. 1926)
Marc Williams, "Letter Edged in Black" (Decca 5327, 1937; rec. 1934)
File: R703
===
NAME: Letter in the Candle, The
DESCRIPTION: "There's a letter in the candle, It points direct to me, How the little spark is shining, From whoever can it be." The singer describes the "writer From far across the sea." Her last letter in a candle meant her sailor was coming home....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 777, "The Letter in the Candle" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 37-38, "The Letter in the Candle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7412
File: R777
===
NAME: Letter that Never Came, The
DESCRIPTION: Day after day, a man asks the mail carrier if there is a letter for him. Day after day, he is disappointed. The chorus asks from whom the letter might come. But come it never does; the man dies, and asks that the letter, if it comes, be buried with him
AUTHOR: Paul Dresser (1857-1906) and Max Sturm
EARLIEST_DATE: 1886 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: death lastwill
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Rorrer, p. 76, "The Letter That Never Came" (1 text)
Gilbert, p. 142, "The Letter that Never Came" (1 text)
ST Gil142 (Full)
Roud #4860
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "The Letter that Never Came" (Columbia 15580-D, 1930)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "The Letter That Never Came" (Supertone 9363, 1929)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "The Letter That Never Came" (Columbia 15179-D, 1927; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "No Letter in the Mail" (theme)
cf. "The Eight-Pound Bass" (tune and structure)
NOTES: Gilbert observes that this song, unlike almost all popular music, preserves the mystery to the end: We never do learn from whom the letter might have come.
For the story of Paul Dresser, see the notes to "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away." - RBW
File: Gil142
===
NAME: Letters of Love, The: see Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)
===
NAME: Letty Lee: see Young Kitty Lee (Letty Lee) (File: Pea605)
===
NAME: Levee Camp Holler
DESCRIPTION: "We git up in de mornin' so dog-gone soon, Cain'[t] see nothin' but de stars and moon. Um...." An enumeration of typical travails in a hard day behind a team of mules.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: poverty work hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 569, "Levee Camp Holler" (1 text (composite, from Lomax), 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 49-52, "Levee Camp 'Holler'" (1 text, obviously composite, 1 tune)
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 67-70, "I Can Buckle a Wheeler" (2 texts, 2 tunes, both probably the same as one of the composite parts of Lomax's "Levee Camp Holler"; the "A" text also contains a large part of "Mule Skinner Blues")
Roud #15580
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Roustabout Holler"
cf. "Steel Laying Holler"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
I Worked Old Moll
File: BMRF569
===
NAME: Levee Moan (I'm Goin' Where Nobody Knows My Name)
DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' whe' nobody knows mah name, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, I'm goin whe' nobody knows mah name." (x2) "I'm goin' whe' dey don't shovel no snow...." "I'm goin' whe' de chilly wind don't blow...." "Oh, baby, whe' you been so long...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: nonballad work
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, pp. 225-227, "Levee Moan" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES: This looks to me like a cross of "Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad" with "Chilly Winds" -- but I can't prove it. - RBW
File: San225
===
NAME: Lewie Gordon (Lewis Gordon)
DESCRIPTION: "O send Lewie Gordon hame, And the lad I darena name" The singer describes her true love. "O to see this princely one Seated on his father's throne!" "Weel wad I my true love ken Amang ten thousand Highlandmen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1778 (_The Scots Nightingale_, according to GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: rebellion exile nonballad Jacobites
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Hogg2 41, "Lewie Gordon" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan1 133, "Lewie Gordon" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #5777
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1547), "Lewie Gordon" ("O send Lewie Gordon hame"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), c.1840
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Tarry Woo" (tune, according to Hogg2)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
John Hielan'man
My Highland Love
NOTES: Hogg2: "'Lewie Gordon' has always been a popular ditty, and was supposed to have been made by a Mr Geddes, priest at Shenval in the Enzie, on the Lord Lewis Gordon...; on the rising in 1745, declared for Prince Charles; ... after the battle of Culloden he escaped abroad; was attainted by act of parliament, 1746; and died at Montreuil, in France, on the 15th of June, 1754." - BS
File: GrD1133
===
NAME: Lexington Murder, The: see The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)
===
NAME: Li'l Liza Jane
DESCRIPTION: "I've got a gal who loves me so, L'il Liza Jane, Way down south in Baltimore... Oh, Eliza, L'il Liza Jane." The singer loves Liza at first sight, and so "Now I've got me a mother-in-law," plus a house and children in Baltimore, and a home which he loves
AUTHOR: Countess Ada de Lachau
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage children
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 436, "Eliza Jane (I)" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 37, "L'il Liza Jane" (1 text)
Roud #825
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Vocalion 15638, 1927)
Harry C. Browne, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Columbia A2622, 1918)
Al Campbell & Henry Burr, "Liza Jane" (Columbia A2621, 1918)
Carter Bros. & Son, "Liza Jane" (OKeh 45202, 1928)
Taylor Flanagan & his Trio, "Li'l Liza Jane' (Brunswick 573, 1931; rec. 1930)
Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Victor 18394, 1917)
Louise Massey & the Westerners, "Lil Liza Jane" (Vocalion 05361, 1939)
Ollie Shepard & his Kentucky Boys, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Decca 7651, 1939)
Win Stracke, "Little Liza" (Mercury 5777, 1952)
NOTES: Hard to believe that this isn't a variant of one of the other Liza Jane songs. But there is no evidence that it is. - RBW
It's a composed song, published in 1906, from the show "Come Out of the Kitchen." - PJS
Which probably holds some sort of record for obscurity. I can't even determine if "Countess" is part of de Lachau's name (which I suspect of being a pseudonym), or if she really was a slumming member of some obscure branch of the nobility.My library contains no references to her, and an internet search turned up nothing of use except copies of the sheet music to this song. - RBW
File: FSWB037
===
NAME: Liam O Raofaille (Willy Reilly; The Virgin Widow)
DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: The singer and her Liam (Willie) are married on the island where they live, but as he rows the priest back to the mainland after the ceremony, the boat sinks and both are drowned. She is left a widow on her wedding night
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (recording, Sean 'Ac Donnca)
KEYWORDS: grief love virginity wedding death drowning ship foreignlanguage lament husband wife clergy
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Sean 'Ac Donnca, "Liam O Raofaille" (on TradIre01)
File: RcLiamOR
===
NAME: Liam OConnell's Hat
DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to Coolea "on a dancing expedition." After the dance and drinks his famous hat is missing. It had been worn by Brian Boru, Alfred the Great,... He searches all Ireland but, finally, a witch tells him it is in the Lake.
AUTHOR: "[Jimmy?] Crowley the tailor" (source: OCanainn)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink music humorous talltale witch clothes
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OCanainn, pp. 96-97,124, "Liam OConnell's Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The tall tale nature of this song is shown by the two kings mentioned. Alfred reigned in Wessex (southwestern England) from probably 871 to c. 899. Brian Boru was born a copule of generations later, and died at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Thus it is chronologically possible that the hat could have passed on -- but there was effectively no contact between Wessex and Ireland at this time. Unless the Vikings captured the hat from Wessex and carried it to Ireland. But what are the odds of it surviving that? (Even if you assume it survived everything else). - RBW
File: OCan096
===
NAME: Liar's Song, The: see Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)
===
NAME: Liberty for the Sailors
DESCRIPTION: "The Bellman's called it round the town, And far and near the news has flown; Each wife seeks out her last new gown, There's liberty for the sailors." The revels are told as "every lass will get her lad And every bairn will see its dad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: sailor home food drink party
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 188-189, "Liberty for the Sailors" (1 text, 1 tune); some additional words given on p. 198
DT, LIBSAILR*
Roud #3179
File: StoR188
===
NAME: Liberty Tree (I), The
DESCRIPTION: "Columbus, a man of great genius, Came from the European shore [to America where] Great God himself has created A place for the Liberty Tree." Great Britain jealously tried to clamp down on the Americas, but they remain a beacon of liberty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad America exploration
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 47-50, "The Liberty Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The phrase "The Liberty Tree" is probably inspired by a publication of Thomas Paine's, itself found as a song, though I don't know if it's traditional.
The piece in Thomas doesn't strike me as a real result of the folk process; it looks like one of those pieces certain teachers wrote to teach their students. - RBW
File: ThBa047
===
NAME: Lichtbob's Lassie, The: see Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)
===
NAME: Lie Low: see The Major and the Weaver [Laws Q10] (File: LQ10)
===
NAME: Life Boat, The
DESCRIPTION: "The life boat is comin', by the eye of faith I see, As she sweeps through the water to rescue you and me." The singer rejoices that the life boat will take him/her (and his/her companions) away from worldly sorrows and into heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 629, "The Life Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3405
File: R629
===
NAME: Life in a Prairie Shack
DESCRIPTION: The singer points out the difficulties of "life in a prairie shack." The tenderfoot can't handle the cold and rain, is thrown from his horse, and hits his toe with an axe. His conclusion: "This bloomin' country's a fraud, And I want to go home to my ma." 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes injury mother
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fife-Cowboy/West 36, "Life in a Prairie Shack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 33, "Life in a Prairie Shack" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PRAIRSHK*
Roud #4472
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (tune)
File: FCW036
===
NAME: Life in California
DESCRIPTION: Singer leaves his family in Maine to seek California gold; he loses his money at cards and catches the "fever-n-ager." He asks for food, drink, lodging. Cho: "I'm a used-up man, a perfect used-up man/And if ever I get home again, I'll stay there if I can"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1853 (California Songster)
KEYWORDS: disease homesickness loneliness poverty home emigration separation travel mining cards death family
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1848 - gold found in Sutter's Mill, California. 
1849 - multitudes of easterners emigrate west, hoping to "make their pile"
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Life in California" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Used-Up Man" (tune)
NOTES: Fever and ague: Malaria. - RBW
File: RcLiICal
===
NAME: Life Is a Toil: see The Housewife's Lament (File: FSC097)
===
NAME: Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad: see Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad) (File: DTlifera)
===
NAME: Life of Georgie, The: see Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)
===
NAME: Life on the Ocean Wave, A
DESCRIPTION: "A life on the ocean wave, a home on the rolling deep, Where the scattered waters roll And the winds their revels keep." The sailor thrills to the sea life, so much that he welcomes even the storms
AUTHOR: Words: Epes Sargent/Music: Henry Russell
EARLIEST_DATE: 1838 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 87-89, "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2033
File: SWMS087
===
NAME: Life Presents a Dismal Picture
DESCRIPTION: The physical and psychological woes of a family detailed. (The problems are usually sexual in nature, and the family may be very extended.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy family humorous nonballad scatological
FOUND_IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cray, pp. 114-116, "Life Presents a Dismal Picture" (2 texts, tune indicated)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 527-530, "Life Presents a Dismal Picture" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #10130
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
A Letter from Home
My Family Life
NOTES: Sung to the melodies of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" or "Scarlet Ribbons." - EC
File: EM114
===
NAME: Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)
DESCRIPTION: "Life is like a mountain railroad With an engineer that's brave; We must make the run successful." The listeners are warned, in railroad terms, of the difficulties in life, and promised that if they do well, they will be praised by God the superintendent
AUTHOR: Words: M. E. Abbey/Music: Charlie Tillmann
EARLIEST_DATE: 1893 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: religious railroading nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 611-618, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (1 text plus a text of "The Faithful Engineer", 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 15-16, "(Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (1 text, plus fragments of assorted parodies)
Silber-FSWB, p. 364, "Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad" (1 text)
DT, LIFERAIL
Roud #13933
RECORDINGS:
Allen & Hart, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (CYL: Edison [BA] 3441, n.d., prob. mid-1920s)
Allen Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (OKeh 45196, 1928; rec. 1927)
Blue Ridge Duo, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Edison 51498, 1925)
Curly Bradshaw [King of the Harmonica], "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Acme J-102, n.d.)
Calhoun Sacred Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 20543, 1927; Montgomery Ward M-4350, 1933)
Criterion Male Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Brunswick 2931, 1925; Supertone S-2120, c. 1930)
Sid Harkreader, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Broadway 8129, c. 1930)
Harper & Turner, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Supertone 9658, 1930)
Charles Harrison, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 19825, 1922)
Bradley Kincaid, "Life is Like a Mountain Railroad" (Bluebird B-8501, 1940; rec. 1934)
Fred Kirby, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Melotone [Canada] 45037, 1935)
Smilin' Ed McConnell "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 23823, 1933; Bluebird B-8194, 1939)
Montgomery Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Decca 146, 1934)
Pace Jubilee Singers, "Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad" (Victor 23350, 1932; rec. 1929)
Pickard Family, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Oriole 1934, 1930)
George Reneau, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 14811, 1924; Vocalion 5030, c. 1926)
Homer Rodeheaver, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 14339, 1922) (Columbia 165-D [as Rodeheaver and Asher], 1924)
John Seagle & Leonard Stokes, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 22060, 1929)
Oscar Seagle [baritone], "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia A3420, 1921)
Smith's Sacred Singers, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia 15159-D, 1927; Vocalion 02921, 1935)
Southern Railroad Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven' (Victor V-40002, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-8129, 1939; rec. 1928)
Mr. & Mrs. J. Douglas Swagerly, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (OKeh 40086, 1924)
Ernest Thompson, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia 158-D, 1924) (Diva 6003/Harmony 5096-H, 1930 [both as Jed Tompkins])
Frank Welling & John McGhee "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Champion 15971 [as Hutchens Bros.], 1930; Champion 45125, c. 1935)
Hermes Zimmerman, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 1018, 1926)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballad of the Braswell Boys" (tune)
cf. "Miner's Lifeguard" (tune)
cf. "Weaver's Life" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Ballad of the Braswell Boys (File: MN1048)
Miner's Lifeguard (File: BSoF730)
Weaver's Life (File: CSW090)
NOTES: The original [sheet music] publication also includes an alternate set of lyrics composed by Jack Penn, under the title "The Gospel Highway"; they seem not to have entered tradition. - PJS
The origin of this piece is looking more and more complicated the more I look at it. In previous editions of the Index, I noted a connection to "The Road to Heaven," which dates from probably 1854. Paul Stamler thought the notion of a railroad to heaven could occur independently. It almost doesn't matter; "The Road to Heaven" is among the earliest "spiritual railroad" songs, but Cohen in _Long Steel Rail_, pp. 597-603, notes many examples of the genre. There were certainly lots of forerunners to choose from, although only a handful went into tradition.
The interesting feature of this song is its relationship to "The Faithful Engineer," by Will S. Hays, published in 1886. This begins, "Life is like a crooked railroad, And the engineer is brave, Who can make a trip successful From the cradle to the grave."
The connection to this piece can hardly be denied, though the rest of the Hays poem is not quite so closely related.
So how did Abbey and Tillman get away with copyrighting this as an entirely new piece? I have no answer; neither has Cohen, though he speculates about intermediate versions. This seems likely enough, given how rapidly the song spread. Perhaps Abbey did not rewrite Hays, but rewrote some anonymous copy or rewrite of Hays. - RBW
File: DTlifera
===
NAME: Lifeboat, The
DESCRIPTION: "We're floating down the streams of time, We have not long to stay, The stormy clouds of darkness Is turned to brightest day. Oh let us all take courage... The lifeboat soon is coming To gather his jewels home." The joys of life with Jesus are outlined
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Chappell-FSRA 99, "The Lifeboat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ChFRA099 (Partial)
Roud #6629
NOTES: Roud lumps several "lifeboat" songs under this number, but one is a secular ballad, "The Little Clare Mary (Dailey's Lifeboat)." - RBW
File: ChFRA099
===
NAME: Lift Him Up That's All
DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets a woman at Jacob's well; she wonders at his being a Jew, but when she sees it is Jesus she runs to town: "Come and see a man who told me all that I have done." He asks her for  water; she tries to hide her sins, speaking of "race pride."
AUTHOR: Washington Phillips
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Washington Phillips)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets a woman at Jacob's well; she wonders at his being a Jew, but when she sees it is Jesus she runs into town saying, "Come and see a man who told me all that I have done." He asks her for some water, and she tries to hide her sins, speaking of "race pride." Ch.: "Lift him up, that's all/Lift him up in his word/If you tell the name of Jesus everywhere...He will draw men unto him."
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus Jew
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Washington Phillips, "Lift Him Up That's All" (Columbia 14277-D, 1927; on Babylon)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid and the Palmer" [Child 21] (subject)
cf. "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (subject)
cf. "See the Woman at the Well" (subject)
NOTES: For the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, see John 4:5-26 - RBW
File: RcLHUTA
===
NAME: Light on Cape May, The
DESCRIPTION: As the ship sails on a pleasant sea, the lookout spots a light. The crew is given the good news that it is the Cape May light.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sea
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Doerflinger, p. 130, "The Light on Cape May" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter identified as "The Bigerlow" and taken from Sandburg)
DT, CAPEMAY*
Roud #9438
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bigler's Crew" [Laws D8] (tune, lyrics) and references there
NOTES: Doerflinger describes this as a "salt-water variant of... 'The Timber Schooner Bigler.'" - RBW
File: Doe130
===
NAME: Lightning Express, The: see Please, Mister Conductor (The Lightning Express) (File: R720)
===
NAME: Lights of London Town, The: see A Picture from Life's Other Side (File: R603)
===
NAME: 'Ligion So Sweet: see Religion So Sweet (II) (File: LxA582)
===
NAME: Like an Owl in the Desert
DESCRIPTION: "Like an owl in the desert I weep, mourn and cry; If love should overtake me I surely would die." "I can love like a lawyer... I can love an old sweetheart Till a new one comes along." "I can love him and kiss him... And turn my back on him ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 304, "Like an Owl in the Desert" (1 text)
Roud #16860
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Br3304
===
NAME: Likes Likker Better Than Me (Brown-Eyed Boy)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh I'm in love with a brown-eyed boy And he's in love with me But he's in love with a whiskey jug...." Singer laments that her young man "likes likker better than me." She says she thinks of marrying him, but life's hard as a whiskey-drinker's wife.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Woodie Brothers)
KEYWORDS: love courting drink
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 75, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRWNEYED*
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (on NLCR01) (NLCR12)
Woodie Brothers, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (Victor 23579, 1931; on LostProv1)
NOTES: Pity we don't have the keywords "alcoholism" and "co-dependency." -PJS
File: CSW075
===
NAME: Likes Liquor Better than Me: see Likes Likker Better Than Me (Brown-Eyed Boy) (File: CSW075)
===
NAME: Likewise We Hae a Hoosemaid
DESCRIPTION: The housemaid "wears her hair oot owre the croon To scare the lads awa" "... toothless Annie Her vera face wad fleg [scare] the rats ..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad servant oldmaid
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 402, "Likewise We Hae a Hoosemaid" (1 text)
Roud #5932
File: GrD3402
===
NAME: Lila Lee: see Lily Lee (File: R098)
===
NAME: Lilli Burlero: see Lilliburlero (File: FR286)
===
NAME: Lillian Brown
DESCRIPTION: "While the sun in his sinking beauty Was shining brightly in the West, A fair fortune maiden was thinking How soon she would meet her death." Lillian Brown, a Virginian boarding near West Durham Mill, takes poison and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: suicide
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1914 - Reported date of Lillian Brown's suicide
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 299, "Lillian Brown" (1 text)
ST BrII299 (Full)
Roud #6638
NOTES: This piece, only three stanzas long, gives no motivation for Ms. Brown's suicide, and the editors of Brown were not able to elucidate. - RBW
File: BrII299
===
NAME: Lilliburlero
DESCRIPTION: Two Irish Catholics congratulate one another on victory over the Protestants, and make nasty remarks about what they intend to do to them. The song was written by a Protestant Englishman, in a burlesque of Irish dialect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1688 (broadside, Bodleian (Wood 417(168)-Wood 417(172)))
KEYWORDS: hate Ireland humorous nonballad political dancing
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1685-1688 - Reign of James II (James VII of Scotland), the last Catholic king of Britain
1688 - Glorious Revolution overthrows James II in favour of his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband and first cousin William III of Orange
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 359-362, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
OLochlainn 36, "Lillibulero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 286, "Lilliburlero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge II, pp. 58-60, "Lilliburlero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 303, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 90-91, "Lilliburlero" (1 text)
DT, LILIBURL
ADDITIONAL:
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 441-443, 513, "Lillibulero"
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 178-179, "Lilli Burlero"  (1 text)
Roud #3038
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, (Wood 417(168), A New Song [The first part of "Lill-li-burlero bullen a-la"] ("Ho brother Teague dost hear de decree") , unknown, [the date is illegible; see part 2];Wood 417(172), The second part of "Lill-li-burlero bullen a-la" ("There was an old prophesie found in a bogg") , unknown, "Printed in the Year 1688"); also Firth b.20(145), "A New Song" ("Ho brother Teague dost hear de decree"), unknown, see notes; Firth b.21(103), Harding B 5(33), A new song. Being a second part to the same tune of "Lillibullero" ("A treaty's on foot, look about English boys") (see notes for broadsides with a tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Overtures from Richmond" (tune)
cf. "There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
My Thing Is My Own (BBI ZN1181, DT THINGOWN)
Overtures from Richmond (File: SCW46)
Bumpers, Bumbers, Flowing Bumpers (File: CrPS094)
There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket (File: OO2544)
You that love mirth, give ear to my song/Teague and Sawney (BBI ZN3133)
The Martial drum no sooner did beat/The Couragious Soldiers of the West (BBI ZN1757)
I have been long in Custody here/The Chancellors Resolution (BBI ZN1282)
Come all ye Protestant Lads in the Land/The Protestants Delight, Or An Health to His Highness (BBI ZN515)
I'll sing ye a Song, if you'll pay me but for't/The Brandy-Bottle Plot (BBI ZN1357)
We came into brave Reading by Night/The Reading Skirmish (BBI ZN2745)
Protestant Boys, both valliant and stout/ Undaunted London-Derry (BBI ZN2262)
Protestant Boys, good tydings I bring/Dublin's Deliverance..Surrender of Drogheda (BBI ZN2263)
Protestant Boys now stand your Guard/The discovery of the New Plot (BBI ZN2264)
You that a fair maids heart would obtain/Faint Heart never won fair Lady: Or, Good Advice to Batchelors (BBI ZN3109)
Pray now attend and listen a while/The False-hearted Glover (BBI ZN2235)
The Protestant subjects of England rejoice/ ..Kingdom's Joy for the Proclaiming King William (BBI ZN2266)
I am a Lad that's come to the Town/West-Country Tom Tormented (BBI ZN1201)
Sound up the Trumpet, beat up the Drum/The Protestant Courage..of Valiant Sea-men (BBI ZN2391)
The coffee-house Trade is the best in the town/The City Cheat discovered (BBI ZN498)
Boys let us sing the Glory and Fame/Couragious Betty of Chick-Lane (BBI ZN427)
NOTES: The tune was used, under its own name, for an English country dance. A fragment of it is also played on the BBC World Service, 20 seconds before every hour. -PJS
Chappell/Wooldridge report of this piece, "The words have been variously ascribed to Lord Wharton and Lord Dorset, but probably neither was the author. The tune is a harpsichord lesson by Purcell, printed... in... Musick's Handmaid, two years before Tyrconnel's appointment as Lord Deputy." They quote Percy, "[The piece] was written, or at least re-published, on the Earl of Tyrconnel's going a second time to Ireland, in 1688. 'Lilliburlero' and 'Bullen-a-lah' are said to have been words of distinction used among the Irish Papists in their massacre of Protestants, in 1641."
The appointment of Tyrconnel is explicitly mentioned in the song:
Ho brother Teague, dost hear de decree...
Dat we shall have a new deputie...
Ho, by my Soul, it is a Talbot.
Talbot is Richard Talbot (1630-1691), Earl of Tyrconnel since 1685, appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1687. He proceeded to "reform" the Irish army by removing its Protestant officers and increasing its size. Catholics were appointed to other positions as well. The Protestants, naturally, panicked; "Lilliburlero" is one sign of this.
It is said that this song "whistled James II from his throne." (For background on this, see the notes to "The Vicar of Bray.")  RBW
Broadside Bodleian Wood 417(168) has the tune.
Broadside Bodleian Firth b.20(145) has another tune and the annotation "Made upon ye Irish upon Tyrconnells goeing Deputy thither 25 Oct. 1688." 
Sparling: "Generally attributed to Lord Wharton, but this has never been conclusively proved.... A copy printed in London, 1689, is in the British Museum." - BS
File: FR286
===
NAME: Lillie Shaw
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the crowd gathered to see his execution "for the murder of Lillie Shaw, Who I so cruelly murdered And her body shamefully (?) burned." He recalls the crime, sees his parents in the crowd, and hopes for forgiveness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Henry, from the singing of Sofia Hampton)
KEYWORDS: murder execution punishment gallows-confession
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 55-56, "Lillie Shull" (1 text)
BrownII 308, "Lillie Shaw" (1 text)
Roud #4627
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pretty Fair Widow (Lillie Shaw)" (subject)
NOTES: Although there are two songs on this subject, and this one at least spread enough to be collected three times, no one seems to have found details on the fates of Lillie Shaw and Jim Wilcox/E. B. Preston.
Frank Proffit, who supplied the Warner ballad, claimed the murder took place in the 1880s in Mountain City, Tennessee. - RBW
File: BrII208
===
NAME: Lillie Shull: see Lillie Shaw (File: BrII208)
===
NAME: Lily Fair Damsel, A: see Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)
===
NAME: Lily Lee
DESCRIPTION: (Nathan Gray) sets out across the sea to gain the money to marry (Lily/Lilla) Lee. One night he dreams that Lily is dead. He returns home in fear, to find that she has indeed died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (LoC recording, David Rice)
KEYWORDS: separation love death travel
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 98, "Lily Lee" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 513-514, "Lily Lee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 98B)
ST R098 (Full)
Roud #3268
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel" [Child 75]
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lila Lee
File: R098
===
NAME: Lily Munroe: see Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)
===
NAME: Lily of Arkansas, The: see The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)
===
NAME: Lily of the Lake
DESCRIPTION: Singer describes the beauties of Lake Champlain, then the beauty of fair Mary, who glides on its waters. He sits down by her, proposes to her; she accepts with a blinding smile -- "She is the lovely Mary, the Lily of the Lake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: courting love beauty 
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Lily of the Lake" (on PeteSeeger29)
NOTES: This was only collected from tradition once, but it was from Yankee John Galusha, and that's good enough for me. - PJS
File: RcLotL
===
NAME: Lily of the West, The [Laws P29]
DESCRIPTION: The singer courts (Mary/Flora), only to see her courting another man. He stabs the other man to death. He is taken and sentenced, all the while saying that he loves the Lily of the West despite her betrayal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1839
KEYWORDS: murder jealousy betrayal trial
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North,South,West) Ireland US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Laws P29, "The Lily of the West"
Belden, pp. 132-133, "The Lily of the West" (1 text plus reference to 1 more)
Randolph 145, "The Lily of the West" (3 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Eddy 49, "The Lily of the West" (2 texts, 1 tune)
BrownII 267, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, with little of the plot remaining)
Chappell-FSRA 113, "The Lily of the West" (1 fragment)
SharpAp 148, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 54, "Lily of the West" (2 texts, 1 tune)
SHenry H578, pp. 416-417, "Flora, The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 133-136, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 93, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 473-474, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 42, "Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 225, "Lily Of The West" (1 text)
DT 507, FLORAWST*
Roud #957
RECORDINGS:
W. Guy Bruce, "The Lily of the West" (on FolkVisions1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(104), "The Lily of the West," W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 b.9(276), 2806 c.15(122), 2806 b.11(137), Harding B 19(15), "The Lily of the West"
LOCSinging, as107800, "The Lily of the West," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as107780, sb20280a, as107790, "The Lily of the West" 
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(87a), "Flora The Lily of the West," Poet's Box? (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
SAME_TUNE:
Caroline Of Edinburgh Town (per broadsides Bodleian LOCSinging as107800, LOCSinging as107780, LOCSinging sb20280a)
NOTES: OLochlainn 93 ends happily: "I then did stand my trial, and boldly I did plead, A flaw was in my indictment found and that soon had me freed."
Broadside LOCSinging as107800: 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: LP29
===
NAME: Lily White Robe: see Little White Robe (File: RcLWRobe)
===
NAME: Lily-White Flower: see Wallflowers (File: HHH048d)
===
NAME: Limber Jim
DESCRIPTION: A long collocation  of (often) floating verses, with recurrent themes of gambling, women, comparisons between black and white, "rebels," all in no apparent order, with a variable refrain including the words "Limber Jim" and the chorus response "Shiloh!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: gambling nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 593, "Limber Jim" (1 text)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 120-121, "(Shiloh)" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Went to the River (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Buckeye Jim"
File: BMRF593B
===
NAME: Limbo
DESCRIPTION: "Many thousands I've spent on Rachel and Ruth... Bridget and Pegs." A rich uncle gets the singer out of limbo prison; he'd "put you once more on your legs" if he'd settle down. He shows the girls his money. They try to get it from him; he turns them away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3214))
KEYWORDS: prison rake family money
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 124-125, "Once I Was Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan, pp. 304-307, "The Spendthrift clapt into Limbo" (1 text)
ST CrMa124 (Partial)
Roud #969
RECORDINGS:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3214), "The Rakes Complaint in Limbo," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (theme)
cf. "The Wild Boy" [Laws B20] (theme)
NOTES: Steve Gardham has this answer to my question as to whether there is/was a "Limbo Prison" (quoted with permission):
"No there was never a Limbo prison. The term applied to prisons evolved from the religious use of the word i.e. the medieval term for purgatory from Limbus Patrum. The leap isn't far from purgatory to prison if you think about it.
According to Partridge [_The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang_] the use of the word for a place of confinement dates from c1590. Partridge also gives other uses of the word:
a pawnshop c1690 to 1820,
female pudend 19thC,
bread- military late 19th century.
Roxburgh Ballads. Vol 8 p. 811 and Logan's _Pedlar's Pack_ p. 304 have plenty to say on Limbo songs." - BS
File: CrMa124
===
NAME: Lime Juice Tub, The: see The Limejuice Tub (File: MA140)
===
NAME: Lime Stone Water
DESCRIPTION: "Lime stone water and cedar wood, A kiss from you would do me good."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 232, (second of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
File: MHAp232B
===
NAME: Limejuice and Vinegar: see According to the Act (File: FaE042)
===
NAME: Limejuice Ship, The: see According to the Act (File: FaE042)
===
NAME: Limejuice Tub, The
DESCRIPTION: A sarcastic song about the ignorance of new chums just arrived in Australia. Recognized primarily by the chorus, "With a rowdem rowdem a rub a dub dub, We'll send you back (or "drive them back") to the limejuice tub."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: emigration humorous Australia
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 140, "Rub-a-dub-a-dub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 124-125, "The Limejuice Tub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, p. 108, "The Limejuice Tub (The Whalers' Rhyme)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 160-161, "The Limejuice Tub" (1 text plus a fragment possibly of this song)
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Lime Juice Tub" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd10)
NOTES: "Limejuice tubs" were British immigrant ships, so named after the lime juice used to prevent scurvy. (Ironically, the lime juice was usually lemon juice, but called "lime." A little propaganda to make it sound less sour, perhaps.) - RBW
File: MA140
===
NAME: Limerick is Beautiful (Colleen Bawn)
DESCRIPTION: The city of "Limerick is beautiful ... The girl I love ... lives in Garryowen, And is called the Colleen Bawn." If I were "Emperor of Russia ... Or Julius Caesar, or the Lord Lieutenant" I'd give up everything to have her be my bride.
AUTHOR: Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1860 (in play "The Colleen Bawn")
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad beauty Ireland courting rejection lover
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
O'Conor, p. 12, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text)
OLochlainn 72, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 23-24, "Coleen Bawn" (1 text)
Roud #3002
RECORDINGS:
 O. J. Abbott, "The Colleen Bawn (Limerick Is Beautiful)" (on Abbott1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(100), "Limerick is Beautiful", P Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; 2806 b.11(40), "Limerick is Beautiful"; also Harding B 26(101), "Colleen Bawn" ("Limerick is beautiful as every body knows")
LOCSinging, sb20290b, "Limerick is Beautiful!", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Varty" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Limerick is Beautiful (Rebel Version ) (DT, LIMBEAUT)
NOTES: Given how often most of the characters the singer envies were assassinated, I might be tempted to give up the job too. - RBW
Fowke notes that the song was included in Boucicault's play, and that he is therefore sometimes credited with authorship. A more literary version was penned by the Irish poet Michael Scanlan. - PJS
The song is from Dion Boucicault's play "The Colleen Bawn" which opened September 10, 1860 at the Adelphi Theatre, London [sources: Templeman Library University of Kent site "Richard Fawkes Dion Boucicault Collection" (gives attribution for "composer" as "Levey, R. M., Mr"; "The Adelphi Theatre 1806-1900" at Eastern Michigan University site for English Language and Literature).]
Broadside LOCSinging sb20290b includes the statement "Sung by Dan Bryant in the great Irish drama, the Colleen Bawn, at Wallack's Theatre, New-York."
"Garryowen (Garrai Eoin, 'the garden of Eoin') on the edge of the old city of Limerick Eoin is the older Irish form of the name John" (source: _Odds and Ends_ from May 26, 2001 online edition issue Limerick Leader site)
Broadside LOCSinging sb20290b: 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: OCon012
===
NAME: Limerick Rake, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer brags of being a rake; his fancy is young women.  Rich men die "among nettles and stones"; he wants to be like wise Solomon with 1000 wives who will cry at his wake. when he goes to the tavern, he's welcomed "where Bacchus is sportin' with Venus."
AUTHOR: words: Unknown; music: attributed to Robert Thompson
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(71))
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer brags of being a rake; raised properly by his father and well educated, his main fancy is young women, whom he lists in great number -- he's in love with one from Arda. The money he spends on the girls causes his parents much chagrin. He says he's not inclined for riches; Rich men die "among nettles and stones" but he wants to be like wise Solomon with 1000 wives who, with their children, will cry at his wake. He will buy a cow that will never run dry, for riches won't last past the grave; when he goes to the tavern, he's welcomed "where Bacchus is sportin' with Venus." Macaronic refrain: "Agus fagaim id siud mar ata se"
KEYWORDS: courting sex bragging beauty money death Ireland foreignlanguage animal father rake humorous
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn 42, "The Limerick Rake" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LIMERAKE*
Roud #3018
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "The Limerick Rake" (on Barry-Gorman1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(71), "The Limrick Rake," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also Harding B 26(354), "The Limerick Rake"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Vive la Compagnie" (on Bacchus & Venus line, otherwise unrelated)
SAME_TUNE:
I'm Champion at Keeping 'Em Rolling (MacColl-Shuttle, p. 7)
NOTES: I believe the tune was used by Ewan MacColl for his song, "Champion at Keepin' 'em Rollin'"; Barry states that it was written by her grandfather, Robert Thompson, a famous piper. The Gaelic refrain translates as, "Leave it as it is," or, "Leave well enough alone." - PJS
The tune in fact has been much-used; recently, Ian Robb turned it into "Champion at Driving 'Em Crazy." The Digital Tradition, in fact, lists seven songs with this tune, though only one other, "The Pensioner's Complaint," has any any sort of traditional status. And it's listed as having two tunes, so it's not clear whether that affects Thompson's claim to authorship. We do note that he was unlikely to have been of "composing age" at the time the first broadsides were published. - RBW
File: DTlimera
===
NAME: Limerick Shanty, The
DESCRIPTION: Shanty or forebitter. Verses are in the form of limericks, and any limerick will do. Chorus: "Oh, the elephants walked around, and the band begins to play. And all the girls in Bombay town, were dressed in the rig of the day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sternvall's _Sang under Segel_)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Shanty or forebitter. Verses are in the form of limericks, and any limerick will do. Chorus: "Oh, the elephants walked around, and the band begins to play. And all the girls in Bombay town, were dressed in the rig of the day." The verses printed were fairly mild but one could easily see this turning into something like "The Good Ship Venus."
KEYWORDS: shanty humorous foc's'le wordplay
FOUND_IN: Sweden Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 511-513, "The Limerick Shanty" (1 text plus fragments, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hugill found this in _Sang under Segel,_ though he figures it was British in origin and was picked up by Swedish sailors, a practice which apparently was not unusual, given the number of English worded shanties sung on Scandinavian ships. One significant difference in practice however, is the use of many popular Victorian English "sea-songs." While these were sung ashore by British seamen, they rarely used at sea (and never as shanties), but the same songs were often sung at the capstan by Scandinavian and German sailors. - SL
File: Hugi511
===
NAME: Lincoln and Liberty
DESCRIPTION: From Lincoln's 1860 presidential campaign, to the tune of Rosin the Beau: "Hurrah for the choice of the nation! Our chieftain so brave and so true, We'll go for the great reformation, For Lincoln and Liberty too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1860
KEYWORDS: political derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1809 - Birth of Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky (hence the references to "the son of Kentucky")
1858 - Lincoln runs for Senator from Illinois against Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas won the election, but a series of debates between the two brought Lincoln to national attention
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 re-elected President
1865 - Lincoln assassinated
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Sandburg, p. 167, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, p. 75, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 50, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 40-41, "Lincoln and Libery" (1 text, filed under "Old Rosin, the Beau"; tune referenced)
Darling-NAS, pp. 345-346, "Lincoln and Liberty, Too" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 292, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text)
DT, LINCLBRT*
Roud #6602
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Lincoln and Liberty" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A." (subject)
cf. "Adams and Liberty" (concept)
cf. "Jefferson and Liberty" (concept)
NOTES: I have seen several authors (F.A. Simkins, Jesse Hutchinson) listed as writing these words. I think the matter must be considered uncertain.
To explain the complicated situation behind it requires a lot of history. Assuming you want the background, bear with me if it's quite a few words before I even mention the name "Lincoln." For references cited, see the Bibliography at the end.
Most histories of the Civil War, quite properly, begin some time around the end of the Mexican War, because this is when the sectional conflicts over slavery started to really tear the country apart. But it wasn't sectional rivalry that elected Lincoln; it was party division. And that division was due largely to the fact that the parties of the mid-nineteenth century were still very fragile things.
It all really started with the War of 1812. This was, in some very real ways, almost a civil war as well as a foreign war. New England, with its economy built upon the sea, hated the war with Britain, even though it was the part of the country that suffered most of the insults inflicted by the British Navy.
The internal struggle in 1812 fell largely along party lines. The two factions which had existed since the passing of the Constitution were the Federalists, with a relatively strong concept of the power of the government, and the Jeffersonians ("Republicans," but not the same party as the current Repubican party) with a much more limited notion of government. And New England, which so opposed the war, was almost entirely Federalist in politics.
But the country was governed by the Republicans, based in the South and with little reliance upon trade at sea. They were the ones who declared the war-- and nearly destroyed the young nation in the process, since they utterly bungled both finances and military strategy. By the end, so bitter was the conflict that Federalist New England was holding an event called the "Hartford Convention" which at least considered withdrawing from the Union (see Hickey, pp. 270-281, with the results of the Convention itself occupying pp. 277-278).
But then the war ended. The Americans didn't win -- the two sides essentially called it all off on the basis of the status quo. The wreck of the government finances proved that the Federalists had in fact been mostly right. But Americans *felt* they had won -- and the Federalists were the party of the Hartford Convention, which in the wake of "victory" looked like near-treason. Plus the Jeffersonians had found themselves unable to manage the country on their strictly hands-off basis, and came to adopt more and more Federalist-type measures (Schlesinger, p. 19).
Between having little to distinguish it from the Republicans and having the stain of lack of loyalty, the Federalist party died (Hickey, p. 308) -- died so fast that, five years after the war, James Monroe was re-elected with 231 out of 232 electoral votes, and I've heard that it would have been 232 out of 232 except that a New Hampshire elector disliked Monroe (Schlesinger, p. 19) and felt that no President except George Washington should be elected unanimously (for the electoral vote breakdown, see e.g. the Hammond Atlas, p. U-58). There was a feeble attempt to form a "Tertium Quid," or third party, in the original Jefferson mold, but it failed completely (Schlesinger, pp. 20-21).
For a dozen years, there were no real political parties as such; everyone was a Republican of one stripe or another. Then Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828 (he had nearly won in 1824; he led the popular vote but did not have a majority of the electoral votes, and the House made John Quincy Adams president), and *he* roused opposition (see Holt, p. 17, etc.; Schlesinger, pp. 3-7, describes the near-panic in Washington as Jackson prepared to assume the presidency). Indeed, the opposition party which formed in the years after that came to be called Whigs because the British Whigs were generally the anti-Monarchy party, and American Whigs opposed "King Andrew."
The Democratic (Jacksonian) party was never as united as it is sometimes portrayed; there were always factions such as "barnburners," "hunkers," and "locofocos" within it (see, e.g., Schlesinger, p. 398), and it was always possible that they would split off. What held the party together was that the government, inefficient in most other ways, was very good at patronage (see the sweeping indictment of the "spoils system" in Nevins1847, pp. 173-181, which demonstrates how government offices were handed out based on favors, not competence). What kept the nation together was the fact that these were not truly widespread movements, if New York barnburners, say, tried to separate from the United States, they could not take a block of states with them. The most they could do was hijack the party.
A hijack of "the Democracy" might have happened had the opposition been weaker -- or stronger. But the Whigs never really managed to produce a coherent ideology either. They had some common opinions -- support for internal improvements, e.g. -- but on most other issues they had contradictions. For example, although theoretically the anti-war party (Jackson had been elected in part based on his wars against various Indian tribes, including the Creeks and Cherokees, and the Mexican War was started by Democrats), the only two Presidents the Whigs elected (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor) were both generals.
Meanwhile, the south's pro-slavery attitude was hardening. As late as 1830, there were still significant numbers of southerners who opposed slavery, or at least wanted to see it restricted. But then came Nat Turner's rising. The rising failed quickly, with the participants almost all killed (Vandiver, p. 5) -- but the brought home to southerners the truth that there *could* be a slave rebellion. Ever after, the great fear of southerners was another Santo Domingo.
There was also John C. Calhoun. Originally a strong nationalist with a desire for internal improvements, in the 1820s he started spending more time in his home of South Carolina, and he started beating the drums of sectionalism (Schlesinger, pp. 52-54). Later, for purely personal reasons, he came to resent the northern Democrats who had thwarted his presidential hopes and supported Martin Van Buren (Schlesinger, pp. 54-55, shows just how vicious Calhoun became in this vendetta). And he was so strong an intellect, and so widely respected, that his opinions swayed even those who did not agree with him.
He had also changed how leaders were selected: "With General Jackson, I put the Congressional caucus system under foot, but I did not expect to see this monstrous system of national conventions take its place" (Nevins1847, p. 194). National political conventions, and their platforms, have obviously survived, but at this time the rules were still fluid and the results highly unpredictable (Holt, p. 293) -- except for the certainty of pandering. There was a sense that "party dictation meant slavery" (Holt, p. 32), so the strongest leaders did little to bind the parties to themselves or themselves to the parties.
By the 1840s, the Whigs were discovering that they just didn't have any answers on the question of slavery. And that oh-so-Democratic war, the Mexican War, made the problem worse, because suddenly the United States gained a lot of southern land -- Texas, California, plus lands in between containing most of what is now Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and more -- that had to be opened to slavery or kept as free soil (Mexico, unlike the U.S., banned slavery categorically, though its peonage system looked very like slavery to some observers).
Theoretically, the problem shouldn't have arisen. President Polk, who started the Mexican war, had campaigned on the platform of annexing Texas *and* a large part of what is now western Canada ("Fifty four forty or fight!"). But, not wanting to fight two wars at once, he had compromised on the Oregon/Canada business, meaning that he brought in less clearly-free (that is, north of the 36 30' Missouri Compromise line) territory than expected -- but the Mexican War took over more southern territory. So Polk had supplied less free territory, and more slave territory, than anticipated. This led to charges of bad faith on the part of northwesterners (Nevins1847, p. 7).
The worst of it was that it potentially upset the balance of power in the Senate. California and New Mexico were thought to be mostly desert, which would always have small populations -- but they would have lots and lots of Senators (eight to ten, under the territorial arrangement envisioned at the time; Nevins1847, p. 21).
William Lowndes Yancey, who thirteen years later would be more responsible than anyone else for splitting the Union, made matters worse: His "Alabama Resolutions" called for repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to open all the territories to slavery (Nevins1847, p. 12). Already he was threatening secession if he didn't get what he wanted.
It's interesting to note that, at this time, few called the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional; it had passed by a margin of three to one, with no questions about its legality (Nevins1847, pp. 26-27). It had generally been agreed that Congress could legislate slavery in the Territories -- until that started to threaten the Peculiar Institution.
Ironically, it was a Democrat, David Wilmot, who introduced the Wilmot Proviso, intended to bar slavery from the territories captured in the War (Holt, p. 251); in this regard, it modelled itself on the great Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (Nevins1847, p. 9) -- something that, in theory, should have made it appeal to conservative Democrats. But it was anti-slavery Whigs who became devoted to it.
This proved an elaborate form of party suicide. The Whigs won the election of 1848 with Zachary Taylor as their candidate, but the process of electing him caused much damage to the party, which broke into "cotton Whigs" and "Conscience Whigs" (the latter basically pro-Wilmot Proviso and anti-slavery; Nevins1847, pp. 201-202). In 1850, the Whigs lost ground in congress. And then they had to pick a presidential candidate for 1852. It took them 53 ballots to nominate someone, and the division was almost entirely sectional (McPherson, p. 116). They finally set aside sitting president Millard Fillmore (who had alienated the Free Soil forces by enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law) to endorse Winfield Scott (Nevins1852, pp. 28-30). He was, in a way, a compromise, but after the nomination, many southern Whigs abandoned the party (McPherson, p. 118).
(Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the Whig confusion is simply to look at their election record. The Whigs contested five elections, those of 1836-1852. In their worst election, that of 1852, four states gave their electoral votes to the Whigs. All four of those states had voted Whig in every presidential election involving a Whig. The four states? Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Vermont; Hammond Atlas, pp. U-58, U-59. Since the latter two were among the strongest against slavery, and the former two were slave states, the problem is evident.)
Even as the Whigs were struggling over a nominee, Democrats were uniting behind Franklin Pierce. (The Democratic convention of 1852 would how chaotic the convention system could be: The convention was deadlocked after many ballots, with Cass and Buchanan the clear favorites. The Buchanan forces then tried a strange strategy of putting up what they thought were straw men, to be quickly defeated. The idea apparently was to convince Cass delegates that there was no other alternative -- only Buchanan could draw wide support. Instead, on ballot #49, the convention precipitated around Franklin Pierce; Nevins1857, pp. 18-20. Since Pierce was a handsome fool, it shows the problems of the time. Of course, the current system, in which the convention does nothing except use up a lot of fossil fuels ratifying what is already decided, is no better.)
Nevins1852, p. 32, notes great glee on the Democratic side: "the main reason for Democratic exuberance was that the party had patched up its slavery quarrels, while the Whigs had not." And, indeed, though Scott picked up a respectable vote total, the election was a blowout. Holt, p. 758, gives a table analyzing the election of that year; so bad was the rout that, in Alabama and Mississippi, the Whig percent of the vote dropped by more than half. It was "the most stunning defeat in the party's history" (Holt, p. 754). They won only 44% of the popular vote, and only 42 out of 296 electoral votes, against the vacuous Pierce. Their representation in congress fell dramatically, too -- the Democrats gained two-thirds of the seats in the House, and nearly two-thirds of the Senate (McPherson, p. 119).
No wonder that Alexander Stephens declared, "The Whig party is dead" (McPherson, p. 118). By 1854, even the corpse was collapsing; battered not only by slavery, but by an anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant backlash prompted in part by the Irish famines, and even by the temperance movement (McPherson, p. 135), splinters broke off in all directions. Holt, p. 838 says that the "congressional, state, and local elections between August 1854 and December 1855 were the most labyrinthine [and] chaotic... in all of American political history." They would be followed, two elections later, by the most labyrinthine presidential election.
Unfortunately, President Pierce was a failure. It's not that he was completely incompetent; had he beenin a position such as the Queen of England, who at this time had an important role in forming governments though she did not rule directly (similar to the President of Israel today, say), he might have done good work. What he could not do is formulate a policy. Nevins1852, p. 43, notes, "Pierce, taking up the reins of office in 1852, had a clear choice between two line of policy and unhesitantly took the weaker and more convenient." That is, he could have supported the Compromise of 1850 with all his might (or perhaps proposed a workable alternative) -- but instead he just tried to drift along. His cabinet was curious -- it was full of able men like Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and Secretary of State William L. Marcy, but they had no coherent policy; in effect, the Cabinet became a parliament of independent duchies rather than a government (Nevins1852, pp. 45-48). ÒAnd when a brilliant young Alcibiades grasped the leadership that Nicias did not exercise, Pierce had to fall in behind a chariot that was being driven headlong toward the ruin of the Administration" (Nevins1852, p. 44).
But at least the Democrats were still theoretically in charge, which allowed them to survive. By 1856, the prediction of Alexander Stephens was proved correct: the Whigs were dead (they held a convention of sorts in that year -- but instead of nominating a candidate, they simply endorsed Know-Nothing candidate Fillmore; RandallDonald, p. 104. It was their last act). With their party evaporated, former Whigs had to decide which way to go. Those who accepted slavery almost all turned Democratic. But northern Whigs founded a new party. It might have been called "Free Soil" (there was a "Free Soil" splinter party in 1852), or the "Liberty" party, or even "Wilmotite" party -- but the name they ended up with was "Republican."
The anti-immigrant Know-Nothings (who by now were calling themselves the "American" party) also started to fracture in 1856. Northern Know-Nothings nominated Nathaniel P. Banks (the Speaker of the divided House, and a future thoroughly inept Civil War general) even as the southerners nominated Millard Fillmore, and Banks then withdrew in favor of the Republican candidate John C. Fremont (who had gotten the job mostly because he carried no political baggage). In 1856, this split in the Know-Nothings helped the Democrats -- but in the longer term, it cemented the Republicans as the "other" party (McPherson, pp. 153-155).
The Republicans stood for a number of things -- e.g. most of them, as former Whigs, believed in a strong program of internal improvements. But they stood for one thing unequivocally: An absolute prohibition on slavery in the territories (Nevins1857, pp. 410-411; he claims this as the moderate position of Lincoln, as opposed to the more radical Seward, who considered the party's dominant idea to be "the equality of men before human tribunals and laws." Lincoln and the moderate Republicans wanted to fence in slavery so that it could not grow; the more radical wing of the part was for more or less immediate abolition).
Even the moderate position -- no slavery in the Territories -- was unacceptible in the South. It threatened slavery twice. It threatened it politically because, if all those territories became free states, they would eventually become numerous and populous enough to amend slavery out of the Constitution.
But the real threat, as some realized at the time, was economic. The southern economy was built around "King Cotton" -- and cotton ruined the soil. (This apart from the fact that mass cotton production meant the Southerners were falling into the economic trap of putting all their eggs in one raw material. The South, even as the planters built their mansions, was growing poorer in both absolute and relative terms. The planters were forever in debt, and there was no capital for the non-planters to build decent farms or anything else. Really, by 1860, the South was a colony of the British and New England textile mills; cf. Catton-Coming, p. 84; also McPherson, p. 95, which notes that there were more cotton spindles in Lowell, Massachussetts alone than in *all eleven future Confederate states combined*.)
Even had the South wanted to change -- and some did; the well-respected _DeBow's Review_, e.g., was always calling fore more industry (McPherson, p. 96) -- the economy was ill-structured for change. All the capital was absorbed in land and slaves (McPherson, p. 97; Vandiver, p. 4 says that slaves alone "represented no less than a third of the section's wealth"). But, somehow, the South failed to realize that they were turning their fate over to their perceived enemies. Cotton consumption was growing so fast that the South took to the golden treadmill (the same treadmill that today keeps Saudi Arabia what it is).
William H. Seward was not simply being an anti-slavery man when he wrote that southern territory consisted of  "exhausted soil, old and decaying towns, wretchedly-neglected roads, and, in every respect, an absence of enterprise and improvement" (Foner, p. 41). The poverty of slave territory was clear to all who saw it.
Seward apparently thought this entirely a moral effect -- slavery causing the decay. Not really; it was the cotton itself. A sufficiently smart owner could mitigate this -- Edmund Ruffin, who would later fire the first shot at Fort Sumter, had shown that marl (consisting largely of old seashells, and rich in calcium and magnesium) could replenish soil fertility. It didn't matter. Most plantation owners were too foolish to engage in scientific farming (these are, after all, people who thought slaveholding a *desirable* state -- RandallDonald, p. 107, quotes Albert Gallatin Brown: "That slavery is a blessing to the masters is shown by simply contrasting a Southern gentleman with a Northern abolitionist. One is courageous, high-bred, and manly. The other is cowardly, low-flung, and sneaking." Nevins1859, p. 126, cites R. M. T. Hunter, "the very keystone of this arch [the Union] consists of the black marble cap of African slavery; knock that out, and the mighty fabric, with all that it upholds, topples and tumbles to its fall."). Since slavery ruined the land it was on, they saw the only way slavery could survive was if new land was opened to the slaveholders.
Catton argues that there was another reason why the South clung to slavery: It meant they could avoid the issue of what to do with the former slaves (Catton-Coming, pp. 85-86). Certainly it was a problem we're still struggling with; at the time, even liberals like Lincoln thought the best solution was sending the slaves to found colonies outside the U.S. Many states, north and south, refused to let free Blacks live there. It was a time when racism was so ingrained that no one questioned it.  Foner, indeed, argues that many Republicans were not against slavery in the territories because they upposed slavery but because the Whites in the north wanted to make sure plantation culture didn't take over the land -- these Republicans wanted it for themselves, not for the plantation-owners (Foner, p. 61).
The decline of slavery had, in fact, already taken place in many slave states. Delaware in 1860 had a population roughly 20% Black -- but 19,723 of those Blacks were free and only 1798 slaves; the number of slaves had significantly *declined* in the last decade (RandallDonald, pp. 4-5), and by 1860 there were only 111 households left with five or more slaves (RandallDonald, p. 68). Maryland's Blacks were almost half free (Nevins1859, p. 488). Virginia still had plenty of slaves, but relatively few real plantations; to a significant extent, slavery persisted there to breed slaves for the cotton states (McPherson, p. 102).
But the truly ridiculous situation was Kansas. The state had fought a low-grade civil war for half a dozen years over the issue of slavery, and had (with some conniving from Missouri and Federal authories) tried to join the Union as a slave state -- but the 1860 census showed exactly *two* slaves resident in the region (RandallDonald, p. 99).
It didn't help that, in the decade of the 1850s, there had been all sorts of irritants between the regions -- California, Kansas/Nebraska, the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, John Brown, the filibusterers (southerners who took semi-private invading forces into places like Nicaragua or Cuba hoping to capture more territory for slavery), physical violence in the Senate (Senator Charles Sumner had made a speech attacking South Carolina's Andrew Butler. Butler's nephew Preston Brooks answered by entering the Senate and beating Sumner unconscious with his cane. Sumner needed four years to recover, but his state refused to replace him; Brooks was easily re-elected; Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 398).
