Break the News to Mother


DESCRIPTION: "While shot and shell were screaming Across the battlefield, The boys in blue were fighting, Their noble flag to shield." The flag falls. A boy volunteers and rescues the flag; he dies asking that someone "break the news to mother"
AUTHOR: Charles K. Harris
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: army battle war dying mother youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 179, "While the Boys in Blue Were Fighting" (2 texts)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 175-176, "Break the News to Mother" (1 text, 1 tune).
Roud #4322
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brave Fireman (Break the News to Mother Gently)" (tune, theme)
NOTES: Charles K Harris wrote "The Brave Fireman" in 1891. He rewrote it as "Break the News to Mother" in 1897.
Brett Page in "Writing for Vaudeville" quotes Harris: "When Gillette's war plays, 'Held by the Enemy' and 'Secret Service' caught the national eye, I caught the national ear with 'Just Break the News to Mother.'"
Realist playwright Gillette's "Held by the Enemy" was a hit in 1886; "Secret Service" opened in New York October 5, 1896 and ran for a year. Both are set in the Civil War.
Harris wrote "Just Break the News to Mother" in 1897 and it became a big hit the following year with the outbreak of the Spanish-American War.
It became a hit again in 1917 when the World War I field uniform was no longer blue; in fact, blue uniforms were being phased out by 1898.
Harris's text can be found on the Mudcat Cafe site - BS
File: GrMa179

Break the News to Mother Gently


See The Brave Fireman (Break the News to Mother Gently) (File: R687)

Breaking in a Tenderfoot


See The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot) [Laws B27] (File: LB27)

Breaking of Omagh Jail, The


DESCRIPTION: "I am a bold undaunted youth from the county of Tyrone," now in prison because "a girl against me swore." Soon to be sentenced, the singer makes a plan to escape, and manges to flee. He goes over the sea to escape his punishment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: prison escape parting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H181, pp. 131-132, "The Breaking of Omagh Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3581
File: HHH181

Breast Knots, The


See The Bonnie Breist-knots (File: FVS303)

Bredalbane


DESCRIPTION: The singer's parents lock her in a room but she goes out the window when they go to town. She meets her sweetheart who tells her "he was listed in Bredalbane's Grenadiers"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting parting father mother soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan6 1091, "Bredalbane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6829
NOTES: Maybe this should refer to "Breadalbane" rather than "Bredalbane." There was a Breadalbane Regiment in the 1790s that included Grenadiers. See, for example, "An account of the trial of eight Soldiers belonging to Breadalbane Regiment of Fencibles, for a mutiny in the city of Glasgow, four of whom received sentence of death, three of which received a pardon at the place of execution, and the fourth was shot on Tuesday the 27th day of January 1795" (source: National Library of Scotland site). - BS
It should be noted that most regiments had a grenadier company -- generally composed of the tallest, healthiest men; presumably they were the ones the girls were most attracted to.
The first mention I can find of a Breadalbane with a standing army is "Grey John" Campbell (1635-1717), who in the reign of Charles II declared himself Viscount Breadalbane, raised a force, and started causing trouble. Charles II, not liking people who engaged in self-promotion, took away all three of Campbell's claimed titles -- but made him Earl Breadalbane and Holland (Thomson, p. 79).
Two of Grey John's sons fought on the Jacobite side at Sheriffmuir, though the old man himself was too cagey to be involved (Thomson, p. 83).
Grey John himself had in 1690 submitted some "Proposals Concerning the Highlanders" to William III -- an idea William did not accept at the time, but he did start raising troops from the Clans (Prebble, p. 21). Such forces as the crown accepted were, however, disbanded by 1717 due to fears about their loyalty (Prebble, pp. 25-26). In 1725, a few new companies were recruited, to become the famous Black Watch (Prebbler, pp. 26-27), but they were not associated with Breadalbane.
By the 1790s, though, the Jacobite cause was dead and the Highlands were considered a good sourdce for troops; several regiments were authorized (Prebble, p. 272). The fourth Earl of Breadalbane, a descendant of the uncle of Grey John, was one of those involved in raising these 23 regiments (Prebble, p. 273). One of these was called at the time the Perthshire Regiment of Fencibles, but it was composed mostly of men from Breadalbane. The Earl of Bredalbane ended up raising two battalions in 1793 (Prebble, pp. 320-321), which came to be known as the Breadalbane Fencibles. A third battalion was added in 1794.
According to Brander, p. 81, this unit mutinied in 1795, with four of the soldiers being condemned to death. Several others were sentenced to 1000 to 1500 lashes (Prebble, p. 349). Three of the four men sentenced to death were reprieved at the very last moment (Prebble, p. 351), but one was executed.
After that, it became harder to recruit for the regiment (Prebble, p. 358). Two of the battalions were reduced in 1798 (so Brander, p. 210) or 1799 (so Prebble, p. 358); only the third battalion, which was willing to serve in Ireland (at the time of the 1798 rebellion, note!) was retained. The whole was disbanded in 1802.
This raises interesting questions about the dating of the song. Was the girl imprisoned because she loved a solder -- or because she loved a soldier of particularly ill repute? If, for instance, the date of the song is 1715, she might have loved a Jacobite soldier while her parents were Hannoverian. If we date it to 1795, it might be one of the mutinous soldiers, whom her parents did not want her to approach. Or -- who knows -- maybe her parents just didn't like Campbells. Without more information, we can't really tell. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61091

Brennan on the Moor [Laws L7]


DESCRIPTION: Irishman Brennan, perhaps in revolt against the English, turns robber in the hills. After various escapades, he is captured, only to be freed by a blunderbuss smuggled in by his wife. At last, betrayed by a woman, he is taken and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3014))
KEYWORDS: outlaw rambling execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1804 - Hanging of William Brennan, a highwayman who worked in County Cork
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,NW,MA,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Ireland Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Laws L7, "Brennan on the Moor"
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 245-246, "Bold Brannan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan2 258, "Brannon on the Moor" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Belden, pp. 284-286, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text plus a reference to 1 more)
Randolph 176, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 236-237, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 124, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 98-99, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 745-747, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 126-127,242-243, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 135, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 371, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 110, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 264-266, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 204, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Kennedy 315, "Brennan's on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-More 73, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 59, "Brennen on the Moor" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 103-106, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 325, "Brennan On The Moor" (1 text)
DT 421, BRENMOOR
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 250-252, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Roud #476
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Brennan on the Moor" (on IRClancyMakem02)
William Jacob Morgan, "Brennan on the Moor" (AFS, 1946; on LC55)
Neil Morris, "Willie Brennan" (on LomaxCD1705)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3014), "Brennan On the Moor," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861; also 2806 c.8(304), Firth b.26(276), Harding B 11(2135), 2806 b.9(178), Firth c.17(11)[some words illegible], 2806 b.9(242), Harding B 11(3014)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(443), Harding B 11(442), Harding B 19(26), "Brennan On the Moor"; 2806 b.10(112)[some words blurred], "Bold Brannan"; Harding B 11(365), 2806 c.15(240), Harding B 11(364), "Bold Brennan on the Moor"; Harding B 26 (341), "A Lament on the Execution of Captain Brennan"
LOCSinging, as101620, "Brennen on the Moor," Horace Partridge (Boston), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(015), "Brennan On the Moor," unknown, c. 1880; also APS.4.95.15(4), "Bold Brannan on the Moor" ("The first of my misfortunes was to list & desert"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Quantrell" (tune & meter, theme, lyrics)
File: LL07

Brewer Laddie, The


DESCRIPTION: "In Perth there lives a bonnie lad... And he courted Peggy Roy." "He courted her for seven long years... When there came a lad from Edinborough town." The girl goes off with the stranger, but ends up deserted; the brewer rejects her when she returns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment return rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 95-97, "The Brewer Laddie" (1 text)
Greig #165, p. 3, "The Brewer Lad" (1 text)
GreigDuncan4 916, "The Brewer Lad" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord, pp. 178-179, "The Brewer Lad" (1 text)
DT, BREWRLAD*
Roud #867
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosie Anderson" (plot)
cf. "Peggy and the Soldier (The Lame Soldier)" [Laws P13] (plot)
NOTES: In GreigDuncan4 916A the brewer, originally from Edinburgh, moves to Perth, "An there he courted another lass An took her to himsel O." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS095

Brian O Linn


See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn)


DESCRIPTION: Vignettes about Brian/Tom. Each describes a situation he finds himself in and ends with his comment, e.g., "Tom Bolyn found a hollow tree / And very contented seemed to be / The wind did blow and the rain beat in / 'Better than no house,' said Tom Bolyn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Halliwell, citing a book printed c. 1560; reputedly mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland, 1549); Jonathan Lighter notes a mention of a bawdy song called Brian O'Lynn in Hugh Henry Brackenridge's 1793 _Modern Chivalry_, volume III, p. 214
KEYWORDS: poverty talltale humorous clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(All),Scotland) US(Ap,NE,So) Canada(Newf) Australia
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Randolph 471, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 155-157, "Brian O'Lynn" (2 fragmentary bawdy texts, 2 tunes)
Belden, pp. 501-502, "Tom Bo-lin" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 178-179, "Old Tombolin" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 151, "Tom Bolynn" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy 290, "Brian-O-Linn" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H480a+b, pp. 52-53, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text, 2 tunes)
OLochlainn 15, "Brian O Linn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 199, "Brian O Linn" (1 text)
BrownII 189, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text)
Leach-Labrador 109, "Brian O'Linn" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 64, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text)
Opie-Oxford2 513, "Tommy o'Lin, and his wife, and wife's mother" (5 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose, p. 149, note 34, "(Tommy O'Lin, and his wife, and his wife's mother)"; compare #228, p. 150, ("The two grey kits") (this mentions Tom Boleyn, and is the right form, but doesn't feel like it originated with the piece somehow)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 174, "(Tam o the linn came up to the gate)" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 35, "O'Brien O'Lin" (1 text)
DSB2, p. 27, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text)
DT, TOMBOLYN* TOMBOLY2* JONBOLYN
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 33, "Tam o' the Linn"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 252-254, "Brian O'Linn" (1 text)
Roud #294
RECORDINGS:
Thomas Moran, "Brian-O-Linn" (on FSB10)
Tony Wales, "Bryan O'Lynn" (on TWales1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(307), "Bryan O'Lynn," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also 2806 b.11(217), Harding B 15(36a), Harding B 11(480), Firth c.26(41), Firth c.20(135), 2806 b.11(106), Harding B 26(80), "Bryan O'Lynn"; Harding B 11(445), "Brian O'Lynn"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old John Wallis" (style)
NOTES: Sam Henry claims that Bryan O'Lynn (fl. 1770-1793) was an "apprizer" and grand juror in Cashel during the years specified. - RBW
Randolph-Legman offers good notes on sources to this ballad. - EC
A variant of the melody to this song is a popular fiddle tune in Ireland.
I'm wary of the "Complaynt of Scotland" (1549) citation until I see it. The title given, "Thom of Lyn," and the title "Ballet of Thomalyn," licensed 1558, are both perilously close to "Tam Lin," which is not only the name of a ballad (Child 39) but also a fiddle tune. And in our indexing of "Tam Lin", we note a reference from 1549 -- is that "Complaynt of Scotland"? The plot's getting thicker, says Brian O'Lynn. - PJS
Indeed, Dixon (notes to "Tam a Line," his version of "Tam Lin") cites the references from the Complaynt of Scotland; they are to the dance "thom of lyn" and the "tayl of the yong tamlene."
This obviously sounds more like "Tam Lin," but the tunes I've heard for "Tam Lin" are not very danceable. (Bronson's #1, from Ireland, might work as a dance tune, but it is nothing like any of the others.) "Brian O'Lynn" seems much more suitable for dancing.
To make the confusion worse, there are versions of this song beginning "Tom o' the Linn was a Scotsman born."
The Opies, after mentioning the Complaynt of Scotland reference, note a "ballett of Thomalyn" licenced c. 1557. The first absolutely clear reference is from a play, "The longer thou livest, the more foole thou art," registered 1569; it has the lyric
Tom a lin and his wife, and his wives mother
They went ouer a bridge all three together,
The bridge was broken, and they fell in,
The Deuil go with all quoth Tom a lin.
Thus it seems sate to say the song goes back at least to the sixteenth century.
But not, perhaps, without contamination. There is the report that Charles Dibdin wrote a piece, "[Poor] Tom Bowling." Could this have given rise to the "Tom Boleyn" version?
Just in case you wanted more to worry about, Sing Out, Volume 35, #3 (1990), p. 76, prints a piece which it calls "Tumble O'Lynn's Farewell." There is only one stanza, so it's hard to be sure it's based on this piece, but it looks as if it is -- and the notes say "The composer is supposed to have been one Thomas Paginton, the court musician who presumably ghostwrote most of the music credited to Henry VIII." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R471

Brian the Brave


See Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave (File: OCon048)

Briar-Rose


See Sleeping Beauty (Thorn Rose, Briar Rose) (File: HHH599)

Brid Og Ni Mhaille


See Bridget O'Malley (File: K027)

Bridge Was Burned at Chatsworth, The


See The Chatsworth Wreck [Laws G30] (File: LG30)

Bridget Donahue


DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the pretty town of Kelorgan, noting "what makes it interesting Is my Bridget Donahue." From America, he asks her in Ireland, "Just take the name of Patterson And I'll take Donahue."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting emigration marriage separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 784, "Bridget Donahue" (1 text)
Roud #7416
NOTES: Randolph had a songbook, which he could not identify, crediting this to Johnny Patterson. But we know how much attention to pay such claims. - RBW
File: R784

Bridget O'Malley


DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that Bridget has left him heartbroken. He describes her beauty most fulsomely, and says his Sundays are now lonely and full of another. (She is now married, but) he bids her meet him on the road to Drumsleve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recorded by Peter Kennedy)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal abandonment marriage foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy 27, "Brid Og Ni Mhaille (Bridget O'Malley) (1 text+translation, 1 tune)
DT, BRIDOMAL*
NOTES: Kennedy does not seem aware of any English-language versions of this Irish Gaelic song, but Silly Wizard found a text somewhere. It may well be a modern translation; it's awfully flowery. Indeed, the publication in Sing Out!, Volume 37, #4, p. 84, implies that it was assembled by Ruth Morgan" (although it does not make it clear how much was already translated). But I decided to include the song here because some might search for it. - RBW
File: K027

Bridgwater Fair


DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of the delights of Bridgwater Fair and the colorful characters to be found there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: dancing party nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-100E 76, "Bridgwater Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1571
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Truro Agricultural Show"
NOTES: [Sharp writes,] "St. Matthew's Fair at Bridgwater is a very ancient one, and is still a local event of some importance, although it has seen its best days." - PJS
File: ShH76

Bridle and Saddle, The


DESCRIPTION: "The bridle and saddle hang on the shelf, Fol an day chine day cheer an Cheerily an cherry (x2); If you want any more you can sing it yourself."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SharpAp 224, "The Bridle and Saddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 80, "The Bridle and Saddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3666
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pork in the Cupboard" (lyrics)
NOTES: This ending occurs in occasional texts of a vast variety of songs, including "Frog Went A-Courting," "The Swapping Boy," "Going to Banbury," and at least as many more that I've forgotten. I'm not even going to try to classify it. It does have a unique chorus line. - RBW
File: SKE80

Brien the Brave


See Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave (File: OCon048)

Briery Bush, The


See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Brigade at Fontenoy, The


DESCRIPTION: "The green flag is unfolded" before the battle. "There are stains to wash away." "Thrice blest the hour that witnesses The Briton turned to flee" from the French and Irish. God "grant us One day upon our own dear land Like that at Fontenoy!"
AUTHOR: Bartholomew Dowling (1823-1863) (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy; also Duffy's magazine _The Nation,_ according to OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: army battle England France Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1745: the French defeat the British and their allies at Fontenoy in South West Belgium (War of the Austrian Succession or King George's War) (source: _The Battle of Fontenoy 1745_ at BritishBattles.com site; "Irish" does not appear in the article)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor, p. 129, "The Brigade at Fontenoy" (1 text)
OLochlainn-More 13, "The Brigade at Fontenoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 215-218, "'The Brigade' at Fontenoy"
Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 229-231, "The Brigade at Fontenoy"
Roud #9758
NOTES: The first Irish Brigade, sent to France in 1688, became an integral part of the French army after the Jacobite defeat in Ireland. The Irish Brigade served the French army -- and did fight at Fontenoy -- until it was dissolved in 1791 as a result of the French Revolution. (source: The Irish Brigade, A Brief History by David Kincaid at the Haunted Field Music site) - BS
Of course, by the time of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), it was a completely new set of Irish exiles from those who departed Ireland c. 1690.
The War of the Austrian Succession came about for complex reasons: When the Habsburg Emperor Joseph I died in 1711, just six years after his father, the Empire passed to his brother Charles VI even though Joseph had sons; the boys were too young to rule, and no one wanted a regency.
But Charles VI wasn't willing to pass the crown back when he died; instead, as early as 1713, he devised the "Pragmatic Sanction" to pass the succession to his descendants. Which, since he had no sons, meant his daughter Maria Theresa (Browning, p. 18).
There was no particular reason for other countries to interfere, but the Habsburg Empire was a big place even prior to the reign of Charles VI, and Charles had gone so far as to try to reclaim Spain. So, at one time or another, Spain, France, Bavaria, Saxony, and Prussia went after Habsburg lands. (And, in Prussia's case, picked up a lot of them.)
The Fontenoy campaign began in April 1745, with Maurice of Saxony (Hermann Maurice, comte de Saxe, 1696-1750) leading a mostly French army against an alliance of Austrian, Dutch, Hannoverian, and British forces under the Duke of Cumberland (yes, the future "Butcher" Cumberland of Culloden) in the low countries. Cumberland's goal was to stop Saxe from taking Tournai.
Saxe, however, was much the better general; Cumberland, a typical Hannoverian, was brave and aggressive -- and stupid. Saxe picked the ground, and even though the English infantry proved better than the French, he used his artillery with enough effect to win the day (Browning, pp. 206-209). Saxe probably had numerical superiority as well (Brumwell/Speck, p. 138), making Cumberland's decision to attack even more absurd.
The histories of the battle vary in what they say about Irish contributions. Browning, the fullest of the histories, doesn't mention them at all. Brumwell/Speck, p. 139, however, credits them with the final charge that decided the battle. I find myself suspecting that the documentation of the battle is inadequate and that the histories are influenced by the folklore.
Tactically, Fontenoy was close to a draw: Both sides had about 50,000 troops in action, and both suffered about 15% casualties (Browning, p. 212). But Saxe had won the campaign, relieving pressure on France; he had also lowered the reputation of British infantry. Maybe *that* is why the Irish celebrated it.
It's just possible that the Irish would have been better off had they done worse at Fontenoy. Kybett, p. 111, implies that the result of the battle put great pressure on Bonnie Prince Charlie and his colleagues in Paris at the time. They of course wanted to invade Britain, but the French were not being helpful. Had the French felt more pressure, they might have given Charlie enough support to do some good -- which might have led to a Stuart restoration, which would certainly have helped the Irish. As it was, the French gave Charlie just enough support to get in trouble: They sailed off to start the Forty-Five, but with no money, no French soldiers, no French generals to argue around the inept clan chiefs, and no equipment. The surprise is not that the Forty-Five failed; it's that such a hurried, under-funded botch came so close to success.
Fontenoy resulted in a famous incident which says much about the fighting methods of the time, in which British and French soldiers invited the other to fire first (Wawro, p. 7). This wasn't politeness; in an era when muskets were extremely inaccurate, the side that fired first generally wasted its first volley, and it took a long time to relaod.
O'Conor apparently lists the author as B. "Bowling" rather than "Dowling"; given that Bartholomew Dowling is a recognized if relatively minor poet (Granger's Index to Poetry has citations to his works "Our Last Toast," "The Revel," "Revelry for the Dying," and "Stand to your Glasses), I'm assuming "Dowling" is correct.
There is another Irish nationalist piece on Fontenoy; Thomas Davis wrote a poem "Fontenoy," published e.g. in Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 476-478. I've seen no evidence that it is traditional. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: OLcM013

Brigantine Sinorca


See Brigantine Sirocco (File: SmHa015)

Brigantine Sirocco


DESCRIPTION: The Sirocco/Sorocco/Sinorca/Sirorca springs a leak and lays aground at Shelburne. The leak is found and fixed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-Nova Scotia)
KEYWORDS: sea ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Smith/Hatt, p. 15, "Brigantine Sorocco" (1 text)
Creighton-NovaScotia 106, "Brigantine Sinorca" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SmHa015 (Full)
Roud #1814
NOTES: No two versions of this song seem to give the ship the same name. I've called the song "Brigantine Sirocco" because that's the only title that means anything in a language I know. A sirocco is a desert wind, not exactly suitable for a ship -- but it's also a fast wind, so maybe it makes sense.
The other possibility is that "Sinorca" is a corruption of "Saint (something-or-other)," and the rest corruptions of that. But only one of the four names known to me starts with the S[?]n phoneme combination; the others are S[?]r. So I think Sinorca a secondary corruption, probably of something like "Sirorca." - RBW
File: SmHa015

Brigantine Sorocco


See Brigantine Sirocco (File: SmHa015)

Brigg Fair


DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Brigg Fair expecting to meet his sweetheart; she arrives and he takes her hand, rejoicing, and hopes they will never part.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (recording, Joseph Taylor)
KEYWORDS: love courting reunion lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
Roud #1083
RECORDINGS:
Isla Cameron, "Brigg Fair" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Joseph Taylor, "Brigg Fair" (cylinder, on HiddenE)
NOTES: About as basic a story as can be, but still complete. - PJS
File: RcBF

Brigham Young


DESCRIPTION: "Now Brigham Young (is/was) a Mormon bold" with "five and forty wives." He leads the Mormon citizens of "Great Salt Lake, Where they breed and swarm like hens on a farm." Most of the song describes how Young's wives have sapped his vigor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: marriage humorous age
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1877 - Life of Brigham Young
1832 - Young becomes a Mormon
1844 - Young becomes leader of the Mormons
1847 - Mormon migration to Utah
1850 - Young made Governor of Utah territory. From 1857, however, the U.S. Government enforced various restrictions on the Mormons and their governor, mostly in response to polygamy.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 432-433, "Brigham Young" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 290, "Brigham Young" (1 text)
Roud #8056
NOTES: In defense of Young (if not of Mormon doctrines of polygamy, which reportedly are still secretly practiced in some circles, resulting in severe inbreeding), it should be noted that he was a forceful and effective leader who successfully founded the Mormon colony in Utah, allowing the faith to survive despite severe persecution.
Denton gives a brief account of Young's early life starting on page 32. Young was one of several children of John Young, a revolutionary war veteran. The family moved to Whitingham, Vermont, in 1801, and Brigham was born later that year. The family quickly fell into poverty; that, plus severe family discipline, seemed to forge a strong determination in Brigham.
Very handsome in his early years, he first married in 1824, and watched in despair as his wife sickened and he failed to prosper. Then his brother Phinehas gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, just recently published. In 1832, Brigham was baptised into the Mormon church. He met Mormon founder Joseph Smith later in that year, and once his wife died, Young became one of Smith's key assistants. By this time, the Mormons were starting on their wanderings. When Smith was killed in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1844, the church was twice in crisis: It had no leader and it was finding it almost impossible to find a home.
The contest to succeed Smith ended in what was reported as a miracle. Denton, pp. 30-31, reports that "When [Young] opened his mouth to speak, it was not his voice that emanated, according to many of those in the audience, but a voice uncannily like that of Joseph Smith. Many in the crowd rushed the platform to see if their prophet had risen from the dead, only to be further mystified by the same 'supernatural radiance' that had enveloped Smith now illuminating Young." Stegner's version of this (p. 34) is that Young took on the appearance and voice of Smith. DeVoto, p. 77, concurs: "[T]he Saints beheld a transfiguration. [Young's] pudgy body suddenly became the tall, handsome, commanding body of the martyred prophet." Combine that with good organizing ability, and Young naturally became head of the Mormons.
Not everyone accepted this, to be sure, including many of Smith's relatives. Many who did not accept Young would coalesce into the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (Denton, p. 37). This group is largely concentrated in southern Missouri. A member of the group tells me that while they still use the Book of Mormon and other Smith-related writings -- in editions slightly different from those used by the "regular" Mormons -- they generally fall closer to orthodox Christianity DeVoto, p. 77, mentions some other splinters that broke off the main body of the church: "all told these half dozen, dividing by mitosis, were to form over twenty minute churches, each one the true apostolic succession from the prophet."
But the majority of the Mormons accepted Young. "This was a much greater man than Joseph. Instead of a man drunk on deity... who could produce no effective leadership, no effective government, no effective social organization, there had come to lead the Church out of the land of Egypt one of the foremost intelligences of the time, the first American who learned how to colonize the desert" (DeVoto, p. 77).
Young gradually consolidated his position, and in 1847 had a revelation which caused him to order his people to head for Utah (Denton, pp. 54-55). The land was so poor that Young was forced to change the Mormon economy, already rather socialist, into something approaching a Leninist centrally-directed communism (Denton, pp. 59-60). Unlike Russian Leninism, though, Young made his version work -- perhaps because he ran it himself, with fewer communist functionaries; perhaps because the people were all volunteers and actually gave it their best shot; perhaps something of both.
It is little surprise, then, that Nevins, p. 315, declares that "Brigham Young was the most commanding single figure of the West. This rugged Vermonter, who had been given only eleven days' formal schooling before he set to work as carpenter, glazier, and painter, possessed an inexhaustible energy, a domineering temper, and a rocklike will which made him seem truly the Lion of the Lord."
Young's goal in moving to Utah seems to have been partly one of getting out of the United States (Utah was Mexican territory prior to the Mexican War) and partly to move to land no one else would want. He didn't really succeed in either; the Mexican War ended with all that land becoming part of the U.S., and land hunger in the east was so great that people settled even the basically uninhabitable parts of New Mexico territory. Young put small colonies in many areas of his "Deseret" territory. Most struggled even more than the settlement by the Great Salt Lake. And when Utah Territory was organized, it was much smaller than Young's projected fiefdom (Denton, p. 66). Still, President Fillmore appointed Young its governor after Thomas Leiper Kane turned down the job. Young also was given the titles of commander of the militia and superintendant of Indian affairs (Nevins, p. 315, who declares that, "In short, he confirmed Young's dictatorship").
Nevins, p. 316, adds that "Despite his coarse and brutal vein, his egotism, and his frequent pettiness, Brigham Young was popular. He treated his own people with affability, throwing his arm over any Mormon's shoulder and asking corially about his wives and children. His rough and ready manners, provincialisms of speech ('leetle,' 'beyend,' 'disremember,' and 'they was'), his kindness, an his justice in business dealings, were all assets in [Deseret]."
Young, like Joseph Smith before him, had problems with authoritarianism, which would result in the Utah War (and probably, indirectly, in the Mountain Meadows Massacre; see "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19] for details).
Folklore lists Young as having as many as sixty wives; it should be noted, however, that only 17 wives (along with 56 children) were alive at the time of his death. Of course, he had repeatedly denied that the Mormons engaged in plural marriage at all, until John Williams Gunnison exposed the truth (Denton, p. 69-70). - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: LxA432

