Death of Ben Hall (II), The


See Ben Hall (File: MA164)

Death of Ben Hall, The


DESCRIPTION: Ben Hall's cowardly murder is recalled, as well as his nobility: "He never robbed a needy man, The records sure will show. How staunch and loyal to his mates, how manly to the foe." The singer bids him farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson, Old Bush Songs)
KEYWORDS: death murder outlaw abuse Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5, 1865 - Ben Hall is ambushed and killed by police near Forbes, Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 98-99, "Bold Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 90-91, "The Death of Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 81-84, "The Death of Ben Hall" (1 text. Note that the song appears to begin with the unrelated stanza "My name is Ben Hall from Urunga I came," but this is in fact a separate poem which just ended up on the same page)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Hall" (plot)
cf. "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (plot)
cf. "Streets of Forbes" (plot)
cf. "My Name is Ben Hall" (subject)
NOTES: Ben Hall is widely regarded as "the noblest of the bushrangers." The story is that he was hounded from his home by the police, and only then turned to crime. Even as a bushranger, he attacked only the rich and never shed blood. For background, see the notes to "Ben Hall."
To tell this song from the other Ben Hall songs, consider this first stanza:
Come all Australia's sons to me, a hero has been slain,
Cowardly butchered in his sleep upon the Lachlan plain.
Oh, do not stay your seemly grief but let a teardrop fall,
Oh, so many hearts will always mourn the fate of bold Ben Hall.
(note: with some settings of the tune, this is the first two stanzas) - RBW
File: MA098

Death of Bendall, The


See The Murder of F. C. Benwell [Laws E26] (File: LE26)

Death of Bernard Friley, The


DESCRIPTION: "It was down in the level land A murder came to light, The death of Bernard Friley 'Twas on a Monday night." A boy discovers the body as the man's dog sits by his side. The crime is blamed on drink; his murderer is imprisoned; listeners are warned
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: drink murder dog corpse
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 135-136, "The Death of Bernard Friley" (1 text)
File: ThBa135

Death of Birchie Potter


DESCRIPTION: "In the state of North Carolina, In a place called Pottertown, Two cousins took to drinking; One shot the other down." Birchie Potter, the victim, is praised; the singer hopes Glen Brown, the murderer, will face justice. He warns against drink
AUTHOR: Jim Brown?
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Wautagua Democrat)
KEYWORDS: murder family warning drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 295, "Death of Birchie Potter" (1 text)
Roud #6637
File: BrII295

Death of Brugh, The


DESCRIPTION: In 1922, rebel leader Cathal Brugh(a) is trapped (in a Dublin hotel) along with his fighting comrades; attempting to escape through the back door, he is shot. The singer praises and laments him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Johnny McDonagh)
KEYWORDS: grief rebellion death lament IRA
FOUND IN:
Roud #12941
RECORDINGS:
Johnny McDonagh, "The Death of Brugh" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All Around My Hat" (tune)
NOTES: Cathal Brugha was an officer in the resistance forces during the rebellion of 1916, famed for how hard he fought. He was also a political leader, arguing strenuously for a Republican government. - PJS
Brugha (born Charles Burgess, but like many Irish revolutionaries, he changed his name to a Gaelic form) fought and was wounded in the Easter Rebellion, but survived and was the Defence Minister in the 1919 Dail (the Irish parliament, which at that time would have to be regarded as provisional).
By the time he died, the Irish Free State had been organized (admittedly as a dominion) by Britain. But when the Irish cabinet voted (1921) on the dominion Treaty with Britain, Brugha (along with de Valera and Stack) voted against it (it was a 4-3 vote, with Barton, Collins, Cosgrave, and Griffith voting for the treaty). The vote in the Dail was 64-57 in favor.
When, later, Archbishop Byrne arranged a conference between Griffith, Collins, Brugha, and de Valera, Brugha called Collins a British agent, and when the latter proposed a referendum on the treaty, declared that circumstances were such that the people should not be allowed to vote (Coogan, p. 320).
The result was civil war, with pro- and anti-Treaty forces bitterly contesting the nature of a future Ireland. The legitimate government was pro-Treaty; Brugha was against. Thus Brugha was actually fighting *against* the legitimate government of Ireland when he died, fleeing from a burned building, gun in hand -- the perfect foot soldier, except that that wasn't his role.
According to Kee, p. 166, "Out of one of the blazing buildings in which a group of anti-Treaty men had eventually surrendered there emerged... a small dark man carrying a Thompson sub-machine gun. He hadshaken off a St. John's Ambulance man who tried to make him surrender, and suddenly started firing... He was brought down in a hail of bullets, and died two days later. Altogether some sixty people were killed and three hundred wounded in eight days' fighting in Dublin."
To be fair, Brugha had allowed the remainder of his forces to surrender before setting out alone. Younger, pp. 341-342, speculates that Brugha wanted to die as a sacrifice. But he did flee the Granville Hotel, breaking away from the men who served under him -- then when he was cornered, he fought rather than surrendering, and forced the army to kill him.
Perhaps the fittest description of him came from Richard Mulcahy (1886-1971), chief of staff of the Irish Volunteers and one of the most important men in holding together the Free State government: he was "as brave and as brainless as a bull" (Coogan, p. 34). He was tough as a bull, too; during the Easter Rising, he had taken "frightful" grenade wounds and lay for hours in a room "with little or no plaster left on the walls and every piece of furniture wrecked" (Foy/Barton, p. 102). He had been spared a firing squad in 1916 because he was thought too wounded to survive. Obviously he proved the doctors wrong (Coogan, p. 71).
Even Collins had mild words for him: "Because of his sincerity, I would forgive him anything. at worst he was a fanatic though in what has been a noble cause" (Kee, p. 167).
Reading Coogan's description of Brugha (p. 70), which describes an inflexible, unimaginative, doctrinaire man -- so doctrinaire that he actually wanted to fight pitched battles against the English! (p. 142) -- I can't help but think how much he sounds like an *English* officer -- even though Brugha, were he alive, would doubtless beat me to a pulp for saying that.
The idiocy of this viewpoint is shown by a comment by Richard Mulcahy, the Irish Chief of Staff, who (after Collins) was probably the man most responsible for forcing the British to negotiate; he observed that, for all the deaths, the Irish rebels had never managed to drive the English out of anything more significant than "a fairly good-sized police barracks" (Kee, p. 145.)
Nor was Brugha particularly close to the "men in the trenches"; Coogan on p. 142 reports that he continued to work at his business through most of the Troubles.
He would have made a wonderful prison camp commandant, I think: Loyal, dependable, and completely lacking in imagination. As a senior government official, he was probably more trouble than he was worth.
Brugha was not the only famous casualty in this period; the Irish shed at least as much of their own blood in the Civil War as the English ever had, and many leaders on both sides were ambushed, executed, or otherwise eliminated. For an even stronger example, and a far greater loss, see "General Michael Collins."
It is sad to note that much of the violent squabbling may have been based on personality rather than policy: Sean Dowling state that "Cathal Brugha hated Collins like poison. It was pathological. ... Brugha was Minister for Defence but he never did anything.... Collins was so energetic that he had usurped many of Brugha's functions; he sure was hated by him." (Quoted by Coogan, p. 175.) - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: RcTDOB

Death of Charlie Burger


See Hanging of Charlie Birger (File: DTcbirge)

Death of Cilley, The (The Duelist)


DESCRIPTION: "Hark! Didst though hear that startling shriek, That agonizing yell? Which bathed in tears the widow's cheek, When murdered Cilley fell?" "O tell it not in Askelon... What deeds are done in Washington." "The duellist... Must stand condemned...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: murder political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 24, 1838 - Jonathan Cilley, a Maine congressman, killed in a duel with Kentucky Representative William Graves
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt, p. 256, "The Duellist, or The Death of Cilley" (1 excerpted text)
NOTES: The mention of Askelon and Gath is a reference to 2 Samuel 1:20, David's lament over Saul. - RBW
File: Burt256

Death of Cock Robin, The


See Who Killed Cock Robin? (File: SKE74)

Death of Colonel Crafford, The


DESCRIPTION: Crafford leads a party out to slaughter the Indians outside Sandusky. Despite the valor of the white officers, they are forced back and Crafford is taken. The tribal council condemns him to be burnt. The survivors go home and cry for revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Eddy)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) execution war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 7, 1782 - American militia massacre 96 Delaware Indians (all Christians) at Gnadenhutten, Ohio. This was in retaliation for raids in which the Delaware took no part
May 25-June 6, 1782 - Colonel William Crawford's campaign against the Indians (and British loyalists) on the Sandusky River, culminating in his severe defeat and the massacre of his army.
June 11, 1782 - Execution by burning of Crawford. Crawford's defeat brought many Indians into the Revolutionary War on the British side, but this did little to change the balance of power; Cornwallis had already surrendered and American independence was assured
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy 115, "A Song on the Death of Colonel Crafford" (1 text)
ST E115 (Full)
Roud #5341
File: E115

Death of Ella Speed, The


See Ella Speed (Bill Martin and Ella Speed) [Laws I6] (File: LI06)

Death of Fan McCoy, The


DESCRIPTION: "On her death bed lay Fan McCoy, Her child standing near." She reminds her son, "The Hatfields got your pappy, Jed," and tells the history of the feud, bidding him carry it on. Judge and jury are urged not to treat him harshly because of his history
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: feud death mother children revenge
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1880 - Beginning of the Hatfield/McCoy feud
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 12-13, "The Death of Fan McCoy" (1 text)
Burt, p. 248, "(The Death of Fan McCoy)" (1 excerpt)
ST ThBdM012 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jim Hatfield's Boy" (subject)
NOTES: The Hatfields of West Virginia were a clan mostly of Democrats and Confederate sympathizers; the McCoys, from just across the Kentucky line, were Unionist Republicans. Their feud began in 1880, and some have claimed that 200 people died in the eight years before Kentucky police suppressed the Hatfields and functionally ended the conflict. - RBW
File: ThBdM012

Death of Fred Lowry, The


DESCRIPTION: "Come all young men and gentle maids, Come listen to me now...." The singer tells how troopers surround Fred Lowry's home. He vows to fight while ammunition lasts, but is shot from ambush. He proclaims his honesty, bids farewell to his girl, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: outlaw death police prison Australia love
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 58-60, "The Death of Fred Lowry" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
File: MCB058

Death of General Wolfe, The


See Brave Wolfe [Laws A1] (File: LA01)

Death of Geordie, The


See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Death of Harry Bradford, The [Laws C12]


DESCRIPTION: Harry Bradford, the foreman's son, cannot escape being crushed by falling logs. The father learns of his son's tragic death
AUTHOR: W. J. Taylor
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: death logger lumbering father children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws C12, "The Death of Harry Bradford"
Beck 52, "The Death of Harry Bradford" (1 text)
DT 836, HARBRADF
Roud #2218
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" [Laws C1] (plot, tune)
cf. "The Death of Harry Bradford" [Laws C12] (plot, tune)
NOTES: Beck describes this song as "frankly in imitation" of "The Jam on Gerry's Rock". - PJS
File: LC12

Death of Harry Simms, The


DESCRIPTION: Harry Simms is nineteen and "the bravest union man That I have ever seen." The singer worked with Simms; one day in 1932, after they separate, Simms is killed for his union activities. The singer says "The thugs... cannot kill our spirit"
AUTHOR: Aunt Molly Jackson (Jim Garland listed as second author in some sources)
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: murder labor-movement death mining
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-AFP, pp. 271-273 (plus notes on p. 261), "The Death of Harry Simms" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HARRYSIM*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Death of Harry Simms" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1) (on PeteSeeger39, possibly the same recording as on PeteSeeger13)
NOTES: Greenway claims this song has gone into oral tradition and developed variants. I have no supporting evidence for this -- but without counter-evidence, it goes into the Index. - RBW
Seeger lists authorship as "Words: Jim Garland; Music: As sung by Aunt Molly Jackson." - PJS
File: Grnw271

Death of Herbert Rice, The [Laws D6]


DESCRIPTION: "A fine young man," Herbert Rice, "is lost at sea" off Block Island in a storm. The family mourns. Listeners are advised to turn to God.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: sea storm death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1868 - Herbert A. Rice, not yet nineteen, is lost at sea
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Laws D6, "The Death of Herbert Rice"
DT 822, HERBRICE
Roud #2232
File: LD06

Death of Jack Hinton, The


See The Wreck on the C & O [Laws G3] (File: LG03)

Death of Jerry Damron, The


DESCRIPTION: Jerry Damron and his crew are killed on the C & O railroad, apparently in a derailment. His friends mourn for him, and hope to meet him in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Early 1930s (given to Dock Boggs by Damron's sister)
KEYWORDS: grief train death mourning railroading wreck disaster lament worker
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #14022
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "The Death of Jerry Damron" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
File: RctDoJD

Death of Jesse James, The


See Jesse James (II) [Laws E2] (File: LE02)

Death of Mill o' Tiftie's Annie, The


DESCRIPTION: Tifty's Annie lies buried in a Fyvie churchyard. The singer recalls the details of the story of Child 233 "Andrew Lammie" in different words from that ballad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: love death family poverty derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 1019, "The Death of Mill o' Tiftie's Annie" (1 text)
Roud #6723
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Andrew Lammie" [Child 233] (story) and references there
NOTES: GreigDuncan5 quoting Duncan: "The girl had learnt it from tradition, not from print." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1019

Death of Molly Bender


See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Death of Morgan, The


DESCRIPTION: The outlaw Daniel Morgan is killed in an ambush.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: outlaw death
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hodgart, p. 230, "The Death of Morgan" (1 text)
Roud #8240
NOTES: According to George Boxall, The Story of the Australian Bushrangers, "[Daniel Morgan] was credited with being the most bloodthirsty of the New South Wales bushrangers after Willmore." It was in 1863 that the police realized that he was not associated with Ben Hall or his gang and set out pursuing Morgan. Eventually a price of one thousand pounds was placed on his head.
On the night of April 8, 1865, Morgan set out on a raid in Victoria on a dare from a newspaper. He came to the station of Macpherson and Rutherford. (Asked why he had taken to a life of crime, he claimed he was convicted of a crime he hadn't committed and had escaped.) Morgan was tired enough after several nights without sleep that someone was able to sneak out and summoned help. One of the rescuers shot Morgan from behind a bush. - RBW
File: Hodg230

Death of Mother Jones, The


DESCRIPTION: "The world is mourning today The death of Mother Jones; Grief and sorrow hover Around the miners' homes." The miners lament the death of the organizer who "was ready to help them; she never turned them down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Gene Autry)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement death mining
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1837-1930 - life of Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenway-AFP, pp. 154-155, "Mother Jones" (1 text)
Green-Miner, pp. 241-243, "Mother Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DETHJONE*
Roud #15157
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "The Death of Mother Jones" (Banner 32133/Jewel 20033/Oriole 8033/Perfect 12696/Regal 10311/Romeo 5033/Conqueror 7702, 1931)
NOTES: Greenway notes that his text differs from that in Korson's "Coal Dust on the Fiddle," implying oral transmission. I'm not sure this really follows -- but there is enough doubt that I have indexed the song. - RBW
While copyright was registered in the name of American Record Company talent scout William R. Callaway, it's virtually certain that he did not compose it, but rather purchased the rights from an unknown composer. His widow told Archie Green that her husband never had composed anything, but would often purchase material from musicians he worked with or people he met on the road. - PJS
File: Grnw154

Death of Nelson, The


DESCRIPTION: "Come all you gallant seamen and give me a meeting." The song tells how an enemy shot mortally wounds Nelson. The doctor can do nothing. He had fought many battles, and lost an arm and an eye. England is told to mourn Nelson and bless Collingwood
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1866 (broadside Bodleian Curzon b.24(100)=Harding B 11(2624))
KEYWORDS: sailor death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1758-1805 - Life of Horatio Nelson, victor at Aboukir (the Nile), Copenhagen, and Trafalgar
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 149, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (reproduction of a broadside page with "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" and "Death of Lord Nelson")
Roud #3549
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Curzon b.24(100)=Harding B 11(2624), "Death of Nelson!," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.12(446)=c.19(74), J, Forth (Pocklington), n.d.; Firth c.12(44), H. Such, London, 1863-1885; Harding B 11(833)=Johnson Ballads 3350, G. Henson (Northampton), n.d.; Harding B 11(836), unknown, n.d.; Harding B 11(834)=Johnson Ballads 410=Johnson Ballads 411, W. S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885
NOTES: Roud lumps two types of song, both called "(The) Death of (Lord) Nelson," under one number. But they appear to me distinct. This one begines "Come all you galland seamean"; the other starts typically "O'er Nelson's tomb with silent grief oppress'd." The other version seems to have been the more popular, but neither seems to have had any real traditional life; they are known from masses of broadsides, not from field collections.
For more about Nelson, see e.g. "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)" [Laws J17]. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BdTDeoNe

Death of Parcy Reed, The [Child 193]


DESCRIPTION: Parcy Reed captures the raider Crosier. Crosier plans vengeance. When Reed goes hunting, the Halls find him asleep, disable his weapons, then awaken him but refuse to stand with him against the Crosiers. Reed is fatally injures. (He makes his farewells)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Richardson's Border's Table Book)
KEYWORDS: murder revenge trick betrayal outlaw borderballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 193, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (2 texts)
Bronson 193, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (1 version)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 49-51, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (1 text, 1 tune) {theoretically Bronson's #1, but in fact the two have substantial differences}
Leach, pp. 522-528, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (2 texts)
OBB 146, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (1 text)
DT, PRCYREED*
Roud #335
NOTES: For an extensive discussion of the origin of this battle (which does not appear to be about an actual person), see James Reed, "The Border Ballads," in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), especially pp. 17-20. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C193

Death of Parker, The


See Poor Parker (File: BrII117)

Death of Queen Jane, The [Child 170]


DESCRIPTION: Queen Jane has hard labor. She begs her attendants to remove her baby surgically. They call King Henry; he will not permit the operation. Queen Jane falls unconscious; the baby is delivered but she dies. King, baby, and court mourn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: royalty pregnancy death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1536 - Execution of Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn. His marriage to Jane Seymour (one of Anne's women in waiting) follows swiftly
Oct 12, 1537 - Birth of the future Edward VI
Oct 24, 1537 - Death of Jane Seymour
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Child 170, "The Death of Queen Jane" (9 texts)
Bronson 170, "The Death of Queen Jane" (10 versions)
BarryEckstormSmyth p. 466, "The Death of Queen Jane" (brief notes only)
Davis-Ballads 35, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 254-255, "Queen Jane" (1 text, the Lunsford version which has no true plot; tune on pp. 422-423) {Bronson's #7}
Leach, pp. 478-480, "The Death of Queen Jane" (4 texts)
Friedman, p. 285, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text)
SharpAp 32, "The Death of Queen Jane" (2 texts, 2 tunes){Bronson's #4, #5}
Sharp-100E 29, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Niles 50, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 21, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 31, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
GreigDuncan3 693, "Queen Jean" (2 texts)
DBuchan 52, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 56-57, "Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Silber-FSWB, p. 212, "Queen Jane" (1 text)
DT 170, QUENJANE* QUENJAN2*
Roud #77
RECORDINGS:
Douglas Kennedy, "The Death of Queen Jane" (on FieldTrip1)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Death of Queen Jane" (on BLLunsford01; a lyric fragment in which everyone comes to Jane and says simply, "The red rose of England shall flourish no more.") (on BLLunsford02) {Bronson's #7}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Six Dukes Went A-Fishing" (lyrics)
NOTES: [A. L. Lloyd reports,] "We do not know how old this ballad is, nor if it derives from a piece called "The Lamentation of Queen Jane", licensed for publication in 1560."
This ballad is also, as "Dronning Dagmar (Queen Dagmar)," found in Danish tradition. - PJS
If actually the same song, the Danish version would appear to be much older; the most famous Dagmar in Danish history was the daughter of Ottocar I of Bohemia and the wife of Valdemar II (c. 1170-1241; reigned 1202-1241; the name of the Danish king in "Dronning Dagmar" is in fact Valdemar). They were married in 1205; she died in 1212 (so Birch, p. 63; I've seen online sources which say 1215-1222), leaving a son who, in an interesting coincidence, predeceased his father (the victim of a shooting accident, according to Birch, p. 67), meaning that the Danish throne went to younger half-brothers, beginning with Eric, co-King with his father from 1232. - RBW
Re "Queen Dagmar's Death" translated in R.C. Alexander Prior Ancient Danish Ballads (1860), Vol. II, No. LXII, pp. 136-140: "Dagmar, the first wife of King Waldmar the second, died at Ribe in the year 1212, and is buried at Ringsted by the side of her husband." The plot is very close to "The Death of Queen Jane." However, the king reaches her side after she has died. The king asks that everyone pray that he be allowed to hear her wishes. The Queen wakes, asks that all prisoners be released, that Berngerd [Berengaria] not be taken as a wife, and that her youngest son Knud be heir to the crown. Finally, she explains the reason for her death and damnation: "Had I on a Sunday not laced my sleeves, Or border upon them sewn, No pangs had I felt by day or night, Or torture of hell-fire known." She returns to death. - BS
Note therefore the (minor) differences between the songs: Valdemar arrives at his wife's bedside only after she dies, and she attributes her death to dressing too gaily on a Sunday. She also speaks after death; I know of no supernatural versions of "Queen Jane." Still, it's noteworthy that "Queen Jane's" plot, where it differs from the facts, always differs in a way that brings it closer to "Dronning Dagmar." - (RBW, PJS, BS)
Of all the strange events in the history of Henry VIII, his romance with Jane Seymour may be the strangest.
Henry had not initially expected to succeed his father Henry VII. There was an older brother, Arthur, who had been groomed for the throne and had married Catherine, princess of Aragon. But Henry VII's children seemed cursed -- four of eight died very young, and then, in 1502, Arthur died also (Ashley, pp. 630-631). The only surviving boy, Henry, became heir to his father -- and to Catherine of Aragon. Nor was Catherine the only legacy from his relatives: Henry also inherited, in different form, the suspicions and power-hungriness of his usurping father.
And he also inherited that bad genes that went back to the mad king Charles VI of France, whose daughter Catherine had been Henry VII's grandmother. There is no reason to think Catherine of Aragon was infertile -- her sisters generally had no problems with child-bearing. But Catherine's many pregnancies mostly ended in miscarriages or in the birth of children who died very young; only one girl, Mary, survived infancy. By 1526, Henry was sure that Catherine of Aragon (who was 40 years old, six years older than her husband) would not give him a son (Ashley, p. 632). And, in this period, he also became interested in Anne Boleyn -- who, however, refused his advances unless she could marry him.
You know the rest; Henry couldn't get a divorce from Rome, so he founded his own church, divorced Catherine, disinherited Mary (Scarisbrick pp. 351-352, notes how the poor girl was forced to give up her claim to the throne, her legitimacy, and even her religion; he suggests she might have been executed had she not given in), married Anne -- and found that the whole cycle started again. There was one healthy child, Elizabeth, born 1533. But there were also three miscarriages (Lofts-Anne, p. 124), and no son.
And then Jane Seymour caught his eye. Hers was not a very exalted family, but sufficiently notable that Jane had been a lady in waiting first to Catherine of Aragon and then to Anne (Ives, p. 292).
Soon after the birth of Elizabeth, Henry VIII's roving eye seems to have started roving again. Scarisbrick, p. 348, thinks he noticed Jane Seymour in mid-1534, and stories began to circulate about them later in that year. Ives, pp. 292-293, however, thinks he only became serious about Jane in January 1536. But most sources I checked think he began courting her some time in 1535.
It was rather surprising -- no one then or now seems to have regarded Jane as particularly beautiful. Lofts-Anne, p. 136, says, "[u]nless her portrait maligns her vilely, she may have been the original Plain Jane"; Loach, p. 2, refers to a "pale and puffy" appearance. The imperial ambassador said "nobody thinks she has much beauty. Her complexion is so whitish that she may be called rather pale. She is a little over 25... not very intelligent, and is said to be rather haughty" (Ives, p. 302)
But Anne Boleyn hadn't been considered a great beauty, either (although certainly prettier than Jane); Henry VIII seems to have wanted something other than conventional good looks. The odd thing was Jane's age -- we don't know it exactly, but Lofts-Queens, p. 99, claims she was fully 33 at the time her son was born. This is almost certainly high, but Ashley, p. 630, gives her birth date as c. 1508, making her 29, OxfordCompanion, p. 539, says she was born c. 1509, making her 28. (One suspects her late marriage is additional evidence of her lack of looks.)
Ives, p. 302, hints that Henry was attracted by Jane as a sort of anti-Anne -- she was "fair, not dark... gentle rather than abrasive; of no great-wit, against a mistress of repartee; a model of self-effacement, against a self-made woman."
By then, Anne seems to have been living on sufferance. Henry -- who had been so ardent as long as she had refused to share his bed -- no longer loved her, and apparently was spending just enough time with her to try for another child. Anne did become pregnant in late 1535 -- but had another miscarriage in early 1536. (If Henry had been rational, this should have proved to him that Anne was being faithful, because he was the one with the genetic defects. But Henry was not rational.)
The miscarriage came shortly after Henry took a fall which caused great fears for his health (Scarisbrick, p. 348). More than ever, Henry wanted a son -- and that, in his warped mind, meant another wife (he actually considered his failure to beget a son to be evidence that God disapproved of his marriages). In an additional convenience, Catherine of Aragon had died in early 1536 (OxfordCompanion, p. 175), so if Anne could be set aside, further marriages would be free of doubt. And Anne could easily be eliminated, because -- unlike Catherine -- she was not popular; the people resented her replacement of the much-loved Catherine.
There was, in fact, a song written about this business, which cast Henry to scorn and caused Jane some pain. Henry vowed to "straitly punish" the author, but never managed to catch him (Ives, p. 305). This song does not appear to have gone into tradition.
Henry had Anne and a handful of others accused of adultery and other crimes -- some merely unlikely, some, such as of engaging in incest with her brother (Lofts-Anne, p. 158), absurd. Her brother's chief crime seems to have been saying aloud that Henry might be impotent (Lofts-Anne, pp. 159-160). Henry and Cromwell arranged a kangaroo trial (there were no witnesses, according to Lofts, p. 160, and no impartial judges, either), and executed her on May 19 (the execution had to be hasty, because, apparently, the false conviction earned her sympathy for the first time in her career. The only hint of mercy, according to Lofts-Anne, p. 168, was that she was beheaded rather than being drawn and quartered, the normal sentence for treason -- and adultery by the Queen was called treason. The crown did try to keep things relatively quiet -- Anne was executed on a low scaffold, and the execution was postponed from May 18 to May 19 in hopes of causing spectators to go home (Lofts-Anne, p. 171)
That day, Archbishop Cranmer issued a dispensation allowing Henry to marry Jane Seymour (who was distantly related). They became engaged the next day, and married on May 30 (Scarisbrick, p. 350). She became pregnant about half a year later -- a pregnancy which would result in her death.
There are surprisingly many stories about the death of Jane Seymour -- that she died in childbirth, or due to the after-effects of a Caesarean operation. Our information is sadly conflicting.
It does seem certain that Jane Seymour went into labor on October 11, 1537. The future Edward VI was born early on October 12. Jane died twelve days later.
The story that Henry was told at the time that "one of the two must die" is very early, apparently first found in 1538, with a variant, that the prince would be "as great a murderer as his father," apparently being known in 1539. Apparently some of this was used as Catholic propaganda. And Scarisbrick, p. 353, says that "At Hampton Court, on 12 October 1537, Queen Jane was delivered by Caesarean section of a son, christened Edward shortly afterward -- just ten years since Henry first set out on the task of getting rid of Catherine to save his dynasty.
But Loach, pp. 4-5, notes that, while the Caesarean operation was known at the time, it was a course of desperation and usually killed the mother. Jane did live twelve days, and at first was well enough to see her child. She therefore thinks it unlikely that surgery was involved in Edward VI's birth.
Loach on p. 7 considers and rejects the suggestion of puerperal fever (caused presumably by the dirty hands of doctors), which Lofts-Anne, p. 156, considers the cause of death. On p. 6 Loach notes the activities Jane was able to engage in immediately after the birth. It was not until October 23 that she became ill. She died "during the night of Wednesday, 24 October." Even then, no fever was reported -- but heavy bleeding was. Loach's speculation is that the incompetent doctors did not fully remove the placenta, and it haemorrhaged.
Her funeral took place on November 12, and she was buried the next day (Loach, p. 7).
The statement about "fiddling and dancing" at the baby's birth are likely enough; Henry VIII was himself a good musician, and exceptionally fond of music and dance; Williams, p. 14, notes that Henry's father Henry VII had been indifferent to music and celebration (or almost anything in life except money and power), and had kept only a very small musical establishment, and observes on pp. 36-37 that when Henry VIII succeeded, he immediately enlarged his staff of minstrels and musicians.
The mention of Henry wearing mourning for Jane is true and quite interesting, because he had blatantly refused to wear mourning when Catherine of Aragon died; indeed, he forbade others from dressing in mourning (Lofts-Anne, p. 139). And, of course, he completely refused to mourn for Anne (hardly surprising, since to do so would be, in effect, to admit that she was innocent and that he had had her judicially murdered).
Incidentally, Jane Seymour's ghost is alleged to still appear at Hampton Castle, one of Henry VIII's primary residences and the place where Jane died. The other side of the coin is, the place is alleged to have quite a few ghosts, very many of whom have been explicitly identified with one or another historical person. One can't help but wonder if the real explanation isn't someone (perhaps in a tourism office) with an overactive imagination.... - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: C170