None of these actually affected the electoral situation in the slightest, so I won't detail them. What mattered was that every one of them led to more distrust between South and North.
Plus people no longer trusted the Supreme Court. As early as the 1840s, during the debate over the Texas territories, there was an attempt (the "Clayton Compromise") to turn the whole issue over to the courts. This failed; too many people thought the courts unreliable. And then, right after the Election of 1856, came the infamous Dred Scott decision, in which the courts upheld the Southern position in almost every particular -- no compromise, and no limits on the right to slavery. The North was outraged. The reservoir of national goodwill built up since the end of the War of 1812 was completely used up.
You will sometimes hear people claim that secession was not about slavery; it was about States Rights. This is entirely false, as the above information clearly shows. But this does not mean States Rights was trivial. On the contrary, the belief in States Rights was what allowed the South to secede: They felt they were *entitled* to secede -- that each state was sovereign and had the right to leave the Union. The Constitution was, one might say, a treaty which might be revoked at any time, not a binding contract (cf. Nevins1859, pp. 329-331). The distinction is subtle but real: The South did not secede *in defence of* States Rights but *because they believe in* States Rights.)
It should be noted that this principle was never properly tested. The Constitution does not mention secession. The principle could have been taken to the Supreme Court -- e.g. President Buchanan could have sought an opinion on the matter when South Carolina pulled out. With a southern-dominated court led by Roger B. Taney of Dred Scott infamy, it is hard to guess how they might have ruled. But no one did so. The whole thing reminds me a lot of the Book of Judges: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes" (21:25 and parallels).
This was the more so because the period had seen the passage of the last men who remembered the founding of the United States. Andrew Jackson died in 1845. John C. Calhoun followed in 1850, and Henry Clay and Daniel Webster in 1852. The leaders who had held the nation together for thirty years were all gone. So it was more or less accepted: If a Republican became President, the South would leave the Union.
In the place of the great leaders of the second generation there arose -- Stephen A. Douglas.
Catton- Coming, p. 6, sums up the man brilliantly: "Senator Douglas was a man about whom no one could be indifferent. He was either a remorseless scheming politician or a hero defending eternal truth, the appraisal depending partly on the observer's point of view and partly on what Douglas himself was up to at the moment. As a scheming politician he had opened the door for the great tempest in Kansas and now he was standing in the wind's path, defying the storm and those who had made it; a man who could miscalculate drastically  but who would not under pressure run away from what he had done. Very few men either hated or admired him just a little. A passionate man himself, he evoked passion in others, in his friends and in his enemies."
Except for the Dred Scott decision, there was very little that happened in the 1850s that he had not influenced. First chosen for the Senate in 1847, he made a reputation for himself three years later. It was Henry Clay the Whig who put together the Compromise of 1850, but Clay was too old to put in the effort to push it through, and it was Douglas the Democrat who had gotten it passed (McPherson, p. 75; RandallDonald, p. 97). Yet, just a few years later,  for reasons which eem completely inadequate, he in effect, ruined the Compromise -- and even the 1820 Missouri Compromite -- with his actions regarding Kansas (RandallDonald, pp. 94-95).
By 1858, he was the most important figure in the country, not excepting President Buchanan, but he was widely regarded as being in trouble in his run for re-election to the Senate (Nolan, p. 133). His attitudes had turned the administration against him to the extent that they tried to run another Democrat to make it a three-way contest (Nevins1857, p. 351), which would naturally have led to a Republican landslide. To this end, they were brutal to Douglas supporters in the state (Nevins1857, p. 372). In the view of Nevins, it made the 1858 Senate contest much more than an ordinary Senate race. Potentially it would decide the direction of the Democratic party -- and with it the nation.
Douglas managed to halt Buchanan insurgency (though naturally the administration never gave him any support), but found himself being trailed around the state by his Republican opponent Abraham Lincoln (Nolan, pp. 135-137). To stop the "stalking," he agree to a series of seven debates, organized by congressional districts.
Not all the debate were memorable or even particularly honest; Nevins1857, pp. 385-386, for instance, talks of the Charleston debate as almost a case of political trickery, and says that its "shadowboxing was unworthy of such men." But the Galesburg debate asked a question still worth asking today. Douglas, declaring Republicanism to be a sectional doctrine, declared that "no political creed is sound which cannot be proclaimed freely in every State of this Union." To which Lincoln wondered if the true test of the doctrine was whether people would not let it be proclaimed everywhere (Nevin1857, p. 387). This was the ultimate difference between the two: Lincoln had a much stronger belief in a higher law. Douglas held as his highest principle popular sovereignty: True democracy (as long as you were male and white and an American citizen and, probably, protestant); Nevins1857, p. 390.
The key was the second debate, at Freeport in northern Illinois. The Dred Scott decision, annulling the Missouri Compromise, allowed Lincoln to put Douglas on the spot: Was there *any* way the people of a territory could exclude slavery in the wake of the Supreme Court's action? Douglas, never one to dodge an issue, formally stated an opinion he had informally held for years (Nevins1857, p. 381). Now known as the Freeport Doctrine, his position was that the Federal government *could not* impose slavery on people, because they would simply not enforce it (Catton-Coming, p. 7;  Current/Williams/Freidel, pp 402-403).
Historians -- most of them, of course, anti-slavery -- generally think that Lincoln won his "debates" with Douglas (McPherson, p. 187). Certainly it was the Republican party that distributed tens of thousands of copies (Nevins1859, p. 394).
But the debates and the Freeport Doctrine won "The Little Giant" re-election to the Senate -- just barely. RandallDonald, p. 120, implies that this was partly a result of out-of-date and perhaps gerrymandered district boundaries; Democratic parts of Illinois carried more legislative seats than they were due. (Recall that, at this time, Senators were elected by the state legislatures.) Nevins1857, pp. 396-398, says that Republican legislative candidates won125,275 votes; Douglas Democrats 121,090, with the Buchanan Democrats picking up a pitiful 5,071 votes. The map in Nevins1857, p. 397, shows county-by-county totals, with Lincoln taking every county north of roughly Peoria, Douglas winning all but three in the south (roughly below Effingham), and the east-central counties supporting Linoln while the west-central went mostly to Douglas. (It's an amazing map. Apart from those three Lincoln counties in the south, each candidate had one solid mass; there was no checkerboard border such as we usually see in sectional elections). McPherson, pp. 187-188, has Democrats winning 51 of 54 southern Illinois districts and Republicans winning 42 of 48 in the northern part of the state. It added up to a legislature that gave Douglas 54 votes for the Senate seat and Lincoln 46).
It was, however, a rather pyrrhic victory: Douglas had won Illinois -- but it was otherwise a devastating election for the Democrats.While Republicans had not won control of congress (resulting in a second many-month battle over who would be Speaker), they had become the largest party: 109 Republicans, 101 Democrats (only 32 of them from the north, down from 56 in 1856; McPherson, p. 188), 26 Know-Nothings, and one stubbornly self-declared Whig (Catton-Coming, p. 13).
What's more, the cracks in the Democratic party were showing. While it was still officially a unity, it was divided into two factions: The Douglas faction and the Administration faction which followed Buchanan (and his several southern advisors). And the South hated Douglas. Intent on States Rights when that meant slavery, Southerners would not accept States Rights when that meant free soil.
Administration supporters were known as "Lecompton men," after the Lecompton Constitution fraudulently foisted on Kansas. Nevins1857, p. 402, notes that "It was significant that nearly all Northern Congressmen who had supported the bill at the Directory's [i.e. the Administration's] behest had run pell-mell for cover as soon as they faced the voters.... Wherever Lecompton was a direct issue, the popular vote was decisive. In Buchanan's own State, for example, ten Lecompton Representative went down; two beaten for renomination, eight for election." Pandering to the South meant defeat in the north -- but failing to give in to the south meant the threat of secession.
Even churches were splitting over the issue; Vandiver, p. 10, notes the formation of the Methodist Church, South and the Southern Presbyterian Church in this period.
Ironically, the pro-Douglas, anti-Lecompton Democrats were not worried; Nevins1857, p. 403, notes "exultant as the Republicans were [after the 1858 elections], the popular sovereignty Democrats were happier still." They thought that their success would bring the rest of the Democratic party in line behind them. In fact, all they had won was gridlock: "A feeble president, the captive of a self-willed faction of his party, now repudiated by the North; a divided Congress which faced a certain deadlock on any important legislation; a Supreme Court discredited in half the nation [by the Dred Scott decision] -- such would be the government of the next two years" [Nevins1857, p. 404]. With the nation completely leaderless, is it any wonder that southern fire-eaters were maturing plans for secession?
Indeed, in some ways, the rebellion started even before the Civil War. Many Northerners had long resisted enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law (which, when you think about it, was largely an expression of the Freeport Doctrine. But no one -- not even Douglas -- seems to have looked at it that way).
The South was coming up with its own answer: In the good old days when everyone had wanted slavery to die out, North and South had agreed to pass a ban on further importation of African slaves; all future slaves would be the children of existing slaves. Now, with slavery regarded as a positive good rather than an evil to be tolerated, plantation owners wanted to re-start the importation of slaves. And there were plenty of vile sailors willing to do their bidding. Some slipped through the (obviously quite loose) blockade intended to prevent this. Some were caught by the American navy. But when brought to trial in the South, juries refused to convict them even when the slavers were clearly guilty of atrocities (Nevins1857, pp. 433-437). (There was also agitation to make the trade legal; it's hard to say which was more disgusting. But, of course, both inflamed anti-slavery sentiment in the North.)
President Buchanan also promoted an attempt to annex Cuba -- something Spain would never voluntarily allow; it was just another irritant to northern anti-slavery forces (since Cuba was already slave territory and would strengthen pro-slavery forces (Nevins1857, pp. 448-450).
And then came 1860, and its presidential election. Douglas was the great issue. He was too powerful to ignore and too hated to be generally acceptable. It showed in the run-up to the 1860 presidential conventions: Douglas was the only true candidate on the Democratic side (Catton-Coming, p. 6; Nevins1859, p. 209, notes that various anti-Douglas politicians supported vice president Breckinridge, or secretary Guthrie, or Senator Hunter, or even Andrew Johnson. Several of these men, ironically, would stay with the Union).
Even had they stayed united, the Democrats had other problems, as the election of 1856 had shown. It had looked like a blowout in the electoral college -- President Buchanan had earned 174 of 296 electoral votes, or 59%. But a glance at the actual results (see e.g. p. U-59 of the Hammond Atlas) shows a different picture: There had been three candidates: Buchanan, the Democrat; Fremont, the Republican; and Fillmore, the Know-Nothing (the Know-Nothings were technically called the American party. Which actually translated as the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic party). Buchanan had won only 45% of the popular vote (only 41% in the north, according to McPherson, p. 162), with Fremont taking 33% and Fillmore 22%. It was southern electoral votes which had put Buchanan in office, and Southerners, as it proved, would make sure Buchanan knew he owed them.
And the Republican party in 1856 was brand-new and had little national organization; only a few states had a significant apparatus. It had clearly grown stronger in the years since 1856, when a battle over the house speakership had forced its congressional delegation to cooperate (McPherson, p. 144).
Plus the election was followed by the Panic of 1857, which shattered the economy; the after-effects were still being felt in 1860. It was hardly Buchanan's fault --  Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 399, blame it mostly on a decline in demand for American products after the end of the Crimean War -- but of course Presidents and their party are always blamed for the state of the economy.
There was every expectation Republicans would improve their showing in 1860 (which incidentally pretty well ruined the idea of a split Democratic ticket: If no candidate won the electoral vote, resulting in the election going to the House of Representatives, the House would very likely elect the Republican. Indeed, Douglas himself declared that he would not allow such an outcome: "before it shall go into the House, I will throw it to Lincoln" -- CattonRoads, p. 232; Nevins1859, p. 285).
Then, too, there was the distribution of votes in 1856. Fremont has won New York, all of New England, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Only five free states -- California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (which was Buchanan's home state) -- had gone for Buchanan. Already it was a sectional contest: Buchanan versus the Republican candidate Fremont in the north and against the Know-Nothing Fillmore in the south (McPherson, p. 157). The Democrats won only by taking all of the South and a little in the North. If they lost ground in either section, they were doomed.
And the electoral balance continued to tilt northward. Two states (Oregon and Minnesota) had joined the Union since 1856; the latter was almost certain to go Republican, and they had at least a chance for the former. In 1860, if the Republicans could hold the states they had won in 1856, win the two new states, and take Pennsylvania plus any one of the other Democratic states, they would have at least 152 out of 303 electoral votes and would elect a President. The Democrats, to win, had to somehow to come up with a candidate who would run strong in the Northeast or Midwest. Problem was, there were no Democrats, except Douglas, who seemed likely to run strong there (Catton-Coming, p. 9).
It's a situation really quite reminiscent of the early twenty-first century: Two parties dominated by extremists. The Democrats still had a chance -- a very good chance -- if they could keep their party united and their voters in line.
But who could they nominate? The incumbent, James Buchanan, had been nominated in 1856 mostly because he had been an ambassador and so was not burdened with baggage about Kansas (Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 398). But by 1860 he was obviously no longer free of that taint -- and was so worn and worthless that not even the Democrats seriously considered re-nominating him.
The leading man in the party was Senator Douglas, the man who had beaten Abraham Lincoln in that 1858 Illinois Senate Race. But -- Douglas had (rather gratuitiously) created the infamous Kansas/Nebraska conflict. And, to win that 1858 election, he had supported the doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty" (in simplest terms, that the local [white male] residents always decide about Slavery), and added the "Freeport Doctrine" (not a law, simply an opinion: That locals would always end up making the decision about slavery, because only locals were in a position to enforce the law. If they didn't like a law, it would be ignored).
The centrist who would be easiest to elect nationally was almost impossible for the reactionary Democrats to stomach.
Douglas faced other handicaps. He had, in 1856, stepped aside to open the door for Buchanan's candidacy, at significant financial cost to himself (Nevins1847, p. 175), but gratitude is rare in politics. The Buchanan administration hated him, and they dominated controlled several state delegations that might otherwise have gone for Douglas at least in part (Nevins1859, p. 211). The convention was held in Charleston -- a decision made four years earlier, when Democrats had seemed likely to dominate for years; this was before Dred Scott and John Brown. But Charleston was probably the most reactionary, anti-Douglas city in the country (Catton-Roads, p. 201)
The Democrats were supposed to nominate their candidate first; they were to meet in Charleston at the end of April 1860. But "[m]ost southern Democrats went to Charleston with one overriding goal: to destroy Douglas" (McPherson, p. 213). The southerners, according to Catton-Coming, p. 11, were clear: "There was going to be a showdown; once an for all the South would find out whether Northern Democrats would stand squarely with the South on true Constitutional principles [i.e. making people accept slavery whether they wanted it or not]. Both platform and candidate would have to be explicit; 'there must be no Douglas dodges -- no double constructions -- no janus-faced lyring resolutions -- no double-tongued and doubly damned trifling with the people.'" It was an attitude which hardly encouraged compromise.
The Southerners at least made this brutally clear, offering this plarform language: "Resolved... First, that Congress has no power to abolish slavery in the Territories. Second, that the Territorial Legislature has no power to abolish slavery in any Territory, nor to prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any power to exclude slavery therefrom, nor any right to destroy or impair the right of property in slaves by any legislation whatever" (Catton-Coming, p. 30; Nevins1859, p. 214, comments that, by the day before the platform was due, "everyone agreed that the platform committee must bring forward either a subterfuge or a bombshell")
Their choice was the bombshell. The platform committee had been stacked with anti-Douglas delegates, determined to produce a platform he couldn't accept (Nevins1859, p. 213; Catton-Roads, p. 203), and a majority of the committee adopted the southern position, with a vocal minority producing a more moderate document (Nevins1859, pp. 214-215). When the southern version of the platform was brought up, the Northern Democrats in effect said, "We've been suffering because of you for years, and now you want *this*?" (Catton-Coming, p. 32). The result was pandemonium, halted only be adjourning the day's session (Catton-Coming, p. 33; Nevins1859, p. 217).
When the delegates finally came back together, they rejected the proposed slavery-or-else language 165 to 138 (Catton-Coming, p. 34). This was no surprise; there were more northern than southern delegates. But the southerners were ready -- or had backed themselves into a corner. The delegations from the cotton states walked out (Catton-Coming, p. 34). Formally, the southern states were still part of the U.S. But they had, for practical purposes, already seceeded. According to Catton-Roads, p. 204, they were not committed to seccession; their goal was simply to get rid of Douglas. If he were gone, they were willing to come back on more moderate terms. But the Douglas supporters, thinking only a few delegates would withdraw, refused to give in at this time.
The seceeders totalled only about fifty delegates (Catton-Coming, 36). The convention tried to continue. But, it was ruled, any resolution must get a majority (for some sorts of motions, a two-thirds majority) of all delegates, including those who had walked out (Catton-Coming, p. 36). It wasn't going to happen. There were 303 total delegates, of whom 253 (give or take a few) were still in the convention. 202 were needed to nominate a candidate -- 80% of those still present. Six candidates were nominated: Douglas; former treasury secretary James Guthrie; Senator R.M.T. Hunter; Daniel S. Dickinson; Andrew Johnson; and Joseph Lane (Nevins1859, p. 222). Douglas on the first ballot earned 145.5. His best total was 152.5, and that only briefly. Thus he barely reached even 50% of total delegates, and never came close to two-thirds. But no other candidate was even close to him; on the first ballot, Hunter had 42, Guthrie 36 and a half, and the others less. Nor could anti-Douglas forces come together; the leading alternative, Guthrie, peaked at 64 and a half. After nearly sixty ballots, the convention gave up (Catton-Coming, pp. 37, 39). There would be no nomination at this time. It was decided to reconvene six weeks later (Catton-Coming, p. 39).
The Republicans, whose convention followed, were thrilled. Nevins1859 reports that the convention chairman's gavel was "made of oak from Commodore Perry's flagship at the Battle of Lake Erie" (for background on which, see the notes to "James Bird" [Laws A5]). The chairman, noting this, declared, "All the auguries are that we shall meet the enemy and they shall be ours." It seemed pretty clear a Republican could win the Presidency -- as long as they convention produced a candidate who didn't alienate any segment of the North. That same arithmetic that said they needed to add only Pennsylvania plus one other state to their tally in order to win the presidency also meant that they could not spare many northern states -- e.g. the loss of New York would effectively doom them (Catton-Roads, p. 219). So they had to pick a candidate who wouldn't alienate any of their potential supporters.
(How sectional were the Republicans? Apart from what Nevins1859, p. 251, calls a "flagrantly bogus" Texas delegation, only five slave states -- Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Virginia -- were even represented at their convention; Catton-Coming, p. 51. Note that four of the five would stay in the Union, and the fifth, Virginia, would have West Virginia secede when the rest of the state went South. There were no representatives of the cotton-growing areas at all. And the only one of those five states they had any hope of winning was Missouri, and that only because of Saint Louis.)
So the Republicans gathered, in effect, to seek a dark horse who didn't have any record for people to run against. And they were meeting in Chicago, Illinois. William H. Seward was their leading man, but he had spoken of the "Irrepressible Conflict," and he was just a little too prominent. The largest block in the Republican convention supported him. The rest, almost to a man, were "anyone but Seward" types. On the first ballot, Seward had 173.5 votes (out of 233 needed to nominate), favorite son Lincoln 102, and there were rather more than a hundred scattered votes.
The Lincoln team had worked hard. They were everyone's second choice. On the second ballot, it was Seward 184.5, Lincoln 181. The third ballot saw Lincoln at 231.5, and several delegates then changed their votes and Lincoln was over the top. (Catton-Coming, p. 63).
Then it was the Democratic turn to try again. And fail again. They met in Baltimore in mid-June -- and found themselves in a fight over credentials; there were now multiple delegations (pro- and anti-Douglas) from some of the states (Catton-Coming, pp. 69-74). Douglas himself had stated in writing that he woul withdraw from the race if it would help (Nevis1859, p. 270). His followers never even revealed the letters, because they saw no signs that the Southern delegates would compromise.
Once again there was a walkout. The rump, naturally, nominated Douglas -- but of course many Democrats did not consider him "their" candidate. Indeed, right there in Baltimore, supported by a meeting in Richmond, the seceders nominated Buchanan's vice president John C. Breckinridge, and he was nominated on the first ballot among those in this small meeting (Catton-Coming, p. 77 -- a rather amazing outcome for this conservative bunch, since Breckinridge was not yet forty). The Democratic party was split, just as the Whigs had two elections earlier. It would be oversimplified to say that Douglas was the northern Democrat and Breckinridge the Southern (as the election proved, Douglas earned votes everywhere) -- but still, there were two Democratic candidates, and that was the general feeling (though Breckinrige, unlike most of his followers, was not committed to secession if he lost -- he was, after all, the vice president!). And, with the situation so messy, a fourth candidate, John Bell, was thrown into the game.
Bell was a last-minute draft, called in in response to the Democratic debacle. But so severe was the train wreck that he was technically was the first candidate nominated. On May 9, after the Democratic failure in Charleston but before the Republicans met in Chicago, a group of (mostly) doddering elders (McPherson, p. 221, reports that "few... were under sixty years of age) representing 24 states  met in Baltimore with the express purpose of preserving the Union.
Their leading light was Kentuckian John J. Crittenden, who would later offer the "Crittenden Compromise" (and who had sons who were generals on both sides in the war). But he took himself out of the running on the grounds that he was too old. That left Bell and Texas's Sam Houston as the only significant contenders. Bell earned some two-thirds of the votes (Nevins-1859, pp. 161-162).
Calling themselves the "Constitutional Union" party, they nominated Edward Everett as Bell's running mate, passed a platform standing for Union, the Constitution, enforcement of laws (plus, presumably, motherhood and apple pie), refusing even to mention the word "Slavery" (Catton-Coming, pp. 47-48) -- though Bell himself was a slaveholder (McPherson, p. 221).
Bell had had a distinguished career -- Speaker of the House in 1834, Secretary of War under Harrison, many years in the Senate. An independent thinker, he had opposed the pro-Slavery extremists on many occasions, so he could be called a genuine moderate (Nevins1859, pp. 272-273). He would even have praise for Lincoln, saying that the congressman from Illinois had impressed him (Nevins1859, p. 275)
Distinguished or not, balanced or not, Bell's nomination was a forlorn attempt to find middle ground where there was none. And even though it happened before the Democrats finally split, it was largely in response to the Democratic disaster. (So most of the sources, anyway, though they also represented an attempt by the several dying parties to revive; RandallDonald, p. 131, considers them to be the last gasp of the Know-Nothings. Catton-Roads, p. 230, agrees in part, calling the party "Conservative in tone, largely old-line Whig and displaced Know-Nothing in composition, staffed principally by respectable, elderly citizens whose only formula for solving the sectional problem was to stop talking about it." McPherson, p. 221, considers it to be a remnant of the Whigs. Nevins1859, like Catton, thinks it included both Whigs and Know-Nothings; p. 161.)
In practice, not even the Constitutional Unionists could avoid the slavery issue; apparently a number of their supports in the south promised a slave code for the territories. That cost them whatever support they might have had in the North. They ended up winning only 3% of the vote in northern states (McPherson, p. 222).
The election which followed was hardly a legitimate example of taking the issues to the voters. Of the four candidates, only Douglas really went out and campaigned (Catton-Coming, p. 100). Bell was less a candidate than a platform which people could accept or reject; his supporters' primary campaign technique was to ring bells (Catton-Roads, p. 231).
Lincoln was the quietest of all, staying at home and explicitly refusing to make campaign statements on the grouns that his opinions were well-known (Nevins1859, pp. 277-278. Doesn't that sort of campaign sound heavenly today?). The Republican organizantion did produce a campaign newsletter, _The Railsplitter_, but it did little except print falsehoods about Douglas (Catton-Coming, p. 92). What little the voters knew (apart from those who read the many speeches Lincoln had given earlier, and which were the basis for his statement that his views were known) came from parades (staged by Republican "Wide Awakes" and Douglasite "Minutemen"; Catton-Roads, p. 231) and word of mouth and songs such as this one and the much more negative "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A."
The Bell campaign was the weakest in this department; as Nevins1859, p. 281, comments, "The conservative businessmen and planters who ought to have toiled amain for Bell were just the most prone to indifference and apathy. They would vote, but they would not take off their coats and go to work." Plus, of course, such well-known and venerable men as Bell and Everett had long "paper trails," and opponents could almost always dig up something to make them appear "unsound" on some issue or another.
Breckinridge to a large extent relied upon the Democratic machinery governened by the White House; president Buchanan hated Douglas, and so gave all possible aid to Breckinridge (Nevins1859, p. 284).
Indeed, the administration contributed greatly to the debacle which followed. President Buchanan's hate of Douglas, combined with a pro-southern attitude and a fatal weakness (he is regarded by many historians as the worst president in American history. And, yes, liberal folkies, that includes George W. Bush in the calculations) meant that he did absolutely nothing to try to control the nation's divisions or to try to bring together the anti-Lincoln forces (Nevins1859, pp. 289-290).
We should perhaps not blame Buchanan too much; Nevins1847, pp. 186-187, notes that "For twenty-five years after Jackson left the White House, no man of high abilities entered it. What was more, the country knew that no man of high abilities occupied it." The parties did not want great men; they were bound to alienate one or another faction. Polk, who served from 1845 to 1849, was at least forceful, but Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) was too inexperienced and died too soon; Millard Fillmore (1850-1853) was a non-entity, Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) quite literally a pretty face, and Buchanan (1857-1861) got the job as the only Democrat who didn't have a track record on Kansas!
Nevins1847, pp. 188, sums up the situation this way: "With a clumsily managed, hopelessly divided Congress and a series of weak chief magistrates, the country watched the national crisis grow to a point where evenstrong leadership could not control it. In 1860 all three parties selected strong men. Douglas, Breckinridge, and Lincoln were alike leaders of intellectual power and stalwart character. At last the country was certain of a President of statesmanlike parts -- but it was too late."
There were side issues: excessive corruption in the Buchanan administration, Pacific railroads, the need for a Homested Act, tariffs (Nevins1859, p. 301, 304-305). The Republicans, stung by Democratic charges that they were in favor of Black equality,  used these issues in some areas. (To show the tenor of the times -- there was a ballot initiative in New York at this time to give Blacks the vote. New York voted 54% for Lincoln -- but only 37% of the citizens of the state supported the ballot proposal; McPherson, p. 225.) But in the South in particular, the issue was slavery. And, indeed, the Republicans had made it clear that it would be; at the Chicago convention, when someone had nominated David Wilmot (of the Wilmot Proviso, banning slavery in the territories) to be temporary  chairman, the proposal was greeted by "a tempest of applause" (Nevins1859, p. 251).
Not even the presence of an official (but extremely minor) Abolitionist candidate, Gerrit Smith, could cover up the fact that Republicans were the party of controlling slavery (just as Breckinridge was the candidate of appeasing the South). Nor did the false rumors of slave revolts change anything (Nevins1847, p. 307) -- after all, no one in the South intended to vote for Lincoln anyway!
All four candidates, ironically, seem to have thought that they were the only one who could save the Union. Breckinridge wanted to save it by giving in to the South. Bell wanted to save it by pretending there was no problem. And the Republicans believed in standing firm -- in effect, telling the South that they had cried wolf too many times.
That was indeed the South's problem; they *had* cried seccession every election since 1848 (Catton-Coming, pp. 96-97), and the Republicans thought it was just noise. But, in fact, every previous cry for seccession had won some sort of compromise. Now, compromises there were none. The forces opposed to the Republicans couldn't even compromise on a candidate; Catton-Roads, p. 231 and Nevins1859, pp. 283-285 report that there were a few abortive attempts to combine the Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas tickets, but the Douglas camp insisted (almost certainly correctly) that only he could win anything in the North, so nothing came of that. And, as noted above, Douglas was unequivocally opposed to having the election settled in the House.
Douglas -- alone among the candidates -- actually wanted to address the issues. (No wonder he didn't win. In addition, he found it very difficult to raise funds, crimping his campaign activities; Nevins1859, p. 292.) He knew the Southerners were serious; he just felt they were dead wrong -- and told them so to their faces: The election of Lincoln was not grounds for secession, and if they did seceed, he declared, "it is the duty of the President of the United States and all others in authority under him to enforce the laws of the United States.... In other words, I think the President of the United States... should treat all attempts to break up the Union by resistance to its laws as Old Hickory treated the Nullifiers in 1832" (Nevins1859, p. 294).
Elections at this time were conducted over an extended period; Pennsylvania and Indiana voted before the rest of the North. When Pennsylvania went Republican, a number of papers in other states changed their attitudes, turning from Douglas to Lincoln or, in a few cases, Breckinridge (Nevins1859, p. 311). Douglas declared, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save the Union. I will go south" (Nevins1859, p. 295).
Douglas was dead right. There had been four-way elections before, in 1824, 1832, and 1836 (in 1836, in fact, five different candidates won states. 1832 and 1836 were cases of parties in effect nominating local candidates, but 1824 had four national candidates). But none was like this: Those had been about the person the public wanted as a leader. This was about the very nature of the United States, with each candidate standing for something very different. The bottom line of the 1860 election was straightforward:
* Lincoln: 40% of the popular vote, 180 electoral votes (Lincoln won California, Oregon, Minnesota, Iowa, plus all states north of the Ohio River except New Jersey, where he won four of seven electoral votes)
* Douglas: 29%, 12 electoral votes (9 from Missouri, 3 from New Jersey)
* Breckinridge, 18%, 72 electoral votes (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas)
* Bell, 13%, 39 electoral votes (Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, which at that time still included West Virginia)
The actual results weren't nearly as simple as the above would imply. Lincoln wasn't even a serious candidate in the southern states (Nevins1859, p. 312; Foote, p. 34, says that he earned no votes at all in five states; RandallDonald, p. 133, says he had no votes in ten of them. The footnote on that page shows that there is some uncertainty about the vote totals;  McPherson, p. 223, says simply that the Republicans were not on the ballot in ten states. In the handful of slave states where Lincoln was on the ballot, they earned only 4% of the vote,with most of those from Saint Louis). Breckinridge had hardly more support in the northwest (e.g.he combined to only about 4500 votes in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa combined; Nevins1859, p. 313), though in total about a quarter of his votes came from free states (Catton-Coming, p. 113).
A look at the map in McPherson, p. 236, reveals an even more complicated situation. It shows the winners of the popular vote county-by-county. Only eight states had the same winner in every county: Connecticut, Maine (probably), Massachussetts New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont went for Lincoln, and Delaware and South Carolina went for Breckinridge (the latter meaning nothing, since onservative South Carolina didn't even conduct a popular vote in this period). The other states were split -- basically between Lincoln and Douglas in northern states, and between Bell and Breckinrige in the south, but several states divided three ways: In California and Oregon, various counties went for Lincoln, Douglas, and Breckinridge (the Breckinridge vote in the western states was just large enough to deny Douglas a win there); in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia we see different parts supporting Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas.
Missouri takes the prize. The state as a whole went for Douglas, but in terms of territory it was almost a perfect three-way split between Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas, with Lincoln actually winning Saint Louis and one other county. (Missouri had earlier been the first Slave state to elect a Repubican representative; Nevins1859, p. 300. He would be very lonely.)
Looking at sectional totals, Lincoln won 54% of the votie in the North, while in the South (not counting the border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia), Breckinridge won 45% of the vote and Bell 39% (MacPherson, p. 232) -- an interesting statistic, because it means that even in the South, the majority was still in favor of the Union. But the pro-Union group was a small majority, fragile and easily swayed. And in the deep South, Breckinridge had absolute majorities in most cases, though not in Georgia and Lousiana (Catton-Roads, p. 245).
Sliced one more way: Lincoln won more than 60% of the vote, and all but about two dozen counties, north of the 41st parallel (McPherson, p. 232) -- in other words, all points from a line passing south of Chicago, north of Pittsburg and Philadelphia, and just northof New York City. From that line to the Ohio River was won by Douglas (including, ironically, even Lincon's home county -- CattonComing, p. 110). Bell won from the Ohio River to roughly a line from Memphis, Tennessee to Norfolk, Virginia. And Breckinridge won south of the Memphis-Norfolk line. The United States had had elections divided by sectional interests before, and would have them again (just look at the 2004 electoral map) -- but never such a tiger-stripe based almost solely on north-south geography. It was, indeed, almost a tiger-scratch, ripping the nation apart.
To put that level of complication in another sort of a perspective: this was an election that could have had at least three different winners based on voting method. Lincoln won a plurality of the vote. He also won the Roman voting system vote (a.k.a. the Electoral College: Voting goes by tribes/states, with the winner of voting *within* the tribe earning all the tribe's votes). But if the current notion of Instant Runoff Voting had been in place, Douglas would probably have won. And if the other primary ranked voting method (assigned points, which is the voting method used by the Mathematical Association of America) had been used, my guess is that Bell would have won.
Some Democrats had hoped that, somehow, the three non-Lincoln candidates could combine to win an electoral majority, and a compromise could be worked out in the House. As it turned out, if Lincoln won a plurality in a state, he almost always won a majority; of the states he won, there were only three (California, Oregon, and New Jersey) where he did not win more votes than Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas combined. (MacPherson, p. 232) The states he won outright had a total of 169 electoral votes, or 17 more than a majority. Nevins1859, p. 312, notes, "Had Douglas been nominated at Charleston, Lincoln might well -- in view of the different trend which the campaign would have taken -- have lost." But Charleston had not nominated Douglas.
Two things were clear. One was that the country opposed the Southern doctrine that Slavery could be imposed on territories even if they didn't want it. Two-thirds of the population had voted either for Lincoln, who expressly opposed Slavery in the territories, or Douglas, who would allow its implicit limitation (Nevins1859, p. 316)
The other point was even clearer: Lincoln, despite the split in the vote, had won the election. And, as a special extra prize, secession and civil war.
The song is mostly accurate in its details about Lincoln's life -- e.g. the lines "They'll find what by felling and mauling, Our railmaker statesman can do" is reminiscent of Lincoln's own words: "I am not ashamed to confess that twenty five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flat-boat..." (McPherson, p. 28). Though this omits the fact that Lincoln, since then, had worked almost exclusively as a lawyer.
The song calls Lincoln "The pride of the Suckers so lucky." "Suckers" were inhabitants of Illinois. He was hardly their "pride," though, considering that he had won only one term in congress, and lost the 1858 Senate race. In 1860, Illinois hardly looked like the "Land of Lincoln." On the evidence, it was the "Land of Douglas." Until that November.
>>*BIBLIOGRAPHY*<<
In writing this summary, apart from looking up odd facts in Boatner's _Civil War Dictionary_, I have cited the following:
Catton-Coming: Bruce Catton, _The Coming Fury_, being volume I of _The Centennial History of the Civil War_(Pocket, 1961, 1967)
Catton-Roads: William & Bruce Catton, _Two Roads to Sumter: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and the March to Civil War_ (Phoenix, 1963, 1988)
Current/Williams/Freidel, Richard N. Current, T. Harry Williams, Frank Freidel, _American History: A Survey_, second edition, Knopf, 1966
Foner: Eric Foner, _Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War_ (Oxford, 1970)
Foote: Shelby Foote, _The Civil War: A Narrative_ (Volume I: Fort Sumter to Perryville) (Random House, 1958)
Hammond Atlas: (no author listed), _The Atlas of United States History_ (Hammond; I'm using the edition copyrighted 1977 though I imagine there have been others)
Hickey: Donald R. Hickey, _The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict_ (University of Illinois Press, 1989, 1995)
Holt: Michael F. Holt, _The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War_ (Oxford, 1999; I could probably have written this entire article based on this 1248 page tome, but it's so thick,I can't find references even just a few days after I read them!) 
McPherson: James M. McPherson, _The Battle Cry of Freedom_ (The Oxford History of the United States: The Civil War Era; Oxford, 1988)
Nevins1847:  Allan Nevins, _The Ordeal of the Union: Fruits of Manifest Destiny 1847-1852_ [volume I of _The Ordeal of the Union_] (Scribners, 1947)
Nevins1857: Allan Nevins, _The Emergence of Lincoln:Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos 1857-1859_ [volume III of _The Ordeal of the Union_] (Scribners, 1950)
Nevins1859:  Allan Nevins, _The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War 1859-1861_ [volume IV of _The Ordeal of the Union_] (Scribners, 1950)
Nolan: Jeannette Covert Nolan, _The Little Giant: Stephen A. Douglas_ (Messner, 1964)
RandallDonald: J. G. Randall (second edition revised by David Donald), _The Civil War and Reconstruction_, second edition (Heath, 1961)
Schlesinger: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., _The Age of Jackson_, Little Brown, 1945
Vandiver: Frank E. Vandiver, _Their Tattered Flags: The Epic of the Confederacy_ (Harper's, 1970) - RBW
File: San167
===
NAME: Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A.
DESCRIPTION: "There's an old plow 'hoss' whose name is 'Dug,' Doo-dah, doo-dah, He's short and thick, a regular plug... We're bound to work all night... I'll bet my money on the 'Lincoln Hoss,' Who bets on Stephen A.?" Douglas's political problems are parodied
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: political parody nonballad animal
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1847 - Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) of Illinois elected Senator
1854 - In response to the Kansas slavery question, Douglas proposes "popular sovereignty"
1858 - Abraham Lincoln runs for Senator from Illinois against Douglas. Douglas wins the election, but is forced to declare moderate positions that cause extremists on both sides of the slavery question to oppose him.
1860 - A four-way race pits Lincoln (Republican) against Douglas, the southern Democrat Breckinridge, and the "Constitutional Unionist" John Bell. In a bitter campaign over slavery, Douglas is lampooned by both sides. Lincoln earns 40% of the vote and is elected President; Douglas earns 29%
1861 - Douglas dies after strenuous attempts to save the Union and, failing that, to support Lincoln's positions
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 42-43, "'Lincoln Hoss' and Stephen A." (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Camptown Races" (tune)
cf. "Lincoln and Liberty" (subject)
NOTES: In addition to having been a moderate on slavery issues, Stephen A. Douglas was a short, stout man. Hence this vicious satire on a man who, though he was not a strong opponent of slavery, was in every other way an honest and generous politician. - RBW
Oh, I don't know about that. James McPherson's _Battle Cry of Freedom_ offers evidence that Douglas took pro-slavery positions to win the support of southern politicians for his attempts to obtain railroad concessions. His record, at least as detailed in that book, is considerably less than honorable. - PJS
Paul is right; McPherson, pp. 121-122, reports that Douglas was "a large investor in Chicago real estate" who "had enhanced the value of his property by securing a federal land grant for a railroad from that city to Mobile. Perhaps hopingto repeat the scenario from Chicago to San Francisco, Douglas and  [William A.] Richardson in 1853 reported bills to organize Nebraska territory." But even McPherson admits his view is controversial.
Allan Nevins, _Ordeal of the Union: A House Dividing 1852-1857_ [volume II of _The Ordeal of the Union_], pp. 9, admits that he was a favorite of "an industrious bevy of lobbyists and privilege-hunters" and that he "had made a good deal of money in real estate [and] was something of a Western land speculator himself."
Great care must be taken not to see the men of 1860 in the light of today. If Douglas were alive today, we would consider him utterly vile -- it should be remembered that Douglas did not wish to destroy slavery. But it was an attitude of the time. Similarly, that was the era of the spoils system. Few people could make a career of politics, and elected officials weren't paid very well; naturally they tried to take advantage. Today, he would be in trouble with the Ethics Committee. But the rules were very different then -- and at least Douglas lived at a time when incumbents could be voted out of office!
In his defence, we note that J. G. Randall's _The Civil War and Reconstruction_ (second edition by David Donald, Heath, 1961), p. 93, says that "His forthrightness, vigor, and aggressiveness, his force as a debater and talent as a political strategist, had made a deep impression; and the breadth of his natinal vision had given him a peculiar distinction in an age when the sectionalism of many of the nation's leaders was all too evident."
The real complaint against Douglas is that he destroyed the Compromise of 1850. Yes, he did, and he did it over Kansas. But the Compromise was doomed anyway. If it hadn't been for Kansas, it would have been Dred Scott, or the Wilmot Proviso (which hadn't been settled, merely buried) or the Mormons, or Cuba, or something; the Whig party, we must remember, was *already* dying over the Slavery issue in 1852, before the first drop of blood was shed in Kansas. And Douglas notably opposed the fraudulent Lecompton constitution for Kansas.
The majority of historians I've consulted consider Douglas as basically honest, though he certainly resorted to a lot of politicians' tricks. And when it came down to the breach during the election of 1860, Douglas -- and only Douglas -- went all-out, campaigning to save the Union. In the process, he did such harm to his health that he died soon afterward.
According to William and Bruce Catton, _Two Roads to Sumter_, p. 233, after it became clear that the parties were split in 1860, and that diaster loomed, it was Douglas, and Douglas alone, who gave his all to try to prevent the war: "The final months of his life were a blaze of glory for the Little Giant, and the greatness that had always hovered above his dogged trail descended fully upon him at the last. Of all the varied courses pursued by America's leaders in the loud, uneasy campaign of 1860, his alone was that of the statesman. Not only grasping but squarely confronting the probably course of events that would follow a Republican victory, Douglas made the Union his sole platform.
"His purpose was simply to remind the electorate, and especially the Democrats, that defeat at the polls in a fair election was no valid cause for destroying the government.... Douglas even carried his message to the deep South, where it took real courage to glorify the Union and repudiate secession at this late date. Abuse, rotten eggs, and detailed threats of physical force attended his swing through the cotton states...."
Nevins, _The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War 1859-1861_ [volume IV of _The Ordeal of the Union_], p. 293, says that Douglas even feared a sort of sourthern coup d'etat if southern Democratic candidate and vice president Breckinridge won the border states, and that he campaigned heavily there to prevent it. The coup was probably just a daydream, but Douglas accomplished his ends, more or less: He took Missourri, John Bell won Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and Breckinridge's margin in Maryland was too small to allow any such games.
Elections at this time were conducted over an extended period; Pennsylvania and Indiana voted before the rest of the North. When Pennsylvania went Republican, Douglas declared, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save the Union. I will go south" (Nevins1859, p. 295).
Another measure of Douglas's character is that Alexander Stephens, the future Confederate Vice President who was also perhaps the most realistic man in the South, and one who knew Douglas, openly declared that he admired the man (Nevins, p. 296).
Nevins, _The War for the Union: War Becomes Revolution_ [Volume VI of _The Ordeal of the Union_], p. 191, makes another very important point: Douglas, had he lived, would have been a War Democrat during the Civil War -- and, being as strong as he was, could probably have held the War Democrats together. With him dead, the War Democrats had no leader, and Peace Democrats dominated the party. They proved simply obstructionist, and the war was waged almost entirely by Republicans. As a result, the Democrats were very badly discredited by the War -- and reconstruction was run entirely by the Radical Republicans, who wanted vengeance and utterly botched the job. In the long run, they definitely weakened the country, and hurt rather than helped the former slaves. Douglas was missed, though few realized it at the time.
I guess I would sum it up this way: No man in the United States loved the Union more than Douglas. Was this a crime? Lincoln fought the Civil War to preserve the Union. The difference between the two is that Douglas loved the Union as it was; Lincoln loved it as it should have been. Certainly Lincoln's was a better Union -- but not an entirely good one. Lincoln, for instance, had no use at all for independent women; when Jesse Benton Fremont visited him in the White House, he brushed her off as a "female politician" (Allan Nevins, _The War for the Union: The Improvised War 1861-1862_ [Volume V of _The Ordeal of the Union_], p.338). Lincoln had reason to be irritated with her, but the remark shows that he too had a lot to learn. Lincoln was more right than Douglas on one specific issue. It was enough to make him President. But it doesn't prove that he was actually a much greater man.
Really, Douglas is one of the hardest characters in American history to grasp. The disagreement with Paul rather shows the point: Could Douglas be great without being good? He made things happen, but sometimes it almost seemed as if he was stirring things up just to see if he could enjoy the chaos. On the whole, he reminds me more of Theodore Roosevelt than almost any other American politician. (Which, I am sure, will draw more protests. But, of course, opinions of TR were also very mixed.)
For more background on the Lincoln/Douglas situation, see the notes to "Lincoln and Liberty."  - RBW
File: SRW042
===
NAME: Lincolnshire Poacher, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer served as apprentice for seven years, then took to poaching, "For tis my delight of a shining night in a season of the year." The poachers go out hunting, but are spotted by a gamekeeper; they subdue him and continue to make merry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1838 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: poaching work apprentice fight
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Kennedy 258, "The Northamptonshire Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan, pp. 290-291, "The Poacher" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 203, "Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text)
DT, LINCPOCH*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #216, "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text)
ST K259 (Full)
Roud #299
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chandler's Wife" (tune)
cf. "The Nottinghamshire Poacher" (theme)
NOTES: Kennedy remarks, "Although Lincolnshire, Somerset and Leicestershire occur as the location for this most 'fam-e-rous' of poaching songs, more than half the versions from genuine sources favour Northamptonshire." This appears, from Kennedy's bibliography, to be true, but the oldest versions, and those usually sung, are associated with Lincolnshire, so that is the title I adopted. - RBW
File: K259
===
NAME: Lindy Lowe
DESCRIPTION: "Come smilin' Lindy Lowe, de pootiest gal I know, On de finest boat dat ever float, in de Ohio, de Mississippi or de Ohio." Verses have no story at all and only the second line ever changes, "Come smilin' Lindy Lowe, by de Gulf ob Mexico.." etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: worksong shanty
FOUND_IN: Barbados
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Harlow, pp. 201-202, "Lindy Lowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9170
NOTES: [Harlow's] notes give this as a Barbadian hand over hand shanty. - SL
File: Harl201
===
NAME: Linen Song, The: see Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron (File: ShH82)
===
NAME: Lingle Lingle Lang Tang (Our Cat's Dead)
DESCRIPTION: "Lingle, lingle, lang tang, Our cat's dead! What did she die with? With a sore head! All you that kent her, When she was alive, Come to her burial, Atween four and five."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: animal death burial
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 41, "(Lingle, lingle, lang tang)" (1 short text)
Roud #13025
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oor Cat's Deid"
NOTES: Roud lumps this with the Sam Henry piece "A Child's Lullaby" (indexed as "Oor Cat's Deid"). There is similarity in both form and subject matter -- but the lyrics are enough different that I decided to split them. - RBW
File: MSNR041
===
NAME: Linktem Blue (Reeling Song)
DESCRIPTION: "All along, all along, All along, all along, All along, all along, Linktem blue." "Linktem blue is a very fine song, All along, all along, All along, all along, All along, all along, Linktem blue." Reportedly used to count knots while weaving yarn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Flanders/Brown, p. 34, "Reeling Song" (1 text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 19, (no title) (1 text)
ST FlBr034 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "Linktem Blue" (on MMacArthur01)
File: FlBr034
===
NAME: Linstead Market
DESCRIPTION: "He promised to meet me at Linstead Market, take me out to a show." The girl waits long, but there is no sign of Joe. At last a letter arrives, saying that he "just got married today." He promises to meet her the next day, though, and take her to the show
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: courting marriage infidelity
FOUND_IN: Trinidad
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 335, "Linstead Market" (1 text)
File: FSWB335
===
NAME: Lint Pullin', The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his early days as a lint puller. He is kind to the girls he works with, and makes sure they do well. One day, Mary Jane chooses to work with him; they prove the best. They go home together, and now will work together at marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work courting home marriage
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H487, pp. 43-44, "The Lint Pullin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9299
File: HHH487
===
NAME: Linten Lowrin: see Rhynie (File: RcRhynie)
===
NAME: Linton Lowrie
DESCRIPTION: "I tint my heart ae morn in May When birdies sang on ilka tree... O, Linton Lowrie, Linton Lowrie, Aye sae fond ye trowed to be, I never wist sae bright a morn Sae dark a night would bring tae me." After wishing him back, she sets out to find him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H640, p. 291, "Linton Lowrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6888
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (tune)
NOTES: Not to be confused with "Linten Lowrin," filed in the index with "Rhynie." - RBW
File: HHH640
===
NAME: Lion and the Unicorn, The
DESCRIPTION: "The lion and the unicorn, Fighting for the crown, The lion beat the unicorn All around the town." Details of the battle, and of the beasts' reception, may follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1691 (according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: animal battle royalty
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 304, "The lion and the unicorn" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #123, p. 103, "(The Lion and the Unicorn)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 39, "(The lion and the unicorn" (1 text)
NOTES: I've never heard this sung, but Lewis Carroll and other sources list it as a song, not a poem, so here it files.
The song definitely predates Lewis Carroll, appearing in several nursery rhyme anthologies, but I have been unable to determine exactly which, so I have to use Carroll as the earliest date.
Various theories revolve around this piece. Typical is the claim that it refers to the conflict between Scotland (whose arms featured a unicorn) and England (marked by lions). But both the Baring-Goulds and Martin Gardner in _The Annotated Alice_ note that there was a traditional mythological rivalry between lion and unicorn over who would be the King of Beasts. Given that the lion is a carnivore and the unicorn presumably an herbivore (and how does it get its mouth to the ground with that thing on its head?), I suppose it's logical that the lion wins. - RBW
Opie-Oxford2: "MS inscription dated 1691 beside a woodcut of the royal arms with supporters in a copy of _The Holy Bible_, 1638 (Opie Collection), 'the unicorn & the lyon fiteing for the Crown and the lyon beat the unicorn Round About the town'" - BS
If the poem did arise in that period, one suspects it has to do with the quarrel between England and Scotland over the Covenant, Charles I, or Charles II, with Scotland wanting to retain its Stuart King (while putting some restraints on his behavior), whereas England was trying to get rid of the monarchy. - RBW
File: BGMG123
===
NAME: Lion's Den, The: see The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)
===
NAME: Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine
DESCRIPTION: When the young man comes to the girl's door, she confesses that she had once hastened to answer his call. But now he shows the signs of liquor; she warns him that "Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine." If he sobers up, she will reconsider
AUTHOR: George W. Young
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (unknown newspaper)
KEYWORDS: drink courting rejection
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 341, "Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine" (1 text)
BrownIII 30, "The Lips That Touch Liquor Must Never Touch Mine" (2 texts, with the second perhaps a revised version of the Young original)
Roud #7812
File: R341
===
NAME: Lipto
DESCRIPTION: "Lipto, lipto, jine de ring, Lipto, lipto, dance an' sing; Dance an' sing an' laugh an' play, Fur dis is now a holiday. Turn aroun' an' roun' and roun'...." "Er holdin' uv dis golden crown, An' I choose my (gal/man) fur ter dance me down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 132, "Lipto" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring)" (lyrics)
NOTES: I have to suspect that "lipto" is a corruption of "tiptoe," but whether the confusion is the informant's or the collector's I can't tell.
I also suspect that this whole thing is a corruption of something, perhaps "Jingo Ring," but it's been very thoroughly corrupted. - RBW
File: ScaNF132
===
NAME: Lisburn Lass, The
DESCRIPTION: Henry loves a Lisburn Lass. Her parents' disapproval forces him to enlist for India. She offers to go with him. He says "All by my foes I am here cut down For loving a maiden in Lisburn town." He leaves her but promises to steal her if he returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1980 (Mary Anne Connelly on IRHardySons); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(530))
KEYWORDS: love army separation India father mother
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #5694
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Connelly, "The Lisburn Lass" (on IRHardySons)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(530), "The Pride of Lisburn" ("You boys and girls where'er you be"), Haly (Cork), 19C

CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Kilkee" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name) and references there
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(530) is the basis for the description.
Notes to IRHardySons: "Lisburn is in County Antrim, southwest of Belfast."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(530) includes these lines: "For to tell her name I don't intend For fear I might insult her friends But you all know her well, the truth I lay down, For her dwelling lies in Lisburn Town" - BS
File: RcLisLas
===
NAME: Lishen Brand: see Leesome Brand [Child 15] (File: C015)
===
NAME: Lisnagade
DESCRIPTION: The Ulster Protestants march to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne and meet an ambush at a fort at Lisnagade. There is shooting. The Catholic flag was inscribed "Hail Mary" but "my Lady Mary fell asleep, and so they ran away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1816 (_The Patriotic Songster_, according to Zimmermann; Zimmermann believes it dates from "early 1790's")
KEYWORDS: 
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 12, 1791 - "A group of 'Defenders', a secret Roman Catholic agrarian society, took up position in Fort Lisnagade to attack a group of 'Peep O' Day Boys' who were celebrating King William's [1691] victory at Boyne." (source: "Lisnagade" at the Musica site)
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 93, "Lisnagade" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #13403
NOTES: "Lisnagade" refers to the white flag: 
We had not march'd a mile or so when the white flag we espied,
With a branch of podereens on which they much relied,
And this inscription underneath -- Hail Mary! unto thee --
Deliver us from these Orange dogs, and then we will be free.
Zimmermann p. 43 fn. 42: "Previously to the green, the 'seditious' colour was the Jacobite white. This colour remained the symbol of the Catholic Defenders." - BS
File: Zimm093
===
NAME: Listen to the Mocking Bird: see Listen to the Mockingbird (File: RJ19110)
===
NAME: Listen to the Mockingbird
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his beloved Hallie, who is "Sleeping in the valley, And the mockingbird is singing where she lies." Now the song of the mockingbird makes him "Feel like one forsaken... Since my Hallie is no longer with me now."
AUTHOR: "Alice Hawthorne" (Septimus Winner) and Richard Milburn
EARLIEST_DATE: 1854
KEYWORDS: death burial separation bird
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Dean, pp. 78-79,"Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 159, "Sweet Hally" (1 text)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 110-114, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 61-61, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 249, "Listen To The Mockingbird" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 333, "Listen to the Mocking Bird"
DT, MCKNBIRD
ST RJ19110 (Full)
Roud #8079
RECORDINGS:
Theron Hale & Daughters, "Listen To The Mocking Bird" (Victor V-40019, 1929)
Fiddlin' Red Herron, "Listen To The Mockingbird" (King 629, 1947)
Bela Lam and His Green County Singers, "Listen tothe Mocking Bird" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
W. MacBeth & Tom Collins, "Listen to the Mockingbird" (Vocalion 5282, c. 1929)
Morgan & Stanley, "Listen to the Mockingbird" (Columbia 1833, 1904) (Victor Monarch 4080, 1904)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & the Jr. Skillet Lickers, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (on DownYonder)

NOTES: Although now often used as an opportunity for fiddle players or other performers to produce strange sounds from their instruments, this piece was originally done "straight." After a few years of obscurity, the composer sold the copyright for a mere $5, only to see the song sell over a million copies.
Alice Hawthorne was a leading pseudonym of Septimus Winner; he also listed her as the author of "Whispering Hope." (The name was a tribute to his mother.) For some reason, Winner published such trivia as "Oh Where Oh Where Is My Little Dog Gone" under his own name.
