I Went to the Woods


DESCRIPTION: "Shure I went to the woods where I heard a big drum. 'By the holy Saint Patrick,' says I, 'that's a drum.'" The Irishman complains about the land where he lives: Cold weather, girls always chewing gum, the dreadful smell of fermented cabbage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: food hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-Lumbering #51, "I Went to the Woods" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4563
NOTES: Fowke describes this song as "somewhat indelicate." This refers primarily to the first verse, which on its face is about a woodpecker drilling for food, but which Fowke considers to have a secondary meaning.
Personally, I suspect the song is composite; the first verse is, well, either about a bird or about something that is describes as one but isn't -- but the rest is a straightforward gripe about a the place the Irishman lives. - RBW
File: FowL51

I Went Up on the Mountain Top


See Liza Jane (File: San132)

I Whipped My Horse


DESCRIPTION: "I whipped my horse till I cut the blood (x3) And then I made him tread the mud." "I fed my horse in a poplar trough (x3) And there he caught the whooping cough." "Now my old horse is dead and gone (x3) But he left his jaw-bones ploughing the corn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: animal nonsense nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SharpAp 219, "I Whipped My Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 71, "I Whipped My Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3267
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)"
cf. "Ox Driving Song" (floating lyrics)
File: SKE71

I Will Give My Love an Apple


See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

I Will Give You a Red Dress


See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

I Will Love Thee Always


See Out In the Moonlight (I Will Love Thee Always) (File: R803)

I Will Put My Ship In Order


DESCRIPTION: The singer puts his ship in order to sail to his true love. He arrives wet and tired, knocks at her window, and asks her to let him in. She delays (perhaps her parents are watching), and he leaves before she comes. She laments his departure
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: ship love reunion separation nightvisit betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 35-36, "I Drew My Ship into the Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune, with a "ripest apples" floating verse)
Greig #54, p. 1, "I Will Set My Good Ship in Order" (1 text)
GreigDuncan4 792, "I Will Set My Ship in Order" (19 texts, 16 tunes)
Ord, pp. 318-319, "I Will Set My Ship in Order" (1 text)
DT, SHIPORDR* SHIPORD2*
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 224-225, "I Will Put My Ship in Order" (1 tune)
Roud #402
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4] (plot)
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (lyrics, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My True Love Johnnie
NOTES: This song is about 80% identical with the piece I've titled "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)"; the only differences are in the first verse (about the ship) and the ending (in this, the lover leaves; in the other, the girl arrives in time to admit him). Fragments could file with either song.
Some, including Roud, have identified this song with "The Drowsy Sleeper," and there is some justice to this; there may be cross-influence. Indeed, for a time I listed this as an alternate title of "Drowsy Sleeper." But we are splitters, and so the two are now separate. I think that's the proper decision anyway.
The last few verses of this song bear a resemblance to Song of Solomon 5:2-6, but that may be coincidence. - RBW
GreigDuncan4: "Greig prints a composite version."
Christie [beware], "as sung by the Editor's grandfather," has a happy ending: "He turned him right and round so quickly, Says, 'Come with me, my lovely one, And we'll be wed, my own sweet lover, And let them talk when we are gone." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord318

I Will Rock You Wi' My Foot, Love


DESCRIPTION: "I will rock you wi' my foot, love, I will bind you wi' my hand; I'll gie you three locks o' my coal-black hair To be to you a cradle band"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: lullaby baby hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1558, "I Will Rock You Wi' My Foot, Love" (1 short text)
Roud #13507
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81558

I Will Sail the Salt Seas Over


DESCRIPTION: "I will sail the salt seas over And the Shannon after me, For your equal in Loch Ray love Is rare to be seen. I would rather than a horse And a bridle for to steer That I ne'er mentioned the name of Loch Ray la she sheer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 102, "I Will Sail the Salt Seas Over" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2776
NOTES: The current description is all of the Creighton-SNewBrunswick fragment.
Creighton-SNewBrunswick: "The spelling of the last line ["Loch Ray la she sheer"] may be incorrect." - BS
File: CrSNB102.

I Will Set My Good Ship in Order


See I Will Put My Ship In Order (File: Ord318)

I Will Set My Ship In Order


See I Will Put My Ship In Order (File: Ord318)

I Will Take You Back Again, Kathleen


See I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen (File: RJ19083)

I Will Tell You My Troubles


DESCRIPTION: "I will tell you of my troubles, my ups and downs through life...." The singer complains about the life of a cowboy. Life is hard and lonely, and there is too much to do; the cows wander off even during the monotonous meals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: work cowboy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 25, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (7 texts, 2 tunes, with the "G" text going here)
Roud #11208
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
File: FCW025G

I Will Tell You of a Fellow


See Common Bill (File: R119)

I Wish I Been Dere (I Wish I Been There)


DESCRIPTION: "My mother, you follow Jesus, My sister, you follow Jesus, My brother, you follow Jesus, To fight until I die. U wish I been there yonder, To climb Jacob's ladder, I wish I been there yonder, To wear the starry crown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 29, "I Wish I Been Dere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11982
File: AAWG029A

I Wish I Had Someone to Call My Own


DESCRIPTION: "I wish I had someone to call my own; I wish I had someone to take my care." The singer lists all that he's tired of: coffee, tea, living, eating, sleeping, plus, "I"m so tired of livin' I don't know what to do; You're tired of me, an' I'm tired of you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 279, "I Wish I Had Someone to Call My Own" (1 text)
NOTES: Get help. - RBW
File: ScaNF279

I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me


See Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight (File: R746)

I wish I was a Child again


See Died for Love (I); also The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: McST055)

I Wish I Was a Little Bird (Nobody Cares for Me)


DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was a little bird, I'd fly up in a tree, I'd sit and sing my little sad song (spoken:) But I can't stay here by myself." "I wish I was a little fish, I'd swim way down in the sea, I'd sit and sing my little sad song, But I can't stay here..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: loneliness nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden, p. 489, "I Wish I Was a Little Bird" (1 text)
Sandburg, p. 338, "I Wish I Was a Little Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 722, "Nobody Cares for Me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #6357
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Have No Loving Mother Now (Oh, See My Father Layin' There)" (lyrics)
File: San338

I Wish I Was a Little Sparrow


See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground


DESCRIPTION: "I wish I (was/were) a mole in the ground (x2), If I was a mole in the ground, I'd root that mountain down...." The singer complains of Kempy's expensive tastes and his troubles with drink and/or the law. He may wish to be other things.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal money hardtimes floatingverses dancetune
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
BrownIII 173, "Mole In the Ground" (1 text)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 900-901, "I Wish I Wuz a Mole in the Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 144, "(I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground)" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 152-153, "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 394, "Mole In The Ground" (1 text)
DT, WISHMOLE*
Roud #4957
RECORDINGS:
Green Bailey, "I Wish I Were A Mole In The Ground" (Conqueror 7255 [as Amos Baker], 1929; rec. 1928; on KMM)
Frank Bode, "Tempy" (on FBode1)
Chancey Bros., "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (on FolkVisions2)
Eugene Jemison, "Girls, Quit Your Rowdy Ways" (on Jem01)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (OKeh 40155, 1924); (Brunswick 219B, 1928; on AAFM3, BLLunsford01); (BLLunsford02, FMUSA)
Pete Seeger, "Mole in the Ground" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Don't Like No Railroad Man" (floating lyrics)
cf. "My Last Gold Dollar" (floating lyrics)
cf. "New River Train" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "Oh, Honey, Where You Been So Long?" (lyrics)
File: BAF900

I Wish I Was at Home


DESCRIPTION: "I'm marchin' down to Washington With a heavy load an' a rusty gun, An' I wish I was at home (x2). They carried me down to the navy yard, An' round me they placed a mounted guard, An' I wish I was at home (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: home homesickness soldier
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 240, "I Wish I Was at Home" (1 text)
Roud #7710
File: R240

I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again


DESCRIPTION: "When I was single, marriage I did crave. Now I am married, it's trouble to my grave. Lord, I wish I was a single girl again!" The wife complains of hard work in the kitchen, of poverty, of poor clothes, hungry children, and a husband who steals her money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: husband wife marriage poverty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Warner 126, "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again"
Belden, p. 437, "When I Was Single" (1 text, with no letter designation; the lettered texts are all "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)")
BrownIII 28, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (3 texts)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 320-321, "The Single Girl" (1 text plus a fragment of "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)"; tune on p. 442)
Fuson, p. 188, "Oh, I Wish I Were Single Again" (1 text)
SharpAp 86, "The Single Girl" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Scott-BoA, p. 171, "The Single Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 13(A), "When I Was Single (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 84, "Single Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 154-155, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 272-273, "Single Girl" (1 text)
Arnett, p. 59, "Single Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SNGLGRL3*
Roud #436
RECORDINGS:
Anne, Judy, & Zeke Canova, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (Brunswick 264, 1928)
Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "I Wish I Was a Single Girl, Again" (Decca 24215, 1947)
Vernon Dalhart & Co., "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (Edison 51610, 1925)
Sid Harkreader, "I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again" (Vocalion 15035, 1925)
Kelly Harrell, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (Victor 19563, 1925; on KHarrell01) (Victor 20242, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Roscoe Holcomb, "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" [LP] or "Single Girl" [CD] (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (Conqueror 9189, 1938; Vocalion 04772, 1939)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Single Girl" (on NLCR14)
Frank Proffitt, "Single Girl" (on FProffitt01)
Riley Puckett ,"I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (Bluebird B-8083, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "When I Was Single" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Henry Whitter, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (OKeh 40375, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)"
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "Sorry the Day I Was Married"
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme)
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
cf. "Married and Single Life" (subject)
NOTES: Roud lumps "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" and "Single Girl, Married Girl" (and perhaps others). Definitely a stretch, though the songs can easily cross-fertilize. - RBW
File: Wa126