Death of Robin Hood, The


See Robin Hood's Death [Child 120] (File: C120)

Death of Roy Rickey, The


DESCRIPTION: "Little Roy was missing, Where was he found? A-hangin' by the roadside ...." He was hangin' on a whiteoak.... Where he could have saved himself If he had not been dead." His parents are accused of killing the boy then hanging the dead body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: death murder father mother children crime
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 163-164, "The Death of Roy Rickey" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20] (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)
NOTES: This is so feeble a piece that, after the first two verses, I thought it intended to be humorous. But it evidently wasn't so meant. The outcome of the case apparently was not known to the informants, but rumor had it that Roy had discovered his mother in a compromising position with Jim Andy Day (who later discovered Roy's body). The two disposed of Roy to make sure no word reached Roy's father.
Amazing no one made a movie out of that plot.... - RBW
File: ThBa163

Death of Samuel Adams


DESCRIPTION: "In the state of old Kentucky... A horrible crime was committed And later brought to light." "A man was cruelly murdered, Samuel Adams was his name." The buried body washes up in a flood, and Joe Schuster and gang sentenced to life imprisonment
AUTHOR: Grover Frazier?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: murder trial prison work
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 242-243, "Death of Samuel Adams" (1 text)
Roud #4131
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy)" [Laws E20] (lyrics)
NOTES: Neither this song nor Thomas's notes are very clear as to what actually happened here. Reading a great deal into a small amount between the lines, I suspect that Samuel Adams, left without work in the Depression, arrived perhaps at Ashland during the labor troubles. He took a job as a guard and was killed as a result.
This is item dF62 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: ThBa242

Death of William Gilley, The [Laws D5]


DESCRIPTION: A widow tells of how, within weeks of her marriage, her husband went to sea. Neither ship nor sailor ever returned, leaving her trying to find strength in her faith
AUTHOR: Mary Lurvey Stanley (broadside)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926
KEYWORDS: sea death religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 14, 1829 - Marriage of Clarissa Gott and William Gilley
Mar 1, 1829 - Gilley sets sail in the Minerva, never to return
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Laws D5, "The Death of William Gilley"
DT 821, WMGILLEY
Roud #2231
File: LD05

Death of Willie Stone, The


DESCRIPTION: "In a graveyard at Toowong, where the river rolls along, Lies Willie Stone a trusted man and true." Well-beloved and handsome, he falls and is killed in a horserace. Listeners are told that "'Twas God's decree and he alone knows best."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975
KEYWORDS: horse racing death
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 224-225, "The Death of Willie Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Stone came from a well-known family of horse trainers, but he was not killed in a race; rather, he was thrown in a practice run. The informant, M. Sullivan, thought this piece might be the work of "Cyclone" Jimmy Connors. - RBW
File: FaE224

Death-Bed Song


See When Sorrows Encompass Me 'Round (File: Wa094)

Death, 'Tis a Melancholy Day


DESCRIPTION: "Death, 'tis a melancholy day For those who have no God, When the poor soul is forced away To seek her last abode." The girl is condemned to Hell; others are warned of it. The singer is glad to be rescued from it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Sacred Harp)
KEYWORDS: religious Hell death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 645, "Death, 'Tis a Melancholy Day" (1 text)
Roud #655
NOTES: In the Sacred Harp, where the text is credited to Isaac Watts (1707) and the tune to H. S. Reed, this is called "Melancholy Day." The Missouri Harmony sets the first verse to the tune "Tribulation."
Roud lumps this with "Death Is a Melancholy Call" [Laws H5], which strikes me as more reasonable than many of his other lumps. But I keep them separate based on Laws. - RBW.
File: R645

Death, Ain't You Got No Shame?


DESCRIPTION: "Death, ain't you got no shame, shame...." "Left his pappy to moan, moan...." "Left his widder alone, lone...." "Left his mammy to weep, weep...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FSNA 129, "Death, Ain't You Got No Shame?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6682
File: LoF129

Deceitful Husband, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer says she was courted and married by a stranger. They had been married six weeks when a woman claims him as the father of her infant. The singer believes the story although her husband denies it. She drives him away to "where he ought to go"
AUTHOR: Hugh McWilliams (source: Moulden-McWilliams)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (according to Moulden-McWilliams)
KEYWORDS: marriage accusation rejection baby husband lover wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831 (Portrush,1993), p. 8, "The Deceitful Husband"
Roud #7002
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Young Girls Beware" (on IRRCinnamond02)
NOTES: The description is based on Moulden. - BS
File: RcTDeHus

Deceived Girl, The


See The Fair Flower of Northumberland [Child 9] (File: C009)

December cam, the twenty-fift'


See December Cam' (File: GrD636)

December Cam'


DESCRIPTION: The day before Old Yule comes with wind and snow. The maiden cleaning the lum [chimney] slipps on her bum. She bakes bread and cleans the house. We get bread buttered and hot but cups and dishes "cam' rowin frae the pantry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: humorous religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig 59, p. 2, ("December cam, the twenty-fift'") (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan3 636, "December Cam'" (1 text)
Roud #6096
NOTES: Greig: ." .. a rhyme about Yule, which was written, my correspondent thinks, by an Inverkeithney man, an Episcopalian, as a kind of satire on the way Presbyterians held Christmas." In this regard, the first verse begins "December cam' the twenty fift Accordin' to the aul' time." For more background on the reaction to the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, and its effect on the Yule celebration, see the notes to "Auld Yule." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD636

Decision in the Gypsy's Warning


See The Gypsy's Warning (File: R743)

Deck of the Willow Green


DESCRIPTION: Edgar ships on the Willow Green. Being God-fearing, he refuses to join the crew and captain in drink. Edgar tells the captain that drink will lead him to Hell. In drunken gloom the captain kills himself. Edgar prays for the crew. They all swear off rum.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-Labrador)
KEYWORDS: virtue suicide sea ship drink religious sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-Labrador 89, "Deck of the Willow Green" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ST LLab089 (Partial)
Roud #9974
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Faithful Edgar
NOTES: Yeah, sure. - RBW
File: LLab089

Deck the Halls (with Boughs of Holly)


DESCRIPTION: Listeners are urged to "Deck the halls with boughs of holly," wear "gay apparel," "troll the ancient yuletide carol," and welcome in the new year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (tune published 1784 as "Nos Galan" in Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards)
KEYWORDS: Christmas nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
OBC 50, "Nos Galan" (2 texts, of which the second is this piece, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 382, "Deck the Halls" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 193-194, "Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly"
DT, DECKHALL*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #17, "Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly" (1 text)
SAME TUNE:
Deck the Halls with Lefse Slices (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 19)
Deck the Halls (with Gasoline) (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 99)
NOTES: This seems certainly to have been originally a Welsh New Year's song, "Nôs Galan." According to Fuld, this was originally published, in Welsh, in 1784. Despite the appearance of the words in the "Oxford Book of Carols," the commentators cited by Fuld consider the song to be exclusively American.
The English words bear no relationship to the Welsh, which is said to be a love song used as a circle dance. - RBW
File: FSWB382A

Declaration d'Amour, La (Declaration of Love)


DESCRIPTION: French. Singer has waited by his love's door to speak with her, but she's refused. He pleads, "Why love not a lover who loves you more?" She says, "How could you wish that I love you / When I am forbidden my love to bestow?" In dreams she will love him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (BerryVin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage hardheartedness courting love rejection lover
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BerryVin, p. 62, "La Declaration d'Amour (Declaration of Love)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
File: BerV062

Deep Blue Sea (I), The


DESCRIPTION: The girl's lover set off to sea, promising to write to her. She never hears from him. She seeks out his captain, who tells her "he is drowned in the deep blue sea." She bids "farewell to friends and relations" and decides to drown herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Carter Family recording)
KEYWORDS: death suicide ship sea drowning
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 794, "The Deep Blue Sea" (1 short text plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 518-520, "The Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 794A)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 26, "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune, perhaps rewritten by the Carter Family)
Silber-FSWB, p. 181, "Sailor On The Deep Blue Sea" (1 text)
DT, SAILDEEP*
Roud #4291
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "I Have No One to Love Me" (Victor V-40036, 1929)
Lake Howard, "I Have No One to Love Me" (Perfect 13151, 1935)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" (on NLCR01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12] (plot)
NOTES: Paul Stamler suggests that this is a worn-down form of "The Sailor Boy" (Laws K12). I consider the characteristic of Laws K12 to be the request for a boat that the girl may seek her lover. Also, there are very few words in common between the two. So I have,
with some hesitation, decided to split the two songs.
It is quite possible that the separation is recensional; Cohen notes that Randolph's texts appear to be a warn down version of the Carter Family version, and Randolph's is the only genuinely traditional source. So this may be the remnants of a Carter Family rewrite of "The Sailor Boy." - RBW
File: R794

Deep Blue Sea (II)


DESCRIPTION: "Deep blue sea, baby, deep blue sea...It was Willie what got drownded in the deep blue sea"; "Dig his grave with a silver spade..."; "Lower him down with a golden chain..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: death burial drowning floatingverses lullaby
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
PSeeger-AFB, p. 76, "Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 58, "Deep Blue Sea" (1 text)
DT, DEEPBLUE*
Roud #3119
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Deep Blue Sea" (on PeteSeeger04) (on PeteSeeger12) (on PeteSeeger15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Blue" (floating verses)
cf. "The 'Cholly' Blues" (floating verses)
cf. "Stormalong" (floating verses)
cf. "Dig My Grave With a Silver Spade" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: In this case, perhaps we should refer to "sinkingverses." This song should not be confused with "The Deep Blue Sea", aka "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea," as recorded by the Carter Family. It may have been a shanty at some point. - PJS
File: PSAFB076

Deep Elem Blues


DESCRIPTION: The listener is advised to be prepared when going to (Deep Elem): "If you go down to Deep Elem just to have a little fun, You'd better have your fifteen dollars when the policeman comes." The singer details his experiences with the women there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Cofer Brothers)
KEYWORDS: whore money police theft trick sex warning crime humorous clergy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 501, "Went Down Town"; 502, "Standin' on de Street Doin' No Harm" (2 fragments, consisting of little more than a declaration of innocence and a statement "along came the police and grabbed me by the arm," also found in some versions of this song)
DT, DEEPELM BLCKBTTM
RECORDINGS:
The Cofer Brothers, "The Georgia Black Bottom (Black Bottom Blues)" (Okeh 45111, 1927)
Richard O. Hamilton, "Deep Elm Blues" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Lone Star Cowboys, "Deep Elm Blues" (Victor 23846, 1933)
Prairie Ramblers, "Deep Elem Blues" (Perfect 5-11-51, 1935)
The Shelton Brothers, "Deep Elem Blues" (Decca 5099, 1935; Decca 46008, 1946)
SAME TUNE:
Shelton Brothers, "Deep Elem Blues - No. 2" (Decca 5198, 1936)
Shelton Brothers, "Deep Elem Blues - No. 3" (Decca 5422, 1937)
NOTES: "Deep Elem," according to Michael Cooney, refers to Elm Street, the red light district in Dallas, Texas (for the reputation of this area, see also, e.g., "Take a Whiff On Me"). It's not clear whether the Cofer Brothers' "Black Bottom Blues" or the Shelton Brothers' "Deep Elem Blues" is the older form; the latter seems to have inspired more recordings. - RBW
File: DTdeepel

Deep in Love


See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

Deep River


DESCRIPTION: "Deep River, "(My home is over Jordan), I want to cross over (to the campground)." The singer hopes to cross (the Jordan) to heaven , there to meet family, friends, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 ("The Story of the Jubilee Singers")
KEYWORDS: religious death river
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 594-595, "Deep River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 370, "Deep River" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 195, "Deep River"
DT, DEEPRVR2
Roud #12332
RECORDINGS:
Marian Anderson, "Deep River" (Victor 19227, 1924) (Victor 22015, 1929; Victor 2032, 1940)
Carroll Clark w. Fletcher Henderson [Orch.?] "Deep River" (Columbia 128-D, 1924)
Commonwealth Quartet, "Deep River" (Conqueror 7079, 1928)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "Deep River" (RCA, unissued, 1941)
The King's Heralds, "Deep River" (Chapel CR 23, n.d.)
Lions Quartet, "Deep River" (Columbia 1167-D, 1927)
Oriole Male Quartette, "Deep River" (Oriole 893, 1927)
Randolph's Kentucky Jubilee Choir, "Deep River" (Brunswick 4063, 1928)
Paul Robeson, "Deep River" (Victor 20793, 1927)
NOTES: Not to be confused with either of two songs called "Deep River Blues" (one traditional, with the opening "Let it rain, let it pour; Let it rain a whole lot more..."; the other coming from the W. C. Handy tradition and beginning "Deep river, deep river, Mississippi River, so deep and wide my heart is breaking"). - RBW
File: LxA594

Deep Sheephaven Bay


DESCRIPTION: The singer is exiled from Ireland. He thinks about his old home, the fishing fleet, the fields, and "bonnie blue-eyed Mary in her shawl of Galway grey," Now he is old but hopes he can return and "sleep in that old churchyard" near his old home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: exile home separation Ireland nonballad return
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride 21, "Deep Sheephaven Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: McBride: "A favourite song of emigration in Donegal. Sheephaven Bay lies west of Inishowen...." - BS
File: McB1021

Deep Water


See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

Deer Chase, The


See The Bear Chase (File: LoF081)

Defence of Crossgar


DESCRIPTION: Thrashers prepare "not to leave a Protestant soul in Crossgar" on St Patrick's Day. A policeman encourages them and the peelers don't stop them. "Many a Thrasher that day was detained" by Orange shot. "We fought them and beat them an hundred to one"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland patriotic political police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 17, 1849 - "Ribbon parades at Castlewellan and Crossgar were attacked by Orangemen, and at Crossgar a policeman and a young woman were killed" (source: Neil Jarman and Dominic Bryan, _From Riots to Rights; Nationalist Parades in the North of Ireland_ (1997),
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OrangeLark 13, "Defence of Crossgar" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Seige of Carrick" (tune, according to OrangeLark)
NOTES: OrangeLark: "The Irish Constabulary, like the R.I.C. which superseded it, was largely composed of Roman Catholics."
Sir Robert Peel established the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1812 and its success led, in 1829, to the Metropolitan Police Act for London. Originally the term "Peeler" applied to the London constabulary. (source: Sir Robert "Bobby" Peel (1788-1850) at Historic UK site.)
The Thrashers were one of the Catholic agrarian groups like the Defenders, Whiteboys and Ribbonmen (source: "Orange Institution" at the Wikipedia site). - BS
File: OrLa013

Defender's Song (II), The


DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a Defender and a member of the Church of Rome," is banished from his home by "Luthers black and Calvin crew." He flees to the mountains. He recalls Christ's travails. He considers the despair of Calvinists: "their compass needle it is broke"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: Ireland religious exile
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 134-135, "The Defender's Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banished Defender" (some text)
NOTES: Tunney-StoneFiddle pp. 134-135 shares its first verse and theme with "The Banished Defender" but the remaining verses are entirely different.
Zimmermann p. 19: "In some parts of Ulster, Protestant and Catholic tenants were mingled and contended for the land; the peasantry was thus divided into two camps, each having its oath-bound association. This led to a sort of religious war. At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen." The "Defenders were succeeded by the "Ribbonmen" - BS
An irony of this song is that, while there were Calvinists in Ulster (the Presbyterian church is Calvinist), the main force of Protestantism in Ireland was the Anglican church, which is neither Lutheran (Protestant) nor Calvinist (Reformed); Anglicanism is third major branch to split off from the Church of Rome.
The Calvinist despair is, I assume, based on their extreme doctrine of predestination, which holds that no amount of effort to do right can save a person; it depends entirely on God's grace (or God's whim, as it appears to non-Calvinists). This position is summed up in the Reformed faith's "TULIP" acronym, affirmed at the Synod of Dort: Total depravity, Uncondition election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the Saints.
To show why all of this is relevant to Ireland: Cromwell, who did more than anyone (including even William III) to destroy Irish society, could well be called a Calvinist's Calvinist. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: TSF134

Defenders' Song (I)


DESCRIPTION: "Arise, ye sons of liberty, awake out of your slumber." United defenders must "plant the tree of liberty" in Ireland. Follow the examples of America and France. "The harp and shamrock will unite, when tyrants are no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: America France Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 44, "Defenders' Song" (1 text)
NOTES: For more about the Defenders, who spread starting around 1790 in response to the Protestant Peep o' Day boys, see e.g. the notes to "Bold McDermott Roe," "The Banished Defender," and "The Noble Ribbon Boys," and of course "The Defender's Song (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Moyl044

Deitcher's Dog, Der


See O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone (File: RJ19057)

Delhi Jail, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer is going down the road "with a tired feeling and a heavy load" when the Sheriff apprehends him. The food in Delhi Jail is abominable, and the singer, once freed, proclaims, "I hope to the Lord I go there no more." Tune: "Turkey in the Straw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: prison parody
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
FSCatskills 169, "The Delhi Jail" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a stanza of "Turkey in the Straw" from the same informant)
ST FSC169 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune) and references there
File: FSC169

Delia


See Delia's Gone [Laws I5] (File: LI05)

Delia Holmes


See Delia's Gone [Laws I5] (File: LI05)

Delia's Gone [Laws I5]


DESCRIPTION: Tony/Coonie shoots Delia (for breaking her promise to marry him). Delia's mother grieves. Coonie writes a letter from prison, where he has been sent for life, asking the governor for a pardon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: murder prison punishment
FOUND IN: US(SE) Bahamas
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws I5, "Delia (Holmes)"
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 911-912, "Delia Holmes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 238-239, "Delia" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 177, "Delia's Gone" (1 text)
DT 657, DELIAGON* DELIAGO2 (DELIA2 -- heavily adapted)
Roud #3264
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Delia's Gone" (on PeteSeeger04)
NOTES: In oral tradition this ballad has split into two texts which are so distinct that they can hardly be recognized as one. (Indeed, I wasn't sure until I came across an unusually full Bahaman version.)
"Delia's Gone," from the Bahamas, tells only the bare facts of Delia's murder, which is committed by Tony.
"Delia" ("Delia Holmes") provides a motive for the shooting (Delia Holmes had broken her promise to marry Coonie), and gives details about the murderer's conviction.
One theory has it that this story is based on a murder committed in Georgia around 1900.
If this is true, then Tony/Coonie is Moses Houston (variously called "Mose" and "Cooney/Coony" in the newspapers). His age is uncertain; he gave it as fourteen, and the papers estimated it at fourteen to sixteen.
Delia Green was fourteen year old who had been dating. He claimed there was a sexual relationship; she denied it. He killed her in 1900, at a rowdy party in which they argued, apparently over whether their relationship was sexual. He was tried in 1901. Found guilty (in a trial which, in retrospect, does not sound very fair), he was sentenced to prison but parolled in 1913; a later request to overturn his sentence does not seem to have been acted upon. (Information compiled by John Garst.)
Almost all that is known about this song is summarized by Chapman J. Milling in Volume 1, Number 4 of Southern Folklore Quarterly (December 1937); Botkin excerpts several important paragraphs. - RBW
File: LI05

Deliverance Will Come


See Palms of Victory (Deliverance Will Come) (File: R626)