The first edition of this piece gave a melodic credit to Richard Milbourne; this was dropped on later printings. It seems likely, however, that Milbourne did supply the tune; he was a young Negro errand-boy and beggar known as "Whistling Dick." Early in his career, Winner was willing to give credit to others; as he became more successful, he apparently wanted the praise for himself.
The song is reported to have been dedicated to Harriet Lane, the niece of president James Buchanan who was the White House hostess during that bachelor's presidency. (Buchanan was not yet President when the song was written, but Lane had already done duty as his social helper, so this is possible.) It is ironic to observe that Lane was almost an old maid, not getting married until 1866, when she was well into her thirties. - RBW
File: RJ19110
===
NAME: Little 'Dobe Casa, The: see The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)
===
NAME: Little Adobe Casa: see The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)
===
NAME: Little Ah Sid
DESCRIPTION: "Little Ah Sid was a Chinese kid, A neat little cuss, I declare...." One day, as Ah Sid is out playing, he spots a bee and, taking it for a butterfly, knocks it down and puts it in his pocket. It stings him; he remarks "Um bullifly velly dam hot!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: foreigner bug injury
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, pp. 276-277, "Little Ah Sid" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Little Ah-Sid" (Conqueror 7887, 1931)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chinee Bumboatman" (style)
File: San276
===
NAME: Little Alice Summers
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young parents, I'll sing to you a song Concerning Alice Summers Who was lost so long." Little Alice, not yet two, disappears in the cold. For long hours she is missing, and her family almost despairs. But her tracks are found
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (recording, Arkansas Charlie)
KEYWORDS: family children rescue
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 727, "Little Alice Summers" (1 text)
Roud #7391
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "Little Alice Summers" (Vocalion 5367, c. 1929)
File: R727
===
NAME: Little Annie Rooney
DESCRIPTION: "A winning way, a pleasant smile, Dressed so neat but quite in style... Has little Annie Rooney... She's my sweetheart, I'm her beau; Soon we'll marry, never to part, Little Annie Rooney is my sweetheart." The singer looks forward to life with Annie
AUTHOR: Michael Nolan
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1885 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.28(8a/b) View 3 of 8)
KEYWORDS: love marriage home
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 774, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text)
Geller-Famous, pp. 45-47, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 333-334, "Little Annie Rooney"
Roud #4822
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(8a/b) View 3 of 8, "Little Annie Rooney", R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Harding B 11(2154), Harding B 18(577), "Little Annie Rooney"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Little Annie Roonie
NOTES: Michael Nolan was an obscure music hall performer; Annie Rooney is reported to have been his niece, and to have been three years old when this song was written.
According to James J. Geller, this song was a huge commercial success, but brought no compensation to Nolan, who swore off writing songs as a result. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(577) attributes music to George Le Brun. The 1889 sheet music was published in Boston by White-Smith; the American Memory LOC notes list George Le Brunn as the arranger [cover only, call number Music #572 no. 20 at Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University]. - BS
File: R774
===
NAME: Little Auplaine, The: see The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)
===
NAME: Little Ball of Yarn: see Ball of Yarn (File: EM089)
===
NAME: Little Beggar Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: The beggar boy's mother is gone and his father is a drunkard who beats him. He misses his mother and wishes to be buried by her. Last verse: "My coffin shall be black/Six white angels at the back/Two to watch, two to pray/Two to carry my soul away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (collected from Emily Baker)
KEYWORDS: poverty abuse death funeral begging nonballad father mother floatingverses playparty
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
MacSeegTrav 122, "The Little Beggar Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BEGGRBOY*
Roud #6355
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Go and Dig My Grave" (floating verses) 
cf. "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I)" (floating verses) 
cf. "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (lyrics)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "The Little Beggarman," an entirely separate song. The last verse is a floater, tacked on from elsewhere; MacColl & Seeger note that it's a children's game, found in Edinburgh. I've heard recordings of it from Americans as well. I use the keyword "playparty" for the final verse because we lack a keyword "game." - PJS
File: McCST122
===
NAME: Little Beggarman, The (Johnny Dhu)
DESCRIPTION: "I am a little beggarman, a-begging I have been, For three score years and more in this little isle of Green...." (Johnny Dhu) briefly narrates his life, including nights in barns and a "flaxy-haired girl's" attempt to court him. He sets out on his way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: rambling begging gypsy courting
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Kennedy 345, "The Little Beggarman" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H751, pp. 50-51, "The Oul' Rigadoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-More 26, "The Beggarman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BEGGARDH*
Roud #900
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Doran et al, "The Little Beggarman" (on FSB3)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Haired Boy" (tune)
cf. "Me Old Ragadoo" (tune, lyrics)
NOTES: See Tim Coughlan, _Now Shoon the Romano Gillie_, (Cardiff,2001), #172, pp. 447-448, "I Don't Give a Damn for Gaiging is the Best" [Scotto-Romani/Tinklers' Cant version from Maher (1972?)]. Coughlan also quotes an English text of "The Oul' Rigadoo" as performed at the Coleraine Musical Festival. - BS
File: K345
===
NAME: Little Benton
DESCRIPTION: "To little Benton I did fee, In Rhynie feein' fair," but it proves an unhappy agreement; he and Benton soon quarrel. The farmer tries to drive off the singer, who is determined to stay and earn every farthing. The singer warns others of Benton
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: farming money hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 238-239, "Little Benton" (1 text)
Roud #5580 and 5906
NOTES: Ord observes that "Benton" is Aberdeenshire dialect for "bantom," implying that it is a description of, rather than a name for, the unpleasant farmer. - RBW
File: Ord238
===
NAME: Little Bessie
DESCRIPTION: The little girl tells her mother that she is ill (with what sounds like heart disease). She reports that a voice called her, saying, "Come, be my child." The girl bids her mother not to grieve, then dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Recording, Buell Kazee)
KEYWORDS: death children mother religious
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 172-173, "Little Bessie" (1 text, the same as that in Abrahams/Foss; 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 132-134, "Little Bessie" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 122-123, "Little Bessie" (1 text, the same as that in McNeil-SFB2; 1 tune)
ST MN2172 (Partial)
Roud #4778
RECORDINGS:
Leroy Anderson, "Little Bessie" (Champion 45059, 1935)
Blue Sky Boys, "Little Bessie" (Bluebird B-8017, 1939)
Dixon Brothers, "Little Bessie" (Montgomery Ward M-7171, 1937)
Kelly Harrell, "I Heard Somebody Call My Name" (Victor 23747, 1929; on KHarrell02)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Little Bessie" (on Holcomb1, HolcombCD1)
Buell Kazee, "Little Bessie" (Brunswick 215, 1928)
Holland Puckett, "Little Bessie" (Gennett 6720, 1928/Supertone 9324, 1929)
Kid Smith [Walter Smith] & Family, "Little Bessie" (Victor 23576, 1931)
NOTES: McNeil reports that a song called "Little Bessie," credited to "someone named Keutchman," was published in 1870. No copies of this piece are known, however, so it cannot be determined if the two are the same.
Given how often this was recorded by old-time bands, and how rare it is in tradition, I have to suspect that Viola Cole (Foss's informant) learned it, at least indirectly, from a recording. - RBW
File: MN2172
===
NAME: Little Betty Pringle She Had a Pig: see There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)
===
NAME: Little Betty Winkle She Had a Pig
DESCRIPTION: 
AUTHOR: 
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig
File: E068
===
NAME: Little Bird
DESCRIPTION: "Where are you going, little bird, little bird, Where are you going, little bird? I am going to the woods, sweet child, sweet child." What is in the woods? A tree. In the tree is a nest, in the nest, eggs, in the eggs, baby birds to sing "Praise the Lord"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: questions bird nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fuson, p. 89, "Little Bird" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 359-400, "The Tree in the Wood/Pretty Bird" (1 text)
ST Fus089 (Partial)
Roud #4281
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rattling Bog" (theme)
NOTES: Lumped by Scarborough with the Endless Circle/Tree in the Wood/Rattling Bog family. But the versions of this do not complete the circle, and add the religious motif. This may well have started from a fragment of the English song, but they're separate, sez I. - RBW
File: Fus089
===
NAME: Little Birdie
DESCRIPTION: "Little birdie, little birdie, Come and sing me your song. I've a short time for to be here And a long time to be gone." Often consists of floating verses, but concerns adultery: "Pretty woman... you made me love you, Now your husband has come."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: adultery bird love courting husband floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 676, "The Dark Hollow"" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune, with the "A" text perhaps somewhat mixed with "Dark Hollow")
Randolph/Cohen, pp. The Dark Hollow, "" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 676A)
BrownIII 255, "Kitty Kline" (2 text plus 4 fragments and 1 excerpt, which despite the title mostly file here; see Notes)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 187-188, "Little Birdie" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 397, "Little Birdie" (1 text)
DT, LILBIRDY
Roud #5742
RECORDINGS:
Willie Chapman, "Little Birdie" [instrumental] (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Coon Creek Girls, "Little Birdie" (Vocalion 04413, 1938)
Al Craver [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart], "Little Birdie" (Columbia 15044-D, 1925)
John Hammond, "Little Birdie" (Challenge 168 or 332 [one of these as "William Price"/Silvertone 5697, 1927; on BefBlues3)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Little Birdie" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
Robert Howell [pseud. for Holland Puckett], "Little Birdie" (Herwin 75563, 1927)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Little Birdie" (Montgomery Ward M-7127)
Wade Mainer & Zeke Morris, "Little Birdie" (Bluebird B-6840)
Wade Mainer, "Little Birdie" (King 1093, 1952)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Birdie" (on NLCR16)
Land Norris, "Little Birdie" (OKeh 45006, 1925)
Frank Proffitt, "Little Birdie" (on FProffitt01)
Sauceman Brothers, "Little Birdie" (Rich-R-Tone 457, n.d.)
Stanley Brothers, "Little Birdie" (Rich-R-Tone 1056, rec. 1952) (on FOTM)
Pete Steele, "Little Birdie" (AFS, 1938; on KMM) (on PSteele01)
Pete Seeger, "Little Birdie" (on PeteSeeger47)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "East Virginia (Dark Hollow)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Easy Rider" (theme)
cf. "Kitty Kline"
NOTES: No, not the producer of "Spirituals to Swing," nor his blues-singing son! - PJS
(I think the above is a reference to the recording by John Hammond. But it's all Urdu to me. - RBW)
Yes, it is such a reference. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren informs me that Charles Wolfe did some research on Hammond, learning that he cut only six sides. Wolfe was unable to trace his origins but suspects he came from northern Kentucky.
Very many of the versions in Brown contain references to "Kitty Kline (Clyde, etc.)," and the editors on that basis filed it under that title. But the versions are clearly what we know as "Little Birdie," sometimes mixed with references to Kitty Kline, and so I file them here. - RBW
File: R676
===
NAME: Little Birdie in the Tree
DESCRIPTION: "Little birdie in the tree, Singing a song to me, Singing about the roses, Singing about the tree; Little birdie in the tree, Singing a song for me."
AUTHOR: Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876)?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 146, "Little Birdie in the Tree" (1 text)
Roud #5259
NOTES: For more on Philip Paul Bliss, see the notes to "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning." - RBW
File: Br3146
===
NAME: Little Bit
DESCRIPTION: "Leddle bit-a Niggeh an' a great big toe, Meenie miny mo. Leddle bit-a Niggeh wid a great big fis', Jes' de size fo' his mammy to kiss. Leddle bit-a Niggeh wid big black eyes, Bright as de sun up in de skies...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love children nonballad lullaby
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 153, (no title) (1 short text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)" (lyrics)
File: ScNF153A
===
NAME: Little Bit of Heaven, A
DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever hear the story of how Ireland got its name?" A small piece of Heaven broke off and fell to earth; when an angel finds it, he proposes to leave it there because it fits so well. They proceed to make improvements such as adding shamrocks
AUTHOR: Words: J. Keirn Brennan / Music: Ernest R. Ball
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: Ireland talltale
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 6-7, "And They Called It Ireland" (1 text)
Roud #5495
NOTES: Ironically, although this song supplies an (obviously humorous) explanation of how Ireland came to be, it does not explain how it came to be called Ireland.
Dean does not seem to have known the first verse of the song, which is about leprechauns and their antics. It's no loss; other sources omit it as well. - RBW
File: Dean006
===
NAME: Little Bitty Baby: see Children Go Where I Send Thee (File: LoF254)
===
NAME: Little Black Bull, The: see The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)
===
NAME: Little Black Mustache, The: see The Black Mustache (File: CW180A)
===
NAME: Little Black Train Is A-Comin'
DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Little black train is a-comin', Get all your business right... For the train may be here tonight." King Hezekiah is offered as an example. A young man lives a sinful life;  when death comes, he is surprised and vainly begs for mercy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death Bible train
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 625-628, "Little Black Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 541, "The Little Black Train" (1 text)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 914-915, "Little Black Train Is A-Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 41, "(Little Black Train)" (partial text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 260-261, "The Little Black Train" (1 text)
ST BAF914 (Partial)
Roud #11594
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "The Little Black Train Is Coming" (Vocalion 5229, c. 1928)
Dock Boggs, "Little Black Train" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Carter Family, "The Little Black Train" (OKeh 03112, 1935; on CGospel1)
Rev. J. M. Gates, "Death's Black Train is Coming" (Columbia 14145-D,1926)
Harmon E. Helmick, "The Little Black Train" (Champion 16744, 1934)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "This Old World Ain't Going to Stand Much Longer" (subject)
NOTES: The story of Hezekiah's bout with sickness, God's threat, Hezekiah's repentance, and Isaiah's promise of fifteen additional years of life is told in 2 Kings 20:1-11 (repeated almost verbatim inIsaiah 38) and briefly summarized in 2 Chronicles 32:24-26.
The version in Brown accidentally replaces "Hezekiah" with "Ezekiel," but the former name is clearly correct. It tacks on the story of the Wise Fool, Luke 12:16-20. - RBW
File: BAF914
===
NAME: Little Blossom
DESCRIPTION: Lonely little (Blossom/Phoebe), left alone by her mother, sets out to find her father. She finds him in the saloon; when she interrupts him, he grabs a chair and attacks her with it. He comes to his senses, but the child is already dead
AUTHOR: (based on a poem by Martha J. Bidwell)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: father drink murder children
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 311, "Little Blossom" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 260-263, "Little Blossom" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 311A)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 118-123, "Little Blossom (I), (II)" (2 texts)
DT, LTLBLSSM*
Roud #7788
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Little Blossom" (Conqueror 7886, 1931)
NOTES: Randolph notes, "Little girls in starched white dresses used to sing [this song] in front of the courthouse at election time." Almost makes modern political ads sound tolerable, doesn't it? - RBW
File: R311
===
NAME: Little Bo-peep
DESCRIPTION: Shepherdess Bo-peep can't find her sheep. When she finds them they are without their tails. One day she finds the tails hung on a tree to dry. She "tried what she could, as a shepherdess should, To tack again each to its lambkin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1806 (Monthly Literary Recreations, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale sheep shepherd injury dream
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 66, "Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #112, p. 93, "(Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep)"
cf. DT, MERRYLND
Roud #6487
NOTES: The Baring-Goulds note occurrences of the name "Bo-peep" before the 1810 edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland, which is the first date they mention. But no one seems to be able to trace the song earlier than this.
I'm amazed no one has tried to find a political interpretation. Were the piece earlier, one would be tempted to the English Civil War and Restoration. Or maybe the Stuart monarchy and the Jacobite rebellions. Given the early nineteenth century date, one thinks of the French Revolution, the guillotine, and perhaps Bonaparte's restoration of monarchy.
Or not. I don't really believe it. But it sounds so "folk-plausible." Even the name is right.... - RBW
File: OO2066
===
NAME: Little Boxes
DESCRIPTION: "Little boxes on the hillside... And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same." How people go to school and go into business and get put into "little boxes (houses) all the same" (except for minor differences in color)
AUTHOR: Malvina Reynolds
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 378-380, "Little Boxes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 189, "Little Boxes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 314, "Little Boxes" (1 text)
DT, LITBOX1* (LITBOX2*) (LITBOX3*)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Little Boxes" (on PeteSeeger35, PeteSeeger36)
NOTES: The irony of this song, at least to me, is that while most Americans DO think the same thoughts and live the same lives and buy houses from the same contractors and watch the same sports on the same TV sets and otherwise follow the crowd and pollute the same environment with the same junk that they extract from the same oil wells, they at least have a choice about it. A medieval peasant was a medieval peasant no matter how hard he tried to be a freethinker, and even the nobility didn't have many choices....
This is of course not a traditional song by origin, and it probably hasn't goine into traition either; it's here because it's cited in many books, but none of them are field collections.
Although Reynolds is responsible for both words and music of the piece, but she seems to have been inspired (perhaps unconsciously) by the song "Pittsburg, Pennsylvania" ("There's a pawn shop on the corner In Pittsburg Pennsylvania"), made popular by a 1952 recording by Guy Mitchell. - RBW
File: SBoA378
===
NAME: Little Boy Billee (Le Petite Navire, The Little Corvette)
DESCRIPTION: English & French versions. Three Bristol men steal a ship and go to sea. Starving, Jack & Jimmy plot to eat Billee, but he asks to say his catechism first. Before he finishes, he sights the British fleet. Jack and Jimmy are hanged, Billee made an admiral
AUTHOR: Unknown, English version possibly translated by William Thackeray
EARLIEST_DATE: 1946 (Davenson, French version)
KEYWORDS: crime execution punishment theft rescue death ship cannibalism foreignlanguage murder
FOUND_IN: France
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 114, "Le Petit Navire [The Little Corvette]" (French version -- 1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 429-430, "Three Sailors of Bristol City" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Little Boy Billee" (on LastDays)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
NOTES: The song was apparently widespread among French sailors. The English version, possibly translated by Thackeray, seems almost a burlesque. And the similarities to "The Ship in Distress" are so acute that I suspect the songs are related. - PJS
To me, the question is more of the relations between Kennedy's various texts in multiple languages. If two songs have the same plot, and there is a version in another language with the same plot, how do you tell which song it belongs with? - RBW
File: K114
===
NAME: Little Brass Wagon: see Old Brass Wagon (File: San159)
===
NAME: Little Brown Bulls, The [Laws C16]
DESCRIPTION: Bold McCluskey believes his steer can out-pull anything on the river, and backs his belief by betting that they can out-pull Gordon's little brown bulls. Despite McClusky's confidence, the bulls are victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: contest animal gambling lumbering
FOUND_IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Laws C16, "The Little Brown Bulls"
Rickaby 13, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 107, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 775-777, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
Lomax-FSNA 54, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 849-851, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 37, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-Lumbering #47, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 168-171, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 178-179, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
DT 603, BRWNBULL*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 39, #2 (1994), p9, 96-97, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune, a combination of two versions sung by Robert Walker)
Roud #2224
RECORDINGS:
Charles Bowlen, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Warde Ford, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS 4213 B, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Carl Lathrop, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
NOTES: According to Fred Bainter, who sang Rickaby's "A" text, "the ballad was composed in Mart Douglas's camp in northwestern Wisconsin in 1872 or 1873. It was in this camp and at this date... that the contest between the big spotted steers and the little brown bulls was held" (quotation from Botkin, not Bainter; Laws quotes this information from Rickaby, but without comment on its truth or falsehood. Fowke notes that Beck had a different story).
Rickaby's second version lacks the Derry Down refrain, but the informant apparently knew it with the Derry Down tune. Fowke describes her tune as a "Villikens" variant. The Robert Walker recording is said to use the tune of "Rye Whisky." - RBW
Beck notes that some lumberjacks have suggested this song comes from Maine, but it is not included in R. P. Gray's collection _Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks_. - PJS
This is going to be hard to solve. As best I can tell, there are 23 versions of this known from tradition. Five of these (found in Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, and two from the Ford family in California) are clearly not native to their area. Of the other 18, six are from Michigan and six from Wisconsin (plus the Ward and Pat Ford versions surely derive from that state). Two are from Maine, two from Ontario, one from New Brunswick, and one from Nova Scotia. Did the song originate in the Midwest and travel east? The fact that 14 versions are ultimately from Wisconsin and Michigan argues for this. But it is more likely for a song to move west with the lumbermen than for six versions to make their way east. I think we just have to say we don't know. If I had to choose, I'd argue for the Wisconsin origin, but I'm far from sure. - RBW
File: LC16
===
NAME: Little Brown Church in the Vale, The (The Church in the Wildwood)
DESCRIPTION: "There's a church in the valley by the wildwood, No lovelier spot in the dale; No place is so dear to my childhood...." "Come to the church in the wildwood, Oh, come to the church in the dale." The singer recalls the joys of church as both child and adult
AUTHOR: William S. Pitts
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (source: Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 172-173, "The Little Brown Church in the Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4970
NOTES: According to Johnson, this is largely about an actual church built in the 1860s in the town of Bradford, Iowa (near present-day Nashua). Bradford was bypassed by the railroads, and withered away, but as of his writing, the church still stood. - RBW
File: BdLBCitV
===
NAME: Little Brown Dog
DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy As fat as I could go, They set me there upon the fence...." The boy fights and defeats a giant, induces his hen to hatch out a hare, acquires a dog with legs ten feet long, and otherwise does the impossible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1891 (JAFL 4)
KEYWORDS: talltale animal chickens dog horse sheep humorous nonsense fight
FOUND_IN: Britain(Shetlands) US(MA,NE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Randolph 357, "When I Was a Little Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
FSCatskills 145, "The Lofty Giant" (1 text)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 101, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 129, p. 275, "To London I Did Go" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 24-29, "A Tale of Jests" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-Labrador 111, "The Lying Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 87, "The Liar's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 103-106, "The Little Bull Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 79, "The Little Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 394, "Little Brown Dog" (1 text)
DT, (AUTUMNTO)
Roud #1706
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Derby Ram"
cf. "The Swapping Boy"
cf. "The Seven Wonders"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Big Jeest
Once I Had
The Lie Song
NOTES: I've listed this song under a title by which it's well known; as it was extremely popular in the 1960s folk revival. -PJS
Versions of this song may take almost any form, as long as there is enough exaggeration. The piece is recognized by its short lines and stanzas. Here are samples: "When I was a little boy, To London I did go, Upon that banished (?) steeple, My gallantry to show." "I bought me a little hen, I did not take much care; I set her on an oyster shell, And she hatched me out a bear."
Hudson calls this a rhymed version of the story of Jack the Giant Killer. Some versions were doubtless influenced by that, but the song doesn't require killing a giant. - RBW
File: VWL101
===
NAME: Little Brown Hands
DESCRIPTION: "They drive the cows home from the pasture Down through the long shady lane." "They know where the apples are reddest." These hard-working children shall one day be great. Many other secrets "are held in the little brown hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad work
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 327, "Little Brown Hands" (1 text)
Roud #15890
File: Br3327
===
NAME: Little Brown Jug, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises drink and the little brown jug it comes in: "Ha, ha, ha, you and me, 'Little brown jug' don't I love thee." Drink has turned his friends into enemies, left him poor and sick, and ruined his prospects -- but still he wants another drop
AUTHOR: Eastburn (Joseph Eastburn Winner)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1869
KEYWORDS: drink poverty nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 115-118, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, p. 261, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus an excerpt from another)
Randolph 408, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a fragment which may or may not go here)
BrownIII 33, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus 6 excerpts)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 176-177, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune, probably composite, since it includes all the original verses plus some floaters)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 52-53, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 64-65, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 269, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 236, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 334-335, "Little Brown Jug"
DT, BROWNJUG*
ST RJ19115 (Full)
Roud #725
RECORDINGS:
[Gene] Austin & [George] Reneau, "Little Brown Jug" (CYL: Edison [BA] 4973, prob. 1924)
The Blue Ridge Duo [possibly a pseudonym for George Reneau?] "Little Brown Jug" (Edison 51422, 1924)
Uncle Tom Collins, "Little Brown Jug" (OKeh 45132, 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Brown Jug" (Perfect 12421, 1928)
Chubby Parker, "Little Brown Jug" (Gennett 6120/Silvertone 5013/Silvertone 25013, 1927; Supertone 9191, 1928) (Conqueror 7893, 1931)
Riley Puckett (w. Clayton McMichen), "Little Brown Jug" (Columbia 15232-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
George Reneau, "Little Brown Jug" (Vocalion 14812, 1924)
Ernest Thompson, "Little Brown Jug" (Columbia 147-D, 1924)
Welby Toomey, "Little Brown Jug" (Gennett 6025/Champion 15198, 1927; rec. 1926)
Henry Whitter, "Little Brown Jug" (OKeh 40063, 1924)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Woodpecker's Hole" (tune)
cf. "The Whiskey Seller" (tune)
cf. "The Poor Little Girls of Ontario" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Old Man's Lament (II) (File: Logs050)
NOTES: Joseph Winner (the brother of Septimus Winner, a.k.a. "Alice Hawthorne") published some twenty pieces in his career under the title Eastburn, but only this one had any commercial success. The title may have come from another song of the same name, but that piece (by George Cooper and W. F. Wellman, Jr.; copyright 1868) fell into instant obscurity. - RBW
File: RJ19115
===
NAME: Little Bull Song, The: see Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)
===
NAME: Little Cabin Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: A fair lady falls in love with Billy, a cabin boy. She tries to convince his captain to release him, but the captain will not. She bids him farewell, goes into a garden, and dies for love. Billy's ship is lost in a storm with all hands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1876
KEYWORDS: sea courting love death separation wreck
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Britain(Scotland,England(South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
FSCatskills 56, "The Little Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, p. 83, "The Cabin Boy" (1 text)
ST FSC056 (Partial)
Roud #1168
File: FSC056
===
NAME: Little Carpenter (I), The
DESCRIPTION: Singer is courted successively by an old man, a blacksmith (who gives her a handkerchief and a finger ring) and a handsome young man (from Scarlet town!); she rejects all, preferring the little carpenter who, "hews with his broadaxe all day and sits by me
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (field recording, Blind James Howard)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection magic lover worker
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, LITCARP
ST DTLitCar (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Blind James Howard, "The Little Carpenter" (AAFS 1376 B2, 1933; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Little Carpenter" (on NLCR06, NLCRCD2)
NOTES: I've included the keyword, "magic" because the appearance of the handkerchief and finger ring hint at now-lost magical elements. Curiously, the field recording cited under, "Earliest Date" is the only time the song has been found, although its diction and images make it sound European. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren, who did a detailed examination of this song for a historical column, agrees. He notes several indications that the song is old: The change from third to first person, the "props" such as finger rings, the pentatonic melody (centering on the fifth rather than the tonic), and the general tone. One scholar speculated that it is a religious song in disguise.
The other very faint possibiility is that it's about the historical Cherokee chief Attakullakulla, known as "Little Carpenter," who lived at the time of the French and Indian Wars and ended up surrendering some land in the region of South Carolina after a nasty campaign in which both sides suffered significan casualties. I can, by twisting very hard, make some of the references here make sense in his context. But I think it highly unlikely, unless we find another version which makes the matter clearer. - RBW
File: DTLitCar
===
NAME: Little Carpenter (II), The: see The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)
===
NAME: Little Chickens in the Garden, The: see Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)
===
NAME: Little Children, Then Won't You Be Glad?
DESCRIPTION: "Little children, then won't you be glad (x2), That you have been to heav'n, And you're going to go again, For to try on the long white robe..." "King Jesus, he was so strong That he jarred down the gates of hell." "Don't you remember what you promise..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus hell
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 87, "Little Children, Then Won't You Be Glad?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12045
NOTES: This is a curious mix of Biblical and non-Biblical material. The white robes are Biblical enough, being mentioned especially in the Revelation to John (Rev. 3:5, 18, 4:4, 6:11, 7:9-14).
The mention of the Harrowing of Hell, however, is not Biblical at all; it is a Catholic legend, and not a particularly early one. According to Henry Bettenson, _Documents of the Christian Church_,. second edition, Oxford, 1963 (I use the 1967 Oxford editon), the "Old Roman Creed" which seems to have inspired the Apostle's Creed does not mention Jesus's descent into Hell. As far as we know, a Gallican creed of the sixth century is the first to include the phrase "he descended into Hell." This was later adopted into the Apostle's Creed (mid-eighth century?), but it will be evident that that Apostle's Creed is in fact not apostolic. The Nicene Creed mentions the descent into Hell not at all. And the detail that Jesus actually broke the Gates of Hell is presumably a still later embellishment (known, e.g., to Dante).
The mention of a chariot and its wheels is reminiscent of the first chapter of Ezekiel.
The reference to feeding the sheep is imagery from the Gospel of John, though the language appears to me to be inspired by both John 10 and John 21.
All in all, this looks like a very Catholic song to me.
File: AWG087
===
NAME: Little Chimney Sweep, The
DESCRIPTION: A chimney sweep steals the child while his mother spins. After three years, the child is not found. The sweep returns and is hired by the woman; when his boy appears, she recognizes him. Women are warned to keep their children close at hand
AUTHOR: Unknown, possibly a Mr. Upton
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (collected from William Hughes) -- but a broadside in the Madden collection, possibly called "The Lost Child Found", long predates it
KEYWORDS: reunion abduction crime mother worker children
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 124, "The Little Chimney Sweep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1549
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Lost Child" (plot)
NOTES: The resemblance of this song to "The Little Lost Child" (composed 1894) is sufficient that I strongly suspect the author of the latter was familiar with "The Little Chimney Sweep", also known as "The Lost Child Found." According to MacColl & Seeger, it was quite popular among 19th-century broadside printers. - PJS
File: McCST124
===
NAME: Little Clare Mary, The (Daily's Lifeboat)
DESCRIPTION: "When the tempest was raging And the seas running high The little Clara May came scudding down by." The ship strikes a rock. The captain says Dailey will come in his lifeboat, but he never does. The sailors are finally rescued by the Mary Louise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster rescue cowardice
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownII 289, "The Song of Dailey's Life-Boat" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 32, "The Little Clare Mary" (1 text)
Roud #6629
NOTES: The notes in Brown describe their failure to find historical evidence for the events described here (which may explain the confusion in the name of the song: Brown's text calls it the Clara May, Chappell the Clare Mary). Nor is there evidence of cowardice in the (real) Dailey family.
Roud lumps several "lifeboat" songs under this number, but the other is a religious song. - RBW
File: BrII289
===
NAME: Little Cobbler, The
DESCRIPTION: The butcher goes to London; his wife takes the cobbler to her bed. When a policeman shows up, she invites him into bed while the cobbler hides beneath. The butcher then arrives with the cobbler still hidden. The butcher finds and punishes the cobbler
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (JFSS)
KEYWORDS: seduction trick bawdy humorous hiding
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 224-226, "The Little Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 197, "The Cunning Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #174
RECORDINGS:
George Spicer, "The Cunning Cobbler" (on FSB2, FSB2CD)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES: The Copper version of this piece appears, from the initial verse, to be very closely related to "The Major and the Weaver" [Laws Q10] . The Kennedy version, however, is distinct. I suspect the Copper version is a cross-fertilization.
Vaughn Williams observed that the piece must be modern (because of the policeman), and remarks "It is a modern example of the kind of fun we find in Chaucer's 'Clerk of Oxenforde.'"
This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
File: CoSB224
===
NAME: Little Cock Sparrow, The
DESCRIPTION: "A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree" A "naughty boy" with bow and arrow says he will shoot the sparrow to make a stew and pie. The sparrow says otherwise and flies away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1846 (Halliwell, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: escape hunting bird youth food
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 111, "A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #182, p. 130, "(A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree)"
Roud #3368
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1117), "The Little Cock Sparrow," W. Oxlade (Portsea), n.d.
NOTES: Bird fanciers will note that this is the English sparrow, known in America as a "House Sparrow" but actually a weaverfinch, rather than a true sparrow; it's generally not possible to tell the genders of true sparrows without detailed examination. English sparrows are also generally more given to chattering, and spend more time in trees; true sparrows are groundfeeders. Not that a nursery rhyme writer is likely to worry about such details. - RBW
File: OO2111
===
NAME: Little Cora: see Darling Corey (File: LxU087)
===
NAME: Little Cory: see Darling Corey (File: LxU087)
===
NAME: Little Darling (II): see Nobody's Darling on Earth (File: R723)
===
NAME: Little David, Play on Your Harp
DESCRIPTION: Recognized by the chorus, "Little David, play on your harp, Hallelu, hallelu." The rest can describe David's exploits, or almost anything else vaguely related to Biblical subjects
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (recording, Fisk University Male Quartet)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Bible
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
BrownIII 609, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 81, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (1 text, 1 tune, possibly mixed with "On My Journey Now")
Courlander-NFM, pp. 46-49, (no title) (1 text, which appears composite); pp. 236-237, "King David"
Silber-FSWB, p. 361, "Little David" (1 text)
Roud #11831
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson & Earthy Anne Coleman, "King David" (on NFMAla4, DownHome)
Big Bethel Choir #1, "Little David Play Your Harp" (Columbia 14157-D, 1926)
Commonwealth Quartet, "Little David" (Domino 0173, 1927)
Brother Claude Ely, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (King 1375, 1954)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Little David, Play On Yo' Harp" (Victor 16448, 1909)
Fisk University Male Quartette (sic.), "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Columbia A2803, 1919)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "Little David, Play On Your Harp" (Musicraft 231, prob. 1939)
Joe Ramer Family, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Broadway 8106, c. 1930)
Joe Reed Family, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (c. 1925; on CrowTold02)
Noble Sissle & Lt. Jim Europe's Singing Serenaders, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Pathe 22084, 1919)
Southland Jubilee Singers, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (OKeh 4271/Phonola 4271, 1921)
Wood Bros. Quartet, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Rainbow 1094, 1923)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Spaeth lists a 1921 hit, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" as arranged by "Burleigh." I would assume that that is this song, and that it therefore is older than that date by some years. - RBW
The Courlander-NFM references certainly is composite, but the verses were compiled by the informant, Rich Amerson, not by Courlander. See his recording on NFMAla3 and DownHome. - PJS
File: CNFM046
===
NAME: Little Devils: see The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)
===
NAME: Little Doogie: see Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)
===
NAME: Little Drops of Water (Little Things)
DESCRIPTION: "Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean And (the pleasant/a beautiful) land."
AUTHOR: Julia A. Fletcher Carney (1823-1908)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Minnie Stokes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 242, (no title) (1 short text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #798, p. 293, "(Little drops of water)"
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 635-636, "Little Things" (1 text)
NOTES: This item has been variously attributed; _Granger's Index to Poetry_ notes attributions to E. C. Brewer and Frances S. Osgood, but unequivocally lists the author as Julia A. Fletcher Carney. The Baring-Goulds also credit it to her, and Felleman agrees though it gives her name simply as Julia A. Fletcher.
This rather insipid piece (which continues, "So the little moments, Humble though they be, Make the mighty ages Of eternity") is clearly Fletcher Carney's "hit"; _Grangers's_ lists nine books which contain it, but cites no other works from her pen whatsoever. - RBW
File: MHAp242A
===
NAME: Little Drowned Girl, The: see The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)
===
NAME: Little Dun Dee
DESCRIPTION: "My uncle died and left me forty quid." The singer bets it all on Little Dun Dee in a match race. As the race progresses Little Dunny falls behind and the price rises. The pony falls behind the bay but just wins at the end and carts the money away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1793))
KEYWORDS: money racing horse
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #176
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Haynes, "Little Dun Dee" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Broadside Bodleian, Harding B 11(1793), "Little Dun Mare ("On the twenty-fourth of August last"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838 ; also Harding B 11(1794), Firth c.12(446), Harding B 11(2734), Harding B 25(1118)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(900), Harding B 11(1793), "[The] Little Dun Mare"; Johnson Ballads 895, "Dun Mare"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Skewball" [Laws Q22] (plot)
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (plot)
NOTES: The Bodleian broadsides go into more detail on the betting, the strategy, and the final weighing; the uncle does not die but is an active participant. The race takes place at Newmarket on July 14 or August 24. - BS
File: RcLiDuDe
===
NAME: Little Eau Pleine, The: see The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)
===
NAME: Little Family, The [Laws H7]
DESCRIPTION: Sisters Mary and Martha are deeply grieved when their brother Lazarus falls sick and dies. Jesus is informed that his friend Lazarus is sick, and hurries to Bethany. Finding the sisters weeping, he too weeps and raises Lazarus from the dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (Belden, from a manuscript probably from 1865; Hudson's ms. was dated 1862)
KEYWORDS: family Jesus religious Jesus Bible
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Laws H7, "The Little Family"
Belden, pp. 447-449, "The Little Family" (2 texts plus a mention of 1 more)
Randolph 614, "The Little Family" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Eddy 133, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 151, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 134, "The Little Family" (2 texts)
BrownIII 610, "The Little Family" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more; also assorted stanzas in the notes)
Hudson 86, pp. 212-214, "The Little Family" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 195-196, "The Little Family" (1 text)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 218-222, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 734-736, "The Little Family" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 132-133, "Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 231-232, "[The Little Family]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, p. 183, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 647, LAZRUS
Roud #656
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Gilbert, "The Little Family" (on LomaxCD1704)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Mary and Martha
Martha and Mary
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus
NOTES: This song closely parallels the account in John 11:1-44, with two exceptions. First, when Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, he did NOT hasten to Bethany, but sat around for two days (apparently to give the dead body a little extra time to rot!). Second, Jesus did not weep for Lazarus; he wept because of the hardness of heart of the Jews who did not think Lazarus would be raised. - RBW
File: LH07
===
NAME: Little Farm, The: see Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)
===
NAME: Little Fight in Mexico
DESCRIPTION: "They had a little fight in Mexico, It wasn't for the boys but the gals, you may know, Sing fa la la, sing fa la la, sing fa la la la day." Boys and girls "came to the place where the blood was shed," where (girls/boys) turned back but the dance continues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting dancing fight
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 549, "Little Fight in Mexico" (2 texts, 1 tune, although the texts do not really look related)
BrownIII 79, "Little Fight in Mexico" (1 fragment)
Hudson 141, pp. 288-289, "Had a Big Fight in Mexico" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 9, "Johnny Cake" (4 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text, entitled "Had a Little Fight in Mexico," is clearly this piece)
Roud #736
NOTES: Based on the content of this song, I would guess that it is not related to the Mexican War (Hudson states otherwise, but this is based only on the date; he knew people who claimed to have heard it c. 1860). - RBW
There is a town called Mexico in Missouri, although it's in the northern part of the state, not in the Ozarks. - PJS
File: R549
===
NAME: Little Fighting Chance, The [Laws J19]
DESCRIPTION: The "Little Fighting Chance" encounters a French warship. The battle is long, and the British take twenty casualties, but in the end they defeat the French vessel and take it home as a prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: ship battle navy
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws J19, "The Little Fighting Chance"
GreigDuncan1 42, "Box Them Off, My Jolly Tars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 82, "The Little Fighting Chance" (1 text)
DT 551, LILCHANC
Roud #980
File: LJ19
===
NAME: Little Fish, The: see Yea Ho, Little Fish (File: MA119)
===
NAME: Little Fisherman: see Cod Fish Song (File: EM005)
===
NAME: Little Gal at Our House: see Possum Up a Gum Stump (File: R280)
===
NAME: Little Geste of Robin Hood and his Meiny, A: see A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] (File: C117)
===
NAME: Little Girl (I): see In the Pines (File: LoF290)
===
NAME: Little Girl (II): see The Old Cow Died (Little Girl) (File: FSWB396A)
===
NAME: Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer hears screams of his daughter, who's been attacked by "an awful, dreadful snake." He runs through the woods to rescue her, but arrives too late; she is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (recording, Stanley Brothers)
KEYWORDS: death animal children father
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" (Decca 28878, 1953)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" (on NLCREP2, NLCRCD2) (NLCR16)
The Stanley Brothers, "The Little Girl And The Dreadful Snake" (Rich-R-Tone 1055, 1952)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Springfield Mountain" [Laws G16] (plot)
File: RcLGATDS
===
NAME: Little Girl and the Robin, The
DESCRIPTION: "There came to my window one morning in spring A sweet little robin that started to sing" "As soon as he had finished his... song A cruel young man with a gun came along. He killed... my sweet bird... No more will he sing at the break of the day"
AUTHOR: George J. Webb ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1889 (New First Music Reader)
KEYWORDS: bird death hunting music
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 880, "The Sweet Little Birdie" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 538-539, "The Sweet Little Birdie" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 880A)
Roud #7545
NOTES: If this were a traditional song, I'm sure folklorists would be all over it looking for a hidden meaning. Even though it seems to be composed, I suspect there is an additional meaning -- but I can't see what it is. - RBW
File: R880
===
NAME: Little Glass of Wine: see Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)
===
NAME: Little Golden Ring, The
DESCRIPTION: A sailor bids his mother, "a lone, weeping widow," farewell. He promises to return. She gives him a ring, saying, "Wear it for your mother's sake." He does well at sea, but then his mother's letters stop. He comes home to learn that she is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Doerflinger)
KEYWORDS: sailor mother separation death ring return
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Doerflinger, pp. 170-172, "The Little Golden Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9418
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(104b), "It Is But a Little Golden Ring," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: Doe170
===
NAME: Little Gypsy Girl, The: see The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)
===
NAME: Little Harry Huston: see Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)
===
NAME: Little Hero, The: see The Stowaway (File: GrMa051)
===
NAME: Little Indian Maid, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer grew up in American Indian culture: her father hunted and her mother worked in the wigwam. She helped her mother, but could not read, sew, or pray until the white man "taught poor Indians Jesus's name." She asks the Saviour to bless whites
AUTHOR: unknown, but I bet it wasn't an Indian [note from PJS]
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1957 (recording, Lotys Murrin)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of growing up in American Indian culture, while her hunter father roamed, "wild nature's child," and her mother stayed in the wigwam, wove baskets and sewed his moccasins. She helped her mother, but could not read, sew, or pray until the white man came and "taught poor Indians Jesus' name." Now she asks the Saviour to bless the white man
KEYWORDS: religious family Indians(Am.)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #4807
RECORDINGS:
Lotys Murrin, "The Little Indian Maid" (on Ontario1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Go Up to Shinum Place" (theme)
cf. "Indian Hymn" (theme)
NOTES: The song practically reeks of missionary origin, but Edith Fowke was unable to find a printed source. She notes that it was popular among lumberjacks. - PJS
Indeed, the several other songs of this type are generally produced by whites (hence their use of English, often pidgin English). Contrary to propaganda, the chief thing the locals caught from missionaries was not Christianity but epidemic diseases. - RBW
File: RcLitInM
===
NAME: Little Jack Horner
DESCRIPTION: "Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner Eating of Christmas pie. He put in his thumb And pulled out a plum, And said, What a good boy am I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1725 (Carey's Namby Pamby, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: food
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 262, "Little Jack Horner" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #50, p. 61, "(Little Jack Horner)"
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. I also seem to recall a second tune for the second part of the verse. I include it, very tentatively, on that basis.
If one believes that all nursery rhymes have political contexts, this obviously has to do with political or ecclesiastical corruption. The quasi-official version of the story, according to the Baring-Goulds, is that the real Jack Horner was Thomas Horner of Glastonbury, who at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries managed to sneak several deeds to Henry VIII (allegedly in a piecrust), and managed to extract one for himself.
Carey's Namby Pamby, the source cited by the Opies, has itself some interesting references; according to Partridge's _A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English_, "Namby Pamby" was a name used by Carey, Swift, and Pope for the poetaster Ambrose Philips. According to Benet's _Reader's Encyclopedia_, it was Carey who first bestowed the name on Phillps (a friend of Addison and of Steele, who died 1749) due to Phillips's "eminence in infantile style."
As with his earlier near-contemporary John Fell (of "I do not love you, Doctor Fell" fame), Philips seems to be remembered only for the quip at his expense. In the case of Fell, that was unfair; he did genuinely useful work. But Philips's most popular poem seems to have been "To Miss Charlotte Pulteney in Her Mother's Arms," which is probably a clue to his work.... - RBW
File: BGMG050
===
NAME: Little Jimmy Murphy: see Jimmy Murphy (File: Beld291)
===
NAME: Little Joe the Wrangler [Laws B5]
DESCRIPTION: "Little Joe" runs away from home because of a parental remarriage. He is taken in by cowboys and learns how to herd cattle. When a storm starts blowing, he stops a stampede but is killed in the process
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp (1898)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908 (Thorp's "Songs of the Cowboys")
KEYWORDS: cowboy death
FOUND_IN: US(NW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Laws B5, "Little Joe the Wrangler"
Randolph 203, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife I, pp. 28-37 (9-11), "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (4 texts -- one of them being "Sister Nell" and another a parody about "Joe... That hung that bunch of cactus on the wall," 1 tune)
Logsdon 2, pp. 32-37, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 123-126, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 79, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 166-167, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 265, "Little Joe The Wrangler" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 207-208, "Little Joe, The Wrangler" (1 text)
DT 373, LITTLEJO*
Roud #1930
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (Victor 21470, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4344, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4780, 1935)
Leon Chappelear, "Little Joe the Wrangler" Champion 45068, c. 1935; Montgomery Ward M-4950, 1936)
Edward L. Crain, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (Crown 3239/Conqueror 8010, 1932; Homestead 22991, c. 1932)
Harry Jackson, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (on HJackson1)
Goebel Reeves, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (Melotone M-12214, 1931; Panachord 25313, 1932; on MakeMe)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (on AKStorm01)
Marc "The Cowboy Crooner" Williams, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (Brunswick 269, 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (subject, tune)
NOTES: Larkin notes that, in a cattle ride, the horse wrangler (responsible for controlling the horses and bringing them to the riders as needed) stood low in the social hierarchy but often played a vital role when the herd was nervous or the riders busy.
Although the evidence is strong that Thorp wrote this song, I have seen a claim that D. J. O'Malley (the probable author of "The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot)" [Laws B27]) is responsible. For this claim, see Sing Out!, volume 41, #2 (1996), p. 134. - RBW
File: LB05
===
NAME: Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell
DESCRIPTION: The girl rides up to the cowboy's fire. She is looking for her brother Joe. The cowboys, reluctant to tell her that her brother is dead, listen to her sad story of a cruel stepmother. At last, seeing the brands on the cattle, she realizes the truth
AUTHOR: unknown (sometimes credited to N. Howard Thorp, author of "Little Joe the Wrangler"; Thorp himself in 1934 credited it to Kenneth Clark, according to Logsdon)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: abuse orphan death stepmother cowboy derivative
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 204, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife I, pp. 28-37 (9-11), "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (4 texts, 1 tune -- the "B" text being "Sister Nell")
Ohrlin-HBT 69, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4049
RECORDINGS:
 Harry Jackson, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (on HJackson1, CowFolkCD1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler" [Laws B5] (tune) and references there
NOTES: This song is item dB36 in Laws's Appendix II. For background on authorship and such, see Logsdon 2, pp. 32-37, "Little Joe the Wrangle. - RBW
File: R204
===
NAME: Little John a Begging [Child 142]
DESCRIPTION: Little John (goes/is assigned by Robin to go) a-begging. He meets up with beggars feigning disabilities who do not want his company and they fall to blows. Little John overcomes them and is much enriched by their stores which he takes to Sherwood.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1663
KEYWORDS: Robinhood begging fight disability
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 142, "Little John a Begging" (2 texts)
Bronson 142, comments only
Leach, pp. 406-408, "Little John a Begging" (1 text)
BBI, RZN2, "All you that delight to spend some time"
Roud #3988
NOTES: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. - RBW
File: C142
===
NAME: Little John Henry
DESCRIPTION: "It was early one mornin' And it looked like rain, Way roun' that curve, Lord, I spied a gravel train. O my little John Henry, Godamighty knows." "Now where'd you get your learnin'? Please tell it to me. On the Gulf and Colorado And the Santa Fe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: train
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 300, "Little John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 198-199, "My Li'l John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune, a fragment placed her based primarily on the chorus)
Roud #6715
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long)" [Laws I16]
NOTES: Probably a "John Henry-ized" version of "Casey Jones" -- but it may be that this is another case of the Lomaxes turning a song into something else. - RBW
File: LoF300
===
NAME: Little Johnny Green: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: Little Log Cabin by the Sea
DESCRIPTION: Yet another song derived from "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane", but in this one the singer reminisces about the precious Bible his/her mother left behind in the log cabin by the sea
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Probably A. P. Carter; tune: Will S. Hays.
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible mother family
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #15142
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Little Log Cabin by the Sea" (Victor 21074, 1927)
DeBusk-Weaver Family, "Little Log Cabin by the Sea" (on DeBusk-Weaver1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune, structure) and references there
NOTES: This shouldn't be confused with "Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream" or any of the other "Log Cabin" songs; it's indexed primarily to differentiate it from them. - PJS
File: RcLLCBTS
===
NAME: Little Lost Child, The
DESCRIPTION: "A passing policeman found a little child... Says to her kindly, you must not cry; I'll find your mother by and by." At the station he realizes she is his daughter Jennie, with whose mother he had quarreled. When the mother arrives, they are reconciled
AUTHOR: Words: Edward B. Marks / Music: Joseph W. Stern
EARLIEST_DATE: 1894 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: father mother reunion children
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 728, "The Lost Child" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 148-150, "The Little Lost Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-Famous, pp. 132-137, "The Little Lost Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4651
RECORDINGS:
Earl Shirkey & Roy Harper, "The Little Lost Child" (Columbia 15642-D, 1931; rec. 1929)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Chimney Sweep" (plot)
File: R728
===
NAME: Little Low Plain, The: see The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)
===
NAME: Little Lowland Maid, The: see The Lovely Lowland Maid (File: Pea620)
===
NAME: Little Maggie
DESCRIPTION: Singer laments Maggie's drinking and straying ("Over yonder stands little Maggie... She's a drinking away her troubles and a-courting some other man"). He praises her beauty extravagantly, saying she was made to be his, but plans to leave town.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Grayson & Whitter)
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting love rejection parting drink travel
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Cambiaire, pp. 23-25, "Hustling Gamblers" (1 text, very long and with so much floating material that it could be linked with several songs, but "Little Maggie" seems to be the largest and most distinct part)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 102-104, "Hustling Gamblers" (1 text, from the same informant as Cambiaire, though apparently taken down independently and with some small difference, many of them orthographic)
Shellans, p. 11, "Little Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 48, "Little Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 277, "Little Maggie" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 193, "Little Maggie" (1 text)
DT, LILMAGGI*
Roud #5723
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Little Maggie" (on FBode1)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Little Maggie With a Dram Glass In Her Hand" Victor V-40135, 1929; Bluebird B-7072, 1937; rec. 1928)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers [or Wade Mainer], "Little Maggie" (Bluebird B-7201, 1937)
Wade Mainer, Zeke Morris & Steve Ledford, "Little Maggie" (Bluebird B-7201/Montgomery Ward M-7309, 1937; on GoingDown)
Ivor Melton & band, "Little Maggie"
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Maggie" (on NLCR16)
Frank Proffitt, "Little Maggie (on USWarnerColl01)
The Stanley Brothers, "Little Maggie" (Rich-R-Tone 423, rec. c. late 1947)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Corey" (words)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Little Maggie With a Dram Glass In Her Hand
NOTES: Although this shares several verses with "Darling Corey", it leaves out the latter song's central theme of moonshining; that, a different tune, and several divergent verses lead me to call this a different song. - PJS
Roud, of course, lumps them. I agree with Paul.
The notes to USWarnerColl01 note that this is widely recorded but rarely collected in the field; they speculate that its popularity derives from one or another old time country recording. This seems likely, with the first Grayson and Whitter version being the obvious candidate. - RBW
File: CSW048
===
NAME: Little Marget: see Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)
===
NAME: Little Marian Parker: see Marian Parker [Laws F33] (File: LF33)
===
NAME: Little Marion Parker: see Marian Parker (III) (File: LdF57)
===
NAME: Little Mary Fagan: see Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)
===
NAME: Little Mary Phagan: see Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)
===
NAME: Little Mary, the Sailor's Bride: see Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)
===
NAME: Little Massie Grove: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Little Mathy Groves: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Little Maud
DESCRIPTION: As the singer sleeps on some lumber, a policeman awakes and arrests him. He says he has lost his pocketbook and money, his crops are damaged, and he doesn't have a cent to his name. Chorus: "Little Maud, little Maud/She's the dearest darling of all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers)
KEYWORDS: captivity poverty love prison farming police hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers, "Little Maud" (OKeh 45177, 1928, rec. 1927; on GoingDown)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Willy, Poor Boy" (floating verses, some similarity in the tune)
NOTES: To say that this song is disjointed would be an understatement. The verses sound like floaters, but aren't. - PJS
File: RcLitMau
===
NAME: Little Maumee, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Little Miss Muffet
DESCRIPTION: "Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet Eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider And sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1797 (cf. Baring-Gould-MotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: food bug
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 369, "Little Miss Muffet" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #141, p. 114, "(Little Miss Muffet)"
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. I include it, very tentatively, on that basis.
The Baring-Goulds state, incidentally, that this is the most frequently illustrated of all nursery rhymes, even though (according to them) the word "tuffet" is otherwise unattested.
The word "tuffet" may have been a forced rhyme, because Miss Muffet, according to Joe Schwartz, _That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles_, ECW press, 2002, p. 207, the story is real. Patience Muffet was the daughter of one Thomas Muffet, a physician who lived in the sixteenth century and kept spiders because he liked their webs. - RBW
File: BGMG141
===
NAME: Little Mohea, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Little Mohee, The [Laws H8]
DESCRIPTION: A (foreign soldier) is greeted by a pretty Mohee. She offers to take him into her tribe if he will stay with her. He will not stay; he has a sweetheart at home. Returning home, he find his girl has left him, and wishes himself back with the Mohee
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) love abandonment infidelity
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (33 citations)
Laws H8, "The Little Mohea"
Belden, pp. 143-145, "Little Mohea" (1 text plus references to 6 more)
Randolph 63, "The Pretty Mohee" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 484-486, "The Pretty Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 63A)
BrownII 110, "Little Mohea" (1 text plus mention of 11 more)
Hudson 47, pp. 162-164, "Little Mohea" (2 texts plus mention of 3 more)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 336-345, "The Indian Lass" (6 texts plus a fragment/excerpt, with local titles "Pretty Mauhee," "The Pretty Mohea," "Pretty Mohea," "The Lass of Mohee," "Mawhee," "The Pretty Mahee," (no title); 1 tune on pp. 448-449)
Brewster 29, "The Pretty Mohee" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 17-18. "The Lass of Mohe" (1 text)
Logsdon 40, pp. 211-214, "The Little Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 725-726, "The Little Mohee" (1 text)
Wyman-Brockway I,  p. 52, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, p. 84, "The Little Mohea" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 62-63, "The Pretty Mauhee" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 47, "Little Mohea" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 163-165, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 824-825, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 128-129, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H836, pp. 372-373, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text with many variant readings, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 91, pp. 197-198, "The Pretty Mohea" (1 text)
JHCox 116, "The Pretty Mohea" (3 texts)
JHCoxIIB, #12A-C, pp. 147-150, "The Pretty Mohea," "The Little Maumee" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 148-150, "The Lass of Mowee" ( text)
Colcord, pp. 199-200, "The Lass of Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 53, "The Young Spanish Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 103, "Little Mohee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 58, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 82-83, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 195-197, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 227-229, "The Little Mohee" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 148, "Little Mohee" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 482, "The Pretty Mohea" (source notes only)
DT 648, LILMOHEE*
Roud #275
RECORDINGS:
Hall Brothers, "Little Mo-Hee" (Bluebird B-6843/Montgomery Ward 7237, 1937)
Buell Kazee, "The Little Mohee" (Brunswick 156, 1927; Brunswick 436, 1930) (on Kazee01 [fragment])
Bradley Kincaid, "The Little Mohee" (Gennett 6856/Supertone 9402, 1929)
Flora Noles, "Little Mohee" (OKeh 45037, 1926)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "Little Mo-Hee", Perfect 5-10-14/Melotone 5-10-14, 1935; rec. 1934)
Riley Puckett, "Little Maumee" (Columbia 15277-D, 1928)
Roe Bros. & Morrell, "My Little Mohi" (Columbia 15199-D, 1927)
Ernest Stoneman and His Dixie Mountaineers, "The Pretty Mohea" (Edison, unissued, 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (tune)
cf. "The Indian Lass" (theme, some verses)
cf. "I'm a Stranger in this Country (The Darger Lad)" (theme, verses)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Cocoanut Grove
NOTES: Kittredge describes this as a "chastened" (i.e. de-bawdy-ized) American reworking of a British broadside, "The Indian Lass." It is agreed, though, that the American version is much superior to the British. [It may be agreed that this is superior to "The Indian Lass," but not by me. - PJS]
Barry, however, considers the American version original; it then became a sea song, with the girl transformed from a "Mohee" to a resident of Maui, and the British version descends from that. Belden concurs at least to the extent of calling it a sea song and saying "that the 'Indian lass' is a denizen not of America but of the South Seas."