I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the happy days when he was single. He recalls marrying a wife, "the plague of my life." She died and was buried, so he went and married again, to find that he "wished for the old one again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: funeral marriage shrewishness wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Randolph 365, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 329-331, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 365A)
Eddy 69, "When I Was a Young Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy 204, "I Wished To Be Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan7 1292, "When I Was Single, Oh Then" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
BrownIII 19, "When I Was Single" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 13 more, though most of the omitted texts are single stanzas)
Chappell-FSRA 75, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 320-321, "The Single Girl" (1 text plus a fragment; the song is "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again," but the fragment is this)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 47-50, "I Wish I Was Single Again"; "I Wish I Were Single Again" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Warner 127, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 437-439, "When I Was Single" (3 texts, plus a text of "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again")
Fuson, pp. 85-86, "Oh Then" (1 text, in which the second wife apparently plans to hang the husband before she, like the first, falls sick)
Cambiaire, pp. 99-100, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
Shellans, pp. 20-21, "My First And Last Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the second wife tries to hang the singer and he shoots her after being rescued; Shellans thinks the singer may have made up this material.)
Sandburg, p. 47, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 215-217 , "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 143, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 169-171, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus 177, pp. 181-182, "The Married Man" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 13(B), "When I Was Single (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 156-158, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 2 tunes)
LPound-ABS, 98, pp. 207-208, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 274-275, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 276-277, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 172, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
DT, WISHSNGL
Roud #437
RECORDINGS:
Foster & James, "When I Was Single My Pockets Would Jingle" (Gennett 6434/Supertone 9260, 1928) [also issued as by Jim Burke, possibly a pseudonym for Doc Roberts]
Frank Luther, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Crown 3084, 1931)
Riley Puckett, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Columbia 15036-D, 1925) (Bluebird B-8066, 1939)
Arthur Tanner, "When I Was Single My Pockets Would Jingle" (Silvertone 3515, 1926)
Welby Toomey, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Gennett 3202, 1926)
Tom Watson, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Silvertone 3263, 1926)
Henry Whitter, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (OKeh 40375, 1925) (OKeh 45045, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Single (II)"
cf. "Poor Married Man" (theme)
cf. "Married and Single Life" (subject)
NOTES: Characterized by a stanza format something like this:
When I was single, oh then,
When I was single, oh then,
When I was single, my money would jingle;
I wish I was single again.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, in By the Shores of Silver Lake (chapter 22) has a slightly different form, allegedly from 1880:
When I was young and single,
I could make the money jingle
And the world was well with me, O then!
The world went well with me then. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R365

I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)


DESCRIPTION: The wife complains of the troubles of matrimony. When first her husband courted her, all was kindness, but now it's nothing but work and care for the children and try to stay out of trouble. She says, "I hope I shall be hanged if I ever love again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: fight husband marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Eddy 70, "How I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 366, "A Married Woman's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 26-27, "A Married Woman's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, with the unrelated "The Sorrow of Marriage" in an appendix"
DT, SNGLGRL2*
Roud #436
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "Single Again" (on MMacArthur01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again"
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme)
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
NOTES: Characterized by a stanza format something like this:
Once I was single and lived at my ease,
But now I am married with a husband to please,
Four young children to maintain;
Oh how I wish I were single again! - RBW
File: E070

I Wish I Were Where Ellen Lies


See Helen of Kirconnell (File: OBB152)

I Wish I Were Where Gadie Rins


See Where the Gadie Rins (I), (II), etc. (File: Ord347)

I Wish I Were Where Helen Lies


See Helen of Kirconnell (File: OBB152)

I Wish I Were Yon Red, Red Rose


See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

I Wish My Granny Saw Ye


DESCRIPTION: Country lad Johnny Raw comes to town, where the girls giggle, "I wish my granny saw ye." He buys a girl a wedding dress; she laughs at him. A girl asks him to carry her baby; he consents. She disappears, and he is left to care for the child
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: clothes trick courting baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord, pp. 395-396, "I Wish My Granny Saw Ye" (1 text)
Roud #5614
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Basket of Eggs" (plot) and references there
NOTES: Although the general theme of a country boy who falls prey to city tricks occurs throughout this song, I have to suspect it is at least somewhat composite, with the girl-and-baby theme translated bodily into a newer framework. - RBW
File: Ord395B

I Wish My Love


DESCRIPTION: Singer wishes his love were various objects: a cherry, a beeskep, an ewe, etc., so that he might make love to her. After some lovely metaphors, in the last verse he wishes she was a warm turd, and he was a "shitten flea," that he might light upon her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: sex lyric nonballad scatological
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #8738
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "I Wish My Love" (on Lloyd2) = "I Wish, I Wish" (on Lloyd 3) [same recording, changed title]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Pitman's Love Song
NOTES: Lloyd notes, "Rather to my own surprise I find myself too prudish to sing [the last verse], though I'm impressed by its intensity," but he reprints it in his book "Folk Song in England." - PJS
File: RcIWML

I Wish My Love Was a Red Rose


See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

I Wish My Love Was In a Ditch


DESCRIPTION: "I wish my love was in a ditch, Without no clothing to her, With nettles up and down her back Because she was not truer." She had been involved with the singer and another; he claims her child was fathered by the other, and will not sleep with her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love marriage infidelity pregnancy
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 126, "I Wish My Love Was In a Ditch" (1 text)
ST BrII126 (Full)
Roud #6572
NOTES: The editors of Brown suspect this is Scottish, but can cite no other texts (Jamieson has a piece "I Wish My Love Was In a Mire," found also as #41 in The Scot Musical Museum, but the parallels are thematic rather than verbal). - RBW
File: BrII126

I Wish That Girl Was Mine


DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy, Just eighteen inches high, How I'd hug and kiss those girls To see their mammas cry." "Oh, I wish that girl was mine (x2), The only tune that I can play Is 'I wish that girl was mine.'" Of courting, banjos, and last regrets(?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting music
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 298, "I Wish That Girl Was Mine" (1 text)
Roud #16859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Troubled In My Mind" (theme, floating lyrics)
NOTES: This may be a variant of "Troubled In My Mind" or one of its relatives, but it has enough unique material (notably the first verse) that I tentatively separate it. - RBW
File: Br3298

I Wish That You Were Dead, Goodman


DESCRIPTION: "There's six eggs in the pan, goodman (x2), there's one for you and twa for me, And three for (our John Hielandman)." The woman complains, and concludes, "I wish ye were dead, wi' a stone at your head, and I'd run awa wi' John Hielandman"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: food love curse death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan3 695, "Oh, Gin Ye Were Deid, Goodman" (1 fragment)
SHenry H531, p. 506-507, "I Wish That You Were Dead, Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, EGGSMAN WISHDEAD
ST HHH531 (Full)
Roud #5884
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grow the Rashes" (tune, per GreigDuncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There's a Herrin' in the Pan
NOTES: Murray Shoolbraid's notes in the Digital Tradition discuss possible bawdy connections of this song. Interestingly, though they are all extremely subtle, Gordeanna McCulloch has a text which seems to have cleaned them all up and converted them into a complaint against landlords. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: HHH531

I Wish There Was No Prisons


DESCRIPTION: The singer says "I only steal my belly to fill." Prison work is hard and makes him ill. He saw a girl with twins in a perambulator. He kissed one baby while he stole a potato from the other. "I wish there were no prisons. I do. Don't you?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (recording, George Spicer)
KEYWORDS: prison theft humorous nonballad baby
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1708
RECORDINGS:
George Spicer, "I Wish There Was No Prisons" (on Voice14)
File: RcIWTWNP

I Wish They'd Do It Now


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls how, when he was a child, the girls would run to kiss him, cuddle him, bathe him, etc. Unfortunately, he is grown and their attentions have ceased; he remarks, "I've got itches in my britches and I wish they'd do it now."
AUTHOR: E. Freeman Dixey? (author cited in the sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music for "Why Don't They Do It Now?" published)
KEYWORDS: courting youth loneliness humorous
FOUND IN: Australia US(MW) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1447, "How I Wish They'd Do It Now" (1 fragment)
Dean, p. 81, "I Was Born in Killarney" (1 text)
Gilbert, pp. 111-112, ""Why Don't They Do So Now?" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 186-189, "They were very very Good to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOITNOW*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 20, #5 (1971), pp. 16-17, "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (1 text, 1 tune, the Bob Davenport version)
Roud #1401
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Collins, "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (CYL: Edison 5412, c. 1898)
Steve Porter, "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (American Record Co. 031354, c. 1906)
Teddy Simmons, "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (CYL: Columbia 32895, c. 1906)
NOTES: [The original of this is] from "C.P. Hyland's I Wish They'd Do It Now Songster" published in [New York City] in 1869 [Michael Cooney in Sing Out says 1879]. It was an American song. Not very good either, in the original, but the [folk] processed version was/is a gem. - MC
Those wishing to see something like the original version (as I understand it), with only minimal folk processing, are referred to the Meredith/Covell/Brown text. It is indeed rather less than inspired. The tune we tend to hear nowadays is much like "The Wearing of the Green." - RBW
You think those words are insipid? You should see the ones from "Why Don't They Do It Now?" (1865) from which this song is clearly derived. Without seeing the words from the 1869 "I Wish They'd Do It Now Songster", I can't tell whether those were a folk-processing of "Why Don't They Do It Now?" or a parody, if the distinction can even be drawn. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gil111

I Wish, I Wish


See Died for Love (I); also The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: McST055)

I Wished to be Single Again


See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

I Won't Be a Nun!