Bright Morning Stars (For the Day Is A-Breakin' In My Soul)


DESCRIPTION: "I hear the Savior calling (x3) (For the) day is a-breaking in my soul." "How I long to meet him...." "The golden bells are ringing...." "I want to see my father...." "I want to meet my Jesus...." "Bright morning stars are rising...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (collected by Shellans from Norman Lee Vass)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shellans, pp. 89-90, "For the Day Is A-Breakin' In My Soul" (1 text, 1 tune, which does not mention the Bright Morning Stars)
DT, BRTMORNS*
Roud #7335 and 18268
NOTES: I'm not sure that the title "Bright Morning Stars" is actually traditional for this song, but I chose it because that's the title I've heard sung in the revival.
File: Shel089

Bright Orange Stars of Coleraine, The


DESCRIPTION: Marching song. The singer describes the celebrations on the twelfth of July. The marchers celebrate to the memory of William (of Orange). The singer praises Coleraine, and intends never to forget William's triumph
AUTHOR: Robert Thompson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: political Ireland nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James II, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland. Irish resistance continues for about another year, but Ireland east of the Shannon is William's, and the opposition is doomed.
July 12, 1691 - Battle of Aughrim. Decisive defeat of Irish Catholic forces
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H87a, pp. 181-182, "The Bright Orange Stars of Coleraine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8006
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of the Boyne (I)" (subject: The Battle of the Boyne) and references there
NOTES: This is probably the most political song in the Henry collection, and gives little evidence of being traditional. The Northern Constitution was published in Ulster, of course, so such sentiments were permissible -- but I'm still surprised it was published. Other Irish songs may allude to William of Orange's triumph, but this is one of the few to gloat over it. - RBW
File: HHH087a

Bright Phoebe


DESCRIPTION: "Bright Phoebe was my true love's name, / Her beauty did my heart contain." The singer and his love agree to marry when he returns from sea. By the time he returns, she is dead. He promises to spend the rest of his life mourning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation sea death mourning
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
FSCatskills 70, "Bright Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, p. 104,"Sweet Mary Jane" (1 text)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 119-120, "Bright Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 434-435, "Bright Phoebe" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 96-97, "Phoebe" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, BRTPHOEB
Roud #1989
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel" [Child 75] (plot)
File: FSC070

Bright Shades of Blue, The


DESCRIPTION: The convict recalls leaving Britain in chains, saying, "I'd left all my joys in those bright shades of blue." Once in Australia, he prospers, and at last returns to Britain -- to find that he misses Australia. He is old and alone far from his new home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: Australia transportation homesickness
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 136-137, "The Bright Shades of Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA136

Bright Sherman Valley


See The Red River Valley (File: R730)

Bright Star of Derry, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Mary, a widow's daughter, and praises her as the bright star of Derry. She is beautiful, sweet, and gentle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1809 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: love beauty lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 33, "The Bright Star of Derry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9754
File: OLcM033

Bright Sunny South, The


See The Sweet Sunny South (I) [Laws A23] (File: LA23)

Bright-Eyed Little Nell of Narragansett Bay


See Little Nell of Narragansett Bay (File: Brew88)

Brightest and Best


DESCRIPTION: "Hail the blest morn when the great Mediator down from the regions of glory descends." The song describes the baby Jesus's humble birth and the feeble gifts they offer him. "Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, Dawn on our darkness...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Southern Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus Christmas gift
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 150-151, "[Brightest and Best]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 55, "Brightest and Best" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #13, "Brightest ans Best of the Sons of the Morning" (1 text)
Roud #5743
RECORDINGS:
Ritchie Family, "Brightest and Best" (on Ritchie03)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Star in the East
NOTES: Earlier editions of this index credited this piece to Reginald Heber (1783-1826), on the basis of Irwin Silber's The Season of the Year. Ian Bradley's The Penguin Book of Carols also attributes the song to Heber, and says it was the first hymn he wrote. The New Oxford Book of Carols , however, credits the arrangement to William Walker, while submitting that the "refrain and vv. 2-4 [are] after Reginald Heber." But Spaeth, in A History of Popular Music in America, places the whole thing in the hands of Walker.
George Pullen Jackson does not mention either Walker or Heber; he finds it first in William Caldwell's 1837 Union Harmony (but it's not clear whether this is text or tune or both).
The phrase "sons of the morning" is thought to have been inspired by Isaiah 14:12, which the King James Bible renders "How art though fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" This has sparked some controversy, because "Lucifer" is equated with Satan. But this is one of those over-reactions to the King James rendering. The translators used "Lucifer" in its Latin sense of "Light-bringer," which is a fair rendering of the Hebrew word which means something like "one who brightens." Modern versions render the Hebrew word something like "Day Star"; it's thought by some to be a reference to the pretensions of the Kings of Babylon.
I'm a bit leery of this whole interpretation anyway. The idea of "Children of Light" or "Children of the Morning" is a common one in mythology, and might just have occurred to the author (whether Heber or someone else) because it sounds good.
Bradley cites Routley to the effect that 19 different tunes have been used for this set of lyrics. - RBW
File: JRSF150

Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning


See Brightest and Best (File: JRSF150)

Brighton Camp


See The Girl I Left Behind Me (lyric) (File: R546)

Brilliant Light, The


DESCRIPTION: Singer asks "a brother" to be "admitted." He passes a test and is taken to a door. He is admitted. He begins his ordeal. He meets Moses at the burning bush, casts his own rod as serpent, and is shown a great light. He swears not to reveal the secrets.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.21(36))
KEYWORDS: ritual religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann, p. 302, "The Brilliant Light" (1 fragment)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(36), "The Brilliant Light" ("Come all you loyal marksmen that circle around"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1865; also Harding B 1(35) View 2 of 2, "An admired Masonic song, called the Brilliant Lights" ("Come all you loyal Crafts-men that's circled round")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Mystic Order" (subject and some phrases)
cf. "The Knight Templar's Dream" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (subject)
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 302: "The songs inspired by the ritual of the Orange Institution are the most extraordinary. They are resolutely cryptic, with lines like: 'I'll tell you a secret your enemies do not know ...' ['Brilliant Light']."
Zimmermann p. 302 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Firth c.21(36) is the basis for the description. - BS
Moses's rod (later Aaron's rod) that became a serpent is first mentioned in Exodus 4:3. I'm not sure if there is a direct significance to the great light. Perhaps it's a reference to the light that shone at the conversion of Paul/Saul (Acts 9:3, etc.), or a reference to Isaiah 9:2=Matthew 4:16, etc. - RBW
File: Zimm302

Brimbledon Fair


See Rambleaway (File: ShH31)

Brindisi Di Marinai


DESCRIPTION: Fisherman's shanty for hauling the nets, refrain "Lampabbo! Lampa!" Verses revolve around drinking.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Favara, _Canti della Terra e del Mare di Sicilia_)
KEYWORDS: shanty fishing drink foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Italy Sicily
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 245-246, "Brindisi Di Marinai" (1 text [Italian and English], 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben Ranzo" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lampabbo Lampa
NOTES: Hugill theorizes that this may have been the origin of "Reuben Ranzo." The hauling of nets and the hauling of halyards are similar jobs, and the two songs have identical melodies and the pulls are in the same places. The method of singing is also the same as deep-sea shanties, where the final note of the refrain is overlapped with the first note of the solos, and vice versa. - SL
File: Hug245

Bring Back My Barney to Me


See Bring Back My Johnny to Me (File: HHH007)

Bring Back My Bonnie to Me


See My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean (File: DTmybonn)

Bring Back My Johnny to Me


DESCRIPTION: "He's gone, I am now sad and lonely, He has left me to cross the salt sea, And I know that he thinks of me only, And will soon be returning to me." The singer misses (Johnny), and asks, "Blow gently, sweet winds of the ocean, And bring my Johnny to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SHenry H7, p. 290-291, "Bring Back My Barney to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRINGJON*
Roud #1422
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean"
NOTES: A. L. Lloyd, in his liner notes to the Watersons' "For Pence and Spicy Ale", says [this] was "A stage song favoured by Irish comedians from the 1860s on. During the 1880s, apparently on American university campuses, close-harmony groups remade it into the better-known -- and even more preposterous -- "My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean...." - PJS
Steve Roud notes British songster versions starting from 1872 and possibly earlier. - (RBW)
File: HHH007

Bring Him Back Dead or Alive


DESCRIPTION: "Gannon killed a man in Texas in the year of forty-five, Bring him back dead or alive!" The sheriff follows. Gannon kills the sheriff, then realizes it is his brother he has killed. He gives up: "If you will hang me quick I'll escape my brother's voice!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: murder brother police crime punishment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 91, "Bring Him Back Dead or Alive" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11205
File: FCW091

Bring in the Punch Ladle


See Fathom the Bowl (File: K268)

Bring Me Back the Boy I Love


See My Blue-Eyed Boy (File: R759)

Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie


DESCRIPTION: "Bring me little water, Sylvie, Bring me little water now, Bring me little water, Sylvie, Ev'ry little once in a while." The field worker, toiling in the hot sun, calls on Sylvie to bring him something to drink. (She points out that she is coming.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936
KEYWORDS: work worksong nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 283, "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 87, "(Bring Me a Little Water, Sylvie" (partial text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 128, "Bring Me A Little Water, Sylvie" (1 text)
DT, WATRSYLV
Roud #11654
File: LoF283

Bring the Gold Cup Back to Newtown


DESCRIPTION: Three hundred supporters cheer for the Newtown football team at Enniskillen. The critical plays and players are named as Newtown defeats Irvinestown. "We've conquered two great teams: Lisnaskea and Roslea and "brought the gold cup for the second time"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: sports moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17890
RECORDINGS:
Big John Maguire, "Bring the Gold Cup Back to Newtown" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES: Notes to IRHardySons: "All the place-names mentioned make it clear that Newtown is Newtownbutler." - BS
File: RcBtGCBN

Bring Us Good Ale


DESCRIPTION: The singer, "for our blessed Lady's sake," demands that the server "Bring us in good ale." Other foods are rejected (e.g. "Bring us in no brown bread, for that is made of bran, And bring us in no white bread, for therein is no gain.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1475 (Oxford, MS. Bodl. 29734)
KEYWORDS: food drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Stevick-100MEL 82, "(Bryng Us in Good Ale)" (1 text)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 30-31, "Nowell, Nowell" (1 tune, with a fragment of this text appended)
DT, BRINGALE*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #72, "Bring Us In Good Ale" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins, _Index of Middle English Verse_, #549
NOTES: This is another song that cannot be demonstrated to have circulated in oral tradition. Its prevalence in the printed collections (starting with Ritson), however, argues for its inclusion here -- especially as there are two distinct Middle English texts. - RBW
File: MEL82

Bring Us in Good Ale


See Bring Us Good Ale (File: MEL82)

Bringing in the Sheaves


DESCRIPTION: The farmers go out "sowing in the morning (evening, sunshine, shadows, etc.), sowing seeds of kindness." In the end, "We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves"
AUTHOR: Words: Knowles Shaw (1834-1878) / Music: George A. Minor ((1845-1904)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recordings, Eva Quartet, Stamps Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 351, "Bringing In The Sheaves" (1 text)
DT, BRINGSHV*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 194-196, "Bringing in the Sheaves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14041
RECORDINGS:
Eva Quartet, "Bringing In the Sheaves" (Gennett 6335, 1927)
Earl Johnson's Dixie Entertainers, "Bringing In the Sheaves" (OKeh 45512, 1931; rec. 1930)
Parker & Dodd, "Bringing In the Sheaves" (Conqueror 8131, 1933)
Stamps Quartet, "Bringing In the Sheaves" (Victor 21035, 1927)
SAME TUNE:
Bringing In the Cows (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 105)
NOTES: Based, rather loosely, on Psalm 126:6, translated in the King James version as "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." In the New Revised Standard Version, this becomes "Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, Carrying their sheaves." - RBW
File: FSWB351C

Brisbane Ladies


DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to the Brisbane Ladies, promising, "We'll rant and we'll roar like true Queensland natives...." He describes the trip he and the boys make from town "to the old cattle station. What joy and delight is the life in the bush!"
AUTHOR: Saul Mendelsohn?
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (_Boomerang_ magazine)
KEYWORDS: travel work Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 162-163, "Brisbane Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 120-121, "Ladies of Brisbane (The Drover's Song)"; pp. 122-123, "Ladies of Brisbane (Augathella Station)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 214-216, "Brisbane Ladies" (1 text)
DT, QUNSLAND*
Roud #687
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Brisbane Ladies" (on JGreenway01)
A. L. Lloyd, "Brisbane Ladies" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd8)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Ladies" (plot, tune, lyrics) and references there
NOTES: An Australian rewrite of "Farewell and Adieu to you Spanish Ladies." The differences between the two, in this case, strike me as large enough to require separate classification. - RBW
File: FaE162

Brisk and Bonny Lass, The (The Brisk and Bonny Lad)


DESCRIPTION: Cheerful description of the life of a farm girl. She wakes at dawn and milks the cows as the larks sing; at haying time they go dancing, At harvest they work, then celebrate; even in winter, all are happy; she declares herself content to be a country lass
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Barrett)
KEYWORDS: courting farming harvest work dancing nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy 244, "The Brisk and Bonny Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #606
RECORDINGS:
James & Bob Copper, "The Contented Country Lad" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD41)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Country Life" (theme)
cf. "The Contented Countryman" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Country Lass
Harvest Home Song
NOTES: With mechanization and the change from female to male labor on farms, some versions have switched the sex of the narrator. - PJS
Sometimes in midstream, in fact.
I find myself wondering if this didn't start out as a fragment of a proper ballad about a brisk farm girl, with the actual plot (about a marriage, perhaps? -- the beginning of the song sounds very much like a ballad of that type) being broken off and replaced by these lyrics. - RBW
File: K244

Brisk and Lively Lad, The


See The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad) (File: MoMa033)

Brisk Young Bachelor (I), The


DESCRIPTION: Young man, recently married, laments the hard work his wife forces him to do and counsels other bachelors, before marrying, to reflect on his fate.
AUTHOR: unknown ("The Party That Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man" by Fleta Jan Brown)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: marriage shrewishness work nonballad humorous bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(SE) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1291, "The Poor Man's Labour" (7 texts, 4 tunes)
Mackenzie 142, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 31, "The Poor Man's Labor's Never Done" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 69, "The Brisk Young Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 72-74, "The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1572
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Morton w. orchestra, "The Party That Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man" (Victor 5513, 1908; Victor 16758, 1911)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man" (on NLCR03)
Charlie Parker & Mack Woolbright, "The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was A Married Man" (Columbia 15236-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(152), "Poor Man's Labour Never Done," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.16(22), "Poor Man's Labour Never Done"; Harding B 25(1535) [partly illegible], "A Poor Man's Labour's Never Done"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sporting Bachelors" (plot)
cf. "Young Munro" (tune, per GreigDuncan7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Was a Young Man
NOTES: Although the theme is identical with "The Sporting Bachelors", it's a separate song, in my opinion.
Although the tune, chorus, etc. of ["The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man" ] are completely different from the British song, I unhesitatingly lump them together; the verses are essentially identical, although not identically worded. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren write that Fleta Jan Brown wrote "The Party That Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was A Married Man" in 1908. So it presumably is a knock-off of the British song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: ShH69

Brisk Young Bachelor (II), The


See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6] (File: LQ06)

Brisk Young Butcher, The


DESCRIPTION: A (butcher) stays at an inn; he offers a serving girl money to lay with him. She does. Given his bill, he says he gave the girl the money and didn't get change. A year later, he comes back. She shows him her child and says it is his change
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 216)
KEYWORDS: money trick sex pregnancy travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1466, "The Butcher and the Chambermaid" (12 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord, pp. 158-159, "The Butcher and Chamber Maid" (1 text)
DT, XMASGOOS XMASGOO2*
Roud #167
RECORDINGS:
Harvey Nicholson, "The Copshawholm Butcher" (on Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 216, "The Leicester Chambermaid" ("Its of a brisk young butcher as I have heard 'em say"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2105), Firth b.28(25a) View 2 of 2[some words illegible], Harding B 11(2103), Firth c.18(304), Harding B 11(2104), Harding B 11(2654), "The Leicester Chambermaid"; 2806 c.17(232), "London Butcher"; 2806 c.17(68), "The Chambermaid"
Murray, Mu23-y1:040, "The Butcher and the Chamber Maid," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Basket of Eggs" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (tune, per GreigDuncan7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Christmas Goose
The Ten Dollar Bill
The Jolly Flesher
Aikey Fair
File: DTxmasgo

Brisk Young Farmer, The


See William Hall (The Brisk Young Farmer) [Laws N30] (File: LN30)

Brisk Young Lad, The


DESCRIPTION: "There cam' a young man to my daddie's door... a-seeking me to woo." The singer feeds him while she bakes. He just sits there. At last she bids him depart. He trips over the "duck-dub"; they shout and laugh at him as he departs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #219)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 294-296, "The Brisk Young Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan4 892, "The Brisk Young Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRISKLAD
Roud #6139
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4132), "The Brisk Young Lad ("There came a young man to my daddy's door"), W. McCall (Liverpool), 1857-1877
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Old Man Came Over the Moor (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)" (theme)
cf. "Bung Your Eye" (tune, per GreigDuncan4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cauldrife Wooer
File: FVS294

Brisk Young Lover, The


See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Brisk Young Rover, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer enlists in the army, is sent to Scotland, and falls in love. He gives her a ring and "she gave me her right hand." He is sent to the Indies. At sea, "still I thought on yon weel-faured maid The bonnie lass I loved most dearly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: courting love army separation Scotland soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #103, p. 2, "The Brisk Young Rover" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 85, "The Brisk Young Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5794
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Martimas Time" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When I was in My 18th Year
File: GrD1085

Brisk Young Sailor Lad, The


See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Brisk Young Sailor, A


See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

Brisk Young Sailor, The


See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Bristol Channel Jamboree


See Whip Jamboree (Whup Jamboree) (File: Br3230)

Bristol Coachman, The


DESCRIPTION: A coachman is enticed home by a girl. Her husband catches him. The coachman proposes "if I have slept with your good wife, I'll let you sleep with mine." The husband demands forty or fifty pounds.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(109))
KEYWORDS: infidelity bargaining humorous husband rake
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 409, "Up at Piccadilly oh!" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #238, p. 153, "(Up at Piccadilly oh!)"
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(109), "Whip Away For Ever O" ("Come all you country lasses, come listen to my song"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(287), "The Bristol Coachman"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Bristol Coachman
File: OO2409

Britannia on Our Lee


DESCRIPTION: "A wet sheet and a flowing sea And a wind that follows fair... Away our good ship flies and leave (Columbia/Britannia) on our lee." The singer hopes for a good wind and rejoices in the life at sea
AUTHOR: Words: Allan Cunningham (1785-1842)
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Journal from the Citizen)
KEYWORDS: ship sea sailor nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 49-50, "A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: [No author listed], _The Household Treasury of English Song_, T. Nelson and Sons, 1872, pp. 182-183, "A Sea-Song" (1 text)
Roud #2014
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Columbia on Our Lee
File: SWMS049

Britannia Sat Weeping


DESCRIPTION: Britannia weeps as pleasure is replaced by war and sailors fight for "country and king"; "John Bull has been ruin'd by pension and place." Rich and poor are brothers and we can never kindle war and still flourish with liberty in our happy home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.15(294))
KEYWORDS: war England political
FOUND IN:
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(294), "Britannia Sat Weeping" ("Britannia sat weeping as pleasure pass'd by"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3769), Harding B 16(37c), "Britannia Sat Weeping"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Daughter of Israel" (tune, per broadside Bodleian 2806 c.15(294))
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 54 uses "Britannia Sat Weeping" to illustrate the popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries of a country -- Italy, France, Ireland and Britain -- as "a poor woman asking for help."
Does the reference to the king date the origin to a war before Victoria? - BS
File: BrdBrSWe

Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean


See Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean (Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean) (File: FSWB044)

British Grenadiers, The


DESCRIPTION: "Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules... And such great men as these..." but none can compare, "with a row- row-row, row-row-row To the British Grenadiers." The prowess of the Grenadiers is praised, and toasts are offered to them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (_Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, Vol. XIV, No. LXXVIII, p. 9)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink battle nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Logan, pp. 109-112, "The British Grenadiers" (plus parody, "Aitcheson's Carabineers")
Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 262-264, "Nancy; or, Sir Edward Noel's Delight; or All You That Love Good Fellows" (3 tunes, reputed to be ancestor of these tunes)
Silber-FSWB, p. 279, "The British Grenadiers" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 153-154+, "The British Grenadiers"
DT, BRITGREN*
ST Log109 (Full)
Roud #11231?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Cornwallis's Surrender" (tune)
cf. "Free America" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Free America (File: Arn014)
Lord Cornwallis's Surrender (File: SBoA088)
Eight Hour Day (Sing Out!, Volume 28, #3 (1980), pp. 28-29)
NOTES: That this song is old is obvious. Logan argues that the words must date from between 1678 (when the Grenadier companies were formed) and the reign of Queen Anne (died 1714), when Grenadiers ceased to carry grenades and became simply elite troops. The earlier date is fairly solid; the latter, of course, has the problem that a songwriter might not know that grenadiers had become a general term.
The same problems attend the tune. Fuld reports on various prints from around 1750, and the various parodies and adaptions categorically date it before 1780. It appears the tune is much older (and may not even be British), but no precise data can be offered. - RBW
File: Log109

British Man-of-War, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a sailor telling his love that he must leave her; he must go into battle. She begs him not to go. He says that he might win glory. He has fought before; he will fight again. He tears his handkerchief in two and gives her half as a token
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: war separation farewell brokentoken
FOUND IN: US(MA,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Belden, pp. 379-380, "The Yankee Man of War" (1 text)
FSCatskills 13, "The Yankee Man-of-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 181-182, "British Man-O'-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 96, "Lovely Susan" (1 stanza, which the editors cannot identify but which matches many texts of this song)
Scott-BoA, pp. 226-227, "The Yankee Man o' War" (1 text, 1 tune)
PGalvin, pp. 48-49, "The Fenian Man o' War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 108-110, "The British Man-of-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRITMANO
Roud #372
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(397a), "[Young] William of the Man-of-War" ("One winter's day as I was walking"), W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855; also Harding B 16(309b), Harding B 11(4232), Harding B 11(4233), Harding B 11(4234), 2806 c.16(59), "William of the Man-of-War"; Harding B 31(127), Harding B 31(141),"[A] Yankee Man-of-War"; Harding B 11(466), Firth c.12(135), Firth b.26(180), "British Man-of-War"
LOCSinging, hc00037c, "A Yankee Man-of-War," Charles Magnus (New York), no date; also as115330, "Yankee Man of War"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(139), "British Man-of-War," unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lowlands of Holland" (tune, theme)
cf. "The Cork Men and the New York Men" (subject)
cf. "On Board of a Man-of-War (Young Susan)" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fenian Man-of-War
NOTES: As the titles make clear, this general text and tune were applied to whatever war seemed most convenient at the time (e.g. the Mexican War, the Civil War; a British text refers to fighting "the proud Chinee," presumably during the Opium Wars).
The Fenian version (named for the Fenians, a group of Irish-Americans who thought they could gain freedom for Ireland by invading Canada) is slightly changed; the opening is the same, but the broken token is missing, and in the end Bridget agrees that her Patrick should fight for Ireland.
The Fenians actually did purchase a ship, which they named Erin's Hope, but it accomplished nothing except to make one voyage to Ireland -- where no one wanted them. (For more details, see the notes to "The Cork Men and New York Men.") Similarly, they invaded Canada -- and were easily repelled, with many taken captive. Later they built a submarine; its only use was as a fundraising device.
Viewed from any standpoint except pure Irish patriotism, the Fenians were utterly ineffective and really quite silly. (For other examples, see "A Fenian Song (I)" and "The Smashing of the Van.") - RBW
Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(466), Firth c.12(135) and Firth b.26(180) refer to the Opium War of 1840-1842; Harding B 31(141) and Harding B 31(141) refer to the American Civil War of 1861-1865; the "William" broadsides are not specific. There are also "answers" [such as Bodleian, 2806 c.16(90), "Susan's Adventures in a British Man-of-War"] and "No. 2's" [such as LOCSinging, cw106880, "Yankee Man-of-War. No. 2." - BS
File: FSC013

British Soldier (I), The (A British Soldier's Grave)


DESCRIPTION: "The war was all ended, And the stars were shining bright" as a soldier lies dying. He sends messages home, telling mother he has kept her gift and promising to meet in heaven. He bids his sister not to weep. He recalls home and the old beech tree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: soldier death farewell mother sister war burial lover
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 171-172, "The British Soldier" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 110, "The British Soldier's Grave" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #1223
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2600, "A British Soldier's Grave" ("The battle it was over, the stars were shining bright"), unknown, no date; also Harding B 11(470), "A British Soldier's Grave"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying British Sergeant" (subject)
File: MHAp171

British Soldier (II), The


See The Dying British Sergeant (File: Wa010)

British Soldier's Grave, The


See The British Soldier (I) (A British Soldier's Grave) (File: MHAp171)

Broadlan' Lan'


DESCRIPTION: The laird of "Broadlan'" hunts in the south where he falls in love with and has sex with a local girl. He would take her home. Her parents say "he's nae the laird o' Broadlan'" but she goes with him anyway. Now she's "the lady o' Broadlan' lan'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex hunting pregnancy father mother nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1494, "Broadlan' Lan'" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7176
File: GrD71494

Brockagh Brae


DESCRIPTION: John leaves Mary "to take a trip strange lands to explore." He promises to be true and leaves for Belfast. He sails. When he lands at Greendock [sic] he is told to return home. He does, and returns to Mary. They marry and settle at Brockagh Brae.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Geordie Hanna)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage parting return reunion separation Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5171
RECORDINGS:
Geordie Hanna, "Brockagh Brae" (on Voice04)
NOTES: Hall, notes to Voice04: "'Brockagh Brae' at first sight seems to fall into the category of a footloose young man seeking adventure in emigration, but is actually about the seasonal migration of farm workers to the harvest in Scotland."
Brockagh Mountain is in the Dublin/Wicklow area. Greenock is on the west coast of Scotland across the North Channel from Ireland. - BS
File: RcBroBra