Huntington splits the difference; he thinks the sea version is the original, and the source of the Native American version (he doesn't mention "The Indian Lass"). He offers no evidence for this view, except for the early dates of the whaling versions.
Just looking at the sundry texts, my (slight) inclination is to think "The Little Mohee" the original; "The Indian Lass" looks like this song with a little bit of "The Lake of Ponchartrain" mixed in and the Indian girl released from tribal affiliation.
Scarborough has a discussion of the matter, in which she supports Kittredge in calling it a British import. But she seems to consider the two still one song -- although her versions consistently mention the Mohee/Mauhee/Mawhee, she titles the song "The Indian Lass."
Whatever its origin, the song has become extremely popular in America (Laws lists in excess of two dozen versions, from more than a dozen states). Sundry tunes are used; many are close to "On Top of Old Smokey." - RBW
File: LH08
===
NAME: Little More Cider Too, A
DESCRIPTION: The singer loves drink and Miss (Snowflake/Dinah). He wishes they were apples rubbing against each other in the tree, and for more drink. Chorus: "A little more cider, cider, cider, a little more cider too, A little more cider for Miss Dinah...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink courting floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 46, "A Little More Cider Too" (2 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Roud #7866
File: Br3046
===
NAME: Little More Faith in Jesus, A
DESCRIPTION: "Mothers, don't you think it best, A little more faith in Jesus? Carry the witness in your breast, A little more faith in Jesus. All I want, all I need, All I want is a little more faith in Jesus." Similarly with fathers, children, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', p. 211, "A Little More Faith in Jesus" (1 text)
Roud #12067
File: ThBa211
===
NAME: Little Moscrow: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Little Moses
DESCRIPTION: The story of Moses in brief: Set adrift in a small boat in Egypt, he is found and raised by the daughter of Pharaoh. When grown, he leads his people across the Red Sea to safety while Pharaoh's host is destroyed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jew royalty abandonment river rescue hiding Jew
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Belden, p. 449, "Moses in the Bulrushes" (1 text)
Randolph 662, "Little Moses" (1 text)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 74, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 128-129, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 361, "Little Moses" (1 text)
DT, LITMOSES
Roud #3546
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Little Moses" (Victor 23641/Victor V-40110, 1929; Bluebird B-5924, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-5010, 1936; on AAFM2)
A. P. Carter Family, "Little Moses" (Acme 992, n.d. but post-WWII)
Harmon E. Helmick, "Little Moses" (Champion 16705, 1934; Decca 5498, 1938)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Finding of Moses" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
By the Side of a River
NOTES: The story of Moses being abandoned by his parents (who had to hide him to prevent him from being killed) is told in Exodus 2:1-10. These verses also tell of his sister (presumably Miriam, since she is Moses's only known sister, though she is not named in this passage) following him as he floated away (his brother Aaron would have been only three and too young for the task), and of his mother nursing her own child. The crossing of the Red Sea is covered in Exodus chapter 14.
The final lines of the Carter Family version, "When his labors did cease, he departed in peace, And rested in the Heavens above" are more interesting. The only official word on Moses's fate is in chapter 34 of Deuteronomy: "Then Moses went up... to Mount Nebo... and the LORD howed him the whole land.... Then Moses... died... in the land of Moab. He was buried in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor, but no one to this day knows where hs is buried."
At the time of Moses's death, there was no Jewish tradition of an afterlife; all, good or bad, were thought to go to Sheol (which was quite clearly underground). Later, the idea of a heaven became widespread -- and a Jewish legend had it that Moses went there, or that he was taken up bodily to heaven, as was clearly reported of Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) and less clearly of Enoch (Genesis 5:24).
This view seems to be supported by the New Testament account of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8 and parallels), since Jesus is reported to have been talking with Moses and Elijah (though nothing ever makes it clear how Peter and James and John knew that the other two were Moses and Elijah...). - RBW
File: R662
===
NAME: Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81]
DESCRIPTION: (Lady Barnard), left alone at home by her lord, convinces (Little Musgrave) to sleep with her. Her husband returns unlooked-for, and finds Musgrave in bed with his wife. Lord Barnard slays Musgrave in a duel, and then kills his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1611 (Beaumont & Fletcher)
KEYWORDS: adultery death
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland,England) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Jamaica
REFERENCES: (50 citations)
Child 81, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (15 texts)
Bronson 81, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (74 versions+1 in addenda)
Dixon III, pp. 21-29, "Lord Burnett and Little Munsgrove" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 150-194, "" (11 texts plus a collation, a fragment, and a text not from Maine, several of these being variants on versions learned from the same source; 8 tunes from Maine plus one from elsewhere; also extensive notes on version classification) {Ab=Bronson's #70, B=#59, Db=#21, E [Yankee Doodle]=#73, Gb=#60, H [The Little Red Lark] = #71, I=#66; the non-Maine tune is #13}
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 68-74, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Belden, pp. 57-60, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Randolph 20, "Little Mathy Groves" (1 short text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #58, C=#12}
Eddy 15, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #40}
Gardner/Chickering 7, "Lord Valley" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 195-237, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (10 texts, 7 tunes) {A=Bronson's #46, F=#65, J=#68}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 86-91, "Lord Arnold" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #46}
Davis-Ballads 23, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (6 texts, 1 tune entitled "Lord Daniel's Wife"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #72}
Davis-More 24, pp. 170-181, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownII 26, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts)
Chappell-FSRA 12, "Little Matthew Groves" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 50-54, "Lord Daniel" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 65-68, "Matha Grove" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 143-149, colectively "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard," with individual texts "Little Mose Grove,"  "Lord Donald's Wife" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts; 1 tune on p. 400) {Bronson's #36}
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 30-32, "The Lyttle Musgrave" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 23 "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (10 texts plus 7 fragments, 17 tunes){Bronson's #16, #18, #22, #9, #17, #11, #19, #20, #37, #27, #14, #29, #42, #43, #48, #38, #10}
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 18, "Matthy Groves (Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard)" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #17}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 43-49, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2, #23}
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 11-13, "Lord Arnold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 5, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 fragment, called "Little Matha Grove" by the singer, 1 tune) {Bronson's #47}
Peacock, pp. 613-616, "Lord Donald" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 11, "Matthy Groves" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 8, "Little Matha Grove" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Manny/Wilson 54, "Little Moscrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 265-273, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts)
Leach-Labrador 5, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBB 50, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 186, "Little Musgrave and the Lady Barnard" (1 text+2 fragments)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 22, "Little Matthew Grove (or, Lord Daniel's Wife)"; p. 62, "Lord Orland's Wife (or, Little Matthew Grew)" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {p. 22=Bronson's #51; p. 62=#6?}
Fuson, pp. 52-55, "Little Musgrove and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Warner 78, "Mathy Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 36, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB1, pp.119-122, "Little Massie Grove' (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 34, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 164, "Little Matthy Groves" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Gummere, pp. 337-340, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, printed in the notes to "Lord Randal")
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 123-127, "[Lyttle Musgrave]" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Hodgart, p. 60, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
TBB 17, "Little Musgrave" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 105-108, "Matha Grove" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
LPound-ABS, 15, pp. 37-39, "Little Matty Groves" (1 text)
JHCox 15, "Little Musgrave and Lary Barnard" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 47-50, "Lord Darnell" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 226, "Matty Groves" (1 text)
BBI, ZN286, "As it befell on a high Holyday"
DT 81, MATTIEGR* MATTIEG2*
Roud #52
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Mathie Groves" (on OldLove)
Green Maggard, "Lord Daniel" (AFS, 1934; on KMM)
Jean Ritchie, "Little Musgrave" (on JRitchie02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 401(91), "The Little Mousgrove, and the Lady Barnet," F. Coles (London), 1658-1664; also Douce Ballads 1(115b), Firth b.19(13)[many words illegible], "[The] Little Musgrove, and the Lady Barnet"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Birdy" [Child 82] (plot)
cf. "Run Mountain" (words)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Matty Groves
Matty Grove
Little Mattie Groves
Little Mathey Groves
Mathie Groves
Lord Barnard
Lord Arnold's Wife
Lord Daniel's Wife
Little Mathigrew
Lord Donald
NOTES: A fragment of this ballad is found in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act V, scene ii:
And some they whistled, and some they sung,
"Hey, down, down!"
And some did loudly say,
Ever as the Lord Barnet's horn blew,
"Away, Musgrave, away!"
There is a somewhat interesting twist in several of the versions. Usually the song says that the wife loves Musgrave/Mattie more than her Lord and all his kin -- but in both of Scarborough's texts and in Creighton and Barry/Eckstorm/Smythe, p. 164 and a version from Sharp (Bronson's #42) and another from Karpeles (Bronson's #56) she loves his finger, and in Creighton/Senior #1 his tongue. Maybe it just strengthens the comparison -- but they're interesting body parts to care for; maybe there was more going on in that bedroom than we thought.
It also occurs to me that there is a certain similarity in this tale to "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Not in plot, really, but in incident. Note that Lord Barnard kills Little Musgrave in a formal contest in which Musgrave is granted the first blow. This is obviously a variant on the Beheading Game of "Sir Gawain" -- though in fact the contest is older; the first instance of the Beheading Game appears to have been the Irish prose saga of "Fled Bricrend," "Bricriu's Feast" (cf. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_, second edition revised and edited by Norman Davis, Oxford, 1967, p. xv); in this, Cuchulainn twice wins the Beheading Game (and others dodge the challenge -- see Daithi O hOgain, _The Lore of Ireland_, Boydell Press, 2006, p. 49). (The idea of surviving the Beheading Game might be inspired by the legend of St. Denis of France, who carried off his head after being beheaded.) There is also a sort of a variant in Blind Harry's "Life of Wallace," in which Wallace cuts off the traitor Fawdoun's head, and Fawdoun returns to him carrying the head. This even has Fawdoun announce his presence by sounding a horn.
But "Sir Gawain" adds to this the temptation of Gawain by a lady while her husband is out hunting. One might say that "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" is "Sir Gawain" if Gawain had given in to temptation.
Not that there is much likelihood of literary dependence; "Sir Gawain" was effectively lost (only one copy is extant), and the tale seems to come from a region not associated with the main versions of "Little Musgrave." But there are a number of romances (listed in Tolkien/Gordon/Davis, pp. xvi-xvii) which are similar to "Sir Gawain" though weaker. Most of these are French, but they might have inspired the story.
Of course, there is an important footnote here: Three people ended up in Lord Barnard's bedroom: Barnard, his wife, and Musgrave. Only Barnard came out alive. Thus every detail must have been attested by Barnard. We could not know if there was actually a contest of blows, or what Lady Barnard said; it's perfectly possible, e.g., that Barnard struck Musgrave without warning, and that Musgrave inflicted Barnard's wound after he was himself struck. Or -- well, I leave the rest as an exercise for the reader, until someone comes up with an actual incident that might be the basis for the song. - RBW
File: C081
===
NAME: Little Musgrove and Lady Barnard: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Little Nell of Narragansett Bay
DESCRIPTION: "Full well do I remember My boyhood's happy hours... The bright and sparkling water O'er which we used to sail." The singer and Nell were never afraid at sea. But one day her body is found by the shore. Ten years later, he still weeps for the girl
AUTHOR: George F. Root (according to Norm Cohen)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: ship death drowning separation mourning
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 30-31, "Bright-Eyed Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, p. 119, "Little Nell of Narragansette Bay" (1 text)
Brewster 88, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (source notes only)
ST Brew88 (Partial)
Roud #3274
NOTES: There is another "Little Nell" ballad in the National Library of Scotland collection; this too revolves around a dead girl. It is suggested that the name was inspired by the Little Nell of Dickens's _The Old Curiosity Shop_. The same suggestion might apply here. Or might not, of course. - RBW
File: Brew88
===
NAME: Little Old Dudeen
DESCRIPTION: If not for Walter Raleigh "I wouldn't be smoking my old dudeen." The singer smokes to keep peace when his wife grumbles. At his wake there'll be poteen but "into me gob, so help me bob, you'll find me old dudeen"
AUTHOR: Words: Ed Harrigan/Music: John Braham
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Peacock); reportedly written 1875
KEYWORDS: nonballad funeral
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1554-1618 - Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, credited in the song with bringing tobacco to Europe (in fact it was first introduced to Europe by Columbus, and cultivated in Iberia; the first American tobacco plantation was founded by John Rolfe)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 377-378, "My Old Dudeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea337 (Partial)
Roud #9787
NOTES: Library of Congress American Memory 19th century song sheets collection as "Little Old Dudeen": Words Ed Harrigan, Music John Braham, pub Boston 1875.
Harrigan and Hart famous vaudeville team per The Big Bands Database Plus site entry for David Braham.
See The Black Dudeen by Robert Service for one [use of the] phrase "tucked in me gub, me old dudeen." - BS
For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
File: Pea337
===
NAME: Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream (Rosalie)
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the happy time when he and the old folks partied with the fiddle and banjo. Now death has taken his (Rose/Rosalie) "From the little old log cabin by the stream." She was killed by "swamp fever"; and others are likely to be taken also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: death love fiddle
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So, SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 710, "Rosalie" (1 text)
DT, LOGCABIN*
Roud #7376
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream" (OKeh 45198, 1928; rec. 1927)
NOTES: I'm not sure what to make of this piece; Randolph's version sounds like a southern minstrel piece, yet the Digital Tradition version, from Illinois, is neither southern nor minstrel-ish.
Making the matter more confusing is the fact that Randolph's informant, Rose Wilder Lane, is of course the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and might thus have had the song from the Ingalls (i.e. Wisconsin) tradition. - RBW
Yes, but it could have entered that tradition from the minstrel shows. They toured everywhere in the USA (and in Britain as well). - PJS
And there is a possibility that one or the other version, probably Lane's, could be from the Fiddlin' John Carson version. - (PJS,RBW)
File: R710
===
NAME: Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a former slave, is getting old and can't work; his master and mistress and fellow slaves are gone; only his old dog remains. His home is falling apart. He recalls the dances they used to have. He hopes the angels will watch over him.
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST_DATE: 1871 (sheet music)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer, a former slave, is getting old and feeble; he can't work any more, his master and mistress are gone, and so are the other former slaves; no one else remains except his old dog. In former days the other "darkies" would gather around his door, and he'd play the banjo while they danced. His house is falling down, the footpath is overgrown and the fences fall down. Chorus: "The chimney's falling down, and the roof is caving in/I ain't got long round here to remain/The angels watches over me when I lay down to sleep/In the little old log cabin in the lane"
KEYWORDS: age loneliness home abandonment death farming dancing music slavery nonballad animal dog friend slave Black(s)
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #2473
RECORDINGS:
Bentley Ball, "De Little Old Log Cabin in de Lane" (Columbia A3087, 1920)
Kenneth Barton [pseud. for Marian Underwood], "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Challenge 331, 1927)
Binkley Bros. Dixie Clodhoppers, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor V-40129, 1929)
Frank [or Kenneth] Calvert [pseud. for somebody, probably Vernon Dalhart or Carson Robison], "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Grey Gull/Radiex 4135, 1927)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (OKeh 4890, 1923)
Carroll Clark, "De Little Old Log Cabin in de Lane" (Columbia A-696, 1909)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Cameo 1174/Romeo 399, 1927) 2455
Girls of the Golden West, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 23857, 1933; Bluebird B-5737, 1934)
Doc Hopkins, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Broadway 8305, rec. 1931)
Bradley Kincaid, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Champion 15923 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9505, 1929)
Silas Leachman, "Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 1893, 1903)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner [Mac and Bob], "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Brunswick 350, 1929; Supertone S-2036, 1930; Aurora [Canada] 22004, 1931)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Vocalion 14864, 1924)
Clayton McMichen "Log Cabin in the Lane" (Crown 3447 [as Bob Nichols], 1933; Varsity 5026, n.d. but prob. c. 1939)
Metcalf & Spencer, "The Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia 645, 1902; Columbia A-480, 1909)
Metropolitan Quartet, "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Edison 80484, n.d.) (CYL: Edison [BA] 3573, n.d.)
David Miller, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Gennett 3082/Silvertone 4019, 1925)
Fiddlin' Powers & Family "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 19448, 1924) (Edison, unissued, 1925)
Riley Puckett, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia 107-D, 1924) (Columbia 15171-D, 1927)
Oscar Seagle, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia A-3582, 1922; rec. 1921)
Frank C. Stanley, "A Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Imperial 44823, c. 1906)
Ernest V. Stoneman "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 20235, 1926) (Montgomery Ward M-8305 [as Stoneman's Dixie Mountaineers], 1939); Ernest V. Stoneman Trio, "Little Log Cabin in the Lane" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
John White, "The Little Old Log Cabin" (Paramount 3190, 1930)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim" (tune)
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (subject, tune)
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune)
cf. "Beans, Bacon, and Gravy" (tune)
cf. "The Freehold on the Plain" (tune)
cf. "Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (tune)
cf. "Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square" (tune)
cf. "cf. "Sara Jane" (tune)
cf. "My Cabin Home Among the Hills" (tune)
cf. "The Titanic (I) ("It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down") [Laws D24] (Titanic #1)" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim (File: R197)
Little Joe the Wrangler [Laws B5] (File: LB05)
The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill (File: HHH642)
Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell (File: R204)
The Freehold on the Plain (File: FaE174)
Beans, Bacon, and Gravy (File: Arn170)
Sara Jane (File: RcSarJan)
The Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square (File: FCW025H)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I) (File: BRaF455)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (II) (File: Br3235)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (III) (File: RcTLRCBT)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (IV) (File: LSRai261)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (V) (The Hobo Tramp) (File: LSRai382)
My Cabin Home Among the Hills (File: RcMCHAtH)
Callahan Brothers, "Little Poplar Log House on the Hill" (Conqueror 8384, 1934)
NOTES: This pop song is the basis from which all of the cross-referenced songs were built. From a modern perspective it's sentimentally stereotyped balderdash, but it was a huge hit when published -- and, judging by the number of versions on 78s, it remained wildly popular half a century later. (Presumably among white people.) It's indexed here primarily because of the genuine folk songs it inspired. - PJS
According to Bill Malone (_Don't Get above Your Raisin'_, p. 54), the 1923 Fiddlin' John Carson recording is "one side of the first documented recording of a southern rural musician." - RBW
Not quite; Eck Robertson recorded several sides of fiddle music on Victor before Carson made his first recording, and one of the discs was released before Carson's. But it didn't have any impact, probably because Victor considered itself a "prestige" label and had no idea how to market it. (They also, unlike their competitors, had no distribution agreement with a major mail-order company like Sears, and wouldn't until the 1930s, so they missed a prime means of distribution to rural buyers.) Carson's OKeh disc, backed with "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow," wasn't the first, but it was the one that started the avalanche. - PJS
Indeed so. An article in _The Old-Time Herald_, Volume 11, #10, April-May 2009, p. 26, tells us that "[Ralph] Peer recorded Carson -- grudgingly, country music lore has it -- in cnnditions that were less than ideal. The sound of Carson's record, Peer would later say, was 'pluperfect awful.' Nevertheless, a test pressing of 500 of Carson's debut... sold out in the space of an afternoon." - RBW
File: RcLOLCIL
===
NAME: Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls how his father sold the livestock to send him across the sea, "For in Paddy's land but poverty you'll find." The singer misses home, mother, the local music; he wishes he were still there
AUTHOR: S.Gaffney
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration poverty
FOUND_IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H642, pp. 207-208, "The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 100-101, "Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (1 text) 
Roud #9271
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Coyle, "The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler" [Laws B5] (tune) and references there
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH207
===
NAME: Little Old Sod Shanty in the West: see The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)
===
NAME: Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer admits, "I'm looking rather seedy while holding down my claim." His little sod shanty is made of poor materials and is infested by mice. He recalls the easier life out east, and wishes a girl would join him
AUTHOR: Lindsey Baker?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888?
KEYWORDS: hardtimes settler bachelor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 20, 1862 - President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act
FOUND_IN: US(MW,Ro,So) Canada(West)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Randolph 197, "The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 90-91, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 89-91, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife VII, pp.  87-96 (20), "Little Adobe Casa" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 142-143, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 205, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 25, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (7 texts, 2 tunes, though some of these -- especially the "G" and "H" texts -- appear distinct)
Arnett, pp. 94-95, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 74, p. 165, "The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 332-333, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 121, "The Little Old Sod Shanty On My Claim" (1 text)
DT, SODSHANT*
Roud #4368
RECORDINGS:
Jules Verne Allen, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (Victor 23757, 1933; on MakeMe)
Craver & Tanner [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart & probably Carson Robison], "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (Vocalion 5342, 1929)
Jenkins Family, "That Little Old Sod Shanty" (OKeh 45563, 1932; rec. 1930)
Lone Star Ranger, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (Regal 8881, 1929)
Chubby Parker, "My Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" (Gennett 6319/Silvertone 25103, 1927)
Jack Weston, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (Van Dyke 84293, 1929)
John White, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (Domino 4440/Cameo 9321 [as "My Little Old Sod Shanty"], 1929)
Marc Williams, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (Brunswick 564, 1931; rec. 1930)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor)" (theme)
cf. "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (tune & meter)
cf. "I Will Tell You My Troubles" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square" (tune & meter)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Little Vine-Clad Cottage
The Little 'Dobe Casa
Little Old Sod Shanty in the West
NOTES: This piece is probably based on Will S. Hays's "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane," with which it shares a melody.
The song clearly dates back to the latter part of the nineteenth century, the period of Homestead Claims. The Homestead Act of 1862 had opened large areas of the western U.S. to settlement, allowing settlers to lay claim to 160 acre sections in return for nominal payments. However, the settlers were required to live on their claims for five years before they could "prove up" and gain title to the property. Many settlers, like the one here, wound up living in impossible conditions because it was the only way to stake the claim.
Fife in Thorp/Fife treats "Little Adobe Casa," and some related parodies, as separate from "Little Old Sod Shanty." (Interestingly, the Fifes lump the songs in "Cowboy and Western Songs"). To me these look to be simply localizations of the same song, and there are intermediate versions, so I do not separate them.
Several people seem to have claimed the authorship (e.g. Pound lists a report that one Emery Miller claims to have made it up while living on a claim in the 1880s). The claim by Baker seems to be the strongest, but proof is probably impossible. - RBW
File: R197
===
NAME: Little Page Boy, The: see Child Waters [Child 63] (File: C063)
===
NAME: Little Piece of Whang, The
DESCRIPTION: When the Lord sewed up Adam and Eve, He measured wrong, leaving Adam with a little piece of whang, and Eve with a gap. Ever since then, men have sought to lend women a bit of the whang to fill the gap.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 496-498, "The Little Piece of Whang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8384
NOTES: Legman provides citations to a number of folktale antecedents to the modern bawdy song in Randolph-Legman I. - EC
The earliest of said folktales is apparently found in de Verville's "Le Moyen de Parvenir" (1610). However, one can find something rather similar as far back as Plato. The reference in the song is, of course, to Gen. 2:21-22. - RBW
File: RL496
===
NAME: Little Pig, The: see There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)
===
NAME: Little Pink
DESCRIPTION: "My pretty little Pink, I once did think, That you and I would marry." The singer complains that the girl has taken too long to make up her mind. In some versions he is a soldier who sets out to see the sights and fight in the Mexican War
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation soldier floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Sandburg, p. 166, "My Pretty Little Pink" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 793, "Careless Love" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text belongs here if it belongs anywhere)
BrownIII 287, "Darling Little Pink" (1 text); also 78, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees" (7 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more, but almost all mixed --  all except "H" have the "Coffee grows" stanza, but "A" also has verses from "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss"; "and "C" through "H" are mostly "Little Pink"; "B" is mixed with "Raccoon" or some such)
Hudson 85, p. 212, "Going to the Mexican War" (1 fragment, with the "Knapsack on my Shoulder" text and also the "Coffee Grows" stanza; there isn't much "Little Pink" in it, but it clearly goes with the Brown texts cited above)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #808, p. 301, "(My little pink)" (a fragment that appears related but may be a by-blow)
ST San166 (Full)
Roud #735
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "We're Marching Down to Old Quebec" (floating verses)
File: San166
===
NAME: Little Plowing Boy, The: see The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24] (File: LM24)
===
NAME: Little Poppa Rich
DESCRIPTION: Children's game: "Little poppa-rich you draw your long lannet/Sit by the fire and spin/The hen's in the window a-combing her hair/The cat in the corner a-frying his fish... Cocka-pen dungle a-blowing his horn/The wind was high and it blowed him away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense paradox playparty animal chickens
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 123, "Little Poppa Rich" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16639
NOTES: I call this a playparty for want of a keyword "game." - PJS
File: McCST123
===
NAME: Little Red Caboose behind the Train (I), The
DESCRIPTION: In this maudlin ballad, a young conductor is taking his bride to the city for their honeymoon. The train collides with the express, and the bride is killed. Now the old white-haired conductor "rides all alone In that little red caboose behind the train."
AUTHOR: Words: Bob Miller (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: train marriage wreck death
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Canada
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 261-263, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train" (2 texts; tune referenced. The "A" text is this piece;"B" is "Little Red Caboose (IV)")
Botkin-RailFolklr, p. 455, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4762
RECORDINGS:
Barney Burnett & Bob Miller's Hinky Dinkers, "Little Red Caboose" (Brunswick 446/Supertone S-2074, 1930)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Red Caboose" (Velvet Tone 1893-V/Diva 2893-G/Harmony 893-H [as Mack Allen], 1929)
Bob Ferguson [pseud. for Bob Miller] & his Scalawaggers "Little Red Caboose" (Columbia 15616-D, 1930)
Bob Miller, "Little Red Caboose" (Grey Gull 4286/Van Dyke 74286, 1930 [as Miller & Burnett]) (Victor 23693, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-4337, 1933)
Red River Dave (McEnery), "Little Red Caboose" (Musicraft 285, 1944)
Rocky Mountaineers, "Little Red Caboose" (Columbia [UK] FB-1249, 1935)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (II),  (III), (IV), (V)" (tune, structure)
NOTES: This is one of several songs by this name, all set to the tune of "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; you should check out the others as well, as they're sometimes hard to untangle. It should also not be confused with the dance tune "Little Red Caboose," as recorded by Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas.
It looks like Vernon Dalhart rushed his recording into print before the author's. - PJS 
Roud for some reason lumps at least the first two "Little Red Caboose" songs, though they are clearly different in purpose (Caboose I is a song about a young woman's death, Caboose II is about railroad life). - RBW
File: BRaF455
===
NAME: Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (II), The
DESCRIPTION: "Now I am a jolly railroad man and braking is my trade." He tells of the enjoyable life throwing switches and making up trains, and mentions the "jolly crew" resting in the little red caboose. He wishes luck and the attention of angels for the crew
AUTHOR: unknown (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (recording, Pickard Family)
KEYWORDS: work train nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 583-590, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (3 texts, 1 tune; only the "A" text is this piece; "B" and "C," both short, are probably "Caboose" (III); also a sheet music cover from a song that is none of these)
BrownIII 235, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train" (1 text)
Roud #4762
RECORDINGS:
Pickard Family, "Little Red Caboose" (Banner 6371/Cameo 9278/Conqueror 7349/Domino 4328/Jewel 5590/Lincoln 3305/Oriole 1562/Regal 8776/Apex[Canada] 8916/Crown[Canada] 81057/Melotone[Canada] 81037/Sterling[Canada] 281057, all 1929; Paramount 3231/Broadway 8179 [as Pleasant Family]/Conqueror 7736, 1931)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I),  (III), (IV), (V)" (tune, structure)
NOTES: This is one of several songs by this name, all set to the tune of "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; you should check out the others as well, as they're sometimes hard to untangle. It should also not be confused with the dance tune "Little Red Caboose," as recorded by Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas. - PJS
Roud for some reason lumps at least the first two "Little Red Caboose" songs, though they are clearly different in purpose (Caboose I is a song about a young woman's death, Caboose II is about railroad life). - RBW
File: Br3235
===
NAME: Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (III), The
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a railroader, says he's getting old and feeble, and the only friend he has is the caboose (or his watch). He reminisces about working as a brakeman on the L&N and Southern railroads, and ironically wishes his young successors well
AUTHOR: unknown (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Marian Underwood & Sam Harris)
KEYWORDS: age disability loneliness train railroading technology work nonballad worker
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 583-590, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (3 texts, 1 tune; the short"B" and "C" texts are probably this piece; "A" is "Caboose" (II); also a sheet music cover from a song that is none of these)
RECORDINGS:
Marian Underwood & Sam Harris, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (Gennett 6155/Champion 15297 [as Clinch Valley Boys]/Challenge 334 [as Borton & Thompson]/Herwin 75549, all 1927)
Paul Warmack & his Gully Jumpers, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (Victor V-40067, 1929; on RRinFS)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I),  (II), (III), (V)" (tune, structure)
NOTES: This is one of several songs by this name, all set to the tune of "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; you should check out the others as well, as they're sometimes hard to untangle. It should also not be confused with the dance tune "Little Red Caboose," as recorded by Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas.
Paul Warmack copyrighted the lyrics in 1930, but since he copyrighted the well-known music as well, and the Underwood-Harris recording precedes his, his claim is doubtful at best. - PJS
It's worth noting that, of the "Red Caboose" songs, this is the one most directly inspired by "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; not only does it share the tune, but also the plot of an old man looking back. It simply changes an old slave to an old raildoadman. - RBW
File: RcTLRCBT
===
NAME: Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (IV), The
DESCRIPTION: "Bill Jackson was a brakeman on number 51." Engineer Dad Mendenhall loses his brakes on Crooked Hill. The crew scrambles to set the brakes by hand in icy weather. Bill is thrown from the train and dies; his body is brought home in the caboose
AUTHOR: probably John Lair (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (100 WLS Barn Dance Favorites)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 261-263, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train (I)" (2 texts; tune referenced. The "B" text is this piece;"A" is "Little Red Caboose (I)")
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I),  (II), (III), (V)" (tune, structure)
File: LSRai261
===
NAME: Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (V), The (The Hobo Tramp)
DESCRIPTION: "I will sing you a little song, won't entertain you long, 'Bout the hoboes that promenade the streets." The hobos travel about, suffering in the cold, wishing they could be in the caboose.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1892 (Delaney's _Collection of Songs_)
KEYWORDS: train hobo nonballad travel
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 382-384, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train (II)" (2 texts; tune referenced)
RECORDINGS:
(Tom) Darby & (Jimmie) Tarlton, "The Hobo Tramp" (Columbia 15293-D, 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I),  (II), (III), (IV)" (tune, structure)
NOTES: According to Cohen, the Darby & Tarlton recording is the only version of this song not from a songster, and there are only a few print versions. There is no evidence that it ever went into tradition. On the other hand, the melody implies that it is one of the vast constellation of "red caboose" songs, so perhaps Cohen is right to include it in his book. - RBW
File: LSRai382
===
NAME: Little Red Fox, The
DESCRIPTION: "The little red fox is a raider sly" taking ducks, cocks, and geese for "a family young and growing." He is a "family man," a "hero bold" and a "gallant knight." He is finally "taken 'mongst the rocks, For the love of two bright eyes dying" 
AUTHOR: Francis Arthur Fahy (1854-1935) (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: theft death humorous animal family
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 69, "The Little Red Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: "Adapted from the old ballad of the Maidirin Rua which was a macaronic song -- mixed Gaelic and English." - BS 
Francis Arthur Fahy is probably most famous as the author of "The Ould Plaid Shawl." - RBW
File: OLcM069
===
NAME: Little Red Train, The
DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, this describes the sexual activities and practices of the train crew and passengers. Recognized by the internal chorus, "(She/It) blew, (She/it) blew" and the final line "How (she/it) blew."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: bawdy train humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Cray, pp. 224-226, "The Little Red Train" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 254-256, "The Runaway Train" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 379, "The Wind It Blew Up the Railroad Track" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, SHEBLEW*
Roud #9859
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Runaway Train" (Brunswick 2911, 1925) (Victor 19684, 1925) (Oriole 454 [as Dick Morse], 1925) (Edison 51584, 1925) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5028, n.d.) (Perfect 12207 [as Guy Massey], 1925)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (tune)
cf. "Snapoo" (tune)
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" (tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Runaway Train
The Sixty-Nine Comes Down the Track
NOTES: The history of this song is a bit vague, as it has both clean and dirty forms. Sandburg prints a single stanza of a clean text (saying of it "This is for cold weather, around the stove in the switch shanty"). But the bawdy version seems to be much more widespread.
Which is original? The evidence available to me does not make it clear. The possibility that Sandburg's text is bowdlerized cannot be denied. - RBW
The Sandburg version may indeed be bowdlerized, but Vernon Dalhart also put out a clean version of "The Runaway Train" in 1925, two years before. Actually, he put it out several times that year, on different labels. Sandburg's verse isn't on his recording(s), though. - PJS
File: EM224
===
NAME: Little Rosewood Casket
DESCRIPTION: The singer, dying for love, asks her sister to bring her love's letters, kept in the rosewood casket. Having heard them read, she prepares to die and asks that the letters, (ring), and other tokens be buried with her
AUTHOR: Louis P. Goullaud & Charles A. White
EARLIEST_DATE: 1870 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death love infidelity ring farewell
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Australia
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Belden, p. 220, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text)
Randolph 763, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 507-509, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 763A)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 123-126, "Little Rosewood Casket" (2 texts)
BrownII 273, "Little Rosewood Casket" (3 texts plus mention of 21 others )
JHCoxIIB, #28A-B, pp. 185-197, "A Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 182-183, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text)
Shellans, p. 40, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 261-262, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, p. 35, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune) 
Darling-NAS, pp. 276-277, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 182, "Rosewood Casket"; p. 269, "Little Rosewood Casket" (2 texts)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 482, "The Rosewood Casket" (source notes only)
DT, RSEWOOD*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 206, "(The Rosewood Casket)" (1 text)
Roud #426
RECORDINGS:
Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (Rich-R-Tone 415, n.d. but post-WWII)
Vernon Dalhart "The Little Rosewood Casket" (Edison 51607, 1925) (Victor 19770, 1925) (Cameo 811, 1925; Romeo 333, 1927) (Broadway 8056-D, c. 1930) (OKeh 40488 [as Tobe Little], 1925)  (Herwin 75506, mid-to-late 1920s) (Banner 6044/Domino 0199, 1927; Conqueror 7175, 1928; Conqueror 7750, 1931) (Champion 15906, 1930; Champion 45076, c. 1935; rec. 1928)
Cal Davenport & his Gang, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Vocalion 5371, 1929)
Arthur Fields, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Radiex 02272, 1926)
Betty Garland, "Little Rosewood Casket" (on BGarland01)
Sid Harkreader, "There's A Little Rosewood Casket" (Broadway 8056, c. 1930)
Lulu Jackson, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Vocalion 1278, 1929)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (Gennett 6989/Supertone 9403, 1929); (Bluebird B-5895, 1935)
George Reneau, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Vocalion 5057/Vocalion 14997/Silvertone 3044, 1925)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Little Rosewood Casket" (on AKStorm01)
Ernest Thompson, "The Little Rosebud Casket" (Columbia 216-D, 1924)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Last Token"
NOTES: Titled by the authors, "A Package of Old Love Letters," this title seems extinct in tradition. - RBW
There are two listings under RECORDINGS for Broadway 8056; one is credited to Vernon Dalhart & Co., the other to Sid Harkreader. At this date, I do not know which is correct. - PJS
[I think it's the Harkreader, but presumably the Dalhart is an error for some other Broadway disc, so I'm leaving the reference for now until someone can sort it out. - RBW]
File: R763
===
NAME: Little Sadie: see Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8] (File: LI08)
===
NAME: Little Sally Racket: see Haul 'Er Away (Little Sally Racket) (File: FSWB086A)
===
NAME: Little Sally Walker
DESCRIPTION: "Little Sally Walker, sitting in (a saucer), Cryin' (for the old man to come for the dollar), (Ride, Sally, Ride). (Fly) to the east, (fly) to the west, (Fly) to the one that you love best."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So) Ireland Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber),Wales)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
SHenry H48g, p. 11, "Old Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 143, pp. 209-291, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
Courlander-NFM, p. 157, "(Little Sally Walker)" (1 text); p. 278, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 392, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
DT, LTLSALLY; also SALWALKER (a collection of several songs with this title, some of which belong here)
Roud #4509
RECORDINGS:
Mattie Gardner, Ida Mae Towns & Jessie Lee Pratcher, "Little Sally Walker" (on LomaxCD1703)
Vera Hall, "Little Sally Walker" (AFS 1323 B1, 1937)
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Little Sally Walker" (on NFMAla1)
Pete Seeger, "Little Sally Walker" (on PeteSeeger21)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "What's Poor Mary Weepin' For (Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping)" (lyrics)
NOTES: In England, if the collections in Gomme are to be believed, this is about equally known as "Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping" and "Little Sally Walker/Waters." The latter name seems to dominate in the U. S., and so has been used on the basis of plurality.
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #644, p. 256, begins "Sally, Sally Waters, sprinkle in the pan" and ends "Choose for the prettiest that you like best." This certainly sounds related, but on its face it doesn't appear the same song. - RBW
File: CNFM157
===
NAME: Little Sally Waters: see Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)
===
NAME: Little Saro Jane: see Liza Jane (File: San132)
===
NAME: Little Scotch Girl, The: see The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)
===
NAME: Little Scotch-ee: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Little Seaside Village, The
DESCRIPTION: "To a little seaside village came a youth one summer day." He wooed a girl, but then left a letter, "Goodbye, I'm going home." A year later he decides he loves her; her father shows him her grave; her message to him was "Goodbye, I'm going home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941
KEYWORDS: death betrayal love courting separation abandonment
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 801, "The Little Seaside Village" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 520-522, "The Little Seaside Village" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 801)
Roud #7422
File: R801
===
NAME: Little Shepherd, The: see Balm in Gilead (File: FSWB360A)
===
NAME: Little Shingle Mill, The: see Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell) [Laws C13] (File: LC13)
===
NAME: Little Shoe Black, The
DESCRIPTION: "I'm Daniel O'Connor, an orphan I am, My father and mother both lately did die, But, 'I clean your boots, Shall I shine your boots!' It's all day long I cry. Just give me one try and I'm sure you'll come back, Please to encourage this little shoe black."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: orphan work clothes hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 36-37, "The Little Shoe Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MCB036
===
NAME: Little Soldier's Boy, The: see The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)
===
NAME: Little Son Hugh: see Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)
===
NAME: Little Sparrow: see Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)
===
NAME: Little Streak o' Lean, A
DESCRIPTION: "A little streak o' lean, an' a little streak o' fat, Ole Massa grumble ef you eat much o' dat!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food slave
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 207-208, "Work-Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: ScNF207B
===
NAME: Little Streams of Whisky: see The Dying Hobo [Laws H3] (File: LH03)
===
NAME: Little Swiler, The
DESCRIPTION: "He was such a very little chap, Blue eyes and sunny smile"; when the boy's father becomes ill, the youth sneaks off (with a knife but no gaff) to take a seal. A band of sealers finds him, feeds him, takes him home, for he "was really only ten"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small)
KEYWORDS: youth work disease father children
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 116, "The Little Swiler" (1 text)
File: RySm116
===
NAME: Little Thatched Cabin, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the "little thatched cabin Where first shone the light of my life's early morn." He describes learning from and working for his parents. Now he is old, "and kind fortune smiles on me," but he would trade the fortune to be a boy again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home age
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H91, p. 156, "The Little Thatched Cabin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8121
RECORDINGS:
Big John Maguire, "The Neatly Thatched Cabin" (on Voice20)
NOTES: Sam Henry thought, based on a reference to vines, that this song originated in America. I'm not sure that constitutes proof, but I seem to recall seeing a very similar poem -- somewhere. So he is likely right. - RBW
File: HHH091
===
NAME: Little Vine-Clad Cottage, The: see The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)
===
NAME: Little White Cat, The (An Caitin Ban)
DESCRIPTION: The little white cat finds her kitten "dead in the hay of a manger." The sad mother brings the dead body home. The pretty kitten had never broken anything and had no enemies except mice. 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection; Gaelic text in Costello 1923)
KEYWORDS: death animal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H510, p. 17, "The Little White Cat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 228-229, "The Little White Cat (1 text, a translation from the Irish said to be by "Mrs. Costello of Tuam")
Roud #13342
File: HHH510
===
NAME: Little White Robe
DESCRIPTION: Come on fathers and let's go home, I'm a-going where my troubles will be over, will be over, will be over I'm a-going where... There's a little white robe a-waiting for me, I'm a-going where..." Repeat for mothers, brothers, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 607, "Lily White Robe" (1 text)
Roud #5740 and 7137
RECORDINGS:
Frank Proffitt, "Little White Robe" (on FProffitt01)
File: RcLWRobe
===
NAME: Little White Rose, The
DESCRIPTION: "He gave me a rose, a pretty white rose, And asked me to wear it for him. She recalls their happy days together. Later, he is found dead, having thrown himself into the stream with a rose in his mouth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drowning suicide courting flowers
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 276, "The Little White Rose" (1 text plus mention of 2 fragments)
Roud #6628
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie Down by the Pond (Sinful to Flirt)" [Laws G19] (plot)
File: BrII276
===
NAME: Little Willie (I)
DESCRIPTION: "Little Willie went to heaven On a bright an' starry night, When I last viewed him in his coffin In his little Sunday suit." The singer describes the possessions the boy left behind. His sister hopes to meet him soon. Jesus will care for him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: death family corpse religious
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 613, "Little Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LTWILLIE*
Roud #7443
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Blue-Haired Boy (Little Willie II, Blue-Haired Jimmy)"
File: R613
===
NAME: Little Willie (II): see Blue-Haired Boy (Little Willie II, Blue-Haired Jimmy) (File: RcBlHaJi)
===
NAME: Little Willie and Mary: see Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)
===
NAME: Little Yorkshire Boy, The: see The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)
===
NAME: Liverpool Dock
DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to his mother as his ship sails away from Liverpool Dock. He hopes to return to his home, but there will be no one to meet him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: mother separation emigration parting
FOUND_IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 95, "Liverpool Dock" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragmentary text that might fit with any number of emigration ballads)
McBride 69, "Welcome Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R095 (Full)
Roud #3266
File: R095
===
NAME: Liverpool Girls: see The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)
===
NAME: Liverpool Judies, The (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll)
DESCRIPTION: The young sailor sets out from England to America. But a wild, drunken life lands him at the boarding-master's. Back at sea, he suffers cruelly at the hands of the mate (whom he curses to hell). (At last he arrives back in port)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: sailor abuse drink return shanty
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Doerflinger, p. 106, "Roll, Julia, Roll (Row, Bullies, Row)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone, pp. 118-120, "The Liverpool Girls" (1 text, 1 tune, slightly cleaned up)
Colcord, pp. 176-177, "Row, Bullies, Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 198-199, "The Liverpool Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 401-403, "The Liverpool Judies" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 304-306]
Lomax-FSNA 30, "Row, Bullies, Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 66, "The Liverpool Pilot" (1 text, 1 tune, a perhaps slightly adapted version but with too many similarities to split)
Creighton-NovaScotia 126, "Liverpool Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LIVJUDY LIVJUDY2
Roud #928
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "The Liverpool Pilot" (on NFABest01)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Towrope Girls
NOTES: [Regarding their "Liverpool Pilot" version, Lehr/Best report] the singer "describes this as a heave-up shanty." The chorus is "And it's row, row, row bullies row For the Liverpool Pilot she have us in tow." - BS
File: Doe106
===
NAME: Liverpool Landlady, The: see Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)
===
NAME: Liverpool Packet, The: see The Dreadnought [Laws D13] (File: LD13)
===
NAME: Liverpool Pilot, The: see The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)
===
NAME: Liverpool Song, The
DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the' cold month of December... I shipped in the clipper ship 'Defender....'" The singer complains of sailing along with a lot of foreigners who "didn't know a word of English But answered to the name o' 'Month's advance.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Bone); he reports learning it in 1900
KEYWORDS: foreigner sailor ship hardtimes
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Bone, pp. 140-144, "The Liverpool Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST BonCB140 (Partial)
Roud #653
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf.  "Paddy, Get Back" (form, lyrics)
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "Paddy, Get Back," which clearly inspired it, but Bone notes that a sailor used each shantey "for its own special purpose on deck and it was rarely heard within the fo'cas'le, for entertainment...."
"[T]he elder hands maintained that the rousing of a chanty 'when ther worn't no call' could not but offend some presiding deity. But there were fo'cas'le ditty that could be sung in lieu and they had, in words and tune, a close resemblance to the chanty proper."
On that basis, I split them, though this hardly seems to exist in its own right.
There was an American clipper named _Defender_, launched in Boston in 1855 and wrecked in the South Pacific in 1859; I doubt it is the same ship. - RBW
File: BonCB140
===
NAME: Living on a Hill
DESCRIPTION: "When you get married and living on a hill, I will send you a kiss by a whippoorwill."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love marriage bird
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 231, (fourth of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
File: MHAp231D
===
NAME: Living on the Hallelujah Side
DESCRIPTION: Singer, once a sinner perishing with cold, is rescued by Jesus, and  would not leave "this precious place." Chorus: "Glory be to Jesus, let the hallelujahs roll/Help me to ring the Saviour's praises far and wide... And I'm a-living on the hallelujah side"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Ernest V. Stoneman)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer, once a sinner perishing with cold, is rescued by Jesus, and now would not leave "this precious place" for all earth's gold and millions. Chorus: "Glory be to Jesus, let the hallelujahs roll/Help me to ring the Saviour's praises far and wide/For I've opened up towards heaven all the windows in my soul/And I'm a-living on the hallelujah side"
KEYWORDS: rescue religious Jesus
FOUND_IN: US(SE) Bahamas
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #12646
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Hallelujah Side" (on Stonemans01) (Victor 20224, 1926); Ernest Stoneman and Eddie Stoneman, "Hallelujah Side" (ARC, unissued, 1934)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "The Hallelujah Side" (Vocalion 5241, 1928) (Champion 16585, 1933)
NOTES: In addition to the hillbilly performers listed above, the song has been recorded by Bahamian songster Joseph Spence. I suspect it was printed in a popular hymnal at some point. - PJS
File: RcLotHS
===
NAME: Liza Ann
DESCRIPTION: The singer offers herself to earn money to pay the fine for her man, serving on the chain gang.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy prisoner whore
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, p. 320-321, "Liza Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RL320
===
NAME: Liza Anne: see Sweet Heaven (II) (File: RcSwHeav)
===
NAME: Liza Gray: see The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde II) [Laws N41] (File: LN41)
===
NAME: Liza in the Summer Time: see Liza Jane (File: San132)
===
NAME: Liza Jane
DESCRIPTION: "Goin' up on the mountain To plant a patch of cane, Make a jug of 'lasses To sweeten Liza Jane. O po' Liza, po' gal, O po' Liza Jane, O po' Liza, po' gal, She died on the train." About moonshine, courting Liza Jane, (and dodging work if possible)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1893 (JAFL6)
KEYWORDS: courting drink nonballad work floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Randolph 435, "Liza Jane" (3 texts, 1 tune)
BrownIII 437, "Eliza Jane (II)" (1 text, which looks more like this than anything else though it lacks the chorus)
SharpAp 244, "Liza Jane" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Sandburg, pp. 132-133, "Liza Jane"; "Mountain Top"  (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text, "Mountain Top," appears mixed with "Moonshiner" or something similar); 308-309, "Liza in the Summer Time (She Died on the Train)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-Makin', p. 127, (no title) (1 fragment in which the girl is "Susan Jane")
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 7-8, "I Went Up on the Mountain Top" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 192, "Hawkie Is a Schemin' Bird" (1 text, with the "Hawkie" first stanza, a chorus from "Lynchburg Town," and verses such as "Went up on a mountain To give my horn a blow" and "Climbed up on a mountain... To sweeten Liza Jane")
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 284-286, "Liza Jane" (2 texts, 1 tune. The main text is composite)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 591 [no title] (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 30, "Goodbye 'Liza Jane" (1 text)
DT, LIZAJANE
Roud #825
RECORDINGS:
Rufus Crisp, "Ball and Chain" (on Crisp01)
Homer & Jethro, "Poor Little Liza, Poor Gal" (King 773, 1949)
Bradley Kincaid, "Liza Up in the Simmon Tree" (Gennett 6761/Champion 15687 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9362, 1929; Champion 45057, c. 1935; on CrowTold01)
John & Emery McClung "Liza Jane" (Brunswick 135, 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Liza Jane" (on NLCR06, NLCR11)
Riley Puckett, "Liza Jane" (Columbia 15014-D, c. 1925; Silvertone 3261 [as Tom Watson], 1926)
George "Short Buckle" Roark, "I Ain't A Bit Drunk" (Columbia 15383-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Oh! Liza, Poor Gal" (on PeteSeeger06, PeteSeegerCD01); "Liza Jane" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
Uncle "Am" Stuart [vocal by Gene Austin], "Old Liza Jane" (Vocalion 14846, 1924; Vocalion 5039, 1926)
Tenneva Ramblers, "Miss 'Liza, Poor Gal" (Victor 21141, 1927)
Henry Whitter, "Liza Jane" (OKeh 45003, 1925)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (lyrics)
cf. "Run Mollie Run" (lyrics)
cf. "Push Boat" (lyrics)
cf. "Cindy" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (floating verses)
cf. "Turn, Julie-Ann, Turn" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Goodbye Liza Jane
Saro Jane
Little Saro Jane
NOTES: The "Saro Jane" referred to under "Alternate Titles" should not be confused with "Rock About My Saro Jane," which is a different song.
This song is almost certainly of minstrel origin, and shares many floating verses with other, similar minstrel-show songs.
The Rufus Crisp recording, "Ball and Chain", is in fact one of those conglomerated songs incorporating floating verses from a dozen sources; RBW suggests putting it here because more of its verses seem to come from here than anywhere else.
Ditto the George Roark recording; I put it here for want of a better place. It could also go under "Don't Get Trouble In Your Mind," as its lyrics overlap with that song, but it doesn't have the plot theme of rejection. In fact, it doesn't have a plot at all. - PJS
File: San132
===
NAME: Liza Jane (II): see Po' Liza Jane (File: Br3456)
===
NAME: Liza Lee: see Yankee John, Stormalong (Liza Lee) (File: Hugi080)
===
NAME: Lizie Lindsay [Child 226]
DESCRIPTION: A young man comes to court Lizie Lindsay, asking her to come to the Highlands with him. Neither she nor her relatives are interested. He then reveals that he is a rich lord (the Lord of the Isles?); she changes her mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,NE,So)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Child 226, "Lizie Lindsay" (8 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Bronson 226, "Lizie Lindsay" (9 versions+1 in addenda)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 297-299, "Lizzie Lindsay" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 269-271, "Lizie Lindsay" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCoxIIA, #11, pp. 46-47, "Leezie Lindsay" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Brewster 20, "Lizie Lindsay" (1 text)
Ford-Vagabond, p. 314, "Leezie Lindsay" (1 short text)
Randolph 29, "New Yealand" (1 fragment)
DT 226, LIZLIND*
Roud #94
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Dugall Quin" [Child 294]
cf. "The Blaeberry Courtship" [Laws N19]
File: C226
===
NAME: Lizie May: see Lizie Wan [Child 51] (File: C051)
===
NAME: Lizie Wan [Child 51]
DESCRIPTION: (Geordy) finds his sister (Lizie Wan) crying. When he asks why, he is told that she is pregnant by him. He kills her to hide his crime. He is revealed by the blood on his sword, and is forced away from home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: incest murder pregnancy questions exile brother
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland,England) US(Ap,NE,SE)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Child 51, "Lizie Wan" (2 texts)
Bronson 51, "Lizie Wan" (7 versions plus the #10 text of "Edward," which is actually "Lizie Wan")
SharpAp 14 "Lizzie Wan" (1 text, 1 tune){Bronson's #2}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 143-145, "Fair Lucy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5b}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 332-338, "Lizie Wan" (2 texts, 2 tunes, which differ though both informants cited the same source) {A1=Bronson's #5b, A2=#4}
Leach, pp. 167-169, "Lizie Wan" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 159, "Lizie Wan" (1 text)
PBB 38, "Lizie Wan" (1 text)
Niles 21, "Lizie Wan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 65, "Lucy Wan" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
DT 51, LIZIWAN1*
Roud #234
RECORDINGS:
Jeanie Robertson, "My Son David" (on LomaxCD1700)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sheath and Knife" (plot)
cf. "The Bonnie Hind" [Child 50] (theme)
cf. "Edward" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lizie May
NOTES: John Jacob Niles claims that, in his experience, the only people willing to sing this song were men. He points out that Sharp's informant was a man; so was the singer who gave the song to Flanders. As usual, though, one must wonder about Niles's sources. In any case, Bronson lists four versions from women. - RBW
Niles may claim that the only informants willing to sing the song are men, but Vaughan Williams/Lloyd's version was collected from a Mrs. Dann of Cottenham, Cambs. Lloyd notes, however, that this was the only version of the ballad found in oral tradition in England, and that no new Scottish version has been reported since 1827. -PJS
On the scientific evidence that brothers and sisters raised apart are particularly likely to fall in love, and some further speculation as to why, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]." - RBW
File: C051
===
NAME: Lizzie Borden Songs
DESCRIPTION: Sundry comments on the Fall River murders, e.g. "Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks"; "There's no evidence of guilt, Lizzie Borden, That should make your spirit wilt." The poems/songs are not all derived from a single source
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: murder father mother
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: August 1892 - the Fall River Murders
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Burt, p. 14-15, (no title) (5 assorted fragments/excerpts)
DT, (FALLRIVR)
NOTES: Burt observes that there seem to be no truly traditional songs about this famous event. That being the case (and it appears she's right), I've lumped all Lizzie Borden items here as a placekeeper.