DESCRIPTION: "Now is it not a pity such a pretty girl as I Should be sent to a nunnery to pine away and die? But I won't be a nun... I'm so fond of pleasure that I cannot be a nun!" The girl is too fond of partying/men.The nuns couldn't handle a novice like her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Songs of the People)
KEYWORDS: clergy party freedom
FOUND IN: US(So) Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden, pp. 266-267, "I Won't Be a Nun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 400, "I Won't Be a Nun!" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WONTNUN*
Roud #7630
File: R400

I Won't Be My Father's Jack


DESCRIPTION: "I won't be my father's jack, I won't be my (mother's/father's) (Jill/Gill), I will be the fiddler's wife And have music when I will. T'other little tune, T'other little tune, Prithee, love, play me T'other little tune."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1767 (Newberry, _Mother Goose's Melody_)
KEYWORDS: music courting father mother nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 257, "I won't be my father's Jack" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #40, p. 54, "(I won't be my Father's Jack)"
NOTES: I've never met this as a genuine traditional song, as opposed to a nursery rhyme, but I heard it sung *somewhere* (the version in my head sounds like Peter Paul & Mary, I'm sorry to say), so I'm putting it in just in case. - RBW
File: BGMG040

I Won't Marry (I)


See I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)

I Wonder As I Wander


DESCRIPTION: "I wonder as I wander out under the sky How Jesus our savior did come for to die." Jesus comes for "poor ornery/ordinary people," is born to Mary in a "cow's stall," is celebrated in the skies; we are assured he could have had anything he wanted
AUTHOR: John Jacob Niles (?), based on at least one traditional stanza
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (sheet music); collected from tradition by 1940
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus childbirth poverty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 600, "I Wonder As I Wander" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #36, "I Wonder As I Wander" (1 text)
Roud #15015
NOTES: I can't help but note an irony: In the entire Bible, Jesus really makes only one request *for himself*: "My father, if it is possible, take this cup from me" (Matt. 26:39, etc.)
The request was not granted. - RBW
File: Br3600

I Wonder Wha'll Be My Man?


DESCRIPTION: "A' kinds o' lads an' men I see, The youngest an' the auldest... I wonder wha'll be my man." The singer wonders about his work, where he is, how she will recognize him. She fears there might be none, and accuses him of keeping her waiting
AUTHOR: Edward Polin ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting oldmaid nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 262-263, "I Wonder Wha'll Be My Man" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 264-265, "I Wonder Wha'll Be My Wife" (1 text, clearly a male adaption of the preceding; Roud #13096)
GreigDuncan7 1383, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "I Wonner Wha'll Be My Man" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5571
File: FVS262

I Wonder Wha'll Be My Wife?


See references under I Wonder Wha'll Be My Man? (File: FVS262)

I Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love Tonight (Green Grass It Grows Bonny)


DESCRIPTION: Woman sings, "I wonder what is keeping my true love tonight?" He sings that he hasn't got anyone else, but he no longer loves her; he can't truly love a woman with two sweethearts. She warns other girls to beware false young men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love warning lover
FOUND IN: Ireland Scotland(Aber)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy 157, "Green Grass It Grows Bonny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 87-88, "Green Grass It Grows Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, p. 187, "The Rose and the Thyme" (1 text, with the plot of this song but introductory stanzas from "Green Grows the Laurel")
DT, KEEPLOVE
Roud #858
RECORDINGS:
McBride 38, "Green Grass it Grows Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (lyrics)
NOTES: *She* should talk! - PJS
Oh, I don't know; they sound perfect for each other.
Interestingly, Ord's text (which seems to mash together this song and "Green Grows the Laurel") doesn't mention the bit about the girl having two sweethearts. Neither does the version in the Digital Tradition, which, however, does not list a source. - RBW
File: K157

I Wonder When I Shall Be Married


DESCRIPTION: "I wonder when I shall be married... For my beauty's beginning to (fail/fade)." The girl's parents would be happy to see her married; they offer a good dowry ("forty good shillings" and household furnishings) but there are as yet no takers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: age loneliness marriage dowry beauty clothes nonballad family oldmaid
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
JHCoxIIB, #16, pp. 157-158, "Old Maid's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 27, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (1 text)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 71, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WHENMARI
Roud #818
RECORDINGS:
Jean & Edna Ritchie, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (on Ritchie03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
cf. "O Gin That I Were Mairrit" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "I Am Gaun to the Garret" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES: This probably began as a British broadside, "The Maiden's Sad Complaint for Want of a Husband," and has a sister in this Index known as "I Am Gaun to the Garret". Even the American versions are often still quite British (note the forty shilling dowry!). But British versions often end with her finding a husband, so I'm listing this as a separate song.
Note that Cox's text is from Kentucky, not West Virginia -- and almost identical to the well-known Ritchie Family version. - RBW
File: CoxII16

I Wonder Where's the Gambler [Laws H22]


DESCRIPTION: The gambler spends all night at cards. In pain, he has to be helped home by friends. He is put to bed, and his mother asks the Lord to forgive him. The gambler says it is too late to pray. The chorus ends, "I wonder where he's gone" (i.e. Heaven or Hell)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: gambling death farewell Hell
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws H22, "I Wonder Where's the Gambler"
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 96-97, "I Wonder Where's the Gambler" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 82-83, "The Gambler's Dying Words" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 152, "The Gambling Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes, but only the "A" text is this song; the "B" text is "Darling Corey")
DT 829, WHERGAMB
Roud #428
RECORDINGS:
Sid Harkreader, "The Gambler's Dying Words" (Broadway 8115, c. 1930)
Panhandle Pete [pseud. for Howard Nash], "The Gambler's Dying Words" (Decca 5599, 1938)
File: LH22

I Wondered and I Wondered


DESCRIPTION: "I wondered and I wondered All the days of my life, Where you're goin', Mr. Mooney, To get yourself a wife, Where you're goin', where you're goin' To get yourself a wife."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad wife
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 315, "I Wondered and I Wondered" (1 short text)
File: Br3315

I Would Not Be Alone


See The Song of the Southern Volunteers (File: SBoA221)

I Would Not Live Always


DESCRIPTION: The singer offers various reasons why "I would not live always:" "Since Jesus was laid there [in the tomb], I'll not fear its gloom." "Who would live always Away from his God?" The singer looks forward to the bliss of heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Harmona Sacra)
KEYWORDS: religious death burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 630, "I Would Not Live Always" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7558
File: R630

I Wouldn't Have an Old Man


DESCRIPTION: The singer refuses to have any part of an old man. She contrasts old and young men: The old are "slobbery," bony, have too many cows to milk, and hog the covers; young men are well-dressed and can keep a girl warm
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Frank Crumit)
KEYWORDS: nonballad age rejection youth marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Eddy 135, "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 174, "An Old Man and a Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 401, "Stand Back, Old Man, Get Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (7 text (some short) plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 5 more, of which "M," "N," and "R" belong here)
Shellans, pp. 8-9, "Git Away, Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, AWAOLDMN*
Roud #3719
RECORDINGS:
Frank Crumit, "Get Away, Old Man, Get Away" (Victor 20137-B, 1926)
Vernon Dalhart, "Get Away Old Man, Get Away" (Brunswick 123, 1927) (Pathe 32254, 1927) (Columbia 969-D, 1927) (Supertone 9228, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5321, n.d.)
Durium Dance Band w. Carson Robison & his Pioneers, "Get Away Old Man" (Durium [UK] EN-25, 1932)
Arthur Fields, "Get Away Old Man" (Broadway 8049, rec. 1927)
Mack Brothers, "Get Away, Old Man, Get Away" (Decca 5073, 1935)
Charlie Newman, "Get Away Old Man, Get Away" (OKeh 45095, 1927)
Chubby Parker, "Get Away Old Maids, Get Away" (Conqueror 7888, 1931; Montgomery Ward M-4945, 1936; on CrowTold02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man"
cf. "Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)"
cf. "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man"
NOTES: I suspect this may be a clean version of "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man," but Ed Cray did not equate the two, and who am I to argue? (It is worth noting that Roud doesn't seem to consider this a song in its own right).
Paul Stamler points out that this song also exists in a version which complains about women, sung by Chubby Parker, and wonders if we shouldn't do something about the title. But the majority of versions complain about men; I suspect the Parker text of being a deliberate rewrite. - RBW
File: R401

I Wouldn't Marry


See I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)

I Wouldn't Marry (II)


See For item #17 in BrownIII, see I Wouldn't Marry an Old Maid AND I'll Not Marry at All AND I Wouldn't Have an Old Man AND I Wouldn't Marry an Old Maid (File: Br3017)

I Wouldn't Marry an Old Maid


DESCRIPTION: "I wouldn't marry an old maid, Tell you the reason why...." Various reasons are offered, e.g. "Her neck is so long and stringy, I fear she'll never die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting oldmaid nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (7 text (some short) plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 5 more, of which ""B," part of "S," and the first stanza of "A" belong here)
File: Br3017

I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man


DESCRIPTION: The singer prefers a young to an old man for explicit sexual reasons.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy age marriage sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 334-335, "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man"
cf. "Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
NOTES: A male version, "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Maid," also exists. Necessarily, its verses differ from the female's; thus there may be two songs on the same theme with similar titles. Presumably the tunes will determine the question. In Randolph-Legman I, the melody for the female version given is more often associated with "No Balls at All." - EC
I suspect this may be a bawdy version of "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man," but Ed did not equate the two, and who am I to argue? - RBW
File: RL334

I Wrote My Love a Letter


See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

I Wuz Borned on the Rivuh


See I Was Born on the River (File: MWHee033)