Broder Eton Got de Coon


See Uncle Eph (File: RcUncEph)

Broken Breid o' Auchentumb, The


DESCRIPTION: The broken bread of Auchentumb and the burnt scones of Braka displease the singer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1648, "The Broken Breid o' Auchentumb" (1 fragment)
Roud #13052
File: GrD81648

Broken Bridges


See London Bridge Is Falling Down (File: R578)

Broken Engagement (I -- She Was Standing By Her Window), The


DESCRIPTION: The girl asks her fiancee if he truly loves another rather than her. He says he does. She releases him from his promise, and says they will be strangers henceforth. She dies; (he realizes as he stands by her coffin that she was his true love)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 771, "The Broken Engagement" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 496-498, "The Broken Engagement" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 771)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 147-148, "The Broken Engagement"; pp. 149-150, "He Was Standing By the Window" (2 texts)
BrownII 157, "They Were Standing by the Window" (4 texts)
Shellans, p. 29, "Broken Engagement" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3535
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "The Broken Engagement" (Decca 5067, 1935)
Betty Garland, "Broken Engagement" (on BGarland01)
Kelly Harrell, "Broken Engagement" (Victor 20280, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Charlie Oaks, "The Broken Engagement" (Vocalion 15144, 1925; Vocalion 5076, c. 1927)
C. A. West, "The Broken Engagement" (Challenge 429, 1928)
Henry Whitter, "The Broken Engagement" (OKeh 45081, 1927; rec. 1926); Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "The Broken Engagement" (OKeh, unissued, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broken Engagement (II)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broken Heart
NOTES: Belden and Randolph both have songs from the Ozarks called "The Broken Engagement," and they share some lyrics. But the plots are so distinct that I have to list them as separate songs.
Kelly Harrell's song "The Broken Engagement" is again quite different, but it clearly goes with Randolph's text (which it predates and might even have inspired) rather than Belden's. - RBW
File: R771

Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted), The


DESCRIPTION: "You may go and win another, Go and win her for your bride." The singer says he has "broke the trust you've plighted." She says not to think of her, though she is true. They will meet as strangers. She will return his letters, and wish they never met
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Belden, pp. 212-213, "The Broken Engagement" (1 text)
BrownII 155, "We Have Met and We Have Parted" (4 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 2 more)
BrownIII 248, "The Inconstant Lover" (5 texts plus a fragment, admitted by the editors to be distinct songs but with many floating items; "A," "B," and "C" are more "On Top of Old Smokey" than anything else, though without that phrase; "D" is primarily "The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted)," "E" is a mix of "Old Smokey" and "The Cuckoo," and the "F" fragment may also be "Old Smokey")
Randolph 755, "The Broken Heart" (9 texts, 2 tunes, several of which, notably "H," but also the "D" fragment, go here or at least mix with this song)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 165-166, "Last Good-Bye" (1 text)
Shellans, p. 42, "We Have Met and We Have Parted" (1 text, 1 tune, which does not mention a broken engagement)
Roud #4250
RECORDINGS:
Frank Blevins, "We Have Met and We Have Parted (Columbia, 1928; unissued but probably this)
Otis High, "Young Ladies Take Warning" (on HandMeDown1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broken Engagament (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES: Belden and Randolph both have songs from the Ozarks called "The Broken Engagement," and they share some lyrics. But the plots are so distinct that I have to list them as separate songs (note that Randolph also has a text of this song, which he filed with the "Dear Companion/Fond Affection" group).
Kelly Harrell's song "The Broken Engagement" is again quite different, but it clearly goes with Randolph's text (which it predates and might even have inspired) rather than Belden's. - RBW
File: Beld212

Broken Engagement (III)


See Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes) (File: BrII156)

Broken Heart (II -- Dearest One, Don't You Remember)


DESCRIPTION: "Dearest one, don't you remember The last time we did part? My feelings of[t]times have been tender While piercing pains roll through my heart." The singer recalls how they loved each other; she says troubles caused them to part. She still dreams of him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 158, "The Broken Heart" (1 text)
Roud #6575
NOTES: Standard treacle, and not necessarily a song; it comes from manuscript. Neither the editors of Brown nor I recognize it. It looks rather composed to me -- it's quite stiff. - RBW
File: BrII158

Broken Heart, The


See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Broken Home, The


DESCRIPTION: "The church bells they were ringing... Just two short years ago... Two hearts had been united, Fair (Lillian) and Joe." All was well until a former lover showed up and stole Ann away. Now Joe is left lamenting with a broken home and a child in the cradle
AUTHOR: Will H. Fox
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: love marriage betrayal separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 768, "The Broken Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 166-167, "The Broken Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 270-271, "The Broken Home" (1 text)
ST R768 (Full)
Roud #7411
NOTES: The plot here is sort of a cleaned-up, de-mystified version of the "House Carpenter." It pretty well demonstrates the intellectual impoverishment that results from appealing to popular culture. - RBW
File: R768

Broken Ring (I), The


See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Broken Ring (II), The


See The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor) [Laws N35] (File: LN35)

Broken Ring Song


See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Broken Ring Song fragment


See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes)


DESCRIPTION: "It would have been better for us both to have never In this wicked world never met." The singer recalls how the other once loved (her?); when she is dead, she asks if he will come and shed a tear on her grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
BrownII 156, "Broken Ties" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Randolph [811], "How Sadly My Heart Yearns Toward You" (omitted from the second edition)
Fuson, p. 140, "Broken Vows" (1 text)
Cambiaire, p. 60, "Blue Eyes" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 167, "Blue Eyes" (1 text)
DT, BLUEEYES
Roud #460
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (Victor V-40089, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4230, 1933) (Perfect 35-09-23/Conqueror 8539, 1935)
Denver Darling & his Texas Cowhands, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (Decca 46225, 1950)
Montana Slim [pseud. for Wilf Carter] "I'm Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes" (Bluebird B-9032, 1942)
Saddle Tramps, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (Vocalion 04037, 1938)
Shelton & Fox, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (Decca 5184, 1936)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broken Engagement
NOTES: Paul Stamler suggests that we should call this song "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes." Certainly that's the version most of us know today. It appears, however, that the majority of versions are called either "Broken Ties" or "Broken Vows." Of course, the whole family is rather amorphous; I could argue, for instance, for splitting off Fuson's "Broken Vows." As it is, I split it more than Roud, who also includes the "Forget You I Never May" family here.
Pre-Carter Family texts of this seem to lack the "Blue Eyes" chorus, but some later versions (e.g. the "C" text in Brown, from 1930) add it; there may be some sort of cause and effect. - RBW
File: BrII156

Broken Vows


See Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes) (File: BrII156)

Broken-Down Sport


See The Tramp (II) (File: R843)

Broken-Down Squatter, The


DESCRIPTION: "For the banks are all broken they say, And the merchants are all up a tree, When the bigwigs are brought to the bankruptcy court, what chance for a squatter like me?" Tales of a (bankrupt and now wandering) squatter's life in depression times
AUTHOR: Charles Flower
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: horse poverty Australia hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 42-43, 236-237, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 154-155, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 115-118, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (1 text)
DT, BRKSQUAT*
Roud #8392
NOTES: Meredith and Anderson date this to a period of economic downturn between 1891 and 1893. The Penguin Book of Australian Folksongs dates it to the 1880s. Patterson/Fahey/Seal says that Flower was driven off his property by the economic troubles of the 1880s, so perhaps that is the most likely date. - RBW
File: MA042

Broken-hearted Boy, The


See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Broken-Hearted Gardener, The


DESCRIPTION: "I'm a broken-hearted gardener and don't know what to do, My love she is inconstant and a fickle jade too." The singer calls her his myrtle, geranium, and other flowers. He botanically describes his misery, but rejects suicide because she wants him dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment flowers suicide
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H499, pp. 387-388, "The Broken-Hearted Gardener" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7966
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broken-Hearted Fish Fag"
NOTES: This resembles "The Gardener" (Child #219) in its use of flowers to describe emotions, but doesn't use the same sort of emotional symbolism. To this singer, the girl is the flower; in "The Gardener," the flowers describe their relationship.
The fullest description of flower symbolism I've found is from a piece in Norman Ault, Elizabethan Lyrics From the Original Texts, pp. 69-73, "A Nosegay Always Sweet, for Lovers to Send for Tokens of Loave at New Year's Tide, Or for Fairings," which was printed 1584. It offers this list:
"Lavender is for lovers true....
"Rosemary is for remembrance....
"Sage is for sustenance....
"Fennel is for flatterers....
"Violet is for faithfulness....
"Thyme is to try me [the usual meaning is of course virginity]....
"Roses is to rule me....
"Gillyflowers is for gentleness....
"Carnations is for graciousness....
"Marigolds is for marriage....
"Pennyroyal is to print your love So deep within my heart....
Cowslips is for counsel...."
It will be noted that many of the gardener's flowers aren't in this list.
File: HHH499

Broncho Buster, The


See The Bucking Broncho (The Broncho Buster) [Laws B15] (File: LB15)

Bronco Buster, The


DESCRIPTION: "I once knew a guy that thought he was swell... He tooted and spouted... He could ride any critter that ever wore hair." A group of cowboys bring a horse, Sue, to test him. He is thrown: "The evidence shows that he didn't make good."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HBT 82, "The Bronco Buster" (1 text)
File: Ohr082

Brookfield Murder, The [Laws F8]


DESCRIPTION: Joseph Buzzell, who is being sued by Susan Hanson for breach of (marriage) contract, hires [Charles] Cook to kill her. The body is discovered by the family. Young ladies are warned against "reptiles" such as Buzzell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott)
KEYWORDS: murder corpse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1847 - Joseph Buzzell arranges for the murder of Susan Hanson. The murder is carried out by Charles Cook, who is mentally handicapped. Buzzell was therefore executed and Cook condemned to life in prison
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws F8, "The Brookfield Murder"
Linscott, pp.175-177, "The Brookfield Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 552-553, "The Brookfield Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 667, BROOKFLD*
Roud #2257
NOTES: Although Linscott's text, seemingly the only collected and printed version (Botkin's version is from Linscott) calls the girl "Hanson," Laws at one point calls her "Heston." Typo? - RBW
File: LF08

Brooklyn Fire, The


See The Brooklyn Theatre Fire [Laws G27] (File: LG27)

Brooklyn Theatre Fire, The [Laws G27]


DESCRIPTION: A large audience is in the Brooklyn Theatre (to watch a performance of "The Two Orphans"). The scenery catches fire and the crowd panics. The next day the theatre is a charred ruin packed with bodies. A mass funeral is planned
AUTHOR: P. J. Downey
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: fire death funeral disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 5, 1876 - 295 people die in a fire at a Brooklyn theatre
FOUND IN: US(ME,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws G27, "The Brooklyn Theatre Fire"
Randolph 688, "The Brooklyn Fire" (1 text)
DT 640, BRKLYNFR*
Roud #3258
File: LG27

Broom o the Cowdenknowes (II - lyric), The


DESCRIPTION: "How blythe each more was I to see My lass come ower the hill, She tripped the burn and ran to me, I met her wi' good will." The singer is exiled for loving the girl (who is above his station?). "To wander by her side again Is a' I crave or care."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1725 (_A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III_, #69)
KEYWORDS: love separation exile
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bronson 217, "The Broom of Cowdenknows" (21 versions+1 in addenda; the #4 version belongs here, implying that at least some of #1-#6 also go with this piece)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 293-295, "The Broom of Cowden-Knowes" (1 excerpt plus a text and tune from the Child ballad)
DT, COWDENKN*
ADDITIONAL: [Ambrose Phillips?,] A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III, (London, 1725), #44, pp. 236-237, "The Broom of Cowdenknow" [.".. Cowdenknows" in Table of Contents]
Roud #8209
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broom of Cowdenknows" [Child 217] (tune & meter)
NOTES: Although this song is very popular in folk revival circles (probably because it has the excellent "Cowdenknowes" tune but is short), it is much less popular in tradition than its ballad cousin.
It's interesting to note that the Scots Musical Museum version, which is by far the earliest known to me, is longer than any I've ever heard sung: Eight stanzas plus the chorus. I rather suspect rewriting, because some of the verses are pretty poor. The tune is not quite the same as what we usually hear today.
That the song is even older than that seems nearly certain from the existence of a broadside, NLScotland, Ry .III.a.10(007), "The New Way of the Broom of Cowden Knows," unknown, n.d. Said broadside clearly is based on this song -- the lyric begins "Hard Fate that I should banishet be, And Revell called with Scorn. For serving of a Lovely Prince, As e'er yet was Born. O the Broom, the Bonny Broom, The Broom of Cowding (sic.) knows, I wish his Frinds had Stayed at home, Milking there Dadys Ewes."
There can be no question that this is a Jacobite song. The notes at the NLScotland site suspect it of coming from the 1715 rebellion, probably because it mentions Huntly and his treachery, plus Seaforth. I'd be more inclined to date it to 1746, because 1. It refers to a *prince* (James III was King, in the Jacobite view, in 1715 as well as 1745), and it wishes his friends had stayed at home -- a much more likely sentiment after 1746, when the Highlanders were ruined, than in 1715, when nothing much happened.
Either way, though, the broadside is strong evidence for the existence of the lyric version of "Broom" long before the 1797 publication. - RBW
re A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III: Ambrose Philips, whose name does not appear in the Google Books copy is, according to Google Books, the editor. The New York Public Library catalog says "Compilation usually attributed to Ambrose Philips" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: DTcowden

Broom of Cowdenknows, The [Child 217]


DESCRIPTION: A gentleman sees a pretty (shepherdess), and lies with her (without her leave). She becomes pregnant. Some weeks or months later, the gentleman returns and claims her for his own
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1768 (Percy collection; tune mentioned 1632)
KEYWORDS: seduction pregnancy abandonment return marriage bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 217, "The Broom of Cowdenknows" (15 texts)
Bronson 217, "The Broom of Cowdenknows" (21 versions+1 in addenda)
GreigDuncan4 838, "The Cowdenknowes" (10 texts, 10 tunes plus a single verse on p. 555)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 293-295, "The Broom of Cowden-Knowes" (1 text plus an excerpt from "Broom (II)," 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Roud #92
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Robertson, "The Ballad of the Ewe Buchts" (on Voice06)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:041, "Ewe Buchts," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(004), "Ewe Buchts," unknown, n.d. (the site says 1840-1850, but a second ballad on the sheet refers to [Charles Stewart] Parnell, which puts it least thirty years after that); also L.C.Fol.70(2b), "Ewe Buchts," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie" [Child 290] (plot)
cf. "The Dainty Doonby" (plot)
cf. "The Sleepy Merchant" (plot)
cf. "The Bonnie Parks o' Kilty" (plot)
cf. "A Nobleman" (plot)
cf. "The Broom o the Cowdenknowes (II - lyric)" (tune & meter)
SAME TUNE:
The New Way of the Broom of Cowden Knowes (Broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(007), "The New Way of the Broom of Cowden Knowes" ("Hard Fate that I should banisht be, And Rebell called with Scorn, for serving of a Lovely Prince, As e'er yet was born"), unknown, prob. 1716)
The Glasgow Factory Lass (per broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:010, "The Glasgow Factory Lass," unknown (Glasgow), no date)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Laird o Ociltree Wa's
Laird o Lochnie
Ewe Buchts
Bonnie Mary Is to the Ewe Buchts Gane
The Laird o' Youghal Tree Wells
NOTES: Note that this melody is used for two pieces, both called "Broom o' the Cowdenknow(e)s," and both Scottish: The ballad listed here, and a more lyric piece about a man who must leave home because he fell in love with a girl above his station.
Although the texts of this piece are generally quite late, the tune appears much older. BBI ZN2610, "Through Lidderdale as lately I went," registered in 1632, claims a "pleasant Scotch tune, called, The broom of Cowdenknowes" as its melody.
It's ironic to add that the tune you've almost certainly heard for this song (Bronson's #1) is from Playford, without lyrics -- and neither the Playford tune nor any of its immediate relatives in Bronson has a text (Bronson's group Aa includes six tunes; #4 has a single stanza of lyrics, the rest none -- and that stanza in #4 is the lyric version of the song, not the ballad!). - RBW
File: C217

Broom, Green Broom


See Green Broom (File: ShH49)

Broomfield Hill, The [Child 43]


DESCRIPTION: A girl wagers with a boy that "a maid I will go to the Broomfield Hill and a maid I shall return." At home she regrets her error, but a witch tells her how to make her love sleep on the hill. She arrives on the hill, leaves a token, and wins her wager
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: magic wager sex trick witch
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) US(Ap,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Child 43, "The Broomfield Hill" (6 texts)
Bronson 43, "The Broomfield Hill" (30 versions -- but the last six are "The Maid on the Shore" -- plus 1 in addenda)
GreigDuncan2 322, "The Bonnie Broom-Fields" (2 texts)
Butterworth/Dawney, p. 29, "Merry Bloomfield" (1 text, 1 tune)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 438-442, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 songster version plus extensive notes)
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 275-279, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 150-152, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
OBB 24, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 148, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
PBB 16, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 26, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}
Combs/Wilgus 11, pp. 113-114, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
SHenry H135, p. 414, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 7, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 43, BROOMFLD* BROMFLD2* BROMFLD3
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #325, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Roud #34
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "A Wager, A Wager" (on Maynard1)
Walter Pardon, "Broomfield Hill" (on WPardon01, HiddenE)
Cyril Poacher, "Broomfield Hill (The Broomfield Wager)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) (on Poacher1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid on the Shore (The Maid on the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain)" [Laws K27]
cf. "Martinmas Time"
cf. "Lovely Joan"
cf. "The Maid and the Horse"
cf. "The Sleepy Merchant" (plot)
cf. "Geaftai Bhaile Atha Bui (The Gates of Ballaghbuoy)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broomfield Wager
Green Broom
The Merry Green Fields
NOTES: For some inexplicable reason, the notes in Sam Henry claim that H133, "Bess of Ballymoney" (p. 461) is this song. I believe this is an accidental repetition of the notes on H135. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C043

Broomhill's Bonnie Daughter


DESCRIPTION: "'Twas at the summer feeing time, When ploughmen lads they fee, That I engaged with Broomhill His foremost lad to be." The daughter of the place steals his heart; he tries to win her; she agrees, saying she loved him at first sight also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: farming courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #126, p. 1, "Broomhill's Bonnie Daughter"; Greig #128, p. 2, "Broomhill's Bonnie Daughter" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan4 723, "Broomhill's Bonnie Daughter" (10 texts, 7 tunes)
Ord, p. 232-233, "Broomhill's Bonnie Dochter" (1 text)
Roud #2175
File: Ord232

Broomhill's Bonnie Dochter


See Broomhill's Bonnie Daughter (File: Ord232)

Broon Cloak On, The


See The Broon Cloak (File: FVS086)

Broon Cloak, The


DESCRIPTION: "Some lads are ne'er at rest Till wi' crowds o' lassies press'd... But pleasure mair I find... Wi' ae lassie true and kind, And her broon cloak on." Relatives warn the lad of falling in love too young or wrongly, but he still loves the brown-cloaked girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love clothes family warning mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 86-88, "The Broon Cloak On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #68, p. 1, "The Broon Cloak" (1 text)
GreigDuncan4 906, "The Broon Cloak" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5648
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie" (tune, per Greig)
File: FVS086

Broon Coo's Broken the Fauld, The


DESCRIPTION: The brown/blue cow broke its pen and ate the corn, "And oor gudeman's hitten me." The singer will leave in the morning to follow Hielan' Donal "ow're Urie, ow'r Gadie, .... An carry's powder-horn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (_Scottish Notes and Queries_)
KEYWORDS: travel punishment farming nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig #114, p. 3, ("The broon coo's broken the fauld") (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan8 1732, "The Broon Cow's Broken Lowse" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, HIEDONAL (3 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Scottish Notes and Queries (Aberdeen, 1890 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, No. 11, April 1890, p. 173, "[Query ]411. Old Ballad" ("The broon coo's broken the fa'")
Roud #6317
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hielant Donalie
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "Hielan' Donal' Kissed Katie" but, except for the person of "Hielan' Donald" I don't see a connection.
The Scottish Notes and Queries query for more words apparently had no response. The writer there speculates: "Was this the lilt of a herd-laddie of the time of Donald of the Isles? Did the feasting of the 'Broon Coo' have a disturbing influence, sufficient to induce him to follow to the field that martial lord?" - BS
I think this highly unlikely, since Donald Dubh, the last Lord of the Isles, died in 1545. And since this Donald crossed so much territory, the reference is more likely to Donald II, who fought at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411 (for details on that, see "The Battle of Harlaw" [Child 163] ). A song from that time would be extremely unlikely to survive into the nineteenth century unless it told a more coherent story -- and besides, a follower of Donald II would probably sing in Gaelic, not English, and a soldier in 1411 would not be carrying a powder-horn! - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gr81732

Brother Ephrum Got de Coon and Gone On


See Uncle Eph (File: RcUncEph)

Brother Green


DESCRIPTION: The dying singer asks Brother Green to write a letter to his wife, "For the southern foe has laid me low." He prays for his family, tells his wife not to grieve, and remembers his brothers who are fellow soldiers for the Union. He prays (and dies)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar dying soldier
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Belden, p. 377, "Brother Green" (1 fragment)
Randolph 211, "Brother Green" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Eddy 111, "The Song of Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 18 "Brother Green, or the Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, pp. 193-194, "Brother Green" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 13-14, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 212-213, "Brother Green" (1 text)
JHCox 72, "Brother Green" (2 texts)
BrownIII 393, "Brother Green" (1 very full text plus mention of 2 more)
Brewster 47, "Brother Green" (1 text)
Silber-CivWar, p. 15, "Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R211 (Partial)
Roud #3395
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "The Dying Soldier" (Montgomery Ward M-4735, 1935)
Clarence Ganus, "The Dying Soldier" (Vocalion 5396, 1930; rec. 1929)
Buell Kazee, "The Dying Soldier" (Brunswick 214, 1928; on TimesAint01, KMM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Barbara Allen" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Go Tell Little Mary Not to Weep
NOTES: Various legends swirl about the origin of this song; they are not compelling. Although every text known to me is from the Civil War (usually Union; Randolph mentions a Confederate text), the name, style, and reference to the Virgin Mary (in some versions; others manage to cover it up) lead one to suspect Irish ancestry. - RBW
File: R211

Brother Jim Got Shot


DESCRIPTION: Singer and brother Jim start a fight in a restaurant; Jim is shot and killed. Jury says singer is innocent. Singer's wife gets scared one night, and a mouse runs down her throat. Later, she swallows a rat, cat, cheese. Jury still says singer is innocent.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: fight murder trial death humorous nonsense animal wife
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #16643
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Brother Jim Got Shot" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
NOTES: This song, almost certainly of minstrel-show origin, probably circulated as a "ballot" (song sheet). For sheer surrealism, it's up there with the works of Uncle Dave Macon. - PJS
File: RcBJGS

Brother Jonah


DESCRIPTION: Brother Jonah is called to duty, but is reluctant and goes to sea; the winds begin to blow, and the whale swallows him. The whale feels ill, and eventually throws Jonah up. Refrain: "Yessir, the whale he swallowed Brother Jon-oh. Oh! Brother! Jon-oh!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (recording, Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham)
KEYWORDS: travel storm Bible religious animal whale
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, "Brother Jonah" (Champion 50025, c. 1935; rec. 1932; on VocQ2)
NOTES: The story of Jonah and his travels is, of course, the subject of the Biblical book of Jonah. The Bible, however, consistently calls the sea creature that swallowed him a "fish." - RBW
File: RcBrotJo

Brother Moses Gone


DESCRIPTION: "Brother Moses gone to the promised land, Hallelu, Hallelujah."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 49, "Brother Moses Gone" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #12006
NOTES: A rather ironic title; presumably the "Moses" of this song is a slave, not the Biblical Moses -- but if it is the Biblical Moses, he in fact did *not* enter the Promised Land: "Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And YHWH showed him all the land.... And YHWH said to [Moses], 'This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, "I will give it to your descendants." I have let you see it... but you shall not enter it.' So Moses the servant of YHWH died there in the land of Moab...." (Deuteronomy 34:1-5). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG049A

Brother Noah


DESCRIPTION: "Brother Noah, Brother Noah, May I come into the Ark of the Lord, For it's growing very dark and it's raining very hard." Noah says that the other cannot come aboard. The rejected man curses Noah and predicts light rain. Noah says it will rain like hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: religious ship rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 200-201, "Brother Noah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8821
File: ShaSS200

Brother, Guide Me Home


DESCRIPTION: "Brother, guide me home an' I am glad, Bright angels biddy me to come;" "What a happy time, children (x3), Bright angels biddy me to come." "Let's go to God, children, Bright angels biddy me to come."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 86, "Brother, Guide Me Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12044
File: AWG086

Brother's Revenge


See The Cruel Brother [Child 11] (File: C011)