Lizzie Andrew Borden (1860-1927)  was a spinster living with her wealthy father and stepmother when they were murdered in 1892. Borden was tried for the murders, but found innocent, and lived as a recluse in Fall River for another 35 years. - RBW
File: DTfallri
===
NAME: Lizzie Brown
DESCRIPTION: The singer, who has moved to Bee's Hotel to sleep with Lizzie Brown, extols the lady's lack of virtues.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 393-394, "Lizzie Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RL393
===
NAME: Lizzie Lindsay: see Lizie Lindsay [Child 226] (File: C226)
===
NAME: Lloyd George
DESCRIPTION: Lloyd George won the great war but he'd still "better keep clear from the boys of Fair Hill"; the Germans had intended to capture Ireland. The bishops say only Freestaters get to heaven but there is a spot reserved for the boys of Fair Hill.
AUTHOR: Sean O'Callaghan (source: OCanainn)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political religious IRA
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OCanainn, pp. 52-53, "Lloyd George" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The Irish Free State, created under the Free State Agreement, came into being December 1922. It did not provide for the independent republic desired by the IRA. David Lloyd George, who had been Prime Minister during the "Great War,' was British Prime Minister during the negotiation. (Source: Wikipedia article _Irish Free State_) See notes to "General Michael Collins" for additional background.
Fair Hill is a suburb of Cork City. - BS
And Cork, we should note, was one of the strongest centers of the rebellion in Ireland.
The Bishops did not say that only Freestaters get to Heaven; almost universally, they condemned all violence -- this is, after all, basic Christian doctrine, as is non-resistance to being governed by nonbelievers (so explicitly 1 Peter 213fff., and less explicitly but no less clearly in the writings of Paul). But since the Republicans started the violence -- and since they had very little Christian understanding of the other side -- they felt they were suffering the stronger condemnation. It was ironic to note than many Republicans considered their Catholic bishops to be working with the British!
The situation perhaps can be shown by the events of a single day in 1919. According to Robert Kee, _Ourselves Alone_, being Volume III of _The Green Flag_ (Quartet, 1972, 1976), pp. 77-78, this day saw the murder of a British agent, which the Archbishop of Tuam labelled "'a shocking crime'... 'a most grave violation of the law of God.'" But even as this was going on, the entire Irish hierarchy was formally condemning British behavior in denying the Irish their political rights, and declaring, "Let the military domination of Ireland cease at once. Let the people of Ireland choose for themselves the Government under which they are to live."
Of course, the Irish people would choose the Free State (or Home Rule -- a government still with links to Britain). So in a way the Bishops were condemning the Republicans. But this was clear only after the fact.
The mention of the Germans capturing Ireland is a reference to the Casement Affair. They didn't really intend to invade Ireland (though they made vague promises along those lines); they could not, unless they beat the British Navy -- and the Battle of Jutland had settled that. What the Germans could do was send arms to the rebels -- arms which they considered unfit for their own soldiers. For background on this, see the notes to "Lovely Banna Strand.." - RBW
File: OCan052
===
NAME: Lo Que Digo: see Venadito (File: San294)
===
NAME: Load of Kail Plants, The
DESCRIPTION: The young man comes to Ballymoney to sell his kail plants. He does his business with various buyers, then sets out to seek a wife. He finds a girl, offers her tea, kisses her, asks her name, and presumably asks if she wishes to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting farming commerce home
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H25b, pp. 261-262, "The Load of Kail Plants" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6919
File: HHH025b
===
NAME: Loading Pulp at Georgetown
DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you how we load the pulp." The loading crew is named we are told how "they like to dine at Mrs Clay." "It is a very dangerous job." Pulp is poor at low price in 1953 and 1954 but "but the wages isn't bad"
AUTHOR: Joe Trainor
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: lumbering nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 100-101, "Loading Pulp at Georgetown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12452
File: Dib100
===
NAME: Loakie's Boat: see Lukey's Boat (File: FJ046)
===
NAME: Lobster, The: see The Sea Crab (File: EM001)
===
NAME: Loch Erin's Shore (II): see William and Eliza (Lough Erin's Shore) (File: HHH597)
===
NAME: Loch Erne's Shore: see William and Eliza (Lough Erin's Shore) (File: HHH597)
===
NAME: Loch Lomond
DESCRIPTION: Singer laments parting from his/her love by Loch Lomond, noting "the broken heart it kens nae second spring." Chorus: "You'll take the high road and I'll take the low road And I'll be in Scotland before ye But me and my true love will never meet again..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1841 ("Vocal Melodies of Scotland")
KEYWORDS: loneliness love parting separation Scotland lyric
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland) US(MW)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 145-148, "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" (2 texts, 1 tune; the first is the common version and the second a variant without chorus which may have inspired the popular piece)
Dean, pp. 122-123, "Loch Lomond" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 257, "Loch Lomond" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 336-337, "Loch Lomond"
DT, LOCHLMND LOCHMOM (LOCHLOM2)
Roud #9598
RECORDINGS:
George Alexander, "Loch Lomond" (Columbia 3294, 1906)
Henry Burr, "Loch Lomond" (Victor 16062, 1908)
Unidentified baritone, "Star of Eve/Loch Lomand [medley]" (Climax [Columbia] X-88, c. 1901)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(17a), "Bonnie Banks of Lochlomond," unknown (probably Poet's Box ) (Dundee), n.d.
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Red Is the Rose" (tune)
cf. "The Babcock Bedtime Story" (tune, some lyrics)
cf. "Flora's Lament for her Charlie" (verses)
SAME_TUNE:
Red is the Rose (File: So28n3a)
Flora's Lament for her Charlie (broadside NLScotland, RB.m.168(178), "Flora's Lament for her Charlie," Robert MacIntosh (Glasgow), after 1849; probably the same broadside as Murray, Mu23-y3:013)
NOTES: The song (or at least the chorus) seems to have entered oral tradition in the US, probably through the recording by Benny Goodman's band. (Benny Goodman & his Orchestra, vocal by Maxine Sullivan, "Loch Lomond" (Victor 25717, 1937)). - PJS
Legends about this song are numerous. One has it that it was heard and/or composed by Lady John Scott in the 1840s. Another (supported by the Clancy family) is that it is derived from the Irish "Red Is the Rose," with which it shares a tune. ("Red Is the Rose" sounds more recent and more composed, though, at least to my ears.)
Legend has it that the "low road" is the road of death, and that the song was made by a Scottish prisoner following the 1745 Jacobite rebellion: The condemned soldier tells his comrade that (following his execution), he will take the low road back to Scotland and arrive first.
One real connection with the Jacobite rebellion is a broadside, NLScotland RB.m.168(178), "Flora's Lament for her Charlie," printed by Robert McIntosh, beginning "It's yon bonny banks and yon bonny braise, Where the sun shines bright and bonny, Where I and my true love went out for to gaze On the bonny, bonny banks of Benlomond." The next verse is standard "Loch Lomond." But it looks like a patch-up job, and no tune is listed.
More explicit, and perhaps more traditional, is Ford's second text, said to have been found by Lady Jane Scott in Edinborough; it has a terminal verse, "The thistle shall bloom, an' the King hae his ain"  and an explicit complaint in the second verse that "My Ranald... the morrow he marches to Edinburgh toun, To fecht for the King an Prince Charlie!"
Both these items, however, look like patch jobs as well. The connection with the '45 remains uncertain.
Fuld offers a list of possible antecedants of the tune; all show noticeable differences. I think the matter must be regarded as unsettled.
Loch Lomond, one of the largest Scottish lakes, is a short way north of Dumbarton, and not far north and west of Glasgow; its outlet flows into the Clyde in Dumbarton. - RBW
File: FSWB257B
===
NAME: Loch na Garr (Lachin Y Gair)
DESCRIPTION: The singer is in England, a land of "a million luxuries," but longs for Caledonia. He remebers his childhood, his plaid and "traditional story ... on cheiftains long perished" As "one who has rambled o'er countries afar" he prefers "dark Lough Na Garr"
AUTHOR: George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) (source: broadside, NLScotland L.C.178.A.2(318))
EARLIEST_DATE: 1807 (Byron, _Hours of Idleness_, according to Connie Beck's Lord Byron site)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration England Scotland
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Tunney-SongsThunder, p. 180, "Dark Lough Na Garr" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 508, "Lochnagar" (1 fragment)
Roud #2436
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(318), "Loch na Garr," Harkness (Preston), c.1870
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(55)[some words illegible], "Loch Na Garr" ("Away, ye gay landscapes! ye gardens of roses"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(2241), 2806 c.14(54), "Loch-na-Garr"; Harding B 26(118), "Dark Loch Na Gar"; Harding B 40(2) View 3 of 4,"Dark-Lock-na-Garr"; Harding B 19(88), "Dark Lock-na-Garr"
NOTES: Most of the broadsides and Tunney-SongsThunder are incomplete. For a complete version see NLScotland L.C.178.A.2(318). The commentary for that broadside notes that "Lochnagar [is] the mountain that gives this poem its title...." [about 40 miles west of Aberdeen]. - BS
File: TST180
===
NAME: Loch o' Shilin, The: see Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)
===
NAME: Loch o' the Auds, The
DESCRIPTION: "At nicht i' my fun, when late I was  rovin'" in May, the singer sees a beautiful Portnay girl talking with a rover. Then her long-time swain shows up, and is shocked to find her showing affection for another man. The singer warns against trusting women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal rambling
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 446-447, "The Loch o' the Auds" (1 text)
Roud #5619
File: Ord446
===
NAME: Lochaber Shore
DESCRIPTION: The singer calls all people to hear his song about "sweet Lochaber Shore." He lists the local residents, and describes the weather during the past two years, cold winters, and a summer storm which carried of several sailors. He hopes for better times
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home disaster ship
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H134, pp. 168-169, "Lochaber Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13482
File: HHH134
===
NAME: Lochmaben Harper, The [Child 192]
DESCRIPTION: A (blind) harper sets out to work in England. He rides his mare, which has just given birth to a foal. In England, he contrives to tie his horse to King Henry's. Next morning, mare and horse are gone; King Henry pays the harper for his work and his mare
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1791
KEYWORDS: robbery royalty music harp
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Child 192, "The Lochmaben Harper" (5 texts)
Bronson 192, "The Lochmaben Harper" (3 versions)
GreigDuncan2 270, "The Harpin' Mannie" (1 text)
Dixon IV, pp. 37-41, "The Jolly Harper" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 519-522, "The Lochmaben Harper" (1 text)
OBB 144, "The Lochmaben Harper" (1 text)
DT 192, LOCHHARP
Roud #85
File: C192
===
NAME: Lochnagar: see Loch na Garr (Lachin Y Gair) (File: TST180)
===
NAME: Locked in the Walls of Prison
DESCRIPTION: "Locked in the walls of prison, Down in a narrow cell, Locked in the walls... No one to go my bail. If I was worth ten thousand, I'd bury it in my trunk, Or else I'd surely gamble Besides I might get drunk... Take me back... To wear the ball and chain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: prison chaingang drink crime
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 144, "Locked in the Walls of Prison" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5484
NOTES: Although nearly every word of this song occurs elsewhere (e.g. the final verse, "One foot upon the platform, T'other on the train," can be found in "The House of the Rising Sun"), this is the only version I know of that combines them in this way. - RBW
File: R144
===
NAME: Locks and Bolts [Laws M13]
DESCRIPTION: The singer misses his love. Her parents, learning she loved a poor man, locked her away (in her uncle's house). The young man breaks the locks and rescues her (possibly fighting a battle along the way). The two are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1876 (Christie, _Traditional Ballad Airs I_)
KEYWORDS: love poverty separation rescue marriage
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (17 citations)
Laws M13, "Locks and Bolts"
Belden, pp. 168-169, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, a fragment)
Randolph 110, "I Dreamed of My True Lover" (2 texts, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB1, p. 74, "Rainbow Willow"; pp. 75-76, "I Dreamt Last Night of My True Love" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownII 84, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 74, "Sylvania Lester" (1 text)
Brewster 65, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text from tradition plus a text from the Pepys Ballads)
SharpAp 80, "Locks and Bolts" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Sandburg, p. 149, "I Dreamed Last Night of My True Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 162, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 31, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
MacSeegTrav 79, "Locks and Bolts" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Chase, pp. 132-133, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 438-441, "The Lass o' Bennochie" (3 texts, very diverse; the second is mixed with this song)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 111-112, "Rainbow Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 145, "Locks And Bolts" (1 text)
DT 328, LOCKBOLT*
Roud #406
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Locks and Bolts" (on Maynard1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Locks and Bolts" (on NLCR16)
Almeda Riddle, "Locks and Bolts" (Vanguard VRS-9158, n.d.); "Rainbow 'Mid Life's Willows" (on LomaxCD1707)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Iron Door" [Laws M15] (theme)
cf. "The Gallant Shoemaker" (theme)
cf. "All Over Those Hills" (theme)
cf. "The Lass o' Bennochie" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lass o' Bennachie
At the Back o' Bennachie
NOTES: "Rainbow 'Mid Life's Willows" is a truncated version of the song, ending with the singer's lamenting his separation from his true love; his breaking down the door is omitted. It does contain the key line, "Locks and chains [bolts] doth hinder," which places it as a version of this song.
The versions of "Locks and Bolts" found in MacSeegTrav, "The Lass o' Bennachie" and "At the Back o' Bennachie" should not be confused with the song indexed as "Where Gadie Rins", although the latter is also called "The Back o' Bennachie" and was collected from the same singer as MacColl/Seeger's "B" text. The songs are different. - PJS
Belden notes a song from Martin Parker called "The Lover's Joy and Grief" with the burden "but locks and bolts doe hinder." It is not clear what is its relation with the present song. - RBW
File: LM13
===
NAME: Lofty Cavavaille, The
DESCRIPTION: The French barque Cavavaille under Captain Ormsby strikes Blackwater sand-bank on December 18. Though freed once from the sand, they are cast up on Blackwater beach, "to pieces split," and 27 are lost. The rich cargo from exotic lands is summarized.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 18, 1768 - Cavavile wrecked on Blackwater Bank; Captain Ormsby and 27 crew lost (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 71)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 120-121, "The Lofty Cavavaille" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7347
File: Ran120
===
NAME: Lofty Giant, The: see Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)
===
NAME: Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17]
DESCRIPTION: The singer has been a criminal (robber and pickpocket) from his youth. Eventually he lands in prison, facing an extended sentence.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: crime prison youth
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Laws E17, "Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail)" (sample text in NAB, pp. 76-77)
Randolph 135, "The Dallas County Jail" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes)
Combs/Wilgus 59, pp. 185-186, "Bob Sims" (1 text)
Ohrlin-HBT 57, "Sporting Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 42, "Logan County Court House" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Darling-NAS, pp. 285-286, "The Prisoner's Dream" (1 text); also pp. 286-287, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text, mostly the "Jack of Diamonds" variant of "Rye Whiskey," but with material from this song)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 130, "At the Jail" (2 texts, 1 tune; the result looks to me to be a mix between this and "Danville Girl," though it's one of those vague cases....)
DT 739, DALLJAIL* LGANJAIL RAMSJAIL*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 20, #5 (1971), p, 19, "Sporting Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune, the Watts & Wilson version)
Roud #691
RECORDINGS:
Allen Brothers "Prisoner's Dream" (Victor V-40210, 1930) (Vocalion 02874, 1934) (one of these is on RoughWays1, but it's not clear which; the liner notes date it "1928")
Carl & Harty, "The Prisoner's Dream" (Melotone 7-01-53, 1937)
Gooby Jenkins, "The Prisoner's Dream" (OKeh 45082, 1927; rec. 1926)
Glenn Ohrlin, "The Sporting Cowboy" (on Ohrlin01)
Shelton Brothers, "The Prisoner's Dream" (Decca 5381, 1937)
Hobart Smith, "Hawkins County Jail" (on LomaxCD1700, LomaxCD1705)
Weaver and Wiggins (pseudonyms for Wilmer Watts & Frank Wilson), "The Sporting Cowboy" (Broadway 8112, c. 1931; on WhenIWas1 [as Watts & Wilson])
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Moonshiner's Dream" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Moundsville Prisoner
NOTES: Most of the Laws ballads have clearly defined boundaries and distinct plots. This one is rather an exception. By its nature, it has attracted a lot of extra verses, and (perhaps as a result) also sometimes has pieces fall off. Laws himself discusses this point in NAB, pp. 77-79. - RBW
File: LE17
===
NAME: Logan's Lament
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the happy lives of various creatures, then turns to his own unhappy lot. His wife, children, and people have been destroyed by the white man. He vows to "dig up my hatchet and bend my oak bow...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1844 (fragment in Sanders' Fourth Reader)
KEYWORDS: animal Indians(Am.) murder revenge
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Eddy 112, "The Blackbird, or Logan's Lament" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Burt, pp. 128-129, "Logan's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E112 (Full)
Roud #5340
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Steals of the White Man" (theme)
cf. "Jilson Setters's Indian Song" (theme)
cf. "An Old Indian (The Indian Song)"
NOTES: Eddy reports that this song is based on a speech by one Logan, the son of a white man and a Cayuga woman. His family was slain by Europeans, and he vowed revenge, igniting what is known as Lord Dunmore's War (for which see "The Battle of Point Pleasant"). When the Shawnee chief Cornstalk made peace with Dunmore (the Royal governor of Virginia) in 1775, Logan refused to give up his vengeance, and offered this speech (delivered under the Logan Elm in Pickaway County, Ohio) to back his position.
Despite its origin, the first few stanzas of this song bear an interesting similarity to Jesus's words in Matt. 8:20, Luke 9:58. - RBW
Logan, a chief of the Mingo tribe, was raised a Christian, and the beginning of his oration under the elm is a clear paraphrase of the cited passages from the Bible. A biography of Logan, and the full text of his speech, may be found in Walter G. Shotwell's _Driftwood_ (1927, reprinted 1966 by the Books for Libraries Press, Freeport, NY). - PJS
File: E112
===
NAME: Logger's Alphabet, The
DESCRIPTION: A song by which lumbermen remember the alphabet and tell of their "merry" lives: "A is for axes as all of you know / And B is for boys who can use them also.... So merry, so merry, so merry are we / No mortals on earth are as happy as we"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: logger nonballad lumbering wordplay
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES: (16 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 207-208, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a sort of personalized appendix, "The Shantyboy's Song," on p. 209)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 112-113, "Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 235-237, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 3, "The Woodsman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby 6, "The Shanty-Man's Alphabet" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 102, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 5 more)
Fowke-Lumbering #1 , "The Shantyboy's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 168-170, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 98, "Alphabet Song (Lumberman's)" (1 text; the "A" and "B" texts in this entry are "The Sailor's Alphabet")
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 87-90, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 82, "The Lumberman's Alphabet (The Axe-Handle Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 564-565, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 5, "Alphabet Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 173-175, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 335-336, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text)
DT, LUMBALPH*
Roud #159
RECORDINGS:
Sam Campbell, "The Shantyboys' Alphabet" (on Lumber01)
Sam Eskin, "Lumberman's Alphabet" (on GrowOn3)
Wilmot MacDonald, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (on Miramichi1)
Gus Schaffer, "Lumberjack's Alphabet" (on AFS, 1938; on LC56)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor's Alphabet" (subject)
cf. "The Bawdy Alphabet" (subject)
cf. "A Is for Apple Pie" (subject)
cf. "Alphabet Song (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Average Boy" (subject)
cf. "Alphabet Songs" (subject)
cf. "Building a Slide" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "The Fisherman's Alphabet" (subject and structure)
cf. "Air Force Alphabet" (subject)
cf. "The Army Song" (subject)
NOTES: Linscott claims that there are unprintable versions of this song, but it's not clear (since she doesn't print them) whether they are really lumber-camp versions or just forms of the various bawdy alphabets.
She also says that the song has been attributed to Larry Gorman -- but what hasn't been?
Although all collections of this song appear to be from the twentieth century, chances are that it dates from the 1860s or earlier; by the 1870s, the crosscut saw was replacing the axe as the standard method for felling trees -- but most versions of this have multiple references to axes and few if any to saws. - RBW
File: Doe207
===
NAME: Loggers' Plight, The
DESCRIPTION: Landon Ladd Ladd comes to Newfoundland, forms a logger union, and calls a loggers' strike; some are thrown in jail. Premier Smallwood insists Ladd leave and that a new union be formed with Maxwell Lane to lead the way and come to terms with A.N.D.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: strike lumbering labor-movement Canada
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1959 -  the [US-controlled] IWA (International Woodworkers of America [which split in 1987 into US and Canadian unions]) strikes the AND [Anglo-Newfoundland Development] company at Badger.
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 755-756, "The Loggers' Plight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9801
NOTES: The "on-ramp for K-12 school Web pages in Newfoundland and Labrador" site includes the background about the logging industry at Point Leamington and the strike. 
"Throughout its history Point Leamington has been linked directly to the forest industry, and... many of the town's residents were -- and still are -- involved with logging camps and sawmill operations. Many men in the town and the surrounding communities worked at logging camps operated by... locals. The wood from these logging operations supplied the raw material needed to make newsprint by the AND Co. Paper Mill at Grand Falls.... Also, many of the locals operated sawmills within the Point Leamington area and employed many of the town's men.
"Over the years many men from Point Leamington were employed in the lumber woods and the seasonal trek to the logging camps in the fall and winter became a way of life.
"However, the wages and the living conditions in the early camps were far from adequate, and despite several attempts to improve those conditions, when the International Woodworkers of America (I.W.A.) arrived in the province in the late 1950's working conditions were still far from ideal.
"Although Landon Ladd's attempt at organizing the Nfld loggers into his union failed following the bitter strike of 1959, the Commission of Enquiry on the Logging Industry that followed in 1961 addressed the conditions of the camps, and this eventually led to improved conditions for loggers. Within a few years most of the recommendations of the Commission had been implemented, and many loggers attribute the improved working and living conditions in the logging camps (either directly or indirectly) to the I.W.A. strike of 1959."
Point Leamington, Grand Falls, and towns often mentioned in Newfoundland logging songs, like Badger -- originally Badger Brook -- and Bishops Falls are about 270 miles northwest of St John's on TC-1, not far from Bonavista Bay on the northeast coast. 
The St. Mark's School site, in its biography of Newfoundland Premier Joseph Smallwood, states "On March 1959, a tragedy at the small town of Badger where striking loggers clashed with police officers. One member of the Newfoundland constabulary was clubbed and later died. Joey, who had opposed the strike and decertified the union a few days before, made him into a martyr. Joseph from then on consorted with corporate tycoons and devoted himself to large industrial endeavours like the Churchill Falls power project." St. Marks school is in King's Cove, Newfoundland, and serves grades K-12 for the northern section of the Bonavista Peninsula. 
The IWA.CA site presents a view of the strike not in accord with the ballad. "In 1958, the Eastern Canadian Regional Council [of the IWA] organized loggers in Newfoundland and confronted the hostile government of Joey Smallwood who passed legislation decertifying and outlawing the IWA. In March 1959, battalions of RCMP marched on strikers in Badger, beating workers unconscious as women and children screamed. During the confrontation an officer was killed and a logger charged, later to be acquitted." 
Peacock discusses the main characters of the ballad. "Landon Ladd is the local union representative sent in by the International Woodworkers of America to organize the loggers. Maxwell Lane is the head of the local union set up by Premier Smallwood to rid Newfoundland of alleged 'union gangsterism' emanating from the United States."
Peacock collected "The Loggers' Plight" at Rocky Harbour in July 1959.  Rocky Harbour is on the northwest coast of Newfoundland. - BS
File: Pea755
===
NAME: Logie O Buchan
DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that "they have taken away Jemy the delight of the yard." She has been offered the hand of wealthy Sandy, but prefers to wait for her beloved Jemy. Before he left, he gave her half of his only sixpence
AUTHOR: George Halket?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation poverty brokentoken
FOUND_IN: Britain US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 197-198, "O Logie o Buchan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 55, pp. 171-172, "Logie o' Buchan" (1 short and much-damaged text)
DT, LOGIBUCH*
ADDITIONAL: Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #340, pp. 571-572, "Logie o' Buchan" (by George Halket)
Roud #1994
File: SWMS197
===
NAME: Lolly-Too-Dum
DESCRIPTION: Daughter comes to mother, asking to be married. Mother, after pointing out she's young, asks who she will marry. Daughter says, "Handsome Dan" -- or any of forty more if he's not available. (The daughter marries, and mother looks for a husband herself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: marriage loneliness courting mother
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Belden, p. 266, "Mother and Daughter" (1 text)
Randolph 370, "Rolly Trudum" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 299-300, "Rolly Trudum" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 370A)
Hudson 134, pp.280-281 , "Rolly Trudam" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 12, "Lolly-Too-Dum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 138-139, "Lolly Too Dum" (2 texts, 1 tune, but the first is "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle")
Silber-FSWB, p. 344, "Lolly-Too-Dum" (1 text)
DT, LLYTOODM*
Roud #441
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Rolly Trudum" (on Barker01)
May Kennedy McCord, "Rolly Trudum" (AFS; on LC12)
Pete Seeger, "Lolly Too Dum" (on PeteSeeger32)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit)" (theme)
NOTES: This song is named for its chorus, "Lolly-too-dum, lolly-too-dum-day." Thematically, it is identical to "I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit)," but the stanza form is different enough that I have separated them. (Roud, of course, lumps them.) - RBW
File: LxU012
===
NAME: Lolotte
DESCRIPTION: Creole French, in praise of Lolotte. "Pauve piti Lolotte a mouin (x3), Li gaignin doulair." "Calalou porte madrasse, le porte jipun garni" (x2). "Pauve piti Lolotte a mouin... Li gaignin doulair, doulair, doulair... dans cour a li."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 112, "Lolotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AWG112
===
NAME: London Bridge Is Broken Down: see London Bridge Is Falling Down (File: R578)
===
NAME: London Bridge Is Falling Down
DESCRIPTION: Upon learning that "London Bridge is (falling/broken) down," the singers must decide what to do, e.g. "Shall we build it up again?" "Mud and clay will wash away" "Iron and stone will stand alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book)
KEYWORDS: playparty technology
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(Ap,MW,NE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Randolph 578, "London Bridge is Falling Down" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, p. 45, "London Bridge" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 34-36, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 8, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H48h, pp. 11-12, "Broken Bridges" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, p. 189, (no title; part of a section called "Granny London Tells About Old Times") (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire, p. 135, "London Bridge" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 244, (no title) (1 short text)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 81, "London Bridge" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Opie-Oxford2 306, "London Bridge is broken down" (4 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #641, pp. 254-255, "(London Bridge)"
Fuld-WFM, p. 337+, "London Bridge"
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #68, "London Bridge" (1 text)
ST R578 (Full)
Roud #502
RECORDINGS:
Pratt children and friends, "London Bridge" (on Ritchie03)
Pete Seeger, "London Bridge" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock-A-By Ladies" (tune & meter)
SAME_TUNE:
Greenberg Shop is Moving South (Greenway-AFP, p. 126 note)
NOTES: The notes in Baring-Gould mention the theory that this pertains to the breaking of London Bridge by Olaf of Norway in the reign of Ethelred II Unraed ("the Unready," c. 978-1016). Of course, any song about that would have had to be in Old English.... - RBW
File: R578
===
NAME: London City (I): see The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)
===
NAME: London City (II): see The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)
===
NAME: London Heiress, The (The Brisk and Lively Lad)
DESCRIPTION: An heiress loves a farmer's son. Her father has him sent to the battle front. He is severely wounded. She is Captain's waiting maid in the hospital. She buys his discharge. They return to Ireland. She tells her father she will live with her lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1132))
KEYWORDS: love marriage army war reunion separation injury father
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Greig #83, p. 2, "The Farmer's Son" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan1 173, "The Dublin Heiress" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Morton-Maguire 33, pp. 86-87,119,169, "The Lady Heiress and the Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRSKLIVE*
Roud #2930
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1132), "London Heiress" ("In London lived an heiress unto a gentleman"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(2187), "London Heiress"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7]" (theme) and references there
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
In Dublin Lived an Heiress
File: MoMa033
===
NAME: London Town: see The Ring-Dang-Doo (I) (File: EM182A)
===
NAME: Londonderry Air: see references under Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air) (File: FSWB323)
===
NAME: Londonderry Love Song
DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out wandering and sees boys and girls at play. He might be with them had his girl proved true. But her father told her she must cross the seas, and with much lamenting, she consented. She sails away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration father
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1862 - Wreck of the Zared, of Londonderry
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H518, p. 301, "Londonderry Love Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6898
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dreadnought" [Laws D13] (The Sam Henry text of that song describes the Zared)
NOTES: A strange song: The father sends the girl away, but does not go with her or (apparently) offer her any means of support. One wonders if this isn't a worn-down version of something like "The Suffolk Miracle," where the father sends the daughter away because he doesn't like her lover.
If that were true, it would even explain the mention of the _Zared_ -- the girl was coming home to her love, but drowned on the way. Very much "The Suffolk Miracle," with the genders reversed. - RBW
File: HHH518
===
NAME: Londonderry on the Banks of the Foyle: see Sweet Londonderry (on the Banks of the Foyle) (File: HHH813)
===
NAME: Lone Fish-Ball, The: see One Fish-Ball (One Meat Ball, The Lone Fish-Ball) (File: SRW074)
===
NAME: Lone Green Valley, The: see The Jealous Lover (II) AND The Jealous Lover (I) (File: E104)
===
NAME: Lone Pilgrim, The: see The White Pilgrim (File: R619)
===
NAME: Lone Prairie, The: see Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2] (File: LB02)
===
NAME: Lone Rock Mine Song: see Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)
===
NAME: Lone Rock Song: see Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)
===
NAME: Lone Star Trail (II), The: see The Chisholm Trail (I) (File: R179)
===
NAME: Lone Star Trail, The: see I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows (File: LoF186)
===
NAME: Lone the Plow-Boy: see Cupid the Plowboy [Laws O7] (File: LO07)
===
NAME: Lone Valley: see Pretty Saro (File: R744)
===
NAME: Lonely Louisa: see Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)
===
NAME: Lonely Tombs: see Voice from the Tombs (Lonely Tombs) (File: Wa087)
===
NAME: Lonely Waterloo [Laws N31]
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a girl grieving for her love. She describes Willie, and the singer tells her Willie has died at Waterloo. The girl suffers terribly from grief; (in some texts he reveals himself as Willie and prepares to marry her)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon separation grief
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) US(MW) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Laws N31, "Waterloo II"
Gardner/Chickering 88, "Bloody Waterloo" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 88, "Lonely Waterloo" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 1007-1008, "Lonely Waterloo" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-Labrador 127, "Lonely Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 67, "Lonely Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 390, BLDYWLOO*
Roud #622
RECORDINGS:
Ken Peacock, "Lonely Waterloo" (on NFKPeacock)
Willie Scott, "Bloody Waterloo" (on Voice08)
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, "Lonely Waterloo" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Harte notes that his version came back to Ireland via a singer who had seen the text in Peacock. - BS
This has recently been set to a new (and highly effective) tune by Daithi Sproule of Altan. This seems to be a song everyone wants to revive. - RBW
File: LN31
===
NAME: Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter, The [Laws H12]
DESCRIPTION: The singer insists that a girl tell him whether she will marry him or not. She will not; she has another lover. He berates her love of wealth and threatens to go away as a soldier/sailor. (In some texts she changes her mind, but the man has a new girl.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection separation
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Laws H12, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter"
Belden, pp. 195-196, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 136-137, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter (All in the Scenes of Winter" (1 text)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 94, "The Gonesome [sic] Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 108-109, "Lonesome Hours of Winter" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 156-157, "The Stormy Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 57, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 127-129, "Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans, pp. 38-39, "The Scornful Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 209-212,"Stormy Winds of Winter" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 50, "The Stormy Winds of Winter" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 445-446, "Flora" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, 650 CHILSCEN* CHILSCN2*
Roud #443
RECORDINGS:
Lewis McDaniel & Walter Smith: "I Went to See My Sweetheart" (Victor 23505, 1930; on ConstSor1)
Southern Melody Boys, "Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (Montgomery Ward 7227, 1937)
NOTES: The editors of _Sam Henry's Songs of the People_ place H637 (p. 385, "Lovely Nancy") here -- but I frankly don't see the kinship. Belden, in discussing the matter, says that a song he knows as "Proud Nancy" (I assume the same piece) has "a like theme but little verbal resemblance." - RBW
File: LH12
===
NAME: Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation)
DESCRIPTION: "As I set in that lonesome grove, Set o'er my head a little dove, For its lost mate began to coo...." The singer recalls his lost wife and daughter, killed by consumption. But he thanks God who has taken them away, and hopes to see them in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (Social Harp)
KEYWORDS: death religious bird family disease children wife
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Randolph 607, "The Lonesome Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, p. 486, "The Dove" (1 text)
BrownIII 305, "The Lonesome Dove" (1 text)
SharpAp 147, "The Lonesome Grove" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Cambiaire, p. 77, "Lonesome Dove" (1 text)
Roud #3637
RECORDINGS:
Almeda Riddle, "Lonesome Dove" (on LomaxCD1707)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All You Friends and Neighbors" (theme)
cf. "The Vulture (of the Alps)"
NOTES: The Social Harp version of this song (1855) is credited to William C. Davis. This is certainly possible -- it is hardly a true folk song -- but since Davis might be an arranger, I do not list an author. - RBW
File: R607
===
NAME: Lonesome Dove (II)
DESCRIPTION: Singer laments a lost love: "You've broken all your promises, Just marry whom you please." "The blackest crow that ever flew It surely will turn white." "Oh don't you see yon little dove?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal abandonment separation floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
BrownIII 262, "The Slighted Girl" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 85, "Do You See That There Bird On Yonder Tree?" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, (LONEDOVE) (TUTRLDOV) (TURTDOV2) TURTDOV3
NOTES: It's hard to decide if this is really a song or a collection of floating verses. The Brown text is interesting; it begins with a verse "You need not flirt nor flounce around. There's more pretty boys than one." Then it goes through the lost love routine, and concludes "Darling, darling, do hush up! I hate to hear you cry. As other friends are having to part, And why not you and I, my love, and why not you and I?" - RBW
Creighton-Maritime is a one verse fragment, "Do you see that bird there on yonder tree." It belongs, as Creighton notes, to some song which, she speculates, may be "George Collins" ("Lady Alice," Child 85) but I'd rather just put it here. - BS
File: Br3262
===
NAME: Lonesome Grove, The: see Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation) (File: R607)
===
NAME: Lonesome Hours of Winter: see The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)
===
NAME: Lonesome Prairie, The: see Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2] (File: LB02)
===
NAME: Lonesome Road
DESCRIPTION: "Look down (x2) that lonesome road, Hang down your head and sigh. The best of friends must part some day, And why not you and I? (x2)." "I wish to God that I had died... Before I had seen your smilin' face." Singer may be in prison, having ignored mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal lie floatingverses lyric prison loneliness lover
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
BrownIII 292, "Lonesome Road" (2 texts); also 306, "By By, My Honey" (1 text, mostly "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" though with several floating verses, including one from this song)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 73, "The Lonesome Road" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 322-323, "Lonesome Road" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 308, "Hattie Belle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 273, "Look Down" (1 tune, partial text, placed here on the basis of the first line)
Roud #824
RECORDINGS:
Luther B. Clark [or Blue Ridge Highballers], "Wish to the Lord I Had Never Been Born" (Columbia 15096-D, 1926) [note: tentative identification; I have not heard the recording]
Delmore Brothers "Look Up, Look Down That Lonesome Road" (Bluebird B-7383, 1938)
J. Paul Miles, "County Jail" (on AFS, pre-1940)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Long Lonesome Road" (on NLCR06)
Kilby Reeves, "County Jail" (on Persis1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "More Pretty Girls than One" (tune)
cf. "Lonesome Stream"
NOTES: Not to be confused with the (non-traditional) blues by Will Nash, "Goin' Down that Long Long Lonesome Road." - RBW
File: San322
===
NAME: Lonesome Sea Ballad, The: see The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)
===
NAME: Lonesome Stream
DESCRIPTION: "When you look way 'cross dat lonesome stream (x2), Way to Zion, Lawd, Lawd." "When you look way down that lonesome road." "I got a mother dead and gone." "She lef' me here to weep an' moan." "Dark cloud risin' i de east'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death mother
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 602-604, "Dat Lonesome Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15547
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lonesome Road"
NOTES: The Lomaxes attribute this to Mississippi prisoners. I have not noted it elsewhere, though it obviously has links to "Lonesome Road." I suspect the Lomaxes may have engaged in editorial work. - RBW
File: LxA602
===
NAME: Lonesome Valley (I)
DESCRIPTION: "You've got to walk that lonesome valley, you've got to walk it by yourself; There's no one here can go there with you [or: walk it for you]; You've got to go there by yourself." Various floating verses about the difficult path to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (recording, Jenkins Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Randolph 622, "Some Folks Say John Was a Baptist" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune -- a floating verse which, based on the tune, probably belongs here)
Warner 162, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune, sung and notated in three parts)
Sandburg, p. 486, "You Got To Cross It Foh Yohself" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 100, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 762, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 354, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text)
DT, LONEVALY
Roud #7098
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Ramblers String Band, "That Lonesome Valley" (Perfect 12818/Melotone 12428, 1932)
Carter Family, "Lonesome Valley" (Victor 23541, 1931; Bluebird B-6117/Montgomery Ward M-4735, 1935) (OKeh 03112, 1935; on CGospel1)
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, "Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky" (Columbia 21334, 1954)
Elzie Floyd & Leo Boswell, "Lonesome Valley" (Columbia 15167-D, 1927)
Jenkins Family, "That Lonesome Valley" (OKeh 40377, 1925)
Heavenly Gospel Singers, "Walk This Lonesome Valley" (Bluebird B-6984, 1937)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Walk That Lonesome Valley" (Bluebird B-6596/Montgomery Ward M-7007, 1936)
Curt Mann, "Lonesome Valley" (on USWarnerColl01)
[Lester] McFarland & [Robert] Gardner, "The Lonesome Valley" (Vocalion 5127, 1927)
Blind Willie McTell, "I Got to Cross the River of Jordan" (LoC, 1940, two versions; one version is on Babylon)
David Miller, "That Lonesome Valley" (Gennett 6175, 1927)
Monroe Brothers, "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" (Bluebird B-6477, 1936)
Pete Seeger, "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" (on BroonzySeeger1);  "Lonesome Valley" (on PeteSeeger47)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Trials" (floating verses)
SAME_TUNE:
Dixie Reelers, "Lonesome Valley - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6713, 1936)
File: Wa162
===
NAME: Lonesome Valley (II), The
DESCRIPTION: ""My brother, want to get religion? Go down in the lonesome valley (x4), To meet my Jesus there." "Oh, feed on milk and honey." "Oh, John he write the letter." "And Mary and Martha read 'em."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 5, "The Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11858
NOTES: This should not be confused with "Lonesome Valley (I)"; they have nothing in common except those two words.
The phrase "lonesome valley," interestingly, never occurs in the King James Bible, though the phrase would easily be suggested by Psalm 23.
There are three epistles credited to John in the New Testament -- but not one of them actually says it is from John. The assignment of authorship is based on the fact that they definitely seem to be from the same "school," and probably the same author, as the fourth gospel. And the fourth gospel is attributed to the Beloved Disciple, and the BD was surely either Peter or James or John (the three disciples who made up Jesus's inner circle), and it can't be Peter because Peter talked to the BD, and it can't be James because he was executed early on, so presumably it was John.
Even if John did write the three letters, there is absolutely no reason to connect them with Mary and Martha, since Martha is mentioned only in Luke 10 and John 11-12. (In fact, the Gospel of John never mentions John the Disciple by name; every reference to John is to John the Baptist.) - RBW
File: AWG005
===
NAME: Long and Wishing Eye, The: see Branded Lambs [Laws O9] (File: LO09)
===
NAME: Long Cookstown: see Nancy Whiskey (File: K279)
===
NAME: Long Eddy Waltz
DESCRIPTION: The singer climbs a tree, apparently to spy on lovers. His voyeurism is rewarded when a young couple appear under the tree. The man begs the girl to sleep with him. At some point, the spy lets out a whoop, and the lovers take flight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (text supplied to Logsdon by Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous request hiding sex
FOUND_IN: US(MA,SW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
FSCatskills 132, "Long Eddy Waltz" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Logsdon 43, pp. 222-223, "The Oaks of Jimderia" (1 text)
DT, LONGEDDY*
Roud #10100
NOTES: Logson connects this with "Walking in a Meadow Gren," found in the Percy Folio. I don't really see it. That is simply a song about a guy watching a couple go about their business. This piece, in both the New York and Arizona versions, has several distinct elements in addition to the voyeurism: The narrator in the tree, the crying out, and the lovers fleeing. They do differ in when the singer cried out -- but I suspect this is a deliberate clean-up of the Catskills variant.
There does not seem to be a generic title to this song, perhaps because it has so rarely been published. The "Long Eddy Waltz" title comes from Dick Edwards, the New York informant, and has no obvious relationship to the song (save that it is in triple meter). But it is the title which has been used in the Ballad Index for many years, so I am retaining it in the absence of a title with stronger claim. - RBW
 
File: FSC132
===
NAME: Long Gone: see Long John (Long Gone) (File: LoF287)
===
NAME: Long Hot Summer Days: see Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)
===
NAME: Long John (Long Gone)
DESCRIPTION: "It's-a Long John, He's long gone, Like a turkey through the corn, With his long clothes on, He's gone, gone." Long John escapes from prison, and uses sundry tricks to avoid capture. He intends to keep moving
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1920 (print reproduced by Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: prison freedom escape floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 287, "Long John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 75-79, "Long Gone" (1 extended text, 1 tune)
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 202-215, "Crooked-Footed John" (7 texts, 4 tunes; some of these sound like direct descendents of the commercial recordings, but others have been heavily adapted for prison life and may even incorporate other songs)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 102-103, "(Lost John)" (1 text); p. 261, "Long John" (1 tune, partial text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 268, "Long Gone" (1 text, a reproduction of a printed version from 1920)
Handy/Silverman-Blues, pp. 200-202, "Long Gone" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily adapted)
Silber-FSWB, p. 68, "Long John" (1 text)
ST LoF287 (Full)
Roud #11520
RECORDINGS:
Allen Brothers, "Long Gone from Bowling Green" (Vocalion 02817, 1934)
Richard Brooks & Riley Puckett, "Long Gone" (Brunswick 273, 1928)
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "Lost John" (Columbia 15122-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Ted Daffan's Texans, "Long John" (Columbia 20358, c. 1947; Columbia 37823, 1947; rec.1942)
Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "Lost John" (Decca 24216, 1947)
Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston & Sonny Terry, "Lost John" (on Struggle2)
Sam Hinton, "Long John" (ABC-Eagle ABC-230, 1950)
J. H. Howell's Carolina Hillbillies, "Lost John" (Bluebird B-7162, 1937)
Charlie Jackson, "Long Gone Lost John" (Paramount 12602, 1928; Broadway 5076 [as Charlie Carter], c. 1930)
Ray Logan, "Lost John Blues" (Paramount 12310, 1925)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Lost John Dean" (Brunswick 227/Vocalion 5246, 1928; on Times1 [as Bascom Lamar Lundsford])
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Long John" (AFS 2644 A2, 1939)
Prison farm work group "Lost John" (on NPCWork, DownHome)
Oliver Sims, "Lost John" (Columbia 15103-D, 1926)
Southern Moonlight Entertainers [possibly pseud. for the Stripling Bros.] "Lost John" (Vocalion 5372/Vocalion 5460, c. 1930; rec. 1929)
Stripling Bros. "Lost John" (Vocalion 5441, c. 1930; rec. 1929)
Vernon Sutphin & J. C. Sutphin, "Lost John" (on Stonemans01)
Sonny Terry, "Lost John" [instrumental with whooping] (AFS, 1938; on LCTreas); "Lost John" (on Terry01, DownHome)
Texas state farm prisoners, "Lost John" (on NPCWork)
Merle Travis, "Lost John Boogie" (Capitol 1737, c. 1951)
Henry Whitter, "Lost John" (OKeh 40391, 1925)
Unknown artists, "Long Gone" (AFS CYL-7-2, 1933)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Rattler"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lost John
Long Gone from Kentucky
NOTES: The Lomaxes believe this to be based on the story (coming from W. C. Handy's book "Blues"; see page 215 in Handy/Silverman) of one Long John Green, who was known for his ability to move.
When the prison where Green was staying acquired a pack of bloodhounds, they allegedly decided to conduct a test by giving him a head start and then sending the hounds after him. But Green was too fast (he also managed to trick the hounds by catching one in a trap), and escaped them.
I have my doubts, though -- neither the Courlander text nor the Burnett & Rutherford recording shows the prison plot details found in the Lomax texts. I can't help but wonder if this might not be another Lomax retouch job, influenced perhaps by Handy's blues piece. - RBW
 It's hard to tell pending full scrutiny of the field recordings, but it looks like the Lomaxes didn't mess with them as much as has been suggested. Some of the field recordings, at any rate, are as muddled as the Lomaxes' published versions. - PJS
And the versions in Jackson support this. Several of these versions involve a prisoner who had heels on the front of his shoes, fooling the pursuers. I am still inclined to suspect that several songs have been combined here (Jackson is of the opinion that it has swallowed a song beginning "This old tree..."). It's just that the combination probably predates the Lomaxes. - RBW
File: LoF287
===
NAME: Long Journey Home: see Two Dollar Bill (Long Journey Home) (File: CSW177)
===
NAME: Long Lankin: see Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)
===
NAME: Long Peggin' Awl, The
DESCRIPTION: A girl is berated by her mother for running away with a shoemaker. The girl retorts that the older woman did the same thing: "You followed old dad for his long peggin' awl"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925
KEYWORDS: bawdy mother elopement
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 280-281, "The Long Peggin' Awl" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 181, "The Long Peggin' Awl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LNGPGAWL*
Roud #2126
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox "The Long Peggin' Awl" (on FSB2, FSB2CD)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Pegging Awl" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
NOTES: Talk about lumping: Kennedy includes the Carolina Tar Heels' "Peg and Awl" as quoted by Lomax. I know both songs. No way. The phrase is common to them only because those two tools were found together in the kit of a shoemaker. - PJS
File: RL280
===
NAME: Long Shoreman's Strike, The: see Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family) (File: FSC101)
===
NAME: Long Sought Home: see Jerusalem, My Happy Home (Long Sought Home) (File: NrecJMHH)
===
NAME: Long Summer Days
DESCRIPTION: Chantey/worksong: "The day is so long and the wages so small..." "Captain you gae launch this boat today..." "Take it now easy boys, cause the crawfish they're come now" Refrain: "Long summer day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (recording, Frederick McQueen & group)
KEYWORDS: fishing ship work nonballad shanty worksong animal sailor
FOUND_IN: Bahamas
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Frederick McQueen & group, "Long Summer Day" (on MuBahamas2)
NOTES: This may derive from the same roots as Randolph's "Rocky Road to Jordan (Long Summer Day)." But the uses of the song are different enough that I am (very tentatively) allowing them to stay separate; Randolph's is a singing game. - RBW
File: RcLoSuDa
===
NAME: Long Tail Blue
DESCRIPTION: The singer has "come to town to see you all... And sing a song not very long About my long tail blue." He is proud of having two coats, a jacket for everyday and the blue for Sunday. He advises others to acquire a similar coat and keep it well
AUTHOR: George Washington Dixon?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (Christy's Negro Songster); Dixon is said to have performed the piece in 1827
KEYWORDS: clothes courting
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 416, "My Long Tail Blue" (1 text)
Roud #1287
File: Br3416
===
NAME: Long the Days of Sorrow (All Around those Pretty Little Pinks)
DESCRIPTION: "We're marching round two pretty little pinks (x3), Long the days of sorrow." "Choose two in as we go round." "We've come in to marry you." "Tomorrow is the wedding night." "God Almighty bless them good old souls." "You rascal you, you told me a lie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty lie courting marriage
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 589, "Long the Days of Sorrow" (1 text)
Roud #7675
File: R589
===
NAME: Long Time Ago (II)
DESCRIPTION: "Once there was a little kitty, White as the snow, She went out to hunt a mousie, Long time ago." The cat's appearance is described: Her black eyes spied the mouse, her paws caught it, her teeth bit it -- but the mouse escaped
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: animal hunting
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 306-307, "Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4577
File: LxA306
===
NAME: Long Time Ago (II), A: see A Hundred Years Ago (I) (File: San485)
===
NAME: Long Time Ago, A
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "[To me] way, hey, hey, yah... A long time ago." Texts vary; many have to do with the troubles of seagoing life; one complains about serving an a boat so old it "must have been the ark that Noah built..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor ship
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW) Bahamas
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 37-43, "A Long Time Ago" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 68-69, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 65-68, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text plus several fragments, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 60-62, "A Long Time Ago" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp.97-105, 156, 215, "A Long Time Ago," "Up, Up, My Boys, Up a Hill" (11 texts, 4 tunes. Version "C" is "In Frisco Bay", version "F" is
"A-Rovin'", version "G" is "A Hundred Years Ago." Other versions borrow heavily from "Roll the Cotton Down," Blow the Man Down" and "Blackball Line") [AbEd, pp. 88-94]
Sharp-EFC, XLIV, p. 49, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 141-142, "A Long Time Ago" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, p. 48, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 47, "Around Cape Horn" (1 short text to the same tune)
Lomax-FSNA 28, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 306-207, "Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 312-313, "A Hundred Years" (1 text, with the phrase "A hundred years ago" replacing "A long time ago")
DT, (NOAHARK)
ST Doe037 (Full)
Roud #318
RECORDINGS:
Richard Maitland, "A Long Time Ago" (AFS, 1939; on LC27)
David Pryor et al: "Long Time Ago" (AAFS 505 B, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "In Frisco Bay (A Long Time Ago; Noah's Ark Shanty)" (lyrics)
cf. "Roll the Cotton Down" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "De Hoffnung" (tune)
cf. "Roll and Go" (refrain)
SAME_TUNE:
De Hoffnung (File: Hugi104)
NOTES: In 1833 one T. Rice sang a minstrel song by this name in "The Ethiopian Opera," with the sheet music published by John Cole of Baltimore; that may well have been the ancestor of this shanty. - PJS
File: Doe037
===
NAME: Long Time Traveling: see When I Can Read My Titles Clear (Long Time Traveling) (File: DTlongti)
===
NAME: Long White Robe
DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Can't you hand down that long white robe (x4)." Verses: "Old Satan thought he had me fast, Can't you hand... But I broke his chain and I come at last, Can't you...." "If I ever reach that mountain top... I pray to my Lord I may never stop."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious clothes nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 518, "Long White Robe" (1 text, with a "Cotton-Eyed Joe" verse)
Roud #11813
File: Br3518
===
NAME: Long-Line Skinner
DESCRIPTION: "I'm a long-line skinner And my home's out west. Lookin' for the woman... that'll love me best." The doctor says whiskey will kill him "but he don't say when." When it gets cold, he will go home; "I ain't skinning mules in the wintertime"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: work home drink
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 128, "Long-Line Skinner" (1 text)
File: FSWB128A
===
NAME: Long, Long Ago!
DESCRIPTION: "Tell me the tales that to me were so dear, Long long ago, long ago; Sing me the songs I delighted to hear... Now you are come my grief is removed...." The singer welcomes back (his?) long-lost love; he doubted her fidelity, but he rejoices to see her
AUTHOR: Thomas Haynes Bayly
EARLIEST_DATE: 1844
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 119-120, "Long, Long Ago!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 278-279, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 256, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 338, "Long, Long Ago!"
ST RJ19119 (Full)
Roud #4921
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:019, "Long, Long Ago," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(145), "Long, Long, Ago," unknown, c.1870
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Gone Long Ago" (tune)
NOTES: Bayly made his name as a composer of sentimental tunes, but this is surely his best-known. The exact date of composition is unknown; the earliest dated printing is from 1844, but copies are known to have been in circulation when Bayly died in 1839. The best guess is that it originally appeared c. 1836.
The author's original title was "The Long Ago." - RBW
File: RJ19119
===
NAME: Longest Name Song: see Too Much of a Name (File: GrMa170)
===
NAME: Longest Train, The: see In the Pines (File: LoF290)
===
NAME: Longford Murder, The: see James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)
===
NAME: Longford Murderer, The: see James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)
===
NAME: Longing for the Spring
DESCRIPTION: "The hills are very bare and cold and lonely; I wonder what the future months will bring. The strike is on...." The singer expresses anger at the scabs and the police, wishes he could shoot them, and longs for easier weather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement hardtimes scab
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, p. 188, "(Longing for the Spring)" (1 text)
File: Burt188
===
NAME: Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family)
DESCRIPTION: "I am a simple lab'ring man / And I work along the shores / For to keep the hungry wolves away / From the poor longshoreman's door." The singer demands fair pay for his work. He complains that foreigners get the jobs while local people starve
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST_DATE: 1875
KEYWORDS: strike foreigner poverty
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1875 - Longshoreman's strike that inspired this song. Most of the strikers were Irish immigrants
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
FSCatskills 377, "The Poor Man's Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 28, "Longshoreman's Strike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 82-83, "Long Shoreman's Strike" (1 text)
Greenway-AFP, p. 236, "Longshoreman's Strike" (1 text)
ST FSC101 (Partial)
Roud #7461
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (theme)
NOTES: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
File: FSC101
===
NAME: 'Longside of the Santa Fe Trail: see The Santa Fe Trail (File: Ohr085)
===
NAME: Longstone Lighthouse, The: see Grace Darling (I) (The Longstone Lighthouse) (File: Ran086)
===
NAME: Looby Lou
DESCRIPTION: "Here we go Looby Lou, Here we go Looby Lou, Here we go Looby Lou, Lou, Lou, All on a Saturday night." "I put my right hand in, I put my right hand out, I give my right hand shakey-shake-shake And I turn myself about."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown)
KEYWORDS: dancing playparty
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(Ap,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 192-193, "Looby Low" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 23-26, "I Put My Little Hand In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 554, "Loupy Lou" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 157, "(Loop de Loo)" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #637, p. 252, "(Now we dance looby, looby, looby)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 387, "Her We Go Looby Loo" (1 text)
ST R554 (Partial)
Roud #5032
RECORDINGS:
 Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Loop de Loo (Loobie Loo)" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
Pete Seeger, "Here We Go Looby-Loo" (on PeteSeeger21)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Here We Go Looby Lou
Ugly Mug
Lubin
NOTES: This would seem to be the ancestor of the infamous Hokey-Pokey, perhaps urban America's only surviving singing game. But I don't know if the song was rewritten along the way.