I Yield


DESCRIPTION: "Fathers, bear your cross, for it will only make you richer, For to enter into that bright kingdom, by and by. I yield, I yield, oh, how I love to yield, For to enter into that bright kingdom, by and by." Similarly with mothers, brothers, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson, p. 219, "I Yield" (1 text)
ST Fus219 (Partial)
Roud #16374
File: Fus219

I-Yi-Yi-Yi (Limericks)


DESCRIPTION: Marked by verses in the form of limericks, always bawdy. Most deal with sexual machinery, either human or mechanical
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: bawdy technology
FOUND IN: US(SW,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray, pp. 216-223, "I-Yi-Yi-Yi" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #10247
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singers, "Limericks" (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cielito Lindo" (tune) and references there
cf. "Waltz Me Around Again Willie" (lyrics)
NOTES: As will be seen from the cross-references, this piece has an assembled tune, and not all versions have the same melody. Nor are there any lyrics found consistently. It classifies as a single song more or less by default. - RBW
File: EM216

I'd Raither Be Married to Something


See No to be Married Ava (File: FVS308)

I'd Rather Be Dead


DESCRIPTION: "I rather be dead an' laid in de dirt Than to see my gal with her feelin's hurt." "I rather be dead an' laid in de sand Than to see my gal with another man." "I rather be dead an' laid in de ground Than to see my gal in anoder weddin' gown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (White)
KEYWORDS: death jealousy burial
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 443, "I'd Rather Be Dead" (1 text)
Roud #11780
NOTES: I suspect this is a fragment of something longer, in which the singer explains the reason for his jealousy. But I can't say what the longer piece is. - RBW
File: Br3443

I'll Awa Hame to My Mither I Will


DESCRIPTION: "I'll awa hame to my mither I will." Mother warns the singer against "the ways o young men" and "to shun ilk appearance o' ill" and so on. But "I'll meet ye next Friday at Mungo's maut mill" and "Be discreet be sincere an ye're welcome back still"
AUTHOR: Alexander Rodger (1784-1846) (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Whitelaw)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan4 897, "I'll Awa Hame to My Mither I Will," GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "I'll Awa Hame to My Mither I Will" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), p. 164, "I'll Awa' Hame"
Roud #6140
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird o' Cockpen" (tune, per Whitelaw and GreigDuncan4)
File: GrD4897

I'll Be All Right


DESCRIPTION: "I'll be all right, I'll be all right, I'll be all right someday/Deep in my heart, I do believe, I'll be all right some day". Similarly, "I'll be like Him...", "I'll overcome"
AUTHOR: Unknown, perhaps adapted from a song by Charles Tindley
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Rev. Gary Davis)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Gary Davis, "I'll Be All Right Someday" (on GaryDavis02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Shall Overcome" (tune, structure, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Will Be All Right
NOTES: Obviously, this song is a near-twin of "We Shall Overcome," and until recently I would have said that the latter was a minimal adaptation of this song. But the recent discovery that "We Will Overcome" was being sung as early as 1908, and in the context of a labor struggle at that, makes the question of ancestry more ambiguous. So I'll leave it up in the air, and simply give this song its own entry, separate from "We Shall Overcome," because of the drastically different social circumstances under which it is sung. - PJS
File: RcIBeAlR

I'll Be All Smiles Tonight


DESCRIPTION: The singer is carefully dressing and bedecking herself with flowers for a wedding -- the wedding of her false true love to another girl. She intends to put on a fine face: "Though my heart will break tomorrow, I'll be all smiles tonight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Luther B. Clarke)
KEYWORDS: love wedding infidelity clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 812, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (2 texts)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 32-34, 40-41, 174-175, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 479, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (source notes only)
Roud #3715
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (Bluebird B-5529, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4497, c. 1934)
Luther B. Clarke [Blue Ridge Highballers], "I'll Be All Smiles To-night Love" (Columbia 15069-D, 1926)
Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers [Oscar Jenkins, Frank Jenkins, Ernest V. Stoneman], "I Will Be All Smiles Tonight" (Conqueror, unissued, 1929)
Jenkins & Whitworth, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (OKeh 45331, 1929)
Bradley Kincaid, "I Will Be All Smiles Tonight" (Supertone 9566, 1929)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner ("Mac & Bob"), "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (Brunswick 164, 1927)
Linda Parker & the Cumberland Ridge Runners, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (Conqueror 8164, 1933)
Reed Children, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (Columbia 15525-D, 1930; rec. 1928)
Kitty Wells, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (RCA Victor 21-0333, 1950)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Night We Part Forever"
File: R812

I'll Be There, Mary Dear


DESCRIPTION: A soldier bids farewell to his sweetheart, giving her a golden leaf to remember him by. He loses an arm in battle, but friends tell him him one arm is enough to hold her. When he returns home, however, he finds her dead and buried; he is heartbroken
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Sterling / Music: Harry von Tilzer (1872-1946)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: soldier death separation return grief love promise army war
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rorrer, p. 84, "Goodbye Mary Dear" (1 text)
Roud #12394
RECORDINGS:
Richard Harold, "Mary Dear" (Columbia 15426-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Roy Harvey and the North Carolina Ramblers, "I'll Be There, Mary Dear" (Brunswick 234/Aurora 22032, 1928)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Goodbye, Mary Dear" (Columbis 14546-D, 1929)
NOTES: The similarity to "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" is obvious, but the words and tune are different, and there are plot elements here that aren't in that song, so I separate them. Meanwhile, I'd give long odds this dates from just after the Civil War. - PJS
It's easy to see why Paul thinks so (I would have guessed the same thing had I not seen a recent article by Lyle Lofgren about the piece), but in fact this -- like "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" -- dates from soon after the Spanish-American War. (Lofgren points out that there is a reference to the soldier taking a "transport" back home, strengthening the ties to 1898.) Presumably the latter war re-inspired this sort of tear-jerker, even though the casualties were less than in the Civil War. Mostly because the war was shorter; the troops were often as ill-clothed, ill-fed, and ill-cared-for as they had been a third of a century earlier. - RBW
File: RcGoMaDe

I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again


DESCRIPTION: The soldier must leave his sweetheart; as she pins a rose on his breast, he promises, "I'll be with you when the roses bloom again." He is killed in battle; and can only ask that the captain inform his sweetheart
AUTHOR: Will D. Cobb & Gus Edwards (sometimes listed as "Will Whitmore & Harry Hilliard")
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1901 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation death flowers
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fuson, p. 123, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (1 text)
Cambiaire, p. 96, "When the Wild Roses Bloom Again Beside the River " (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 138-139, "When the Roses Bloom Again beside the River" (1 text)
ST RcIBWYWt (Partial)
Roud #2871
RECORDINGS:
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (Columbia 15122-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Cramer Boys [Carver Boys], "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (Broadway 8180, rec. 1929)
Cross & McCartt, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (Columbia 15143-D, 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "I'm Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (Columbia 15054-D, 1926; rec. 1925)
Paul Joines & Cliff Evans, "Budded Roses" (on Persis1)
Harry Macdonough, "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (CYL: Edison 8276, 1903)
Blind Jack Mathis, "When the Roses Come Again" (Columbia 15344-D, 1929)
Lester McFarland & Robert A. Gardner, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (Brunswick 111/Vocalion 5027, 1927; Supertone S-2028, 1930)
Walter Scanlan "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (Edison 52063, 1927)
Kilby Snow, "Budded Roses" (on KSnow1)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (matrix # GEX 496-A recorded 1927 and issued 1927-1928 as: Herwin 17741, Gennett 6044 [as by Ernest V. Stoneman and his Graysen County Boys, Champion 1522 [as by Uncle Jim Seany], Challenge 244/Supertone 9255/Silvertone 5001/Silvertone 8155/Silvertone 25001 [as by Uncle Ben Hawkins]) (matrix #7224-1 recorded 1927 and issued as Banner 1993/Domino 3964/Regal 8324/Oriole 946 [as by Sim Harris], 1927; Homestead 16498 [as by Harris])
[Wilmer] Watts & [Frank] Wilson, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (Paramount 3006, 1927)
Weaver & Wiggins [pseud. for Wilmer Watts & Frank Wilson], "When the Roses Bloom Again" (Broadway 8112, c. 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Soldier (Erin Far Away I)" [Laws J6] (plot) and references there
cf. "Down Among the Budded Roses" (some lyrics)
NOTES: According to Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America (p. 315), Cobb & Edwards were also the authors of "Mamie," listed as "an outstanding hit of 1901."
This sounds like a Civil War song, but given the era when Cobb and Edwards worked together, one must assume it was inspired by the Spanish-American War. - RBW
I place Joines & Evans's recording "Budded Roses" here, but with misgivings; for one thing, it makes no mention of the man being a soldier. But the story fits well enough that, for want of an alternative, I place it here. Ditto Snow, who probably learned his version from Charlie Poole. - PJS
File: RcIBWYWt

I'll Build Me a Boat


DESCRIPTION: "I'll make me a boat and I'll down the river float... I'll see Mona, fair Mona, pretty Mona I'll see." Using his shirt for a sail, he arrives at Mona's -- but her four brothers break in, kill him, and throw him in the sea. She throws herself in after him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: murder brother ship river love courting suicide drowning sea
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 499, "Raise a Ruckus Tonight" (4 texts, of which "A" is this piece)
Roud #10054
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (lyrics)
NOTES: The editors of Brown, seemingly followed by Roud, threw this in with "Raise a Ruckus Tonight" because it contains that key line, and other hints (e.g. the girl's name Mona) that it is related to that song.
Related, but assuredly not a version. The overwhelming majority of the text is a murder ballad -- and, by the looks of it, a very old and possibly very good one that somehow was mixed up with "Raise a Ruckus." Unfortunately, it's short enough that it can't be identified by its lyrics -- and the plot doesn't exactly match any others I know. The murderous brothers are common -- but throwing the body in the sea certainly isn't, and the use of a shirt for a sail is most intriguing. - RBW
File: Br3499