Brothers John and Henry Sheares, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the sentencing and execution. The informer watches. The verdict is guilty. "One day between the sentence and the scaffold." No sword is raised to save them. They are beheaded. The bodies in their coffins are "life-like to this day"
AUTHOR: "Speranza" (Jane Francesca Elgee, Lady Wilde) (source: Hayes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, _The Ballads of Ireland_ (Boston, 1859), Vol I)
KEYWORDS: rebellion betrayal execution trial patriotic brother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 14, 1798 - John and Henry Sheares, members of the National Directory of the United Irishmen, hanged. (source: Moylan)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan 107, "The Brothers John and Henry Sheares" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 240-242, "The Brothers"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tree of Liberty" (same subject from the other side)
NOTES: Moylan: The brothers were hanged [not beheaded]. As described in the ballad, the informer, Captain John Warneford Armstrong, had "enjoyed the hospitality of their family home." Further, the "bodies lie in the vaults of St Michan's Church in Church Street, Dublin, where they remain in a state of preservation due to some remarkable property of their surroundings." - BS
Kee, p. 46, writes of John Sheares, "His death was in fact to be particularly ignominius, for by some clumsiness on the part of the executioner he was hauled up on the rope for nearly a minute before being lowered again to the platform for his final drop." Kee also notes his lack of fame: "He has a small street named after him in Cork but otherwise his name... has little popular appear in modern republican Ireland." And, indeed, three of the first four histories I checked do not even mention the Sheares Brothers.
Yet the two were among the most important figures of 1798. When the British captured most of the leaders of the United Ireland movement in March of that year, "leadership of the metropolitan organization... devolved on Lord Edward [Fitzgerald, for whom see "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)"], John and Henry Sheares and, recently released from prison, Samuel Neilson. All, including a fatally wounded Lord Edward, were in custody by the eve of the rebellion" (Smyth, p. 176).
The informer Captain Armstrong did indeed betray them, but much of the fault belongs with the rebels. Pakenham, p. 78, tells of how Armstrong visited tbe bookstore of Patrick Byrne. He browsed "left-wing pamphlets," and apparently this was enough to cause Byrne to introduce him to the Sheares brothers, and enough to make them trust him! Pakenham, p. 81, reports that "Lawless and the Sheares brothers staked all on the loyalty of... Captain John Warneford Armstrong." To be sure, Pakenham notes that these leaders were now effectively cut off from the rest of the United Irish movement, including all the fighters they had so painfully raised. They needed help from the other side -- Armstrong. They didn't get it.
Pakenham, p. 90, reports that the brothers were lawyers with no understanding of military issues anyway. What leadership they did apply was largely negated by another government spy, Francis Mangan, who had actually been appointed to the Directory (Pakenham, p. 91).
The Sheares Brothers resigned from the Directory shortly before the rising began (Pakenham, p. 92).
On May 21, the brothers were arrested, and a proclamation of independence, in the handwriting of John Sheares, was found among their papers (Pakenham, p. 96).
Their trial came a month and a half later. Pakenham (pp. 285-287) describes it as all hanging on the testimony of Armstrong, a self-declared atheist and liberal. In a truly ironic twist, the lawyer for the Sheares Brothers, John Philpot Curran (for whom see "The Deserter's Lamentation" and "Emmet's Farewell to His Sweetheart") tried to use the fact that Armstrong was a follower of Thomas Paine (who of course inspired much of the Irish thinking) as reason not to trust his testimony. It didn't help. The jury (which apparently was carefully chosen) declared both brothers guilty in just 17 minutes. They were hanged the following day, and apparently their heads were severed after death.
Moylan's statement about the preservation of the body perhaps requires some caution. Pakenham's account (p. 287) describes a shorter term of preservation: "In the peculiar atmosphere of [St. Michan's], the coffins soon crumbled away. Twenty years later Curran's son visited the place and was shown the severed heads, trunks, and 'the hand that once traced those lines' not yet mouldered into dust."
Of course, that account was contemporary when "Speranza" was born. "Speranza," a frequent contributor to the nationalist publication The Nation was in fact Jane Francesca Elgee (died 1896; birth date variously listed from "c. 1820" to 1826, but 1821 is the most common). She wrote much Irish nationalist poetry, most of it after the death of that paper's founder Thomas Davis in 1845, though only a few pieces can be found in present-day anthologies. (Granger's Index to Poetry, in fact, cites only one: "The Famine Year": "Weary men, what reap ye? -- 'Golden corn for the stranger.' What sow ye? -- 'Human corses that wait for the avenger.' Fainting forms, hunger-stricken, what see ye in the offing? 'Stately ships to bear our food away amid the stranger's scoffing....'" (For the full text, see Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 494-496, or Charles Sullivan, editor, Ireland in Poetry, (Abrams, 1990), pp. 98-99.)
Golway, p. 111, describes her as "tall, dark, and attractive" (which, if the portrait he prints on page 110 is to believed, strikes me as an understatement), and a heavy reader. Still, she married rather late; it was not until 1851 that she wed Sir William Wilde. They had two sons; the younger of them was Oscar Wilde.
For a poem possibly by John Sheares himself, see "The Shamrock Cockade." - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: Moyl107

Broughty Wa's [Child 258]


DESCRIPTION: Burd Helen, heir of Broughty Walls, is being visited by her beloved when she is abducted by armed Highlanders. Her kidnappers try to console her, but she refuses comfort. At her first chance, she swims to escape, while one who pursues her drowns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: drowning abduction love separation escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 258, "Broughty Wa's' (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 258, "Broughty Wa's' (1 version)
Roud #108
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Glasgow Peggy" [Child 228]
NOTES: It appears to me that Child has misinterpreted this ballad (which seems to be missing a key stanza or two). He believes that, when Helen is kidnapped, her love Glenhazlen follows, and it is he who drowns when she flees across the river.
There is, however, no evidence in the text that her lover followed; all we know is that, after she threw herself into the water, "It was sae deep he [who "he" is is unidentified] couldna wide, Boats werna to be found, But he leapt in after himsell, And sunk down like a stone." Also, Helen rejoices at her freedom following her escape. So it sounds to me as if one of the Highlanders (presumably the prospective husband) is the one who drowned, not Helen's lover. - RBW
File: C258

Brow of Sweet Knocklayd


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls watching the lambs play by sunset on Knocklayd. Now she (?) must leave friends and parens behind "to cross the ocean to some far-off foreign shore." The song ends with the moon rising over Knocklayd
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H19b, p. 196, "Brow of Sweet Knocklayd" (1 text, tune referenced)
File: HHH019b

Brown Adam [Child 98]


DESCRIPTION: Brown Adam is a smith, banished from his kin. He builds a bower where he lives with his love. He goes hunting, returns to overhear a knight attempting to woo his love, finally threatening her life. He rescues his love, defeating the knight.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1494 (Ritson-Tytler-Brown ms.)
KEYWORDS: knight love separation home hunting courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 98, "Brown Adam" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Bronson 98, "Brown Adam" (2 versions)
GreigDuncan5 994, "Brown Edom" (1 text)
OBB 48, "Brown Adam" (1 text)
DT, BRNADAM*
Roud #482
File: C098

Brown and Yellow Ale, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer and his wife are walking when they meet the Brown and Yellow (Ale/Earl). He asks to take the wife aside. When she returns, he is so ashamed that he dies and is buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Harte), and said to have been sung by James Joyce; the Irish is older
KEYWORDS: seduction drink nobility death adultery
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, BRWNYLLW BRWNYEL2
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 80-81, "The Brown and Yellow Ale" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Brown and Yellow Earl
NOTES: Reportedly a translation of the Irish "Chuaca Lan De Bui." Several translations are said to exist, including one by James Joyce.
What's interesting is the two titles: "The Brown and Yellow Ale," apparently Dominic Behan's title and followed by Harte, and "The Brown and Yellow Earl," which I heard from Debby McClatchy. Obviously one could be an error of hearing for the other -- indeed, *must* be an error of hearing, since the mistake could not occur in print. And yet, how could such an error slip through? There seem to be no genuinely traditional collections to explain it.
And which is original? Presumably the Irish Gaelic would make it clear, but I failed to turn up a reliable text, and Cliff Abrams did an earlier search which didn't net much either, at least in the way of genuine folk sources.
"Ale" seems much the more strongly attested -- but it hardly makes sense. Harte offers Sean O'Boyle's explanation, which is that drink has rendered the husband impotent so that his wife prefers a younger man. This is possible, but a stretch. Whereas if the Brown and Yellow item is an Earl, then he is exercising droit de siegneur, and the husband is a cuckold and commits suicide as a result. This makes perfect sense.
The flip side is, it makes such perfect sense that it's hard to imagine the change going the other way. So I think the weight of evidence favours "Brown and Yellow Ale." I wouldn't bet much on it, though. - RBW
File: Hart080

Brown and Yellow Earl, The


See The Brown and Yellow Ale (File: Hart080)

Brown Edom


See Brown Adam [Child 98] (File: C098)

Brown Flour


DESCRIPTION: Hard times on Fogo. All we get is brown flour from Russia that won't rise, makes you "merry" and smells like banana. Merchants say we owe them money. You trade work for government rations: "you must shovel snow, This will help 'em reduce the taxation."
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes starvation nonballad political food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 46-47, "Brown Flour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9946
RECORDINGS:
Ken Peacock, "Brown Flour, 1926" (on NFKPeacock)
NOTES: Per Peacock: the song dates from the late twenties or thirties. Fogo is off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. - BS
File: Pea046

Brown Girl (I), The [Child 295]


DESCRIPTION: The Brown Girl's former lover tells her he cannot marry her because she is so brown. She cares not. He writes again, saying he is sick and asking her to release him from his promise. She comes slowly and releases him, but promises to dance on his grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1788
KEYWORDS: courting promise betrayal revenge death
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,High)) Canada(Mar) Ireland US(MW,NE,NW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 295, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts)
Bronson 295, "The Brown Girl" (49 versions+2 in addenda, but mostly these are Laws P9; of the 49, #1, #3, #8, #13, #16, #17, (#19), #24, #25, #35, #36, #41, #44, #8.1 are listed by Laws as "A Rich Irish Lady," as is #8 though it mixes with "The Death of Queen Jane"; #2, #5, #10, #15, #20, #21, #29, #32a/b, #34, #37, #38(a), #45, #47, #49, #41.1 are apparently LP9 as well; #4, #6, #7, #11, #31, #39, #42 are fragments which appear more likely to be LP9; #14, #22, #23, #27 are fragments identified by Laws with LP9 though this cannot be proved; #9 (Baring-Gould's) is definitely the Child version, and #33, #48 probably; #18 is a fragment that might be part of "Glenlogie"; #26, #28 have no text; #30, #40, #43 might be either)
Leach, pp. 678-680, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts, but "B" is Laws P9)
OBB 157, "The Brown Girl" (1 text)
Roud #180
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.)" [Laws P9]
cf. "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" [Child 73]
NOTES: Identified by some (including Roud) with the ballad Laws calls "A Rich Irish Lady" and Randolph labels "Pretty Sally of London." The difference between the two is that, in "The Brown Girl," the girl is unforgiving; in "Pretty Sally" it is the man. Laws therefore declares that the two ballads are related but distinct.
It should be observed that "A Rich Irish Lady" is much, much, much more popular; other than Baring-Gould's text (Child's B), I know of no traditional texts of the Child song. Any text listed as Child 295 should be carefully checked to see if it is not Laws P9 instead.
No attempt has been made to list here all the songs claimed as Child #295 when in fact they are Laws P9.
For further discussion on this point, including the opinions of various editors on the matter, see the entry on Laws P9. - RBW
File: C295

Brown Girl (II), The


See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Brown Girl (III), The


See The Banks of the Bann (I) [Laws O2] (File: LO02)

Brown Jug, The (Bounce Around)


DESCRIPTION: "I (took/sent) my brown jug down to town (x3) So early in the morning (or "Tra de al de ay," etc.)." "It came back with a bounce around (or "all flounced around")...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 534, The Brown Jug (2 texts, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 387, "I Sent My Brown Jug Downtown" (1 text, with some verses apparently from "Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)")
Roud #7644
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Play Party" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b) (on PeteSeeger22)
File: R534

Brown Robyn's Confession [Child 57]


DESCRIPTION: Brown Robyn and his men go to sea and meet a fierce storm. They cast lots to learn who is to blame, and Brown Robyn himself is thrown overboard. He sees the Virgin Mary, who offers to let him come to heaven or return to his men. He chooses heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: ship crime sea storm religious incest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 57, "Brown Robyn's Confession" (1 text)
Bronson (57) [Brown Robin's Confession], comments only with the tune belonging to "Captain Glen"
OBB 21, "Brown Robyn's Confession" (1 text)
PBB 8, "Brown Robyn's Confession" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 142-143+331, "Brown Robyne's Confession" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #412, "Brown Robyn" (1 text)
Roud #3882
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22]" (Jonah theme) and references there
NOTES: This appears to be the only legitimate ballad that supports the doctrine of Justification by Faith. It is rather odd to find such a thing in Presbyterian Scotland. Especially given that Robyn had had incestuous relations with both his mother and his sister. - RBW
The theme of the sailor thrown overboard to calm a storm sent by God is found in Jonah 1.1-16. - BS
It should be noted that the "Jonahs" actually did exist, and did suffer for it. One case with an interesting analogy to this ballad happened in the reign of King Stephen of England (1135-1154). Stephen, for most of his reign, was plagued by revolt and civil war. One of those who rebelled against him was Geoffrey de Mandeville. But de Mandeville was killed by a crossbowman in 1144 (see Jim Bradbury, Stephen and Matilda: The Civil War of 1139-1153, 1996 (I use the 1998 Sutton paperback), p. 131).
As was normal at the time, Geoffrey's personal army started to dissolve. His senior infantry officer was named Reiner. Reiner tried to flee to the European mainland (whence he apparently came), but his ship grounded. The sailors cast lots to determine who was guilty, and Rainer and his wife were chosen. They were cast adrift in a small boat and died (Bradbury, p. 132).
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C057

Brown Roiyn [Child 97]


DESCRIPTION: The (king's) daughter loves lowly Brown Robyn, informs him so by song, sneaks him in to her bower, sneaks him out again by dressing him as one of her ladies. (His is shot by a suspicious porter who is hanged for it/They are allowed to marry.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (P. Buchan)
KEYWORDS: love disguise cross-dressing marriage death royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 97, "Brown Robin" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 97, "Brown Robin" (2 versions)
GreigDuncan8 1932, "Brown Robin" (2 texts)
PBB 58, "Brown Robin" (1 text)
DBuchan 18, "Brown Robin" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
Roud #62
File: C097

Brown-Eyed Boy


See Likes Likker Better Than Me (Brown-Eyed Boy) (File: CSW075)

Brown-Eyed Gypsies, The


See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Brown-Eyed Lee


DESCRIPTION: "Kind friends, if you will listen, A story I will tell, About a final dust-up...." The singer courts Brown-Eyed Lee; her parents disapprove. He says he will win her anyway, but she proved untrue. He curses the day he met Lee but can't forget her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Larkin); reportedly written 1889
KEYWORDS: cowboy love betrayal mother
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Larkin, pp. 72-74, "Brown-Eyed Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4042
NOTES: This song is item dB35 in Laws's Appendix II.
It supposed was composed by the rejected lover himself. For once, this seems rather likely, because he clearly can't decide if he hates or loves her. - RBW
File: Lark072

Brown-Haired Lass, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to country and to the brown-haired lass. He describes courting the girl, and their sad farewell. He says he will never be happy until he marries the girl. As the ship sets sail, he offers a toast to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration parting separation love courting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H116a+c, pp. 201-202, "The Brown-Haird Lass (a), (b)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
File: HHH116a

Brown-Skinned Woman, A


DESCRIPTION: "A brown-skinned woman and she's choc'late to de bone, A brown-skinned woman and she smells like toilet soap...." The woman can make a train slide, or make a preacher "lay his Bible down"; "I married a woman, she was even tailor-made."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 278, "A Brown-Skinned Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11639
NOTES: Scarborough lists this as a blues; neither the form nor the apparent happiness of the singer supports this conclusion. - RBW
File: ScNF278A

Brown's Ferry Blues


DESCRIPTION: About a "hard-luck papa," etc.; "Hard-luck papa counting his toes... smell his feet wherever he goes"; "Hard-luck papa standing in the rain/If the world was corn, he couldn't buy grain"; "Refrain: "Lord, lord, got those Brown's Ferry blues."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Delmore Brothers)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 224-225, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 73, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (1 text)
DT, BRWNFERY
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (on FBode1)
Bill Cox, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (Melotone 13161/Oriole 8380, 1934)
Delmore Bros., "Brown's Ferry Blues" (Bluebird B-5403, 1934) (King 592, 1947)
McGee Brothers (Sam, Kirk), "Brown's Ferry Blues" (Decca 5348, 1937); (Champion 45033, 1935)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1) (NLCR12) (NLCR16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jackhammer John" (tune)
cf. "Dog House Blues" (tune)
cf. "Rubberneck Blues" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Shirt Factory Blues (by Cleda Helton and James Pyle) (Greenway-AFP, p. 143)
Philyaw Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues, No. 4" (Vocalion 04186, 1938) [that's not a misprint, I said Philyaw - PJS]
Delmore Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues - Part 2" (Bluebird B-5893, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-4553, c. 1935)
Callahan Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues - No. 2" (Melotone 6-04-59/Perfect 6-04-59/Conqueror 8627, 1936 [as Walter Callahan])
Log Cabin Boys, "New Brown's Ferry Blues" (Decca 5103, 1935)
NOTES: Both the McGee Brothers and the Delmore Brothers claim authorship of this piece. The obvious conclusion is that neither actually wrote it. - RBW
File: CSW224

Bruce's Lines


DESCRIPTION: The singer told Annie that he was leaving for the Highlands to be a shepherd for a while. He said they should be true. "He had in the Highlands But a short time to be But ere he came back O married was she." He warns young men "never love a rose too much"
AUTHOR: Rev. Andrew Bruce (source: Greig)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity parting return shepherd warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #24, p. 1, "Bruce's Lines" (1 text)
GreigDuncan6 1195, "Bruce's Lines" (8 texts, 8 tunes)
Roud #6276
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Midsummer Evening
Bonny Annie
File: GrD61195

Bruce's Log Camp


See Burns's Log Camp (File: Doe217)

Brughaichean Ghlinn-Braon (Braes of Glen Broom)


DESCRIPTION: Scottish Gaelic. "Lying in a French prison... No order from England To send me home free...." The singer thinks of his lost love, "the maid of thick tresses ... In the braes of Glen Broom"
AUTHOR: William Ross (1762-1790)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love separation war prison lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 773-774, "Brughaichean Ghlinn-Braon" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Peacock notes that this "is called a milling song... used to accompany the work of shrinking wool homespun. The wet cloth is alternately kneaded and pounded on a large table by several people either seated or standing. A leader sings the verses, and everyone comes in on the chorus." "Milling wool" and "waulking tweed" is the same process. For a note on the process and the songs see "Waulking" by Craig Cockburn at the Silicon Glen site.
The description is based on a translation by George Calder in Gaelic Songs by William Ross Collected by John MacKenzie Translated by George Calder (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1937), specifically Ross 25, pp. 148-151.
Calder's Note G to Ross 25: "The song may have been composed by a prisoner of war in France and improved by Ross, or it may have been composed by Ross himself and based on one or other of the many tales of the French wars which raged during his short life." p. 192 - BS
File: Pea773

Brule Boys, The


DESCRIPTION: Two men from Brule go to St Peter's to bring back rum in winter. They become lost in a storm and drift until Captain Harvey and his crew save them. They are taken to Marystown and from there return home. Moral: wait till spring to go to St Peter's.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: crime rescue sea ship storm drink
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 14, "The Brule Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Lehr/Best: Brule, on Merasheen Island in Placentia Bay "was one of the prime smuggling areas for the St Pierre rum-running operation." Other Newfoundland songs about running rum from St Pierre include "Young Chambers" and "Captain Shepherd." - BS
File: LeBe014

Bruntie's


See Auld Luckie of Brunties (File: Ord246)

Brunton Town


See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Brush Creek Wreck, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of a wreck near Bevier. As the train, moving at high speed, crosses a bridge, the switch "flew backward And sent them through the bridge." The engineer finds several fatally injured; the people of Brookfield mourn their dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 1, 1881 - The Brush Creek Wreck (actually wrecks, as the rescue train also went off the tracks, causing worse casualties)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden, pp. 421-422, "The Brush Creek Wreck" (1 text)
Cohen-LSRail, p. 272, "Brush Creek Wreck" (notes only)
Roud #4137
NOTES: This is item dG37 in Laws's Appendix II.
Belden does not comment on the form of this piece, and has no tune, but it appears to me nearly certain that it was sung to "Casey Jones." Though it would take some squeezing to make it fit any tune; the text is highly irregular (and more than a little forced. Belden doesn't think it went far into tradition, and it's easy to see why). - RBW
File: Beld421

Brushy Mountain Freshet, The


DESCRIPTION: "In the month of July, in the year 'sixteen, Came the awfullest storm that's ever been seen." The song describes the progress of the storm, and presumably details the various people killed or rendered homeless
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: disaster storm flood
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 284, "The Brushy Mountain Fresher" (1 text)
Roud #6643
NOTES: The notes in Brown describe notes attached to this song about the storm of 1916. The song, however, is so fragmentary that little can be verified about its connection with actual events. - RBW
File: BrII284

Bruton Town


See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Bryan O'Lynn


See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Bryng Us in Good Ale


See Bring Us Good Ale (File: MEL82)

Buachaill On Eirne (Boy from Ireland)


DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer claims great wealth and would marry a girl without a dowry. He doesn't work but drinks and plays with women for a short time each. He warns not to marry an old man; a young man who lives only one year can give her a son or a daughter.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (IRLClancy01)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting marriage warning drink nonballad rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "Buachaill On Eirne" (on IRLClancy01)
NOTES: The description is based on the translation for "Buachaill on Eirne (Boy from Ireland)" for the Clannad site at jtwinc.com. - BS
File: RcBuOnEi

Buachaill Roe, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer's lover, at twenty three, fought "for the cause of Ireland ... He never once retreated though his wounds were deep and sore." He was killed and his remains are at Inniskillen.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRPTunney01)
KEYWORDS: love battle rebellion death Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 147-148, "The Buachaill Roe" (1 text)
McBride 16, "Charming Buachaill Roe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5730
RECORDINGS:
Joe Tunney and Paddy Tunney, "My Charming Buachal Roe" (on IRPTunney01)
Paddy Tunney, "The Buachaill Roe" (on IRPTunney02)
NOTES: Paddy Tunney on IRPTunney02 translates the title as "The Red Haired Boy." - BS
File: RcTMCBR

Buccaneers, The


See Dead Man's Chest (File: LxA512)

Buchan Laddie, The


See Courtin' Owre Slow (File: GrD4896)

Buchan Miller, The


See Miller Tae My Trade (File: K218)

Buchan Turnpike, The


DESCRIPTION: In 1808 "a road thro' Buchan was made straucht And mony a Hielan' lad o' maucht Cam' owre the Buchan border ... To put the road in order" Some of the workers are named. "This turnpike it will be a boon"
AUTHOR: John Shirris (source: GreigDuncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: commerce technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #7, p. 1, "The Buchan Turnpike" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 460, "The Buchan Turnpike" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5961
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie Cope" (tune, per GreigDuncan3)
cf. "Boyndlie Road" (subject: road building)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Buchan Road
The New Turnpike
In the Year Auchteen Hunner an' Aucht
The Road-Makin'
NOTES: Not all the singers are happy about the road. GreigDuncan3 460E: "The thieves into my hoose they cam', An' to my leathern bags they ran, An' oot o' them they filled their han', An' sert them oot o' order."
[I wonder if this mightn't be a memory of something older, having to do with government repression. Most of the earliest roads in northern Scotland were built by the government to watch the Jacobite clans and allow quick movements of military forces. Of course, it also made it possible for the glens to eventually join the British economy. After they had been cleared, to be sure.]
Greig: "The making of a turnpike road, however important an event in its own way, hardly looks a subject for verse; and nowadays one could scarcely imagine a bard condescending on such a prosaic theme.... Any number of people throughout Buchan know about the making of the Peterhead and Banff turnpike from this song and from no other source of information; and here in the year 1908 we print the song in honour of the event which it commemorates."
Greig's text concludes "The writer's name gin you should spier, I'm Jamie Shirran frae New Deer, A name weel kent baith far and near, I dwell near the road's border." GreigDuncan3 460C text has it as "I'm Jamie Shirris ...." GreigDuncan3 notes that Duncan "identified the author as John Shirran" and remembered three men who sang the name as "John Shirris, and all understood it to be the work of the well-known rhymer." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3460

Buck Creek Gal


See Cripple Creek (II) (Buck Creek Girls) (File: SKE64)

Buck Creek Girls


See Cripple Creek (II) (Buck Creek Girls) (File: SKE64)

Buck Goat Song, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer loses a fight to a billy goat while digging potatoes. "Now Wilcox he thinks he's a boxer, Joe Louis he thinks he's just swell, But they'd all lose their bout in a hurry, If they had to fight that old bill"
AUTHOR: Edmund Chaffey
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: fight humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 15, "The Buck Goat Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LeBe015

Buck Sheep, The


See The Hesleys (File: FSC163)

Buck-Eye Rabbit


DESCRIPTION: "I wanted sugar very much, I went to Sugar Town, I climbed up in that sugar tree And shook that sugar down. Buck-eye rabbit, Shoo! Shoo!" "I went down to my sweetheart's house... She fed me out of an old hog trough And I don't go there no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: talltale humorous courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FSNA 266, "Buck-Eye Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6706
File: LoF266

Buck-eyed Jim


See Buckeye Jim (File: LxU001)

Buckets of Water


See Draw a Bucket of Water (File: BGMG652)

Buckeye Jim


DESCRIPTION: "Way up yonder above the sky, A bluebird lived in a jaybird's eye. Buckeye Jim, you can't go, Go weave and spin, you can't go, Buckeye Jim." Vignettes of the lives of odd creatures in odd places
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947
KEYWORDS: lullaby animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FSUSA 1, "Buckeye Jim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 388, "Buckeye Jim" (1 text)
DT, BUCKEYJM* BUCKEYE2*
Roud #10059
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Limber Jim"
cf. "Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough" (floating lyrics)
File: LxU001

Bucking Broncho, The (The Broncho Buster) [Laws B15]


DESCRIPTION: A girl is in love with a bronco buster who has promised to give up his trade for her. She warns others not to rely on such promises; most breakers will leave their women to head up the trail on their horses
AUTHOR: claimed by James Hatch and Billie Davis (1882)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 ("The Rawhide" by Edward White, in McClure's Magazine)
KEYWORDS: cowboy love promise
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws B15, "The Bucking Broncho (The Broncho Buster)"
Larkin, pp. 58-60, "My Love Is a Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 200, "The Bucking Bronco" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and 2 fragments, 1 tune, which Cohen implies might be wrongly transcribed)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 196-198, "The Bucking Bronco" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 200A)
Thorp/Fife XI, pp. 121-134 (26-27), "Bucking Broncho" (9 texts, 3 tunes)
Fife-Cowboy/West 60, "Bucking Broncho" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 417-418, "Bucking Bronco" (1 text)
Lomax-FSNA 199, "My Love is a Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HBT 14, "My Love Is a Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon, pp. xix-xx, "(The Bucking Broncho)" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 163, "Bucking Bronco" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyP, p. 200, "Bucking Broncho" (1 text)
DT 382, BUCKBRNC*
Roud #934
RECORDINGS:
Girls of the Golden West [Mildred & Dorothy Good], "Bucking Broncho (My Love is a Cowboy)" (Bluebird B-5752, 1935; on AuthCowboys)
Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee, "My Love is a Cowboy" (Bluebird B-5298, 1934; on WhenIWas2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cowboy's Hat
NOTES: Has anyone else noticed the remarkable number of possible double-entendres in this song? - PJS
This, I think, is the result of a dirty song being cleaned up -- probably by N. Howard Thorp. (At least, he confessed to cleaning it up. The question then becomes, what was the history of the song before the 1904 publication? Was it originally clean, then made dirty, then clean again? Or was it originally dirty, and twice expurgated? It's hard to tell, at this stage.)
Thorp, if Logsdon is to be believed, started the story that Belle Starr was responsible for this piece -- a claim mentioned though not really endorsed by Randolph, and also found in Larkin.
Randolph goes on to point out that there is no evidence that Starr ever wrote poetry of any kind. Logsdon is more pointed (p. xix), noting that Thorp claimed to have met Belle Starr but doubting he did so. The doubts seem reasonable -- Thorp did not make the claim until the 1920s, but Starr died in 1889. Thus, if Thorp *did* meet her, it was well before he first published the song. So why didn't he mention her authorship in his 1908 edition?
Starr of course has become a legend -- so much so that I'm frankly amazed there are no songs about her (other than Woody Guthrie's, which is not traditional and which swallows the legend hook, line, and sinker). She did lead a wild and adventurous life -- but many of the stories about her seem to be things she invented - RBW
File: LB15