Deluded Lover, The


DESCRIPTION: Singer greets his love; but she reproaches him for deluding her. He says he's free of obligation to her. She points out that he broke his vows to her. He says *he* was deluded, and that he still thinks of his true-love. He wishes all wars were over
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan6)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer meets his true love; he greets her, but she reproaches him for deluding her. He denies it, saying he's free of obligation to her, and so is she. He admits giving her diamond rings; she points out that he broke his vows to her, and married "the lassie with the land." He admits that too, but says *he* was deluded, and that he still thinks of his true-love. He wishes all wars were over (, that the soldiers may be called home from their war-brides,) and that they might meet again
KEYWORDS: love marriage accusation promise abandonment betrayal lover wife
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig #119, p. 3, ("The slower that the fire burns the sweeter is the maut") ;Greig #175, pp. 2-3, "My He'rt It Is Sair" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan6 1165, "My He'rt It Is Sair" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Kennedy 150, "The Deluded Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 78-79, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle 1, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3479 and 6289
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "As I Roved Out" (on IRPTunney02)
Michael Gallagher, "The Deluded Lover" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sarah Scott" (theme: girl deserted by man who marries for money or land)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Briar and the Rose
NOTES: Schmuck. - PJS
The final verse of this song wishes that "the Queen would call home her armies From England, Ireland, from Amerikay and Spain." This strongly implies a date in the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714) and the War of the Spanish Succession; Elizabeth I had no armies in America (though she did fight Spain), and Victoria, though she had armies in North America if you count Canada as British, was no longer involved in Spain.
The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713) did keep British troops on the continent (mostly in the Low Countries) far longer than previous wars, and there were also troops stationed in Ireland for long periods for fear of Jacobite activities. So foreign marriages did become a possibility. - RBW
While Michael Gallagher's recording has the title "The Deluded Lover" he himself introduces the song as "As I Roved Out."
Tunney-StoneFiddle calls this "'As I Roved Out' or 'The False Bride'." This doesn't seem in any way related to "The False Bride." Tunney's melody is the one used by Planxty for "As I Roved Out" on Planxty -- The Well Below the Valley on LP Shanachie 79010 (1979). Perhaps "The False Bride" is a typo for a title mentioned on p. 137, viz., "The Forsaken Bride."
Peter Boyle's notes to IRPTunney02: "The song sung here has been equated, rightly or wrongly, with the English ballad 'The False Bride' (BBC Recorded Programmes Library), but to me it seems rather to be a mixture of two or three themes taken over from Provencal folk poetry, and one really Irish theme -- that of land hunger. Easily recognizable in the verses are (1) the love debate, (2) chanson de jeune fille, and (3) a folk-memory of amour courtois." In Tunney's own comment on IRPTunney02 considers land hunger one issue but speculates that the outcome might be blamed on a matchmaker making the best deal.
From "As I Roved Out on a Bright May Morning" for Scottish Songs--Lyrics and Melodies at Glasgow Guide site: "A copy of this song was recently found in Russia, by Dr. Urbanov, folded into the diary of a Captain Dougal Frazer who presumably died at Balaclava in the Crimean war around 1853, as a member of the 93rd Highland Regiment, under Sir Colin Campbell, one time Aide de Camp to the Duke of Wellington." [For Colin Campbell, commander of the Highland Brigade at Alma, see e.g. "The Kilties in the Crimea," "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)," and "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10] - RBW]
O Boyle writes .".. in part it is the voice of land-hungry Ireland -- but where does the word 'lassie' come from?" It seems to me that the Irish ballad may just be an abbreviated Scottish ballad. That would explain "lassie" and may mean that the land issue, which is central to the Irish versions, is preserved because of Irish land hunger of the 19th Century. The singer's complaint that his friends "conveyed me to yon church" and his "lips said Yes at their request" does not survive in the Irish versions we have because the land itself is sufficient motivation, well understood by all Irish listeners.
The last verse, so seemingly out of place in the Irish versions, is made clear by the Scottish versions:
But O gin the king wid gie command
Through Italy, through France, and Spain
To every married man to forsake his own wife
And return back to his own sweetheart again.
The singer is not asking for an end of war but for the king's command (to war again?) that every married man would have to leave his wife.
Kennedy's view (p. 373) is that "the Queen will not only recall her soldiers but, in so doing, will also call them away from women they have married while abroad." I don't think that resolves the marriage for land issue. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: K150

Demon Lover, The


See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Demon of the Seas, The


DESCRIPTION: On board the pirate ship Demon of the Seas Captain Moore outrun ships of war until "two men of war were fitted out By Edward, England's King" to bring him in. The pirates destroy those ships but are destroyed by a third.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: fight navy death pirate
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 151-153, "The Demon of the Seas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 78-79, "The Demon of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1962
NOTES: Huntington states, without evidence, that the King Edward involved is Edward VI (reigned 1547-1553). The difficulty in this, of course, is that Edward VI died while he was still only a boy; he didn't fit out anything in his own right.
Nonetheless, if an English King Edward is meant, it almost has to be Edward VI. Edward VII (reigned 1901-1910) is obviously too late. The Edwards prior to Edward VI are largely eliminated by the mention of guns. Edward I (1272-1307) and Edward II (1307-1327) simply didn't have cannon. They began to be used in the reign of Edward III (1327-1377), but not on shipboard -- they were still too experimental.
By the time of Edward IV (1461-1470, 1471-1483) and Edward V (1483), cannon were well-established as weapons, but only on land; they had been mounted on ships, but hardly used. It's surprising to hear guns mentioned even in connection with Edward VI's navy, since this is before the Spanish Armada really caused naval gunnery to be tested -- but at least it's possible.
I know of no famous pirate named Moore (excluding the Captain of the Flying Cloud, which is obviously too late). Could it possibly be an error for "Moor" -- i.e. one of the corsairs from North Africa? - RBW
File: IvNB151

Dempsey's Lumber-Camp Song


DESCRIPTION: Singer describes the characters at Dempsey's lumber camp
AUTHOR: Frank Ward
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work nonballad moniker logger humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 70, "Dempsey's Lumber-Camp Song" (1 text)
Roud #8840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. - PJS
File: Be070

Den o' Aldbar, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer, out one May morning on the way to church (for a wedding?), admires the stream winding through the Den o' Aldbar, the trees, flowers, and birds. "Here's a health to the proprietor ... in wedlock, and to a family fine"
AUTHOR: John Archer (source: Reid, "with some slight emendations by Colin Sievewright")
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: marriage flowers lyric bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #28, p. 2, "The Den o' Aldbar" (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan3 514, "The Den o' Auldbar" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Alan Reid, The Bards of Angus and the Mearns (Paisley, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 524, "The Den o' Aldbar"
Roud #5998
NOTES: Reid (1897): "highly popular some fifty or sixty years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3514

Den o' Auldbar, The


See The Den o' Aldbar (File: GrD3514)

Denis O'Reilly


See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann


DESCRIPTION: "I am a decent Irishman, Ive a daughter Mary Ann... and you bet she is so fresh, she will never spoil." The girl is always going to balls and courting young men. At one, she is arrested, but promptly freed when the police learn who she is
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: courting police humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, pp. 80-81, "Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann" (1 text)
Roud #9569
NOTES: This song poses a bit of a conundrum. The chorus runs, "She's a darling, she's a daisy, and she nearly drives me crazy, With a hand and foot upon her like a man. And everywhere she goes you can tell by her turned-up nose That she's Dennis McGonagle's daughter Mary Ann." This obviously has the same source as the as the lyric "She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Mary Ann" found in "Hungry Hash House" and "Sara Jane."
And yet, the feeling of the two versions is so different that they can properly be considered separate songs. And which one (if either one) is original? I have no answer. - RBW
File: Dean080

Dennis O'Reilly


See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Dennis Ryan


See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Denny Byrne, the Piper


See The Cow Ate the Piper (File: PBB091)

Dens of Ireland, The


DESCRIPTION: A young hunter accidentally kills a man. He is captured and faces the death penalty. A girl sets out to save him. She enters the courtroom and pleads on her knees for his life. The judge frees him; the man agrees to marry the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: love death trial reprieve
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
FSCatskills, "The Dens of Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DNIRELND*
File: FSC060

Dens of Yarrow, The


See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Departed Loved Ones


DESCRIPTION: "Is it wrong to wish to meet them Who were dear to us in life?" "I've a mother up in heaven, And oh, tell me if you will, Will my mother know her children When to glory they will go?" The singer thinks of family and how they live in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (SFLQ)
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 525, "Departed Loved Ones" (1 text)
Roud #11818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Have Fathers Gone to Heaven" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Other Bright Shore" (theme)
NOTES: This may be an elaboration "We Have Fathers Gone to Heaven," or that piece may be an expanded repetition of a single version of this. Dependence seems nearly certain -- but since "We Have Fathers" is just a set of stanzas repeated with variations, they must be listed separately. - RBW
File: Br3525

Deportee


See Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee) (File: SBoA367)

Depression


DESCRIPTION: "The meal is cheap sellin their farms high rentit And sma is their profit when sellin their grain." Bad weather destroys the crops. Cattle cannot be sold. The "cursed gentry ... card not nor spin... The laird and the factor will get an overthrow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes work farming landlord nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #147, p. 1, "Depression" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 435, "Depression" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5950
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Glenshee" (tune, per Greig)
NOTES: The line about "cursed gentry ... Walks out at their leisure, lies up at their pleasure" in GreigDuncan3 is "Like Solomon's lilies they card not nor spin." The reference is to Matthew 6:28-29 [with a close parallel in Luke 12:27 - RBW]: "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." While the reference does not work as intended by Matthew it does work in bringing to mind a picture of landlord as idler wallowing in unearned luxury.
[Indeed, it gets the point almost backward, since Jesus's message in this passage, as given by both Matthew and Luke, was not to worry about how to make a living. But the comparison to Solomon is apt: Of all the Davidide Kings, he was among the most useless, spending vast amounts he didn't have and doing nothing to promote the actual prosperity of his kingdom. - RBW]
Greig: "['Depression'] gives a picture of the agricultural situation as it would have been in the seventies of last century when the word 'Depression' came into vogue."
GreigDuncan3: "'September 1907. Heard about 1850.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3435

Der Deitcher's Dog


See O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone (File: RJ19057)

Derby Ram, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer travels to Derby and sees the amazing Derby Ram. Its size and power are described in expansive detail (with the details varying). Most versions end with the slaughter of the ram. "If you had been to Derby, you'd have seen it as well as I"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: animal talltale bawdy bragging humorous lie
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Australia Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Jamaica
REFERENCES (38 citations):
Belden, pp. 224-225, "The Derby Ram" (1 text)
Randolph 106, "The Derby Ram" (2 texts plus a mixed fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 137-139, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 106A)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 89-96, "The Darby Ram" (8 texts, 1 tune)
Eddy 81, "The Darby Ram" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 190, "The Darby Ram" (2 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 112-113, 120-121, "The Derby Ram"; p. 153, "Inky Dinky Derby Town" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
BrownII 176, "The Derby Ram" (1 text plus a fragment)
Chappell-FSRA 105, "Ram of Darby" (1 text)
Hudson 127, pp. 273-274, "The Ram of Derby" (1 text)
Fuson, p. 58, "Darby's Sheep" (1 text)
Brewster 75, "The Derby Ram" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 241-242, "Derby Ram" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Colcord, p. 136, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune -- sailors' version; the ram goes to sea but still gets slaughtered)
Hugill, pp. 437-438, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 328-329]
Peacock, pp. 10-11, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 100-101, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 141, "The Derby Ram" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Friedman, p. 441, "The Derby Ram" (1 text)
Cray, pp. 23-28, "The Derby Ram" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
FSCatskills 151, "The Darby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 212-213, "The Albury Ram" (1 text, 1 tune, with a chorus borrowed from "Clear Away the Morning Dew")
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 270-272, "The Albury Ram" (1 text, with the same "Clear Away the Morning Dew" chorus as in Fahey-Eureka)
GreigDuncan3 645, "The Ram o' Dirram" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy 304, "The Ram Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 38-40, "[The Darby Ram]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 53, "Darby Ram (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 134-136, "The Darby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 577-578, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, p. 97, "The Ram of Dalby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 139-140, "The Derby Shed Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinloch-BBook XXVI, pp. 80-81, "The Ram of Diram" (1 text)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 124-125, "The Ram o' Bervie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 129, "As I was going to Derby" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #805, p. 298-300, "(As I was going to Derby)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 404, "The Darby Ram" (1 text)
DT 312, DERBYRAM DERBYRM2 DRBYRAM3* (DERBYRM4) DRBYRAM5 DERBYRM7*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Derby Ram" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
Roud #126
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Derby ram / The Darby ram" (AFS 4214 B1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Charles Ingenthron, "The Derby Ram" (AFS; on LC12)
Grandpa Jones w. Delmore Brothers, "Darby's Ram" (King 708, 1948)
Arthur Lennox, "The Ram Song" (on FSB10)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Derby Ram" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd8)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Darby's Ram" (Brunswick 228, 1928)
Cyril O'Brien, "The Derby Ram" (on NFMLeach)
Lawrence Older, "Derby Ram" (on LOlder01)
Abigail Hall Ritchie, "Darby Ram" (on Ritchie03)
Pete Seeger, "The Darby Ram" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
Skyland Scotty, "Darby's Ram" (Conqueror 8309, 1934)
Sid Steer, "The Derby Ram" (on Voice07)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Didn't He Ramble" (lyrics)
cf. "The Grey Goose" (theme)
cf. "The Red Herring" (theme)
cf. "The Sucking Pig" (theme)
cf. "T'Owd Yowe wi' One Horn" (theme)
cf. "Paul Bunyan's Big Ox" (theme)
cf. "The Loft Giant (Song of Marvels)"
cf. "The Wonderful Crocodile" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Frankfort Town (Greenway-AFP, p. 18)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Beast of Derbytown
The Darby Tup
The Old Tup
The Ram of Derby (Darby)
The Ram Song
The Wattle Flat Ram
The Great Sheep
NOTES: This is another of the ballads Child excluded from his ESPB, presumably because the "hero" is an animal. The contemporary bawdy song is descended from English mummer plays, and those, in turn, are perhaps relics of medieval mystery plays.
Randolph-Legman has extensive, if rambling and opinionated, notes on this ballad. - EC
And if it had been trimmed, we'd say "He rambled till that editor cut him down." (Sorry.) -PJS
It's times like these I'm REALLY glad I can blame these notes on somebody else.
Ford reports, without accepting it, that "a prisoner had been condemned to death, in the time of the feudal laws, and was promised free pardon should he succeed in composing a song without a grain of truth in it, and that this was the song he produced." Of course, he could just as well have produced the previous story.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: R106

Derby Shed Ram, The


See references under The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Derby, Derby


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Derby, Derby, won't you marry me? Derby, Derby, won't you say yes? Derby, Derby, won't you marry me? Show your legs to the Cockney girls"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1974 (recording, Minty Smith)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Minty Smith, "Derby, Derby" (on Voice14)
NOTES: The current description is all of the Voice14 text. - BS
File: RcDerDer

Dermody and Hines


DESCRIPTION: The police shoot the innocent without penalty. It's murder when a policeman's shot. The informer Noctor is persuaded to say Dermody and Hines shot M'Goldrick. Nevertheless, the jury finds them not guilty. Must we continue to play at being fools?
AUTHOR: Susan Mitchell (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1909 (_Bean na h-Eireann,_ according to OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: murder trial freedom patriotic police lie
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 62, "Dermody and Hines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9766
NOTES: O Lochlainn recalls the lines "Cut yourself an ash plant, and never heed the fines, But strike a blow for Freedom, like Darmody and Hynes" - BS
File: OLcM062

Dermot Astore


DESCRIPTION: "Oh! Dermot Astore! between waking and sleeping I heard thy dear voice, and I wept to its lay" She asks whether this is their last meeting. "I know we must part, but oh! say not for ever."
AUTHOR: Anne Barry Crawford
EARLIEST DATE: before 1861 (broadside, LOCSinging sb10099a)
KEYWORDS: love separation parting exile
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor, p. 146, "Dermot Astore" (1 text)
Roud #4884
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(613), "Dermot Astore. Reply to Kathleen Mavourneen," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860 [same as LOCSinging sb10099a]; also Harding B 11(878), "Dermot Astore. The Reply to Kathleen Mavourneen"
LOCSinging, sb10099a, "Dermot Astore," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(613)]; also as102940, "Dermot Astore. Reply to Kathleen Mavourneen"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kathleen Mavourneen" (characters)
NOTES: See the description for "Kathleen Mavourneen" for the background to this song. Mrs. Crawford is a co-author to that.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb10099a and Bodleian Harding B 18(613): 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: OCon146

Derriere Chez Nous (Behind Our House)


DESCRIPTION: French. Behind our house is a tree. On the tree is a branch. On the branch is a nest. In the nest is an egg. In the egg is a small bird. In this bird you do not know what there is.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-Maritime, p. 169, "Derriere Chez Nous" (1 text, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
cf. "The Rattling Bog" (theme)
File: CrMa169

Derry Down Fair


See Rambleaway (File: ShH31)

Derry Gaol


See Gallows [Laws L11] (File: LL11)

Derry Pipe, The


See The Wee Cutty Pipe (The Derry Pipe) (File: HHH465)

Derry Walls Away


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls when "Lord Antrim's men came down yon glen" While some opposed them "our 'Prentice Boys" closed the gates. The seige is recounted including Walker's and Murray's parts. "When we close our gates again We'll then all be True Blue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.10(3))
KEYWORDS: battle rescue death starvation Ireland patriotic youth
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 7, 1688 - The "Apprentice Boys" close the Londonderry gates against Lord Antrim's "Redshanks" (source: Kilpatrick [see Notes])
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OrangeLark 6, "Shutting of the Gates of Derry by the Apprentice Boys of Derry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham, p. 5, "Derry Walls Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(3), "Derry Walls" ("Full many a long wild winter's night," The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1865; also 2806 b.10(2), "The Seige of Derry"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Surrender (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Maiden City" (subject)
cf. "Derry's Walls" (subject)
NOTES: The Protestant Plantation of Ulster was created after the 1607 "Flight of the Earls" -- heads of the Ulster clans -- to Rome allowed James I to declare their lands forfeit to the Crown. In the Plantation, the City of Londonderry was fortified and gated walls built around it. When James brought troops from Ireland Londonderry was left unguarded. On December 7, 1688, Lord Antrim's Catholic "Redshanks" camped outside the city. With the city government undecided as to how to handle the situation, thirteen young "Apprentice Boys" seized the gate keys, drew up the drawbridge and locked the four gates. Antrim's troops withdrew. Lord Mountjoy's Protestant regiment was allowed to garrison the city.
To escape the war, residents surrounding areas flooded into the city. Reinforcements sent by William to relieve Derry in April turned away. Then James's attempt at negotiating with Derry failed. Colonel Murray led Protestant troops to the gate, which was opened for them, and the Derry government, which had been willing to negotiate with James, was overturned. Reverend George Walker and Colonel Henry Baker were appointed joint Governors. The seige began "in earnest" on May 5, 1689. On July 28 three ships on the Foyle broke the seige bringing food; captain of the Mountjoy was Michael Browning, who was killed in the battle. The beseigers left on August 1, 1689. (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Seige of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site)
"True Blue": "A substantial number of the earliest Volunteers, the Belfast First Volunteer Company, also called the Green Company, and another the Blue Company, were identified as belonging to the Orange and True Blue Masonic Lodges. Indeed it seems likely that the Volunteer Companies were a Masonic initiative." (source: Dr Clive Gillis, "Days of Deliverance Part 13: The Providential rise of the Orange Order: What it was and what it was not," posted 5/26/2004, Ian Paisley's European Institute of Protestant Studies site) This seems a simple statement of fact. However, keep in mind this statement from the home page of the EIPS site: "The Institute's purpose is to expound the Bible, expose the Papacy, and to promote, defend and maintain Bible Protestantism in Europe and further afield."
Later, in the same article, Dr Gillis explains his antipathy to the Masons and the United Irishmen: "The evaporation of the Protestant Catholic divide from 1780 onwards, which so threatened Protestantism, can only be explained in terms of secret co-operation within Freemasonry."
The Belfast Volunteers were formed in 1778 because of the threat of war between France and Britain. Similar groups formed, became politicized, and supported "those in favour of legislative independence from the British parliament and the removal of impediments to Irish commerce." Henry Grattan and Harry Flood supported this program in the Irish House of Commons. (Source: Moylan) - BS
For a good deal more on the Siege of Derry, see "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry." For Grattan and Flood, see "Ireland's Glory." - RBW
File: OrLa006

Derry's Walls


DESCRIPTION: 200 years ago "James and all his rebel band" were forced to retreat from Derry's Walls. "Blood did flow ... For many a winter's night." "At last, with one broadside Kind heaven sent them aid" and broke the seige. Now "we'll guard old Derry's Walls"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham)
KEYWORDS: battle rescue death starvation Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 7, 1688 - The "Apprentice Boys" close the Londonderry gates against Lord Antrim's "Redshanks"
Jul 28, 1689 - Browning's ships break the 105 day seige of Derry (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Seige of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham, p. 4, "Derry's Walls" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject) and references there
cf. "No Surrender (I)" (subject)
cf. "Derry Walls Away" (subject)
File: Gra004

Derwentwater


DESCRIPTION: "Oh! Derwentwater's a bonny lord, And golden is his hair." He travels the land calling for people to support "good King James." The lord of the castle he visits will have nothing to do with him, but the lady sighs for the handsome young man.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Cromek)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites love
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1715 - the 1715 Jacobite rebellion
Sept. 1715 - Warrant issued for Derwentwater's arrest. He responds by openly going into revolt
Nov. 14, 1715 - Derwentwater and his comrades forced to surrender
Feb 24, 1716 - Execution of Derwentwater at the age of (probably) 26
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg2 10, "Derwentwater" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 128-129, "Derwentwater" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (London, 1810), pp. 127-131, "Derwentwater"
ST StoR128 (Partial)
Roud #3158
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Derwentwater" [Child 208] (subject)
cf. "Derwentwater's Farewell" (subject)
NOTES: The text of this ballad is not really sufficient to establish that the Derwentwater mentioned is "the" Derwentwater; it's at least theoretically possible that "good King James" was someone other than the Old Pretender. But a young, handsome Derwentwater campaigning for King James certainly sounds like the hero of "Lord Derwentwater" [Child 208]. - RBW
Hogg2: "James Radcliff, Earl of Derwentwater, was among those who met in Northumberland, and rose in arms for King James about the beginning of October.... The editor cannot find any tradition on which this ballad is founded; it is taken from the recitation of a young girl, in the parish of Kirkbean, in Galloway. He has searched for it carefully through all the collections he could meet with; but it is not to be found.... This song, and part of the above note, are copied from Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway song. The air is exceedingly simple and beautiful, and very ancient."
"Cromek died [1812] shortly after the issue [1810] of Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, which was mostly written by Cunningham, though palmed upon Cromek as recovered antiques." (source: J. Ross, The Book of Scottish Poems: Ancient and Modern, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh Publishing Co, 1878), "Allan Cunningham 1784-1842," p. 738; other sources agree) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: StoR128

Derwentwater's Farewell


DESCRIPTION: "Farewell to pleasant Dilston Hall, my father's ancient seat, A stranger now must call thee his." The singer bids farewell to his friends, to Tyne, to his steed. He must die in London, but asks to be buried in Northumberland
AUTHOR: Robert Surtees?
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg2)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites execution burial farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1715 - the 1715 Jacobite rebellion
Sept. 1715 - Warrant issued for Derwentwater's arrest. He responds by openly going into revolt
Nov. 14, 1715 - Derwentwater and his comrades forced to surrender
Feb 24, 1716 - Execution of Derwentwater at the age of (probably) 26
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg2 11, "Lord Derwentwater's Good-night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 4-5, "Derwentwater's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 208, DRWNTFRW*
Roud #2616
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Derwentwater" [Child 208] (subject)
cf. "Derwentwater" (subject; tune according to Hogg2)
NOTES: Stokoe reports that "there is more than a suspicion that it was the offspring of the facile pen of the late Robert Surtees of Mainsforth, although he presented it to his friend and correspondent, Sir Walter Scott, as a poem of the period to which it refers; and it was inserted, on Scott's recomendation, in James Hogg's Jacobite Relics of Scotland in 1819."
For all that it is a false folksong, it's fairly effective as a lament for one slain far from home.
There is a certain tendency, which is quite understandable, to confuse this with "Lord Derwentwater," but the forms of the two pieces are clearly distinct. For historical background on Derwentwater, see the Child ballad. - RBW
Hogg2: "I had this song from my esteemed friend, Robert Surtees, esquire of Mainsforth. The copy was on an old half sheet of paper apparently in the hand-writing of a boarding-school miss." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Sto004

Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again [Laws I18]


DESCRIPTION: A light retelling of the Biblical creation myth: God makes Adam, then Eve; Eve, tricked by the serpent, takes an "apron full" of fruit to Adam. God, spotting the peels, accuses Adam of stealing the fruit; Adam blames Eve; God throws them out of the garden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: Bible humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws I18, "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again"
BrownIII 523, "Creation" (1 text plus a fragment)
Sandburg, pp. 470-471, "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 249, "Dese Bones Gwine Rise Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 597-600, "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
DT 793, DESEBONE*
Roud #4184
RECORDINGS:
Frank & James McCravy "These Bones G'wina Rise Again" (Victor 20869, 1927) (Brunswick 3778, 1928 [as "De's Bones Gwine to Rise Again"])
Rutherford & Foster "These Bones G'wina Rise Again" (Conqueror 7276, 1929)
NOTES: The details here generally come from what scholars call the "J" or "second" account of the creation, found in Genesis 2:4b-3:24. The mention of bones rising again comes from Ezekiel's vision in Ezek. 37:1-14 - RBW
File: LI18