I'll Cheer Up My Heart


DESCRIPTION: "As I was a-walking ae May morning... There I saw my faithless lover...." "Well, since he's gane, joy gang wi' him.... I'll never lay a' my love upon ane." She laments her lost love, who prefers a rich girl, but will not let the grief ruin her life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord, p. 177, "I'll Cheer Up My Heart" (1 text)
Roud #5563
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Ord177

I'll Drink One (To Be a Good Companion, The Sussex Toast)


DESCRIPTION: "I'll drink one, if you'll drink two, And here's a lad that'll drink with you, And if you do as I have done, You'll be a good companion." Each verse adds a drink ("I'll drink two if you'll drink three, And here's a lad that will drink with thee," etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Sharp MS.)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy 285, "To Be a Good Companion" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SUSSXTST*
Roud #885
File: K285

I'll Fire Dis Trip


DESCRIPTION: "I'll fire dis trip an' I'll fire no mo', fire down below! (x2)" "Miss Nancy Bell, I wish you well, fire down below! (x2)" "De bullies' boy is Uncle Gable, fire down below! Bring on day wood while you be's able! Fire down below."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown); possibly first printed 1850 (see Notes)
KEYWORDS: ship work fire
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 222, "I'll Fire Dis Trip" (1 text)
Hugill, p. 115, "The Sailor Fireman" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hugill suggests that this may be the original Negro song from which the tune of the verses of both "Ho for California" and "Camptown Races" stemmed. He found it in Sternvall's Sang under Segel (1935) where the author cites a book called Nigger Melodies, being the only entire and complete work of Ethiopian songs extant; Cornish Lamport & Co., NY, 1850. I found references to the book in WorldCat and other indexes, but haven't actually laid eyes on it. - SL
File: Br3222

I'll Fly Away


DESCRIPTION: "Some glad morning, when this life is over, I'll fly away/To a home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away" Cho: "I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away/When I die, halleluiah bye and bye..." "Just a few more weary days and then...."
AUTHOR: A. E. Brumley
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Selah Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: resurrection death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, IFLYAWAY*
RECORDINGS:
Brown's Ferry Four, "I'll Fly Away" (King 785, 1949)
Rev. Gary Davis, "I'll Fly Away" (on GaryDavis2)
Lincoln Park Singers, "I'll Fly Away" (AFS 7043 B1, 1943)
Selah Jubilee Quartet, "I'll Fly Away" (Decca 7831, 1941)
Virginia Trio [Jim & Jesse McReynolds], "I'll Fly Away" (Kentucky 509, n.d.)
File: RcIFlyA

I'll Gang Doon Tae Yonder Valley


See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

I'll Gar Our Gudeman Trow


DESCRIPTION: A wife tells how she'd control her husband: threaten to sell the ladle unless he'd buy her a side saddle; threaten to sulk again unless he gives her twelve gold rings; threaten again to die unless he hires valets for her. She sneers at other women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (_The Ballad-Book_ [Not Sharpe] privately published in Edinburgh, according to Chambers)
KEYWORDS: bargaining bragging nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1310, "I'll Gar Our Gudeman Trow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, p. 123, "I'll Gar Our Gudeman Trow"
Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), p. 43, "I'll Gar Our Gudeman"
Roud #1560
File: GrD71310

I'll Give You One More As You Go


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes how his sweetheart sent him off, offering a final kiss: "I'll give you one more as you go." Her parents are less tolerant; they set the dog on him. As he departs, the father orders "Sic him, Towse, And give him one more as he goes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting family dog humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 376, "I'll Give You One More As You Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 308-309, "I'll Give You One More As You Go" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 376)
Roud #3755
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sic Him, Towse
NOTES: Cohen reports this was written by Ike Brown in 1884. - RBW
File: R376

I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree


DESCRIPTION: "I'll hang my harp on a willow tree, I'm off to the wars again." The singer's love is to be wed to one of higher degree. For her sake he gave up soldiering and became a minstrel, but after her wedding he will resume soldiering, hoping to die in battle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1846 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: war infidelity wedding music harp
FOUND IN: US(SE) Ireland Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan6 1203, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 113-115, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (2 texts, 1 tune)
SHenry H155, p. 366, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 56-57, "I'll Hang My Harp" (I text, 1 tune)
ST MN1113 (Full)
Roud #1444
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(134b), "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow T[ree]" ("I'll hang my harp on a willow tree"), The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1851; also Firth b.26(282), Firth c.16(354), Harding B 11(2611), "I'll hang my harp on a willow tree"; Harding B 15(136a), Harding B 11(1701), Firth b.26(220), "I'll Hang My Harp on the Willow Tree"; Firth b.27(227), "I'll Hang Up My Harp on a Willow Tree"
LOCSinging, as201530, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as105930, as105920, as105910, sb20215b, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brighidin Ban Mo Store" (theme)
NOTES: The earliest references to this piece seem to be from American sheet music: A copy of c. 1846 was printed in Philadelphia with an arrangement credited to Leopold Meignen. In 1848/9 it was published in Louisville, Kentucky and credited to Wellington Guernsey. A 1909 American text is effectively identical to the Sam Henry text of 1926, but with a noticeably different tune. Given that the song was found both in Ulster by Henry and in England by Ord, one must suspect British origin, but the matter is uncertain.
Ord heard a report that the singer in this song was involved with Queen Victoria before her marriage (allegedly at 17, i.e. in 1836/37, shortly before she took the throne). There is no external confirmation of this, and does not match his text of the song, since in the text, the love has golden hair. Also, he speaks of fighting the Saracen -- but by Victoria's time, the Saracen was replaced by the Turk, and the English were generally supporting the Turks against Russia. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as201530: 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
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MN1113

I'll Have a New Life (In That Resurrection Morning)


DESCRIPTION: "(On/In) the resurrection morning, When the dead and Christ shall rise, I'll have a new body...." The singer gives thanks for a new home, a new life, and a body "raised in power, Ready to live in paradise."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (collected by Shellans from Ruby Vass)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans, pp. 91-92, "I'll Have a New Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4309
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "We Shall Rise, Hallelujah," but while there may be some shared lyrics, I really don't think they're the same song.
The phrase "sown in weakness, raised in power" is from 1 Corinthians 15:43, which is sort of a hymn by Paul to the resurrection body.
The origin of this raises interesting questions. This really sounds to me like church hymn -- and, indeed, I have a Baptist hymnal, Soul-Stirring ongs and Hymns, which has a piece entitled "Hallelujah, We Shall Rise" and beginning "In the resurrection morning, When the trump of Go shall sound, We shall rise...." The tunes look fairly similar; the lyrics less so. I woner if this might not be another case of someone in the Vass family (probably John Daniel Vass) remaking an existing song. - RBW
File: Shel091

I'll Hit the Road Again, Boys


See I Walk the Road Again (File: FSC178)

I'll Kiss Ye Yet, and I'll Clap Ye Yet


DESCRIPTION: "I'll kiss ye yet, and I'll clap ye yet, An' I lie at your bonny back an' hap ye yet; An' fan ye lie doon, I'll draw the curtains roon, An' I'll bless the bonny day I gat ye, yet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 874, "I'll Kiss Ye Yet, and I'll Clap Ye Yet" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6229
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To Daunton Me" (tune, per GreigDuncan4)
cf. "Fat'll Mak a Bonny Lassie Blythe an' Glad?" (tune, per GreigDuncan5) and references there
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan4 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4874

I'll Lay Ye Doon, Love


DESCRIPTION: "I'll lay ye doon, love, I'll treat ye decent... For surely he is an honest man." The singer walks out to hear two lovers talking. One, who has traveled far, must travel on, "But when I come back, love, I'll lay ye doon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Sing Out!)
KEYWORDS: love sex courting travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, LAYEDOON*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 23, #5 (1974), p, 17, "I'll Lay Ye Doon, Lovw" (1 text, 1 tune, with a few variant words, based on Jean Redpath's and Norman Kennedy's versions of a Jeannie Robertson original)
Roud #3355
File: DTlayedo