Bucking Bronko, The


See The Bucking Broncho (The Broncho Buster) [Laws B15] (File: LB15)

Bud Jones


DESCRIPTION: A tramp stops at the home of "a snug little farmer that earns his bread ... and some dinner requested." The farmer agrees to trade dinner for work. After a hard luck story about why he can't work the tramp agrees to turn a ram. The ram does not agree.
AUTHOR: Lawrence Doyle
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous animal migrant
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 108-109, "Bud Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12457
File: Dib108

Budd Lake Plains


DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of working as camp cook at Frank Young's lumber camp on Budd Lake plains. He is stuck with bad provisions. Eventually he's jailed for twelve days; on his release, he vows not to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of coming to Frank Young's lumber camp on Budd Lake plains, working as camp cook. He is stuck with bad provisions -- "Many a poor mule's been killed up on Budd's Lake plains." Eventually he's jailed for twelve days; on his release, he vows not to return: "For since I have got out/I won't go again/For they wear striped pants/Up around Budd Lake plains."
KEYWORDS: lumbering work prison food cook
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 15, "Budd Lake Plains" (1 text)
Roud #8866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" and references there
cf. "Punchin' Dough" (theme)
cf. "Boomer Johnson" (theme)
NOTES: Clare County, Michigan, which includes Budd Lake, had a reputation as a rough and tough area.
Beck notes that only one informant could remember the song. - PJS
File: Be015

Budded Roses


See Down Among the Budded Roses (File: RcDATBR)

Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line


DESCRIPTION: First verse describes leasing out of convicts to act as scabs in a miners' strike; rest of song describes bad conditions for the convicts.
AUTHOR: Uncle Dave Macon?
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (collected by Robert W. Gordon; text in Green-Miner)
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement mining work scab prisoner
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Green-Miner, p. 195-197,"Roll Down the Line"; p. 198, "Convict Song" (1 text); p. 210, "Chain Gang Special" (1 text); p. 203, "Roll Down the Line" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 208, "Lone Rock Song" (1 text); p. 216 ,"Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (1 text, transcribed from Uncle Dave Macon's recording); p. 220, "Rollin' Down the Line" (1 text); p. 223, "Lone Rock Mine Song" (1 text); p. 225, "Humpy Hargis" (1 text)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 98 "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 204-205, "Buddy, Won't You Roll Down the Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 366-367, "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (1 text)
ST ADR98 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
The Allen Brothers, "Hey Buddy, Won't You Roll Down the Line" (Vocalion 02818, 1934); "Roll Down the Line" (Victor 23551, 1931; Bluebird B-5700, 1934; Bluebird B-6148, 1935; rec. 1930)
Thaddeus Goodson & Belton Rice, "Roll Down the Line" (AFS 3792, 1939)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (Brunswick 292, 1929; rec. 1928; on AAFM3)
Negro prisoners, Memphis, TN, "Rollin' Down the Line" (AFS 174)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (on SeegerTerry)
Pete Seeger, "Roll Down the Line" (on PeteSeeger13)
William H. Stevens, "Convict Song" (AFS A-107, 1925)
[Wilmer] Watts & [Frank] Wilson "Chain Gang Special" (Paramount 3019, 1927/Broadway 8114 [as Weaver & Wiggins], n.d.; on RoughWays1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coal Creek Troubles" (subject)
cf. "The Irish Girl" (lyrics)
NOTES: This strike apparently took place in Tennessee in the 1880s, according to notes in Asch/Dunson/Raim.
Like most of Uncle Dave Macon's songs, this piece is basically free-association. - PJS
Though it may in fact predate him. He gave it the authentic Uncle Dave spin, but how many other Uncle Dave songs have such strong historical roots? Many believe the song to go back to the actual event it describes. (For details, see the notes to "Coal Creek Troubles.") - RBW
Macon's song seems to have been a rewrite of "Chain Gang Special," with the "leased the convicts out" verse tacked onto a song that's basically the lament of a black convict who's been sentenced to the chain gang. The racial overtones that Macon softens are clear in the Watts & Wilson recording: "Big nigger, won't you roll down the line." Interestingly, their song is clearly (and sympathetically) told from the black prisoner's point of view, rare for a white band.
"Lone Rock Mine Song" and "Humpy Hargis" date from the early 1890s, but they are fragments; I've somewhat arbitrarily placed the Earliest Date for a non-fragmentary version of the song at 1925, when it was collected by Gordon from William H. Stevens. - PJS
File: ADR98

Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade, The


See references under The Miller of Dee (File: K229A)

Buena Vista


See On Buena Vista's Battlefield (File: R225A)

Buffalo Boy


DESCRIPTION: The girl asks the Buffalo Boy when they will wed. He suggests soon. (Assorted stanzas follow.) She asks who he will bring to the wedding. He suggests his children. She didn't know he had children. When assured he does, she calls off the wedding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Mr. & Mrs. Ernest V. Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding children rejection humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 162, "Buffalo Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 345, "Buffalo Boy" (1 text)
Roud #313
RECORDINGS:
Mr. & Mrs. Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Mountaineer's Courtship" (OKeh 45125, 1927; on AAFM3) (Victor 20880, 1927)
The Hillbillies, "Mountaineer's Courtship" (Vocalion 5115, c. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Country Courtship" (theme)
NOTES: Kennedy considers this to be a version of "The Country Courtship," and the forms, and even the verses, are similar. Roud lumps them. However, this version has a different punch line. - RBW
File: LoF162

Buffalo Gals


DESCRIPTION: As requested, the Buffalo [Bowery, etc.] girls promise to come out tonight, to dance or otherwise disport themselves by the light of the moon.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: A Christy Minstrels' version was copyright in 1848
KEYWORDS: bawdy playparty dancing
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Randolph 535, "Buffalo Gals" (2 texts plus an excerpt and a fragment, 1 tune)
BrownIII 81, "Buffalo Gals" (2 short texts); also 491, "We'll Have a Little Dance Tonight, Boys" (1 fragment, too short to properly classify but it might go here)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 112-114, (no title) and "Buffalo Gals" (2 texts plus a fragment possibly from this, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 424-425, "Buffalo Gals" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 33, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 288-290, "Louisiana Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 101, "Buffalo Gals" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, p. 841, "(Buffalo Gals)" (1 text, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 233, (fourth of four "Fragments from Maryland") (1 fragment)
Arnett, p. 58, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 107-108, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 34, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 36, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Edward Russell, _A-Rafting on the Mississip'_, 1928 (republished 2001 by the University of Minnesota Press), pp. 211-213, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune); also a "Cornfed Gals" stanza on p. 219
ST R535 (Full)
Roud #738
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Alabama Gal" (OKeh 40204, 1924)
Collins & Harlan, "Ain't You Coming Out To-Night?" (CYL: Edison [4-min.] 480, n.d.)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Buffalo Gal's Medley" (Crown 3075, c. 1930)
Harlan Miner's Fiddlers [pseud. for Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers], "Buffalo Gals" (Montgomery Ward M-3022, 1931) [I am assuming this is a different recording from Crown 3075, as the latter is a medley]
Vernon Dalhart, "Ain't-Ya Comin' Out Tonight?" (Columbia 257-D, 1924)
Vernon Dalhart & Co., "Ain't You Comin' Out Tonight?" (Edison 51430, 1924)
Frank Hutchison, "Alabama Gal Ain't You Coming Out Tonight" (OKeh 45313, 1929; rec. 1928)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers [or Earl Johnson and his Clodhoppers], "Alabama Girl Ain't You Comin' Out Tonight" (OKeh 45300, 1929; rec. 1928)
Guy Massey, "Ain't Ya Comin' Out Tonight" (Perfect 12170, 1924)
Shorty McCoy, "Buffalo Gals" (Bluebird 33-0511, 1944)
Pickard Family, "Buffalo Gals" (Brunswick 363/Banner 6371/Conqueror 7326, 1929)
Riley Puckett, "Alabama Gal" (Columbia 15185-D, 1927)
Bookmiller Shannon, "Buffalo Gals" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1707)
Pete Seeger, "Buffalo Gals" (on PeteSeeger17)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hangtown Gals" (tune)
cf. "Horsham Boys" (tune)
cf. "Gwine Follow" (partial form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Alabama Gals
NOTES: According to Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 101), this originated as the Cool White (John Hodges) song "Lubly Fan" (1843). From the present perspective, it's hard to prove whether Hodges actually did write the thing or borrowed an existing piece -- but I rather suspect the latter. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R535

Buffalo Hunters


DESCRIPTION: "Come all you pretty fair maidens, these lines to you I write, We're going on the range in which we take delight...." The singer describes hunting buffalo and other animals in the west, then heads off for a drink
AUTHOR: "Whiskey" Parker ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1943
KEYWORDS: hunting drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 2, "The Buffalo Hunters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4633
NOTES: Reportedly written by "Whisky" Parker in 1872, although the supporting evidence is slight. - RBW
File: FCW002

Buffalo Range (I)


See The Buffalo Skinners [Laws B10a] (File: LB10A)

Buffalo Range (II), The


DESCRIPTION: The singer declares "I wouldn't exchange the buffalo range For the world and all of its gold." It is where he makes his home, and where he'll "live and die." He describes the beautiful wildlife. He "thank[s] the Great Boss in the sky" for creating it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: home religious cowboy nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 127, "The Buffalo Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Obviously not to be confused with "The Buffalo Skinners." - RBW
File: FCW127

Buffalo Skinners, The [Laws B10a]


DESCRIPTION: A promoter named (Crego) hires a group of men to skin buffalo. He consistently cheats and mistreats them. Eventually they kill him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: work murder boss revenge
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws B10a, "The Buffalo Skinners"
Leach, pp. 773-775, "Canaday I. O. (The Buffalo Skinners)" (2 texts, but only the first goes with this piece; the other belongs with "Canaday I-O" [Laws C17])
Friedman, p. 429, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
PBB 110, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Sandburg, pp. 270-272, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife XV, pp. 195-218 (31-33), "Buffalo Range" (6 texts, 2 tunes, though the "B" text is "Boggy Creek," C and D appear unrelated, and E is "Canada-I-O")
Larkin, pp. 91-94, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 52, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 390-392, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 854-855, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 84, pp. 181-183, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 169-170, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 63, "Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 110, "Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
DT 377, BUFFSKIN* BUFFSKI2
Roud #634
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender, The Happy Cowboy, "Buffalo Skinners" (Varsity 5144, c. 1940)
Woody Guthrie, "Buffalo Skinners" (on Struggle1, Struggle2, CowFolkCD1)
John A. Lomax, "Buffalo Skinners" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Pete Seeger, "Buffalo Skinners" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boggy Creek" [Laws B10b]
cf. "The Trail to Mexico [Laws B13]" (a few overlapping lyrics)
cf. "Canaday-I-O, Michigan-I-O, Colley's Run I-O" [Laws C17]
cf. "Shanty Teamster's Marseillaise" (plot)
cf. "Way Out in Idaho (I)" (lyrics, plot)
File: LB10A

Buffalo Whore, The


See The Winnipeg Whore (File: EM202)

Bugaboo, The


See The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3] (File: LO03)

Bugle Britches, The


See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Bugle, Oh!


DESCRIPTION: Corn-husking song. "Goin' down the country, bugle, oh (x2), Red breast horses, bugle oh!, Red breast horses, Bugle, oh! Oh, bugle, oh!" "Comin' in a canter, meet my darlin'." The lovers court, marry, dance, have a baby
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 197, "Bugle, Oh!" (1 text); 204, "Run, Sallie, My Gal" (1 text)
NOTES: The notes in Brown admit uncertainty as to whether his two pieces are one; they have no lyrics in common except the chorus, and that is distorted in one or the other. But both are listed as corn-shucking songs, they have that same chorus, and "Run, Sallie, My Gal" is a fragment; if they aren't the same, they also aren't worth separate entries. - RBW
File: Br3197

Build a House in Paradise


DESCRIPTION: "My brother build a house in Paradise, Build it without a hammer and a nail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 29, "Build a House in Paradise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11983
File: AWG029B

Building a Slide


DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young fellows from near, far, and wide, And I'll tell you a story of buliding a slide." The singer describes the loggers on the crew, thinks they are nearly done with work, and joins them in drinking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: work logger lumbering moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-Lumbering #18, "Building a Slide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4386
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (tune, chorus)
cf. "Chapeau Boys" (lyrics)
File: FowL18

Building of Solomon's Temple, The [Laws Q39]


DESCRIPTION: A Masonic ballad referring to Solomon as a "freemason king"! The ballad details the building of the Jerusalem temple, including the vast crews which worked on it. The end of the ballad concerns modern Freemasonry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Journal from the Galaxy)
KEYWORDS: royalty Bible
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 960-c. 921 B.C.E. - Reign of King Solomon in Israel. (Both dates have about a ten year margin for error.) Solomon began to build the Temple early in his "fourth year" (i.e. c. 957); he finished it seven years and six months later
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws Q39, "The Building of Solomon's Temple"
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 309-312, "Song of Solomon's Temple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #148, pp. 1-2, "The Building of Solomon's Temple" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 467, "The Freemason King" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 159, "The Building of Solomon's Temple" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "King Solomon's Temple" (source notes only)
DT 546, SOLTEMPL
Roud #1018
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(41), "The Free Mason King," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1858; also Firth c.21(40), "The Free Mason King"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rules of Masonry" (theme: Building the First Temple)
cf. "The Plumb and Level" (theme: Building the First Temple)
NOTES: The building of the Temple occupies chapters 5-8 of 1 Kings (and 2 Chronicles chapters 2-6 with a foreshadowing in 1 Chron. 28-29). Chapter 5 describes the preparations (negotiations with Tyre, gathering of the materials, and -- in 5:13-18 -- the assembly of the laborers); Chapter 6 the building; Chapter 7 the furnishings (with an aside about Solomon's other projects), and Chapter 8 the dedication. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LQ39

Buinnean Bui


See An Buinnean Bui (File: HHH830)

Buinnean Bui, An


DESCRIPTION: (Gaelic.) The singer laments to see the dead buinnean (bittern) upon the shore, and conjectures "Not want of food," but rather lack of liquor, killed the bird. He laments the bird. His wife wants him to drink less, but he cannot live without drink
AUTHOR: Gaelic: Cathal Buidhe MacGiolla Gunna (or Cathal Buidhe MacElgun, or Cathal Bui Mac Giolla Gunna) (Tawny Charlie) (1680-?) (source for date: Tunney-StoneFiddle)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection); Hoagland gives the author's date as c. 1750
KEYWORDS: drink death bird foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
SHenry H830, pp. 64-65, "The Yellow Bittern/An Bunnan Buidhe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 170, "An Bunnan Bui" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 88-90, "An Buinnean Bui" ("The Yellow Bittern") [Gaelic and English]
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 235-236, "The Yellow Bittern" (1 text, translated by Thomas MacDonogh)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 117-118, "The Yellow Bittern" (1 text, translated by Thomas MacDonogh)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 200-201, "The Yellow Bittern" (1 text, seemingly translated by Kinsella)
Roud #5332
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Buinnean Bui
NOTES: This has to be the feeblest excuse for alcoholism I've ever seen.
The poet allegedly saw a dead bittern by a frozen shore around 1700, and this song is the result. It seems to have been variously translated. It's worth noting that human interference extirpated bitterns from Ireland. - RBW
Tunney-StoneFiddle includes Paddy Tunney's English translation (no Gaelic).
TBell/O Conchubhair: "One hard winter's morning, perhaps 'hungover' after a night's or even many nights' carousing, he [Cathal Bui] came across a yellow bittern, lying stiff and cold; lost for a sip from the water of the frozen lake." - BS
File: HHH830

Buinnean Buidhe


See An Buinnean Bui (File: HHH830)

Bull Connor's Jail


DESCRIPTION: "Down in Alabama, In the land of Jim Crow, There is a place where Lots of folks go. Birmingham jailhouse, Birmingham jail, Waiting for freedom in Bull Connor's jail." How three thousand peaceful protesters were harassed and imprisoned by Connor
AUTHOR: Words: Guy & Candie Carawan, Ernie Marrs
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: discrimination prison political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1963 - The Birmingham demonstrations against segregation. Children and adults were attacked by police officers and police dogs commanded by Bull Connor, who was responsible for "public security."
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-BoA, pp. 372-373, "Bull Connor's Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Valley" (tune) and references there
File: SBoA372

Bull Dog Down in Tennessee


DESCRIPTION: Parody of "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee." Singer goes to court his girl, but her father sics a bulldog on him. As the dog attacks him, he flees over the hills and hollers back to his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Doc Walsh)
KEYWORDS: courting derivative humorous parody dog father lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #7879
RECORDINGS:
Ashley & Foster, "Bull Dog Sal" (unissued, prob. Vocalion, 1933; on StuffDreans1)
Lester P. Bivins, "Bull Dog Down in Tennessee" (Bluebird B-6950/Montgomery Ward M-7229. 1937)
Carolina Tar Heels, "The Bulldog Down in Sunny Tennessee" (Victor 20941, 1927)
Doc Walsh, "Bull Dog Down in Tennessee" (Columbia 15057-D, 1926; rec. 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" (tune, object of parody)
NOTES: It was a tossup whether these recordings should be entered as "Same Tune" items under "Girl I Left In Sunny Tennessee" or given their own entry. But the song has its own distinct plot, and it managed to get into the repertoires of several performers, so I decided to dignify it. - PJS
File: RcBDDITe

Bull Frog, The


See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Bull Run (War Song)


DESCRIPTION: "Away down in Belden Green... The whole earth shook in a quiver; Every devil had done his best To outrun the rest To get back to Washington to shelter." After the Union defeat, Abe Lincoln laments the cost of the battle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run/Manasses fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under J. E. Johnston and Beauregard
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
JHCox 68, "Bull Run"; 69, "War Song" (2 texts, the latter perhaps mixed with "The Happy Land of Canaan")
Roud #5459
NOTES: The First Battle of Bull Run did indeed end in a Union rout. This was, however, an oddly minor result. The Union army was made up mostly of volunteers called up for only ninety days of service; they were greener than grass, and not really able to fight, but the politicians forced Irvin McDowell to lead his troops into battle before their enlistments expired (McDonald, p. 19; McPherson, pp. 334-335, 339).
The Confederates, equally green, had the advantage of the defensive, and so were able to hold on. The Union army retreated, and the retreat became a rout, with soldiers streaming back to Washington. But the Confederates, as disorganized by victory as the Union troops were by defeat (and badly disposed; Beauregard's staff was so bad that more than half his troops were acting in response to orders Beauregard had thought meant something else), were unable to pursue (Freeman, volume I, pp. 72-78, with documentation on pp. 57-58 of the staff errors and a map on p. 47 showing how mostof Beauregard's troops were improperly disposed for the defensive battle he actually fought).
Cox 68, which he titles "Bull Run," never mentions that battle, but since the Federal troops are routed and run back to Washington, it definitely sounds like First Bull Run.
Cox does not recognize the second of these texts, which he calls "War Song," as the same as the first. It seems clear to me, however, that they are.
The confusion comes in the first line. Cox's "Bull Run" begins
Away down in Beldon Green, where the like was never seen
The whole earth shook in a quiver.
The "War Song" starts
Down in Bowling Green, such a sight was never seen,
The earth all stood in a quiver.
The temptation, of course, is to associate the latter piece with a battle of Bowling Green (Kentucky). But there was no battle of Bowling Green (see the lack of an entry in Boatner, p. 76; Phisterer lists two engagements there in early 1862, but the first, on p. 93, involved only a single company and the second, on p. 94, is the unopposed Federal occupation of the town). In 1861, the Confederate forces of Leonidas Polk moved into that part of Kentucky, and Albert Sidney Johnston had his headquarters there in late 1861 and early 1862 (Boatner, p. 440), but Johnston's position was weak (McPherson, p. 397) and he retreated without battle after Fort Donelson fell; he would soon have to give up Nashville, Tennessee as well (McPherson, p. 402).
Braxton Bragg's 1862 invasion of Kentucky never moved as far west as Bowling Green, although Union troops passed through the town as they chased him (see the map on p. 521 of McPherson). After that, except for a few minor cavalry raids, the Confederates never came close to Kentucky.
The only reasonable supposition is that "Bowling Green" is an error for the "Belden Green" of "Bull Run," or perhaps that "Bowling Green" refers not to a town but to an actual bowling green.
Additional support for this hypothesis comes in the chorus to Cox 69, which says that "The Black Horse cavalry a-coming." Union sodliers at First Bull Run did in fact refer to an attack by a "Black Horse Cavalry" (McDonald, p. 170).
I will admit to having no idea where "Belden Green" might be. After studying the maps in McDonald, I can find no feature of the Bull Run area with a similar name. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: JHCox068

Bull Yorkens


See Bold Larkin (Bull Yorkens) (File: Pea907)

Bull-Whacker, The


See Root, Hog, or Die! (III -- The Bull-Whacker) (File: LoF171)

Bulldog and the Bullfrog, The


See The Bulldog On The Bank (File: FSWB399B)

Bulldog on the Bank, The


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the bulldog on the bank, and the bullfrog in the pool (x3), The bulldog called the bullfrog a green old water fool." Animals interact, with unusual results: A snapper catches the bullfrog's paw; a monkey gives an owl ink to drink; etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: nonballad humorous animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 399, "The Bullfrog On The Bank" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 47, "The Bulldog and the Bullfrog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15368
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
File: FSWB399B

Bullfrog


DESCRIPTION: "Bullfrog jumped in the middle of the spring, And I ain't a-gwine to weep no mo'. He tied his tail to a hick'ry limb...." "He kicked an' he rared an' he couldn't make a jump." Chorus expresses a wish to go to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 198, "Bullfrog" (1 text, 1 tune, though the chorus may be imported from "I Hope I'll Join the Band"); also p. 199, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning)" (lyrics)
File: ScaNF198

Bullgine Run, The


See Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run) (File: LoF029)

Bullhead Boat, The


DESCRIPTION: Singer, a mule-driver, gets work steering a canal boat. One pilot is killed by a low bridge. The singer spies a low bridge, but fails to warn the (drunken) captain, as he's busy tumbling end over end. He warns listeners never to drive a bullhead boat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (recording, Art Thieme)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a mule-driver, gets work steering a canal boat; it's miserable work, and the captain drinks. One pilot is killed by a low bridge. One day the singer spies a low bridge coming, but fails to warn the (drunken) captain, as he's busy tumbling end over end. He warns listeners never to drive a bullhead boat, but rather spend their time on a line barge; "The bridge you won't be hatin'/And you'll live till Judgement Day"
KEYWORDS: warning death canal ship work worker
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, BULLHEAD
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Bullhead Boat" (on Thieme04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Erie Canal" (subject)
NOTES: According to Art Thieme, a bullhead boat was an unusually tall canal boat. Since most canal boats on America's early waterways were built low (e.g. the Erie Canal carried mostly barges), bridges over the canal were often quite low. This meant that serving on a bullhead boat could be quite dangerous. - RBW
File: RcTBulBo

Bullockies' Ball, The


DESCRIPTION: The bullock drivers hear word that there is to be a ball. They descend in great numbers. The drink flows freely, and the girls are not shy. Soon a brawl breaks out, and many of the partygoers wind up covered with loose food and/or bruises
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: fight drink party
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 110-111, "The Bullockies' Ball" (1 text+fragments, 1 tune)
DT, BULLBALL*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17] (theme)
NOTES: Meredith and Anderson consider this a parody of "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17] - RBW
File: MA110

Bullocky-O


DESCRIPTION: "I draw for Speckle's Mill, bullocky-o, bullocky-o, And it's many a log I drew, bullocky-o... I'm the king of bullock drivers, don't you know, bullocky-o." The singer describes all the other (less competent) workers he competes against
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Queensland Pocket Songbook)
KEYWORDS: work moniker animal
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Manifold-PASB, pp. 136-137, "Bullocky-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 217-218, "Bullocky-O" (1 text)
DT, BULLCKOH*
File: PASB136

Bullshit Bill


DESCRIPTION: "Bill has took it in his noddle For to take a little toddle Up the river where some gold he might be earning. For he took his pick and shovel And he closed his little hovel, For B.S.B. is leaving in the morning." He'll hunt gold rather than bet on horses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: gold home rambling gambling
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 228-229, "Bullshit Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: I strongly suspect that there is something missing here -- e.g. a description of how Bill got his nickname. But the piece is clearly un-bowdlerized (consider the title!), so I can't guess what it is. - RBW
File: MCB228

Bully Boat, The


See Ranzo Ray (File: Hugi247)

Bully Brown


DESCRIPTION: A failure as a coal-yard worker fails as a Liverpool policeman also and finally "shipped as a mate with Bully Brown." The captain kicks him out of the cabin and the sailors do not allow him in the bunk, so he "steals a pound of bread"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: work humorous sailor thief
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 862-863, "Bully Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9805
File: Pea862

Bully in the Alley


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Refrain: "So help me bob, I'm bully in the alley, Way-ay bully in the alley. So help me bob, I'm bully in the alley, bully down in Shinbone Al." Verses involve courting, being rejected by, and/or leaving Sally.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EFC)
KEYWORDS: shanty courting rejection
FOUND IN: West Indies Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill, pp. 522-523, "Bully in the Alley" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 382]
Sharp-EFC, XXXV, pp. 40-41, "Bully in the Alley" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BULLYALL*
Roud #8287
NOTES: Hugill says that "Shinbone Alley" is a place name often referred to in American Negro songs. - SL
File: Hug522

Bully of the Town, The [Laws I14]