Linscott reports the "Looby Loo" title as "a corruption of lupin,' the word for 'leaping,' for the game takes the form of animal antics."
Courlander, if I understand him correctly, explains it as a bathing game. Wonder how they recorded the motions in that case. - RBW
File: R554
===
NAME: Looby Low: see Looby Lou (File: R554)
===
NAME: Look at the Sun
DESCRIPTION: "Look at the sun, See how he run -- God Almighty'll catch you With your work undone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 229, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScNF229B
===
NAME: Look Before You Leap: see The Bald-Headed End of the Broom (File: FaE190)
===
NAME: Look Down: see Lonesome Road (File: San322)
===
NAME: Look How They Done My Lord
DESCRIPTION: Describes crucifixion of Jesus; he is whipped up to Calvary, where he "never [says] a mumbling word"; a thorny crown is placed on his brow and squashed down, and the blood comes streaming down. Refrain: "Good Lord I can't hold out no longer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1953 (recording, Vera Hall Ward & Dock Reed)
KEYWORDS: execution dying Easter Bible religious prisoner Jesus
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #10983
RECORDINGS:
Vera Hall Ward & Dock Reed, "Look How They Done My Lord" (on ReedWard01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "He Never Said a Mumbling Word" (verses)
NOTES: Several verses of this song are shared with "He Never Said a Mumbling Word". But the "One day when I was lost" refrain is absent, and the overall feeling is quite different, so I split them. Incidentally, I use the keyword, "Easter" although the song technically describes only the events of Good Friday, letting the single keyword sit in for all of the events. - PJS
File: RcLHTDML
===
NAME: Look Out Below
DESCRIPTION: A young man goes to Australia to escape poverty at home. He goes to work in the mines, and in time grows rich. He returns home and marries, but finds that he misses Australia. Back he goes, to resume the miner's life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1894 (The Queenslander)
KEYWORDS: mining emigration poverty Australia
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 92-93, "Look Out Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, p. 42, "Look Out Below!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 128-130, "Look Out Below" (1 text)
NOTES: Patterson/Fahey/Seal credit this to CharlesThatcher, but they do not state the source of this information. - RBW
File: FaE092
===
NAME: Look Where the Train Done Gone
DESCRIPTION: Floating-verse blues about trains and lost love: "Look where de train done gone (x3), Oh babe, Gone never to return." "I certainly been a friend to you." "If I'd a-listened to what Mama said." "Tomorrow's my trial day." "If I'd a-died when I was young."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses love separation train
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 245-246, "Look Where de Train Done Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF245
===
NAME: Looked Down the Railroad Far As I Could See
DESCRIPTION: "Well, ah looked down de railroad fuh as I could see, Looked down dat railroad fuh as I could see, Saw mah gal a-wavin' back at me (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading separation
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 241, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: This feels like a blues, but note that the one verse quoted by Scarborough has four lines, not three. - RBW
File: ScNF241
===
NAME: Lookin' for the Bully of the Town: see The Bully of the Town [Laws I14] (File: LI14)
===
NAME: Looking for Poppies
DESCRIPTION: An old man meets a girl and asks where she is going. She says she is looking for poppies; he says it's the wrong place. She would hear the nightingale; the time is wrong. At last her young man shows up; the old man warns against such bird songs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love lie questions courting warning
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 252-253, "Looking for Poppies" (1 text)
Roud #7759
File: Beld252
===
NAME: Lookit Yonder: see The Old Gray Goose (I - Lookit Yonder) (File: FSC147)
===
NAME: Loop de Loo: see Looby Lou (File: R554)
===
NAME: Loose Every Sail to the Breeze: see Homeward Bound (II -- Loose Every Sail to the Breeze) (File: SWMS052)
===
NAME: Lora Williams
DESCRIPTION: ""Come all you fair and pretty damsels And listen while I now relate... And learn of Lora Williams fate." Lora sets out with a bucket for the spring, but, knowing she must swear against her lover, drowns herself instead
AUTHOR: "'Widder' Kizzie Talcott's Dan"?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: love suicide drowning
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 140-143, "Lora Williams" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair and Tender Ladies" (tune)
NOTES: According to Thomas's informant (called by the absurd name in the author field), Lora Williams was a 16-year-old asked to swear out a warrant against her lover. She chose suicide instead. Folklore adds that her voice can still be heard at the rock where she drowned,  begging her mother not to weep.
At no point is the nature of the lover's crime specified.
This is item dG35 in Laws's Appendix II.  - RBW
File: ThBa140
===
NAME: Lord Arnold: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Ateman: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Bakeman: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Barnard: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Barnie: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Lord Bateman: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Bateman's Castle: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Bayham: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Beichan: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Burnett and Little Munsgrove: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Cornwallis
DESCRIPTION: "In the year of '81, In Yorktown we capitulated ... We fought them four to one as long as we could stand." The captives are confined "like thieves in a dungeon" and hope for the war to end "to see ourselves at liberty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1845 (Shield's _Songs and Ballads in use in the Province of Ulster...1845_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: captivity battle soldier
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 15, 1781 - Cornwallis wins a pyrrhic victory at Guilford Courthouse (North Carolina) and decides to continue the campaign in Virginia rather than the Carolinas. He will command roughly 7500 men in Virginia
Aug 1, 1781- Cornwallis establishes his base at Yorktown, Virginia
Sep 5-13 - Naval battle of the Virginia Capes (also called the Naval Battle of Yorktown); the French fleet of de Grasse defeats and drives away the British fleet of Thomas Graves
Sep 28 - George Washington and Rochambeau begin the siege of Yorktown with about 15,00 men
Oct 19 - Cornwallis's surrender
Feb 27, 1783 - The British parliament authorizes peace negotiations
Feb 4, 1783 - Britain officially declares an end to hostilities with the colonies
Apr 15 - The Congress of the American Confederation ratifies the peace treaty with Britain
Sep 3 - The Treaty of Paris officially ends the Revolutionary War
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 7, "Lord Cornwallis" (1 text)
NOTES: Moylan: "This song deals with the aftermath of the battle of Yorktown on the 18th of October 1781, when the American rebel army of George Washington defeated the British under General Cornwallis, putting an end to the American War of Independence." - BS
This song, typically, is wrong on several counts: The British at Yorktown were outnumbered by only about two to one, and a large fraction of their enemies were raw troops. The British could certainly have held on -- had they had supplies. But de Grasse's naval victory (which was not very decisive, but it did drive off the English) sealed off the British army, which eventually had to give in.
Contrary to a lot of sources, this did not automatically mean an end to the war; Cornwallis's army represented only about a third of the British troops in North America, and Britain could have sent more. The next spring, indeed, Admiral Rodney took care of de Grasse, giving the British control of the seas again. But Parliament had had enough of paying for a war that seemed to promise nothing good, so they swallowed their pride and granted colonial independence. - RBW
File: Moyl007
===
NAME: Lord Cornwallis's Surrender
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you brave Americans, The truth to you I'll tell, 'Tis of a sad misfortune To Britain late befell." Cornwallis and his British troops, cut off by Washington on land and de Grasse by sea, are forced to surrender
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as108040)
KEYWORDS: war battle rebellion derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 19, 1781 - Cornwallis surrenders his forces at Yorktown to General Washington
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 88-90, "Lord Cornwallis's Surrender" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LRDCRNWL*
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as108040, "Lord Cornwallis's Surrender," unknown, 19C 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The British Grenadiers" (tune) and references there
NOTES: The Revolutionary War in the north did not go well for Britain. Although their only severe defeat was at Saratoga, they were unable to capture and subdue the countryside.
The British command therefore decided to concentrate on the south in 1780. In that year, Charles Cornwallis (the second-in-command in America and the most aggressive of the British generals) was to invade the Carolinas and Virginia.
The results were typical of the Revolutionary War: Cornwallis won most of his engagements against the Colonials, but never managed to pin them down and suffered occasional losses at the hands of a rebellious countryside.
Then came disaster. Cornwallis was facing Washington at Yorktown with only a fraction of the British colonial army. Suddenly a French fleet led by Admiral de Grasse, which had been expected to attack New York, instead appeared outside Yorktown. De Grasse could not hope to hold off the British fleet forever, but he held on long enough. Cornwallis, surrounded and cut off from supplies, had to surrender.
It was the effective end of the Revolutionary War. The peace would not be signed until 1783, but the British no longer had the troops to fight the rebels, and were unwilling to send more.
Among the other revolutionary figures mentioned in this song are:
Burgoyne -- John Burgoyne, who surrendered at Saratoga (see "The Fate of John Burgoyne").
Hessians -- German mercenaries employed by the British. They were generally despised -- though the British government's decision to use mercenaries was rather logical when you think about it; the British did not want to send disaffected Irish soldiers, or Scottish soldiers who might prove loyal to the Stuarts -- and if they used English soldiers, they might well desert in the Americas, where the people spoke English and there were many economic opportunities (see Stanley Weintraub, _Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783_, Free Press, 2005, pp. 42-44)
Greene -- Nathaniel Greene, who commanded a detached force in the Carolinas against Cornwallis. He was the best officer the Americans had at harassing the enemy. - RBW
File: SBoA088
===
NAME: Lord Daniel: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Darnell: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Delamere [Child 207]
DESCRIPTION: The king wants a new tax. Delamere asks for charge of all the poor of the land, to hang them; better they hang than starve. A lord says he deserves death, but Devonshire, fighting for Delamere, kills the lord and finds he is wearing the king's armor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Lyle)
KEYWORDS: royalty nobility trick money death accusation
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 207, "Lord Delamere" (4 texts)
Roud #88
NOTES: This sort of gesture of defiance (compare Swift's "A Modest Proposal") is much more common in story than truth; there is no reason to believe that the events here ever took place. Child gives what background there can be.
The one interesting point I observe is that the lords involved were mostly active at the time of the Glorious Revolution (1688) -- and, what's more, Lord Delamore (1652-1694) and William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire (1641-1707; Duke of Devonshire from 1694) both gave open support to William of Orange. Delamere, in fact, went on to be one of the Lords of the Treasury.
Perhaps this originated as some sort of Williamite broadside? Or, perhaps, an attempt to save Devonshire from protests? (He is said to have been poor about paying tradesmen.) - RBW
File: C207
===
NAME: Lord Derwentwater [Child 208]
DESCRIPTION: The king sends (Derwentwater) a summons to London. His wife bids him make his will before going. As he goes along his way, ill portents greet him. Arriving in London, he is condemned to death. (He gives gifts to the poor and is executed)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1812 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nobility execution lastwill
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1715 - the 1715 Jacobite rebellion
Sept. 1715 - Warrant issued for Derwentwater's arrest. He responds by openly going into revolt
Nov. 14, 1715 - Derwentwater and his comrades forced to surrender
Feb 24, 1716 - Execution of Derwentwater at the age of (probably) 26
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland) US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 208, "Lord Derwentwater" (10 texts)
Bronson 208, "Lord Derwentwater" (5 versions)
Leach, pp. 553-554, "Lord Derwentwater" (1 text)
Roud #89
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. G. A. Griffin, "The King's Love-Letter" (AFS, 1937; on LC58) {Bronson's #4a}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child #58]
cf. "The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water" [Child 216]
cf. "Derwentwater's Farewell" (subject)
cf. "Derwentwater" (subject)
NOTES: Although based on a historical incident, this ballad is a rather curious amalgam of material from other pieces; the opening is straight from "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child #58],
while the incident of the nosebleed portending doom is found in "The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water" [Child 216]. The making of the will is harder to trace, but the idea is commonplace.
There is an obvious urge to confuse this with "Derwentwater's Farewell," by Robert Surtees, but Child explicitly and correctly denies this link.
Derwentwater seems by all accounts to have been popular, and other poems were written of his death. In this case, it would appear that an unknown poet (Surtees?) took pieces of older ballads to produce a song for the occasion.
The night of Derwentwater's execution witnessed a particularly bright aurora, and the aurora is sometimes called "Derwentwater's Lights" as a result. But this usage, like the ballad itself, seems to have faded out with time. - RBW
File: C208
===
NAME: Lord Derwentwater's Good-Night: see Derwentwater's Farewell (File: Sto004)
===
NAME: Lord Dillard and Lady Flora: see Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)
===
NAME: Lord Fife
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Lord Fife: "every acre he does possess It's called the happy land." When tenants see hard times "Go home, he says, possess your place, I'll pay the rent mysel'." He toasts Lord Fife and "those who does not say Amen, Ashamed let them be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: virtue farming nonballad landlord
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig #147, p. 1, "Lord Fife"; Greig #160, p. 2, "Lord Fife" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan3 438, "Lord Fife" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5952
NOTES: Greig #149, p. 1: "Referring to 'Lord Fife,' ... Miss Bell Robertson is able to tell us that the peer alluded to was the Good Earl James, the grand-uncle of the Duke [GreigDuncan3: "Alexander William George (1849-1912), first Duke of Fife"] -- an ideal landlord and idolized by his tenants. This information is also given by Mr John Mowat ...." 
GreigDuncan3: "This song concerns James, fourth Earl of Fife, who lived from 1776 to 1857." - BS
File: GrD3438
===
NAME: Lord Franklin: see Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)
===
NAME: Lord Gregory: see The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)
===
NAME: Lord Henry and Lady Margaret: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet [Child 66]
DESCRIPTION: Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet are (brothers/uncle and nephew).  Lady Maisry loves and is pregnant by Chiel Wyet but Ingram woos her family and she is made to wed him.  On the wedding night Chiel Wyet and Lord Ingram kill each other; Maisry goes mad.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1802/3 (ms)
KEYWORDS: family pregnancy marriage murder fight madness
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Child 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (5 texts)
Bronson 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (2 versions, both regarded by Bronson as dubious; neither has a text)
Leach, pp. 213-222, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text, with a Danish text for comparison)
OBB 51, "Lord Ingram and Childe Vyet" (1 text)
DBuchan 30, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text)
TBB 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text)
DT 66, INGRWYLT*
Roud #46
NOTES: Bronson quotes two tunes for this piece, but admits they "may have no genuine right to this association. The sole connecting link, in the absence of words [neither tune has a text], is the title of the first tune, 'Lord Ingram.' But the tune suits ill with the metre of any known text...." - RBW
File: C066
===
NAME: Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Lord Levett: see Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)
===
NAME: Lord Livingston [Child 262]
DESCRIPTION: Livingston and Seaton both desire the favors of a lady. The lady weds Livingston for her own reasons. Seaton demands a duel. The lady offers to fight him, but Livingston claims it is his right. He is killed. The lady dies of sorrow after seven years
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1878
KEYWORDS: courting love fight death grief mourning marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 262, "Lord Livingston" (1 text)
Roud #3909
File: C262
===
NAME: Lord Lovel [Child 75]
DESCRIPTION: (Lord Lovel) is setting out on a voyage. (Lady Nancy) begs him not to go, but he is determined. Soon after he reaches his destination, he misses Nancy and turns for home. He finds that she has died for love of him. He proceeds to do the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1770 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: separation love death travel
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Hebr),England(All)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES: (39 citations)
Child 75, "Lord Lovel" (11 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 75, "Lord Lovel" (71 versions+3 in addenda)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 139-148, "Lord Lovel" (3 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes); p. 482 (additional notes) {Bronson's #36, #48}
Belden, pp. 52-54, "Lord Lovel"  (1 text plus reference to 5 more; also texts of two Civil War parodies, the first of which, Ga, is "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell")
Randolph 17, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 34-37, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 17A) {Bronson's #38}
Eddy 13, "Lord Lovel" (5 texts plus an excerpt, 4 tunes; the "E" text has its first line from "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)" but is still this song) {Bronson's #30, #46, #59, #68}
Gardner/Chickering 6, "Lord Lovel" (1 text plus mention of 2 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #63}
Flanders/Brown, pp. 215-216, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 148-173, "Lord Lovell" (12 texts plus a fragment, 5 tunes) {L=Bronson's #22}
Linscott, pp. 233-235, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-Ballads 20, "Lord Lovel" (12 texts plus 3 fragments, of which "M" may not be this song; 4 tunes; 21 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #18, #9, #45, #5}
Davis-More 20, pp. 146-151, "Lord Lovel" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
BrownII 21, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Chappell-FSRA 11, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #62}
Hudson 12, pp. 90-91, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 16-17, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 99-102, "Lord Lovell" (2 texts plus a fragment; 2 tunes on pp. 389-390) {Bronson's #8, #25}
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 55-56, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Brewster 12, "Lord Lovel" (7 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #58, #41}
SharpAp 21 "Lord Lovel" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 5 tunes){Bronson's #33, #34, #6, #47, #7}
Sharp-100E 26, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 41-43, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #40, #39}
Leach, pp. 250-252, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 97, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts, but the "B" text is "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate")
OBB 155, "Lord Lovell" (1 text)
FSCatskills 33, "In Search of Silver and Gold" (1 text, 1 tune -- a facsimile of an "improved" version by George K. Hamilton which provides a happy ending for the piece)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 93-95, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 30, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 70, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Lomax-FSNA 209, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 2, pp. 4-6, "Lord Lovel"; pp. 6-7, "Lord Lover" (2 texts)
JHCox 12, "Lord Lovel" (3 text plus mention of two more)
JHCoxIIA, #8A-C, pp. 32-37, "Lord Lovell," "Lord Lovell" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "C" text is "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)") {Bronson's #61}
MacSeegTrav 9, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 38, "Lord Levett" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 44-46, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, plus texts of "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate" and "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell")
Silber-FSWB, p. 178, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
DT 75, LORDLOVL
Roud #48
RECORDINGS:
Winifred Bundy, "Lord Lovel" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Nora Cleary, "Lord Levett" (on IRClare01)
Ethel Findlater, "Lord Lovel[l]" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Tom Lenihan, "Lord Levett" (on IRTLenihan01)
Lucindia Perkins, "Lord Lovell" (on JThomas01)
Frank Proffitt, "Lord Lovel" (on FProffitt01)
Jean Ritchie, "Lord Lovel" (on JRitchie01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lily Lee" (plot)
cf. "Bright Phoebe" (plot)
cf. "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (floating verses)
cf. "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate" (lyrics, form)
cf. "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)" (lyrics, form)
SAME_TUNE:
Sam Cowell (BarryEckstormSmyth p. 147; cf. the notes to "Billy Barlow (II)")
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lord Lovinder
NOTES: Although Child treated this as an entirely serious ballad, Bronson calls it "too too insipid," and believes it survives only because of its tune.
Comic versions are common. Sandy Paton states that Child refused to print a comic text that came to his attention. Cazden et al state that "At least nine of the versions compiled by Bronson may be identified as comic [and we note that many others might be but are fragmentary]"; they find a comic version in America as early as 1836. Numerous other parodies, comic versions, and rewrites are also listed. - RBW
File: C075
===
NAME: Lord Lovell: see Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)
===
NAME: Lord Lover: see Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)
===
NAME: Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight [Child 195]
DESCRIPTION: Lord Maxwell, having had his revenge on the Johnstones and soon to be executed for it, bids farewell to the places and people he has known
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1778 (Percy papers)
KEYWORDS: death execution revenge feud
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1608 - Murder of James Johnstone by Lord Maxwell
1613 - Execution of Maxwell for his crimes
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 195, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (2 texts)
Bronson 195, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (4 versions)
Leach, pp. 533-535, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (1 text)
OBB 151, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (1 text)
Roud #4015
NOTES: The events which led up to the execution of Maxwell are typical of the sort of feuding in which Scottish nobles were constantly engaged, and are detailed by Child. Even for a last goodnight, this song is amazingly frugal of details; the texts in Child say nothing of what Maxwell did, nor even what his fate will be. I was tempted to give it the keyword "nonballad." - RBW
File: C195
===
NAME: Lord o' Aboyne, The: see The Earl of Aboyne [Child 235] (File: C235)
===
NAME: Lord of Lorn and the False Steward, The [Child 271]
DESCRIPTION: The Lord of Lorn, having done well in school, is sent to France to study. His steward abuses him, takes his possessions, and sets him to begging. Eventually the truth is revealed; the Lord regains his property and the Steward is executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: apparently 1580 (stationer's register)
KEYWORDS: nobility trick abuse begging help punishment execution
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 271, "The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward" (2 texts)
Bronson 271, comments only
OBB 76, "The Lord of Lorn" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1523, "It was a worthy Lord of Lorn"
Roud #113
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Greensleeves" (tune)
NOTES: The broadside printing of a song with this title entered into the Stationer's Register in 1580 lists the tune as "Greensleeves." Since the ballad has not been found in tradition, this remains unverified. In any case, given the apparent wild popularity of "Greensleeves" at the time this was published, it is quite possible the printer tried to take advantage of a tune not normal to the ballad ("Lorn" can be sung to "Greensleeves," but only with effort; it is not a good fit).
The first verifiable text is from the Percy folio, though Bronson thinks that comes from a lost broadside.
Child makes a great deal of the romances analogous to this ballad, but does not seem to have noted the significance of the names of the characters; I wonder if there might not be an allegory floating around somewhere in the background. (For the references in what follows, see the Bibliography at the end of this note.)
The story starts with Robert the Bruce (died 1329), the King of Scotland who won the Battle of Bannockburn and re-established Scottish independence. Bruce claimed the throne in 1306 after twenty years of confusion in Scotland (for background on this, see the notes to "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child 58] and "Gude Wallace" [Child 157]). The Scots at the time Bruce claimed the throne were divided into at least four parties: Those who favored the English, those who favored the deposed king John Balliol, those who favored the Bruce -- and those who, while opposed to the English and not enthusiastic about Balliol, were absolutely opposed to the Bruce claims. This included the powerful family of the Comyns, whose leader the Red Comyn Bruce had just slain (Magnusson, p. 166).
Of these four factions, the pro-English party was weak simply because any party associated with the English King Edward I would naturally have had the the independence beaten out of it (Edward was an absolute autocrat), and the Balliol faction was weakened by the fact that their monarch was a rather weak man long gone from Scotland. The anti-Bruce faction, though, was strong, including the MacDougalls. Dougall MacDougall, a supporter of the Comyns (there was a marriage alliance between the familes; Thomson, p. 8), had actually defeated and killed two of Robert Bruce's brothers (Magnusson, p. 171). John MacDougall, Lord of Lorn, twice fought against Robert Bruce (Magnusson, pp. 175-177). In 1308, Bruce drove John MacDougal into exile; they did not return until 1330 (Thomson, p. 11). (It is perhaps little surprise, then, that the Campbell clan first comes to our attention at about this time as supporters of Bruce; Thomson, p. 10, notes that the second known head of the clan, Neil Campbell, married Bruce's sister Mary. Since the MacDougalls had probably been responsible for the death of his father Colin -- Thomson, p. 1 -- the alliance was a natural one.)
After the great Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, of course, Robert Bruce was too firmly established to be pushed aside; he was able to deprive the MacDougalls of much of their property (Prebble, p. 23, observes that Glencoe, later site of a famous massacre, went to the MacDonalds; for the Massacre of Glencoe, see the song of that title). But there was the matter of the succession after Robert Bruce died.
By his first wife, Isabella of Mar, Bruce had only one child, a daughter Marjory/Marjorie. Given her importance for the succession, she needed a husband who had power and respect, so she was married to Walter, the hereditary Steward of Scotland. They had a single child, Robert; the pregnant Marjorie fell from a horse in 1316 (Cook, pp. 107-109) and died giving birth (Magnusson, p. 192, says she died and the child was saved by Caesarian surgery). The boy Robert (died 1390) would eventually become Robert II and ancestor of the Stewarts.
By the time of Marjorie's death Robert the Bruce had remarried, to Elizabeth de Burgh. But she was in English custody from 1306 to 1314; by the time she and Bruce reunited, there was some concern about whether she was even still capable of having children (Magnusson, p. 192). It turned out she was; she bore two daughters, then at last twin sons, David and John (Magnusson, p. 193). John died young, but the living boy would be the future King David (Cook, p. 112). Unfortunately, it was nearly certain that he would be a minor when he came to the throne; although Robert Bruce was in his fifties, he was also ill with a disease which was called (although almost certainly was not) leprosy.
Still, there was no question that David was Robert Bruce's heir, and he duly succeeded at the age of five -- though he would spend little of his life actively ruling Scotland. He began his reign as a minor, was sent to France for seven years (Mackie, p. 86); upon returning home, he went to war with England but was heavily defeated in 1346 at Neville's cross (Mackie, pp. 86-87). He was wounded and captured in the battle, and  remained in English hands for eleven years (Magnusson, p. 204) apart from a little time on parole as he sought to raise a ransom (Magnusson, p. 205).
David was married even before he came to the throne, to Joanna "Make-Peace," the sister of Edward III of England (they had been wed the year before Robert Bruce died, when David was four and Joanna seven; Magnusson, p. 192).
This marriage, however, was childless and "apparently... loveless" (Ashley-Kings, p. 551); she apparently left Scotland, never to return, in 1357 (Boardman, p. 15). David would remarry after Joanna died in 1362, but his second wife (his former mistress, Margaret Drummond, who "was regarded by his nobles as in every way unworthy," according to Mackie, p. 88) could no more produce a child than did Joanna (odds are that the fault was David's, since she had had a son by her first husband; Magnusson, p. 106); they divorced in 1370 (Ashley-Kings, p. 551). Boardman speculates that the divorce was perhaps an attack by David on the Stewarts, since Robert's son and heir John, the future Robert III, was married to a Drummond -- at David's insistence (Magnusson, p. 207). Ashley-Stuart insists that "Robert had been scrupulously faithful to [David]" (p. 27), but the King himself clearly did not think so. David had seemed, toward the end, to be doing all he could to block the Stewart succession: Seeking a third wife (Magnusson, p. 308), plus supporting anti-Stewart nobles (Boardman, pp. 24-25). He had previously tried to bring in the English prince John of Gaunt as an heir in preference to the Stewart (Magnusson, p. 207). But he ran out of time. David died unexpectedly in 1371 while still in his forties.
And suddenly there was a succession question. Robert Steward was the obvious heir, since he was the son of the oldest of Robert Bruce's three daughters, but there were objections. He was eight years older than his nephew David (Boardman, p. 1), and by this time was starting to fail in health; he was known as "Auld Blearie" or "Old Blearie" for his reddened eyes (Fry/Fry, p. 90; Magnusson, pp. 213-214, blames this description on Froissart). Plus he was regarded by some as a traitor (Ashley-Kings, p. 553), or at least someone who was willing to allow the English to control David (Magnusson, p. 204); certainly he had been one of Davis's chief political enemies (Boardman, p. 1). And he had proved himself to be no general (Ashley-Stuart, p. 28).
Eventually Robert II suffered a sort of palace coup which pushed him aside in favor of his son (Magnusson, p. 215). Yet that just made the problem worse, because his sons were of questionable legitimacy. Robert II eventually had to seek a papal legitimation of his children by Elizabeth Mure (Boardman, p. 8). It seems the two were cousins, and they had gotten together in ignorance of this (Mitchison, p. 59; Mackie, p. 94 says that the marriage was made "in good faith"); Mure may also have been previously contracted to another (Cook, p. 135). It may be, in addition, that they had not been formally married (Boardman, p. 8) -- all in all, a lot of barriers to the legitimacy of the children. Robert had later taken a second wife, and had additional sons (Mitchison, p. 59), but were the first brood his legitimate heirs, or were the second bunch, or were they both illegitimate?
If Robert II's claim to the kingship were set aside, or that of his children, then the Stewarts were not the heirs of David; rather, the true heirs of Robert Bruce would be the offspring of his daughters by Elizabeth de Burgh. (Indeed,it appears that some regarded the sisters as David's heirs all along -- Boardman, p. 9. Was this perhaps because they were "born in the purple," after Robert Bruce became king?)
On this line of argument, David's heir was his full sister Margaret rather than the son of his half sister Marjorie; Margaret had a son John who, from the time of his birth in 1346, seems to have been regarded as David's heir (since the children of Robert Stewart were not legitimized by the Pope until later, and Margaret apparently died in bearing the boy). But he died in 1361 (Boardman, pp. 8-9).
Next in line would be the children of Margaret's younger sister Matilda, should she have any. And she did: A daughter Joanna, who married John, Lord of Lorn (Boardman, p. 2). As it turned out, they had no children, and the Lord of Lorn (John MacDougal, the head of Clan Dougal) died in 1388 (Boardman, p. 182) -- but no one could have known that at the time David died.
What's more, the Lords of Lorn (Lorne) had been rivals of the ruling dynasty for many years; Robert the Bruce had attacked the Lorn holding of Dunstaffnage in 1309 (MacLean, p. 41)
There was most definitely rivalry between the branches of the Scottish royal family at this time; while Robert Stewart did manage to ascend as Robert II, Boardman (pp. 42-45) describes what sounds like an abortive coup attempt on behalf of a Douglas. And it apparently took some time before Robert II managed to gain the full support of the nobility. In this period, a claim on behalf of the Lorn faction might have caused a great deal of trouble.
The conclusion is clear: A partisan of the Lords of Lorn might well have called Robert II (or his son Robert III) a "false Steward"; what's more, the Stewarts would set aside the MacDougalls when they had the chance. John MacDougall of Lorn was succeeded as Lord of Lorn by John Steward of Innermeath (died 1421).
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY<<
Ashley-Kings: Mike Ashley, _British Kings and Queens_, Barnes & Noble, 2002 (originally published as _The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens_, 1988)
Ashley-Stuart: Maurice Ashley, _The House of Stuart_, J. M. Dent, 1980
Boardman: Stephen Boardman, _The Early Stewart Kings: Robert II and Robert III, 1371-1406_, Tuckwell Press, 1996
Cook: E. Thornton Cook, _Their Majesties of Scotland_, John Murray, 1928
Fry/Fry: Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, _The History of Scotland_, 1982 (I use the 1995 Barnes & Noble edition)
MacLean: Fitzroy Maclean, _A Concise History of Scotland_, Beekman House, 1970
Mackie: J. D. Mackie, _A History of Scotland_, Pelican, 1964
Magnusson: Magnus Magnusson, _Scotland: The Story of a Nation_, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000
Mitchison: Rosalind Mitchison, _A History of Scotland_, second edition, Methuen, 1982
Prebble: John Prebble, _Glencoe_, Martin Secker & Warburg, 1966 (I use the 1968 Penguin edition)
Thomson: Oliver Thomson, _The Great Feud: The Campbells & The Macdonalds_, Sutton Publishing, 2000 - RBW
File: C271
===
NAME: Lord of Scotland, The: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Lord Orland/Daniel's Wife: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Randal [Child 12]
DESCRIPTION: (Lord Randall) comes home; his mother questions him about his day. He answers each question accurately but incompletely, concluding with a request to rest. At last he reveals that his sweetheart has poisoned him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1787
KEYWORDS: murder lover farewell lastwill food poison
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland(All)) US(All) Ireland Canada(Mar,Que)
REFERENCES: (48 citations)
Child 12, "Lord Randal" (21 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #31, #33}
Bronson 12, "Lord Randal" (103 versions plus 9 in addenda)
Greig #112, pp. 1-2, "Lord Ronald" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan2 209, "Lord Ronald" (10 texts, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #85, B=#29, C=#34, E=#40, H=#43}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 46-72, "Lord Randall" (12 texts plus 3 fragments and 2 quotations from non-Maine sources, 6 tunes plus 1 unrelated item; the "N" text is a rewrite which ends with Randall's accidental death) {Bronson's #42, #37, #16, #72, #23, [], #11; Bronson's #70 is a tune for text "J," which is printed without a melody}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 37-39, "Jimmie Rendal"; pp. 200-201, "Lord Randall" (2 texts)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 197-198, "Mother, Make My Bed Soon" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #30}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 175-207, "Lord Randall" (13 texts plus 6 fragments, 12 tunes) {H=Bronson's #30}
Linscott, pp. 191-193, "Dirante, My Son or Lord Randall" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Davis-Ballads 6, "Lord Randal" (15 texts [two of them in an appendix] plus a fragment; 4 tunes entitled "John Willow, My Son," "Johnny Rillus," Johnny Rilla," "Lord Randal"; 2 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #64, #28, (F version not reproduced), #58}
Belden, pp. 24-28, "Lord Randall" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #41}
Randolph 5, "Johnny Randolph" (4 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #21, B=#26, D=#96}
Eddy 5, "Lord Randal" (4 texts, 3 tunes)  {Bronson's #73, #95, #94}
Gardner/Chickering 3, "The Cup of Cold Poison" (1 text)
Davis-More 7, pp. 51-60, "Lord Randal" (5 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes)
BrownII 6, "Lord Randall" (3 texts)
Chappell-FSRA 4, "Lorendo" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Hudson 4, pp. 69-70, "Lord Randall" (2 texts)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 178-180, "Lord Randall" (1 text, with local title "Randal, My Son")
Brewster 7, "Lord Randall" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 9-11, "Lord Randal" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #48, #86}
Leach, pp. 81-85, "Lord Randal" (4 texts)
OBB 66, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 178, "Lord Randall" (3 texts)
Warner 107, "Lord Randall"; 108, "Jimmy Ransome" (2 texts, 1 tune)
SharpAp 7 "Lord Randal" (13 texts, 13 tunes) {Bronson's #13, #14, #17, #74, #3, #56, #47, #53, #54, #49, #63, #68, #62}
Sharp-100E 18, "Lord Rendal" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #90}
Niles 9, "Lord Randall" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gummere, pp. 168+336-337, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 7, "John Randolph (Lord Randal)" (1 text, 1 tune -- an expanded composite version) {Bronson's #53}
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 50-51, "Lord Randal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 23-24, "Lord Ronald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 34, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
JHCox 4, "Lord Randall" (6 texts plus mention of 6 more)
JHCoxIIA, #3, pp. 14-15, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Ord, pp. 458-459, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 1, p. 3, "Johnny Randall"; p. 4, "Jimmy Randolph" (2 texts)
MacSeegTrav 4, "Lord Randall" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Opie-Oxford2 44, "Where have you been today, Billy, my son" (3 texts) 
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #287, pp. 167-168, "(Where have you been today, Billy, my son)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 199, "The Wee Croodin Doo" (1 text)
TBB 11, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
SHenry H814, p. 415, "Lord Ronald" (1 text, 1 tune, incorrectly labelled "Child 92")
Darling-NAS, pp. 43-44, "Lord Randall"; "Johnny Randall" (2 texts)
Silber-FSWB, p. 346, "Lord Randall" (1 text)
DT 12, LORDRAN1* LORDRNLD* EELHENRY* EELHENR2
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #352, p. 485, "Lord Ronald, my son--" (1 short text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 30-31, "Henry, My Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10
RECORDINGS:
Grace Carr, "Henry, My Son" (on Saskatch01)
Sara Cleveland, "My Bonny Bon Boy" (on SCleveland01)
Mary Delaney, "Buried in Kilkenny" (on Voice17)
Em & Doreen Elliott, "Henry, My Son" (on Elliotts01)
Pete Elliott, "Henry, My Son" (on Elliotts01)
Ewan MacColl, "Lord Randal" (on ESFB1, ESFB2)
John MacDonald, "Lord Ronald" (on Voice03)
Lawrence Older,  "Johnny Randall" (on LOlder01)
Paddy Reilly, "Buried in Kilkenny" (on IRTravellers01)
Jean Ritchie, "Lord Randall" (on JRitchie02)
Jeannie Robertson, Elizabeth Cronin, Thomas Moran, Colm McDonough, Eirlys & Eddis Thomas [composite] "Lord Randal" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) {cf. Bronson's #43.2 in addenda}
Pete Seeger, "Lord Randall" (on PeteSeeger25)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy Boy"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Jimmy Randolph
Jimmy Randal
Bonnie Wee Croodlin Doo
Tiranti, My Love
Henry, My Son
Willie Ransom
Oh Mak' My Bed Easy
NOTES: A few versions, such as that recorded by Lawrence Older, make Randall's wife, rather than his sweetheart, his murderer. Wonder if she found out about that other girl he was fooling around with. - RBW
And in Grace Carr's version, it's his father who poisons him. It's worth noting that the title "Henry, My Son" almost inevitably denotes a parody version. - PJS
I've seen several sources (notably Davis) mention that John Randolph of Virginia knew the song which sometimes bears his name. The text Randolph cited appears, however, to have been "Wheel of Fortune" or something similar.
Barry et al claim "It is reasonably safe to assert that, of all the English ballads, 'Lord Randall' holds in the United States the leading position, as regards the extent of purely traditional currency. 'Barbara Allen' and 'Lord Thomas' are, no doubt, known to more folk-singers, yet it cannot be said that their popularity is due solely to tradition, since both have been many times reprinted in pocket songsters. On the other hand, we know of no American broadside or songster text of 'Lord Randall.'" - RBW
File: C012
===
NAME: Lord Rendal: see Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)
===
NAME: Lord Robert: see Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)
===
NAME: Lord Ronald: see Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)
===
NAME: Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie [Child 239]
DESCRIPTION: Jeanie Gordon loves (Auch)anachie, but her father would have her wed Lord Saltoun, who is old but wealthy. The wedding is carried out despite her wishes. She faints and dies. Auchanachie arrives the next day, learns of her death, and dies himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1824 (Maidment)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Jeanie Gordon loves (Auch)anachie, but her father would have her wed Lord Saltoun, who is old but wealthy. The wedding is carried out despite her wishes. The servants cut her out of her gown so that Saltoun may bed her. She faints and dies. Auchanachie arrives the next day, learns of her death, and dies himself.
KEYWORDS: wedding separation age love death
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 239, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (2 texts)
Bronson 239, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 239-597, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (1 text)
DT 239, ANGORDON*
Roud #102
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Doyle [Laws M2]" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Annachie
Annachie Gordon
NOTES: Possibly related to the Swedish ballad "Stolt Ingrid [Proud Ingrid]"? - PJS
File: C239
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73]
DESCRIPTION: (Lord Thomas) asks his mother to help him decide between (Fair Annet) and the "Brown Girl." The mother prefers the wealthy Brown Girl. Thomas consents, inviting Annet to the wedding, where the jealous brown girl stabs her; (Thomas kills her and himself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1677 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(120b))
KEYWORDS: marriage poverty death courting jealousy murder suicide wedding
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(All)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (56 citations)
Child 73, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (10 texts)
Bronson 73, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (147 versions+4 in addenda, though 2 versions are relegated to an appendix for no evident reason; many of the other texts are also fragmentary and might belong elsewhere)
Greig #108, pp. 1-2, "Sweet Willie and Fair Annie"; Greig #124, pp. 1-2, "Sweet Willie and Fair Annie" (3 texts) 
GreigDuncan2 212, "Sweet Willie and Fair Annie" (5 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #142, C=#129}
Leather, pp. 200-202, "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor" (1 slightly compoosite text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 128-134, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #110}
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 82-85, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor"; pp. 234-238, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (2 texts)
Belden, pp. 37-48, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (3 full texts, fragments of 4 others, 1 tune, and listing of 5 unprinted versions) {Bronson's #109}
Randolph 15, "The Brown Girl" (8 texts plus 2 fragments, 5 tunes) {A=Bronson's #51, F=#147, G=#4, H=#124, J=#26}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 31-34, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 15H) {Bronson's #124}
Eddy 11, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 1 tune) {Bronson's #140}
Flanders/Brown, pp. 209-213, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #97}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 89-121, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (10 texts plus two fragments, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #97, F=#98}
Gardner/Chickering 4, "Lord Thomas" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #54, #100}
Davis-Ballads 18, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (17 texts plus a fragment, 7 tunes entitled "Lord Thomas and Fair Elenor," "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor," "Fair Ellen," "Lord Thomas and the Brown Girl," "The Brown Girl, or Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender," "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor," "Fair Ellender, or Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor"; 17 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #31, #81, #120, #36, #37, #60, #144}  
Davis-More 18, pp. 123-137, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (6 texts plus some excerpts, 5 tunes)
BrownII 19, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (4 texts plus 6 excerpts and mention of 4 more)
Chappell-FSRA 9, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen" (1 text)
Hudson 10, pp. 78-87, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (5 texts)
Fuson, pp. 49-51, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 34-36, "Lord Thomas"; pp. 115-116, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 41-44, "The Brown Girl" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 105-114, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet," with individual titles "The Brown Girl," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen,"  "Lord Thomas,"Lord Thomas," "Fair Ellender," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar" (5 texts plus a fragment; the "A" text has lost the ending; 4 tunes on pp. 391-393) {Bronson's #74, #14, #73, #57}
Brewster 10, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (6 text plus 2 fragments)
SharpAp 19 "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (8 texts plus 20 fragments, 31 tunes){Sharp's A=Bronson's #103, Aa=#38, B=#,122 Bb=#35, C=#104, Cc=#32, D=#102, Dd=#6, E=#5, Ee=#71, F=#43, G=#101, H=#60, I=#96, J=#117, K=#119, L=#15, M=#145, N=#134, O=#133, P=#3, Q=#42, R=#127, S=#130, T=#46, U=#47, V=#72, W=#88, X=#89, Y=#92, Z=#91}
Sharp-100E 28, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #99}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 40-41, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #136}
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 9-10, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 4, "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #34}
Greenleaf/Mansfield 8, "Lord Thomas" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 617-619, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 6, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text); "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #128}
Leach, pp. 239-246, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (3 texts plus a translated Danish text)
OBB 54, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 84, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 14, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendor (or, The Brown Bride)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #132}
Warner 140, "Lord Thomas" (1 text+1 fragment, 2 tunes)
PBB 39, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 137-139, "Three Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 28, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Gummere, pp. 231-235+353, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 15, "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinore" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #145}
Sandburg, pp. 156-157, "The Brown Girl or Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #85}
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 62-63, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #76}
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 17-20, "[Fair Ellender]" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #126; note that the tune is slightly different, and the text noticeably different, from the Ritchie-Southern version}
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 60-61, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (1 text, 1 tune)  {note that the tune is slightly different, and the text noticeably different, from the Ritchie-SingFam version}
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 57, "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 122, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 12, pp. 27-31, "Lord Thomas" (1 text)
JHCox 10, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (9 texts plus mention of 2 more)
TBB 15, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 61-65, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 46-47, "Three Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 222, "Fair Ellender" (1 text)
BBI, ZN173, "Amongst the Forresters of old"; ZN1719, "Lord Thomas he was a bold Forrester"
DT 73, BROWNGRL BRWNGRL2*
Roud #4
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar" (AAFS 33) {Bronson's #21, but as "The Brown Girl"}; "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (on Barker01)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annie" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
Jessie Murray, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen (Lord Thomas and Fair Annet)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Jean Ritchie, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (on JRitchie01) {cf. Bronson's #126}
Ritchie Family, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (on Ritchie03) {cf. Bronson's #126}
Mike Seeger, "Lord Thomas" (on MSeeger01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(120b), "A Tragical Story of lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" ("Lord Thomas he was a bold forrester"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright and J. Clarke (London), 1677; also Douce Ballads 3(58b), "A Tragical Ballad on the Unfortunate Love of Ld Thomas and Fair Eleanor"; Harding B 3(93), Douce Ballads 4(36), Harding B 3(94), Harding B 3(91), Harding B 3(92), Johnson Ballads 385, Johnson Ballads 386, Harding B 11(2208), "A Tragical Ballad of the Unfortunate Love's of Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor"; Harding B 11(2209), 2806 c.16(298), Harding B 37(38), "Lord Thomas and fair Eleanor"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Thomas o Yonderdale" [Child 253] (plot)
cf. "The Hunting of the Cheviot" [Child 162] (tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen
Thomas and Ellen
The Nut-Brown Maid
NOTES: According to Bertrand Bronson, this is second only to Barbara Allen in popularity among the Child ballads. He notes that the Scottish tunes, though they are few, seem related to "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight," also among the most popular of the ballads.
Grieg/Keith see this as much the same ballad as Child #74, and Bronson sees similarities in the tunes, but concludes that the melodies, like the texts, justify separating them. - RBW
[Lloyd dates this to no later than the] late 17th century (broadside in reign of Charles II). 
[Silber & Silber mis-identify] this as Child 295, which is actually "Brown Girl (I)." - PJS
The broadside Lloyd mentions appears to be mentioned also by Belden; he believes that it is the ancestor of all American versions, plus most recent British versions. But he believes the original was Scottish, and preceded the broadside. - RBW
A number of the Bodleian broadsides have as subtitle "with the downfall of the brown girl." - BS
File: C073
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor: see Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor: see Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen: see Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar: see Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret [Child 260]
DESCRIPTION: Thomas, goes hunting and is pursued by (Margaret), whom he cast aside. He orders that she be chased far from him. She takes refuge with and marries (someone). Later, Thomas arrives at her door as a beggar. She poisons him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1825
KEYWORDS: abandonment hunting punishment poison poverty begging
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 260, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (2 texts)
Bronson 260, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 631-632, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Roud #109
File: C260
===
NAME: Lord Thomas of Winesberry: see Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)
===
NAME: Lord Thomas Stuart [Child 259]
DESCRIPTION: Thomas Stuart gives his lady wide lands as a gift. She desires to see them. They ride out, but Thomas is stricken with pain. He bids her ride on; he himself returns home and dies. She dreams a dreadful dream, returns home, and realizes he is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: love home courting disease death dream
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 259, "Lord Thomas Stuart" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 629-630, "Lord Thomas Stuart" (1 text)
Roud #4024
File: C259
===
NAME: Lord Valley: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Waterford: see Lord Wathe'ford (File: OLcM060A)
===
NAME: Lord Wathe'ford
DESCRIPTION: Lord Wathe'ford is dead. "The tyrant" choked wells and evicted farmers. He'll not be with common sinners in Hell but will share a private grate with his father. In Hell he meets Queen Bess, and his bailiff, and the Devil himself who is happy to see him.
AUTHOR: Michael A. Moran? (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1906 (ballad sheet, according to OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: death humorous political Devil Ireland Hell nobility landlord
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 60A, "Lord Wathe'ford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 30-31, "Lord Waterford" (1 text)
Roud #6529
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (tune and repeated lines)
NOTES: This is a rather odd piece. Landlords in Ireland of course frequently evicted tenants, and they had a general policy of not improving properties; they wanted the Irish Catholic farmers too poor to represent a threat. But not in Waterford. One of the earliest areas of English settlement, it earned a great deal of Royal favor, was relatively prosperous, and was generally one of the most loyal areas of the country. Perhaps this is a reference to some of Lord Waterford's territories outside his home county? - RBW
File: OLcM060A
===
NAME: Lord Wetram: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord William and Lady Margaret: see Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)
===
NAME: Lord William, or, Lord Lundy [Child 254]
DESCRIPTION: (Lord William) and the bailiff's daughter fall in love (while studying abroad). Her father calls her home to marry a nobleman. She sends a message by bird to Willie. Willie arrives at the wedding, forcing the groom aside and marrying the girl himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1845 (Dixon)
KEYWORDS: love marriage nobility wedding violence father
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 254, "Lord William, or, Lord Lundy" (3 texts)
Bronson 254, "Lord William, or, Lord Lundy" (1 version)
Dixon IX, pp. 57-59, "Lord William" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 621-623, "Lord William, or, Lord Lundy" (1 text)
Roud #106
File: C254
===
NAME: Lord William's Death: see Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)
===
NAME: Lord Willoughby
DESCRIPTION: "The fifteenth day of July... A famous fight in Flanders was foughten in the field... But the bravest man in battel Was brave Lord Willoughby." In a fierce contest with the Spanish, Willoughby's bravery encourages the English to victory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy); tune known from 1603 (Robinson's "Schoole of Musick")
KEYWORDS: battle nobility soldier
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1587 - Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, takes command of the English forces in the Netherlands
1601 - Death of Willoughby
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 238-241, "Brave Lord Willoughbey" (1 text)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, p. 152, "Lord Willoughby, or Lord Willoughby's March, or Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN895, "The fifteenth day of July"
ST Perc2238 (Full)
SAME_TUNE:
Give ear you lusty Gallants/A famous Sea-fight. Hollander..Spaniard..September 1639. (BBI ZN969)
Now comfortable Tydings is come unto England/Joyfull News for England [Peace.. April 6, 1654] (BBI ZN3422)
NOTES: This is probably just another broadside that "made it big" without entering oral tradition, but the number of references seemed sufficient for me to include it in the Index. (Note the regular use of the tune in broadsides).
Lord Willoughby was a famous swordsman, and performed well in the Netherlands, but this report of his exploits against the Spanish is certainly blown out of proportion.
The Willoughbys had a strong martial record. The first one I've heard of was a baron who helped lead an English army to France in 1423; he successfully commanded a wing of the army in the British victor at Cravant in that year (see Raymond Reagan Butler, _Is Paris Lost? The English Occupation 1422-1436_, Spellmount, 2003, pp. 23-24.) There was a later Willoughby who was governor of Barbados in the 1660s, but he died at sea in a hurricane during a war with the French. - RBW
File: Perc2238
===
NAME: Lord, I Never Will Come Back Here No Mo'
DESCRIPTION: "Some o' dese days about twelve o'clock, Dis old worl's a gwi' reel and rock. Lawd, I neber will come back here no more. No mo' my Lawd (x2), I neber come back here no mo'." "Way down about Arkansas, De niggers ain't a-arguin' a thing but wa'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922
KEYWORDS: religious war nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 349, "Lord, I Never Will Come Back Here No Mo'" (1 text)
Roud #11738
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (floating lyrics)
File: Br3349
===
NAME: Lord, Make Me More Holy: see Lord, Make Me More Patient (File: AWG052B)
===
NAME: Lord, Make Me More Patient
DESCRIPTION: "Lord, make me more patient (x3), Until we meet again. Patient, patient, patient, Until we meet again." Repeat with other virtues: "Lord, make me more holy...." "Make me more righteous." "More peaceful."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad virtue
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 52, "Lord, Make Me More Patient" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12012 and 12277
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lord, Make Me More Holy
Make Me More Holy
File: AWG052B
===
NAME: Lord, Remember Me
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Deat' he is a little man, And he goes from do' to do', He killed some souls and he wounded some...." "Do, Lord, remember me (x2), I cry to the Lord as the year roll around...." "I want to die like-a Jesus die, And he die with a free good will...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: death religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 12, "Lord, Remember Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 915-916, "Lord, Remember Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11849
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Strothers & Joe Lee, "Do, Lord, Remember Me" (AFS 746 B2, 1936; on LC10)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "Do Lord, Remember Me," a separate song. - PJS
File: BAF915
===
NAME: Lords of Creation, The
DESCRIPTION: "Ye lords of creation, me you are called, You think to rule the whole... Now did not Adam, the very first man, The very first woman obey?" Though men are stronger, women control them with smiles and tears, and always shall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1907 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: feminist nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Belden, pp. 432-433, "The Lords of Creation" (1 text)
BrownIII 308, "The Lords of Creation" (1 text)
Roud #7837
NOTES: I've tagged this with the keyword "feminist," but I'm not sure it applies; the women do not earn control based on their skills but their wheedling.
The whole argument is Biblical (or at least part of the Protestant apocrypha, and included in an appendix to the Catholic bible): See the argument of Zerubbabel that "women are strongest" in 1 Esdras 3:12, 4:13-32.
The notes in Brown call it an "amusing  quip." Which perhaps shows more mostly how humor depends on circumstances -- I find it degrading and disgusting. - RBW
File: Beld432
===
NAME: Lorena
DESCRIPTION: "The years creep slowly by, Lorena; The snow is on the grass again." The singer recalls his early years with Lorena, and remembers how much he loved her. He tells her that he still loves her as truly
AUTHOR: Words: H.D.L. Webster/Music: J.P. Webster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1857
KEYWORDS: love age
FOUND_IN: US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Belden, p. 222, "Lorena" (1 text)
Randolph 757, "Lorena and Paul Vane" (2 texts, 2 tunes, of which the first is "Lorena' and the second "Lorena's Answer")
Logsdon 24, pp. 249-153, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 122-125, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, pp. 58-59, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, pp. 90-91, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-CivWar, p. 228, "Lorena" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 255, "Lorena" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 481, "Lorena" (source notes only)
DT, LORENNA*
ST R757 (Full)
Roud #4246
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "Lorena" (Columbia 15550-D, 1930)
Smyth County Ramblers, "Way Down in Alabama" (Victor 40144, 1928; on LostProv1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lorena's Answer (Paul Vane)"
NOTES: The most popular sentimental song of the Civil War. Ironically, in the original Henry deLafayette Webster poem, the girl was Bertha.
To add to the name confusion, Logsdon reports that Henry Webster had been deeply in love with a girl named Ella. Family opposition prevented their marriage, but Webster was apparently still carrying a torch when he wrote this, though he changed the name to make it seem less personal.
But when Joseph Philbrick Webster (no relation to H. Webster) set the poem to music, he needed a three-syllable name, and so "Lorena" was born. The name is said to be a combination of "Bertha" and Edgar Allan Poe's "lost Lenore"; the name was not in use until the Websters produced their song.- RBW
File: R757
===
NAME: Lorena Bold Crew, The: see The Bold Princess Royal [Laws K29] (File: LK29)
===
NAME: Lorena's Answer (Paul Vane)
DESCRIPTION: Lorena answers Paul that, though the years have passed and the winter come, "There's no snow upon the heart." She expects to meet him in heaven.
AUTHOR: Words: H.D.L. Webster/Music: J.P. Webster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1863
KEYWORDS: love age
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 757, "Lorena and Paul Vane" (2 texts, 2 tunes, of which the first is "Lorena" and the second "Lorena's Answer")
Roud #4246
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lorena"
NOTES: The song "Lorena's Answer" was an attempt by Webster and Webster to cash in on the success of their earlier hit "Lorena." It didn't do nearly as well. The reason is probably obvious. If "Lorena" is saccharine, "Lorena's Answer" is sugar-coated extra-strength saccharine. It's more than I can take. - RBW
File: R757A
===
NAME: Lorendo: see Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)
===
NAME: Loss of Seven Clergymen
DESCRIPTION: Concerning the death of seven priests, who are "drowned all in Nazen Lake."  The seven relax by going fishing. A storm blows up. Although certain of the boat's crew survive, the priests -- three French and four Irish -- die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: clergy death ship drowning storm
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H742, pp. 104-105, "Loss of Seven Clergymen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3570
File: HHH742
===
NAME: Loss of the "Ellen Munn," The
DESCRIPTION: On Christmas Day the Ellen Munn is on its way to Goose Bay for repairs when it sinks in the weak ice. The children are carried to dry ground. A salvage operation follows and the song ends with a warning about weak ice and sailing on Christmas Day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster rescue
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Doyle2, p. 6, "The Loss of the 'Ellen Munn'"  (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 10, "The Loss of the 'Ellen Munn'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 83-84, "The Loss of the Ellen Munn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4372
NOTES: King's Cove is in Bonavista Bay on the east coast of Newfoundland. I found a Newman's Cove instead of Newman's Sound as mentioned in the song in the same area. Goose Bay is in Labrador.  - SH
File: Doy06
===
NAME: Loss of the Albion, The [Laws D2]
DESCRIPTION: The Albion [sailing from New York to Liverpool] is caught in a storm which washes captain and many hands overboard. The ship is finally wrecked upon the [Irish] rocks; only one man survives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(236))
KEYWORDS: ship sea wreck death storm
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: April 22, 1822? - Wreck of the Albion
FOUND_IN: US(MA,NE,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws D2, "The Loss of the Albion"
Ranson, p. 101, "The Loss of the Albion" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 30, "Loss of the Albion" (1 short text)
DT 609, ALBION LOSSALBN
Roud #2228
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(235), "The Loss of the Albion," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 c.17(236); c. 2806 c.17(237), R. Peach (Birmingham), 1855-1875
LOCSinging, as108080, "Loss of the Ship Albion", L. Deming (Boston), 19C
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cedar Grove" [Laws D18]
NOTES: The date of this event is somewhat uncertain. Eckstorm, cited by Laws, gives the date as April 22, 1822. Craig Brown, ed., _The Illustrated History of Canada_, states that a ship Albion was wrecked November 1819. (It also shows a poster advertising, in English and Welsh, for migrants to go to America. The name of the _Albion_ has been crossed out and another name listed. Not the most encouraging advertising).