I'll Let You Know the Reason


DESCRIPTION: The singer tells a girl he has come to gain her love. He has left another for her. She should not think about riches, which she has and he wants and is the reason she slights him. He hopes she will not slight him the next time and that they'll marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #81, p. 2, "Milton" (1 text)
GreigDuncan4 829, "Milton of Aberdour" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Roud #6247
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bogie Banks" (theme: rejecting the riches of Alexander)
NOTES: None of the Greig or GreigDuncan4 texts include "Milton" except in the title.
The alternate title "Alexander" refers to the singer's reference to the woman's money. "Don't fix your mind on riches love nor yet on world's gear Look back to Alexander and there you'll find it clear He conquered all this wide warld sat doon and wept full sore To think there was but ae warld and that he wad gain no more."
This song shares one verse and the general theme with SHenry H589, p. 344, "The Rejected Lover" but I don't see enough of a similarity to lump them together, as Roud does. - BS
The cliche that Alexander wept because there were no more worlds to conquer is somewhat deceptive. Alexander had succeeded his father Philip in 336, when Philip was assassinated (Saville, p. 7). Philip had nearly conquered Greece (Bosworth, p. 16), but his death caused chaos, with several claimants to the throne coming forward. Alexander managed to take charge by swift movement, the details of which are lost to us (Bosworth, pp. 25-27). Alexander then re-crushed the Greek city-states, destroying Thebes and terrorizing the rest (Mahaffy, pp. 10-11). He then picked up his father's plans to attack the once-great but now badly-ruled Persian Empire (Bosworth, p. 17).
Alexander first met Persian forces at Granicus (Mahaffy, p. 15). then met their main army at Issus (Mahaffy, pp. 20-23) where he captured most of the Persian Emperor Darius III Codomannus's family (Roger, pp. 287-291), turned aside to conquer the restive Persian province of Egypt (Bosworth, pp. 67-74), and finally and completely defeated those Darius III at Gaugamela in 331 B.C.E. (Rogers, pp. 317-325). Darius fled the field, and was assassinated in 330 (Rogers, pp. 341-342). Alexander then married his daughter and claimed the Persian Empire (Arrian/Selincourt, p. 353).
Theoretically Alexander already controlled the world's largest empire. But Persia had been a collection of provinces, mostly distinct in culture, language, and religion, which had been content under the relatively benign yoke of the earlier Persians, but who had grown restive under recent bad Emperors. Alexander had to reconquer much of this territory. He succeeded well enough, but it took time. Then he headed through what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan toward what is now India.
It was in 326, at the Hyphasis River (the modern Beas in the Punjab) that the conquests stopped. "Stories [of the peoples to the east] could not but whet Alexander's appetite for yet another adventure; but his men felt differently" (Arrian/Selincourt, p. 291). Arrian/Selincourt, pp. 291-297, describes Alexander's attempts to jolly the men along. He reduced some of the men to tears, but failed. He then tried to shame them into following him; that too failed, although more men cried. Finally he started for home (Arrian/Selincourt, pp. 298-299). He would die in 323, in Babylon (Mahaffy, pp. 37-41).
There is much evidence that, by the end, Alexander was not entirely sane. He demanded an extreme form of worship, the proskynesis, and killed men who had once been his friends (one of them, perhaps, his lover); Savill, pp. 81-88. By the end, he was asking to be treated as a god (Savill, p. 139, although she denies this is a sign of mental disturbance). So he may have cried over a lot of things. But he never actually cried that there *were* no more worlds to conquer; at most, he cried because he would not be allowed to conquer them. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4829

I'll Lie nae Mair My Lane


DESCRIPTION: Jean, at sixteen, sits by a dyke complaining that she'll soon be old and gray and would not lie alone. Her mother says she's too young. She names boy friends who were not serious. Robin overhears her, proposes, they marry and no more lie alone.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 989, "I'll Lie nae Mair My Lane" (1 text)
Roud #6729
File: GrD5989

I'll Live Till I Die


See Rye Whiskey; also The Rebel Soldier (File: R405)

I'll Meet You in the Evening


See Hot Corn, Cold Corn (I'll Meet You in the Evening) (File: R267)

I'll Name the Boy Dennis, Or No Name At All


DESCRIPTION: "I'm bothered, yes, I'm bothered, completely perplexed, I'm the father of a little boy, I'm not happy but I'm vexed." Everyone in his immense family wants to give the child a different name. He puts his foot down for the name Dennis.
AUTHOR: Words: Fred Hatfield / Music: J. Small
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (copyright on a sheet music arrangement by Jos. Schwenseck [?])
KEYWORDS: humorous baby wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, pp. 34-35, "Name the Boy Dennis Or No Name At All" (1 text)
Roud #6658
File: Dean034

I'll Ne'er Forget the Parting


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

I'll Never Be Yours


See Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5]
 (File: LF05)

I'll Never Get Drunk Any More (I)


DESCRIPTION: "When I go out on Sunday, what pleasure do I see? For the girl I loved so dearly Has gone square back on me." "I'll never get drunk any more, any more... I'll lay my head on the barroom floor." The singer laments how drink has ruined him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink abandonment nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 36, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More" (4 texts, all somewhat mixed; the "A" text is cited above, and the "B" text is probably from the same family; "C" and "D" are "Oh, Once I Had a Fortune")
Roud #4625
File: Br3036

I'll Never Get Drunk Any More (II)


See Oh, Once I Had a Fortune (File: R316)

I'll Never Get Drunk Any More (III)


DESCRIPTION: The singer "got frisky Over some poteen whisky," fell, cracked his skull and had his pocket picked. The landlady won't give a drunk credit. "A man that's fond of boozing, His cash goes daily oozing" He swears off drink and warns others to do the same.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: warning drink nonballad money theft
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 96-97, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More!" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 268-269, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (tune) and references there
cf. "Mall Brook" [i.e. "Malbrouk"] (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
File: CrPS096

I'll Never Leave Old Dixie Land Again


DESCRIPTION: Singer, a former slave, returns to Dixie and his beloved Dinah again, after having spent time living in Kansas. He says the weather there is enough to freeze him, and he misses his home, so he'll never leave old Dixie Land again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Bogue Ford)
KEYWORDS: homesickness loneliness love home return reunion separation slavery
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #15470
RECORDINGS:
Bogue Ford, "I'll never leave old Dixie land again" (AFS 4211 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES: A minstrel-show song, without a doubt. Ford sings it in dialect.
A significant number of freed slaves did in fact settle in Kansas during the years after the Civil War. - PJS
File: RcINLODA

I'll Never Turn Back No More


See No More, My Lord (File: SBoA312)

I'll Never Wear the Red Any More


See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

I'll Not Marry at All


DESCRIPTION: The single woman proudly proclaims her intent to die an old maid. She reels off the defects of all sorts of men -- rich, poor, fat, lean, farmer, e.g. "I'll not marry a man that's rich, He'll get drunk and fall in the ditch, I'll not marry at all...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Eddy 72, "Shab-i-da Ru-dy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 262-263, "I Wouldn't Marry" (2 texts)
Randolph 364, "The Old Maid's Song" (3 texts, 1 tune)
BrownIII 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (7 text (some short) plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 5 more, of which "H," "J," "O," and "P" apparently belong here)
Linscott, pp. 211-212, "I'll Not Marry at All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 72, "The Old Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, pp. 91-92, "I'll Not Marry At All" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 26, "The Old Maid" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 99, pp. 208-209, "I'll Not Marry at All" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 78, "I Won't Marry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 100, "I Never Will Marry a Man Who Is Rich" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NOTMARRY
Roud #2774
RECORDINGS:
Kentucky Thorobreds, "I'll Not Marry at All" (Paramount 3080, 1928; Broadway 8184 [as Old Smokey Twins], n.d.; rec. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
cf. "A Young Virgin" (theme)
cf. "The Song of the Southern Volunteers" (form)
cf. "Yon Bonnie Lad" (theme)
NOTES: Linscott, or her informants, thought this Irish. She cites no evidence, and the collections seem to be all, or nearly all, from the United States and Canada.
The idea of a catalog of undesirable occupations can be traced all the way back to ancient Egypt, though there it was a young man being advised against them. The "Instruction of Duauf" consists of a father telling the son what's wrong with each job, e.g. a smith smells worse than fish roe. (The piece was apparently used to train scribes; the one form of employment it approves of is scribe.) - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: E072

I'll Owre Bogie


DESCRIPTION: The singer says she'll follow her love over Bogie, or anywhere. For example, "As I came by Strathbogie yetts Strathboggie's trees were green There I heard the drums to beat I'll owre Boggie wi' him"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: love travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 869, "I'll Owre Bogie" (2 texts)
Roud #6245
NOTES: The Bogie is a tributary of the Deveron River in Aberdeenshire. - BS
From The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 40: "To go 'ower Bogie' is a phrase that expresses in Scotland the same idea as that of running to Gretna Green in England. It is also used to express a marriage performed by a magistrate instead of a clergyman." [Re Gretna Green -- "a small village on the west coast in the south of Scotland": "Its main claim to fame are the Blacksmith's Shops, where many runaway marriages were performed. These began in 1753 when an Act of Parliament, Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act, was passed in England, which stated that if both parties to a marriage were not at least 21 years old, then consent to the marriage had to be given by the parents. This Act did not apply in Scotland where it was possible for boys to get married at 14 and girls at 12 years old with or without parental consent." (Source: Wikipedia article Gretna Green )] - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4869

I'll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers


See When the Curtains of Night Are Pinned Back (File: San259)