DESCRIPTION: The bully has terrorized the entire town, including even the police. At last a hunter catches up with him and kills him. The people rejoice; all the women "come to town all dressed in red."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (published by Charles Trevathan)
KEYWORDS: murder punishment police clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws I14, "The Bully of the Town"
Leach, p. 767, "Lookin' for the Bully of the Town" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 242-243, "The Bully of the Town" (1 text)
MWheeler, p. 100, "Stacker Lee #1" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment, probably of this song though it does mention Stacker Lee)
Geller-Famous, pp. 97-99, "'The Bully' Song (May Irwin's 'Bully' Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 209-210, "[Bully Song]" (1 partial text)
DT 823, BULLYTWN
Roud #4182
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Bully of the Town" (Columbia 20561, 1949)
Fiddlin' John Carson & his Virginia Reelers, "Bully of the Town" (OKeh 40444, 1925)
Cherokee Ramblers, "Bully of the Town" (Decca 5123, 1935)
Sid Harkreader, "The Bully of the Town" (Paramount 3022, 1927; Broadway 8056, c. 1930)
Frankie Marvin, "The Bully of the Town" (Radiex 4149, 1927)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Bully of the Town" (Brunswick 116, 1927)
McMichen's Hometown Band, "Bully of the Town" (OKeh 45034, c. 1926; rec. 1925)
Byrd Moore, "The Bully of the Town" (Gennett 6763, 1928/Supertone 9399 [as by Harry Carter])
North Carolina Hawaiians, "Bully of the Town" (OKeh 45297, 1929; rec. 1928)
Prairie Ramblers, "Lookin' for the Bully of the Town" (Melotone 6-08-56, 1936)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Bully of the Town" (matrix #7225-1 recorded 1927 and issued as Banner 2157/Domino 3984/Regal 8347/Homestead 16500 [as by Sim Harris]/Oriole 947 [as by Harris]/Challenge 665/Conqueror 7755, 1931/Pathe 32279/Perfect 12358/Supertone 32279/Cameo 8217/Romeo 597/Lincoln 2822) (Broadway 8056-D, c. 1930); Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "The Bully of the Town" (Edison 51951, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5314, 1927)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Bully of the Town" (Columbia 15640-D, 1931; rec. 1930)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Bully of the Town" (on DownYonder)
Tweedy Brothers, "The Bully of the Town" (Gennett 6447/Champion 15486, 1928)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, rpbaasm 0994, "May Irwin's 'Bully' Song," White-Smith Music Publishing Co., (Boston), 1896 (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Bully of the Town - No. 2" (Columbia 15640-D, c. 1931)
NOTES: Laws describes "The (New) Bully" (for which cf. Spaeth, Read 'Em and Weep, pp. 193-195, or Gilbert, Lost Chords, pp. 209-210) as an offshoot of this traditional piece. Personally, I'd call "The New Bully" an arrangement, but I follow Laws.
Norm Cohen writes of this piece,
I discussed the history of The Bully in the brochure notes to JEMF LP 103:
Paramount Old Time Tunes.... "Basically, there are two received accounts of the genesis of this song. One was first published by James J. Geller in his "Famous Songs and their Stories (1931) [pp. 97-100, with the titles "'The Bully' Song" or "May Irwin's 'Bully' Song" - RBW]. This is the anecdote about sports writer and horse racing judge, Charles E. Trevathan, on the train back to Chicago from San Francisco in 1894, playing his guitar and humming popular airs to amuse the passengers around him among whom was May Irwin. He said he had learned the tune of "The Bully" from Tennessee blacks. Irwin suggested that he put [clean] words to the tune, which he did, and published it in 1896. She incorporated the song in her stage play, 'The Widow Jones.'
The other account, first published, as far as I know, by E. B. Marks in 'They All Sang' (1934) is that the song was popularized before he got his hands on it by 'Mama Lou,' a short, fat, homely, belligerent powerhouse of a singer in Babe Connor's classy St. Louis brothel, a popular establishment in the 1890s that drew from all social classes for its clientele.
Either Trevathan picked up the song from Mama Lou, or, equally likely, both learned it from black oral tradition in the South of the early 1890s. In support of this position is the fact that there were several sheet music versions of 'The Bully' published, some preceding Trevathan's 1896 version."
Gilbert, p. 209, also mentions the connection to Mama Lou; he quotes Orrick Johns to the effect that she was "a gnarled, black African of the purest type [who] sang, with her powerful voice, a great variety of indigenous songs." Johns cites her as one of the earliest sources for "Frankie and Johnnie" and apparently for "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e." But Gilbert also notes a version in Delaney's songbook #12, from 1896, with words credited to Will Carleton and music by J. W. Cavanagh.
It does seem likely that May Irwin is largely responsible for the song's popularity. Irwin was a notable popular singer who was at the height of her powers in the 1890s; In Sigmund Spaeth's A History of Popular Music in America she is credited with the song, "Mamie, Come Kiss Your Honey Boy" (pp. 265-266), and with popularizing George M. Cohan's "Hot Tamale Alley" (pp. 282, 339) as well as suh songs as "I Couldn't Stand to See My Baby Loose" (p. 347) and "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose" (p. 285). She presumably also had some part in the song we index as "May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder)." Her biggest success of all (based on how many popular music histories mention it) was apparently "May Irwin's Bully Song," the Trevathan version of this song. - RBW
File: LI14

Bully, The


See references under The Bully of the Town [Laws I14] (File: LI14)

Bumblebee Cotton, Peckerwood Corn


DESCRIPTION: Liza grabs the singer, demanding sexual gratification. The singer responds appropriately.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous seduction sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 325-328, "Bumblebee Cotton, Peckerwood Corn" (7 texts, 1 tune)
File: RL325

Bumpers, Bumbers, Flowing Bumpers


DESCRIPTION: The watchman calls "4" but we have to finish one more bottle. Anyone who wants to leave: "out of the window at once with him." Our whisky is from a still. Let's toast the sun rising as we did when it set. Then we'll go out and "leather" the watchman.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (_Blackwood's Magazine_, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 94-95, "Bumpers, Bumbers, Flowing Bumpers" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lillibullero" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Bumper: [noun] "a cup or glass filled to the brim or till the liquor runs over esp. in drinking a toast"; [verb] "to fill to the brim (as a wineglass) and empty by drinking,""to toast with a bumper,""to drink bumpers of wine or other alcoholic beverages" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976). Croker-PopularSongs: One bottle of whisky is about thirteen tumblers. - BS
File: CrPS094

Bumpers, Squire Jones


DESCRIPTION: If you like claret, or pine for female companionship, "don't pass the good House Moneyglass." Bumpers Squire Jones's claret will make you forget Cupid. Soldiers, clergy, lawyers, and foxhunters should forget their chores and dogs and stop for this claret.
AUTHOR: Arthur Dawson, Baron of the Exchequer (ca.1695-1775), music Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738) (source: Sparling; see also Andrew Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 56-57, "Bumpers Squire Jones" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 470-473, 498, "Bumpers, Squire Jones"
Roud #6532
NOTES: The description is from Sparling, a more complete version than Hayward-Ulster.
Sparling: "For the origin of this song see Dublin University Magazine, January 1841."
Hayward-Ulster: "Moneyglass House, which still [1925] stands neer Toomebridge in the County Antrim, was the residence of Bumpers Squire Jones, a character famous for his riotous hospitality. He is still talked about throughout the district, and this song is widely popular."
Bumper: [noun] "a cup or glass filled to the brim or till the liquor runs over esp. in drinking a toast"; [verb] "to fill to the brim (as a wineglass) and empty by drinking,""to toast with a bumper,""to drink bumpers of wine or other alcoholic beverages" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976). Croker-PopularSongs: One bottle of whisky is about thirteen tumblers. - BS
The word "bumper" for a full tumbler is reportedly first found c. 1660, making its relation with the subject of this song somewhat interesting. - RBW
File: HayU056

Bunch O' Roses


See Blood Red Roses (File: Doe022)

Bunch of Watercresses


See Watercresses (File: Peac320)

Bundaberg, The


See The Glendy Burk (File: MA109)

Bundle and Go (I)


DESCRIPTION: "Frae Clyde's bonnie hills, whaur the heather is blooming... I'm come, my dear lassie, to mak' the last offer.... " His father (and mother?) are dead, his house eerie; he loves none but her. She decides to leave her parents and "bundle and go" to his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting father abandonment dowry
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 37-39, "Bundle and Go" (1 text)
Ord, pp. 138-139, "Bundle and Go" (1 text)
Roud #3329
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:056, "Bundle and Go," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(075), "Buudle and Go" (sic. -- the text says "bundle," not "buddle"), unknown, n. d.
SAME TUNE:
Delays are Dangerous (per broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:056)
NOTES: There are several broadsides in the NLScotland collection entitled "Rise Up Noble Britons, Bundle and Go," apparently written in response to the Indian Mutiny (1857; for which see, e.g., "Erin Far Away (I)" [Laws J6] and "The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II)").
It is not evident from the sheets whether it is built around this piece, another "Bundle and Go" song, or is entirely independent. - RBW
File: FVS037

Bundle and Go (II)


DESCRIPTION: "The winter is gane, love; the sweet spring again, love, Bedecks the blue mountain." "For far to the west, to the land of bright freedom... I would conduct you." They will leave home for a better place; "then hey, bonnie lassie, will you bundle and go?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love home emigration travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 35-37, "Bundle and Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan4 888, "Bundle and Go" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 139-140, "Bundle and Go" (1 text)
Roud #3330
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(38a), "Bundle and Go," unknown, n.d.
NOTES: There are several broadsides in the NLScotland collection entitled "Rise Up Noble Britons, Bundle and Go," apparently written in response to the Indian Mutiny (1857; for which see, e.g., "Erin Far Away (I)" [Laws J6] and "The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II)").
It is not evident from the sheets whether it is built around this piece, another "Bundle and Go" song, or is entirely independent. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS035

Bundle of Truths, A


DESCRIPTION: "Barney Bodkin broke his nose" is followed by truths, more or less: "without feet we can't have toes," "crazy folks are always mad," "a taylor's goose will never fly, ... And now, good folks, my song is done, Nobody knows what 'twas about"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1811 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(11))
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 34, "Barney Bodkin broke his nose" (1 fragment)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #272, p. 163, "(Barney Bodkin broke his nose)"
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(11), "A Bundle of Truths" ("Barney Bodkin broke his nose"), Laurie and Whittle (London), 1811; also Harding B 16(39d), Douce Ballads 4(58), "A Bundle of Truths"; Harding B 25(1879), Harding B 11(3728), "A Tailor's Goose Can Never Fly"; Harding B 25(36), "All Truth and No Lies" or "A Tailor's Goose Will Never Fly"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I've Money I am Merry" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1879))
NOTES: The first verse of the Bodleian broadsides is quoted in Opie-Oxford2 34, "Barney Bodkin broke his nose."
The chorus and two truths of the Bodleian broadsides are quoted in Opie-Oxford2 235, "Hyder iddle diddle dell": "Right fol de riddle del, A yard of pudding's not an ell, Not forgetting didderum hi, A taylor's goose can never fly."
A "tailor's goose" is a flat iron with a twisted wrought iron grip that, I guess, reminds someone of a goose's neck. - BS
File: OO2034

Bung Yer Eye


DESCRIPTION: Singer praises his girlfriend, Kitty, and tells of a rowdy dance he takes her to where (Long Tom/Silver Jack) "bossed the whole shebang", Big Dan plays the fiddle, and Tom (Jack) eventually "cleans out" the joint. Chorus: "Bung yer eye! Bung yer eye!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer praises his girlfriend, Kitty, and tells of a rowdy dance he takes her to where (Long Tom/Silver Jack) "bossed the whole shebang," Big Dan plays the fiddle, and Tom (Jack) eventually "cleans out" the joint by kicking out sailors (farmers). Chorus: "Bung yer eye! Bung yer eye!"
KEYWORDS: fight dancing drink lover
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(West)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Rickaby 33, "Bung Yer Eye" (1 text)
Beck 41, "Bung Yer Eye" (2 texts)
Fowke-Lumbering #4, "A-Lumbering We Go" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixed text starting with two stanzas of "Once More A-Lumbering Go" and continuing with a version of "Bung Yer Eye" minus the chorus)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 450-451, "Bung Yer Eye" (1 text)
Roud #6513
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Silver Jack" (character)
cf. Quare Bungo Rye" (chorus lyrics)
NOTES: This should not be confused with the "Bung Your Eye" that is a version of "Quare Bungo Rye." No relation other than the chorus. The "Silver Jack" referred to in one version of this song is the same character that stars in the song of the same name. - PJS
File: Be041

Bung Your Eye (II)


See Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)

Bunkhouse Ballad


DESCRIPTION: Parody of "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest": "Sixteen men in a pine-slab bunk/Waken with grunt and growl...Coffee and flapjacks, pork and beans/Are waitin' to fill your snoots". In other words, yet another account of life in a lumber camp.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger nonballad parody
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 18, "Bunkhouse Ballad" (1 text)
Roud #8863
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest"
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES: Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest" was included in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. In 1891 Young E. Allison, of Louisville, KY, published a long and bloody version. Beck speculates that the composer of this parody may have seen Allison's, but without that text, it's impossible to tell. - PJS
File: Be018

Bunkhouse Orchestra


DESCRIPTION: How the cowboys have a dance: "It' the best grand high that there is within the law When seven jolly punchers tackle 'Turkey in the Straw.'" The dance lets the cowboys forget their troubles, their aches, and the women they pretend not to miss
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Badger Clark
EARLIEST DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: dancing cowboy party
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife-Cowboy/West 103, "Bunkhouse Orchestra" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 163-164, "The Bunk-House Ochestra" (1 text)
Roud #11093
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune & meter) and references there
File: FCW103

Bunnit of Straw, The


DESCRIPTION: "A buxom young damsel a stage-horse was approaching, Cried 'Help' from afar for her bunnit of straw, For the horse he reached forward, without any addressing, And he seized her straw bunnit in her hungery jaw!" The girl laments the ruined hat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott)
KEYWORDS: clothes horse humorous
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott, pp. 177-179, "The Bunnit of Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3728
NOTES: Linscott reports, "The first straw bonnet braided in the United States was made by Miss Betsey Metcalf in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1798. Straw bonnets were worn long before straw hats; and although the art of plaiting straw is very ancient, it was not known in England until introduced there by James I." This information she apparently derives from the Encyclopedia Americana. - RBW
File: Lins177

Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane [Child 28]


DESCRIPTION: Burd Ellen is at her knitting, crying over her baby. Young Tamlane, apparently the father, bids her rock the child. Rock the child she will not, and he departs with her curse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Maidment)
KEYWORDS: bastard curse children mother abandonment curse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 28, "Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane" (1 text)
Roud #3962
File: C028

Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick [Child 257]


DESCRIPTION: Patrick promises to marry Isabel if the child she bears is a son. He delays until his parents died, then delays further and prepares to noblewoman. (His wife) wishes to see his son; Isabell will not give him up, and curses Patrick. The curse takes effect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: nobility wedding pregnancy baby lie curse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 257, "Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick" (3 texts)
Bronson 257, "Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 626-629, "Burd Ellen and Earl Patrick" (1 text)
Roud #107
File: C257

Buren's Grove


DESCRIPTION: "The day is hot, we will leave the spot, And together we will roam, We'll find a spot in some cooler cot Within fair Buren's grove. Each morning fair to take the air I walked to Buren's Grove"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 10, "Buren's Grove" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2787
NOTES: The [above] description is all of the Creighton-SNewBrunswick fragment.
It seems a shame to make a separate entry for so brief a fragment. It is tempting to include it under "Bordon's Grove" (Roud #2322) but there are no common lines. The note in Henry regarding the relationship of Creighton-SNewBrunswick 10 and Henry H529 describes Creighton's entry as "too short to say that it is the same with any certainty." Henry p.324 - BS
File: CrSNB010

Burges


DESCRIPTION: "I'm glad that I am born to die, From grief and woe my soul shall fly, And we'll all shout together in that morning, In that morning, in that morning, And we'll all shout together in that morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Jackson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, p. 565, "Burges" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LxA565 (Full)
Roud #15560
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In That Morning" (lyrics)
File: LxA565

Burglar Man, The


See The Old Maid and the Burglar [Laws H23] (File: LH23)

Burial of Sir John Moore, The


DESCRIPTION: "We buried him darkly at dead of night" without a funeral, in a narrow grave, without a coffin. "The foe was sullenly firing" "We carved not a line, we raised not a stone, But left him alone with his glory!"
AUTHOR: Rev. Charles Wolfe (1791-1823) (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (_Newry Telegraph_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: war burial death soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 16, 1809 - Moore is killed during the Battle of Corunna and is buried in the ramparts of the town (source: "John Moore (British soldier)" at the Wikipedia site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Moylan 183, "The Burial of Sir John Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, p. 288, "The Burial of Sir John Moore"
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 37-38, "The Burial of Sir John Moore" (1 text)
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #494, pp. 822-823, "The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna" (by Charles Wolfe)
NOTES: Moylan: Sir John Moore re-captured Wexford town from the rebels in June 1798. He was killed as Commander in Chief of the British forces fighting the French in Portugal in 1808. - BS
It is interesting to wonder how Moore's reputation would have stood had he lived. Although much praised, he had little experience as a commander-in-chief. Administratively, he was probably better than Wellington, but he had not the latter's incredible sense for the strengths and weaknesses of a position (few did, to be sure), and his one chance in sole command ended in partial failure and his own death.
Of the senior officers in Ireland in 1798, Moore (1761-1809) was surely the best -- firm (he allowed his men, as they sought to disarm the rebels before the rising, to act harshly and commandeer provisions; see Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 66) but opposed to straight-out looting (Pakenham, p. 258, tells how he personally imposed order on his men when they threatened to devastate the path along which they marched) and generally humane (Pakenham, p. 281); he was the one leading officer who did not hold any courts-martial or military tribunals (Pakenham, p. 284). Many of the very best generals are of this type.
He also had a key role in the British invasion of Egypt.
David Chandler, author of the magisterial (if not particularly readable) The Campaigns of Napoleon, writes of him (p. 627), "During the critical days when Britain was awaiting Napoleon's impending invasion, Moore had trained up a division of light infantry on new principles.... instilling a high degree of personal responsibility in officers and men alike, training the rank and file to think and fight as individuals rather than mere members of a military machine. To technical improvements... Sir John added a great gift for administration."
But the Peninsular campaign was his first independent command, and very nearly his first action was the retreat which ended in his death at Corunna; Chandler (p. 627) admits that "it was to be some little time before he found his feet among the familiar and baffling surroundings of Portugal and Spain."
Corunna was essentially a French attempt to cut off the British retreat. The British inflicted about 1500 casualties on the French, in exchange for about 800 losses of their own -- but in the course of the battle he was hit in the shoulder by a cannonball (Chandler, p. 656), dying (like Wolfe or Nelson) in the knowledge that the battle was won. Won, but the position lost; he was burid on January 17, and his men evacuated Corunna on January 17 and 18.
Napoleon said of him, "His talents and firmness alone saved the British army," but of course by so saying, Napoleon covered over his own flawed Spanish strategy.
According to [No author listed], The Household Treasury of English Song, T. Nelson and Sons, 1872, p. 198, Moore "was mortally wounded and buried at midnight on the ramparts of Corunna. As no coffin could be procured, the body was simply wrapped in a military cloak and blankets.
The Household Treasury also says that "Rev. Charles Wolfe, born at Dublin 1791, died 1823, owes his fame to this one brief but touchingly-beautiful composition, of which any poet might have been proud. Some of Wolfe's other lyrics, however, are characterized by intense pathos and power of expression. He died of consumption, hastened by incessant clerical labour, in his thirty-third year."
According to The New Century Handbook of English Literature (ed. Clarence L. Barnhart with William D. Haley, revised edition, Meredith Publishing, 1967, he died in Cork in 1823. The Handbook lists this poem as his one noteworty poem. John Russell wrote e memorial in his 1825 posthumous Poetical Remains. - RBW
File: Moyl183

Burial of Wild Bill, The


DESCRIPTION: Singer describes how he and his comrades buried their friend Wild Bill, reminiscing about his good character and talents. Characteristic last line of each verse: "As we covered him with the sod"
AUTHOR: Captain Jack Crawford
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recordings, Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers)
KEYWORDS: burial death cowboy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt, p. 194, "(The Burial of Wild Bill)" (1 excerpt)
ST RcTBoWB (Partial)
Roud #11542
RECORDINGS:
Oscar Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers [or Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers: Oscar Jenkins, Frank Jenkins, Ernest V. Stoneman], "Burial of Wild Bill" (Broadway 8249/Paramount 3240, 1929); Alex Gordon [pseud. for Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers], "The Burial of Wild Bill" (Conqueror 7270, 1929) [One of these recordings, probably the Conqueror, is on WhenIWas2.]
Glenn Ohrlin, "Burial of Wild Bill" (on Ohrlin01)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Burial of Wild Bill" (Conqueror 7270, 1929)
NOTES: The uncertainty over the name of the bandleader on the Pilot Mountaineers records stems from its listing as "Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers" on the Yazoo reissue and in Gennett logs (the Conqueror issue used a Gennett master), but "Oscar Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers" on the Paramount/Broadway issues.
On both records, the vocalist (uncredited, as he was under contract to Victor) was Ernest Stoneman. Notice that the succeeding record on Conqueror is the same song, listed as by Ernest Stoneman, while Frank Mares' catalog lists 7269 as a different song by Stoneman, with Jenkins' Mountaineers. Oy.
Oh, and it's quite hard to tell from the text, but it doesn't sound like the subject of this song was Wild Bill Hickok. - PJS
Burt claims it *is* Hickok (1837-1876), but she cites only one stanza -- though she says Crawford dedicated the song to Hickok's friend Charley Utter. - RBW
File: RcTBoWB

Burke's Confession


DESCRIPTION: Irishman Burke comes to Scotland looking for work. He and McDougall join Hare who kills poor lodgers and sells the bodies to doctors; "sixty men and women I willingly did kill." They are taken, Hare turns state's evidence and Burke is hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: execution murder Scotland gallows-confessions
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 28, 1829 - William Burke is hanged for the murder of Mrs Docherty (source: broadside NLScotland Ry.III.a.6(028)).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #36, p. 2, "Burke's Confession" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 192, "Burke's Confession" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5640
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Black Cook" (subject: sale of dead bodies for anatomical studies)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Burke and Hare
NOTES: For an account of "Execution, Confession, and a list of all the Horrid Murders committed by Burke, also the decision of Hare's Case" "List of the 16 Murders committed by Burke" see broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.6(028), "Broadside regarding the Burke and Hare trials," unknown, 1829. That broadside explains some of the ballad's loose ends. The episode is known as the "West Port Tragedies." When a man died in Hare's house he and Burke sold the body to "anatomists" for 10 GBP. Surprised at the windfall they decided to kill people not likely to be missed and sell those bodies. They killed sixteen, rather than sixty, and one of those was Mrs. Docherty. Helen McDougal was a prostitute who went with Burke; the ballad gives the impression that Burke was turned in by McDougal but the broadside does not mention that. The broadside confirms that Hare turned state's evidence; after that the High Court found that Hare could not be tried for those crimes and he was released. - BS
NLScotland has several broadsides on Burke and Hare, and indeed has a whole category on "body snatching." Some of the titles include "Burke and Hare trials," "Comfessions made by William Burke," "Confessions, Lamentations, & Reflections of William Burke," "Hare's Confession and Death!," "Hare's Dream!," "Horrible and Barbarous Murder of Helen M'Dougal," "Life and Transactions of the Murderer Burke and his Associates," "Lines On The Gilmerton Murder," "Lines Supposed to have Been Written by Mrs. Wilson, Daft Jamie's Mother," "Trial and Sentence of William Burke and Helen McDougall," "Trial and Sentence of William Burke, 1828," "William Burke -- A New Song," "William Burke's Confession," and "William Burke's Murders in the Westport."
For background on anatomists and the context of Burke and Hare's activities, see the notes to "The Black Cook." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD2192

Burke's Dream [Laws J16]


DESCRIPTION: [Thomas] Burke, the singer, dreams he has rejoined his comrades to fight the British. They win a great victory, and he returns home. The scream his mother makes when he returns to her wakens him, and he finds he is still in his cell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor); c.1867 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle dream prison mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1, 1867 - "General" Thomas F. Burke is convicted of high treason for his leading part in the Fenian insurrection of 1867. He is condemned to die, but the sentence is commuted
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws J16, "Burke's Dream"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 71, "Burke's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 70, "Burke's Dream" (1 text)
Zimmermann 71, "Burke's Dream" (1 text)
Healy-OISBv2, pp. 46-48, "A Dream of General T. F. Burke" (1 text)
DT 813, BURKDREM
Roud #1893
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 263 makes this song about Richard O'Sullivan Burke who "had become a colonel in the Federal Army during the American Civil War. He was sent back to Ireland by the Fenian Brotherhood, organized the 'Manchester Rescue', was sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude in 1867, but returned to America in 1874."
See what seems to be a broadside on the same subject, Bodleian, Harding B 26(663), "A New Song Call'd the Vision in Col Burke's Cell" ("Come all you Irish patriot's"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867 - BS
There is definite uncertainty about the person involved here. Robert Kee's history, The Bold Fenian Men (being Volume II of The Green Flag) mentions two Burke/Bourkes of significance. Page 41, refers to "an Irish-American 'general' with a shrunken leg, T[homas] F. Bourke." He commanded at the Battle of Ballyhurst (March 7, 1867), in which the Fenian forces fled at the first government volley. Condemned to be hanged, beheaded, and quartered, he managed a fine speech which put him into Irish folklore (Kee, p. 42). The government finally spared him on the grounds that his execution would have no deterrent effect (Kee, p. 49).
Richard O'Sullivan Burke was in 1867 a captain of engineers in the U. S. Army (Kee, p. 32), who travelled Europe to gather arms for the Fenians. Zimmermann is wrong; he was not a colonel (at least not at regular rank; he may have been breveted). According to the State of New York Adjutant General's Report, volume 2, p. 236, he was only made captain of the 15th New York Engineers on May 17, 1865, to date from April 29 of that year, and was mustered out as a captain on July 2.
His closest thing to a big moment apparently came when he told the crew of the arms runner Erin's Hope that there was no point in landing weapons in Sligo (Kee, p. 43; see the notes to "The Cork Men and New York Men").
In typical Fenian fashion, an attempt was made to rescue him after the British arrested him; in typical Fenian fashion, it was bungled -- and produced a heavy loss of civilian lives (Kee, pp. 49-50).
Neither B(o)urke seems to have had much real effect on Irish events; Kee's is the only one of six histories I checked to mention either.
I do not think it possible to tell from the song which one is meant. Both of course ended up in prison. The song makes one mention of the singer being in battle leading Irish forces, which sounds like T. F. Burke at Ballyhurst, but it also describes his hard work in prison, which sounds like R. O. Burke. - RBW
File: LJ16

Burly, Burly Banks of Barbry-O


See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Burnfoot Town


DESCRIPTION: "A paradise for racketeers and they call it Burnfoot Town." Shops, stores, petrol pumps, and sign posts "springing up like mushrooms overnight ... one day will all come down, And when Ireland's free prosperity will leave the Burnfoot Town"
AUTHOR: Tom Molloy? (source: McBride)
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: crime commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride 13, "Burnfoot Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: McBride: "[The song] tells, tongue in cheek, of how the racketeers set about to 'clean up' in the area during and after the second World War. Their shops stand silent and derelict today in Burnfoot Town." - BS
The curiosity in this is that Ireland *was* free during World War II; Neville Chamberlain had given back the Irish naval bases shortly before Munich. And Ireland did not take part in the war; there was a certain amount of blockade-running, of course, but hardly enough to explain this. The one possibility that might explain this link is that the song perhaps comes from a Catholic in Northern Ireland, who would consider Ulster an "unfree" part of Ireland.
The other possibility would be to associate the song with the First World War, which directly involved Ireland and came at a time when Ireland was still under British rule. Of course, there weren't many petrol pumps in Ireland then. - RBW
File: McB1013