Deserted Husband, The


DESCRIPTION: On the day of their wedding, the singer's young wife went on a spree and flirted with the man next door. Three months later, his wife and the other man went off in the train. He is tired of life; he has land and stock, but no one to take care of them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recorded from Seamus Ennis)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer has married a young woman, but she has left him. On the day of their wedding, she went on a spree and flirted with the young man next door. Three months later, the singer took her to town, but while he was having a drink his wife and the other man went off in the train, to his distraction. Now he is tired of life; he has an acre of land, and various livestock, but no one to take care of them. He advises men to keep an eye on their wives
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness infidelity marriage warning abandonment drink humorous husband lover wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy 198, "The Deserted Husband" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2130
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tramp's Story" (plot)
cf. "The Lehigh Valley" (plot)
cf. "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight?" (theme)
NOTES: Kennedy also refers, cryptically, to a song called "The Deserted Wife," also collected from Ennis, but gives no further details. - PJS
Kennedy also claims that songs of wives deserting husbands are rare. I won't say they are common, but "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)," for instance, is very widespread; see also the songs in the cross-references. - RBW
File: K198

Deserter (I), The


See Kelly's Lamentation (The Deserter) (File: HHH223)

Deserter (II), The


See When the Battle it was Won (Young Jimmy and the Officer) [Laws J23] (File: LJ23)

Deserter (III), The


See The Deserter's Lamentation (File: OLcM087A)

Deserter (IV), The


DESCRIPTION: The singer, recruited while drunk, deserts. He is turned in in succession by a woman, a sergeant, and drummer. Each time but the last he is flogged and deserts, saying "the King's duty has been cruel to me." At last the king intervenes and releases him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(75a))
KEYWORDS: army recruiting punishment freedom royalty soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #90, p. 1, "The Deserter" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 83, "The Deserter" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #493
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(75a), "The Deserter" ("As I was walking down Ratcliffe highway"), John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852; also Harding B 15(220a), "The New Deserter"
LOCSinging, as109540, "The New Deserter," Ryle & Co. (Seven Dials), n.d.
NOTES: GreigDuncan1: Re version A "from father who learnt it in boyhood, say 1824." - BS
My guess is that the song is a few decades older than that, and that George III was the King. George's wars were extensive, so that the military was always looking for soldiers. Discipline was harsh. (Frankly, the singer was lucky not to be killed.)
George III was, however, personally merciful -- unlike his grandfather George II. If he somehow came to know about a case of a deserter about to be executed, he might well have intervened in this way. And then gone back to recruiting more drunks, because he couldn't seem to figure out that his actions had consequences. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1083

Deserter from Kent, The


DESCRIPTION: A deserter comes to join the harvesting. He talks too freely to a man in the tavern, who informs on him. He is arrested, taken to jail, then marched through the streets as he is returned to his regiment. The singer curses all informers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907
KEYWORDS: army desertion betrayal soldier curse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 32-33, "The Deserter from Kent" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 87, "The Deserter from Kent" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DESERTR
Roud #2510
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rambling Royal"
File: VWL032

Deserter's Lamentation, The


DESCRIPTION: Thinking about the past won't help so "let us be merry before we go" "Now hope all ending, And death befriending, His last ending, my cares are done ... My griefs are over -- my glass runs low"
AUTHOR: John Philpot Curran (1750-1817)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: desertion death drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-More 87A, "The Deserter's Meditation" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle, p. 27, "The Deserter's Meditation" (1 fragment)
ST OLcM087A (Full)
NOTES: John Philpot Curran was famous mostly as a defender of the rebel leaders of 1798, including Napper Tandy and Wolfe Tone (though he did not like it at all when his daughter took up with Robert Emmet). He also served in parliament.
His poetry is now mostly obscure. Except for this. Granger's Index to Poetry lists four citations, under three different names ("The Deserter's Lamentation," "The Deserter," "Let Us Be Merry Before We Go"), and I observe that O Lochlainn has it under a fourth title. Clearly this particular poem was well-travelled. - RBW
File: OLcM087A

Deserter's Meditation, The


See The Deserter's Lamentation (File: OLcM087A)

Deserter's Song


DESCRIPTION: "I'd rather be on the Grandfather Mountain A-taking the snow and rain Than to be in Castle Thunder A-wearin' the ball and chain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: prison prisoner Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 384, "Deserter's Song" (1 fragment)
Roud #11752
NOTES: Castle Thunder was a Confederate prison, used to hold captured Northern civilians.
Given the fragmentary state of the Brown text, it's not clear if this is a song in its own right or if the mention of Castle Thunder is just a zipped in reference to the Civil War prison. - RBW
File: Br3384

Desolate Widow, The


See The Isle of Man Shore (The Quay of Dundocken; The Desolate Widow) [Laws K7] (File: LK07)

Desperado, The


DESCRIPTION: "There was a desperado from the wild and woolly West, He came into Chicago just to give the West a rest." He visits Coney Island to see "the girls all dressed in tights"; he gets so excited that he shoots out the lights. He ends up in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: outlaw cowboy humorous prison police crime punishment
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 28, "The Desperado" (1 text)
DT, DESPRAD2*
NOTES: Cripple Creek, Colorado was a notoriously wide-open town in the late 1800s. - PJS
File: FSWB028

Dessur le Pont de Nantes (On Nantes Bridge)


DESCRIPTION: The police have the singer when we meet Marguerite. She dresses as a page boy and goes to jail to see her "master." They exchange clothes; he walks out. Sentenced to be hung, Margeurite reveals that she is a girl. Four other high class young ladies visit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love escape cross-dressing disguise mistress outlaw prisoner
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 331-332, "Dessur le Pont de Nantes" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Should this be "Dessous le Pont de Nantes" (Under Nantes Bridge)? What happened here? What four young ladies? Does she hang? - BS
File: Pea331

Destroyer Life


DESCRIPTION: "The boys out in the trenches have got a lot to say Of the hardships and the sorrows... But we destroyer sailors would like their company On a couple of trips...." The sailors describe life on their small, uncomfortable ships that never cease rolling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 ("Songs My Mother Never Taught Me")
KEYWORDS: ship navy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 514-517, "Destroyer Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DSTRYR
Roud #15542
NOTES: This song, with its references to submarine warfare, clearly comes out of World War I. At that time, the destroyer was the smallest naval ship that could possibly be called ocean-going (a typical destroyer of the time was about 300 feet long and had a displacement on the order of a thousand tons. It has nothing in common, except the name, with the much heavier modern destroyers).
The worst thing about destroyers was their long, narrow, low hulls. In bad seas, the waves could wash the entire deck, and waves could roll the ships through angles of 45 degrees or more. Crew quarters, moreover, were small and cramped. Only submarines had less space, and not even submaries were as subject to wind and wave. - RBW
File: LxA514

Det Hande Sig I Goteborg (It Happened in Gothenburg)


DESCRIPTION: Swedish/German shanty. A sailor is signed by a man named Peter. The ship is a good one, but conditions are bad. Peter sleeps all the time except when threatening the crew. Ch: Hey ho fallerallera (2x) Just for all soka hyra (just to find myself a ship)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor work
FOUND IN: Sweden Germany
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 550-551, "Det Hande Sig I Goteborg" (2 texts -- Swedish and English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ja das geschah in Gotenborg
NOTES: Found both in Sternvall's Sang under Segel (1935) and Baltzer's Knurrhahn (1935). Hugill said this was popular around 1870. - SL
File: Hugi550

DeValera Election Song


DESCRIPTION: The coming election is between "a Castle servant" and DeValera. DeValera "fought in the Rebellion ... so don't forget to pay the debt." His opponent would send your sons "to fight the gallant German"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1917 - Eamon DeValera defeats Patrick Lynch in the East Clare MP bi-election (source: notes to IRClare01).
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18470
RECORDINGS:
Nora Cleary, "DeValera Election Song" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Flag of Erin" (subject)
NOTES: Notes to IRClare01: "The East Clare by-election of 1917 played a vital part in the movement towards Irish independence.... Newly released from prison and having narrowly avoided execution for his part in the Rebellion, Eamon DeValera easily took the seat." - BS
Not only was De Valera elected to the British parliament on July 11, 1917, but he was even elected to a seat that had formerly been held by the brother of John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Nationalist party (i.e. the moderate Irish faction); see Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 251. This was the third in a series of by-elections in which pro-Republic candidates defeated "Nationalist" (moderate) candidates (see Peter and Fiona Somerset fry, A History of Ireland, pp. 296-296). It was one of the first major tokens of the shift in feeling in Ireland from a desire for Home Rule to a desire for something less dependent on the British government.
The "Castle" was Dublin Castle, which had long been the center of the Irish government and was still the symbolic center of Irish rule.
De Valera was one of the few high officers of the 1916 rebellion to survive; he lived mostly because he was born to an American family and the British didn't want an incident with the United States. - RBW
File: RcDevoES

Deveron Banks


DESCRIPTION: "To Deveron Banks we will go, Dainty Dandy, my dear jo, Sweet wi' you the time will flow, My dainty bloomin dandy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1316, "Deveron Banks" (1 fragment)
Roud #7208
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle O'er the Lave O't" (tune, per GreigDuncan7)
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan7 fragment.
GreigDuncan7: "A Banff song, said not to be very delicate." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71316

Devil and Bailiff McGlynn, The


DESCRIPTION: A woman wishes the Devil take a piglet digging her potatoes and a boy stealing her piglet. He refuses because "it was only her lips that have said it." When she wishes the Devil take the bailiff , he does: "Twas straight from her heart that came surely"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRTunneyFamily01)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The Devil and Bailiff McGlynn discuss business. Nearby a woman wishes the Devil take a piglet digging among her potatos but the Devil won't take it because "it was only her lips that have said it, and that's not sufficient for me." Then a boy runs off with the piglet and she wishes the Devil might take him, but the Devil doesn't because "it was only her lips that have said it, and that's not sufficient for me." When she sees the bailiff and wishes the Devil take him, it's done: says the Devil, "Twas straight from her heart that came surely"
KEYWORDS: curse farming humorous animal youth Devil
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 95, "The Devil and Bailiff McGlynn" (1 text)
Roud #5294
RECORDINGS:
Michael Gallagher, "The Devil and Bailiff Maglyn" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
NOTES: Tunney-StoneFiddle: "Even his [Uncle Mick's] songs of the Land War [roughly 1879-1885] and landlordism, with all its attendant evils, had a spark of humour in them. For example, listen to this little ditty describing the love and affection in which bailiffs were held in those stirring days." - BS
For background on the Land War, see e.g. "The Bold Tenant Farmer." However, there is reason to doubt this link (even if the Land War caused the Irish to tell more tales about the evils of bailiffs).
Abby Sale points out to me the clear connection between this song and the tale of "The Devil and the Bailiff" found in Asbjornsen and Moe. There seems to an equivalent Irish tale, though all the printed versions of it seem to be modern.
In outline, the story that the Devil comes to collect the Bailiff -- but stops to chat for a bit. They hit it off well -- presumably because they are so alike. The song hints at this:
Now, one of these boys was the devil
And the other was Baliff McGlynn,
And the one was as foul as the other
And both were as ugly as sin.
They agree to a some sort of contest, the idea apparently being that they travel along together and listen to people cursing. If someone is cursed soon enough, then the Devil takes *that* soul rather than the Bailiff's. But the curse must be "from the heart."
They visit a cottage, and as they come by, the pet pig gets its snout in the cream, and the woman says, "The devil take the pig" -- but they do not take the pig, because the curse was not from the heart. Later, a mother curses her child for being mischevious. Again, the curse is not meant. But the two then meet a pair of farmers, who curse the bailiff. That curse, the Devil declares, is from the heart -- and the bailiff is taken.
The tale is even older in England -- Murray Schoolbraid points that it is The Friar's Tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales -- although in Chaucer, it is a Summoner who meets the fiend (a point Chaucer uses to bring out the rivalry between Friar and Summoner), and the devil is in disguise and the two agree to share whatever they get (an idea similar to the hunting contest in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)..
The question then becomes, Where did Chaucer get the tale? Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia says that it is from the Latin Promptuarium Exemplorum. But Larry D. Benson, editor, The Riverside Chaucer, third edition, Houghton Mifflin, 1987, p. 875, notes that "The tale of the heart-felt curse is probably of folk origin, and numerous analogies found across northern Europe indacate taht any avaricious type might be used for the role here played by a summoner." The notes mentin in particular Caesarius of Heisterbach's Libri VIII miraculorum, of the thirteenth century, in which the guilty party is an advocatus or administrator of church estates. But the Riverside editors note that there are two similar English folktales which resemble Chaucer's in that the man fails to realize he is under threat. One of these is from a sermon by Robert Rypon in which the man is actually a bailiff. As usual, of course, Chaucer amplified the tale.
Walton credits the song to Cathal McGarvey (1866-1927), but Walton's attributions are said to be very suspect, and it is interesting that the only collections seem to be from Tunney and his uncle, Michael Gallagher. Still, it seems certain that someone rewrote the tale as a song; the only question is, Who? - RBW
File: TSF095

Devil and the Farmer, The


See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Devil and the Farmer's Wife


See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Devil and the Ploughman, The


See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Devil and the Schoolchild, The


See The Fause Knight Upon the Road [Child 3] (File: C003)

Devil Came to My Door, The


DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on one dusky evening When I was very poor, A story you may believe me, The Devil come to my door." The devil comes to claim "brother Mike," but sister Bets breaks his back with her wooden leg. Now the Devil is dead and the family can celebrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: humorous Devil death family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 419, "The Devil Came to My Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1696
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer's Curst Wife" [Child 278] (plot)
File: R419

Devil in the Kist, The


See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Devil Winston [Laws I7]


DESCRIPTION: [George] "Devil" Winston (an unusually vile specimen even by murder ballad standards) sets out to confront his woman Vinie [Stubblefield]. He finds her, kills her after an argument, is taken, and is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: murder execution
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws I7, "Devil Winston"
MWheeler, pp. 105-109, "Devil" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 810, DEVWINST*
ST LI07 (Full)
Roud #4176
NOTES: Wheeler does not give dates for the life of George "Devil" Winston, but notes that he "began life as a cabin boy on the Mississippi. He was later an Ohio River rouster... His career of reckless lawlessness culminated when he was thirty-two years old, in the vicious murder of Vinie Stubblefield, his sweetheart.
"The murdered Negress was said to have been half-witted and repulsive-looking. She have made several efforts to sever her relationship with Winston, and this was the indirect cause of her death: Devil was apparently a victim of helpless bondage where she was concerned.... When he was not on the river he was often serving time on the 'chain gang' for beating the woman, and the murder occurred just following his release from jail for this offense." - RBW
File: LI07

Devil's Courtship, The


See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Devil's Mad and I Am Glad (II), The


See Free at Last (File: FSWB368A)

Devil's Nine Questions, The


See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Devil's Questions, The


See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Devil's Song, The


See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Devilish Mary [Laws Q4]


DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a "pretty little girl" named Mary; they get married within days. She then starts taking over his life, wearing his pants, and abuses and torments him. At last he leaves. He vows to court only tall/short girls who can't wear his breeches
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1897
KEYWORDS: courting marriage cross-dressing abuse shrewishness
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws Q4, "Devilish Mary"
Randolph 437, "Devilish Mary" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 331-333, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 331)
Lomax-FSNA 93, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCoxIIA, #13A-C, pp. 57-60, "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin," "Dandoo" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text omits the beating typical of Child #277 and has the husband run away; it appears to have mixed with this song or something like it)
SharpAp 149, "Devilish Mary" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Chase, pp. 154-155, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 721, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 70, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 145-149, "Devilish Mary" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 191, "Devilish Mary" (1 text)
DT 518, DEVLMARY*
Roud #1017
RECORDINGS:
Bob Atcher, "Devilish Mary" (Columbia 20483, 1948)
Horton Barker, "Devilish Mary" (on Barker01)
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "Devilish Mary" (Bluebird B-7299, 1937; Montgomery Ward M-8417, 1940)
Glenn Neaves & band, "Devilish Mary" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Lee O'Daniel Hillbilly Boys, "Devlish Mary" (Vocalion 04102, 1938; rec. 1937)
Paul Rogers, "Devilish Mary" (AFS; on LC14)
Pete Seeger, "Devilish Mary" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
Roba Stanley, "Develish Mary" (OKeh 40213, 1924)
Arthur Tanner, "Devlish Mary" (Silvertone 3514, 1926)
Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "Develish Mary" (Columbia 15589-D [as "Devlish Mary"], 1930; Columbia 15709-D, c. 1932; rec. 1928; on CrowTold02, GTanner01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune)
cf. "The Wearing of the Britches" (subject, lyrics)
cf. "Old Carathee" (theme)
cf. "There's Bound to be a Row" (theme)
cf. "I'll Rise When the Rooster Crows" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Cohen notes that "Laws... lists this as a ballad, but just as often it is performed as a fiddle or banjo tune with occasional lyrics." Cohen also notes that Laws's claim of a British Isles origin is unsubstantiated. The collection data confirm this, and the style is, in my opinion, very un-British. - RBW
File: LQ04

Dewy Dens of Darrow, The


See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Dey All Got a Mate But Me


See Fox and Hare (They've All Got a Mate But Me) (File: FlBr121)

Dialogue Between Orange and Croppy


DESCRIPTION: Orange proposes union. Orange is the source of all woe. The English do no more harm than the purple marksmen. Orange ask for union only after Billy Pitt's failure. The singer is neither Croppy nor Orange: "when your county's in danger, united be seen"
AUTHOR: William Sampson (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad dialog patriotic political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 149, "Dialogue Between Orange and Croppy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Purple Boy" (subject)
NOTES: The last verse is by a third party asking for union in times of trouble. Throughout the rest of the dialogue Orange proposes union and croppie rejects it.
Zimmermann, p. 39, fn. 18, re "Croppy": In the 1790's those who admired the Jacobin ideas began to crop their hair short on the back of the head, in what was said to be the new French fashion; in 1798 this was considered as an evidence of 'disaffection'."
"The Loyal Orange Institution was founded after the Battle of the Diamond [at Diamond Crossroads] on September 21, 1795. The 'skirmish' was between the Roman Catholic Defenders and the Protestants of the area.... [For the Battle of the Diamond, see the notes to "The Battle of the Diamond," "Bold McDermott Roe," and "The Boys of Wexford"; also "The Grand Mystic Order." - RBW].At the beginning the membership was of the labouring and artisan classes.... In the Rebellion of 1798, the Orangemen were on the side of the Crown and had much to do with the defeat of the United Irishmen.... With the rebellion at an end the lodges were to be less fighting societies, and more political and fraternal clubs.... From 1815, the Institution had been seriously affected, by internal disputes. Many of them were about lodge ritual and the attempts to form higher orders." (source: The Orange Institution - The Early Years at Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland site.)
"Following an affray at Loughgall in Co. Armagh in 1795 the Orange Order was founded, while the Yeomen were also established in June 1796. These were made up mainly of men from the Orange Lodges." (source: The 1798 Rebellion on the Hogan Stand site)
The reference to "Purple Marksmen" is to one of the Master degree, above "Orange" and "Orange Marksman," of the Orange Institution (source: "The Formation of the Orange Order 21st September 1795" in the anti-Orange Evangelical Truth at NIreland.com site). See Zimmermann's song references to "The Purple Marksman" [p. 315] and "The Purple Stream" [p. 303, fn. 39].
For more on "Billy Pitt" and the Union Act of 1801, see "Billy Pitt and the Union" and "The Shan Van Voght (1848)" - BS
One should note that this song was clearly composed with the benefit of hindsight -- I suspect very much hindsight; if the date is 1887, then we're getting toward the period of Home Rule and Ulster's opposition to changes in the Union. Of course, there had been Protestant and Catholic conflicts before that, but Protestants historically had been *more* nationalist than Catholics; it wasn't until it became clear that the Protestant Ascendency had to end that they finally turned Unionist. - RBW
File: Moyl149

Diamond Joe (I)


DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of ranch-owner Diamond Joe, who mistreats his workers, talks too much, and lies. Singer has tried to quit three times, but Joe has talked him out of it. When he dies, "Give my blankets to my buddies And give the fleas to Diamond Joe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, Cisco Houston)
KEYWORDS: lie work boss cowboy worker
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, DIAMONJ2
RECORDINGS:
Cisco Houston, "Diamond Joe" (on CHouston01, CHoustonCD01, FMUSA)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II)" [Laws H1] (tune, lyrics)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "Diamond Joe (II)", a river shanty with the distinctive chorus, "Diamond Joe, better come and get me, Diamond Joe." "Diamond Joe (I)" has no chorus, although most verses end with the name of Diamond Joe. Some have speculated that Cisco Houston and/or Lee Hays adapted the song from "The State of Arkansas," but there is no evidence. - PJS
This is one of those really confusing things. There is a third "Diamond Joe" song, also about a ranch owner, for which see DIAMONJO in the Digital Tradition. It's not the same song as this one, to my mind (the singer doesn't like his work, but it's more because of loneliness) -- but it's a Lomax item, and who knows what the Lomaxes did to produce it? - RBW
File: RcDJoe1

Diamond Joe (II)


DESCRIPTION: Mostly floating verses with a hint of narrative; singer goes "up on the mountain, give my horn a blow...." "Ain't gonna work in the country, neither on (Parchman?) farm...." Chorus: "Diamond Joe, come-a get me, Diamond Joe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Georgia Crackers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Mostly floating verses with a hint of narrative; singer goes "up on the mountain, give my horn a blow/Thought I heard Miss Maybelle say, yonder comes my beau." "Ain't gonna work in the country, neither on (Parchman?) farm/I'm gonna stay till my Maybelle come, she gon' call-a me Tom." Chorus: "Diamond Joe, come-a get me, Diamond Joe"
KEYWORDS: love work floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, (DIAMONJ3 -- though this may be at least partly a parody)
Roud #3585
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Butler, "Diamond Joe" (AFS, 1941; on LCTreas, LC04)
Georgia Crackers [Cofer Bros.], "Diamond Joe" (OKeh 45098, 1927)
NOTES: This should not be confused with the cowboy complaint song "Diamond Joe (I)," an entirely separate song.
Art Thieme has suggested that the Diamond Joe referred to in this song is a steamboat rather than a person. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren offers additional support for this view: "Joseph Reynolds (1819-1891) was a Chicago grain dealer who devised a logo ('JO' inside a diamond) to distinguish himself from another Joseph Reynolds. Dissatisfied with the shipping situation, he built a steamboat, the Diamond Jo, to haul freight on the upper Mississippi (St. Paul to St. Louis). He later expanded the business to become the Diamond Jo Line, with all the boats sporting his logo. After the railroads began to carry more of the grain, the steamboats became mostly passenger vessels. There are only two remnants of the operation: the Diamond Jo name is now used by an unrelated riverboat casino in Dubuque, Iowa, and Reynolds Hall, the University of Chicago student union, was built with an endowment from Reynolds." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcDiJoII

Diamond, The


See The Bonnie Ship the Diamond (File: FSWB094)

Diana and Her Sailor Bright


DESCRIPTION: Diana is a rich merchant's daughter. She falls in love with "a bright young sailor" on one of her father's ships. She sends for him to marry. "Twas in her father's garden they walked hand in hand." He said "Lovely Diana, take my heart in command"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting love beauty father sailor floatingverses
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 515-516, "Diana and Her Sailor Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea515 (Partial)
Roud #2301
NOTES: The first verse of this, "It's of a rich merchant in London did dwell, He had one only daughter, a beautiful girl," is of course commonplace, found in songs such as "The Young Sailor Bold (I) (The Rich Merchant's Daughter) [Laws M19]." The happy ending is different. Possibly this is a rewrite of that with a happy ending? - RBW
File: Pea515

Diana Kitty Annie Maria


DESCRIPTION: The singer loves the pride of Glasgow Green, Diana Kitty Annie Maria. She is pretty and rich and dances wonderfully. He plans to marry in three weeks. They will have a boy named for him and three girls: Diana Kitty Annie [that is, "and"] Maria.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1269(172b))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage beauty money dancing humorous children wordplay
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 737, "'Twas in the Month of June" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(135), "Diana Kitty Anna Maria" ("Being in the bloyming [sic] spring when the black bird did sinn [sic]"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
NLScotland, L.C.1269(172b), "Diana Kitty Annie Maria" ("T'was in the month of June, when the birds were in full tune"), Poet's Box (?), 1884
NOTES: GreigDuncan4 entries are fragments; broadside NLScotland L.C.1269(172b) is the basis for the description.
The broadside texts have five eight-line verses and a four-line chorus. That seems a long way to go to reach the last line play on "Annie" or "Anna" and "and a," especially for a non-dialect story. One of the GreigDuncan4 fragments blows the "joke" by having -- as one of its two surviving lines -- the chorus end "She's my darling Dinah Katie and Maria"; the other fragment does not have the heroine's name at all. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4737