I'll Return, Mother Darling, to You


DESCRIPTION: "A mother was saying good-bye to her boy, Who was ready to start for the war." She asks if they are parting forever. He promises to return "When the roses of springtime are blooming." Eventually the boy returns and says he will never more part from her
AUTHOR: Words: Casper Nathan / Music: E. Clinton Keithley (1880-1955)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (sheet music copyrighted)
KEYWORDS: war mother children separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, p. 113, "I'll Return, Mother Darling, to You" (1 text)
Roud #21719
NOTES: The cover of the sheet music to this makes the mother look truly ancient; presumably the idea was to give the impression that the boy was her last son. Since the song was written in 1915, clearly the war is World War I. In a proper folk song, he probably would not have come back, but this item is too cheery to note the millions of casualties, or the many soldiers who came home blind, brain damaged, or missing one or more limbs.
Often not even the bodies returned home. John Keegan, The First World War, Alfred A. Knopf, 1999, pp. 421-422, notes, "Few Russian or Turkish soldiers were ever decently interred and many German and Austrian soldiers killed on the shifting battlefields of the Eastern Front imply returned to earth.... Of the British Empire's million dead, most killed in France and Belgium, the bodies of over 500,000 were never to be found or, if found, not identified. a similar proportion of the 1,700,000 French war dead had also disappeared."
Keegan, p. 423, "To the million dead of the British Empire and the 1,700,000 French dead, we must add 1,500,000 soldiers of the Habsburg Empire who did not return, two million Germans, 460,000 Italians, 1,700,000 Russians and many hundreds of thousands of Turks; their numbers were never counted.... Male mortality exceeded normal expectations, between 1914 and 1918, seven to eightfold in Britain, and tenfold in France, in which 17 per cent of those who served were killed.... [M]en who were between 19 and 22 when the ware broke out... were reduced by 35-37 per cent."
James L. Stokesbury, A Short History of World War I, Morrow, 1981, makes the figures even more grim. On p. 310, he calculates, "All the Allies together mobilized a total of just over 42 million men. They counted as casualties those who had been killed or died while in service, wounded, prisoners, and mising. The total of these was slightly more than 22 million, or about 52 percent.... Russia... had mobilized 12 million men and had 9,150,000 casualties, or 76 percent. The British Empire had mobilized 8,904,000 and suffered more than 3 million casualties, about 36%. Italy had 39 percent losses among her 5.5 million servicemen. France, by contrast, had put under arms half a million fewer than the British empire, 8,400,000, but had a far higher ratio of losses, over 6 million, or 73 percent, the highest of any of the surviving states." (Russia, of course, had collapsed under the strain, hence the distinction between non-survivors and survivors.) Stokesbury calculates American casualties as a relatively trivial 8%, and that on a relatively small force of 4,355,000 men.
Stokesbury, p. 310, "The Central Powers sacrificed as many men losing the war as the Allies did winning it. Of 23 million men mobilized they had 15 million casualties, 15 more than the Allies. Germany lost more than 7 million of her 11 million fighting men. The worst record for the entire war was Austria-Hungary's, for she mobilized 7,800,000 and lost 7 million of them, an astonishing 90 percent."
Stokesbury, p. 309, notes that the was was estimated to have cost $337,980,579,560 -- and that's in 1920 dollars!
Bottom line: A million and a half British mothers had to face either losing a son or having him come back permanently maimed. - RBW
File: Dean113A

I'll Rise When the Rooster Crows


DESCRIPTION: Disjointed, some floating verses: "Going up yonder gonna put on my robes, gonna put on my golden shoes." "Where the duck chews tobacco and the goose drinks wine" Chorus: "I'll rise when the rooster crows... down where the sugar cane grows"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Disjointed, some floating verses: "Going up yonder gonna put on my robes, gonna put on my golden shoes." "Where the duck chews tobacco and the goose drinks wine/The old hen cackles while the rooster keeps the time." "What you gonna do when the women all dead/Gonna stand in the corner with a hung-down head/If I had to marry I wouldn't marry for riches/Marry a big fat girl who couldn't wear my britches." Chorus: "I'll rise when the rooster crows...I'm going back south where the sun shines hot, oh, down where the sugar-cane grows"
KEYWORDS: marriage drink floatingverses nonballad chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers, "I'll Rise When the Rooster Crows" (Victor V-40048, 1929)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Rise When the Rooster Crows" (Vocalion 5097, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Devilish Mary" (floating verses)
cf. "Hopalong Peter" (floating verses)
cf. "Hen Cackle" (floating verses)
File: RcIRWTRC

I'll See You in the Fair


See Cloughmills Fair (File: HHH121)

I'll Sing You a Song


DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a song (that's not very long/the days are long) About a woodcock (or cuckoo) and a sparrow." A dog either burns its tail or bites the singer's ear and is to be hanged tomorrow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: execution nonballad bird dog
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 485, "I'll sing you a song" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #72, p. 80, "(I'll Sing You a Song)"; cf. #256, p. 159, ("I'll sing you a song")
Roud #15095
NOTES: Opie-Oxford2: "Since this rhyme dates at least from the eighteenth century, the statement in the last line that the dog must be hanged on the morrow may be based on more than poetic fancy. The trial of animals and the judicial hanging of dogs, although uncommon, appears at one time to have been considered reasonable." - BS
The Baring-Goulds give examples of this phenomenon, noting that it applied particularly to animals which killed or maimed people. They fail to note that this is essentially a Biblical policy: A bull which fatally gored a person was to be stoned (Exodus 21:28). - RBW
File: OO2485

I'll Sing You One Ho!


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

I'll Sit Down and Write a Song


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

I'll Stick to Auld Style


DESCRIPTION: "I biggit a hoosie wi' divots and stanes, For to keep me sheltered frae the cauld wind and rains, But twa daft idle laddies, wha thocht it fine fun, Fell foul o't and ca'd it a' flat wi' the grun'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1769, "I'll Stick to Auld Style" (1 fragment)
Roud #13017
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81769

I'll Take This Glass into My Hands


DESCRIPTION: "I'll take this glass into my hands, and drink to all that's here; I cannot tell where we may be before another year. Some may wed, some may be dead, some may be lying low; Some may be lying on a foreign shore, and not know where to go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 565, "I'll Take This Glass into My Hands" (1 text)
Roud #6036
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Fortune Turns Her Wheel" (theme)
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3565

I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen


DESCRIPTION: The singer promises to take Kathleen home across the ocean. He says that -- even though she has lost her looks and her voice is sad -- he still loves her as she loves him. Once home (in Ireland?), they will visit their old haunts
AUTHOR: Thomas P. Westendorf
EARLIEST DATE: 1876
KEYWORDS: home love travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 83-86, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, p. 107, "I Will Take You Back Again, Kathleen" (1 text)
Geller-Famous, pp. 5-10, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 259, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 296, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen"
DT, KTHLEN
ST RJ19083 (Full)
Roud #12907
RECORDINGS:
Kaplan's Melodists w. Vernon Dalhart, voc. "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (Edison 51666, 1925)
Bradley Kincaid, "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" (Bluebird 5569, 1934)
Shannon Quartet, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (OKeh 40302, 1925)
Zack [Hurt] & Glenn [?], "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" (OKeh 45240, 1928)
NOTES: This song has produced a its own folklore (that it's traditional, that it was written in 1900, that the author's wife was named/nicknamed/renamed Kathleen, that it has something to do with Ireland, etc.). The facts, which rarely resemble the folklore, have been summarized in Richard S. Hill's article "Getting Kathleen Home Again" in the June 1948 issue of Notes, the journal of the Music Library Association.
Spaeth (History of American Popular Music) summarizes the facts as follows: Westerndorf's wife was named Jennie, not Kathleen; he was a Virginian then living in Indiana; and the song was supposedly inspired by something called "Barney, Take Me Home Again." - RBW
File: RJ19083

I'll Tell My Ma (I)


DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell my my when I go home, The boys won't leave the girls alone; Pulling their hair and breaking their combs...." In some texts, the story ends there; in others, the girl says, "But that's all right till I go home"; we are told of her true love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry)
KEYWORDS: courting hair fight
FOUND IN: Ireland Australia Britain(England(North)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SHenry H48e, p. 11, "I'll Tell My Ma" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 146, "(Polka)" (1 fragment, consisting solely of the "I'll Tell My Ma" stanza, 1 tune)
Roud #2649
RECORDINGS:
Em Elliott, "I'll Tell My Ma When I Get Home" (on Elliotts01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)" (lyrics)
NOTES: The Clancy Brothers version of this involves a girl, "the belle of Belfast city," setting her heart on a man. This doesn't seem to happen in the other versions I've seen, which are just the complaints about the boys teasing the girl.
The question is, is this a conflate of "I'll Tell My Ma" with some other song (presumably "The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)," or is the Clancy version the original which broke in half? Roud lumps them, but I'm not sure that means much.
I eventually ended up splitting them, but I'm none too happy about the situation. - RBW
File: MCB146

I'll Tell My Ma (II)


See The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow) (File: RcRRtWDB)

I'll Tell Ye a Talie


DESCRIPTION: A tale about the colt and fillie? The singer goes to Ireland and sees a maiden chasing a cock that had stolen her comb. She [?] asks "Blue-breekies" whether he had seen her husband. Yes: he burnt a hole in his breeches, and what's that to you?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: travel hair Ireland humorous chickens horse clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1635, "I'll Tell Ye a Talie" (1 text)
Roud #13067
NOTES: I have no idea what's going on here. That may be what the singer intends. "Blue-breekies" may refer to a [police?] uniform.
Roud and the notes to GreigDuncan8 look to Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 27, ("There was a wee yowe") for a [closely?] related texts. The story lines, as far as I can tell, cross in a few places: the trip to Ireland, the burn, and mention of the "guidman." Here's what I think the Chambers text is about: A ewe looks at the moon and sees more wonders [?] than fifteen; it goes to Ireland and Aberdeen and returns home; the husband is herding, the pigs are inside, the wife supervising the girls making cheese; the cat is in the stall eating when a cinder burnt its nose and it cries "yeowe, yeowe, yeowe." - BS
Based just on the description, it sounds like a hidden-meaning tale of a man seducing a virgin, ans of her following him to try to get him to marry her. But why, then, the humor? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1635

I'll Tell You What I Saw Last Night


See Wicked Polly [Laws H6] (File: LH06)

I'll Tell Your Daddy


DESCRIPTION: "John, John, John, I'll tell your daddy (x3), So early in the morning." "The blue-eyed girl is dead and gone (x3) So early in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 100, "I'll Tell Your Daddy" (1 text)
NOTES: The editors of Brown link this implicitly to "Going to Boston," but that appears to be on the basis solely of a floating verse. - RBW
File: Br3100