Plus Bennett Schwartz sent in this report, "April 1, 1822: '... wrecked about a mile west of the Old Head of Kinsale ... struck ... rocks under 60 foot cliffs'; at least one survivor (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v2, p. 119; more details at v1, p. 116)."
In addition, Terence Grocott's _Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras_ has a report from February 6, 1810, from the Shaw, which describes a ship _Albion_, sailing from New Brunswick, which had encountered a storm and lost her masts some stores; 10 of 13 crew apparently starved or died of dehydration.
There was also an _Albion_ wrecked in 1797, though without loss of life.
Not a very well-omened ship name! - RBW
File: LD02
===
NAME: Loss of the Amphitrite, The [Laws K4]
DESCRIPTION: The Amphitrite leaves port, bound for Australia. Two days out she runs aground and sinks, killing all the passengers and most of the crew. The singer and two others survive by clinging to a spar (though one of them dies later)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cox; there are older, undated broadsides)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1833 - The Amphitrite, carrying female convicts to Australia, runs aground near Boulogne; only three sailors are saved
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws K4, "The Loss of the Amphitrite"
JHCox 87, "The Anford-Wright" (1 text)
DT 740, AMPHITRI
Roud #301
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1947, "Loss of the Amphitrite," W & T Fordice (New astle), c. 1840; also Firth c.12(78), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; Firth c.13(277), J. Forth (Pocklington),  no date; Johnson Ballads 1947, "Loss of the Amphitrite"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rounding the Horn" (subject)
NOTES: For an account of the accident see broadside NLScotland, F.3.a.13(126), "Horrible Shipwreck !," Menzies (Lawnmarket), 1833 ("Taken from this day's Observer. Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1st Sep. 1833"). - BS
Cox also gives a contemporary description of the storm in which the _Amphitrite_ sank.
According to Hudson and Nicholls, _Tragedy on the High Seas_, much of the fault belongs to the captain. Undermanned, and overcrowded with 136 people aboard, she ran into a severe storm, and the captain ran her aground but would not let anyone take to the boats; she had convicts aboard and he didn't want them getting loose. The ship eventually broke up, and only three survived. - RBW
File: LK04
===
NAME: Loss of the Antelope, The
DESCRIPTION: The Antelope sails from Chicago; on the second day out a gale arises. The cook, in the fore-rigging, freezes to death; the ship springs a leak and is wrecked. The captain tries to save his brother, but drowns; all but the singer are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (collected from various informants by Walton)
KEYWORDS: death drowning ship shore work disaster storm wreck brother cook sailor worker
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: c. 1870: Antelope wrecked on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, probably near Point Betsey?
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 202-205, "The Shores of Michigan (The Antelope)" (1 composite text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3840
RECORDINGS:
C. H. J. Snider, "The Loss of the 'Antelope'" (on GreatLakes1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" [Laws C1] (tune)
NOTES: The relevant section of Bruce D. Berman's _Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks_ (Mariner's Press, 1972) lists *no* ships named _Antelope_ were wrecked on the Great Lakes! 
In this case, Berman is certainly wrong, since Julius F. Wolff, Jr., _Lake Superior Shipwrecks_, (Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., Duluth, 1990) lists two _Antelopes_ lost on Lake Superior alone. In 1879, a tug with that name was wrecked, probably near Marquette. A better candidate for this song would be the 187 foot schooner _Antelope_, built in 1861. On October 7, 1897, while carrying coal from Sandusky to Ashland, Wisconsin, she started taking on water (the guess is the seams of the old ship started to come apart). It was clear she would not survive, so the _Henry W. Sibley_, which was towing her, took off her crew.
William A. Ratigan's _Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals_ (revised edition, Eerdmans, 1977) on p. 235 quotes a version of this song which seems to be set on Lake Superior (as opposed to Lake Michigan in the Snyder and Walton version) and on p. 236 says that there were 13 ships named _Antelope_ on the Great Lakes, with two of them (both schooners) lost in 1894. He therefore thinks the song should be associated with one of the 1894 wrecks.
Walton/Grimm/Murdock adds even more to the confusion. Their version, extremely composite (at least four informants contributed parts) is clearly a Lake Michigan song (the ship sets out from Chicago). They do not try to locate the relevant _Antelope_. It appears to me that at least part of their version is based on "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)."
Yet one of their verses is quite similar to Ratigan's fragment. They even quote that same text as a fragment of a different song from Lake Superior!
My best guess is that, if there are in fact two songs, Walton accidentally combined verses from both. But I suspect this is really one song, which was perhaps localized to various events. Whether it was inspired by an actual _Antelope_ is questionable.
One of Walton's informants claimed that his father, Thomas Peckham, wrote the song. I suspect that, as with so many traditional singers, this means "modified and perhaps wrote down."
In trying to untangle the confusion, I note that, while ice storms occur on all the Great Lakes, they are much more likely on Lake Superior than on Lake Michigan, making it a better candidate for the disaster. It is most unfortunate that we don't have more versions. - RBW
File: RcLoOTAn
===
NAME: Loss of the Atlantic (I), The
DESCRIPTION: "The loss of the Atlantic upon the ocean wave Where fully seven hundred souls met with a watery grave." Bound for New York, the captain "changed his course for Halifax which proved our overthrow.... she ran upon a rock"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death drowning wreck storm
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 931-932, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3822
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (II)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (III)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (IV)
cf. "Never Go Back on the Poor"
NOTES: "The Atlantic was a famous four-masted iron vessel of the White Star fleet wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia on March 31 and April 1 of 1873....[T]he records show a loss of 535" (Peacock). The Northern Shipwrecks database says the passengers were immigrants and 981 people were on board. - BS
Lincoln P. Paine's _Ships of the World_  notes that the _Atlantic_ was still quite new at the time of her disaster (completed 1871). David Ritchie, _Shipwrecks: An Encyclopedia of the World's Worst Disasters at Sea_ 1996 (I use the 1999 Checkmark edition), p. 15, says that she had four masts and four 150 horsepower engines, giving her a speed of 12 knots. She was originally intended to sail to Chile, but the new White Star Line abandoned the idea quickly, and she never sailed that route. The fatal voyage was only her nineteenth.
The _Atlantic_, according to John Malcolm Brinnin, _The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic_ (1986), p. 249, sailed from Liverpool to New York (via Queenstown) on March 20, 1873. He reports 942 people aboard (as we shall see, this figure is subject to question) and enough coal to last 15 days. She also reportedly had a "disorderly and infamous" crew and many officers who were not attentive to their tasks (Brinnin, p. 250). After 11 days of storms, her coal was almost used up, and she was an estimated 400 miles from New York. The distance to Halifax was less than half that.
There seems to be some dispute about the captain's name. Ritchie, p. 15, says he was James A. Williams, and that the fatal voyage was his second with the _Atlantic_. Paine calls him John A. Williams. Brinnin's index lists himas James Agnew Williams.
Whatever his Christian name, Paine reports that Captain Williams's decision to make for Halifax conformed to company regulations: The ship had burned too much coal to continue her run (Ritchie says she was down to 127 tones, and would need at least 130 to finish her voyage). Plus the barometer was falling.
But her navigation was imperfect; Ritchie thinks that, in the bad weather, Captain Williams misidentified a lighthouse and as a result misdirected the ship. He did not order the crew to take soundings. And, having set a course, he went to bed.
Because of the navigation error, the _Atlantic_, instead of reaching Halifax, hit the coast some 20 miles from that port.
The ship went aground around 3:00 a.m. on Marr's Island (Meagher's Head, on Point Prospect) east of Halifax. She began to settle, but the real disaster came when one of her boilers blew up, causing her to roll over, casting many into the sea, and sink unusually quickly (Ritchie, p. 15). 
The crew began rescue operations, but these went slowly because little could be done except to haul passengers one at a time to a rock near the ship). Perhaps two hours later, a few small boats arrived. But there were still many passengers to be saved when more boilers blew up around 7:00 a.m. (Ritchie, p. 16).
About 250 people were saved -- all male and all but one an adult. The losses are somewhat uncertain; Paine lists as the extremes 454 lost out of 981 aboard to 560 of 931 aboard; Brinnin's figure is that 481 died. Ritchie, p. 15, also says that 481 died out of 931. Diana Preston, in _Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy_ (Walker, 2002; I use the 2003 Berkeley edition), p. 56, says that over 500 were lost in this first great tragedy of the steam liner trade.
Preston quotes a contemporary account: "A large mass of something drifted past the ship on the top of the waves, and then it was lost to view in the trough of the sea. As it passed by a moan -- it must have been a shriek but the tempest dulled the sound -- seemed to surge up from the mass, which extended over fifty yards of water: it was the women. The sea swept them out of the steerage, and with their children, to the number of 200 or 300, they drifted thus into eternity."
Captain Williams -- who had been asleep at the time of the wreck; he had given orders to be awakened, but the orders were not obeyed (Brinnin, p. 251) -- was found guilty of negligence, but his license was suspended for only two years based on his gallant conduct during the rescue operations (Brinnin, p. 253).
Incidentally, the _Atlantic_ of 1873 should not be confused with another _Atlantic_, the Collins Line steamer launched in 1849. This ship had a major mechanical breakdown in 1851, and was for a time thought to have vanished, but made it home under sail after much delay (Brinnin, pp. 182-184. The second _Atlantic_ was not exactly a replacement for the first, but the decommissioning of the earlier ship after the American Civil War made the name "available" for the new liner.
There was also a paddleboat named _Atlantic_ which collided with the _Ogdensburg_ on Lake Erie in 1852, and sank with the loss of some 250 lives (she was crowded with immigrants, and no one knows exactly how many died; for background, see Mark Bourrie, _Many a Midnight Ship_, University of Michigan Press, 2005, pp. 77-83).
Despite this tragedy, the period after the sinking of the _Atlantic_ was the glory time for the transatlantic steamers, and it was also a relatively safe period. There would not be another disaster for almost forty years, when a certain ship called the _Titanic_ set out on her maiden run. She too, we note, was a White Star liner.  - RBW
For two different 1873 broadsides on the same subject see: 
Bodleian, Harding B 13(234), "Verses on the Wreck of the Atlantic" ("Oh, pray give attention and listen to me "), unknown, 1873 [text refers to the wreck as having occurred after "the steamer Atlantic ... left Liverpool upon the 20th ult"]. 
Bodleian, Firth c.26(289), "Lines on the loss of the 'Atlantic'" ("Oh! listen you wives and mothers"), unknown, 1873 [text refers to a "List of the passengers, from the Manchester Courier, April 4th, 1873"] - BS
Note that Roud lumps all the _Atlantic_ songs, but their form shows that they are distinct. - RBW
File: Pea931
===
NAME: Loss of the Atlantic (II), The
DESCRIPTION: "Of the gallant ship Atlantic Wrecked on Nova Scotia's shore." "The captain... heeded not that rocky coast That he was drawing near"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: death drowning wreck storm
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 933-935, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 88, "The Wreck of the Atlantic" (1 text)
Roud #3822
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (III)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (IV)
NOTES: For extensive historical notes on the _Atlantic_ wreck, see the notes to "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I). - RBW
File: Pea933
===
NAME: Loss of the Atlantic (III), The
DESCRIPTION: Atlantic sails from Liverpool for Halifax with a crew of 60 and 900 passengers. It strikes a rock at night. The captain is faulted: "he cared not for our safety as you may plainly see He went to bed and left the ship to prove our destiny." All are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1946 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 88-89, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3822
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (II)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (IV)
NOTES: For extensive historical notes on the _Atlantic_ wreck, see the notes to "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I). Observe that there were in fact hundreds of survivors of the wreck. - RBW
File: Ran088
===
NAME: Loss of the Atlantic (IV), The
DESCRIPTION: Atlantic stops at Queenstown "to bring Erin's sons and daughters to wild Amerikay." One night "and they all in bed, When our gallant ship she struck a rock at a place called The Major's Head ... seven hundred souls were buried in the main"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 89-90, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text)
Roud #3822
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (II)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (III)
NOTES: For extensive historical notes on the _Atlantic_ wreck, see the notes to "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I). Observe that this version exaggerates the losses. - RBW
File: Ran089
===
NAME: Loss of the Barbara and Ronnie, The
DESCRIPTION: "In the spring of fifty-one" Walter Bond commands the "Barbara Ann Ronney from Petites in Newfoundland." Sailing home near Christmas they are caught and sank with a crew of five sharemen when "on the eighteenth of December the winter hurricane blew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death drowning ship sea storm wreck moniker
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 937-938, "The Loss of the Barbara Ann Ronney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9813
NOTES: The _Barbara and Ronnie_ was missing and presumed sunk in Glace Bay in the Gulf of St Lawrence December 18, 1951 (Northern Shipwrecks Database). - BS
File: Pea937
===
NAME: Loss of the Barbara Ann Ronney, The: see The Loss of the Barbara and Ronnie (File: Pea937)
===
NAME: Loss of the Bruce, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Bruce was bound for Louisburg, the night being dark and drear ... Captain Drake stood on the bridge ... the Bruce with mail and passengers she ran upon a reef." All except "young Pike" are saved.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck rescue
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 939-940, "The Loss of the Bruce" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9937
NOTES: The _Bruce_ was stranded on Port Nova Reef off Cape Breton Point and crushed in the ice on March 24, 1911 going from Port aux Basques, Newfoundland to Louisbourg Nova Scotia,  A steamship ferry, it had 123 passengers (Northern Shipwrecks Database). - BS
File: Pea939
===
NAME: Loss of the Cedar Grove, The: see The Cedar Grove [Laws D18] (File: LD18)
===
NAME: Loss of the City of Green Bay
DESCRIPTION: "Since you ask Caruso for it, Friends and brothers, lend an ear." A schooner is wrecks almost within reach of shore. The sailors cry for help, and try to man the lifeboats, but they are too far away to reach in the storm
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1952 (Walton collection, from a scrapbook owned by Charles C. Allers)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, p. 127, "Loss of the City of Green Bay" (1 text)
NOTES: Although the text is entitled "Loss of the City of Green Bay," there is no indication whatsoever in the song of what ship is meant, except that she was sailing down from Escanaba and that "Caruso" was asked about the wreck.
Walton/Grimm/Murdock way that the _City of Green Bay_ was lost October 3, 1887 near South Haven on Lake Michigan, with the loss of six of seven men aboard. Bruce D. Berman _Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks_, Mariner's Press, 1972, p. 239, gives the date as October 4 (i.e. the same night but after midnight) though the cause of the wreck is unknown.
We should note that there was a later _City of Green Bay_, this one a steamer built in 1880, which burned in 1909. But the song seems to refer to a sailing ship going aground. The only real question is whether the ship was indeed the _City of Green Bay_. - RBW
File: WGM127
===
NAME: Loss of the City of Quebec, The
DESCRIPTION: "On the first day of April eighteen hundred and seventy two The City of Quebec leaved London with a choice of British crew." Seventeen are drowned in Newfoundland waters.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, p. 941, "The Loss of the City of Quebec" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #9936
NOTES: The City of Quebec was lost at Isle Aux Morts, May 8, 1871 en route from London (Northern Shipwrecks Database). Isle Aux Morts is about 12 miles east of Port Aux Basques at the southwest corner of Newfoundland. - BS
Ships named "City of (somewhere)," e.g. _City of Glasgow_, _City of Philadelphia_, were characteristic of the Inman Line, which came into being in 1850; according to John Malcolm Brinnin, _The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic_ (1986; I use the 2000 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 208, "by 1857 he was carrying one third of all individuals traveling across the ocean." I have not been able to determine whether _City of Quebec_ was an Inman ship, but it seems likely -- and, frankly, looking at the stories in Brinnin and in Lincoln P. Paine's _Ships of the World_, they had a *terrible* safety record. - RBW
File: Pea941
===
NAME: Loss of the Danny Goodwin, The
DESCRIPTION: Captain LaFosse takes the schooner Danny Goodwin out from New Harbour. On December 6 the crew of six fisherman is lost in a storm.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death drowning storm wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 942-943, "The Loss of the Danny Goodwin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 26, "The Wreck of the Danny Goodwin" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The _Danny Goodwin_ was lost December 6, 1926 at Rose Blanche Bank ("The Mystery of the M.V. Danny Goodwin" at the Rose Blanche Lighthouse site). Rose Blanche is about 27 miles east of Port aux Basques -- and about a mile west of Harbour Le Cou -- at the southwest corner of Newfoundland. - BS
File: Pea942
===
NAME: Loss of the Druid, The
DESCRIPTION: The Druid is "a schooner of fame" -- for the wrong reasons; "Jimmy Jackson, her owner, a miser was he, Too greedy to fit out his vessel for sea." A storm blows up, the mainmast is lost, the pumps don't work, and "the water she made was dreadful to see"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck humorous
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1878 - Loss of the Druid while en route from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to the West Indies
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Doerflinger, p. 195, "The Loss of the Druid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4082
NOTES: This song is item dD37 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe195
===
NAME: Loss of the Eliza, The (The Herons)
DESCRIPTION: The crew of the Eliza are cheerfully approaching home (?) when a sudden storm blows up. Driven before the storm, the ship is blown to pieces. The people ashore, including the sister of two of the sailors, await word, but the ship is never found
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952
KEYWORDS: sea ship disaster storm death
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 47-50, "The Loss of the Eliza (The Herons)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 944-947, "The Loss of the Eliza" (1 text, 2 tunes)
ST FJ047 (Partial)
Roud #4424
RECORDINGS:
Ken Peacock, "The Loss of the Eliza" (on NFKPeacock)
NOTES: Fowke writes, "No information is available about the loss of the _Eliza_, but the story is very similar to that of the _Southern Cross_ which was lost in April, 1914, with one hundred and seventy men aboard." (It might be noted, however, that the ballad claims the _Eliza_ sank in October.) - RBW
"It is... one of the very few native ballads carrying supernatural portents (the herons) in the manner of the older traditional ballads... the spectres... the herons... Death's Angel" (Peacock).
Many [ships named _Eliza_] lost but no record both in October and off Cape Race/St Mary's Bay; the route would seem to have started at St John's [near Fort Amherst].  The best bet may be March 18, 1862, crushed in the ice off Bay Bulls -- on the route just south of St John's -- en route to St Mary's Riverhead, owned by Welsh & Co at St Mary's Riverhead with a captain possible named Welsh [who, in the ballad, sees the failing ship] (Northern Shipwrecks Database) - BS
File: FJ047
===
NAME: Loss of the Gilbert Mollison, The
DESCRIPTION: "Another proud and gallant ship, Another noble crew, Have sunk beneath the angry waves...." No more will the vessel take to the waters. Some of the many sailors who have served on her are now dead. People at home wait and mourn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (collected from Ben Peckham by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck separation death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: October 1873 - disappearance of the Gilbert Mollison
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 213-214, "The Loss of the Gilbert Mollison" (1 text)
NOTES: Ben Peckham, Walton's informant, had this in manuscript rather than learning it from tradition. I strongly suspect it was written as a poem, not a song; it just doesn't sound like something meant to be sung. - RBW
File: WGM213
===
NAME: Loss of the Gilcher, The
DESCRIPTION: "On October 28, Oh how the wind did scream! The last time that the Gilcher and crew were ever seen." The ship vanishes on the way to Milkwaukee. The reason is unknown. A note claims she was caught in a storm off Manitou. All aboard are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Collected from John E. Hayes by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 28, 1892 (or thereabouts) - Sinking of the Gilcher
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 197-199, "The Loss of the Gilcher" (1 text)
NOTES: Although this song talks primarily about the _Gilcher_, it is really a tale of two ships -- and all of the sources I checked (Walton/Grimm/Murdock; William Ratigan's _Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals_, revised edition, Eerdmans, 1977; Julius F. Wolff, Jr.'s, _Lake Superior Shipwrecks_, Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., Duluth, 1990; Benjamin J. Shelak, _Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan_, Trails Books, 2003_; and  Mark L. Thompson _Graveyards of the Lakes_, Wayne State University Press, 2000), agree on this.
The story begins with a boat called the _Western Reserve_, one of the first steel ships on the Great Lakes. (For what follows, except when another source is cited, see Thompson, pp. 218-225; there is a sketch of the boat on p. 213). Built in 1890, she was 300 feet long and the pride of the Minch family fleet. In the summer of 1892, she set out from Cleveland for Lake Superior. Having passed through the "Soo," a storm caught her in Whitefish Bay. On the night of August 30, a mast fell to the deck, the ship's plates developed large cracks, and within moments, she had broken in two (Wolff, p. 66). Apparently it was only about ten minutes from the time the cracks developed to the time she broke in two and went to the bottom (Ratigan, p. 253).
The crew took to the boats, but one of them overturned. The only other boat managed to rescue some of them, but it was too overloaded, and the storm too strong, for it to be steered. And it had no way of signalling other boats -- one went by in the night without spotting them (Wolff, p. 66). As they neared the beach, the boat capsized. Only a few of those aboard had life jackets, and only one man, wheelsman Harry Stewart, made it to the beach to tell the tale. 26 others were lost in the disaster (Shelak, p. 159).
The cause of the _Western Reserve's_ loss was never determined, though many theories were advanced. Many at the time suspected problems with the steel of the boat -- a genuine possibility if the weather had been colder, but it was August! Even the waters of Lake Superior are fairly warm by then. Others suspected design flaws, or improper loading (the latter, however, seems improbable, since Ratigan, p. 252, says she was mostly empty; according to Wolff, p. 66, she was on her way to Two Harbors, Minnesota to pick up iron ore.)
The worries about the _Western Reserve_ did not cause the owners to do anything about her sister, the _W. H. Gilcher_. (Prior to the loss, the _Western Reserve_ had made "several record-breaking hauls," according to Ratigan, p. 252. The ships were a point of pride; the _Gilcher_ is said to have been the largest boat built in Cleveland to that time; Shelak, p. 158.) Although four months newer, the _Gilcher_ was built to almost exactly the same design as the _Western Reserve_ -- and was lost in the same year, on about October 28. This time, there were no survivors at all (Shelak, p. 159), so there was no clue whatsoever to what happened. It does appear that someone had tried to cut loose a lifeboat with an axe, implying extreme haste (Shelak, p. 159), but either the attempt failed or the boat was lost. It is believed there were 21 people on board when the _Gilcher_ sank..
Ratigan, p. 12, has another speculation: That the _Gilcher_.collided with the _Ostrich_, also lost with all hands on or about the night of October 28, 1892. This speculation is also mentioned by Shelak. He says that wreckage was found on the Beaver Archipelago on Lake Michigan, though he does not mention the note later found allegedly from a _Gilcher_ crewman.
Shelak, pp. 159-160, mentions a folktale calling the _Gilcher_ a "Flying Dutchman," still seen in the area of Mackinac Island in a heavy fog.
Many at the time blamed the new-fangled steel construction (though of course steel vessels would in time prove to be very successful on the Lakes.) Wolff, p. 67, mentions that, in the aftermath of the loss of the _Gilcher_, new designs and stronger steel were specified for new steel ships; it would be more than seventy years until the next instance of a steel ship breaking up.
Ratigan, p. 11, quotes eight lines of text, clearly the same poem as John Hayes's piece in Walton/Grimm/Murdock; unfortunately, he cites no source. - RBW
File: WGM197
===
NAME: Loss of the Jewel, The
DESCRIPTION: The Jewel sails from Tilt Cove on October 28 and runs into "a heavy gale." The crew is rescued by the Albatross bound to Philadelphia from Greenland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship storm wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 948-949, "The Loss of the Jewel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9935
NOTES: _Jewel_ (possibly _Jewell)_ wrecked October 28, 1891 at Gull Island in Conception Bay, between Tilt Cove and St John's (Northern Shipwrecks Database). Peacock notes "there are two Tilt Coves in Newfoundland, both in the north in Notre Dame Bay." - BS
File: Pea948
===
NAME: Loss of the John Harvey, The
DESCRIPTION: The John Harvey sails from Gloucester for St Pierre in a hurricane and runs aground. Captain Kerley believes they will die. John Keeping ties a line around his waist and swims to shore; six of the crew are rescued. Keeping and one other died.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue death sea ship storm wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 950-951, "The Loss of the John Harvey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9934 and 3843
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Wreck of the John Harvey
The John Harvey
NOTES: [The] shipwreck [took place] January 10, 1912 in Gabarus Harbour, out of Boston bound for St Pierre & Miquelon; [the] Captain [was] George Kearley (Northern Shipwrecks Database) - BS
File: Pea950
===
NAME: Loss of the Jubal Cain, The
DESCRIPTION: "Twas of the schooner Jubal Cain Of which no doubt you've heard.... lost on Nova Scotia's shore, She had eight men on board." The cargo vessel leaves Halifax January 10 and after 16 days the owner gets a wire that the ship and all hands are lost at sea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 12, 1907 - The _Tubal Cain_ leaves Halifax for Grand Bank; it is lost in a storm, possibly on January 15
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 952-953, "The Loss of the Jubal Cain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9930
NOTES: The Northern Shipwrecks Database notes that there is a monument to the loss at Grand Bank. There was, and may be again. A sign at Fraser Park explaining the loss was put up in 1987 but has since blown down according to Robert Parsons' "NF Shipwrecks on the WEB" site in 2003 - BS
Although the ship is properly the _Tubal Cain_ (a name derived from Genesis 4:22; Tubal-cain, a worker in brass and iron), the only known collection calls it the _Jubal Cain_ (possibly by confusion with Tubal-cain's half-brother Jubal mentioned in Genesis 4:21), and I've followed that. - RBW
File: Pea952
===
NAME: Loss of the Lady of the Lake, The
DESCRIPTION: In 1833 the Lady of the Lake sails from Belfast for Newfoundland. After three weeks on a pleasant sea "the ice came down like mountains" The Captain and some sailors escape in a long boat. The singer os rescued by the Lima and returns to Liverpool.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1989 (Leyden)
KEYWORDS: emigration rescue death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 11, 1833 - The _Lady of the Lake_ strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks, taking with her most of her passengers
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leyden 35, "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde II) [Laws N41]" (subject)
NOTES: Leyden: "Total saved 34; perished 197; total 234" with a list of those saved, including Captain Grant; the ballad claims the author to be survivor George Monaghan via the Lima, who is not on Leyden's list. Leyden's list has one person saved by the "Lima," 13 in the "Harvest Home," and twenty in the "Lady ..." long and stern boats.. - BS
Northern Shipwrecks Database has 18 left on _Harvest Home_ -- abandoned after striking ice on May 9 -- rescued by _Gypsey_ and transferred to _Amazon_ - BS
Doerflinger, p. 301: ÒBound from Belfast to Quebec, the ill fated emigrant ship struck the underwater tongue of an iceberg on May 11, 1833, south of Newfoundland. Her captain, mate, and some of the crew, with a few of the passengers, got clear of the sinking ship in the boats, leaving the rest of her 230 men, women, and children on board the hulk or struggling in the icy water. All but those in the captain's boat peridshed." - RBW
File: Leyd035
===
NAME: Loss of the Life-Boat Crew at Fethard
DESCRIPTION: The life-boat goes out on a stormy night to try to rescue a Norwegian crew. "Early on next morning the sorrowful news went round." Wives and children find "husbands and fathers lying dead" on the Fethard shore.
AUTHOR: John Butler, Tipperary
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Feb 20-21, 1914 - The Mexico wreck
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, p. 104, "Loss of the Life-Boat Crew at Fethard" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mexico" (subject) and references there
NOTES: February 20, 1914: "Nine members of the Fethard lifeboat were drowned when going to the assistance of the Norwegian steamer _Mexico_.... Eight of the Mexico's crew were saved by the five lifeboat survivors. All but one of the stranded survivors were saved with great difficulty the next day." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, pp. 52-53) - BS
We note that at least four poems were written about this disaster (see the cross-references); one suspects a campaign to raise money for someone's family. - RBW
File: Ran104
===
NAME: Loss of the London (I), The
DESCRIPTION: The London, bound for Australia with 239 on board, is caught in a storm in the Bay of Biscay. Captain Martin remains on board when a boat is lowered with nineteen men. The nineteen are rescued by a passing ship and taken to Plymouth Bay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: drowning rescue sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 11, 1866 - "London bound for Melbourne, Australia, foundered on 11 January 1866 in severe English Channel gale with a loss of 220." (source: New Zealand Bound site) 
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig #61, pp. 1-2, "The Loss of the London"; Greig #63, p. 2 (2 texts) 
GreigDuncan1 31, "The Loss of the London" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #1787
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the London (II)" (subject)
NOTES: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.13(149), "The Wreck of the 'London'" ("You landsmen all come rist [sic] to me"), J. Lindsay (Glasgow), 1851-1910 is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
File: GrD1061
===
NAME: Loss of the London (II), The
DESCRIPTION: The "London" "pressed, through storm and rain ... with two hundred souls and more. The 'London' sank near a foreign shore" "The Captain said all hope was gone" Brooke "worked until all hope was gone, Then calmly paced the deck alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(117))
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 11, 1866 - "London bound for Melbourne, Australia, foundered on 11 January 1866 in severe English Channel gale with a loss of 220." (source: New Zealand Bound site)
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: ()

BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(117), "The Loss of the 'London'" ("The sea ran high, the winds were wild"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(2396), Harding B 13(241)[manually marked "1866," the date of the wreck], "The Loss of the 'London'"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the London (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES: The description is based on broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(117).
Irish Shakespearean actor Gustavus Vaughan Brooke (1818-1866) stayed on deck to help those he could and refused to leave on the last lifeboat. (source: "s.s. London - founded in the English Channel 11 January 1866"; description of wreck by William Andrew Pearce on the New Zealand Bound site) - BS
File: BdLoLon1
===
NAME: Loss of the Maggie Hunter: see The Maggie Hunter (File: RcTMagHu)
===
NAME: Loss of the Maggie, The
DESCRIPTION: "Ye fishermen who know so well The dangers of the deep, Come listen to a dreadful tale And join your hearts to weep." The Maggie sails from Bonavista Bay and spies a steamer bearing down on her. The ship is wrecked 13 die as others watch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1902 (Murphy, Songs and Ballads of Newfoundland, Ancient and Modern)
KEYWORDS: death ship crash wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 7, 1896 - The Maggie sinks after collision with the Tiber in St John's Harbour (source: Northern Shipwrecks DataBase) 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 41, "The Loss of the Maggie" (1 text)
ST RySm041 (Partial)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Maggie" (subject)
NOTES: Although this piece is pretty definitely not traditional, the _Maggie_ disaster did produce a genuine folk song, "The  Wreck of the Maggie." - RBW
File: RySm041
===
NAME: Loss of the Philosophy
DESCRIPTION: Philosophy has a bad trip from St John to Havana. They make repairs at Havana. Nevertheless, they are cast away nearing home. Only five of seven make shore and two more die of cold. The survivors are rescued and return to Pope's Harbour.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship wreck sailor rescue
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-NovaScotia 128, "Loss of the Philosophy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS128 (Partial)
Roud #1829
NOTES: This song is item dD49 in Laws's Appendix II.
Creighton-NovaScotia: The singer says "This is a true story. Pope's Harbour is in Halifax County." Dates in the ballad -- which are not confirmed by Northern Shipwrecks Database -- have Philosophy leave St John for Havana on November 4 and the wreck takes place January 7. - BS
File: CrNS128
===
NAME: Loss of the Ramillies, The [Laws K1]
DESCRIPTION: A heavy storm dooms the Ramillies. The boatswain orders the crew to the lifeboats. Hundreds drown in the wreck; only three or four survive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Feb 15, 1760 - Wreck of the Ramillies off the coast of Devonshire. Only 26 men survive
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws K1, "The Loss of the Ramillies"
GreigDuncan1 28, "The Ramillies" (2 texts)
Doerflinger, pp. 144-145, "The Ship Rambolee (The Loss of the 'Ramillies')" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 954-955, "The Loss of the Rammelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 85, "The Old Ramillies" (1 text)
DT 554, RAMILLIE
Roud #523
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "The Loss of 'The Ramilly'" (on Voice12)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fatal Ramilies" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Ramalie
The Ramilies
NOTES: Ramillies was the site of one of Marlborough's great victories (1706), and several ships were named after it, from this ship to an early twentieth century dreadnought.
This _Ramillies_ had a peculiar history; it actually predates the battle bearing its name! In 1664, the _Royal Katherine_ was built, an 84-gun ship. It was "rebuilt" in 1702 (a subterfuge used by the Royal Navy at the time: They built a new ship with some of the old timber). The rebuilt ship was renamed after the battle of Ramillies. (She would be rebuilt again in 1749.)
Half a century after the rebuilding and renaming, having been part of the fleet which failed to save Mallorca, _Ramillies_ was wrecked off Bolt Head on her way to Plymouth. There are thought to have been 725 men aboard at the time, of whom only 26 survived. - RBW
File: LK01
===
NAME: Loss of the Regalis, The: see The Loss of the Regulus (File: Pea956)
===
NAME: Loss of the Regulus, The
DESCRIPTION: "While I'll explain ... How the Regalus she got lost in Petty Harbour bay." Regulus leaves Belle Isle [sic] and is disabled in a heavy breeze near Cape Race. The tug John Green attempts the rescue but the tow line parts. Captain Taylor and his crew drown.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning ship sea storm wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 956-957, "The Loss of the Regalis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 74, "Wreck of the Regulus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6471
NOTES: [The] _Regulus,_ en route to Sydney Nova Scotia from Wabana [Bell Island, not Belle Isle], [was] wrecked October 23, 1910, when the tow parted from the John Green (Northern Shipwrecks Database). - BS
File: Pea956
===
NAME: Loss of the Riseover, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Riseover left Northern Bay, with lumber she did sail" for St John's. They are forced to leave the ship by raft in a heavy storm. Nearing shore, the raft breaks in half and John Pomeroy and Sparks are lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 19, 1911 - Riseover wrecked on Muddy Shag Rock, per Newfoundland's Grand Banks Site
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 958-959, "The Loss of the Riseover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 94, "The Wreck of the Riseover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4408
NOTES: A detailed account of the Riseover wreck is included in _Tales from the Kittiwake Coast_ by Robert E. Tulk, pp. 90-91 [available as a pdf file from the Canadian National Adult Database site.] - BS
File: Pea958
===
NAME: Loss of the Royal Charter, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of a shipwreck near Ireland. 400 passengers sail from Melbourne and are approaching home (and have already dropped off some passengers) when a storm hits. The singer describes the storm, the wreck, and the deaths
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck disaster death
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H623, pp. 109-110, "The Loss of the Royal Charter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9040
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian,  Firth c.12(95), "Loss of the Royal Charter," unknown, no date
NOTES: Curiously, this song is a first-person account of a passenger on the _Charter_, and yet it says that "all on board would meet a watery grave." - RBW
File: HHH623
===
NAME: Loss of the S. S. Algerine
DESCRIPTION: "Attention all ye sailor boys And hark to what I say And hear about the Algerine Was lost in Hudson Bay." The old sealing boat, loaded with Americans but with a Newfoundland crew, is destroyed by ice. The Neptune rescues the remaining crew
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1912 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck rescue
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 92, "Loss of the S.S. Algerine" (1 text)
File: RySm092
===
NAME: Loss of the Sailor's Home, The
DESCRIPTION: Sailor's Home leaves Fortune Bay and picks up a load of coal in Sydney on Christmas Day. She sinks in a storm; three of the crew make land on the French island of Miquelon, find help, and recover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 31, 1890 - the Sailor's Home wrecked near St Pierre & Miquelon carrying coal from Sydney Nova Scotia to Fortune, Newfoundland (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 960-962, "The Loss of the Sailor's Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea960
===
NAME: Loss of the Savinto, The
DESCRIPTION:  Two days out a storm drives Savinto against a rock. "The ship breaks up And all the crew... Look for a watery grave." Gormley gets to shore and brings help. The rescue ordeal is described in great detail. Eleven of twenty one are saved.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 6 or 7, 1906 - Barque Sovinto from Dalhousie, NS stranded at Priest Pond, PEI (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 52-55, "The Loss of the Savinto" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12467
File: Dib052
===
NAME: Loss of the Shamrock, The
DESCRIPTION: James Murray's mother asks him to delay sailing but he won't wait. He sails on Friday, September 18. The ship is seen on Saturday, then lost. Thomas Ridgeley might have saved two of those lost but he did not and is scorned for it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: 
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 19, 1846 - the Shamrock is lost in a gale off Cape St Mary's (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 963-964, "The Loss of the Shamrock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9816
File: Pea963
===
NAME: Loss of the Snorre, The
DESCRIPTION: September 18 a storm in Bonavista Bay wrecks Harold F, Olive Branch, Planet, and Reliance. The Norwegian sloop Snorre bursts her chains and is swept away with two boys on board. Four men from Bonavista are named as saving four of the crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 8-9, 1907 - more than 58 ships are lost including Olive Branch, Planet, and Snorre (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 98, "The Loss of the Snorre" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Lehr/Best: "Two young Norwegian boys were drowned, and the four others on board were rescued through the bravery of J Louis Little, Robert Brown, James C Little, William Ford and Eli Paul, all men of Bonavista; they afterwards received recognition from the Carnegie Hero Commission." - BS
File: LeBe098
===
NAME: Loss of the Souvenir, The
DESCRIPTION: "Gone was summer with its sunshire, with its mild and favoring gales." Even in the harsh weather of autumn, sailors take to the Lakes. A storm blows up and the Souvenir is wrecked. One man is seen on the deck, but cannot be rescued; in all, seven die
AUTHOR: probably A. J. Woods
EARLIEST_DATE: 1890 (Oceana County Pioneers)
KEYWORDS: ship storm death wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 1872 - The _Souvenir_ sets out from Pentwater, Michigan for Chicago
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 224-225, "The Loss of the Souvenir" (1 text)
NOTES: Although Walton/Grimm/Murdock throws this in with other disaster songs, there seems to be no evidence that it is traditional, or even a song; the text seems to be taken from print, and no informant mentioned it. Nor does the form look much like a traditional song. - RBW
File: WGM224
===
NAME: Loss of the Titanic, The (Titanic #13)
DESCRIPTION: "The beauty of the White Star Line, the Titanic, sailed the seas." Off Cape Race "she struck what's called a growler." "Captain Smith and his brave crew, they never left the deck But saved the helpless passengers and went down with the wreck."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 965-966, "The Loss of the Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9940
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
NOTES: To give Captain Smith of the _Titanic_ credit for saving the ship strikes me as a little much, since it appears that much of what went wrong was his fault. But the bravery of the crew cannot be denied. While the loss of life was very large, it was largest among the crew: According to Lincoln P. Paine's _Ships of the World_, 60% of the first class passengers survived. 42% of second class passengers survived, and 25% of steerage passengers -- but only 24% of the crew, even though many crew members were put aboard the ships boats simply to keep them afloat and steer them.
For an extensive history of the _Titanic_, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the _Titanic_ songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
File: Pea955
===
NAME: Lost Babe, The
DESCRIPTION: A child wanders away from its mother (or is sent to take its father his dinner) and is lost. Men of the community (or Egypt and foreign lands) search; the child is dead, and buzzards are picking out its eyes. The mother cries, "Lord, have mercy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: grief corpse death bird children mother
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SharpAp 129, "The Lost Babe" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #3636
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" (plot)
cf. "Three Lost Babes of Americay" (plot)
cf. "Penitent" (tune of Sharp's B version)
cf. "The Vulture (of the Alps)" (theme)
cf. "All the Pretty Little Horses" (theme of young one at the mercy of birds)
File: ShAp2129
===
NAME: Lost Babes of Halifax: see Meagher's Children [Laws G25] (File: LG25)
===
NAME: Lost Birdies, The
DESCRIPTION: Various birds (crow, robin) lay "but ae egg, she brought out ae bird, The bird it came out an' it flew awa', and she gaed a' day." The mothers look for their offspring and beg them come home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: bird separation lullaby
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H40c, p. 20, "The Lost Birdies/The Hobe and the Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13344
File: HHH040c
===
NAME: Lost Child, The: see The Little Lost Child (File: R728)
===
NAME: Lost Girl, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl who confesses to being lost and far from home. She has left her family to escape from the boys. She warns maidens against men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: rambling lament floatingverses warning
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 60, "The Lost Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R060 (Partial)
Roud #272
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)" (theme)
NOTES: This is about half floating verses ("I'll build me a castle on youn mound so high," "Come all ye young maidens, take warning from me, Don't place your affections on a green willow tree"), and the final line of several stanzas ("Oh she says I'm a poor lost girl and a long ways from home"). Randolph lists many songs with similar elements, most of which I ended up filing under "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)". But the whole seems to be unique. - RBW
File: R060
===
NAME: Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]
DESCRIPTION: A passerby hears a girl wailing for her lost Jimmie Whalen. He comes from the grave, and she begs him to stay. He cannot; death keeps them apart.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: death ghost lover
FOUND_IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Laws C8, "Lost Jimmie Whalen"
Rickaby 4, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 726-727, "Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 445-446, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 48, "Jimmie Whalen's Girl" (1 text)
Fowke-Lumbering #32, "Lost Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 26, "Lost Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 186-187, "Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 114-115, "Lost Jimmy Whalan" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 385-389, "Jimmy Whelan" (2 texts, 4 tunes)
Lehr/Best 61, "Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 35-37,249, "The Lost Jimmy Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 81, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 27-28, "Lost Jimmy Walen" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 602, JIMWHEL* JIMWHEL2*
Roud #2220
RECORDINGS:
Mrs John Coughlin, "The Lost Jimmy Whalen" (on MREIves01)
Mrs Mary Dumphy, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (on NFMLeach)
Ken Peacock, "Jimmy Whalen" (on NFKPeacock)
Art Thieme, "Lost Jimmy Whalen" (on Thieme05)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "James Whalen" [Laws C7] (subject)
File: LC08
===
NAME: Lost Jimmy Walen: see Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]; also James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC08)
===
NAME: Lost Jimmy Whalen, The: see Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]; also James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC08)
===
NAME: Lost John: see Long John (Long Gone) (File: LoF287)
===
NAME: Lost Johnny
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I wonder where my lost Johnny's gone (x3), Oh, he's gone to that new railroad, (x2)" "Go make me a pallet on your floor, Believe I will eat morphine and die." "I'll go if I have to ride the rail To the road where my Johnny is."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: railroading floatingverses suicide drugs
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuson, pp. 151, "Lost Johnny" (1 text)
ST Fus151 (Partial)
Roud #16412
NOTES: Obviously a composite of floating elements. But it has so many floating elements that it can't really be associated with a particular song! - RBW
File: Fus151
===
NAME: Lost Johnny Doyle, The: see Johnny Doyle [Laws M2] (File: LM02)
===
NAME: Lost Lady Found, The [Laws Q31]
DESCRIPTION: A young lady is carried off by gypsies. Her uncle, who is her guardian, is convicted of murdering her. Her lover follows her to Dublin and tells her of her uncle's plight. They return to England, and the uncle's life is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1833 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 5)
KEYWORDS: shanghaiing Gypsy trial reprieve abduction
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South,West)) US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws Q31, "The Lost Lady Found"
FSCatskills 63, "The Lost Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 347, "The Lost Lady Found" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 24, "The Lost Lady Found" (1 text)
DT 539, LOSTLADY
ADDITIONAL: Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), pp. 432-433, ("'Tis of a young damsel, that was left all alone") [English text reported by Broadwood, _Old English Songs_ (1843)]
Roud #901
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 5, "The Lost Lady Found," T. Batchelar (London) , 1828-1832; also 2806 c.17(241), Harding B 15(177b), 2806 c.16(128), Harding B 11(3803), Firth b.26(375), Firth b.34(114), Firth c.18(167), Harding B 11(2222), Harding B 11(266), "[The] Lost Lady Found"; Harding B 11(1445), "The Gypsies" or "The Lost Lady Found"
NOTES: In reply to the charge of abduction in this piece, Kennedy writes, "While it is quite likely that some ladies of quality... did run off with the gipsies, it is not proven that abductions of 'giorgio' women ever occurred. As to the charge that gipsies are child stealers, they usually have too many children of their own to bother about increasing their problems." - RBW
See Tim Coughlan, _Now Shoon the Romano Gillie_, (Cardiff,2001), #163, pp. 416-421, "A Puv Pordo o' Romni Chels" [Romani-English version from Sampson, "English Gypsy songs and rhymes" (1891)] made by Lias Robinson from an English text also reproduced from Sampson. Coughlan prints another English text from an Irish Traveller. Coughlan believes #164, pp. 421-437, "So Did You Muk My Curi Old Dai" [Romani-English fragment from Thompson, "Anglo-Romani songs" (1909)] also belongs here. His commentary on #164 includes a Welsh Gypsy text and English translation, a Romani text and translation, and Woodie Guthrie's "Gypsy Davy." - BS
File: LQ31
===
NAME: Lost Miners, The
DESCRIPTION: "Six miners went into the mountains To hunt for precious gold; It was the middle of winter, The weather was dreadful cold. Six miners went into the mountains, They had nor food nor shack -- Six miners went into the mountains But only one came back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: mining murder death food cannibalism gold
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1873-1874 - The disappearance of the Packer party
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, p. 231, "The Lost Miners" (1 fragment)
NOTES: Burt believes this item to be about Alferd Packer (she spells it "Alfred," but my sources indicate that "Alferd" is correct). In 1873, Packer and five others went out. In the bitter winter that followed, all save Packer died, and it was later learned that Packer had eaten their bodies. He was generally thought to have murdered them as well, and died in prison in 1907. - RBW
File: Burt231
===
NAME: Lost on Lake Michigan
DESCRIPTION: "Come all brother sailors, I hop you'll draw nigh, For to hear of your shipmates, it will cause you to cry." John Gallagher sails to Traverse City despite his mother's dream warning and fiancee's fears. He heads home in a storm, but the boat Lookout sinks
AUTHOR: Dan Malloy
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (collected from John Malloy by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor death dream warning love
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 172-174, "Lost on Lake Michigan" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John W. Green, "The Gallagher Boys" (1938; on WaltonSailors)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Tommy Boyle" (subject)
File: WGM172
===
NAME: Lost on the Lady Elgin
DESCRIPTION: "Up from the poor man's cottage, forth from the mansion's door ... Cometh a voice of mourning, a sad and solemn wail, Lost on the Lady Elgin... Numbered in that three hundred Who failed to reach the shore." The many mourners are briefly mentioned
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1861 (copyright by H. M. Higgins)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death orphan family
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1860 - The Lady Elgin, an excursion boat on Lake Michigan, collides with a steamer and sinks
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Randolph 692, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 453-455, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 692)
LPound-ABS, 60, pp. 134-135, "The Lady Elgin" (1 text)
BrownII 214, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text)
Dean, pp. 61-62, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 199-202, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text, 1 tune, with no evidence that it was taken from tradition)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Lady Elgin" (source notes only)
DT, LDYELGN*
Roud #3688
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Titanic (IV - 'Lost on the Great Titanic')" (tune)
NOTES: Cohen, Pound, and McNeil credit this to Henry Clay Work, though the disaster came before his songwriting career took off. Other sources do not seem aware of this attribution. I have not seen the sheet music. Walton/Grimm/Murdock reports that Work first published it in a newspaper.
There are many sources describing the tragedy of the _Lady Elgin_. Those I consulted are
Mark Bourrie, _Many a Midnight Ship_, University of Michgan Press, 2005, pp. 91-106; William Ratigan, _Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals_, revised edition, Eerdmans, 1977, pp. 43-49; Michael J. Varhola, _Shipwrecks and Lost Treasures: Great Lakes_, Globe Pequot Press, 2007 [listed as copyright 2008, but I bought my copy in November 2007], pp. 57-62; Mark L. Thompson, _Graveyards of the Lakes_, Wayne State University Press, 2000, pp. 146-155; Benjamin J. Shelak, _Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan_, Trails Books, 2003, pp. 86-92; David Ritchie, _Shipwrecks: An Encyclopedia of the World's Worst Disasters at Sea_, 1996 [I use the 1999 Checkmark paperback edition], p. 112. Of these, Thompson is the most detailed and best footnoted; Varhola is the shortest and doesn't bother with sources. Bourrie also inclines excessively toward the dramatic and undocumented.
Varhola, p. 58, describe the ship as follows: "[The] _Lady Elgin_ [was] a double-decked wooden side-wheel steamer owned by Gordon S. Hubbard & Co. that had been built nine years earlier in Buffalo, New York.... One of the largest steamers on the Great Lakes, the luxurious _Lady Elgin_ was an impressive 252 feet long, nearly 34 feet wide, and had a draft of just over 14 feet, and her 54-inch-cylinder, 11-foot-stroke steam engine powered a pair of 32-foot paddle wheels. Operated by a crew of forty-three, she was equipped to carry two hundred passengers in her cabins, another hundred on her decks, and up to eight hundred tons of freight in her holds."
Constructed in 1851 (Shelak, p. 86), Thompson, p. 146, says that she was originally built for Canada's Grand Trunk Railway, and intended to sail from Buffalo to Chicago (entirely under steam, if the drawing on p. 149 of Thompson is accurate). Although designed for passengers, she also carried a lot of freight for the Grand Trunk (Bourrie,p. 92). In 1856, when the Grand Trunk between Toronto and Sarnia was completed, she shifted to a Chicago-to-Lake-Superior route. She was successful enough that she came to be called "The Queen of the Lakes." But Bourrie, pp. 92-93, also notes that she had an amazing series of groundings and other misadventures in this period, one of which nearly caused her to be written off. Shelak, p. 87, mentions a grounding and a fire, and says that she was considered a bad insurance risk as a result.
Apparently the passengers who booked the _Lady Elgin_ were mostly Irish, from Wisconsin and Illinois. Their story was peculiar. Thompson, p. 147, explains that the governor of Wisconsin at the time was threatening to take the state out of the Union if the federal government didn't do something about slavery. One of the state's militia units was an Irish outfit commanded by Garrett Barry. Barry declared that he would stick with the Union no matter what Wisconsin did, and the Wisconin government ordered his unit demobilized (Bourrie, p. 94).
The unit wanted to stick together. So they chartered a trip from Milwaukee to Chicago on the _Lady Elgin_ to raise money to purchase new weapons. The company and the paying passengers would go to Chicago on September 7, 1860, hold a parade, and come back. 
The ship's captain was Jack Wilson, who was distinguished enough that he had been allowed to lead the first ship ever to travel the Soo Canal (between Lake Superior and the lower great lakes) in 1855 (Ratigan, p. 43). He apparently did not like the weather on the night of the return voyage (Thompson, p. 148). But he was finally convinced to put out from the shore.
Then, on the night of September 8, the storm struck,
It was a bad night for visibility. And the schooner _Augusta_, 129 feet long, carrying pine logs, had no running lights (Ritchie, p. 112; he calls the ship _Augusta of Oswego_. Shelak, p. 87, says that there is dispute about the running lights but notes that she was "carrying nearly full sail despite the weather." Apparently her cargo of logs was shifting and she was in danger of capsizing). _Augusta's_ lookout allegedly saw the _Lady Elgin_ twenty minutes before the collision, but she did not change course (Ratigan, pp. 44-45; Thompson, p. 148, explains this on the basis that the mate on watch could not tell the _Lady Elgin's_ course and had been too busy taking in sail to worry about his own; Bourrie, p. 96, explains it as the result of an illegal maneuver which went wrong). The smaller ship's bow went right into the _Lady Elgin's_. side.
The high waves parted the two ships quickly (Thompson, p. 150), and although the _Augusta_ remained seaworthy, she had sustained enough damage that her captain headed for port without making any attempt at rescuing the victims on the _Lady Elgin_. (He would later claim that he thought he had struck only a glancing blow; damage to his own ship was slight -- Thompson, p. 150. Shelak, p. 88. also reports a claim that the _Lady Elgin_ refused assistance. This strikes me as most improbably -- not only was the damage immediately evident to the passengers, but the boats separated before there was time for the Captain to learn what had happened).
The _Lady Elgin_ herself tried to head for shore, but she was nine miles off the coast, with one of her paddlwheels wrecked (Bourrie, p. 96), and it was soon clear that she would sink before she could reach the land, despite frantic attempts to lighten her, shift her cargo,and patch the hole (Bourrie,p. 98).
And, according to Thompson, p. 149, she had only four lifeboats -- and those lacked oars! (Thompson, p. 151. Shelak, p. 88, gives a slightly different story: The first boat was supposed to inspect the damage, but the oars were forgotten and the boat torn away by the waves).
Captain Wilson managed to get most of the passengers onto improvised rafts, but in the storm, many of them broke up and most of those aboard, including Wilson, were lost (though Shelak, p. 90, says that he made it to shore, then went back into the water to try to rescue others and was lost; his body finally found on the far side of Lake Michigan. Garrett was also killed (Bourrie, p. 106). To make matters worse, the shores of the Lake were very steep here, creating a strong undertow. Passengers would often find themselves very close to shore, only to be sucked back into the water (Bourrie, p. 100; Shelak, p. 89).
Reportedly the ship's upper works exploded as she went down -- probably due to compressed air rather than a boiler explosion. The boat sank within about twenty minutes of being hit.
There was one noteworthy deed of heroism: A university student named Edward Spencer swam out more than a dozen times to save fifteen or more passengers -- about a sixth of the total (Ratigan, pp. 47-48; Bourrie, p. 101, says that the deed crippled him for life). Others on the shore, though, robbed the dead bodies (Thompson, p. 153)
No knows how exactly how many were aboard, or how high the casualties were. According to Hudson and Nicholls, _Tragedy on the High Seas_, the collision killed 287 of 385 passengers on the _Lady Elgin_.  Ratigan says that 297 were killed. As of the time he wrote, it was the second-highest loss of life from a great lakes disaster. Thompson, p. 153, notes that estimates of the number of survivors range from 98 to 155, and the casualties from 279 to 350. Shelak, p. 89, says there were some 400 passengers on board and cites the 297 figure for casualties. Ritchie, p. 112, says 287 were lost and fewer than 100 survived. Varhola, p. 59, has the highest number of all, claiming that between 600 and 700 people were on board. He says that 160 survived, and 200 bodies washed ashore. Bourrie, p. 100, gives similar numbers.