Dicey Reilly


DESCRIPTION: "She walks along Fitzgibbon street with an independent air," but Dicey Riley is headed to the pawnshop to pay for her drinking: "Poor oul Dicey Reilly, she has taken to the sup, Poor oul Dicey Reilly, she will never give it up...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Harte)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, DICYREIL*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 18-19, "Dicey Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: I have encountered four independent versions of this. One has only two verses, and approximates the description above. The other three are longer, and agree only on the material given in the description, with the rest being entirely independent. It's possible that we have three fragments of a longer piece -- but my guess is that the only truly traditional material is the two verses, and the tune is so strong that people have been patching on additional material when they record it.
Example: Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 66, has a version in which she is a shopowner. He explains that "Heart of the rowl," a phrase which occurs at the end of the chorus, refers to a coiled roll of tobacco, in which the "heart of the rowl" is the best tobacco, found at the center of the spiral. The problem with this is, of course, that the material common to all the verses makes Dicey a drunk who is selling her possessions to buy more booze. Unless the term is applied satirically, she is hardly the heart of the rowl. - RBW
File: Har018

Dick Darby the Cobbler


See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Dick Darlin' the Cobbler


See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Dick Derrick's Rear


DESCRIPTION: The song lists the men who ran logs for foreman Dick Derrick. One, a "mossback" (farmer), shoves his girlfriend through a window; another falls in the creek.
AUTHOR: Plumb Bob Jack and cohorts (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work moniker humorous nonballad logger drink
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 66, "Dick Derrick's Rear" (1 text)
Roud #8844
NOTES: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. - PJS
File: Be066

Dick Dorbin the Cobbler


See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Dick German the Cobbler


See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Dick Mooney's Daughter


DESCRIPTION: Dick Mooney is dying and he wants to get a husband for his daughter. He lists his assets. Except for the house and farm, they are all defective and you can easily find better than his daughter. But don't forget the farm.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: dowry death dying farming humorous nonballad father oldmaid
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-Maguire 31, pp. 81-82,118,168-169, "Dick Mooney's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2902
RECORDINGS:
John Maguire, "Dick Mooney's Daughter" (on IRJMaguire01)
NOTES: Morton-Maguire: "After the famine the small-farmer class in Ireland became very conscious, for various reasons, about the value and importance of land, as this song says.... If the female did have the land then she became extraordinarily desirable; her dowry was great and could overcome almost all 'deficiencies' in her family background, or in herself." - BS
File: MoMa031

Dick o the Cow [Child 185]


DESCRIPTION: Johnnie Armstrong decides on a raid, but has little luck. He is advised to steal the three kye of Dick o the Cow, a "fool." Dick seeks redress; when denied, he makes off with horses in exchange for his cattle, and finally gets a reward from his master
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1775 (Percy papers)
KEYWORDS: horse revenge robbery family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 185, "Dick o the Cow" (1 text)
Bronson 185, "Dick o the Cow" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 498-504, "Dick o the Cow" (1 text)
OBB 142, "Dick o' the Cow" (1 text)
Roud #4012
NOTES: This ballad may have some roots in history, but had clearly been magnified beyond recognition and become rather confused in the process. Child has various speculations; most are possible but none really convincing. - RBW
File: C185

Dick the Joiner


DESCRIPTION: Dick, a joiner, falls in love with Nell, a country girl, but "could not gain her favour." He dresses as a woman, goes where Nell is a servant, and applies for a position. Being shy, he asks that they sleep together. In the morning he left her "mournin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(74a))
KEYWORDS: seduction cross-dressing rake servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan1 165, "Dick the Joiner" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5769
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(74a), "Dick the Joiner" ("There is a lad in our town"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(2217), "Dick the Joiner" ("In Liverpool town there lived a lad a joiner to his station")
NOTES: The definition of "joiner" includes "a person whose occupation is to construct articles by joining pieces of wood ... [or] stitches together parts of garments ... [or] inserts sections of stained glass into leads ...." (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976) So, we are on notice, from the beginning, that Dick's interest may be in joining body parts.
GreigDuncan1: "Learnt in Culsalmond sixty years ago. Noted December 1906." - BS
At least the joiner's name wasn't "Snug" -- who, what's more, hung around at least one Bottom. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1165

Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10]


DESCRIPTION: Dick Turpin, upon meeting a lawyer, claims to be so afraid of meeting Turpin that he has hidden his money in his boot. The equally nervous lawyer admits to having hidden his money in his coat. Turpin gaily relieves him of the cash
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867
KEYWORDS: robbery lawyer humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1735 - Dick Turpin comes to the attention of the authorities as a robber
April 1739 - Hanging of Dick Turpin (by then retired from highway robbery; he was captured after getting drunk and shooting the landlord's cockerel)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South,North)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws L10, "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer"
Logan, pp. 115-121, "Turpin's Valour" (1 text, although Laws considers this as two pieces, "Turpin's Valour" and "The Dunghill-Cock")
Mackenzie 125, "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer" (1 text)
Kennedy 336, "Turpin Hero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 368, "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 70, pp. 157-158, "Turpin and the Lawyer" (1 text)
DT 570, TURPNLAW
Roud #621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Black Bess I" [Laws L8] (subject)
cf. "My Bonnie Black Bess II" [Laws L9] (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
O Rare Turpin, Hero
NOTES: Versions of this generally place the incident on Hounslow Heath. This is probably a bit folkloric. According to Patrick Pringle in Stand and Deliver: Highwaymen from Robin Hood to Dick Turpin, each of the four great roads out of London had its hot spots for highway robbers, with Hounslow Heath on the Great Western Road being the most notorious spot of all (Pringle, p. 64). Turpin, however, is associated mostly with Finchley Common on the Great North Road (p. 66).
What's more, this approximate story is told of other highwaymen, rather than Turpin; Pringle, pp. 86-87, tells how Francis "Dixie" Jackson met a lawyer in a tavern and was shown how he hid his treasure in his saddle. Several of Jackson's confederates then met the lawyer on the road and took his gold.
On the other hand, David Brandon's Stand and Deliver: A History of Highway Robbery, p. 84, tells the story -- in a form even more like the ballad -- of William Davis, "The Golden Farmer" (died c. 1689). Evidently it's a "zipper" highwayman legend.
For the rest of Turpin's history, see the notes to "My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride)" [Laws L9]. - RBW
Broadside: Street Ballads of Victorian England [circa 1850-1870] site, Folder 150, "Turpin Hero," J. Cadman (Manchester), 19C - BS
File: LL10

Dick Turpin's Ride


See My Bonnie Black Bess I [Laws L8] AND My Bonnie Black Bess II [Laws L9] (File: LL09)

Dicky Dash


DESCRIPTION: Dicky Dash takes Miss Beal to a dance but has to sell his shirt to raise admission. During the dance a shawl is stolen. Everyone is searched. When they search Dickie and find he has no shirt Miss Beal has nothing further to do with him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-Labrador)
KEYWORDS: courting theft clothes dancing humorous money commerce
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-Labrador 64, "Dicky Dash" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab064 (Partial)
Roud #5280 and 9986
File: LLab064

Dicky in the Yeomen


DESCRIPTION: Yeoman cobbler Dick McClane and his Orange wife live "at the end of Dirty Lane." He was with Beresford, at Castlepollard and Weavers' Hall upon the Coombe. Finally, "he shot an ass ... going to mass." But now he has to beg "Like all black-hearted Yeomen"
AUTHOR: probably by "Zozimus" (Michael Moran) (c.1794-1846) (Source: Zimmermann)
EARLIEST DATE: 1830s (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: violence death Ireland political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmermann 47, "Dicky in the Yeomen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Gulielmus Dubliniensis Humoriensis [Joseph Tully?], Memoir of the Great Original Zozimus (Michael Moran) (Dublin,1976 (reprint of the 1871 edition)), p. 23, "Dickey and the Yeoman" [only the first verse]
NOTES: "Following an affray at Loughgall in Co. Armagh in 1795 the Orange Order was founded, while the Yeomen were also established in June 1796. These were made up mainly of men from the Orange Lodges." (source: The 1798 Rebellion on the Hogan Stand site)
Zimmermann: "John Beresford was one of those who organized the repression in 1798."
Zimmermann: May 21, 1831 - "Seventeen people were killed by the police at Castlepollard ... in one of the bloodiest affrays of the Tithe War. An inquest followed but the policemen were finally acquitted of the charge of murder." See also "The Castlepollard Massacre."
The Charter of the Weaver's Guild, dedicated to "the Blessed Virgin Mary," was granted 1446. A weavers' hall was built by the Guild in the Lower Coombe, Dublin. Irish Catholics were excluded from guild membership and Catholic weavers operated illegally. The guilds no longer had a monopoly and the Municipal Corporations Act of 1840 ended the guild system in Ireland. The Weavers's Hall was demolished in 1965. (source: The Weavers' Guild, The Guild of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dublin 1446 to 1840 by Veronica Rowe at The Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers web site.
For all that, I haven't yet found anything about a battle at Weavers' Hall or any loss there of Croppy lives.
Donkey's have a cross-shaped patch of dark hair on their back. In political ballads this mark is taken as a sign that donkeys are Roman Catholic. - BS
There are at least three John Beresfords who might be the subject of this song, though I suspect the reference is to the younger, John Claudius.
John Beresford (1738-1805) was the second son of the Earl of Tyrone, and the depiction of him as strongly opposed to Catholic rights is quite accurate -- Bartlett/Dawson/Keough, p. 23, tells us that "members of Parliament like John Foster, John Fitzgibbon, and John Beresford... served as an informal 'Irish cabinet'. This talented but deeply conservative trio became a vital element in the government of Ireland and shared London's opposition to parliamentary reform." MP for Waterford, Beresford also held a revenue commission post from 1780 (OxfordCompanion, p. 44), and gave vigorous support to the Act of Union.
According to Brumwell/Speck, p. 50, the Lord Lieutenant Lord Fitzwilliam declared that he was "virtually King of Ireland." And he used that power to oppose FitzWilliam's attempts at reforms.
His greatest influence on Irish history may well have come in 1795. In January of that year, the Second Earl of Fitzwilliam was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, which brought "prospects of Catholic Emancipation" (Smyth p.108). Beresford protested vigorously, and in the squabble that followed, it was Fitzwilliam, not Beresford, who fell.
I can't find any references to deaths at Weaver's Hall, either, but there were riots in Dublin in 1795. During the riots, John Beresford's son John Claudius Beresford fired on the crowd outside the Customs House (Smyth, p. 150). Beresford the younger was also a leader of the Dublin Orange Lodge (Pakenham, p. 352). So he is a likely target of the denunciation in this song.
The third John Beresford is Lord John George Beresford (1773-1862), who became the Church of Ireland (Anglican) Archbishop of Armagh in 1822. The nephew of John Beresford and the cousin of John Claudius, he was not as directly involved in battle as his cousin, but he vigorously opposed Catholic emancipation and contributed to the needs of clergy who had lost their incomes during the Tithe War (OxfordCompanion, p. 44).
Given that this song seems to describe events stretching over a period of more than thirty years, I wonder if there might not be some conflation of Beresfords. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm047

Dicky Johnston


See The Rambling Soldier (File: ShH43)

Did Ye Ever See the Divil?


See Oh, Mister Revel (Did You Ever See the Devil?) (File: Br3141)

Did Ye not Promise to Marry Me?


DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that her lover, leaving her with her baby, had promised to marry her. Her mother, now dead, had warned her that "young men proved untrue." He takes her to London and they marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 978, "Did Ye not Promise to Marry Me?" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6731
NOTES: GreigDuncan5 versions seem incomplete but the very general outline reminds me of "The False Lover Won Back" [Child 218]. It also has floating lines "I will clim as high a tree, Bring doon as rich a nest ...," "pull the red roses fine ..." as an invitation to sex, "rock the cradle and spin," "the trees they're high ... the branches they're but small" and "he has turned his high horse roon' aboot"; in two cases the rhyme is lost.
GreigDuncan5: "Mrs D. Lyall; from her mother. Noted 4th June, 1907. Mrs Lyall's mother learnt this from her own mother, who in turn learnt it from her mother. That goes back about a hundred and twenty years." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5978

Did Ye See My Lad?


DESCRIPTION: "Did ye see my lad lookin' for me? He wears a blue bonnet wi' tassels upon it, A hump on his back and a patch on his e'e"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1343, "Did Ye See My Lad?" (1 fragment)
Roud #2105
NOTES: The current description is based on the GreigDuncan7 fragment.
GreigDuncan7 is similar to a one verse text at Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, A Ballad Book (Edinburgh, 1891, reprint of 1824 edition), 27, Vol II, p. 13, "The Bonny Lad." I don't see them as the same song. Here is Sharpe, excluding repeated lines: "He's a bonny, bonny lad that's a courting me; He's cripple of a leg, and blind of an e'e." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71343

Did You Ever See a Lassie?


DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever see a lassie, A lassie, a lassie, Did you ever see a lassie Go this way and that way? Did you ever see a lassie go this way and that?" Other verses, if any, equally silly; sustained by the tune "O Du Lieber Augustine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Tune 1788)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Linscott, pp. 6-7, "Did You Ever See a Lassie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 399-400, "O Du Lieber Augustin -- (Polly Put the Kettle On -- Did You Ever See a Lassie)"
SAME TUNE:
Ach, Du Lieber Austustine (Slot Machine Run By Steam) (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 163)
Love to Be in Copenhagen (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 197)
Have You Ever Seen (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 197)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ach, Du Lieber Augustine
NOTES: Obviously a silly little song -- but the tune is so widespread that it can hardly be omitted.
Linscott, who has only a single stanza, describes its use as a singing game. - RBW
File: FuldODLA

Did You Ever See the Divil?


DESCRIPTION: The Devil dug "pritties" in the garden, swatting flies with his tail until "they dragged him back to prison." The Devil, overjoyed when the spuds were blighted and famine killed the people, was put in his place by Saint Patrick.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1939 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: farming starvation Devil
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 69, "Did You Ever See the Divil?" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stack of Barley" (tune, according to Tunney-StoneFiddle)
cf. "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" (subject: the potato famines) and references there
NOTES: For the potato blight, see "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" and references there. The British policy was largely one of neglect (though this was more due to flawed economic opinions than actual cruelty), but it resulted in many deaths and even more people selling out and going to America. I have no idea why the song thinks the Devil was put in his place; the famines eventually ended, but the effects had been simply horrid. - RBW
File: TSF069

Did You Ever Think


See The Worms Crawl In (File: San444)

Did You Ever, Ever, Ever


DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever, ever, ever In your leaf, life, loaf, See the deevil, divil, dovol, Kiss his weef, wife, woaf? No I never, never, never In my leaf, life, loaf, Saw the deevil, divil, dovol, Kiss his weef, wife, woaf."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: devil nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg, p. 329, "Did You Ever, Ever, Ever" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #4253
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mister Revel" (theme)
File: San329A

Did You Never Hear of Donald Blue?


DESCRIPTION: "In Union Street as I walked late I met a man I never knew When I askerd his name, said he "For shame Did you never hear of Donald Blue?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1456, "Did You Never Hear of Donald Blue?" (1 fragment)
Roud #7149
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan7 fragment.
GreigDuncan7 refers to a 1797 chapbook including "Donald Blue" beginning "Thro' Deery town I rambled late."
For the association of "Donald Blue" with whiskey see "Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71456

Didn't He Ramble


DESCRIPTION: "Mother raised three grown sons... Buster was the black sheep of our little family... And didn't he ramble, ramble... He rambled till the butchers cut him down." Buster's rambling ways and debts are described; at last he hits bottom and the song ends
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (broadside, LOCSheet rpbaasm 1155)
KEYWORDS: rambling hardtimes gambling family
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 174-175, "Didn't He Ramble?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer, p. 88, "He Rambled" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 231-232 (partial text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 203, "Didn't He Ramble" (1 text)
DT 312, DIDRAMBL*
Roud #126
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Didn't He Ramble" (OKeh 45569, 1932; rec. 1930)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Didn't He Ramble" (Brunswick, unissued, 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Didn't He Ramble" (on NLCR02)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "He Rambled" (Columbia 15407-D, 1929; on CPoole01, CPoole05, ConstSor1)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, rpbaasm 1155, "Oh! Didn't He Ramble," J.W. Stern & Co. (New York), 1902 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Darby Ram" (lyrics)
cf. "Traveling Man (Traveling Coon)" (lyrics)
cf. "Cotton's Patch (II)" (lyrics, form, probably tune)
NOTES: Although an obvious pop rewriting of "The Derby Ram" (Roud lumps them), the actual history of this piece is uncertain. Credit (blame?) has been offered to Will Handy (Bob Cole; note that this is not W. C. Handy), who offered an extravagant seven verse version. (So, e.g., in Silber & Silber, and there is sheet music of this version.; cf. Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 317.)
Charlie Poole sang a much more sedate three verse version. If anyone knows more, I'd welcome the information. - RBW
Broadside LOCSheet rpbaasm 1155: "words & music by Will Handy ... adaptation by Bob Cole." Poole's tune is closely related to Handy's. - BS
File: CSW174

Didn't It Rain


DESCRIPTION: "Now didn't it rain, children...." Various events related to the flood: "It rained 40 days and 40 nights...God sent a raven to carry the news...." "God sent Noah the rainbow sign...." "They knocked at the window and they knocked at the door...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Biddleville Quintette)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible flood
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 564, "Didn't It Rain" (3 fragments plus an excerpt; the "D" fragment does not use the "didn't it rain" line and might be something else)
Lomax-FSNA 250, "Didn't It Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6699
RECORDINGS:
Biddleville Quintette, "Didn't It Rain" (QRS 7073, 1929)
Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, "Oh My Lord Didn't It Rain" (Paramount 13126, 1932; on VocalQ2)
NOTES: For the statement that the rain fell for forty days during Noah's flood, see Gen. 7:12 (the total duration of the flood is given in 7:17, 8:6? as 40 days and in 7:24, 8:3 as 150 days; the different numbers are believed to have come from different sources).
Nowhere does the Bible mention people asking Noah to take them aboard. Nor was the raven sent as a warning; rather, Noah sent it out to look for dry land (Gen. 8:7). The covenant of the rainbow is described in 9:13f. - RBW
File: LoF250

Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel


DESCRIPTION: "Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel... Then why not every man? He delivered Daniel from the lion's den, Jonah from the belly of the whale." The singer forecasts the end of the world, expecting to be saved, and rejoices in salvation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 370, "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?" (1 text)
DT, DELVRDAN*
Roud #12348
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Preacher and the Bear" (theme)
NOTES: The story of Daniel in the lion's den (for refusing to worship a false god) is in Daniel 6:16-24. Jonah's sojourn in the belly of a fish (NOT a whale; the Hebrew says "fish") is in Jonah 1:17-2:10. The story of the three in the fiery furnace is in Daniel 3. - RBW
File: FSWB370A

Didn't You Hear


DESCRIPTION: "Didn't you hear my Lord when he called? Yes, I heard my Lord when he called.... My Lord callin' in my soul." Similarly, "Didn't you hear them turkle (sic) doves moan... ...hear the harp when it blowed ...hear that thunder roll ...hear the organ playin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Rich Amerson & Earthy Anne Coleman)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, pp. 68-69, "(Didn't You Hear)" (1 text); pp. 241-243, "Didn't You Hear" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #10959
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson & Earthy Anne Coleman, "Didn't You Hear" (on NFMAla4, NFMAfAm)
File: CNFM068

Die an Old Maid


See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

Die Moorsoldaten (Peat-Bog Soldiers)


See Moorsoldaten, Die (Peat-Bog Soldiers) (File: SBoA354)

Died for Love (I)


DESCRIPTION: A song of a woman in pain. The woman says that the man loved her when her apron was low, but now it's high. She may wish she were a maid again, recall the alehouse where she drinks, or wish her parents had never met
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: seduction pregnancy betrayal abandonment floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 53, "I Wish, I Wish" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 55, "Died for Love" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the second having a wide variety of imported verses not usually associated with this family)
SharpAp 273, "I wish I was a Child again" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 56, "I Wish I Was a Maid Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #495
RECORDINGS:
Isla Cameron, "Died For Love" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Walter Pardon, "I Wish, I Wish" (on Voice15)
Pete Seeger, "Tarrytown" (on PeteSeeger46)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "In Tarrytown" (on SeegerTerry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (theme)
cf. "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
cf. "The Effects of Love" (theme)
NOTES: This piece is almost "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] without the suicide. The mention of the apron riding high is a strong indicator; the girl is definitely pregnant and regrets her folly.
For further details on the family, see the notes to "The Butcher Boy." - RBW
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 15" - 13.9.02, cite as a possible source "song 'The Effects of Love - A New Song' which was issued by an anonymous broadside printer in the 18th century." The note quotes the text, which includes the "when my apron it hung low" and "I wish that my dear babe was born" verses. The reference seems to be to "The effects of love. A new song. [London]. [1780?]. 1 sheet; 1/80. British Library 11621.k.4(158). A slip song. "O! Love is hot, and Love is cold,." REFERENCE: ESTCT32452 x." (source: Eighteenth Century (1701-1790) Cheap Print: A Finding Aid produced by Richard C. Simmons, University of Birmingham, Dec 2000, on the University of Birmingham site); this is not at all the Bodleian broadside set "The Effects of Love [by a young lady who drowned herself]" ("Young lovers all I pray draw near").
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "I Wish I Was a Maid Again" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: McST055

Died for Love (II)


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

Died for Love (III) (Early, Early)


DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a girl sighing, "The lad I love is gone far away." "He's gone and left me now in grief and woe, And where to find him I do not know. I'll search these green fields and valleys low." She wishes she had wings to hunt Willie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H89, p. 287, "Early, Early" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3817
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Early, Early, by the Break of Day" (on IRRCinnamond03)
NOTES: This is one of those songs where you simply cannot tell if it's the remnant of something else (it reminds me of Jean Redpath's "When I Look tae Yon High Hills") or a collection of floating lines or just a short piece on a commonplace theme. - RBW
File: HHH089

Died for Love (IV)


See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

Died on the Ice Fields


DESCRIPTION: "The white, rugged ice-flow came gliding along" as Richard Parsons and his sons return home. The younger goes ahead. The elder complains he can't go on. Parsons tries to keep him warm. The younger dies on the way; the others are barely alive when found
AUTHOR: P. J. Dyer
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung By Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: father children death hunting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, pp. 39-40, "Died on the Ice Fields" (1 text)
File: RySm039

Diego's Bold Shore


DESCRIPTION: "Has a love of adventure, a promise of gold, or an ardent desire to roam Ever tempted you far o'er the watery world?" The singer describes the whaling life by asking if the listener has ever experienced this or that. He advises those at home to enjoy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Journal from the _Midas_)
KEYWORDS: whaler work questions
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 30-32, "Diego's Bold Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 196-197, "Diego's Bold Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 213-214, "Twas a Love of Adventure" (1 text)
Roud #2006
File: SWMS030

Dig a Hole in the Meadow


See Darling Corey (File: LxU087)

Dig My Grave


See Go And Dig My Grave (File: FSWB350B)

Dig My Grave with a Silver Spade


DESCRIPTION: "You can dig my grave with a silver spade (x3), 'Cause I ain't gonna stay here long." "There's a long white robe in heaven for me...." "There's a starry crown in heaven for me...." "There's a golden harp up in Heaven for me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 351, "You Can Dig My Grave" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Deep Blue Sea (II)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Down by the Weeping Willow Tree" (lyrics)
File: FSWB351A

Digby's Farewell


See Packington's Pound (File: ChWI259)

Digging for Gould


DESCRIPTION: Boys know Darby Kelly only loves gold. Dan tells Darby he dreamt of a jar of gold. They dig and find a jar. He takes it home on his back; when they smash it, he is "like a black sugar stick on a hot summer-day," not smelling like gold. He is cured
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging sb10104a)
KEYWORDS: greed lie trick dream humorous gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor, p. 43, "Digging for Gould" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(129), "Digging for Gould", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as LOCSinging sb10104a]; also Firth c.20(133), "Digging for Gold"
LOCSinging, sb10104a, "Digging for Gould", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(129)]
NOTES: Both O'Conor and the De Marsan broadside leave off the last verse: once the jar is broken we know from the smell that Darby Kelly is not covered with gold; the missing part, only in shelfmark Firth c.20(133), [runs] "when she [his wife] saw Darby good lord! what a sight, Doubled in two on the ground there he lay, Like a black sugar stick on a hot summer-day ... I know them gasoons have disbed me complete, Never more by you I'll be led or rulled, For I may dig my grave, when I next dig Gold."
Broadsides LOCSinging sb10104a and Bodleian Harding B 18(129): 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.
File: OCon043