Burning of Auchindown, The


See Willie Macintosh [Child 183] (File: C183)

Burning of Rosslea, The


DESCRIPTION: The rebels march to Rosslea and start burning houses of RIC B's in the center of town. In return B's "pillaged and looted and carried away, The stuff of poor Catholics" A month later the B's "three houses they burned for each one in Rosslea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion fire IRA police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920-1921 - The Black and Tan War
March 21, 1921 - The Monaghan Brigade of the IRA attacks Rosslea (source: Morton-Maguire).
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-Maguire 55, pp. 152-153,176-177, "The Burning of Rosslea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2937
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Quilty Burning" (subject) and references there
NOTES: RIC: Sir Robert Peel established the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1812. (source: Sir Robert "Bobby" Peel (1788-1850) at Historic UK site.) For more information on the Black and Tan War see RBW note for "The Bold Black and Tan."- BS
Morton-Maguire: "During the 'troubles' of 1921 the R.I.C. barracks in Rosslea was one of the many in 'risky' area, evacuated at an early stage. When the A-Specials (Mobilized B-Specials) were formed, they took it on themselves to police the area." Morton goes on to discuss the history behind the burning, including an earlier burning of Catholic homes by Specials. In the burning described by the song "fourteen houses were burned, and ... four officers were shot, two fatally." The plan had been to burn sixteen houses and shoot four Specials. - BS
A little internet searching shows that there were killings in Rosslea in 1972 as part of the Troubles. I can't help but wonder if that didn't encourage someone to dust off this song as Morton prepared his book. - RBW
File: MoMa055

Burning of the Bayou Sara, The


See The Bayou Sara (File: DTBayous)

Burning of the Granite Mill, The [Laws G13]


DESCRIPTION: Workers in a Fall River factory are routinely locked into their workplace. The mill catches fire and the workers -- who could have been saved if conditions had been better -- die in agony
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: fire death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 19, 1874 - Burning of the Granite Mill in Fall River, Massachusetts. The tragedy, in which 20 died, three disappeared, and 36 were injured, was aggravated by the failure to sound a fire alarm for twenty minutes
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws G13, "The Burning of the Granite Mill"
Creighton-NovaScotia 118, "Granite Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 675, GRANITML
Roud #1823
File: LG13

Burns and His Highland Mary [Laws O34]


DESCRIPTION: (Robert) Burns meets Mary on the banks of the Ayr. Mary is returning to the Highlands to visit friends, but promises to return quickly. Both promise to be true. Mary departs, but soon falls sick and dies. Burns "ne'er did... love so fondly again."
AUTHOR: Ord lists a "police constable named Thomson," c. 1865
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(512))
KEYWORDS: courting love death separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1759-1796 - Life of Robert Burns
1786 - Death of Mary Campbell while on a visit to the Highlands
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws O34, "Burns and His Highland Mary"
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 112-114, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #76, pp. 1-2, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (1 text)
GreigDuncan6 1249, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Doerflinger, pp. 312-313, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 354-355, "The Parting of Burns and Highland Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 108-111, "The Clear, Winding Ayr" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, p. 159-161, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 88-89, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 56, "Burns and His Highland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 427-429, "The Banks of the Ayr" (1 text, 2 tunes)
DT 488, BURNMARY
Roud #820
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(512), "Burns and Highland Mary," G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 15(37a), Harding B 11(3216), Harding B 11(496), Harding B 26(84)[some words illegible], Harding B 26(85), "Burns and Highland Mary"; 2806 c.14(5), 2806 c.14(4)[some words illegible], Johnson Ballads 3180[some words illegible], 2806 c.14(3)[some lines illegible], "Burns and His Highland Mary"
Murray, Mu23-y1:009, "Burns and Highland Mary," J. Bristow (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y1:026, Mu23-y4:024, "Burns and Highland Mary"
NLScotland, RB.m.168(082), "Burns and His Highland Mary," unknown, c.1840; also APS.3.80.4, RB.m.143(030), L.C.Fol.70(10a), "Burns and His Highland Mary"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Laurel Hill" (tune)
cf. "Highland Mary" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
In Green Caledonia
File: LO34

Burns's Farewell


DESCRIPTION: Robert Burns, dying, asks Jean to pray with him "that the widow's God may saften the road For my helpless bairns and thee." He dies. She wears a lock of his hair and will work for the family until she joins him. He is buried in St Michael's churchyard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: burial death mourning religious children wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1796 - death of Robert Burns
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 701, "Burns's Farewell" (1 text)
Roud #6117
NOTES: The title of the GreigDuncan3 entry may be confused with the entirely different poem about freemasonry, "The Farewell to the Brethren" by Robert Burns (Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), pp. 164-165); the broadsides of Burns's poem frequently were entitled, simply, "Burns Farewell": see Bodleian, Harding B 25(316), "Burns's Farewell" ("Adieu, a heart-felt warm adieu"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 28(225), Harding B 17(43a), Harding B 11(312), "Burns's Farewell"; Harding B 11(1934), Firth b.25(90), Firth c.21(43), Firth c.21(42), "Burn's Farewell"
Another similarly named broadside is for an entirely different poem, "Ae Fond Kiss" by Robert Burns (Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), pp. 320-321): Bodleian, 2806 c.16(311), "Burns's Fareweel" ("Ae fond kiss and then we sever"), G. Walker , jun. (Durham), 1834-1886 - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3701

Burns's Log Camp


DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in the logging camp to find horrible conditions: "The floors were all dirty, all covered with mud; The bed quilts were lousy, and so was the grub." The very first night, a fight erupted, "And thus I was greeted at Burns's log camp."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: logger hardtimes fight
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger, p. 217, "Burns's Log Camp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 7, "Bruce's Log Camp (Hunter's Log Camp)" (3 fragments, 1 tune)
ST Doe217 (Partial)
Roud #9203
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES: Manny/Wilson: "Mr Doerflinger tactfully changed the name of the camp from Bruce's to Burns's, to avoid giving offense." - BS
File: Doe217

Burnt-Out Old Fellow, The [An Seanduine Doighte]


DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: Younger woman complains about her old husband; he sleeps too much, and sports with too many ladies. She sends him to town, then spots him with various women. If she could, she'd lock her old man up and keep company with young men.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (collected by Peter Kennedy)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: Younger woman complains about her old husband; he sleeps too much, and sports with too many ladies. She sends him to town, then spots him with three women enticing him and four kissing him. She sends him to the west country, a place known for whores; "his genitals lessened and his jaws became bony/And he came back to me like a newly-born pony." She says that, if she had the chance, she'd lock her old man up and keep company with young men. Chorus: "O my old man O pity I fed you/O my old man O pity I wed you/O my old man O pity I bed you/Sleepin' your sleep for ever and ever"
KEYWORDS: age infidelity jealousy marriage sex bawdy foreignlanguage humorous husband whore wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy 45, "An Seanduine Doighte [The Burnt-Out Old Fellow]" (1 text in Irish Gaelic + translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" (theme) and references there
NOTES: The parallel with "Maids When You're Young..." is obvious, although it should be noted that the wife in that song seems to have the opposite problem from the wife in this one. - PJS
Kennedy claims there are "probably more versions of this song than any other in the Irish language," and it's certainly true that his reference list is longer than usual. The problem, as always with Kennedy, is determining if his references are actually to the same song. - RBW
File: K045

Bury Me Beneath the Willow


DESCRIPTION: The singer has been abandoned by (her) lover. Tomorrow was to be their wedding day, but now he is off with another girl. The singer asks her friends to "bury me beneath the willow... And when he knows that I am sleeping, maybe then he'll think of me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: separation infidelity love death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Belden, pp. 482-483, "Under the Willow Tree" (2 texts)
Randolph 747, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (3 short texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 505-506, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 747B)
BrownIII 267, "The Weeping Willow" (3 texts plus 4 excerpts and mention of 4 more)
Fuson, p. 126, "The Weeping Willow" (1 text)
Cambiaire, p. 85, "O Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow" (1 text)
Sandburg, pp. 314-315, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss, p. 58, "(Bury Me Beneath the Willow)" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 178, "Bury Me Beneath The Willow" (1 text)
DT, BURYWLLW*
Roud #410
RECORDINGS:
Burnett & Rutherford, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Columbia 15113-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01)
Carter Family, "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow" (Victor 21074, 1927; Bluebird B-6053, 1935)
Jim Cole & his Tennessee Mountaineers, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (Crown 3122, 1931)
Delmore Brothers, "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow" (Bluebird B-7741, 1938)
Red Foley & the Andrews Sisters (!), "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (Decca 29222, 1947)
Kelly Harrell, "Beneath the Weeping Willow Tree" (Victor 20535, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Asa Martin, "Bury Me 'neath the Weeping Willow" (Banner 32426/Melotone M-12497 [both as Martin & Roberts]/Royal [Canada] 91402, 1932)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Brunswick 199, 1928; rec. 1927)
Monroe Brothers, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Bluebird B-7093, 1937)
Holland Puckett, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Champion 15334/Supertone 9243, 1928)
Riley Puckett, "Bury Me 'Neath the Willow Tree" (Bluebird B-6348, 1936)
Red Fox Chasers, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Supertone 9322, 1929)
Lookout Mountain Revelers, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (Paramount 3143, 1928)
Almeda Riddle, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (on LomaxCD1707)
Shelton & Fox, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (Decca 5184, 1936)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow" (CYL: Edison [BA] 5187, 1927) (Edison 51909, 1927)
Ernest Thompson, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Columbia 15001-D, 1924)
Henry Whitter, "The Weeping Willow Tree" (OKeh 40187, 1924; rec. 1923); "Go Bury Me beneath the Willow" (OKeh 45046, 1926)
SAME TUNE:
Carter Family, "Answer to Weeping Willow" (Decca 5234, 1936)
Karl & Harty, "We Buried Her Beneath the Willow" (Melotone 6-04-61, 1936) [I am guessing here, not having heard the record - but I'll betcha - PJS]
File: R747

Bury Me in the Cornfield, Nigger


See Bury Me in the Garden (File: Br3266)

Bury Me in the Garden


DESCRIPTION: "Bury me in the garden, mother, mother, Bury me in the garden, mother, mother, mother dear, Bury me in the garden." "O, the moonlight... shines so bright... way down in the garden 'neath the sycamore tree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death burial mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 266, "Bury Me in the Garden" (1 text)
Roud #15743
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bury Me in the Cornfield, Nigger
File: Br3266

Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2]


DESCRIPTION: A cowboy is dying. He asks to be taken home and buried in his family home. His request is ignored; he is buried in a small and isolated prairie grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: +1901 (JAFL14)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NW,Ro,So,SE) Canada(Newf,West)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws B2, "The Dying Cowboy (Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie)" (sample text in NAB, pp. 81-82)
Larkin, pp. 37-39, "The Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 387-392, "The Lone Prairie" (5 texts)
Randolph 184, "Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownII 262, "The Lone Prairie" (2 texts)
Hudson 93, pp. 222-223, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 436, "The Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 92-93, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 153-154, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 20, "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 117, "The Dying Cowboy" (3 texts, 1 tune)
SharpAp 169, "The Lonesome Prairie" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Lomax-FSUSA 60, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 78, pp. 171-173, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
JHCox 54, "The Lone Prairie" (2 texts)
JHCoxIIB, #9, p. 143, "The Lone Prairie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 164-165, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 110, "Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 201-203, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 396-398, "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie"
DT 370, LONEPRAR*
Roud #631
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "The Dying Cowboy" (Columbia 15463-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Jules [Verne] Allen, "The Dying Cowboy" (Victor 23834, 1933; on BackSaddle)
Bentley Ball, "The Dying Cowboy" (Columbia A3085, 1920)
Bill Childers, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (OKeh 45203, 1928)
Vernon Dalhart, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Columbia 969-D, 1927) (Romeo 431/Perfect 12361, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5315, n.d. but prob. 1927)
Phil & Frank Luther, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Melotone M-12143, 1931)
Asa Martin, "The Dying Cowboy" (Banner 32426/Melotone M12497 [both as Martin & Roberts]/Royal [Canada] 91402, 1932)
Sloan Matthews, "The Dying Cowboy" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Pickard Family, "Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie" (Columbia 15141-D, 1927)
Holland Puckett, "The Dying Cowboy" (Silvertone 25065, 1927; Supertone 9253, 1929)
Herbert Sills, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (on Saskatch01)
Carl T. Sprague, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Victor 20122, 1926; Montgomery Ward M-4099, 1933; on MakeMe)
Vel Veteran [pseud. for either Arthur Fields, Vernon Dalhart, or Irving Kaufman] "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Grey Gull 4239, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ocean Burial"
cf. "Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament)" (tune)
cf. "I've Got No Use for the Women" (lyrics)
NOTES: Probably adapted from "The Ocean Burial," attributed to Rev. Edwin H. Chapin (1839). For the complex question of the tune, see the notes on that piece.
The 1922 edition of Thorp (quoted also by Belden) claims that the adaption to "The Lone Prairie" is by H. Clemons and written in 1872. I know of no supporting data. - RBW
File: LB02

Bush Christening, The


DESCRIPTION: A man offers a doctor extra payment for services. He explains that it is on behalf of his baby who nearly died unbaptized. His wife had tried to take the child to a church, but no water was available. Had not a doctor chanced by, the baby would have died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
LONG DESCRIPTION: A man offers a doctor extra payment for services. He explains that it is on behalf of his baby who nearly died unbaptized, and his wife who nearly went mad as a result. The nearest church had only occasional services, as the preacher travelled widely in the bush. When the child took ill, they hoped to get the child baptized before death, but no water was to be had at the church, and a drunkard drank the water they had brought in a gin bottle. Had not a doctor happened by their hut, the baby would have died unchristened -- but the doctor saved the baby
KEYWORDS: children clergy disease recitation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 171-173, "The Bush Christening" (1 text)
NOTES: Banjo Paterson published a poem, "A Bush Christening" ("On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few And men of religion are scanty") which shares many plot elements with this piece. The details are distinctly different, however (in the Paterson piece, the child is ten years old, and deliberately flees christening until whiskey is thrown over his head). Meredith's source claims to have learned this around the beginning of the twentieth century. One suspect this is another case where Paterson found a traditional piece and put his own stamp on it. - RBW
File: MCB171

Bushes and Briars


DESCRIPTION: "Through bushes and through briars I lately took my way." "Long time have I been waiting for the coming of my dear." "Sometimes I am uneasy... Sometimes I think I'll go... And tell to him my mind." But she fears being too bold
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Vaughn Williams, _Folk Ongs from the Eastern Counties_)
KEYWORDS: love separation animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, BUSHBRIR*
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 42, "Bushes and Briars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1027
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Through Bushes and Briars
File: FSOE026

Bushman's Song, A


See The Castlereagh River (File: MA045)

Bushwhacker's Song


DESCRIPTION: "I am a bushwhacker, The thicket's my home (x3)... And them that don't like me can leave me alone." "I'll tune up my fiddle And rosin my bow (x3)... And I shall find welcome Wherever I go." "My kinfolks don't like me, And that I well know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: home music floatingverses Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 383, "Bushwhacker's Song" (1 text)
Roud #11751
NOTES: Evidently a parody of something like "The Wagoner's Lad." Brown's informant gave detailed references connecting it do a gang of Civil War deserters, but there is no actual evidence for this in the text. - RBW
File: Br3382

Business of Makin' the Paper, The


DESCRIPTION: Making paper is begun by cutting pine and spruce and sending it by truck, train, or river to the mill. There it is barked, chipped, digested, and cooked. It is ground to pulp, treated with sulphite and finally rolled into paper and shipped by A.N.D.
AUTHOR: Omar Blondahl
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Blondahl)
KEYWORDS: commerce technology nonballad work
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Blondahl, pp. 37-38, "The Business of Makin' the Paper" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Blondahl: "The song was used in a Christmas greeting -- to all, from the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company Limited. The A.N.D., as it is better known, is one of Newfoundland's great pulp and paper mills. This little song is not included as a ... folk song. It does, however, give us a small idea of the mechanics of paper-making and, as this is one of Newfoundland's prime industries, perhaps we do no harm, after all." - BS
File: Blon037

Busk and Go to Berwick, Johnnie


See Go to Berwick, Johnny (File: MSNR009)

Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie


DESCRIPTION: Singer asks girl to go with him. He points to shepherds and soldiers marching, and the snowy hills, which parted many lovers and will part them. Refrain: "Busk, busk, bonnie lassie, and come alang wi me/I will tak' ye tae Glenisla near bonnie Glenshee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (collected from Charlotte Higgins)
KEYWORDS: courting love travel parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacSeegTrav 33, "Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #832
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! No, No" (lyrics)
NOTES: No relation to "Lass of Glenshee." - PJS
To busk, in this context, is to prepare to travel. - PJS, RBW
File: McCST033

But For Your Sake I'll Fleece the Flock


See No Dominies For Me, Laddie (File: GrD4872)

But I Forgot to Cry


DESCRIPTION: "Johnie cam to our toun, to our toon, to our toun... The body wi' thet ye. And O as he kittled me... But I forgot to cry." "He gaed thro' the fields wi' me... And doun amang the rye. Then O as he kittled me... But I forgot to cry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kinloch-BBook XXV, p. 79, (no title) (1 text)
ST KinBB25 (Full)
Roud #8155
File: KinBB25

Butcher and Chamber Maid, The


See The Brisk Young Butcher (File: DTxmasgo)

Butcher and the Tailor's Wife, The


DESCRIPTION: A tailor lives in London with his wife Mary Bell. She buys a joint from the butcher, and he asks a nightvisit as the price. She tells her husband to lay in wait. The butcher overcomes him. The tailor begs the butcher to spare him and take his wife.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (Bodleian broadside)
KEYWORDS: bawdy husband wife fight trick adultery
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 150, "Three Maids A-Milking Would Go" (reproduction of a broadside page with "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" and "The Butcher and the Tailor's Wife")
Roud #1528
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(296)=Harding B 11(3815)=Johnson Ballads 1964, "The Butcher and the Tailor", Williamson (Newcastle), c. 1845
NOTES: The Shepard and Bodleian broadsides are the same. The whole song, of course, is yet another riff on the proverbial feebleness of tailors. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BdBuTaWi

Butcher Boy (II), The


See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Butcher Boy, The [Laws P24]


DESCRIPTION: The butcher boy has "courted [the girl's] life away," but now has left her (for a richer girl?). She writes a letter expressing her grief, then hangs herself. Her father finds her body and the note asking that her grave show that she died for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 18(72))
KEYWORDS: seduction suicide pregnancy betrayal abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Australia
REFERENCES (36 citations):
Laws P24, "The Butcher Boy"
Belden, pp. 201-207, "The Butcher Boy" (3 texts plus excerpts from 2 more and references to 3 more, 3 tunes); see also pp. 478-480, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (4 texts, though "D" is a fragment, probably of "Tavern in the Town" or "The Butcher Boy" or some such)
Randolph 45, "The Butcher Boy" (4 texts plus 4 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Eddy 41, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 37, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 4 more, 2 tunes); also 25, "The Sailor Boy" (1 short text; the first 6 lines are "The Sailor Boy" [Laws K12]; the last twelve are perhaps "The Butcher Boy")
Flanders/Brown, pp. 115-116, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 179-181, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 737-738, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
BrownII 81, "The Butcher Boy" (6 texts plus 5 excerpts and mention of 3 others)
BrownIII 254, "Little Sparrow" (4 texts plus 1 excerpt and 1 fragment; the "F" text, however, is primarily "The Butcher Boy" or an "I Wish I Wish" piece of some sort)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 282-288, "The Butcher Boy" (8 texts, with local titles "The Butcher Boy" (a single stanza), "Butcher Boy," "The Butcher Boy," "Jersey City," (E has no title and is a single-sentence fragment about Polly Perkins), "In Johnson City" (this short might be "Tavern in the Town" or similar), "Butcher's Boy," "The Girl Who Died For Love" (this version too might be a simple "Died for Love" piece); 3 tunes on pp. 431-433)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 173-174, "I Am A Rambling Rowdy Boy" (1 text, which opens with a stanza from some sort of rambling man song but then becomes a standard, if short, "Butcher Boy" version)
Brewster 34, "The Butcher's Boy" (3 texts plus mention of 6 more)
SharpAp 101, "The Brisk Young Lover" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Friedman, p. 110, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
Hudson 45, pp. 160-161, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text plus mention of 11 more)
Warner 86, "A Rude and Rambling Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans, p. 28, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 267-268, "The Maiden's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune, with an unusual introduction in which the false lover is a soldier)
Sandburg, p. 324, "Go Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy" and "London City" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 230-231, "In Sheffield Park" (1 text, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 28 "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 160, "In Sheffield Park" (1 text plus a second in the notes, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 60-62, "Snow Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 128-129, "In Jersey City" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHJohnson, p. 77, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 24, pp.60-62, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text; the "B" text is "Tavern in the Town")
JHCox 145, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 73, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 707-708, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 16, "Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 59, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 139-140, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text); also pp. 141-142, "Morning Fair" (a complex text, with all sorts of floating elements, but with the final stanzas of this song)
Silber-FSWB, p. 178, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text)
DT 320, BUTCHBOY*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 207, "(The Butcher's Boy)" (1 fragment)
Roud #409
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "The Butcher's Boy" (Montgomery Ward 8668, c. 1937)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Butcher's Boy" (Perfect 12330, 1927)
Kelly Harrell, "Butcher's Boy" (Victor 19563, 1925; on KHarrell01) (Victor 20242, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Buell Kazee, "The Butcher's Boy" (Brunswick 213A, 1928; Brunswick 437, 1930; on AAFM1, KMM); "Butcher Boy" (on Kazee01)
Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson, "Go Dig My Grave (Railroad Boy)" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchieWatsonCD1)
Henry Whitter, "The Butcher Boy" (OKeh 40375, 1925)
Ephraim Woodie & the Henpecked Husbands, "The Fatal Courtship" [uses tune of "Banks of the Ohio"] (Columbia 15564-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on LostProv1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(72), "The Butcher Boy" ("In Jersey city where I did dwell"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 18(71), "The Butcher Boy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12] (lyrics)
cf. "Died for Love (I)"
cf. "Tavern in the Town"
cf. "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)"
cf. "Careless Love" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Ye Mariners All" (tune)
cf. "Dink's Song" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" (lyrics, plot)
cf. "Farewell, Sweetheart (The Parting Lovers, The Slighted Sweetheart)" (lyrics)
cf. "Beam of Oak" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jersey City
The Wild Goose Grasses
NOTES: Most scholars hold that this song is a combination of two others (Randolph follows Cox in claiming *four*). The primary evidence is the shift in narrative style: The first part of the ballad is in first person, the rest (affiliated with "There is an Alehouse in Yonder Town/Tavern in the Town") is in the third person. Leach, on the other hand, considers it to be a single song of American origin. Given the extreme variations in the form of this ballad (e.g. a significant number of versions omit the fact that the butcher boy left to marry a richer girl; some of the most poignant imply that the butcher boy rather than the father found her body) and the amount of floating material it contains, any theories of dependence must be examined carefully.
The two songs, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" and "Must I Go Bound," are clearly related (probably decayed offshoots of this song), now so damaged as to force separate listing. But there are, as so often, intermediate versions; one should check the references for those songs.
"Died for Love (I)" is perhaps a worn-down fragment of this piece, consisting of the lament without the suicide. Similarly the Brown collection's piece "My Little Dear, So Fare You Well."
MacColl and Seeger have classified related texts under fully seven heads:
* "Deep in Love," corresponding roughly to "Must I Go Bound" in the Ballad Index. Generally lyric.
* The Butcher Boy. Characterized by the story of betrayal and eventual suicide (informal translation: If the girl kills herself, file the song here no matter *what* the rest of it looks like. If she dies but doesn't kill herself, it's something else, perhaps "Died for Love (I)"). If there is a core to this family, this is it.
* Love Has Brought Me To Despair. (Laws P25). This shares lyrics with this family, notably those concerning the girl's burial, but has a slighly distinct plot.
* Waly Waly/The Water Is Wide. Related primarily by theme, it seems to me.
* The Tavern in the Town. Shares lyrics, but a distinct song (or at least recension) by our standards.
* Careless Love. Clearly distinct.
* Died for Love (I). This shares the stanzas of lamentation with "The Butcher Boy," but is distinct in that the girl is certainly pregnant (the girl in "The Butcher Boy" may be, but not all versions show this), she laments her folly, but she does *not* kill herself. It's much more lyric than "The Butcher Boy." - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(72): 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: LP24

Butcher's Daughter, The


DESCRIPTION: A squire gives the butcher's daughter gifts to sleep with him; he says falsely he will marry her. She says it must be dark to save her reputation. She hires a black woman to replace her in bed. In the morning he admits he was outwitted. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1812 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 3(2)); 18C? (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 39(162))
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction sex disguise humorous Black(s) Devil trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan2 312, "The Butcher's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #5831
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 39(162), "The Butcher's Daughter's Policy" or "Lustful Lord Well Fitted" ("I pray now draw near, all you that love fun"), Bow Church Yard (London), 1736-1799?; also Harding B 3(2), "The Butcher's Daughter's Policy" or "Lustful Lord Well Fitted"; Firth c.26(14), "The Butcher's Daughter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Glasgerion" [Child 67] (theme)
cf. "Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor)" [Laws K40] (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "The Wee Tailor from Tyrone" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
NOTES: As a side theme: when he wakes the squire "ran down the stair in a terrible fright, Said I've been kissing the Devil all night." The answer is "Ye noble young squire, be not affright, I'm not the Devil, althou' I'm not white." - BS
The trick of the wrong woman being in a man's bed goes back at least to the Biblical tale of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel in the Bible (Genesis 29): Jacob wants to marry Rachel, but her father instead slips in Rachel's older sister Leah.
A situation even more similar to this one allegedly occurred in Norman history. According to Harriet O'Brien, Queen Emma and the Vikings, Bloomsbury, 2005, Duke Richard I (father of Queen Emma of England and great-Grandfather of William the Bastard/Conqueror) met a married girl named Sainsfrida and wanted to sleep with her. Rather than damage her honor, Sainsfreda had her sister Gunnor take her place in the Duke's bed. Gunnor became first Richard's senior mistress and eventually his wife.
The reverse idea -- of the wrong man slipping into a girl's bedroom at dark -- occurs in such songs as "Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor)" [Laws K40] (with a happy ending) and "Glasgerion" [Child 67] (with a tragic ending). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD2312