The _Augusta_ became so infamous that she had to be renamed _Colonel Cook_ and transferred from service on the lakes to work on the Atlantic (Ratigan, pp. 48-49; Shelak, p. 90). Her captain was placed on trial, but it was found that he had conformed to the very weak regulations of the time (Ritchie, p. 112).
According to Walton/Grimm/Murdock, many of the _Augusta's_ former crew, including the captain, were lost four years later when the _Mojave_ sank without a trace in good weather.
The one good thing to come out of the disaster was that an inquiry was held (Thompson, pp. 153-154), which assigned portions of the blame to both ships (e.g. the _Lady Elgin_ had no watertight compartments, and did not yield to the smaller ship, while the mate of the _Augusta_ was too slow to inform his captain of the other ship's presence), but the primary blame was with the existing navigation laws. The _Lady Elgin_ disaster was largely responsible for the 1864 passage of America's first navigation law (Thompson, pp. 154-155)
Shelak, p. 92, notes that portions of the wreck were found in 1989, and became the subject of protracted litigation. - RBW
File: R692
===
NAME: Lost River Desert: see The Red River Valley (File: R730)
===
NAME: Lost Soul, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer says sinners at judgment will hear their fate and say, "I'm paying now the penalty/That the unredeemed must ever pay... For alas I'm doomed." The sinner will say that if he could go back, he'd fight for his Saviour's cause, but he can't
AUTHOR: L. V. Jones
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 ("Glad News")
KEYWORDS: sin death religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Watson family, "The Lost Soul" (on Watson01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Wicked Polly" [Laws H6] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lost Soul's Lament
NOTES: D. K. Wilgus, in his comments on Watson01, notes (speaking of this song and "When I Die"): "The Watson family apparently sang these songs directly from a song book, but I have been unable to locate them in any source available to me, despite the conviction that I have met them before." He may have been remembering "Glad News." - PJS
File: RcTLoSou
===
NAME: Lost Youth, The: see Death is a Melancholy Call [Laws H5] (File: LH05)
===
NAME: Lothian Hairst, The
DESCRIPTION: "On August twelfth from Aberdeen We sailed upon the Prince... Our harvest to commence." The crew works in Lothian for William Mathieson and his foreman Logan. They find no chance for sport under Logan, and happily depart when the harvest is done
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Greig #3, p. 3, "The Lothian Hairst" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan3 404, "The Lothian Hairst" (9 texts, 6 tunes)
Ord, p. 264, "The Lothian Hairst" (1 text)
DT, LOTHARST*
Roud #2165
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(122), "The Lothian Hairst," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Louden Hairst
NOTES: GreigDuncan3: "This is a real bothy song, and is said to have been written about sixty years ago by a Highland lassie, one of a band of Deeside harvesters to the Lothians...." quoting Ord, "Byways of Scottish Song" in _The Weekly Welcome_, 1907. - BS
File: Ord264
===
NAME: Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour (Feller from Fortune)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, there's lots of fish in Bonavist' Harbour, lots of fish right in around here. Boys and girls are fishing together...." The folk of the town are described: Uncle George, who tore out his britches; Sally, who has a baby without a father; etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dancing fishing sex childbirth bastard father lover
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 122-124, "Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 37, "Feller From Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 53-54, "Feller From Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 23, "Feller from Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 53, "Feller from Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ122 (Partial)
Roud #4427
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Bonavist Harbour" (on NFOBlondahl04,NFOBlondahl05)
Ken Peacock, "Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour" (on NFKPeacock)
File: FJ122
===
NAME: Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog [Child 205]
DESCRIPTION: Claverse prepares for battle at Loudon Hill. His cornet would avoid battle; the enemy are too mighty to attack. Claverse calls him a coward and leads the attack himself, but his forces are defeated and chased from the field
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: battle nobility cowardice
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 1, 1679 - Battle of Drumclog. Covenanters defeat the army of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 205, "Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog" (1 text)
DT, LOUDNHIL*
Roud #4018
NOTES: The "Claverse" of Child's text is, of course, Claverhouse (James Graham of Claverhouse, First Viscount Dundee, c. 1649-1689, known as "Bonnie Dundee" and killed at Killiecrankie; see the entry on "Killy Kranky" for details of that battle).
Drumclog was not, in terms of size, much of a battle (historians have been known to call it "the 'battle' of Drumclog," because the forces were so small). After the restoration, Charles II had appointed James Sharp as Archbishop of Saint Andrews. Bishops were anathema to Presbyterians anyway, and Sharp was unusually obnoxious in his persecutions. He was ambushed and killed on May 3, 1679.
It wasn't really a rebellion, but Claverhouse treated it as if it were, and rode against the "rebels." They were only a few hundred ill-armed men, but Claverhouse had only a handful of troops, who eventually fled.
The success of the Covenanters at Drumclog did not last long; indeed, it helped induce their next defeat. The victory caused many more men to flow to the cause, but they were utterly disorganized. This rabble was defeated at Bothwell Bridge in the same year (see Child 206, "Bothwell Bridge")
There were actually two battles known as Loudon (Loudun) Hill. The first was fought in 1307 between the forces of England and of Robert the Bruce. Magnus Magnusson's _Scotland: The Story of a Nation_ (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000), pp. 172-173, describes how the Earl of Pembroke challenged Bruce to come out and fight. Bruce did so -- but arranged the battle so that Pembroke's forces charged over a series of hidden trenches. The horsemen went down, and were slaughtered by the Scottish spearmen, with Pembroke fleeing with the rearguard. It was the first real success of Bruce's rebellion (though it probably would not have been enough had not the English King Edward I, "The Hammer of the Scots," died soon after.) It will be obvious that this song refers to the second Battle of Loudon Hill, usually called "Drumclog" to prevent confusion. - RBW
File: C205
===
NAME: Lough Erin's Shore: see William and Eliza (Lough Erin's Shore) (File: HHH597)
===
NAME: Lough Erne Shore
DESCRIPTION: Singer meets "a wonderful dame" on Lough Erne shore. As she is leaving he asks to go home with her. She says she will not "yield to men's pleasure." He says "I'll make you a lady of honor, if with me this night you'll come home" 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (IRTunneyFamily01)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection rake
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 115-116, "Lough Erne Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle 14, "Lough Erne Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3476
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Lough Erne's Shore" (on IRTunneyFamily01); "Lough Erne Shore" (on IRPTunney02)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lough Erin Shore
Loch Erin's Shore
NOTES: OBoyle classifies this as a reverdie. For more about reverdie vs aisling see "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)."
As in "Sheila Nee Iyer" and "The Colleen Rue," there is no resolution for the Tunney-StoneFiddle version. Is there a broadside that ends the story one way or the other?
Lough Erne is in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. - BS
File: TSF115
===
NAME: Lough Ooney
DESCRIPTION: Murray was a friend "'til our great Irish nation" and the aged, poor, and sick. He and his friend McManus sail their pleasure boat on Lough Ooney in spite of threat of a storm. The boat sinks. Both swin towards shore but are drowned by high waves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: drowning storm wreck
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Morton-Maguire 24, pp. 58-60,113,166, "Lough Ooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2927
RECORDINGS:
Big John Maguire, "Lough Ooney" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES: Morton-Maguire has no information about the event. Lough Ooney is in County Monaghan. - BS
File: MoMa024
===
NAME: Loughrey's Bull
DESCRIPTION: Cruel John Loughrey's bull attacks him for evicting tenants. He promises he will never evict anyone again. The bull kills him anyway, saying "if I was a landlord I'd treat the tenants fair." Nobody mourns the loss. Tenants should feed that bull well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: murder funeral farming humorous talltale animal landlord
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 50, "Loughrey's Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: McBride: "This song recalls the death of a local landlord." - BS
There is an interesting symbolism, however -- though in reverse: Usually it is the bull (John Bull) which is harming Ireland. But there is a certain sense to this if one takes it in the context of the Land League and the Tenant Rights Movement -- an attempt to get the English law (often represented by a bull) to give tenants fair treatment. Could this have been a tale of John Bull's government actually enforcing its laws against a landlord? - RBW
File: McB1050
===
NAME: Louie Sands and Jim McGee
DESCRIPTION: Shanty: "Who feeds us beans? Who feeds us tea?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/Who thinks that meat's a luxury?/Louie... We make the big trees fall ker-splash... Offers more examples of Sands & McGee's penury, usually with beans as the motif.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Shanty (from lumberjacks, not sailors): "Who feeds us beans? Who feeds us tea?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/Who thinks that meat's a luxury?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/We make the big trees fall ker-splash/And hit the ground an awful smash/And for the logs who gets the cash?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee". Other verses offer more examples of Sands & McGee's penury, usually with beans as the motif.
KEYWORDS: shanty lumbering work logger greed food nonballad worksong
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 19, "Louie Sands and Jim McGee" (1 text)
Roud #6521
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune)
NOTES: One of the few worksongs I've seen from European-Americans who weren't sailors. - PJS
File: Be019
===
NAME: Louis Collins
DESCRIPTION: Ms. Collins weeps to see son Louis leave home; he is shot to death in a gunfight. All the young women put on red clothing in mourning; he is buried in the new graveyard. Chorus: "Angels laid him away/Laid him six feet under the clay/Angels laid him away"
AUTHOR: probably Mississippi John Hurt
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recorded, Mississippi John Hurt)
KEYWORDS: grief fight violence parting crime murder clothes burial death mourning mother
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Louis Collins" (OKeh 8724, 1929; rec. 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02) (on MJHurt03)
File: RcLouCol
===
NAME: Louisiana Earthquake, The
DESCRIPTION: On a Sunday night, God sets the earth shaking. Singer stands expecting "louder clouds of thunder." In the morning "the elements were darkened"; six month pass, but the earth continues to shake; Christians fear, while "sinnersÕ hearts were aching"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (recording, Stella Walsh Gilbert)
KEYWORDS: disaster religious gods 
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 16, 1811: Series of earthquakes begins, centered on New Madrid, Missouri
Feb 7, 1812: Worst shock of earthquake series
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Stella Walsh Gilbert, "The Louisiana Earthquake" (on Ashley02)
NOTES: The song's reference to the area as "Louisiana" suggests that it was composed shortly after the events; while the region was part of the giant Louisiana Purchase, it became known as Missouri Territory within a year or two after the earthquake. At the time of the quakes, New Madrid was the second largest settlement in the area, after St. Louis.
The earthquakes of 1811-1813 affected an area of a million square miles, and included the most severe shocks ever recorded in North America; the worst were felt as far away as Washington, DC, New Orleans, and northern Canada. The course of the Mississippi River was affected (and with it the boundaries of several states); islands and lakes vanished and new ones were formed; the river was observed to flow backward for a time. Remarkably, there were very few fatalities. After two years the shocks diminished, but small aftershocks were common in the area for nine years or more. The New Madrid Fault is still active, and shakes the region every few years; New Madrid residents sell T-shirts reading, "It's Our Fault." - PJS
File: RcLouEar
===
NAME: Louisiana Girls: see Buffalo Gals (File: R535)
===
NAME: Louisiana Lowlands
DESCRIPTION: Pompey Snow has "a good stiff glass of rum. So they buried him in the lowlands ...." "The fire bells are ringing boys, ... The steamer she is left behind ... so they ...." "This little boy had an augu-er that bored two holes at once ... so they ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-Nova Scotia), from a copy c.1883 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad parody humorous derivative floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-NovaScotia 129, "Louisiana Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS129 (Full)
Roud #1830
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Golden Vanity" [Child 286] (chorus and verse beginning "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice" base for parody)
cf. "A Boy He Had an Auger" (another parody of "The Golden Vanity" verse beginning "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice")
cf. "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" (see notes)
cf. "In the Louisiana Lowlands" (see notes)
NOTES: Creighton-NovaScotia may be all floating verses and fragments. 
Its first verse, chorus and tunes are derived from the anonymous 1859 minstrel song "In the Louisiana Lowlands" which has nothing but form and, vaguely, melody to relate it to the "Golden Vanity"(see Public Domain Music site Music from 1800-1860). [It also reminds me a bit of songs like "Uncle Ned" and "Pompey Squash." - RBW]
[The third verse,] "Some were playing cards .." is either from "The Golden Vanity" or some other parody. The [second] verse beginning "The fire-bells are ringing, boys, there is a fire in town" ... is suggested by "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" (1877) by Henry Clay Work (Source: Public Domain Music site Henry Clay Work (1832-1884))
The "original" "Louisiana Lowlands" air may be found at: LOCSheet, sm1881 03225, "Then Sing Louisiana Lowlands," unknown (New Orleans), 1881 (tune)
If "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" or "In the Louisiana Lowlands" are ever reported in tradition they should be treated as separate songs from this one. - BS
File: CrNS129
===
NAME: Louisville Burglar, The: see The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)
===
NAME: Loupy Lou: see Looby Lou (File: R554)
===
NAME: Lousy Miner, The
DESCRIPTION: "It's four long years since I reached this land In search of gold among the rocks and sand, And yet I'm poor, when the truth is told... I'm a lousy miner In search of shining gold." Tells how the miner lives hard while his girlfriend forgets him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (Put's Original California Songster)
KEYWORDS: mining work separation gold
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Sandburg, p. 107, "(The Lousy Miner)" (1 text found under "Sweet Betsy from Pike")
Lomax-FSNA 175, "The Lousy Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 863-864, "Lousy Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOUSMINR
Roud #4755
File: San107
===
NAME: Lovana
DESCRIPTION: "I once knew a cot, It was humble as could be" around which birds sang and where Lovana lived. The singer describes her beauty as she bathes in the stream. He wishes he were a fish by her boat, or the wind in her hair, or otherwise near her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love courting bird rejection
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Belden, pp. 223-224, "Lovana" (1 text, from a very poor transcription)
Dean, p. 3, "Luluanna" (1 text)
Roud #4649
File: Beld223
===
NAME: Love: see Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)
===
NAME: Love and Whisky
DESCRIPTION: "Love and whisky both, Rejoice an honest fellow." If love leaves a jealous pang or whisky a headache "take another sup" as cure. "May the smiles of love Cheer our lads so clever; And, with whisky, boys, We'll drink King George for ever"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: love drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 73-74, "Love and Whisky" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bobbin Joan" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSong: "The most popular song of the heyday of Irish Volunteerism [beginning 1780] and which song continued a general favourite until the dissolution of the Irish Yeomanry Corps [started to decline about 1812 according to "County Armagh Yeomanry Corps" by Samuel Lutton at the Craigavon Historical Society site]."
File: CkPS073
===
NAME: Love at First Sight
DESCRIPTION: "I went to Ed Haley's, the day it was bright, I met with a woman I loved at first sight." The singer and his love discuss their histories; they agree to marry and live a happy life; she is very good at housework
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 183-184, "Love at First Sight (1 text)
NOTES: According to Thomas, Setters wrote this to help one Tom Willie in his courting: Willie pretended it was his composition rather than by Setters. It seems likely enough; it's not exactly great art. (And, if I were Mrs. Willie, I'd be less than complimented... but then, I'm a modern male, not an early-twentieth-century female). - RBW
File: ThBa183
===
NAME: Love Gregory: see The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)
===
NAME: Love Has Brought Me to Despair [Laws P25]
DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a girl telling of the grief her false love has left her. She seeks a flower in the meadow to ease her mind; none meet her needs. She makes a bed of flowers, asks for a marble stone on her grave and a turtle dove at her breast, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: death separation flowers grief
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW) Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws P25, "Love Has Brought Me to Despair"
Brewster 58, "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus 116, p. 176, "The Auxville Love" (1 text)
JHCox 144, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (1 text)
DT 824, LOVDISPR*
Roud #60
RECORDINGS:
Berzilla Wallin, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (on OldLove)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24]
cf. "Tavern in the Town"
NOTES: This song has close ties with "Tavern in the Town," often sharing stanzas and, of course, a similarity of plot. Roud, in fact, lumps them (which seems a bit excessive to me). This may help explain why Laws failed to note either the Combs or the Cox version. - RBW
File: LP25
===
NAME: Love in a Tub (The Merchant Outwitted) [Laws N25]
DESCRIPTION: A vintner needs the consent of his sweetheart's rich father to obtain a dowry. The girl hides in one of her father's wine casks, and the vintner offers to buy its contents. The merchant agrees -- only to have his daughter revealed. He blesses the marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (chapbook by James Magee)
KEYWORDS: marriage courting trick hiding wine
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws N25, "Love in a Tub (The Merchant Outwitted)"
Belden, pp. 233-234, "Love in the Tub" (1 text)
DT 454, LOVETUB
Roud #556
NOTES: In 1664, Sir George Etherege produced a play called "The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub." The plot is unrelated, and Etherege never produced anything else of even this minimal degree of note. - RBW
File: LN25
===
NAME: Love is Lovely: see Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) AND Carrickfergus (File: K149)
===
NAME: Love is Pleasin' (II): see Waly Waly (The Water is Wide); also Fair and Tender Ladies AND Love is Teasing (File: K149)
===
NAME: Love is Pleasing (I)
DESCRIPTION: 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Love is Teasing
File: Rits024
===
NAME: Love is Teasing
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, love is teasing and love is pleasing, And love is a pleasure when first it's new, But as it grows older, it grows the colder...." Lyric piece about  the dangers of love: The singer gave up family and home, (and now has a baby without a father)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1953 (recording, Jean Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment baby nonballad home floatingverses
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 24, "Oh, Love Is Teasin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 70, "Love is Pleasin'" (1 text, 1 tune, of four verses, two of which might go here, one belongs with "Fair and Tender Ladies," and the fourth could be from several sources; it could be a "Waly Waly" variant)
Roud #1049
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" and references there
NOTES: This probably originated as a "Waly Waly" variant, and it can be very hard to tell whether a fragment belongs with one or the other (note the Lomax "Love is Pleasin'" text, which suffers from the additional handicap of being in a Lomax publication; I gave up and listed it both places). I finally decided that there are enough songs which don't say "Waly waly" or "The water is wide" to split then.
It does leave an interesting genealogical question, though: You could produce "Waly Waly" by combining this with "Jamie Douglas," or you could start with "Waly Waly" and have this split off while a few verses floated into the longer ballad. Or it could just all float.
Moral of the story: Be sure to check entries under both songs. - RBW
File: Rits024
===
NAME: Love Laughs at Locksmiths: see The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)
===
NAME: Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails)
DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives after a long journey, and appeals to the girl: "It rains, it blows, it hails, it snows ... love let me in." At first she turns him away because she is home alone. She changes her mind, takes him to bed and he marries her the next day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Purslow)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex nightvisit
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Leach-Labrador 48, "Love, Let Me In" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FORTYLNG*
Roud #608
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (plot)
cf. "Let Me In This Ae Nicht" (plot)
File: LLab048
===
NAME: Love Me or No
DESCRIPTION: "[I] will sing you a song, the best in my heart, For you know very well I have a sweetheart... But if he won't love me, kind sir, won't you?" If one lad proves false, she'll happily turn to another; "I don't care a straw whether you love me or no."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell abandonment
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, p. 493, "Love Me or No" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Beld493
===
NAME: Love O'God Razor: see The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)
===
NAME: Love Somebody, Yes I Do
DESCRIPTION: "Love somebody, yes I do (x3), Love somebody, but I won't tell who. Love somebody, yes I do (x3), And I hope somebody loves me too." "...Love somebody, yes I do, 'Tween sixteen and twenty-two."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (recording, Sid Harkreader)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Sandburg, pp. 140-141, "Love Somebody, Yes I Do" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Chase, p. 206, "I Love Somebody, Yes I Do" (1 tune, presumably this piece)
Silber-FSWB, p. 141, "Love Somebody, Yes I Do" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Barefoot Boys ,"I Love Somebody" (OKeh 45217, 1928)
Crook Brothers String Band, "Love Somebody" (Victor V-40099, 1929)
Sid Harkreader, "Love Somebody" (Vocalion 14887, 1924)
Land Norris, "I Love Somebody" (OKeh 45033, c. 1926; rec. 1925; on CrowTold02)

CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier's Joy" (tune)
File: San140
===
NAME: Love Token, The: see A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29] (File: LN29)
===
NAME: Love Will Find Out the Way
DESCRIPTION: "Over the mountains and under the waves, Over the fountains and under the graves... Love will find the way." A catalog of the paths love follows, and a praise of its overwhelming power
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1794 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 205-207, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 232-234, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 text)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 189-190, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #13167
File: FVS205
===
NAME: Love-of-God Shave, The (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15]
DESCRIPTION: Paddy asks the barber for a shave on credit. The barber is prepared; he has a razor just for such people. The injured Paddy flees the shop. Some time later, he hears a jackass bray near the shop and assumes someone else asked for a love-of-God shave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1858
KEYWORDS: humorous animal trick
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(England(South)) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Laws Q15, "The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave)"
Belden, pp. 249-251, "The Monkey Turned Barber" (3 texts, but only B2 is the piece; A and B1 are "The Monkey Turned Barber")
Warner 178, "Lather and Shave" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 120, "Lather and Shave" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 136, "Love O'God Razor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 211-212, "The Love-of-God Shave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 227, "The Irish Barber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 83, "Lather and Shave" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 483, "The Trust Shave" (source notes only)
DT 526, LOVEGOD
Roud #571
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(197), "Lather Em, Shave Em," John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852; also Harding B 11(1927), "Lather 'Em, Shave 'Em"; Harding B 11(2085), Harding B 11(2632), "Lather-Em, Shave-Em"; Firth c.26(49), Harding B 11(1867), Harding B 11(1868), Harding B 11(2633), "[A] Love of God Shave" ; Firth b.27(285), "The Love o' Good Shave"
LOCSinging, sb20272b, "Lather and Shave," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as202090, "Lather and Shave"
Murray, Mu23-y1:067, "Lather 'Em, Shave 'Em," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(082), "A Love of God Shave," unknown, c.1870
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(285) is hard to read but has the tune as something like "Flare Up Neddy."
Broadside LOCSinging sb20272b: 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: LQ15
===
NAME: Love's Adieu
DESCRIPTION: "The e'e o' the dawn, Eliza, Blinks over the dark, green sea... Yet still my dowie heart lingers To catch one sweet throb mair." The singer says they have been blessed, but he must go (for no explained reason); he promises to remember and return
AUTHOR: Joseph Grant
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord); Grant died 1835
KEYWORDS: love courting separation
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 43-44, "Love's Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3788
File: Ord043
===
NAME: Love's Parting: see The Faithful Rambler (Jamie and Mary, Love's Parting) (File: HHH825)
===
NAME: Love's Young Dream
DESCRIPTION: "Oh! the days are gone ... When my dream of life, from morn till night, Was love" First love "'twas light, that ne'er can shine again On life's dull stream!"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3385))
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 110, "Love's Young Dream" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3385), "Love's Young Dream", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844 
NOTES: Not one of Moore's more successful pieces; Granger's Index to Poetry lists only two anthologies containing it, and there seem to be few traditional collections. - RBW
File: OCon110
===
NAME: Loved by a Man
DESCRIPTION: There was a rich young girl courted by an Irish lad who "has left her and gone far away" Her beauty has faded; "see what it comes to [to] be loved by a man." If he returns "she'll crown him with joy." She is "bound in love-chains and can never be free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection separation beauty floatingverses nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 37, "Loved by a Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5232
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)

NOTES: This song has floating lines rather floating verses such as "Her cheeks they were once like the bud of a rose, But now they're as pale as the lily that grows." - BS
File: RcLoBaMa
===
NAME: Lovely Ann
DESCRIPTION: The singer's friends take him to Belfast to sail to America on the Union and leave Ann behind. The ship hits a rock off Rathlin in a storm. All passengers reach shore in boats. He decides to stay home with Ann rather than try to sail to America again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1826 (chapbook by James Smyth, Belfast, according to Leyden)
KEYWORDS: emigration reunion separation sea ship storm wreck America
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 26, 1822 - The _Union_ out of Belfast, bound for St Andrews, New Brunswick, is wrecked on Rathlin Island. The passengers were rescued and returned to Belfast (source: Leyden).
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Greig #108, pp. 2-3, "Sweet Charming Ann" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan1 24, "Sweet Charming Ann" (1 text)
Leyden 34, "Lovely Ann" (1 text)
Logan, pp. 56-58, "Lament for the Loss of the Ship Union" (1 text)
Roud #5804
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 5, "Lovely Ann ("When I was young and in my prime"), T. Batchelar (London), 1828-1832; also Harding B 11(2221), Harding B 11(2222), "Lovely Ann"; Harding B 11(4087), "Lovely Anne"
Murray, Mu23-y1:032, "Lovely Ann," James Lindsay Junr(Glasgow), 19C
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Loss of the Ship Union
NOTES: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v2, p. 17 lists this as an 1822 wreck without further details; his source is Tommy Cecil, _The Harsh Winds of Rathlin_. Leyden has details from the _News Letter_ and notes that "many of the details in the song contradict those reported in the _News Letter_." - BS
File: Leyd034
===
NAME: Lovely Annie
DESCRIPTION: Annie promisedsto be true but while the singer is in "the North Highlands to work by the day" she marries someone else. He would have preferred transportation. His "mind turns to madness since Annie's away" His master threatens to send him to Bedlam.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation betrayal madness
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 163-164, "Lovely Annie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5331
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "False Mallie" (theme: a man driven "mad" by a woman's infidelity) 
cf. "The Green Bushes, The [Laws P2]," particularly the "Nut Bushes" version (theme: a man driven "mad" by a woman's infidelity)
File: TSF164
===
NAME: Lovely Annie (I): see William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)
===
NAME: Lovely Annie (II): see Polly Oliver (Pretty Polly) [Laws N14] (File: LN14)
===
NAME: Lovely Annie (III): see The Last Letter (File: GrMa101)
===
NAME: Lovely Armoy
DESCRIPTION: The singer is preparing to leave Armoy. He recalls all the pleasures and beauties of home. He describes his sad farewell from the girl he loves. Now in Belfast, he can write no more, as he must board the ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation parting
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H9, p. 186, "Lovely Armoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13541
File: HHH009
===
NAME: Lovely Banks of Boyne, The [Laws P22]
DESCRIPTION: The singer is courted by Jimmie, who wins his way into her heart and her bed but then abandons her. She hears that he is married to a rich lady in London. She must remain in Dublin, far from her love and her home by the Boyne
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(316))
KEYWORDS: seduction separation betrayal
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws P22, "The Lovely Banks of the Boyne"
Morton-Ulster 17, "The Banks of the Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 160, "The Lovely Banks of Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 104-105, "The Banks of Boyne" (1 text)
DT 504, LOVLBOYN
Roud #995
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(316), "Poor Flora on the Banks of Boyne," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
NOTES: The following broadsides could not be read and verified: Bodleian, Harding B 11(3079), "Poor Flora on the Banks of the Boyne," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; Bodleian, Harding B 11(3078), "Poor Flora on the Banks of the Boyne," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844 - BS
File: LP22
===
NAME: Lovely Banks of Mourne, The
DESCRIPTION: A farmer's son sees a girl bathing by the banks of the Mourne. He hides behind a bush to watch. At last she sees him and flees. He pursues, and offers her his hand and produce. She consents to marry. The singer will not reveal her name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes marriage
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H595, p.468 , "The Lovely Banks of Mourne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9454
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112] (subject)
NOTES: Sort of a "Clear Away the Morning Dew" with the ending reversed. It's not nearly as much fun, though, which doubtless explains its limited currency. - RBW
File: HHH595
===
NAME: Lovely Banna Strand
DESCRIPTION: A German ship is bringing 20,000 rifles for the Irish rebels, but the car which was to meet the Germans crashes. The rifles are not delivered, and Sir Roger Casement, who planned the affair, is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion execution injury wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1916 - The Casement affair (also the Easter Rising)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 45, "Lonely Banna Strand" (1 text, 1 tune)
PGalvin, pp. 57-58, "Lovely Banna Strand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5234
NOTES: During the bloody stalemate of 1915-1917, both sides in the First World War sought ways out of the dilemma. Britain tried "peripheral strategies" (her reward being the Gallipoli campaign); Germany dabbled with submarine warfare.
The Casement Affair was another of these sideshows. Ireland wanted freedom (they had been granted Home Rule in 1914, but the war and the disturbances halted its implementation; that plus the absence of many loyalists in the trenches caused a slow but steady increase among forces devoted to rebellion in Ireland); the Germans wanted to distract the British. It was an ideal match.
Roger Casement (1864-1916) was a Protestant who was knighted for his investigations into European cruelty in Africa. Despite this, he became an Irish patriot in the decade before World War One. One might almost think this disturbed his reason.
In 1914, Casement went to Germany and negotiated a "treaty." Among its other provisions, it offered to form Irish prisoners of war into an "Irish Brigade" to fight for Germany. (It turned out to be more of an Irish Platoon; a total of 55 soldiers chose to join it. See Robert Kee, _The Bold Fenian Men_, being volume II of _The Green Flag_, pp. 246-250.) In exchange, Germany would recognize Ireland. It would also, "[i]n the event of a German naval victory affording a means of reaching the coast of Ireland," send forces to Ireland.
Of course, the British navy was much larger than the German, and the Germans never won their victory. They only made one attempt -- at Jutland -- and while more British than German ships went down there, it was a clear British strategic victory. The German navy acted like a whipped cur for the rest of the war, and the sailors actually revolted rather than go to sea in 1918.
In 1916, Casement was still in Germany, being ignored by all parties. Indeed, he had spent time in a sanatorium (Kee, p. 264), and plans were made to retire him to America. Then came the news of the Easter Rising. Germany decided to give this some very elementary support -- a tramp steamer carrying 20,000 rifles captured from the Russians (and probably not in very good condition), with minimal ammunition and a handful of machine guns.
Casement was horrified at this pinch-penny scheme; it was too little too late. No troops were to be sent, only the weapons. His protests achieved one thing: He was sent along with the arms. On April 9, 1916, the weapons set sail on the _Aud_ (also known, to the Germans at least, as the _Libau_; Kee, p. 266), a ship so cheap that she did not have a radio; she was disguised as a Norwegian freighter. Casement was to come on a submarine.
The Irish never made contact with the _Aud_; the ship showed up in Tralee Bay, but no one was expecting her until later. She waited a day for someone to meet her, was ignored, and left. Eventually the British (who knew many details of the plot) found the ship. Ordered to head for Queenstown, the _Aud's_ captain blew her up before she arrived in harbor (April 22).
Casement had set out by submarine on April 12. Somehow the sub (U19) and the _Aud_ failed to make contact. So the boat's captain put Casement ashore at Banna Strand. He was captured on Good Friday and recognized; on April 22 -- the same day the _Aud_ was blown up -- he was sent to London. He was hanged for treason on August 3, 1916.
The Casement affair incidentally put another nail in the coffin of the Easter Rebellion. The rebels desperately needed weapons, and Casement failed to deliver. What's more, the rebels were only a minority even within the Irish Volunteer movement -- and the official and public leader of the Volunteers, Eoin MacNeill, didn't like the idea. He was left out of the initial planning, told only at the last minute, and convinced to go along with the help of forged documents. (MacNeill was something of a figurehead; Michael Foy and Brian Barton, _The Easter Rising_, p. 5, note that he was a university professor with the moderate leanings one would expect of such a man; Bulmer Hobson -- himself too moderate for the fire-eaters -- found him as someone who looked respectable. MacNeill never did really control the Volunteers -- but a lot of the moderate Volunteers thought he did, which would lead to much confusion in 1916.)
When the Casement affair came out, MacNeill went all out to stop the Rebellion. It didn't stop the Dublin rebels -- but it kept the rest of the country quiet. Rather than helping rebellion, Casement's cloak-and-dagger-and-puffery operation hurt it (Kee, p. 262).
His death, however, proved very valuable to the rebel cause. After a series of quick executions following the Easter Rising, the British govenment halted the shootings and simply imprisoned the surviving rebels. But Casement was treated as a separate case. He was tried and convicted, and the British parliament saw no reason to halt his execution, which took place on August 3. The British also released his diary; this seemed to show that he was homosexual (though charges were made that the references were interpolations). In any case, his death seemed to confirm that the British still were abusing the Irish. (See Kee, _Ourselves Alone_, being volume III of _The Green Flag_, pp. 12-14). - RBW
File: PGa057
===
NAME: Lovely Caroline: see Caroline of Edinborough Town [Laws P27] (File: LP27)
===
NAME: Lovely Georgie: see Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)
===
NAME: Lovely Glenshesk (I)
DESCRIPTION: The singer has been "forced to my pen To write down the praises of the top of the glen." He tells of the birds and the hills of his home in Glenshesk, which he must leave tomorrow. His family has been there for generations; he grieves to depart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home rambling
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H544, pp. 165-166, "Lovely Glenshesk (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13476
NOTES: The singer claims his family has been present in Glenshesk since the Battle of Orra. All I've been able to learn about this battle is that it took place in the sixteenth century. - RBW
File: HHH544
===
NAME: Lovely Glenshesk (II)
DESCRIPTION: "This evening I take my departure from the lovely town where I was bred"; he is bidding farewell to friends and relatives. Having come of age, he must go to "a far foreign land." He describes the temptations faced by humanity, and hopes to avoid them
AUTHOR: John McCormick (?)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection; tune collected 1905?)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H28a, pp. 194-195, "Lovely Glenshesk (IIa)"; H547, pp. 195-196, "In Praise of the Glen" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 175-176, "Lovely Glenshesk" (1 text)
Roud #5281
NOTES: The Biblical allusion, "The Israelites they were in bondage and they murmured at their going away," actually refers to a multitude of troubles during the Exodus; whenever the Israelites faced problems, or just decided they were tired of something, they "murmured" and talked about going back to Egypt.
A handful of examples: Exodus 14:10ff. (the people are afraid when pursued by Pharaoh); Exodus 16:2ff. (the people demand meat); Exodus 17:2ff. (the people want water); Numbers 11:4ff. (more demands for meat).
The story of the serpent tempting Eve is found in Genesis 3. - RBW
File: HHH028a
===
NAME: Lovely Irish Maid, The
DESCRIPTION: Two lovers talk on Blackwater-side. He says "when I'm in Americay I'll be true to my Irish maid." She says "in Americay some pretty girls you will see." She says many who have crossed the Atlantic are drowned so "stay on shore." We assume he leaves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting parting dialog lover  emigration
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 551-552, "The Lovely Irish Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCanainn, pp. 80-81, "Blackwater Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6319
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Down By Blackwaterside" (plot, lyrics)
NOTES: Kennedy lumps this with "Down By Blackwaterside," and I have to admit that there are strong points of contact, both lyric and in plot. This song, however, appears to take a slightly different direction, so I have, with much hesitation, split them. - RBW
The OCanainn text adds a verse to Peacock and ends "I'll stay at home and I'll not roam from my lovely Irish Maid." - BS
File: Pea551
===
NAME: Lovely Jamie
DESCRIPTION: Brothers Jamie and Darby sell their peat and drink away the proceeds. They enlist in the army and are sent to the Crimea. At Sevastopol, Jamie loses his legs. The rest of the song wonders how the family will survive with him crippled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: war soldier drink injury disability
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
Nov 5, 1854 - Battle of Inkerman clears the way for the siege of Sevastopol (the city fell in the fall of 1855)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H618, pp. 85-86, "Lovely Jamie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9045
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Patrick Sheehan" [Laws J11] (plot)
cf. "Mrs. McGrath" (plot)
File: HHH618
===
NAME: Lovely Jane from Enniskea
DESCRIPTION: Willy Bell meets Jane McCann. Neither recognizes the other. He asks her to marry but she is still waiting for Willy after ten years. He shows her the ring she had given him before he left for America. She welcomes him home. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation marriage America Ireland ring reunion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Morton-Maguire 5, pp. 9,101,157, "Lovely Jane from Enniskea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2901
RECORDINGS:
John Maguire, "Lovely Jane from Enniskea" (on IRJMaguire01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rocks of Bawn" (tune)
NOTES: Morton-Maguire: "The tune is the same as is generally used for 'The Rocks of Bawn' and also used for 'The Maid of Magheracloon'." Morton speculates that the Enniskea of the song is in Co. Louth. - BS
File: MoMa005
===
NAME: Lovely Jimmy: see Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)
===
NAME: Lovely Joan
DESCRIPTION: Young man, out riding, comes upon Joan. He offers her a ring/purse of gold in return for a roll in the hay; she says the ring is more use to her than 20 maidenheads. She takes the ring, then hops on his horse and rides off to her true love's gate.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909
KEYWORDS: virtue seduction bargaining trick virginity
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Sharp-100E 57, "Sweet Lovely Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 64, "Lovely Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SWTJOAN SWTLJOAN* SWTJOAN4*
Roud #592
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid and the Horse" (plot)
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" (Child 43) and references there
NOTES: Damn fool. -PJS
In Sharp's bowdlerized version, the young man asks Joan to marry him and says that the purse of gold is worth more than twenty husbands! - (PJS)
File: ShH57
===
NAME: Lovely Johnny: see Johnny, Lovely Johnny (File: RcJoLoJo)
===
NAME: Lovely Katie of Liskehaun
DESCRIPTION: The singer loves "lovely Katie of Liskehaun" from afar; she is "far superior in wealth." If Paris had seen her he would have chosen her over Helen. He leaves at summer end but he'll be back to "make application to my sweet young Katie"
AUTHOR: C.T. Ahern (per broadside Bodleian 2806 c.8(271))
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(383))
KEYWORDS: love beauty money travel
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn 99, "Lovely Katie of Liskehaun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3048
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(383), "Lovely Katey of Liskehan," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(271), "Lovely Katty of Liscahah"; Harding B 26(384), "Lovely Keaty of Liskehan"
LOCSinging, as108160, "Lovely Katey of Liskehan," P. Brereton (Dublin), 19C
NOTES: In the nitpicky footnotes department, Paris (son of Priam) didn't exactly "pick" Helen of Troy. At the Judgment of Paris, he was to choose the fairest goddess among Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera. All offered him bribes, and Aphrodite's bribe was the hand of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Paris left Oenone, the wife he had actually chosen, went off to gather in Helen, and -- well, you know the rest. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as108160 appears to be the same as Bodleian Harding B 26(383) printed by P. Brereton (Dublin). - BS
File: OLoc099
===
NAME: Lovely Katie-o
DESCRIPTION: Katie agrees to marry the singer but marries Mike Whelan instead
AUTHOR: Mark Walker
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity marriage
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 69, "Lovely Katie-o" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LeBe069
===
NAME: Lovely Lowland Maid, The
DESCRIPTION: Mary Ann sends her sailor away "because he looked so poor." She invites him in when he shows her "a purse of gold" Now he rejects her. She and another suitor kill the sailor for his gold. There is a witness. Both are condemned to die.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: greed infidelity warning betrayal murder poverty money trial punishment sailor
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 620-621, "The Lovely Lowland Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea620 (Partial)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Cruel Lowland Maid
The Little Lowland Maid
NOTES: The Lesley Nelson-Burns site Folk Music of England Scotland Ireland, Wales & America collection includes a text named The Little Lowland Maid with a note that "This appeared on a broadside entitled The Cruel Lowland Maid that was printed by Ryle." - BS
File: Pea620
===
NAME: Lovely Mary Ann: see Blooming Mary Ann (File: Peac505)
===
NAME: Lovely Mary Donnelly
DESCRIPTION: "O lovely Mary Donnelly, my joy, my only best, If fifty girls were round you, I'd love you still the best." He describes her face and hair. He falls in love with her at a dance. She has many sweethearts. He is poor and has no hope of winning her.
AUTHOR: William Allingham (1824-1889) (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888 (Sparling); 1887? (_Irish Songs and Poems_?, suggested by OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: love beauty dancing nonballad hair poverty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 53, "Lovely Mary Donnelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 247-248, 495, "Lovely Mary Donnelly"
NOTES: William Allingham is known primarily for one piece, "The Fairies" ("Up the eairy mountain, Down the rushy glen"). Nonetheless he was a fairly major poet in his day; Patrick C. Power, _A Literary History of Ireland_, p. 159, writes "William Allingham was coeval also with the 'lost generation' [apparently the famine era] but he survived until 1888. He dispersed his talents imitating English poets such as Tennyson and his poetry is tinged with... pre-Raphaelitism.... Nevertheless, he wrote some ballads in the country style and poems inspired by his native Ballyshannon in County Donegal.... It appears that Allingham allowed himself to feel apart from the traditions of his native country...." - RBW
File: OLcM053
===
NAME: Lovely Molly (I): see Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)
===
NAME: Lovely Molly (II): see Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)
===
NAME: Lovely Molly (III): see Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (I) [Laws N33]
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl and asks her what she is doing so far from home. She says she is seeking her love, gone these three years. He takes out his half of their broken ring and agrees to marry her and stay at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (Creighton/Senior)
KEYWORDS: separation brokentoken marriage
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws N33, "Lovely Nancy I"
Creighton/Senior, pp. 187-188, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 746, LOVNANC2*
Roud #1449
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
File: LN33
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (II): see Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy (File: E153D)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (III): see Cupid's Garden (Covent Garden I; Lovely Nancy III) (File: SWMS090)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (IV)
DESCRIPTION: In this confused song, the singer courts a girl, who accuses him of not loving her. He claims he courted her only in jest. As he leaves her, she "hopes you and I will be judged on one day." If he survives his voyage, he hopes to return and ease her pain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment separation floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H637, p. 385, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #443
NOTES: This partakes of so many songs it's almost impossible to list them. The first verse is "When first into this country"; the last is "The Diamonds of Derry" or something similar. In between, we see lines or themes from "The Blacksmith," "The Wagoner's Lad," and any number of other betrayed love songs. There are also a few catch phrases from other "Lovely Nancy" songs. But I can't see that the result qualifies as a version of any of these myriad sources.
The notes in Sam Henry posit a link to Laws H12, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter," with which Roud lumps the song. Belden also alludes to the link, but says (correctly, in my view) that they are simply pieces on a similar theme. - RBW
File: HHH637
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (V): see William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (VI)
DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Nancy. She and her mother reject me. Nancy marries "a boasty captain." He meet her walking in the fields; she bows her head and turns away. She knows she would have been happier with him. Young girls don't "throw your first love away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage rejection warning mother
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, p. 477, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9792
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Floating lines shared with The Banks of Sweet Primroses: Come all young girls I pray take warning, Don't ever throw your first love away, For there's many a dark and cloudy morning Brings forth a pleasant sunshiny day." - BS
File: Pea477
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (VII): see Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy from England (I): see Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy from England (II): see Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: LP05)
===
NAME: Lovely Newfoundlander, The
DESCRIPTION: "You may sing of maids of many lands," but none beats the Newfoundlander. Her form is perfect, she is sweet, lovely, can row a boat, catch a fish, garden, "her brain is sharp as needles," she knows when and when not to talk, can sing and dance, etc.
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: beauty dancing flowers lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 370-371, "The Lovely Newfoundlander" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9788
File: Pea370
===
NAME: Lovely Ohio, The
DESCRIPTION: The listeners are urged to emigrate to Ohio. The delights of the country are described: fish in the river, good cropland, sugar cane, no Indians. Both men and women are encouraged to come
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: emigration home nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 39, "The Lovely Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 563, "We'll Hunt the Buffalo!" (1 text, 1 tune, with the chorus of "Shoot the Buffalo" and lyrics from "The Lovely Ohio")
BrownIII 77, "Shoot the Buffalo" (1 text, called "Ohio" by the informant and clearly this piece rather than "Shoot the Buffalo," though the two do mix)
DT, OHIOBNKS*
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Banks of the Pleasant Ohio
File: LoF039
===
NAME: Lovely Polly: see I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening) (File: Beld194)
===
NAME: Lovely Sally (You Broken-Hearted Heroes)
DESCRIPTION: Jamie, a militiaman, is being sent overseas. Sally comes with him to Belfast, and cries at their parting. She left her parents for him; how can she go back? Jamie's father promises to care for her. The song concludes with a wish for all militiamen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation father mother home abandonment war
FOUND_IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H549, pp. 81-82, "You Broken-Hearted Heroes" ; H 724, pp. 82-83, "Lovely Sally" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 111, "The Spanish Shore" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Moylan 178, "The Spanish Volunteer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9046 and 2784
NOTES: Sam Henry's two texts of this song are very similar though not identical; the same simply cannot be said of the two tunes. The first, said by Sean O'Boyle to be "The Winding Banks of Erne," is in G major and 6/8 time -- and takes shoehorning to fit the text. The second, though listed as being in G, looks to be in E minor, and is in 4/4. It fits the song much better, as well. The third tune, Creighton's, is in 4/4, but not identical to the Henry tune, though much of that may be the way Angelo Dornan ornamented it. It's clearly in G, though.
The two Irish versions do not say where the battle took place. In Angelo Dornan's Canadian fragment, though, the battle is located on the Spanish shore. Could this be a localized version? If so, then Ben Schwartz (based solely on Creighton; we had not at the time noticed that this was the same song as the Irish version) suggests this localization:
"My guess is that this refers to Irish participation on the Cristino side of the First Carlist [or Seven Years] War (for example, with the British Auxiliary Legion 1835-1837 (7th Irish Light Infantry, 9th Irish, 10th Munster Light Infantry, 2nd Lancers Queen's Own Irish) as at San Sebastian 5 May 1836 (source} Stephen Thomas's site re Military History and Wargaming)"
The above suggestion makes sense, though the possibility also exists that it's from Wellington's Peninsular campaign, or the various conflicts over Gibraltar and Minorca. We probably won't know for certain unless a more explicit text shows up. - RBW, BS
Moylan makes this a reference to the Peninsular War (1808-1814). It might refer to Irish participation on the Cristino [supporting Queen Christina] side in the First Carlist War (for example, with the British Auxiliary Legion 1835-1837 (7th Irish Light Infantry, 9th Irish, 10th Munster Light Infantry, 2nd Lancers Queen's Own Irish) as at San Sebastian 5 May 1836 (source} Stephen Thomas's site re Military History and Wargaming) 
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, "Armagh Volunteer" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)). 
Harte's final verse is substantially the same as the Creighton-SNewBrunswick 111 fragment.
Harte, like Moylan, has this refer to the Peninsular War. "It is significant that the 'volunteer' in the song says that 'He was for ced to take the bounty and then to sail awa.'" - BS
File: HHH549
===
NAME: Lovely Susan: see The British Man-of-War (File: FSC013)
===
NAME: Lovely Willie [Laws M35]
DESCRIPTION: A girl with many rich suitors is in love with Willie. The speaks of running away with him. Her father overhears and stabs Willie to death. At Willie's burial the girl openly rejects her father, vowing to spend the rest of her life in exile or die for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: murder courting father elopement
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Laws M35, "Lovely Willie"
Randolph 113, "Lovely William" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 30, "Lovely Willie's Sweetheart" (1 text)
SHenry H587, p. 433, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 138, "Lovely Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 55, "Lovely Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 456-457, "Green Grow the Laurels" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 66, "The Father in Ambush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 19, "Lovely Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 107, "Lovely Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 71, "Green Grow the Rushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 436, LOVLYWLL LOVJAMIE
Roud #1913
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Lovely Willie" (on IRPTunney02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low" [Laws M34] (plot)
cf. "The Green Brier Shore (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Lover's Curse (Kellswater)" (themes)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lovely Jamie
Willy
NOTES: The last verse of Peacock starts "Oh green grow the laurels and the tops of them small But love is a phantom will conquer us all," which is the form that resembles the beginning of the last verse of "Nancy from London"; that ends the similarity. - BS
This fragment also ends the Manny/Wilson version (and gives it its title); evidently that was a Canadian adaption.
There is at least one documented instance of this happening in Ireland: In 1798, just before the Rebellion, Lord Kingston was on trial for the murder of his daughter's seducer. - RBW
File: LM35
===
NAME: Lovely Willie's Sweetheart: see Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)
===
NAME: Lovely Youth Called James McKee, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer loves wonderful James McKee. "I'm now despised, that once was prized, by him that I still adore." They had planned their wedding. "Him for to blame 'twould be a shame, 'twas these false maids led him astray." Warning: "tell your minds to none"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection warning
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 91-92, "The Lovely Youth Called James McKee" (1 text)
Roud #6540
File: HayU091
===
NAME: Lover and His Lass, A: see It Was a Lover and His Lass (File: FSWB155B)
===
NAME: Lover's Curse, The (Kellswater)
DESCRIPTION: The girl tells how she will curse any woman who courts Willie. Her father gives her two choices: Send Willie away or see him die. When she scorns the choices, he imprisons her. Willie promises he will not leave Ireland without her. The father relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1907 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: love separation father hardheartedness poverty courting marriage violence travel death sailor
FOUND_IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
SHenry H695, pp. 442-443, "Kellswater" (1 text, 1 tune); also at least portions of H112, p. 288, "A Sweetheart's Appeal to Her Lover/Oh, It's down Where the Water Runs Muddy" (1 text, 1 tune, compiled from three different versions. I rather doubt the three versions were the same song, but at least part of it appears to go here)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 70, "On Board the Gallee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 45, "Jimmy and I Will Get Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KELLWATR KELLSWTR
Roud #916
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy Heffernan, "In Bristol There Lived a Fair Maiden" (on Ontario1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low" [Laws M34] (theme)
cf. "Lovely Willie" [Laws M35] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Bonnie Kellswater
NOTES: The first few versions I met of this all seemed to start with the line, "Here's a health unto bonnie Kellswater," which seems to be the Irish form of the song. By far the larger fraction of the collections, however, seem to be from Canada, mostly from Fowke. Paul Stamler gives this description of the songs of this type:
A lady of [Bristol/London] is courted by sailor Jimmy, but her father opposes the match. She promises her father that, should she marry, it would be to an equal; he tells her that he's pleased, for he's found her a good match. She confesses that she loves Jimmy, and writes him a letter. They sneak up the stairs, but her father confronts them, holding a "fusee." He tells the daughter to choose between Jimmy's leaving or being shot; she tells him she'd rather see him sail than have innocent blood shed. The father relents and allows the marriage. - RBW/PJS
Edith Fowke notes that she was unable to find this ballad in any British or North American collection; neither was I. Plenty of father-opposes-match, of course, but none with precisely this story, never mind this ending. Fowke notes, "The reference to a 'loaded fusee' suggests a 17th-century origin, for according to the Oxford Dictionary, the term 'fusee' was used for a light musket or firelock between 1661 and 1680." Jim Heffernan, of Peterborough, Ont., learned the ballad from Jim Doherty, an older man who learned it from his mother. Her parents came from Ireland in the 1830s; therefore Fowke suspects an Irish origin for the song. - PJS
The Sam Henry version of this is very confused in viewpoint, with parts spoken by an outside observer and (seemingly) both the girl and the boy. One suspects some imported material. The plot seems undamaged by this. - RBW
File: HHH442
===
NAME: Lover's Ghost (I), The: see The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)
===
NAME: Lover's Ghost (II), The: see The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248] (File: C248)
===
NAME: Lover's Lament (II), The: see Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)
===
NAME: Lover's Lament (III), The: see Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)
===
NAME: Lover's Lament for her Sailor, The: see I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)
===
NAME: Lover's Lament, The: see My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)
===
NAME: Lover's Resolution
DESCRIPTION: Singer's lover slights her "because I have not riches to disguise his poverty" If she were queen of England she'd resign the crown for him. She would travel with him "from seaport town to town," but he has left.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: poverty love rejection floatingverses nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: ()

BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(299), "The Lover's Resolution ("Love it is a killing thing, I've heard the people say"), T. Wilson (Whitehaven), n.d.
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Girl" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bonny Tavern Green" (lyrics)
NOTES: The description is from broadside Bodleian Firth c.13(299)
Floating verses: from "The Irish Girl": "Oh, love it is a killing thing, I hear the people say." The queen of England line ("Was I queen of England, as queen Anne was before") is shared with "Bonny Tavern Green." There are lines that seem like floaters but are not lines I know. For example, "O was my love a red rose growing on yon Castle wall, And I myself a drop of dew all on the leaves would fall." - BS
File: BrdLoRes
===
NAME: Lover's Return (I), The: see The Last Farewell (The Lover's Return) (File: R761)
===
NAME: Lover's Return (II), The: see The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)
===
NAME: Lover's Return (III), The
DESCRIPTION: Mostly floating verses: "If I had listened to mother, I would not a-been here today." "Let him go, let him go, God bless him, He's mine where ever he may be." "I have a ship out on the ocean." At the end, "My own sweet Robert" arrives from over the sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: love separation return reunion floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuson, p. 111, "The Lover's Return" (1 text)
Roud #16411
NOTES: There may be a line or two in this song not paralleled elsewhere. There may not, too. But the combination is unique: The first verse and the "Let him go" chorus imply a betrayal song, the second verse is the floating "I have a ship on the ocean... but before my true love would suffer"; the last verse is closest to unique as it involves the man's return. - RBW
File: Fus111
===
NAME: Lover's Trial, The
DESCRIPTION: A listener hears a man and woman talking about marriage. She rejects him because she loves another who is "far away on the foaming ocean." He leaves and the listener reveals himself as her long lost lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting reunion separation dialog flowers
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 553-554, "The Lover's Trial" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea553 (Partial)
Roud #9794
NOTES: Peacock discusses the "fertility symbolism of the garden" and [observes] that "each flower of the garden has its own meaning." - BS
 For a catalog of some of the sundry flower symbols, see the notes to "The Broken-Hearted Gardener." - RBW
File: Pea553
===
NAME: Lovers Parted
DESCRIPTION: To the tune of "The Ship That Never Returned": Two lovers quarrel as he prepares to seek his fortune. Both regret the quarrel, but they are never reunited. Listeners are warned against quarreling
AUTHOR: Music by Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation farewell warning travel
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 215, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text, filed as "a" under the parodies, plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #6552
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship that Never Returned" [Laws D27] (tune, lyrics) and references there
File: BrII215A
===
NAME: Lovers' Farewell (I)
DESCRIPTION: The girl laments that her love came and bade her farewell, then went to war in the Low Country. He fought, and none knew where he fell. Now "he may sleep in an open grave, But I will wake on my pallet of grief...."
AUTHOR: unknown ("collected" by John Jacob Niles)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: parting death separation grief war
FOUND_IN: US(SE?)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Niles 17A, "Lover's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune, dubiously labelled as Child 26)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Three Ravens [Child 26]" (lyrics)
cf. "The Highland Widow's Lament" (plot)
NOTES: Niles lists this piece as a form of "The Three Ravens," on the basis of a few lyric similarities ("evensong"; "No man knows that he lies there / But his horse and his hound and his lady Mary"; "Oh, he may sleep in an open grave / Where raven fly and flutter"). The plot, however, is completely different, and reminds me more of "The Highland Widow's Lament," which tells of a soldier dying in the Low Country (on behalf of Bonnie Prince Charlie). The piece is quite beautiful, but one can only suspect John Jacob Niles's hand in it. - RBW
File: Niles71A
===