Dilly Song, The


See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Dinah's Lovers


See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

Ding, Dong, Bell


DESCRIPTION: "Ding, dong, bell, Pussy's in the well." Johnny Green (or Tam Linn) put her in. Tommy Stout pulls her out. "What a naughty boy was that, To try to drown poor pussy cat, Who never did him any harm, And killed the mice in his father's barn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: rescue animal youth
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 134, "Ding, dong, bell" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #43, p. 56, "(Ding dong bell)"
Roud #12853
NOTES: The Baring-Goulds report that Katherine Elwes Thomas believed this to come from Bristol, where there was a tradition of ringing the city bells at any excuse. A reasonable speculation, but no more.
The Opies, more reasonably, link this to an item in Ravenscroft's 1609 Pammelia, There are some similarities in the lyrics, but not enough to prove identity, I don't think. Similarly, the Opies note several uses of the phrase "Ding, dong, bell" in Shakespeare. There might be a link, but we can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: OO2134

Dingle Puck Goat


DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Puck Fair in Dingle and buys a goat, jumps on its back, grabs its horns and has a fantastic ride. They cross the sea and are attacked by fish. They return through Kerry; "old Puck ... as far as I hear he's in New York or in Boston"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #8220
RECORDINGS:
Mikeen McCarthy, "Dingle Puck Goat" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "Mikeen always associates this song with Puck Fair, which takes place annually in Kilorglin, Co Kerry on August 10th-12th. Each year a puck goat is caught, brought to town and proclaimed 'King of the Fair.'" - BS
File: RcDiPuGo

Dink's Blues


DESCRIPTION: "Some folks say dat de worry blues ain' bad, It's de wors' ol' feelin' I ever had." The singer details (her) life: "If trouble was money, I'd be a millionaire." "I used to love you, but oh, God damn you now." "Take a worried man to sing de worried song."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 Lomax)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation work floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 193-194, "Dink's Blues" (1 text)
Roud #15573
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Worried Man Blues" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: The Lomaxes claim they got this from a drunken woman imported to Texas to accompany the men working on a levee there. It's just a feeling, but the story rings utterly false to me; I think they made it up, using floating verses (e.g. from the song which also inspired "Worried Man Blues"). - RBW
File: LxA193

Dink's Song


DESCRIPTION: Chorus: Fare thee well/Oh, honey, fare thee well." Floating verses: "If I had wings like Noah's dove/I'd fly 'cross the river to the man I love"; "When I wore my apron low..." "One of these days... You'll look for me, and I'll be gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (collected by John Lomax)
KEYWORDS: nonballad lyric pregnancy love separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax-FSUSA 21, "Dink's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 195-196, "Dink's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 88, "Dink's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 186, "Dink's Song" (1 text)
DT, DINKSONG*
Roud #10057
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Dink's Song" (on PeteSeeger24)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Careless Love" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (floating lyrics)
NOTES: While this shares a great deal of material with the cross-referenced songs, the unique tune and chorus make me believe it deserves a separate entry. - PJS
It is, however, so close to "Careless Love" in its text that I may have classified some versions there. The reader is advised to check the entries for both songs. Given that it comes from the Lomaxes, I'm not sure I trust its origin, either. - RBW
File: PSAFB088

Dinky


See Juba (File: BSoF708)

Dinky Die


DESCRIPTION: A bloody soldier returned from France is berated by a lance corporal from headquarters for appearing in public in a disheveled uniform. The soldier is awarded a medal for kicking the corporal in the ass.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: army soldier abuse
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray, pp. 403-404, "Dinky Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10189
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
File: EM403

Dinna Think, Bonny Lassie, I'm Gaun to Leave You


DESCRIPTION: He says he's going but will "come again and see thee." She asks him to "stay this night wi' your love" He says he'll only be gone "a night and hauf a day." She insists he stay. He does, "and never leave[s] my dearie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (_The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs ..._)
KEYWORDS: love separation dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1519, "Dinna Think, Bonny Lassie, I'm Gaun to Leave You" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 69-70, "Dinna Think, Bonnie Lassie"
Roud #12948
NOTES: Concerning The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs ...: "Anonymous, but attributed to Hector Macnell, though not included by him in the collection of his works." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81519

Dirante, My Son


See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Dirty Black Miners, The


See The Blackleg Miners (File: CBThBlMi)

Dirty Mistreatin' Women


DESCRIPTION: "A dollar's roun' goes from han' to han', Jes' de way dese women goes from man to man." The singer complains about women's ways, describes how his woman throws him out, contemplates suicide, warns other men that he could pursue their women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: love courting suicide warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 192-193, "Dirty Mistreatin' Women" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15572
File: LxA192

Dirty Wife, The


DESCRIPTION: A wife keeps a dirty home, does not darn the holes in her husband's socks, leaves the "woollen duds and flannel" in the was tubs and does not clean the blankets until after eleven; "it's tryin' But I daurna say nae mair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: nonballad husband wife clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1506, "The Dirty Wife" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7167
File: GrD71506

Dis Mornin', Dis Evenin', So Soon


See Tell Old Bill (File: San018)

Disappointed Lover (I), The


DESCRIPTION: "Once I courted a pretty little Miss, I courted her for my own... She's taken flight and she's gone." "I walked up and down, just like a man in a haze." When she sees him, she gives a kind smile but no more. He warns her new man to treat her well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 157-158, "The Disappointed Lover" (1 text)
Cambiaire, p. 39, "The Disappointed Lover" (1 text, almost certainly from the same source as Henry's though he does not list an informant)
ST Camb039 (Partial)
Roud #293
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "The Bonny Boy (I)" and related songs -- but I suspect this is desperation; his #293 is a catchall of unhappy-lover songs. this appears to be, at the very least, rewritten from "The Bonny Boy," so I've split it -- with full awareness that there are a lot of other items out there much like this. - RBW
File: Camb039

Disappointed Lover (II), The


See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Disappointed Sailor, The


See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Disappointment of Joe Bowers, The


See Joe Bowers [Laws B14] (File: LB14)

Discharged Drummer, The


DESCRIPTION: A drummer proposes to a Bristol lady of sixteen that she enlist in the regiment to follow him. She proposes instead that she buy his discharge and that they marry. He agrees "and now he's knocked off playing Among his comrades all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Karpeles-Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: marriage soldier money
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Karpeles-Newfoundland 75, "The Discharged Drummer" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #2303
File: KaNew075

Discrimination Blues


See Black, Brown, and White (File: SBoA350)

Discussion Between Church and Chapel, A


DESCRIPTION: Singer overhears Cork chapel and Shandon Church arguing. Church blames chapel for convincing people to leave Ireland. Chapel blames Church for "tithes and taxes" and prophesizes "tithes and taxes will be defeated" and freedom will return after 500 years
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1830 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: Ireland prophecy nonballad political religious money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann 37, "A Discussion Between Church and Chapel" (2 texts)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(159), "Church and Chapel," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also 2806 b.10(162), 2806 b.10(46), Firth b.25(326), "A Discussion Between the Church and Chapel"; Harding B 26(136), "A Discussion Between a Church and a Chapel"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Carrickshock" (subject: The Tithe War) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Dialogue Between Church and Chapel
NOTES: Zimmermann, quoting English As We Speak it in Ireland by Joyce: "All through Ireland it is customary to call a Protestant place of worship a 'church', and that belonging to Roman Catholics a 'chapel'." [This presumably because the Anglican faith was the official and legal Church of Ireland; Catholic services were often held in any place they could find. - RBW]
The context is "The Tithe War": O'Connell's Catholic Association was formed in 1823 to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. The "war" was passive for most of the period 1823-1836, though there were violent incidents in 1831 (source: The Irish Tithe War 1831 at the OnWar.com site). [In the Index, see "The Battle of Carrickshock" for more on the Tithe War.]
Zimmermann prints a variant of the prophecy in which "base heresy" is defeated and freedom will return after 300 years. The Bodliean broadsides illustrate both prophecies. - BS
File: Zimm037

Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6]


DESCRIPTION: When a girl's father cannot talk her out of marrying a sailor, the father has the boy pressed. The girl follows in disguise; they wind up in the same bunk. At length she reveals herself. They return home. The girl's father has died; they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1864 (broadside, LOCSinging as200940)
KEYWORDS: courting sailor pressgang father disguise marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar, Newf) Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws N6, "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)"
GreigDuncan1 174, "Merchant's Daughter and Her Sailor" (4 texts, 1 tune); GreigDuncan1 175, "In Fair London City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-100E 50, "The Bonny Lighter Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H108a, pp. 329-330, "The Rich Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 146-147, "Disguised Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune, considered "confused" by Laws)
Leach-Labrador 35, "The Lady and the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 47, "The Press Gang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 62, "The Weaver is Handsome" (2 texts, 1 tune, both short and both starting with variants "I am a young girl and my fortune is sad"; both seem confused and neither contains the complete plot, but "A" at least has the father's feigned consent and the press gang; "B" has the dressing in men's clothes)
DT 742, DISGSAIL*
Roud #601
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(40), "The Lady and Sailor" ("There was a rich merchant in London did dwell"), W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867 ; also 2806 c.15(59), Firth c.12(252), "The Lady and Sailor"
LOCSinging, as200940, "The Farmer's Daughter" ("It is of a rich farmer, I dare not tell his name"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Was an Old Miser"
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7]
cf. "The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy)" [Laws M24]
cf. "James and Flora (Flora and Jim, The United Lovers)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Was a Rich Merchant
The Rich Merchant's Daughter
The Hills o' Traquair
NOTES: [In Sharp's version,] the plot is fragmentary; the girl's father has the boy pressed, and he pledges his undying love. That's all.-PJS
Broadside LOCSinging as200940: 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.
The general plot in Karpeles-Newfoundland, Leach-Labrador and the Bodleian "The Lady and Sailor" broadsides agrees but the couple get married, go to "Columbia's [or England's] fair shore" and don't return home. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LN06

Disheartened Ranger, The


See Come List to a Ranger (The Disheartened Ranger) (File: R181)

Dishonest Miller, The


See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Dismasting of the Cummings, The


DESCRIPTION: "In 1884, upon the first of May, The schooner M. J. Cummings from Oswego sailed away." A day later, a storm blows up. She is feared lost. It turms out she has lost her masts, but the crew survives. The singer wishes success to the rebuilt ship
AUTHOR: possibly Thomas Peckham
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from John S. Parsons by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck rescue
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 209-211, "The Dismasting of the Cummings" (1 text)
File: WGM209

Disordered


See The Unfortunate Rake (File: VWL108)

Distant Land to Roam, A


DESCRIPTION: "I remember very well One dark and (dreary) day" when the singer set out for "A distant land to roam." He recalls mother bidding him goodbye and hoping to see him again in a year. But she dies before he returns; he says he will remember her words
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, The Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: mother separation death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II, p. 201 (1931), "(The Wanderer)" (1 text)
ST FORA201 (Partial)
Roud #17234
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "A Distant Land to Roam" (Victor 40255/Bluebird5433/Montgomery Ward 7020, 1929)
File: FORA201

Distressed Maid, The


See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

Diverting Show, The


DESCRIPTION: A weaver's apprentice falls in love with a girl he sees at a show. The next day he meets her employer. She takes him to her maid who refuses the weaver's advances because he is an apprentice. But she would marry him "when ye win free" He is delighted.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting love weaving apprentice servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #170, p. 1, "The Apprentice" (1 text)
GreigDuncan4 886, "The Diverting Show" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6230
File: GrD4886

Dives and Laz'us


See Dives and Lazarus [Child 56] (File: C056)

Dives and Lazarus (II)


See Lazarus (I) (File: C056A)

Dives and Lazarus (III)


See The Rich Man and Lazarus (File: BrII055)

Dives and Lazarus [Child 56]


DESCRIPTION: Poor Lazarus comes to the rich man's door. The rich man (Dives/Diveres/Diverus) refuses to offer charity. Lazarus dies and is rewarded after death; the rich man suffers eternal punishment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Bramley & Stainer)
KEYWORDS: religious poverty punishment Hell
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 56, "Dives and Lazarus" (2 texts)
Bronson 56, "Dives and Lazarus" (13 versions, but #10-#12, given in an appendix, are "Lazarus (I)," and #9, a tune with no text, might also be something else)
Leather, pp. 190-191, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text plus some excerpts, 2 tunes)
Leach, pp. 177-179, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text)
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 74-75, "Dives and Lazarus" (a few scrapts of text, which Flanders places with Child #56 though none of the lines is characteristic of that song and one -- "even the whelps can eat crumbs" -- is not even part of the tale of Lazarus)
OBC 57, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, 2 tunes) {First Tune=Bronson's #3; Second Tune=Bronson's #1]
OBB 109, Dives and Lazarus"" (1 text)
Niles 24, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 153, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 583-584, "Dives and Laz'us" (1 text)
DT 56, DIVRLAZ*
Roud #477
RECORDINGS:
Aunt Molly Jackson, "Lazarus" (AFS; on LC57)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lazarus and the Rich Man" (subject)
cf. "Lazarus (I)" (subject)
cf. "Poor Old Lazarus (I've Got a Home; Don't You See)" (subject)
cf. "The Rich Man and Lazarus" (subject)
cf. "The Rich Man and the Poor Man" (theme)
cf. "The Star of the County Down" (tune) and references there
NOTES: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus -- which, be it noted, was a warning, not a description of an actual event -- is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated). The name "Dives/Divers" from the Latin dives, rich/rich man.
The Lomaxes seem to regard their text, "Dives and Laz'us," as a "Dives and Lazarus" variant. This seems rather a stretch -- the song is about Lazarus, but the form does not much resemble the Child ballad. But I have seen nothing similar elsewhere. Given the undeniable possibility of Lomax editorial work, I give in and list the song here.
In the folk revival, this song is most commonly sung to the tune of "The Star of the County Down." Most of the tunes in Bronson, however, are not of this type; indeed, the majority are in two, not three. - RBW
File: C056

Dividing Line, The


DESCRIPTION: "There's a line that divides all the people on earth From a life of sin and a life of true worth...." Sinners are exhorted to turn to God and "cross that dividing line." They are warned that it will be too late if they wait for God's revelation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious sin
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 646, "The Dividing Line" (1 text)
Roud #7567
NOTES: The story of Elijah's being carried into heaven occupies 2 Kings 2:1-12, with his actual departure taking place in 2:11. - RBW
File: R646

Dixie


DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was in the land of cotton...." A blackface-dialect song praising southern life and the conditions the slaves endured. Such plot as it has revolves around Old Missus, who married Will the Weaver, a "gay deceiver"
AUTHOR: Daniel Decatur Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: 1859
KEYWORDS: courting patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 531-533, "Dixie" (1 text plus one extra verse, 1 tune)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 61-64, "Dixie's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 76-77, "Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 713, "Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 424-425, "Dixie" (2 texts, 1 tune -- text given has the standard Dixie chorus but bawdy & nonsensical lyrics)
Hill-CivWar, p. 221, "Dixie" (1 text); also two adaptions: pp. 198-199, "Dixie" (1 text, by Albert Pike; for other versions see the Same Tune field); p. 222, "Dixie" (1 text, a Union version by John Savage)
Krythe 6, pp. 100-112, "Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 45, "Dixie" (1 text)
Gilbert, pp. 13-16, "(Dixie)" (several fragmentary sets of later words plus a description of the dance)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 196-199+, "Dixie"
DT, DIXIELND*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 163-164, "(Dixie)" (1 text plus extensive notes on pp. 164-166); also the Pike adaption on pp. 225-226
ST LxA531 (Full)
Roud #8231
RECORDINGS:
[Arthur] Harlan & [Frank] Stanley "Dixie" (Columbia A-696, 1909)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Dixie" (OKeh 45129, 1927)
Kessinger Brothers, "Dixie" (Brunswick 518, c. 1931)
Peerless Quartet, "Dixie" (Superior [Pathe] 1, 1922)
Red Mountain Trio, "Dixie" (Columbia 15369-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
[Frank] Stanley & [Henry] Burr, "Dixie" (Columbia A696, 1909)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Dixie" (Columbia 15158-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Woodpecker's Hole" (tune)
cf. "A Horse Name Bill" (tune)
cf. "Crazy Song to the Air of 'Dixie'" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Crazy Song to the Air of "Dixie" (File: San342)
A Horse Named Bill (File: San340)
Albert Pike's "Dixie" ("Southrons, hear your country call you!") (Hill-CivWar, pp. 198-199, "Dixie"; [W. M. Wharton,] War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, pp. 29-30; Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 225-226)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Dixie Parody" (OKeh 40430, 1925)
NOTES: Although forever to be associated with the Confederate states, "Dixie" was a favorite of President Lincoln, and was often played by Union bands during the war. It could literally be regarded as having been "stolen" by the south; the first certain publication of the piece was by a New Orleans firm in 1860, but Emmett was neither credited nor consulted -- nor, apparently, paid. (The piece was registered in 1859, but no copies of the relevant printing -- if there was one -- have survived. Gilbert reports that Emmett's total lifetime payment for the song was the $300 he received for the copyright.)
The origin of the term "Dixie" is uncertain, but it is believed to be associated with the Mason-Dixon line. - RBW
It should also be noted that Dan Emmett was an abolitionist. -PJS
And, of course, a Northerner. He even produced a "northern" set of lyrics, though neither they nor any of the other "northern" texts took hold. - RBW
File: LxA531

Dixie Brown [Laws D7]


DESCRIPTION: Arriving in (San Francisco), a sailor goes on a spree and ends up broke. He is taken in by [Dixie] Brown, who alleges he owes a score and uses that as a lever to force him back to sea. The sailor warns others to avoid the sea and this sort of trap
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923
KEYWORDS: sailor poverty robbery shanghaiing
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws D7, "Dixie Brown"
Doerflinger, pp. 107-109, "Off to Sea Once More" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 96, "Dixie Brown" (1 text)
Hugill, pp. 581-585, "We'll Go To Sea No More," "Go To Sea No More," "Go To Sea Once More," "Off To Sea Once More" (4 texts, 3 tunes - the last tune given the name "The Flying Cloud" and listed without a text) [AbEd, pp. 402-406]
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 494-496, "Jack Wrack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 140-141, "Off to Sea Once More" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 702, GOTOSEA
Roud #644
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor's Way" (tune)
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot) and references there
cf. "Jolly Sailors Bold (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "The River Lea" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ben Breezer
Go to Sea Once More
NOTES: Boarding masters was a peculiar occupation which existed primarily in the late days of sail. At a time when casualties among sailors were high (due to injuries, bad diet, desertion, and incompetent skippers), a captain often needed to find new hands quickly. Hence the Boarding Master: He found sailors and gave them a place to stay in return for a fee, taken from the sailor's wages when he shipped out.
The idea wasn't inherently bad -- sailors, after all, did need some place to stay while on shore -- but the way it was implemented was pretty toxic. It was captains who hired the sailors from the boarding master, but the money was taken from the sailor's pay at a fixed rate. Thus there was every incentive for the boarding master to give the sailors the minimum amount of pay and shove them out the door as soon as they could be sobered up.
The practice was so common that rituals evolved around it, the most famous being that of "paying off the dead horse" -- the ceremony sailors performed when they had paid off the advance to the boarding master and finally were able to earn wages for themselves, usually after thirty days (for this, see "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)").
There were relatively honest boarding masters, but some of the tricks they pulled were pretty dreadful. "Paddy West" tells of a boarding master who operated by teaching landlubbers to pretend to be sailors. Other boarding masters operated in complicity with captains to kidnap sailors shortly before they were paid off (see for this practice Richard Woodman, A Brief History of Mutiny,Carroll & Graf, 2005, p. 9); the idea was to avoid paying their wages. And the whole system worked because sailors in port were so good at wasting their pay anyway; see, e.g., "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] and the numerous references there to songs such as "Maggie May."
Dixie "Shanghai" Brown was a particularly notorious San Francisco boarding master, noted for not only supplying sailors for the whalers but going so far as to lure, rob, or trick sailors into his hands. Even among San Francisco boarding masters (who in this period were little better than slavers), he stood out as a particularly bad seed.
It should be noted that many versions of this song do not mention San Francisco or Brown; they simply tell of how a sailor arrived in port (often Liverpool), got drunk, spent all his money, and had to return to sea. The line "(he must) go to sea once more," however, seems highly characteristic. - RBW
There was an equally notorious Liverpool boarding master called "Rapper" Brown, whose name is often found in British versions of this song. - PJS
File: LD07

Dixie's Isle


See The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9] (File: LN09)

Dixie's Land


See Dixie (File: LxA531)

Dixon and Johnson


See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Do as They Do in France


DESCRIPTION: The singer's step-mother told him as a child, "do as they do in France." Even now, when he needs shoes, or bread, she says "do as they do in France." A friend explains that means "do without." So he joins the navy. "Boys, do as Britons do"
AUTHOR: William Ball (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST DATE: "shortly after 1798" (according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: France patriotic hardtimes poverty navy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 21, "Do as They Do in France" (1 text)
NOTES: The inference is that we should ignore those who would overthrow the king "as they do in France."
Moylan: Ball is a Dublin loyalist. "The tenor of all his songs is that of an ordinary Irish citizen, loyal to the established order." - BS
The comment that doing as they do in France meaning doing without is of course dead-on accurate: Marie-Antoinette's foolish "Let them eat cake" comment was in response to a report that the peasants had no bread (they had been taxed almost to death to pay for the American war), and the sans-culottes were not so called because they were rich!
In a sad irony, the Irish would eventually do as they did in France, in cutting their relations with the British monarch -- after which they followed the worst part of the French model: They killed their first real head of state, Michael Collins, and engaged in a civil war over who would rule the country and how.
William Ball was a writer of humorous verse about Irish history; in this index, see "Cockledemoy (The French Invasion)," "Do as They Do in France," "The Dying Rebel," "Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint)" -- though he doesn't seem to have made much impression on the wider world of literature; I have been unable to find any of his writings in any of my literary references. - RBW
File: Moyl021

Do Let Me Go


See Yellow Gals (Doodle Let Me Go) (File: Hugi380)

Do Let Me Lone, Susan


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Choruses "Hoo-raw! me loo-loo boys, Do let me lone." Three line verses with the chorus following each. Verses run through different women's names (Susan, Flora, Rosy, etc)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Choruses "Hoo-raw! me loo-loo boys, Do let me lone." Three line verses with the chorus following each. Verses run through different women's names (Susan, Flora, Rosy, etc). Verses run as follows: "Do let me lone (Susan), do let me lone. Chorus. I put me arm around Jinny's waist, oh Jinny jumps about. Chorus. When I put me hand on Jinny's head, oh, Jinny jumps away. Chorus."
KEYWORDS: shanty bawdy
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 379-380, "Do Let Me Lone, Susan" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 287-288]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yellow Gals (Doodle Let Me Go)" (similar chorus)
NOTES: Hugill gives five verses, running through various parts of Jinny's anatomy. He says the rest of the song would eventually refer to ALL parts, and so was considered unprintable. - SL
File: Hugi379

Do Me Ama


See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Do They Miss Me at Home?


DESCRIPTION: "Do they miss me at home, do they miss me?" The singer asks for assurance that he is remembered. He recounts various ways people might show how they miss them.
AUTHOR: Words: Caroline Atherton Mason / Music: S. M. Grannis
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: home separation loneliness nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 858, "Do They Miss Me at Home?" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepMore, p. 18, "Do They Miss Me at Home?" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOMISSME*
Roud #4366
File: R858

Do Weel My Sons


See The Clerk's Twa Sons o Owsenford [Child 72] (File: C072)

Do Ye Ken John Peel?


See D'ye Ken John Peel? (File: FSWB208)

Do Ye Mind Lang Syne


DESCRIPTION: "Do ye mind lang syne, When the simmer days were fine, When the sun it shone far brichter than it's ever done sin' syne?" The singer recalls the joys of the old days, and all the youths used to do. Now old, he hopes to awaken on an equally bright Sabbath
AUTHOR: George James Laurie?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford); Laurie died in 1878
KEYWORDS: youth age nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 190-191, "Do Ye Mind Lang Syne" (1 text)
Roud #6322
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lang Lang Syne
File: FVS190

Do You Love an Apple?