Butcher's Shop, The


DESCRIPTION: "Hop to the butcher shop" but don't stay or mother will say "I've been playing with the boys down yonder." "Grass is green" ["Red stockings, blue garters"] I have silver lined shoes, a rose on my breast and a gold ring.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: ring clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1612, "Green, Green the Grass is Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12979
NOTES: This -- "Hop, hop, hop to the butcher's shop" -- is not the same song as "Hippity-hop to the barber shop To buy a stick of candy" (see
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81612

Butt-Cut Ruler


DESCRIPTION: "Don't you walk on down, I'll drive you in the timber If you dare to walk in the timber, I'm a butt-cut ruler." A very free form, probably allowing improvisation, about life for a prisoner cutting timber
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recorded from C. B. Kimble by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work prison hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 72-73, "Butt-Cut Ruler" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Jackson describes this as just barely qualifying as a song, and also sees it as satiric -- a "butt-cut ruler" was a man strong enough to do the hard task of cutting the thickest part of a felled tree. Yet the format is halting, as if the song is a false brag. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM072

Butter and Cheese and All


See The Greasy Cook (Butter and Cheese and All, The Cook's Choice) (File: CoSB236)

Buttercup Joe


DESCRIPTION: Singer prides himself on his plain tastes. In summer the girls like to romp and roll with rustic lads in the hay. His ladyfriend, Mary, a dairymaid, makes fine dumplings; he plans to "ask her if she won't supply/A rustic chap like I am."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (recording, Tony Wales)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer prides himself on being rustic with plain tastes; the gentry laugh at him, but he laughs at them in turn. In summer the girls like to romp and roll with rustic lads in the hay. His young woman, Mary, a dairymaid, makes fine dumplings; he plans to "ask her if she won't supply/A rustic chap like I am." Cho: "Now I can guide a plow, milk a cow, and I can reap and sow/Fresh as the daisies in the fields/and they calls I Buttercup Joe"
KEYWORDS: courting love sex food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
Roud #1635
RECORDINGS:
Tony Wales, "Buttercup Joe" (on TWales1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Husbandman and the Servingman" (subject, a few phrases)
cf. "Harmless Young Jim" (innuendoes)
cf. "Blackberry Grove" (innuendoes)
NOTES: Wales's informant told him the words were being sung in Sussex in 1889, but offered no evidence, so I remain conservative in assigning an earliest date. I strongly suspect a music-hall origin. - PJS
Nonetheless, the song is fairly well established in English tradition, though it hasn't been printed much. I suspect there may have been one or two rewrites along the way; some of the versions vary a great deal. - RBW
File: RcButJoe

Buttermilk Boy, The


DESCRIPTION: A poor boy tells his mother of his plan to get buttermilk, sell it to buy eggs, raise chickens, sell chickens, etc., and so get rich. Very early on, he spills the goods and his schemes come to naught. Listeners are warned against counting their chickens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: money commerce poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H57a, pp. 57-58, "The Buttermilk Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1227
File: HHH057a

Buttermilk Hill


See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Button Willow Tree


See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

Buxter's Bold Crew


See The Bold Princess Royal [Laws K29] (File: LK29)

Buy a Broom


DESCRIPTION: The singer says she comes "to dear happy England in summer's gay bloom" and asks "fair lady, and young pretty maiden" to "buy of the wandering Bavarian a Broom" Use them to brush away insects. In winter she will return home. Spoken epilog.
AUTHOR: D.A. O'Meara and George Alexander Lee (source: GreigDuncan8)
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (according to Scott); before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(37b))
KEYWORDS: travel England Germany work nonballad bug
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1845, "Buy a Broom" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13229
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(37b), "Buy a Broom" ("From Teutschland I come with my best wares all laden"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 16(42b), Johnson Ballads fol. 129 [barely legible], Johnson Ballads fol. 126, Harding B 11(177), Harding B 36(20)[many illegible words], Harding B 11(972)[no spoken epilog], "Buy a Broom"
NOTES: GreigDuncan8 is a fragment; broadside Harding B 15(37b) is the basis for the description.
GreigDuncan8: Duncan speculates that "Teuchland" must have been from a printed source "which contained the word 'Deutchland' for Germany. The word would be pronounced very likely 'Deuchland' (with the gutteral 'ch'), but would soon be changed into 'Teuchland', as 'teuch' would suggest some meaning to the Scottish ear.'" Teutschland is already in the Bodleain Harding B 15(37b) text before 1830.
"The success of 'Buy a Broom' dated as far back as 1827, when a play called 'The Hundred Pound Note' was produced at Covent Garden...; and as to 'Buy a Broom,' the ballad sung by Madame Vestris in the character of Harriet Arlington, it was hummed by every one and became the rage. 'From Deutchland I come ...'" [source: Clement Scott, The Drama of Yesterday and Today (1899, London ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 122-123].
In 1826, Hone described "these poor 'Buy-a-Broom' girls": "These girls are Flemings. They come to England from the Netherlands in the spring, and take their departure with the summer. They have only one low, shrill, twittering note, 'Buy a broom?' sometimes varying into the singular plural, 'Buy a brooms?'" [source: William Hone, The Every-Day Book or Everlasting Calendar (1826, London ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 404-405]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81845

Buy a Charter Oak


DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to tell my mother, I'm going to tell my pa, I'm going to tell my brother and all my brothers-in-law, I'm going to tell my uncle and all my cousins' folk To buy, to buy, to buy a Charter Oak."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: technology commerce
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 487, "Buy a Charter Oak" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7588
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wilson Patent Stove" (theme)
NOTES: For all that this sounds like a (Nineteen-)Sixties TV commercial, Charter Oak stoves were advertised in the Ozark region in the Eighteen-Sixties.
Spaeth mentions a "sacred song" called "The Charter Oak" (by Henry Russell) of around 1837. I don't know if the jingle is to the tune of Russell's song. - RBW
File: R487

Buy Broom Besoms (I Maun Hae a Wife)


DESCRIPTION: The besom-seller calls his wares, then confesses, "I maun hae a wife, whaso'er she be." He will take anything, e.g., "If that she be bonnie, I shall think it right; If she should be ugly, what's the odds at night?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: husband wife marriage oldmaid humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 20-21, "Buy Broom Buzzems" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan3 489, "Buy Broom Besoms" (4 fragments, all consisting of the chorus only; 2 tunes)
DT, BROOMBES* BROOMBES3*
Roud #1623
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fine Broom Besoms (When I Was wi' Barney)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Besom Maker" (chorus)
NOTES: The besom-seller's cry, "Buy broom besoms, wha will buy them noo? (Fine heather ringers), better never grew" is obviously very old, and inspired Burns in 1796 to write "Wha will buy my troggin."
It isn't really a song, though, and it evidently invited completion, as I am aware of at least three texts with this burden:
* I Maun Hae a Wife, probably Scottish, in which the old besom-maker desperately seeks a companion. This humorous text seems to be the best-known of the variants
* The Sam Henry text "Fine Broom Besoms," in which the singer misses Barney
* The Besom Maker, a song of seduction, printed as a broadside.
Volume 38, number 4 of Sing Out! (1994), p. 73 has a conflate modern version (presumably of this, but hard to tell in the circumstances) which declares "The tune is Blind Willie Purvis, born 1752, a Newcastle street singer and fiddler." I assume that should read "The tune is BY Blind Willie Purvis," but I know of no supporting evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: DTbroomb

Buy Broom Buzzems


See Buy Broom Besoms (I Maun Hae a Wife) (File: DTbroomb)

Buy Me a China Doll


See Milking Pails (China Doll) (File: R356)

By and By


See By'n By (File: San453)

By By, My Honey


See Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (plus related references, e.g. The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76]) (File: C076A)

By Kells Waters


See The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)

By Kells Waters (Kellswaterside)


DESCRIPTION: The singer sets out and stops, seemingly at random, at a cottage by Kellswater. He introduces himself to the girl, and asks her to marry. She thanks him for the offer but refuses. He tells her of the birdsongs and other joys of his home. She gives in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(201))
KEYWORDS: love courting home marriage beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
SHenry H802, p. 466, "Kellswaterside" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 26, "Fair Randalstown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 104, "The Sweet Town of Anthony" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 51, "By Kells Waters" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KELLWAT2*
Roud #2730
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(201), "Bonny Kell's Waters," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1856
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sweet County Antrim"
SAME TUNE:
Camlachie March (per broadside Bodleian 2806 b.11(201))
File: HHH802

By Memory Inspired


DESCRIPTION: "By Memory inspired And love of country fired, The deeds of Men I love to dwell upon... Here's a memory to the friends that are gone. O'Connell, William Orr, John Mitchel, McCann, John and Henry Sheares, Maguire, Emmet, and others are recalled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion memorial
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
PGalvin. pp. 101-102, "By Memory Inspired" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 163, "By Memory Inspired" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Dissolving Views" (II) (subject and references there)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
cf. "The Wake of William Orr" (subject)
cf. "The Brothers John and Henry Sheares" (subject)
NOTES: Among those mentioned in versions of this song:
O'Connell: Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), who tried to convince the British to reform administration of Ireland and who was the leading figure on behalf of Catholic Emancipation. (For his history, see the many songs cited in the cross-references to )"Daniel O'Connell (I).")
John Mitchel - One of the 1848 rebels. (For his history, see "John Mitchel").
Emmet - Robert Emmet (1778-1803), for whom see "Bold Robert Emmet." - RBW
Moylan adds information for those mentioned in the song:
"Edward" Lord Edward Fitzgerald's capture is cited here, but in less detail than in "Edward" (III)
William Orr - Farmer, arrested in September 1796, charged with administering the United Irish oath, and executed October 14, 1797. His death inspired a well-known poem by William Drennan, "The Wake of William Orr," which also is found in this Index though I'm none too sure it's traditional.
Thomas Reynolds - member of the Leinster Directory of the United Irishmen turned informer.
John McCann, Bond and William Byrne - Among the members of the United Irish leadership taken in a raid based on Reynold's information.
The Sheares brothers - members of the new National Directory set up to replace the one destroyed by the raid based on Reynold's information.
Fr Thomas Maguire - parish priest who engaged in a public debate on theological matters in 1827. His poisoning, mentioned in the ballad, took place in 1847.
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, "By Memory Inspired" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
File: PGa101

By the Green Grove


See The Birds in the Spring (File: RcTBiITS)

By the Hush


DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on his listeners not to go to America; "there is nothing here but war." Unable to make a living in Ireland, he emigrates, is shoved straight into the army, joins the Irish Brigade, loses a leg, and is left without his promised pension
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (recording, O. J. Abbott); there is a nineteenth century broadside
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration soldier injury war Civilwar disability
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont,Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan 6, "By the Hush, me Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BYHUSH*
Roud #2314
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "By the Hush, Me Boys" (on Abbott1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell to Slieve Gallen" (plot)
cf. "Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade" (subject)
NOTES: There is much historical truth in this song. The Irish Brigade, commanded by Thomas Francis Meagher (pronounced "Marr") had a horrendous loss rate even by Civil War standards.
In the first two years of the war, the brigade (63 NY, 69 NY, 88 NY; 28 Mass and 116 PA added later) had the highest casualty rate of any comparable unit in the Army of the Potomac. At the Battle of Antietam, for instance, the first division of the Second Corps, which contained the Irish Brigade, suffered 212 killed, 900 wounded, and 24 missing (Murfin, p. 375). At the start that battle, the four regiments of the brigade were commanded by one colonel and three lieutenant colonels; at the end, they were commanded by two lieutenant colonels, one major, and one captain (Murfin, p. 347). The 28 Mass, not yet part of the Irish Brigade, at that same battle, lost 48 men out of fewer than 200 engaged (Boatner, p. 518)
Boatner, p. 594, notes e.g. that the 69 New York at Fredericksburg had 18 officers and 210 men, and 16 of the officers and 112 men were casualties. In the 28 Mass (transferred to the Irish Brigade after Antietam), losses at Fredericksburg were 158 out of 416 (Boater, p. 518).
By Gettysburg, the brigade had only 600 men (out of over 4000 originally enrolled), and the three New York regiments had fewer than a hundred men a piece -- a casualty rate in excess of 90%. (I do not have a source for this data; I copied it some decades ago out of an unknown book).
It should be noted that some sources have written very inaccurately about Meagher and the Irish Brigade -- particularly about the 69 NY. Meagher himself (1823-1876) was quite a character; an Irish patriot, he was transported to Tasmania in 1849, and escaped to the U. S. in 1852.
When the Civil War began, he reasoned that British sympathy would be with the Confederacy, and so joined the Union army. (In this he was not entirely correct; while many in the British aristocracy sympathized with the Confederate planters, the people were anti-slavery, and so anti-south, and the government wasn't going to commit to either side.) Meagher quickly raised a company for the three-month unit known as the 69th New York Militia. With this militia unit -- which he did *not* command -- he fought at First Bull Run, where his bravery proved conspicuous (McDonald, p. 144). The unit had substantial casualties -- although some of these are rather suspicsion (McDonald, p. 192, lists the 69th NY with 38 killed, 59 wounded, and 95 missing; the 2nd Wisconsin of the same brigade -- which would become one of the best regiments in the Union army -- had 24 killed, 65 wounded, but only 23 missing.)
Meagher's account of First Bull Run can be found in Colum, pp. 326-331, under the title "The 69th in Virginia."
After Bull Run, the militia unit was disbanded. Meagher then set out to raise an Irish *brigade*. He succeeded in raising those three New York regiments, and was given the command of the unit. And the unit included the "real" 69 NY (which was not the same as the militia unit, despite Meagher's association with both). However, Meagher was never the colonel of the 69 NY (which had only one colonel, Robert Nugent, in its entire existence; NYReport, volume III, p. 8).
Some sources say the Irish Brigade was shattered at Gettysburg. As the statistics above show, it was shattered well before Gettysburg. Meagher resigned his commission after Chancellorsville (fought two months earlier) on the grounds that the brigade was too much weakened to be effective (Boatner, p. 540); his resignation would be rescinded later, but he would not serve with the Irish Brigade at or after Gettysburg; the unit was led by Col. Patrick Kelly of the 88 NY (one of only two colonels left with the brigade, and commissioned only in October 1862 -- NYReport, volume III, p. 75 -- which again shows the high rate of casualties in the unit); the 69 NY was led by Captain Richard Maroney.
The history of the Irish Brigade's commanders is another indication of the high casualties the unit suffered. Four officers followed Meagher in the command of the brigade. Col. Kelly was killed at Petersburg. Temporary commander Thomas Smyth was killed after transfer to another brigade. Col. Richard Byrnes was killed at Cold Harbor. Brig. Gen. Richard Nugent then commanded the brigade to the end of the war (Boatner, p. 427).
For Meagher's career before and after the Civil War, see the notes to "The Escape of Meagher."
The notes to Margaret Christl and Ian Robb's recording of this song make the curious observation that, although this song is about an Irishman in America, it seems to be known only in Canada!
Several people on the Ballad-L mailing list recently attempted to trace the history of this song. Relatively little was found. There is a broadside, "Pat in America," beginning "Arragh, bidenhust my boys, Sure and that is hold your noise," with the tune listed as "Happy Land of Erin." But it cannot be dated precisely, and there is little evidence of the song in tradition in the century after that.
I also find a broadside, "The Tipperary Boys" (broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:061, "The Tipperary Boys," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C), which seems built on the same pattern and formula. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: DTbyhush

By the Lightning We Lost our Sight [Laws K6]


DESCRIPTION: The singer is on a journey from Gibraltar to England when a hurricane strikes. Sent aloft to reef the sails, he and four others are blinded when lightning strikes the mast. The storm washes several others overboard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt)
KEYWORDS: sailor storm death disability
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws K6, "By the Lightning We Lost Our Sight"
Mackenzie 86, "By the Lightning We Lost Our Sight" (1 text)
Smith/Hatt, pp. 76-78, "The Blind Sailor" (1 text)
DT 557, LIGHTNNG
Roud #1894
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Burke" [Laws K5]
File: LK06

By the Silvery Rio Grande


See My Heart's Tonight in Texas [Laws B23] (File: LB23)

By This Wild and Stormy Weather


DESCRIPTION: "By this wild and stormy weather I Join this rogue and w-- together; For years they've lived wi' ane anither, Lord this will surely change the weather"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage storm
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1457, "By This Wild and Stormy Weather" (1 fragment)
Roud #7282
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan7 fragment.
GreigDuncan7 quoting from Greig: "Blacksmith marrying a couple of questionable character." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71457

By'm By


See By'n By (File: San453)

By'n By


DESCRIPTION: "By'n by, by'n by, Stars shining, Number, number one, Number two, number three, Good Lord, by'n by, by'n by, Good Lord, by'n by."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg, p. 453, "By'm By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 358, "By And By" (1 text)
Roud #11600
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "By'm By" (on GrowOn2)
File: San453

Bye and Bye


See Don't You Grieve After Me (I) (File: R257)

Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me (I)


DESCRIPTION: "Bye and by you will forget me, When your face is far from me, And the day when I first met you Only lives in memory." She recalls that sad day, urges him to forget -- but if she dies, THEN she asks him to remember
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown), but clearly in existence by 1926 when Kelly Harrell made the recording cited
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad death burial
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 161, "Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me" (1 text)
Roud #6577
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me" (Victor 20535, 1926; on KHarrell02 -- primarily a "Dear Companion/Fond Affection" variant, but with elements from this song)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down Among the Budded Roses" (lyrics)
File: BrII161

Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me (II)


See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Bye Baby Bunting


DESCRIPTION: "Bye, baby bunting, Daddy's gone a-hunting To get a little rabbit skin To wrap the baby bunting in." "Sister stayed at home To rock-a-bye-a-baby bunting. Mama stayed at home To bake a cake for baby bunting."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad baby hunting family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Jamaica
REFERENCES (5 citations):
BrownIII 112, "Bye Baby Bunting" (assorted stanzas from sundry collections)
Opie-Oxford2 25, "Bye, baby bunting" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #551, p. 226, "(Bee baw bunting)"
GreigDuncan8 1556, "Baby Baby Bunting" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 short text)
Roud #11018
NOTES: The Opies, as their #24, print what looks like a by-blow of this, "Bye, baby bumpklin, Where's Tony Lumpkin? My lady's on her death-bed, with eating half a pumpkin." The Opies observe that Tony Lumpkin is a character in Oliver Goldsmith's 1773 She Stoops to Conquer; he is a rather obnoxious country squire. I have no idea if that is significant. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Br3112

Byker Hill


DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with sketchy narrative; singer's wife sits up late drinking. Singer asks her to return home (bringing the beer). He also tells of working in Walker Pit and the poor wages for coal-cutters, singing ironically "Walker Pit's done well by me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (John Bell, "Rhymes of Northern Bards")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Usually a dance tune (in 2-2-2-3 time!), but with sketchy narrative; singer's wife sits up late drinking, neglecting home and family. Singer pleads with her to return home (but to bring the beer with her). He also tells of working in Walker Pit and the poor wages for coal-cutters, singing ironically "Walker Pit's done well by me," and a verse of "Geordie Charlton he had a pig/He hit it with a shovel and it danced a jig"
KEYWORDS: mining work drink wife worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, BYKERHIL*
Roud #3488
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Walker Shore and Byker Hill" (on Lloyd1); "Walker Hill and Byker Shore" (on Lloyd3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Dearie Sits Ower Late Up" (tune)
cf. "Elslie Marley" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Byker Hill and Walker Shore
File: DTbykerh

Byrontown


DESCRIPTION: The singer claims that he "belongs" in Byrontown, where "young ladies gay I will betray, And give them all their due." The rest of the song is devoted to complaining about women, e.g. how they lure men on and spend their money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: courting oldmaid money
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger, pp. 261-262, "Byrontown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 8, "Byrontown" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe261 (Partial)
Roud #9202
NOTES: In some versions, the city is "Barren Town," a nickname for Renous, New Brunswick, - RBW
Manny/Wilson: "This song is always credited to Larry Gorman, but it does not seem quite like Gorman." - BS
File: Doe261

C & O Freight & Section Crew Wreck, The


DESCRIPTION: A train with Jay Thompson and Doc Compton aboard is wrecked in the Big Sandy Valley.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: train wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LSRail, p. 274, "The C & O Freight & Section Crew Wreck" (notes only)
File: LSRa274L

C-H-I-C-K-E-N


DESCRIPTION: "C, that's the way to begin; H, the next letter in; I, is the third; C, seasoning the bird; K...C-H-I-C-K-E-N, that's the way to spell chicken"
AUTHOR: Sidney Perrin & Bob Slater
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (sheet music published)
KEYWORDS: food humorous nonballad animal bird chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE,Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Collins, "Dat's De Way to Spell Chicken" (CYL: Edison 8301, 1903)
John & Emery McClung, "C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken" (Brunswick 135, 1927)
McGee Brothers "C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken" (Vocalion 5150, 1927; Conqueror 7257, 1929; I also have a listing for the latter as being by Kirk McGee & Blythe Poteet, and another as by Rogers and Puckett, which is almost certainly wrong.)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio, "Ragtime Chicken Joe" (Conqueror 8566, 1935; rec. 1933)
Three Tobacco Tags, "De Way to Spell Chicken" (Bluebird B-7973, 1938)
NOTES: The recent version by the Red Clay Ramblers fits this chorus with an outline in which Ragtime Joe is made to spell "chicken" in school. Not having heard some of the early recordings, I don't know if this is integral to the song and Paul Stamler omitted it in his description, or if someone added it later. - RBW
The "Ragtime Chicken Joe" verse is indeed part of the original piece, published as a "coon song." - PJS
File: RcCHICKE

C. & O. Wreck, The (1913) [Laws G4]


DESCRIPTION: Men are at work on the C & O bridge at Guyandotte, but a train is given permission to cross it. The bridge fails, taking the train, the engineer, and seven bridge workers with it. The ballad ends with the usual wish for the widow and orphans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, George Reneau)
KEYWORDS: train death wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 1, 1913 - Reported date of the C. & O. Wreck at Guyandott(e), West Virginia
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws G4, "The C. & O. Wreck"
Gardner/Chickering 121, "The Seno Wreck" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus 73, pp. 172-174, "The C. & O. Wreck" (1 text)
Cohen-LSRail, p. 274, "The C & O Wreck" (notes only)
Roud #3248
RECORDINGS:
George Reneau, "The C & O Wreck" (Vocalion 14897, 1924)
NOTES: Laws has some notes about the actual facts of this case (NAB, pp. 65-66) - RBW
File: LG04

C.C. Rider


See Easy Rider (File: LxU022)

C'est a Paris Y-A-T'Une Noce (There's a Wedding in Paris)


DESCRIPTION: French. The young girl the singer married was at least 80 years old: married Monday, buried Tuesday. But he didn't marry her; he married her money. If he marries again it will be with a girl 15 years old.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage age greed marriage burial death oldmaid wife money
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 255-256, "C'est a Paris Y-A-T'Une Noce" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea255

C'est L'Aviron (Pull on the Oars)


DESCRIPTION: French: "C'est l'aviron, qui nous mene, qui nous mene, c'est l'aviron qui nous mene en haut." A young man goes riding, picks up a pretty girl, and takes her home to get a drink. Once home, "turning to me, she toasted her own lover"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: courting drink family foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Que)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 58-59, "C'est L'aviron (Pull on the Oars)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 49, "C'est L'Aviron" (1 English and 1 French text, 1 tune)
Peacock, p. 517, "En Revenant de la Jolie Rochelle" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ058 (Partial)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
It's the Oars
NOTES: "Over the years, more than ninety variants of this song have been written down or recorded on cylinders, discs, or tapes in French Canada. A few variants have also been found in the northeastern United States and France." [from] "'M'en, revenant de la Joli'Rochelle'::A song from c/ 1500 in the current French-Canadian repertoire" by Jay Rahn in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music, vol 16, 1988. See archives of the site for the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music. - BS
File: FJ058

C'est la Belle Francoise (Beautiful Francesca)


DESCRIPTION: French. "C'est la belle Francoise, hut-a-la-ma-le-lon-la", soon to be wed. Her lover finds her weeping. She has heard that he'll soon march away. "Arriving in the village, I hear the church-bells say ... 'Tis beautiful Francesca, whom now they lay away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (BerryVin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief love army war return burial death lover soldier
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BerryVin, p. 30, "C'est la belle Francoise (Beautiful Francesca)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)" (plot)
NOTES: The plot is similar to "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)", but they differ in who says what to whom, and the gestalts don't match. No, I don't know why she's Francoise in the French version and Francesca in the English translation. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV030

C'est la Poulette Grise (The Pullet)


DESCRIPTION: French. Lullaby. "The little pullet gray / In the church will lay" a little "coco" (egg) for the baby who will go "do, do, do" (sleep)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (BerryVin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lullaby nonballad animal bird chickens baby
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BerryVin, p. 32, "C'est la poulette grise (The Pullet)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
File: BerV032

C'etait Trois Jeunes Garcons Partis Pour un Voyage (Three Young Boys Go on a Voyage)


DESCRIPTION: French. Three boys go on a voyage to distant islands, leaving loved ones. The youngest walks on the shore and cries. From far away he hears the voice of a swallow speaking to him about love. Beautiful swallow, fly to "la belle" and sit on her knee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love separation bird lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 512, "C'etait Trois Jeunes Garcons Partis Pour un Voyage" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea512

Ca the Yowes to the Knowes


See Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)

Ca' Hawkie Through the Water


DESCRIPTION: "Ca' Hawkie, ca' Hawkie, 'Ca Hawkie through the water, Hawkie is a sweir beast, And Hawkie winna wade the water." Hawkie is praised for her milk but blamed for her stubbornness; girls are advised to be brave and bold with men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: animal river courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 132-133, "Ca' Hawkie Through the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan3 428, "Hawkie" (1 text)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 27, "(Caw Hawkie, drive Hawkie)" (1 text)
DT, CAHAWKIE
ADDITIONAL: "Rhymes of the Nursery" in Robert Chambers, Selected Writings of Robert Chambers (Edinburgh, 1847 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 187, ("Ca' Hawkie, drive Hawkie, ca' Hawkie through the water")
"Nursery Rhymes" in William Paul, Past and Present of Aberdeenshire (Aberdeen, 1881 ("Digitized by Google")), #10 p. 149, "Hawkie"
Roud #3159 and 5945
NOTES: Greig seemed to think that Hawkie was an unwilling horse, but he had only a fragment. The Northumbrian version makes it clear that Hawkie is a cow. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: StoR132

Ca' the Ewes Unto the Knowes


See Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)

Ca' the Yowes (II)


See Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)
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