DESCRIPTION: The girl loves an uncaring man. She details her abuses ("When I was single, I wore a black shawl; now I'm married, it's overalls," etc.), always ending, "Still I love him, I'll forgive him (or "cannot deny him"), I'll go with him wherever he goes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, Phil Hammond)
KEYWORDS: love abuse poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy 203, "He Comes Down our Alley" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 30, "Still I Love Him" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 186, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
DT, STILILOV* LOVAPPLE
Roud #654
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "Still I Love Him" (on Barry-Gorman1)
NOTES: The version sung by Charlotte Higgins (in MacSeegTrav) has, rather than overalls, "Now since I'm married I've sweet bugger-all," a rather more vivid description.
The Barry-Gorman recording is an autobiographical rewrite of the traditional song, telling of Barry's life as a singer of traditional songs, but it incorporates a few of the older verses. - PJS
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "When I Was Single" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)).
Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": "A Northumbrian song probably imported into Ulster in the 19th century during the American Civil War when the English cotton industry found itself with no raw material and its textile workers came to Ulster to work at the linen." - BS
File: K203

Do You See That There Bird On Yonder Tree?


See Lonesome Dove (File: Br3262)

Do Your Balls Hang Low?


DESCRIPTION: Encouragement to sexual activity: The listener is encouraged to "find a woman if you can. If you can't find a woman, find a clean old man." The remainder of the song is devoted to the characteristics of the listener's scrotum
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad sex
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray, pp. 336-338, "Do Your Balls Hang Low?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10259
File: EM336

Do, Do, Pity My Case


DESCRIPTION: "Do, do pity my case, In some lady's garden, My clothes to wash when I get home, In some lady's garden." Repeat with substitutions in the third line: "My clothes to iron when I get home," "My floors to scrub," "My bread to bake," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: work servant
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-AmFolklr, p. 805, "Do, Do Pity My Case" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST BAF805 (Full)
Roud #11590
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ransum Scansum" (lyrics)
cf. "The Closet Key" (lyrics)
cf. "In Some Lady's Garden (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "In Some Lady's Garden (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES: There is a whole complex of "In Some Lady's Garden" songs (see the cross-references), many if not most surely related. And many of them seem to be one-shots. Roud lumps some of them and ignores others. But they're different enough that I've split them. This one appears to be by far the most popular. - RBW
File: BAF805

Dobbin's Flowery Vale


See Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament) [Laws O29] (File: LO29)

Dobe Bill


See Dobie Bill (Dobe Bill, The Killer) (File: LxA403)

Dobie Bill (Dobe Bill, The Killer)


DESCRIPTION: "Dobie Bill, he came a-riding from the canyon, in the glow." Arriving in Santa Fe, he enters a bar and finds "Blake, the killer." In the fight that follows, Bill kills Blake, reports he has "made the scoundrel pay," and goes his way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy fight death revenge
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 403-404, "The Killer" (1 text)
DT, THEKILLR
Roud #4046
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Dobie Bill" (on Thieme03)
NOTES: Cisco Houston had a tune for this (sung also by Art Thieme). And therein, apparently, hangs a tale. Thanks to Abby Sale for finding this; most of what follows is from him or from Guy Logsdon via Abby.
The poem was originally published in Wild West Weekly, although Abby was unable to determine the exact date. (Contrary to Lomax-ABFS, this was published by Frank Tousey, not Street and Smith; the confusion in Lomax-ABFS may be because both Street & Smith and Frank Tousey were Dime Novel publishers and targeted much the same audience of adventure-craving boys.) The tune apparently was from Katie Lee, who set the Lomax words (as found in the 1938 edition of Cowboy Songs) to music. Cisco Houston learned the tune from her when they were dating. But they then broke up, and Houston modified it somewhat to prevent her from claiming copyright. The result is, I suppose, folk processed, although I'm not sure it's truly folk. (As Logsdon noted, it looks more like the work of a romance writer than a genuine cowboy; the vocabulary is wrong.)
For more on the origin story, see Lee's Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle.
As "The Killer," this is item dB43 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: LxA403

Doctor Blair Was a Man of Skill


DESCRIPTION: Dr Blair was a man of skill, He built his castle on a hill; He set four statues in the front, And every morning went to hunt. From his castle you may see Up and down along the Lee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: doctor home hunting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, p. 161, "Dr Blair Was a Man of Skill" (1 fragment)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: "So says an old song. This Dr Blair was a Scotch physician, who settled in Cork about the middle of the last century." The current description is all of the Croker-PopularSongs text.- BS
File: CrPS161

Doctor Crippen


DESCRIPTION: In London, Doctor Crippen poisoned his wife, "cut up her body and buried it deep" He and his disguised mistress are arrested "on board the Montrose." He is tried, convicted, "and Crippen was condemned on the gallows to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: execution murder trial disguise mistress wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1910 - "Doctor Hawley Harvey Crippen was hanged in London ... for the murder of his wife" (source: notes to IRClare01).
FOUND IN: US Ireland Canada(Newf)
Roud #18472
RECORDINGS:
Martin Howley, "Doctor Crippen" (on IRClare01)
File: RcDrCrip

Doctor Jones


DESCRIPTION: "Dr. Jones is a good man, a good man, a good man, Dr. Jones is a good man, he'll help whoever he can." "Ladies and gentlemen, sail around... and kiss just who you please." "Spider in the dumpling... Roll around and roll."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad doctor
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 90, "Doctor Jones" (1 text)
SharpAp 256, "Old Doc Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 250, "Old Doc Jones" (1 fragment, probably this though it might be a distorted version of "Sail Away Ladies")
Roud #3646
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Old Doc Jones" (on LEnglish01)
File: Br3090

Doctor Monroe


DESCRIPTION: A man asks Monroe to use any method ("bleed me to death," "grant me some poison") to cure him: "my lass has forsaken me." Monroe says the cure will cost 100, but a free lecture may be effective. The patient chooses the lecture and is cured immediately
AUTHOR: James Hogg (1770-1835)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Hogg)
KEYWORDS: love rejection money healing humorous doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan6 1197, "Doctor Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Hogg, The Works of the Ettrick Shepherd (London, 1866, revision by Rev Thomas Thomson), Poems and Life vol, p. 274, "Doctor Monroe"
Roud #6804
File: GrD61197

Doctor Munro


See Doctor Monroe (File: GrD61197)

Doctor Stafford and the Weaver's Daughter


DESCRIPTION: A weaver's daughter loves Dr Stafford. He is called to her death bed and says they will marry if she survives. He stays with her eight weeks, but she dies. The neighbors say her ghost haunts him. He ends in Bedlam. Her spirit comes to save him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1828 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(185))
KEYWORDS: love death healing doctor ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #78, pp. 2-3, "The Weaver's Daughter" (1 text)
GreigDuncan6 1234, "The Weaver's Daughter" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Manny/Wilson 97, "The Weaver's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3868
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(185), "Dr. Stafford," W. Wright (Birmingham), 1820-1827; also Johnson Ballads 1929, Harding B 25(2015), "Weaver's Daughter" ("As I walk'd out one evening...")[see Notes for first lines]; Harding B 25(529), Johnson Ballads 2457, "Doctor Stafford"; Harding B 25(531), Firth c.18(55), Firth b.34(90), "Doctor Stafford, and the Weaver's Daughter"; Harding B 11(4357), "Young Doctor Stafford and the Weaver's Daughter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sheffield Apprentice" (tune, per GreigDuncan6)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Weaver's Dochter
The Rocks o' Penn
NOTES: The first line varies, yielding titles based upon where the weaver's daughter walks. For example, just from the Bodleian broadsides:
"One evening as I walk'd by the rocks of Mile End"
"One day was I was walking down by the banks of Clyde"
"One ev'ning as I walked down by the rock of Mache"
"One evening as I walked, by the rocks of Mile"
"One evening as I walked down by the rocks of Myle"
Lyle has "One day as I was walking To view my father's land."
Manny/Wilson has "As I walked out one evening Down by the rocky mull"
Manny Wilson's text is confused so the description is based on broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(185).
There seems an assumption by the neighbors that the inexperienced Dr Stafford -- he is Dr Richardson's apprentice -- is responsible for her death. [Indeed, in glancing at one version, I thought they were hinting he poisoned her. - RBW] This seems not to be the case. The last that the weaver's daughter says is "All goodness be my darling's guide, he's the boy I lov'd so dear."
After her death he claims that, of all his women "the weaver's daughter lov'd me best, she died in love for me." When the neighbors claim she haunts him he says they were all liars "for she laid no blame on me." Confined in Bedlam "quite bereft of his senses, "Her spirit came unto him saying young man revive, For I never was ordained to be your wedded wife." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MaWi097

Doctor-Man, The


DESCRIPTION: Daniel Morris is the local doctor for 40 years. His house visits are described, including his work in the 1918 flu pandemic. He is still remembered after his death.
AUTHOR: Mrs. Dan Morris
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: memorial doctor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 21-22, "The Doctor-Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12479
NOTES: Dibblee/Dibblee: "Dr Morris ... was born in Donaldston, P.E.I. in 1865 and died in 1937. He is still [1973] well-known on the Eastern end of Prince Edward Island and there are many people who were named after him." - BS
File: Dib021

Dodger Song, The


See The Dodger (File: R462)

Dodger, The


DESCRIPTION: Comments on the less-than-honest nature of various professionals: "Oh the (candidate's) a dodger, yes, a well-known dodger, Yes, the (candidate's) a dodger and I'm a dodger too. For we're all dodging... Our way through the world"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: political trick
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 462, "We're All Dodging" (1 text)
BrownIII 333, "The Dodgers" (1 text, less political than some; candidates are not mentioned)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 875-876, "The Dodger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, pp. 24-25, "The Dodger Song" (1 text)
DT, DODGRSNG*
Roud #3758
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "The Dodger Song" (General 5019B, 1941; on Almanac01, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Neil Morris, "Corn Dodgers" (on LomaxCD1706)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We're All A-Singing" (lyrics, form)
cf. "We're A' Noddin'" (chorus tune)
cf. "We're A' Cuttin'" (form)
File: R462

Does Your Heart Beat True to Me?


DESCRIPTION: The singer is about to travel "far upon the seas" and asks, "now we're going to part ... Have I thy loving heart"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1546, "Does Your Heart Beat True to Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12961
File: GrD81546

Does Your Mother Know You're Out?


DESCRIPTION: "Does your mother know you're out? (x2), How are you, Horace Greeley? Does your mother know you're out?" "Mother, is the battle over? What are the men about? How are you, Horace Greeley? Does your mother know you're out?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: political battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1872 - Horace Greeley's presidential campaign
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 398, "Does Your Mother Know You're Out?" (1 text)
Roud #11756
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mother, Is the Battle Over?" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: The editors of Brown speculate that this is from Horace Greeley's 1872 presidential run. Greeley lost decisively to Ulysses S. Grant, then died, and his electoral votes went to the four winds.
DeGregorio,p. 267, quotes Eugene H. Rosebloom as saying "Never in American history have two more unfit men been offered to the country for the highest office." Greeley's biggest single issue was probably the corruption that had occurred under Grant (who had no political background at all and was unable to control his underlings; indeed, the Republicans booted his 1868 vice president off the 1872 ticket because he was associated with corruption). But Greeley had no background in politics either.
Randall/Donald, p. 15, described Greeley this way: "Animate by enthusiasms that tended toward fanaticism, and marred by personal eccentricities that laid him open to ridicule, this Yankee printer had risen from stark poverty to influence and power; and, as a supporter of the Whig and later the Republican party, had demonstrated in areas widely distant from his sanctum the tremendous force of political journalism. With defects of character that were to grow with the years, he showed the finer idealism of his ardent nature in efforts to improve the workingman's lot, in generous support of movements for popular education, and in championship of progressive social movements generally."
Gillette/Schlesinger, pp. 1313-1314, reports, "'Uncle' Horace was a gawky man with a big round face and bald head, neck whiskers, drooped eyeglasses, crumpled clothes, and a slouched figure. his white hat, squeaky voice, and illegible handwriting reinforced an impression of eccentricity. And his views were often no less peculiar.... At various times, he was a utopian socialist, a spiritualist, a vegetarian, and a prohibitionist. He even campaigned against women's corsets.... His opinions were often excenntric, his partisanship intense, his language intemperate, and all who disagreed with him weew denounced vehemently. Charles A. Dana of the Sun called him 'a visionary without faith, a radical without root, an extremist without persistency, a strifemake without courage....' Greeley, as fierce crusader, noisy crackpot, and unconventional personality, both appealed to and was joked about by nineteenth-century Americans, who read and relished his newspaper for all those reasons."
Morison, p. 730, says of his 1872 run for the Presidency, "As a 'headliner,' Horace Greeley could not have been bettered. In his thirty years' editorship of the New York Tribune he had built it up to be the country's leading newspaper, whose articles and editorials were quoted nationwide. His personal integrity and moral earnestness were unquestioned. But he was also something of a crackpot... and at one time or another he had espoused unpopular causes such as socialism, temperance, spiritism, and women's rights."
He was, of course, the editor of the New York Tribune, which he founded in 1841, and, yes, he did write, "Go west, young man" (see his entry in the Dictionary of American Biography).
Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1315, "[H]is journalistic assets were political liabilityes. His zeal as an editor seemed scatterbrained demagoguery on the stump. His openmindedness on the editorial page appeared emtpy-mindedness in politics. His enthusiasm generated familiarity with readers, but his lack of reservefailed to command their respect at the polls. Indeed, Greeley lacked both sense and nerver, lacked the politician's intution, when to speak and when to remain silent...."
According to Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1317, many Democrats found Greeley's nomination shocking; he largely refused to work with the party and was by no means a regular Democrat. (Of course, his opponent U. S. Grant was not a regular Republican, and admitted to having voted for Buchanan in 1856.) But no one else came forward to deny Greeley the nomination; the 1872 Democratic convention lasted only six hours (Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1318). Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1323, quotes a contemporary observer as saying, "Never was a good cause so badly handled."
Morison, p. 730,, adds, "Greeley made a strong speaking campaign, but the Republicans had the money and the organization, and the average citizen, having to choose between an old soldier whose very name stood for patriotism, and a journalist who had been as often wrong as right, voted for Grant. The President carried all but six states with a popular vote of 3.6 million as against 2.8 million for his opponent."
Indirectly, the effect on the political situation was dramatic. Liberal Republicans, having despaired of Grant and the spoils system, had turned to Greeley -- and, as an organization, were destroyed by his defeat (Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1329). Liberalism as a political force in America was ruied for a quarter century -- until revived in the crackpot populism of William Jennings Bryan. Greeley probably would have been a terrible President -- but his defeat led to a period of stagnation probably worse than any except that from 1836 to 1860 which led to the Civil War.
It's likely enough that this song comes from the 1872 campaign -- described as exceptionally bitter, and also quite strange, as Greeley was endorsed by the independent (generally radical) Republicans *and* by the Democrats. The pressure was so extreme that Greeley, after his defeat, his wife's death (just before election day; Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1329), and his discovery of a sort of palace coup at the Tribune, went insane shortly before his death.
On the other hand, Greeley during the Civil War was quite strident and also rather unstable; one can imagine someone at the time taunting him, "Does your mother know you're out?"
Or it could be two mixed-up songs. It rather looks that way to me.
According to Partridge's entry on "Mother know you're out," that question itself was used at least as early as 1838, in Bentley's Miscellany. It was "addressed to a person showing extreme simplicity or youthful presumption." - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: Br3398

Doffin' Mistress, The


DESCRIPTION: "Oh do you know here or do you not, This new doffin' mistress we hae got, [Something-or-other] is her name, And she helps her doffers at every frame." The weavers tell of her exploits. They contemptuously tell the boss they will work hard for her, not him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: work weaving
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy 220, "The Doffin' Mistress" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden 14, "The Doffing Mistress" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 27, "The Doffing Mistress" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOFFNMIS*
Roud #2133
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "The Doffing Mistress" (on IronMuse1, IronMuse2, Briggs3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sea Apprentice" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Sea Apprentice (File: HHH739)
NOTES: The "Doffing Mistress" was responsible for a gang of mill-workers (doffers). These women inspired surprising loyalty (presumably because they protected the workers, who were often children, from the senior management -- which, of course was rapacious enough to hire young children). As a result, they were often honored with processions and celebrations when they retired, married, or went to work for another establishment.
A version of this song in Sing Out!, Volume 28, #3 (1980), p. 26, notes for instance that the mistress "hangs her coat on the highest pin." This might be interpreted as some sort of dominance game -- but the children could not easily reach the highest pin, so she was leaving the lower pins available for the workers.
The same article says that this has been called "the national anthem of the textile mills in Belfast," even though the doffers were replaced by machines in the 1930. (And, of course, the textile mills were not a nation and could not have a NATIONAL anthem. But I'm nitpicking.) - RBW
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "The Doffin' Mistress" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
File: K220

Doffing Mistress, The


See The Doffin' Mistress (File: K220)

Dog and Gun


See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Dog and the Gun (I), The


See The Drowning of Young Robinson (File: HHH585)

Dog and the Gun (II), The


See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Dog and the Gun, The


See The Drowning of Young Robinson (File: HHH585)

Dog in the Closet, The (The Old Dyer) [Laws Q11]


DESCRIPTION: The hatter has to hide in the closet when the woman's husband comes home unexpectedly. The husband locks the closet and goes for witnesses. The wife releases the hatter and puts a dog in his place. The husband finds the dog and is embarrassed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: infidelity trick escape dog hiding age
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws Q11, "The Old Dyer (The Dog in the Closet)"
BrownII 279, "The Old Dyer" (1 text)
BBI, ZN151, "All you that to merriment now are inclined" (probably this piece)
DT 523, DOGCLOS
Roud #1006
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES: This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
File: LQ11

Dog in the Midden, The


DESCRIPTION: The dog lay in the dunghill, saw the moon, "cockit his tail" and ran away. The cock crowed on the dunghill, ..., "flappit his wings" and flew away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad chickens dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1663, "The Dog in the Midden" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #40, p.32, ("The dog in the midden")
Roud #13042
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Robb" (tune, per GreigDuncan8)
File: GrD81663

Dog in the Wood


DESCRIPTION: "Dog in the wood, Barking at the squirrel; My true love Is as good as the worl'." "Mr. Banks, he loves sugar and tea, Mr. Banks, he loves candy...." "Dog in the wood, Barking at the squirrel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 133-134, (no title) (1 text)
ST ScNF133A (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sugar and Tea" (lyrics)
NOTES: This shares a chorus with the song I've indexed as "Sugar and Tea," but the verses are so distinct (this is a hunting song, that a courting song) that I've tentatively split them. It appears (due to an abrupt change in stanza form) that Scarborough's text may be a mixture anyway. - RBW
File: ScNF133A

Dog Song, The


DESCRIPTION: "There is something so thrilling and gay As the team into harness we strop." The song is about driving a dog team. "The good man too performs his part; The hungry dogs are fed; And blizzards now may whirl and roar, The traveller has a bed."
AUTHOR: J.T. Richards
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: work storm nonballad dog
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 147, "The Dog Song" (1 text)
Roud #6350
File: GrMa147

Dog's Convention, The


DESCRIPTION: At a convention of dogs from far and near, the animals' anuses are mixed up, and the canines go home with orifices not their own. This explains why dogs will drop a bone to smell the anus of a passing dog; they are looking for their own.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1928, when it was published in an under-the-counter book, Poems, Ballads, and Parodies.
KEYWORDS: bawdy scatological dog talltale
FOUND IN: US(So) Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 490-491, "The Dog's Convention" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 160-161, "The Dogs' Meeting" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOGMEETG*
Roud #5474
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dogs' Party
NOTES: Australian folklore attributes this to Henry Lawson. Its early currency in the U.S. makes this perhaps doubtful. - RBW
File: RL491

Dogget's Gap


DESCRIPTION: Descriptions of various doings in Dogget's Gap. "Chestnut tree full of chestnut sap, Snow knee deep in Dogget's Gap."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 739, "Dogget's Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11584
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cumberland Gap"
File: BSoF739

Dogie Song


DESCRIPTION: "The cow-bosses are good-hearted chunks," very diverse, but "Still they sing the same old song": "Sift along, don't ride so slow, Haven't got much time but a long round to go." After gathering the herd, the crew is to "hit the shortest trail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work boss travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Saffel-CowboyP, p. 187, "Dogie Song" (1 text)
Roud #8028
File: Saffe187

Dogs and Ferrets


See Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping (File: K249)

Dogs in the Alley, The


See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Dogs' Party, The


See The Dog's Convention (File: RL491)

Doherty's Wake


DESCRIPTION: Michael Doherty lives in Kerry and has "a taste for the grog" He is "killed" in a fight. When the whiskey is passed at the wake Doherty lifts the coffin lid. He advises, at the next wake, "don't pass with the whiskey so close to his nose"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: injury drink fight party humorous mourning
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 69, "Doherty's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB069 (Partial)
Roud #2761
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17] (subject)
NOTES: There are several Irish songs about dead men rising at the scent of alcohol; this is so close to "Finnegan's Wake" that I'm tempted to list it as a rewrite. But there are minor differences in form, and the lyrics are different in detail if not in outline. - RBW
File: CrSNB069

Dol-li-a


DESCRIPTION: "Fresh I cum frae Sandgate Steet, Dol-li, dol-li, Maw best freends here to meet, Dol-li-a, Dol-li the dillen dol...." "The Black Cuffs is gawn away, An' that'll be a crying day." "Dolly Coxon's pawned her shirt...." "The Green Cuffs is cummin' in...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell, _Rhymes of the Northern Bards_)
KEYWORDS: clothes soldier nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 86-87, "Dol-li-a" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOLLIA
Roud #2611
NOTES: This apparently refers to a situation where one British regiment left town and another replaced it, with the Black Cuffs and Green Cuffs being references to their uniforms. Without further details, though, I can't determine the historical situation.
The text in Bell's Rhymes of the Northern Bards bears the description "A song famous in Newcastle about the Years 1792-3-4" which implies that this might have something to do with the Glorious Revolution -- but since there are no Orange cuffs, the information is not much help. - RBW
File: StoR086

Dole Song, The


DESCRIPTION: When you go on the dole they take your report: name and "what you've got." Scratch through the seasons and do anything to stay off the dole. When the man with money dies and is buried "he'll have no better chance than the poor man on the dole"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes nonballad unemployment
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 30, "The Dole Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LeBe030

Dollar and a Half a Day, A


See Lowlands (My Lowlands Away) (File: PBB100)

Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week


DESCRIPTION: Singer describes all the things his friend has bought on credit, including clothes, car, marriage, and a child; finally the man's wife, saying "these weekly payments are killing me," divorces him, and the alimony is a dollar down, a dollar a week.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Arkansas Woodchopper)
KEYWORDS: marriage money humorous commerce
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 79, "Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week" (Conqueror 7887, 1931)
Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston, "A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week" (on Struggle2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cotton Mill Colic" (theme)
NOTES: And this was before Visa cards even existed.... - RBW
File: CSW079

Dolly Bairdie hid a coo


See Katie Bairdie (File: MSNR092)

Dolly Grey


DESCRIPTION: "I have come to say goodbye, Dolly Grey; It's no use to ask me why, Dolly Grey; There's a murmur in the air... So it's time to do and dare, Dolly Grey." The singer bids Dolly a sad farewell and goes off to join the "boys in blue"
AUTHOR: Will D. Cobb and Paul Barnes (according to Spaeth)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983
KEYWORDS: soldier separation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 35-36, "Dolly Grey" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Goodbye Dolly Gray
NOTES: Meredith/Covell/Brown report this to have been popular during the first world war, though written some decades earlier.
According to Eversley Belfield, The Boer War, p. 13, Britain entered the Boer War "bursting with enthusiasm and self-confidence, many people thinking that it would be ended by Christmas [the ultimatum came October 9 and expired October 11]; the song 'Goodbye Dolly Gray' echoed popular feeling."
Spaeth's A History of Popular Music in America, p. 312, seems to imply it became a hit in 1900. - RBW
File: MCB035

Dolly Varden Hats, The


DESCRIPTION: Girls: "Lovers you'll have plenty ... If you wear the Dolly Vardon hat, and do the Grecian bend." The comical adventures of women and their hats are related. Soldiers could wear them when drilling: "they'll do for umbrellas to save them from the rain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 13(73))
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 652, "Come, Dear, Don't Fear" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6081
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 13(73), "The Dolly Varden Hats" ("Come, dear, don't fear, try and cut a shine"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.21(132), 2806 b.10(41), Firth c.26(213), "The Dolly Varden Hats"
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 13(73 is the basis for the description.
"dolly varden ... n. cap D&V [after Dolly Varden, gaily dressed coquette in Barnaby Rudge (1841), novel by Charles Dickens 1870 Eng. novelist] 1 : a 19th century clothing style for women consisting of a print dress with a white fichu, tight bodice, and skirt with panniers, and a beflowered hat with a wide drooping brim 2 : a large and beflowered hat with a wide drooping brim 3 ...." (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976)
The heroine of "The Garden Where the Praties Grow" "was just the sort of creature sir that nature did intend To walk throughout the world, my boys, without a Grecian bend." In this context, as in "The Dolly Varden Hats," the Grecian bend seems a posture encouraged or forced by the fashionable corsettes and bustles of the 1870's (see "From the Crinoline, to the Crinolette, to the Bustle: 1860-1880" in The Secret History of the Corset and Crinoline at Fathom Archive of Columbia University site). - BS
The Dolly Varden proved surprisingly popular as a subject of song. W. C. Handy wrote a "Sail Away, Ladies" piece with chorus, "Sail away, ladies, sail away; Sail away, ladies, sail away. Never mind what de sisters say, Just shake your Dolly Varden and sail away." There was a 1901 song "Dolly Varden" as well, attributed to Le Mar. And apparently there is a modern performer calling herself "Dolly Varden."
Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia notes that there were three Vardens in Barnaby Rudge Gabriel, the father of Dolly, a locksmith; Martha, his wife; and Dolly, "The locksmith's daughter; a pretty, laughing girl, with a roguish face, lit up by a lovelly pair of sparkling eyes, the very impersonation of good humor and blooming beauty. She marries Joe Willet, and conducts with him the Maypole Inn, as never a country inn was conducted before. They prosper and have a large and happy family. Dolly dresses in the Watteau style, and Watteau gowns and hats were for a time, about 1875, called 'Dolly Vardens." The name was frequently in use in fashions of a later period also."
In addition, the supplement to Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English notes that "Dolly Varden" was sometimes used as rhyming slang for a garden. This is of no relevance to the song, of course, but it shows just how common references to "Dolly Varden" were. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3652

Dolly-Play Song, The


See This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes (File: Br3096)

Dolly's Brae (I)


DESCRIPTION: July 12, 1849. "Ten hundreds of our Orangemen together did combine" to celebrate the Battle of the Boyne at Dolly's Brae. Two priests can't turn the march to fight the gathered Catholics. "And the Orange cry, as we passed by, was 'Dolly's Brae no more'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1848 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae, County Down, and divert an Orangemen's march.
July 12, 1849 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae but the Orangemen would not be diverted. At least thirty Catholics are killed in the fight. No Orangemen are hit. (source: Zimmermann)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmermann 96, "Dolly's Brae" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Graham, p. 15, "Dolly's Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dolly's Brae (II)" (subject)
cf. "Dolly's Brae (III)" (subject)
cf. "Dolly's Brae (IV)" (subject)
cf. "A Dream of Dolly's Brae" (subject)
NOTES: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
Zimmermann: "There are at least six other ballads on the same subject, most of them with some stanzas in common."
For another ballad with many illegible words see
Bodleian, Harding B 26(143), "Doly's [sic] Brae's No More" ("Come all you loyal Orangemen, I pray listen unto me"), unknown, n.d. - BS
According to Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster, Blackstaff Press, 1992, pp. 302-304, the Orange Order in 1849 announced a long march, avoiding the main roads in order to march through mostly Catholic districs. "Clearlly the intention was to provoke the Catholic Ribbonmen, but as the Party Processions Act had lapsed, the authorities hoped that if enough troops and police were sent, a clash could be prevented." Reportedly there were at least 1200 heavily armed marchers.
Perhaps a thousand Ribbonmen came out in response, but the two factions for long merely maneuvered without violence.
Major Wilkinson, who led troops on Dolly's Brae between the two mobs, reported that "there went bang a shot in front, but I don't know where it came from no more than the man in the moon." Another officer thought it sounded "more like a squib," but felt it came from the Orange side. But whatever the initial sound was, it soon had both sides shooting.
"At the top of the hill the police found eighteen pitchforks, seven pikes and ten muskets, and half a dozen bodies. Not a single Orangeman was wounded. The forces of law and order were also unscathed, except for a constable accidentally bayoneted in the arm.... The Catholics took away most of their dead and wounded, but the Newry Telegraph... reckoned that no fewer than fifty of the Ribbonmen were either killed or wounded'. The government inquiry estimated that at least thirty Catholics had been killed."
The result was a new Party Processions Act, but of course the damage to inter-religious relations had been done.
For other ballads of Party Fights -- of which Dolly's Brae was the most famous and probably the most severe -- see "The Battle That Was Fought in the North" and "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan." - RBW
File: Zimm096

Dolly's Brae (II)


DESCRIPTION: "Ribbon-knaves" attacked a July 12 Orange parade with "murderous volleys." The Orangemen "quenched the Popish brand which death-fires would have lighted." Afterwards Orangemen are attacked but "ten hundred Paypishes [are knocked] right over Dolly's Brae"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1848 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae, County Down, and divert an Orangemen's march.
July 12, 1849 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae but the Orangemen would not be diverted. At least thirty Catholics are killed in the fight. No Orangemen are hit. (source: Zimmermann)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 120-121, "Dolly's Brae" (1 text)
Roud #6544
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dolly's Brae (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES: For background on Dolly's Brae, and other songs on party fights, see the notes to "Dolly's Brae (I)." - (RBW, BS)
File: HayU120

Dolly's Brae (III)


DESCRIPTION: July 12, 1849: Lord Roden invites the Rathfriland Orangemen to march. Priests Mooney and Murphy encourage the "rebels." "The Ribbonmen advantage took and fired upon our rear" but no Orangemen were hit in the battle. The Orangemen claim "glorious victory"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1848 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae, County Down, and divert an Orangemen's march.
July 12, 1849 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae but the Orangemen would not be diverted. At least thirty Catholics are killed in the fight. No Orangemen are hit. (source: Zimmerman)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Graham, p. 14, "Dolly's Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmermann 96, "Dolly's Brae" (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dolly's Brae (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
Zimmermann: "There are at least six other ballads on the same subject, most of them with some stanzas in common."
In "A Dream of Dolly's Brae" one priest, named Morgan, is mentioned as leading the ambush.
This song establishes that "Lord Roden was Grand Master of the Orangemen." - BS
The Rodens were strongly linked to the Protestant cause. According to Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster, Blackstaff Press, 1992, p. 238, they were among the Ulster landowners who had voted for Union in 1800. The Dolly's Brae march, acording to Bardon, p. 303, was to terminate on Lord Roden's land, and p. 341 reports that the Earl of Roden was one of the organizers of a great Protestant revival in that year. - RBW
File: Grah014

Dolly's Brae (IV)


DESCRIPTION: July 12, [18]49 an Orange march is intercepted by Catholic Ribbonmen but "we did them greatly scar." The Orange "were the conquerors of Crossgar." For loyalty to the Pope the "false misguided heretics ... will be rewarded in the regions down below"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1848 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae, County Down, and divert an Orangemen's march.
July 12, 1849 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae but the Orangemen would not be diverted. At least thirty Catholics are killed in the fight. No Orangemen are hit. (source: Zimmerman)
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #6544
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Dolly's Brae" (on IRRCinnamond01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dolly's Brae (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES: As in "A Dream of Dolly's Brae," the Catholic priest among the Ribbonmen is named Morgan; "Dolly's Brae (I)" mentions two priests and "Dolly's Brae (III) names them Mooney and Murphy.
For a reference to Crossgar see "Defence of Crossgar." For a sense of the times and the antagonism caused by sectarian parades note that "Crossgar" is the St Patrick's Day between the "Dolly's Brae" July 12 events. - BS
For background on Dolly's Brae, and other songs on party fights, see the notes to "Dolly's Brae (I)." - (RBW, BS)
File: RcDolBr4

Dolphin, The


DESCRIPTION: "All on one summer's morning, The fourteenth day of May, our Dolphin slipped her cable...." The song describes the ship's triumphant voyage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: sailor battle
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell-FSRA 66, "The Dolphin" (1 text, probably a confused version of "The Dolphin" and "The Banks of the Nile" [Laws N9] or similar)
Greig #125, p. 2, "The Saucy Dolphin" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 41, "The Saucy Dolphin" (1 text)
Roud #690
RECORDINGS:
Sam Larner, "The Dolphin" (on SLarner02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain)" (plot, lyrics) and references there
cf. "The Terrible Privateer" (plot)
NOTES: Any number of Royal Navy ships were named Dolphin; one laid down in 1751 was reportedly the ninth of that name (that one was famous as an exploring vessel, and for its early use of a copper-coated bottom). Whether this song is actually based on the exploits of a particular Dolphin is unclear. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: ChFRS066

Dom Pedro, The [Laws D12]


DESCRIPTION: The Dom Pedro sails from Boston to Shanghai. The crew reaches their destination, unload the ship, and rejoice at the thought of coming home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Colcord)
KEYWORDS: ship return
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws D12, "The Dom Pedro"
Colcord, pp. 179-180, "The Dom Pedro" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 678, DOMPEDRO
Roud #2236
File: LD12

Don Kelly's Girl


See Zeb Tourney's Girl [Laws E18] (File: LE18)

Don' Cher Look at Me, Ca'line


DESCRIPTION: "Don' cher look at me, Ca'line, Don' cher look at me! You done busted up many a po' niggah's hat, But you ain't a-goin' to bust up mine! Oh, it's hahd to love, An' it's mighty hahd to leave, But it's hahder to make up yo' mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 273, "Don' Cher Look at Me, Ca'line" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF273

Don't Be Weary Traveller


DESCRIPTION: "Don't be weary, traveler, come along home to Jesus (x2)." "My head got wet with the morning dew, Come along home... Angels bear me witness too." "Where to do I did not know, Ever since he freed my soul." "I look at the world and the world look new."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 75, "Don't Be Weary Traveller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12036
File: AWG075

Don't Come to Michigan


DESCRIPTION: Singer tells listeners all the reasons not to come to the Michigan lumber woods: snakes, bugs, dangerous sawmills, corduroy roads, quack doctors, and thieving merchants.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: warning lumbering work nonballad logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 3, "Don't Come to Michigan" (1 text)
Roud #6524
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (lyrics)
cf. "On Meesh-e-gan" (theme)
File: Be003

Don't Count Your Chickens


DESCRIPTION: The singer warns against counting one's chickens before they are hatched. He cites as examples the banker who expected to be rich but had his house attached, the boy who expected to marry but had his girl stolen away, etc.
AUTHOR: Probably Rudy Sooter
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: warning money courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 482, "Don't Count Your Chickens" (1 text)
Roud #7584
RECORDINGS:
Rudy Sooter, "Don't Count Your Chickens" (Black & White 10023, n.d.)
File: R482

Don't Cry


See When He Comes, He'll Come in Green (File: Br3070)

Don't Ever Trust a Sailor


See When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)

Don't Forget Me, Little Darling (I)


See Randolph 733, "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling" (4 texts, 2 tunes, with the "D" text belonging here; "A" and "B" are "Greenback Dollar" and "C" probably composite)
BrownII 163, "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling" (1 text) (File: BrII163)

Don't Forget Me, Little Darling (II)


See Greenback Dollar (File: R733)

Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind


DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of troubles with ex-sweetheart. She says he is the "meanest boy that ever lived or died." Later, she throws her arms around him "like grapevines round a gum." At his last visit, she had "Johnny's arms around her, and the baby on the floor."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Fields and/or Crockett Ward)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of troubles with ex-sweetheart; he goes to see her but she says he is the "meanest boy that ever lived or died." He goes again; she throws her arms around him "like grapevines round a gum." He tells listeners to tell her "if she goes to make her bread, to wash her nasty hands" and that "if she don't like my way of doin', to get some other fella." The last time he's seen her, she had "Johnny's arms around her, and the baby on the floor."
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness loneliness courting floatingverses dancetune baby lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 20, #5 (1971), p, 10, "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (1 text, 1 tune, the J. E. Mainer version)
RECORDINGS:
Allen Bros., "Ain't That Skippin' and Flyin'" (Columbia 15270-D, 1928) [see Notes]
Frank Blevins & his Tar Heel Rattlers, "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (Columbia 15280-D, 1928; on Lost Prov1, GoinUpTown)
Mainer's Mountaineers, "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (Bluebird B-7289, 1937)
Fields [and/or Crockett] Ward [& the Grayson County Railsplitters] "Ain't That Trouble in Mind" (OKeh 45304, 1929; rec. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pig at Home in the Pen" (floating verse)
cf. "Shady Grove", "Darling Corey" (floating phrase)
cf. "Liza Jane" (floating verses)
cf. "cf. "Willy, Poor Boy" (floating verses)
NOTES: While one verse and a phrase float, most of the rest of the song is original; the verses sound like floaters but aren't. If, as I suspect, Frank Blevins wrote the piece, it was a remarkable achievement; it's a brilliant song, his fiddling was superb, and he was all of fifteen years old when he recorded. - PJS
It appears to me that this song is actually closest to "Liza Jane"; a Stanley Brothers version has several stanzas in common with this piece. But it does appear to be at least an adaption of that framework. - RBW
I don't think so; Liza Jane is much more a collection of floaters, whereas this has a unifying theme of the singer's rejection by the girl. If the Stanley Brothers' version of "Liza Jane" -- recorded decades later -- includes overlapping verses, my guess is they were taken from this song, rather than the other way around.
Well, here's a conundrum; the Allen Bros. "Ain't That Skippin' and Flyin'" uses an identical tune with "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind," but the verses are floaters, without the implicit plot of this song. Frank Blevins's recording of, "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" was made first -- by three days, and for the same record company. But then, the Ward recording predates both, and its title splits the difference. Its words are floaters as well. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: RcDGTIYM

Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)


DESCRIPTION: "Massa had a yellow gal, He brought her from the south, Her hair it curled so very tight She couldn't shut her mouth." "He took her to a tailor" to repair her defect; "She swallowed up the tailor." Now he uses her nose "to hang his hat and coat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, LOCSinging sb10148a)
KEYWORDS: slave humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 903-904, "Massa Had a Yellow Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 406, "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (1 text plus 2 fragments; the one full text consists mostly of floating verses); also 405, "Dearest Mae" (the "C" excerpt contains the first verse of this song)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 66-68, "Ole Mars'r Had a Yaller Gal," "Ol' Mars'r Had a Pretty Yaller Gal," "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune); also p. 110, "Dar Was a Gal in our Town" (1 short text, with the "don't get weary" chorus though Scarborough links it with "Old Virginny Never Tire")
Creighton-NovaScotia 112, "Coloured Girl from the South" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 355, [no title] (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 481, "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (source notes only)
ST BAF904 (Full)
Roud #11744
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon [w. McGee Bros.], "Don't Get Weary Children" (Decca 5369, 1937; Montgomery Ward 8029, 1939)
Kirk & Sam McGee, "Coming from the Ball" (on McGeeSmith1)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb10148a, "Gal From the South," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" (floating verses)
cf. "Letter from Down the Road" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Ain't Got Time to Tarry
NOTES: The version printed in Botkin has almost a ballad flavor; it is the exaggerated story of how a master dealt with a physically unusual slave. Dave Macon has a fuller version, "Don't Get Weary Children." The latter has a much larger set of verses, and might be a separate song -- but who knows how much of it comes from Uncle Dave's imagination?
The texts in Brown don't help much, either; two are fragments and the third a collection of floating verses. Scarborough's several versions also show much diversity. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10148a: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: BAF904

Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling


DESCRIPTION: The wife pleads: "Don't go out tonight, my darling, Do not leave me here alone... Though the wine-cup may be tempting And your friends are full of glee... Darling, won't you stay with me?" But he goes out, and is carried home (dead?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Grayson & Whitter; manuscript version from 1889?)
KEYWORDS: drink husband wife separation
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 339, "Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling" (1 text)
BrownIII 26, "Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling" (3 texts)
Roud #3521
RECORDINGS:
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling" (Victor 21139, 1927)
Uncle Henry's Original Kentucky Mountaineers, "Don't Go Out Tonight My Darling" (Capitol 48036, 1949)
File: R339

Don't Go, Tommy


DESCRIPTION: "You'll miss it, my boy, now mind what I say, Don't spend all your money and time in that way." The aged parents beg Tommy not to go out carousing. They tell him to work, and remind him that they cared for him. Refrain" Don't go there, Tommy, don't go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: age family work nonballad gambling drink
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 857, "Don't Go, Tommy" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 163-164, "Don't You Go, Tommy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7531
File: R857

Don't Leave Your Mother When Her Hair Turns Gray


DESCRIPTION: "Stick to your mother, Tom, And don't you leave her worry, lad." The singer, who lost his father at a young age, reminds Tom of how his mother cared for him. So Tom is advised to care for mother, even when her hair turns gray
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Osborne/Music: Ernest J. Symons (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: age mother sailor orphan
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 717, "Stick to Your Mother, Tom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7380
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm a Decent Boy from Ireland" (theme)
NOTES: Apparently originally titled "Stick to Your Mother, Tom," but I've used the only title I found in tradition. - RBW
File: R717

Don't Let Your Deal Go Down


DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Been all around this whole round world... Anyplace I hang my hat/Feels like home to me"; "Left my little girl a'crying"; "Where did you get your high-top shoes" Chorus: "Don't let your deal go down/Till your last (g)old dollar is gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Charlie Poole)
KEYWORDS: gambling nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
BrownIII 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 texts, both mixed; "A" is mostly "Pretty Little Foot" with verses from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" while "B" is a hash of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," ""More Pretty Girls Than One," "In the Pines," and others)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 182-183, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer, p. 70, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, p. 285, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 144, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (1 text)
DT, DEALDOWN*
Roud #4854
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (OKeh 45096, 1927)
Lake Howard, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Perfect 13151, 1935)
Dick Justice, "Old Black Dog" (Brunswick 395, c. 1929)
Kessinger Brothers, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Brunswick 411, 1930)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1) (NLCR12)
W. Lee O'Daniel & the Light Crust Doughboys, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Vocalion 03471, 1937)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues" (Columbia 15038-D, 1925; on CPoole01, CPoole05); (Columbia 15184-D, 1927)
Riley Puckett, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Columbia 15448-D, 1929) (Bluebird B-6067, 1935)
Mike Seeger, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on MSeeger01)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (OKeh 45054, 1926)
Stoneman Family, "The Black Dog Blues" (on Stonemans01)
Fields Ward, Glen Smith & Wade Ward, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on HalfCen1)
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Don't Let the Deal Go Down" (Vocalion 05282, 1939; Columbia 37739, 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Pines" (words)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Last Gold Dollar
High Top Shoes
NOTES: The phrase "let your deal go down" refers to the Georgia Skin Game, a card game popular among gamblers in the first half of the 20th century. - PJS
File: CSW182

Don't Let Your Watch Run Down


DESCRIPTION: "Don' let yo' watch run down, Cap'n, Don' let yo' watch run down. Workin' on de levee, dollar an' half a day, Workin' for my Lulu, gettin' mo' dan pay." "...Workin on' de railroad, mud up to my knees, Workin' for my Lulu, she's a hard ole gal to please."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading work hardtimes floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg, p. 370, "Don' Let Yo' Watch Run Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 247, "Don't Let Your Watch Run Down, Cap'n" (1 short text)
Roud #11641
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Working on the New Railroad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)" (floating verses)
File: San370

Don't Let Your Watch Run Down, Cap'n


See Don't Let Your Watch Run Down (File: San370)

Don't Lie, Buddy


DESCRIPTION: "Mammy Logan, she had a daughter And she run a cookshop down in Florida. How I know? God knows I been there, An I bought four pork chops -- for a quarter. A-don't lie, buddy, don't lie." A collection of semi-tall tales with a bluesy, bawdy feel
AUTHOR: (published versions adapted by Josh White?)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1945 (recording, Lead Belly & Josh White)
KEYWORDS: food lie courting animal talltale
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FSNA 295, "Don't Lie, Buddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Leadbelly & Josh White, "Don't Lie, Buddy" (Asch 432, rec. c. 1945)
File: LoF295

Don't Like a Rich White Man Nohow


See I Don't Like No Railroad Man (File: San326)

Don't Never Marry a Drunkard


DESCRIPTION: "Seven long year I've done been married, I wish to God I was an old maid...." The woman marries a man who made fine promises, but now he won't work or care for the children; he spends his nights in a bar. The woman warns girls against marrying drunkards
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink marriage warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 337, "Don't Never Marry a Drunkard" (1 text)
Roud #724
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Seven Long Years
File: R337

Don't Never Trust a Sailor (I)


See When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)

Don't Run Down the Irish (My Father Was Born in Killlarney)


DESCRIPTION: "My father was born in Killarney, My mother was born in Cork; I've been taught to love old Ireland Ever since I could walk. So don't run down the Irish; If you do, you'll make me cry. For an Irishman I've always been, And an Irishman I'll die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: nonballad Ireland
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 224, "My Father was Born in Killarney" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MCB224

Don't Sell Daddy Anymore Whiskey


DESCRIPTION: " Don't sell Daddy anymore whiskey, for I know it will take him away, We all are hungry and Mama is weeping, don't sell him no whiskey today." The child says father is kind when sober, but cruel when drunk, and begs the bartender to cut him off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recording, Betty Garland)
KEYWORDS: drink commerce abuse family
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Betty Garland, "Don't Sell Daddy Anymore Whiskey" (on BGarland01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Sell Him Any More Rum" (subject)
NOTES: When Paul Stamler sent me this, he asked if it is the same as "Don't Sell Him Any More Rum." Obviously the plots are the same. The forms are different enough, though, that I decided to split them. - RBW
File: RcDSDAMW

Don't Sell Him Any More Rum


DESCRIPTION: The girl appeals to the liquor-seller, "Don't sell him any more rum; He's reeling already, you see. I know when he comes home tonight He'll beat poor mama and me." The girl asks why the seller can't sell something "that won't make people so sad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Giddens Sisters)
KEYWORDS: drink commerce abuse family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 322, "Don't Sell Him Any More Rum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 273-275, "Don't Sell Him Any More Rum" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 322)
DT, DONTSELL*
Roud #7796
RECORDINGS:
James & Martha Carson, "Don't Sell Him Another Drink" (Capitol 57-40175, 1949)
Giddens Sisters, "Don't Sell Pa Anymore Rum" (OKeh 45143, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Sell Daddy Any More Whiskey" (subject)
File: R322

Don't Stay After Ten


DESCRIPTION: "There is one thing I hate to say If ever you come again, To see me in my evening hours, You don't stay after ten." Last time he stayed late, and now her parents are on watch for the young man. Another mistake and it's over....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting family
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 375, "Don't Stay After Ten" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 16, "Don't Stay After Ten" (2 texts)
Roud #4969
File: R375

Don't Swat Your Mother, Boys


DESCRIPTION: Two brothers come home to find that dinner is not ready. One is about to hit his mother because she is slow. The youngest child tells them, "Don't swat you mother, boys, just because she is old." They beg forgiveness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988
KEYWORDS: family mother children violence food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 128, "Don't Swat Your Mother, Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15690
NOTES: When I first saw this song, I couldn't believe it was a folk song. But here it is again. I'm pretty sure it appears in some other book(s) we have indexed, because I saw it there -- but I can't locate it now. - RBW
File: PHCFSB128

Don't Take Everybody to Be Your Friend


DESCRIPTION: Singer is traveling for Jesus. His dying mother told him, If you see your brother in the fault, don't gossip; take it to God. People who owe you money will turn away. Refrain: "Don't mind what the people say/Lord, don't take everybody to be your friend"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Frederick McQueen & group)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness virtue warning dying religious mother Jesus
FOUND IN: Bahamas
RECORDINGS:
Frederick McQueen & group, "Jesus Will Be Your Friend" (on MuBahamas2)
NOTES: I assign Joseph Spence's title, "Don't Take Everybody to Be Your Friend" rather than Frederick McQueen's earlier title, as the 1965 Spence recording is the one that was most widely heard and picked up within the folk revival. - PJS
The thrust of this is almost all out of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), with perhaps a slight detour into the story of the Good Samaritan, but the references are allusions rather than real citations. - RBW
File: RcDTEBYF

Don't Tell a Lie


See Oh, How He Lied (File: FSWB031B)

Don't Turn Around


See Keep On a-Walking (Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round) (File: SBoA374)

Don't Wed an Old Man


See Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)

Don't You Go, Tommy


See Don't Go, Tommy (File: R857)

Don't You Grieve After Me (I)


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes various adventures: Being found by the police with a wallet not his own, sleeping in a hotel and being declared a deadbeat. Chorus: When I'm gone, Don't you, don't you grieve (x3), An' I told him not to grieve after me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: rambling crime travel floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 257, "Don't You Grieve After Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 220-222, "Don't You Grieve After Me" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 257)
BrownIII 556, "Bye and Bye" (1 fragment, possibly not this but too short to classify as anything else)
Roud #6698
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "I Told 'em Not to Grieve After Me" (on Cansler1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Weep After Me" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Told Him Not to Grieve After Me
NOTES: Alan Lomax claims -- on the basis of a few words in the chorus -- that this is the same as "When I'm Gone." I don't buy it. - RBW
File: R257

Don't You Grieve After Me (II)


See Don't You Weep After Me (File: R262)

Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan?


See Don't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn? (File: RcDYHJM)
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