I'll Weave My Love a Garland


DESCRIPTION: "I'll weave my love a garland, He shall be dressed so fine, I'll set it round with roses... For I love my love, and I love my love Because my love loves me." The singer wishes she were an arrow, a fish, a reaper, that she might more easily find him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (de la Mare)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #389, "I'll Overtake Thee" (1 text)
NOTES: I have seen this listed as traditional. I suspect that means it's from an early literary source with no author listed, meaning that it is public domain but not traditional; I have found no field collections. But I thought I'd better include it just in case....
One thing we can say is that the song is part of a very long chain of linked folksongs. The burden "I love my love, and I love my love Because my love loves me" is, e.g., common in "A Maid in Bedlam," and a slightly different form, "Come you not from Newcastle," dates back at least to the Percy folio. Sir George Ogle fiddled with the form in "Grammachree Molly" (in the Index as "Grammachree"). And all of those link to many other songs.
I also find, in Maud Karpeles, Folk Songs of Europe, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 93, a German song called "Sichelein Rauschen," "I Heard the Sound of a Sickle." which has many of the themes of this song. This strengthens my feeling that the English version is semi-literary, combining the "I love my love" burden with elements from the German. - RBW
File: dlMC389A

I'm a Day too Young


DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl and asks how old she is. She says, "I'm a day too young to be your bride ... to lay by your side." They have sex. "I found she was not a day too young" She asks when they will marry: never; "carry your big belly home to your mam"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-Sharp)
KEYWORDS: seduction rake youth
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1311, "Linkin' Owre the Lea" (5 fragments, 5 tunes)
Roud #1003
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broom
NOTES: The description follows James Reeves, The Idiom of the People, (New York, 1958), p. 109, "I'm a Day too Young.". - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71311

I'm a Decent Boy from Ireland


DESCRIPTION: The "decent boy" has been forced to roam. Brought up by good parents, he urges, "Be kind to your parents when their locks are turning gray... You'll never know their value till they lay beneath the soil."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971
KEYWORDS: age family poverty rambling
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger, pp. 278-279, "I'm a Decent Boy from Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9420
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Leave Your Mother When Her Hair Turns Gray" (theme)
File: Doe278

I'm a Good Old Rebel


See The Good Old Rebel (The Song of the Rebel Soldier) (File: Wa193)

I'm a Long Time Travelling Here Below


See When I Can Read My Titles Clear (Long Time Traveling) (File: DTlongti)

I'm a Man That Done Wrong to His Parents


DESCRIPTION: "I'm a man that's seen trouble and sorrow, Oh I once was light-hearted and gay, Not a dime in this world can I borrow Since my own I have squandered away." The singer tells how he wronged his parents. Now they despise him, and he must beg for shelter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes family father
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 839, "I'm a Man That Done Wrong to His Parents" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1386
File: R839

I'm a Minder


DESCRIPTION: "I'm a minder [i.e. miner], I'm a minder, In de col' ground, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work mining
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 216, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScNF216B

I'm a Nachel-Bawn Reacher


See Natural Born Reacher (File: ScNF232B)

I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper


DESCRIPTION: "I am a poor old chimney sweeper, I have but one daughter and now I can't keep her. So since she has resolved to marry, Go choose you one and do not tarry." Once the girl has chosen her love, the couple is told to join hands, step over a broom, and be wed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: courting marriage playparty work worker courting family
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner 189, "Chimbley Sweeper" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph 571, "The Chimney Swallow" (1 fragment)
Roud #7023
RECORDINGS:
Rebecca King Jones, "Chimbley Sweeper" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
NOTES: The Warners (on the basis of the television miniseries "Roots"!) credit jumping over a broom as a Black wedding ceremony. But I have also seen (in, I must admit, a science fiction story) what appears to be a British rhyme on the same subject.
Elsewhere, however, a "broomstick wedding" is one not given formal or clerical recognition. An example of this is in Dickens's Great Expectations, chapter 48: Wemick describes a couple as having been "married very young, over the broomstick (as they say)."
Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English says that "to jump (over) the broomstick" is attested from the eighteenth century, and "hop the broomstick" and "marry over the broomstick" are known from the nineteenth; all are described as colloquial and obsolescent. All terms refer to a couple living together as man and wife without being (formally) married. The ceremony itself is a "broomstick wedding." Partridge compares "jump the besom" and "Westminster wedding." "Jump the Besom" apparently is attested c. 1700.
Randolph's text is shorter and rather different in tone from the Warners', but there are too many lyric similarities for me to separate them. - RBW
File: Wa189

I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler


See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

I'm a Rover and Seldom Sober


DESCRIPTION: The singer is seldom sober but on a starless night he can find his way to his lover. He goes to her window. He is "drenched to the skin." She lets him in and they lie together until cock crow. Then he gets up because he must be early at the plow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Tom Newman)
KEYWORDS: lover drink nightvisit bird farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, IMAROVER*
Roud #3135
RECORDINGS:
Tom Newman, "I'm Often Drunk and I'm Seldom Sober" (on Voice13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In" (two verses) and references there
NOTES: The description is from Ewan MacColl, "I'm a Rover" (on Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Bothy Ballads of Scotland," Folkways Records FW 8759 (1961))
MacColl's notes: "This night-visit song is almost certainly related to The Grey Cock (The Lover's Ghost), a ballad in which a girl is visited by the ghost of her dead lover. As A.L. Lloyd has observed: 'Generally the song is found either with the bedroom-window theme or the cockcrow theme but not the two together. In this version the bedroom-window theme is clearly established and what remains of the cock-crow theme has lost its supernatural significance."
Tom Newman's version on Voice13 leaves out enough detail to hide the connection to "Mary's Dream," "The Ghostly Lover" and other ghostly night-visit ballads. Its description is
Singer is a drunk rover. At break of dawn in Galway he falls in love with Molly Bann. That night he goes to her window. He answers her complaint saying he is her lover, tired after a long journey, and wants to come in. "I'm soaking love, unto the skin"
The only connection to, say, "Mary's Dream" is the "soaking" line. - BS
File: DTimarov

I'm a Stranger Here


DESCRIPTION: "Ain't it hard to stumble When you got no place to fall? (x2) In this whole wide world I got no place at all. I'm a stranger here... I would go home, but... I'm a stranger here." The singer takes his mule -- all this baby left -- and seek a fair shake.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: home abandonment hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 81, "I'm a Stranger Here" (1 text)
File: FSWB081C

I'm a Stranger in this Country (The Darger Lad)


DESCRIPTION: Singer, a "darger loon" from a distant land, meets a "Scottish lass" in an alehouse. They drink. He takes her to his lodgings and they spend the night together. Next morning he leaves on the train as she cries on the station. At home he drinks her health
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: sex parting Scotland separation train
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 832, "The Darger Lad" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3388
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "I'm a Stranger in this Country" (on Voice15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Indian Lass" (theme, verses) and references there
cf. "Little Mohee" [Laws H8] (theme, verses) and references there
NOTES: Hall, notes to Voice15, translates the text "darger loon" as "day-labourer lad."
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 15" - 13.9.02: "It appears to be related to 'The Indian Lass,' a song collected by Frank Kidson - see Traditional Tunes (1891) pp.109-11." I'm convinced. Compare first verses:
Kidson's first version "from a person's singing in North Yorkshire":
As I was a walking on a far distant shore,
I went into an ale-house to spend half-an-hour;
And as I sat smoking beside of my glass,
By chance there came in a fine young Indian lass.
Jimmy McBeath's version on Voice15.
I'm a stranger in this country from a far distant land.
I went into an ale-house for half an hour to spend.
And as I sat a-drinking, a-musing in my glass,
Wha stepped in but an old Scottish lass.
Kidson, or his informant, has elided the sex -- which can be found in Creighton-NovaScotia 51 -- but, at the end,
So early next morning we were going to sail;
This lovely young Indian on the beach did bewail;
I took off my hankercheif and wiped her eyes, --
"O, do not go leave me, my sailor," she cries.
which McBeath has as
It was early next morning I ran to catch the train.
I left my bonnie lassie in the station to remain.
In drawing out her handkercheif, the tears dropped fae her ee.
'Oh, dinna gang and leave me, my darger loon,' cried she.
Neither of Kidson's tunes, nor Creighton's, match McBeath's. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcIASITC

I'm a Tight Little Irishman


DESCRIPTION: "Tight Little Irishman" Larry O'Broom does well enough on his father's inheritance until he marries a wife, who abuses him and apparently bankrupts him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: marriage poverty shrewishness
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy 144, "I'm a Tight Little Irishman" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ST E144 (Full)
Roud #5344
File: E144

I'm a Workin' Chap


DESCRIPTION: "I'm a workin' chap, as you may see, You'll find an honest man in me." The singer is thrifty and industrious, for poor folks are "working life out to keep life in." The singer describes various poor people, and hopes listeners will not despise them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: work poverty clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan3 656, "I'm a Workin' Chap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, p. 51-52, "I'm a Workin' Chap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5591
NOTES: Roud links this song with "Tak It, Man, Tak It" as found in Ford, etc. I flatly don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord051

I'm a Young Man from the Country


DESCRIPTION: "I'm a young man from the country... I'm a free and easy fellow, I need not tell my name. Oh, wouldn't you like to know me?" Town people try to trick him, but he knows his cab fares and all the tricks, and avoids the traps
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Harvey M. Dann)
KEYWORDS: travel trick
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 253, "I'm A Young Man from the Country" (1 text)
Roud #1510
File: MHAp253

I'm A-Goin' down This Road Feelin' Bad


See Going Down this Road Feeling Bad (File: LxU072)

I'm A-Leavin' Cheyenne


See Goodbye, Old Paint (File: LxU063A)

I'm A-Trouble in de Mind (I'm A-Trouble in the Mind)


DESCRIPTION: "I am a-trouble in the mind (x2), I ask my Lord what I do, I am a-trouble in the mind (x2), What you doubt for? I'm a trouble in de mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, pp. 30-31, "I Know When I'm Going Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: This may, I suppose, have been inspired by the Biblical story of Jesus's mental anguish in the garden before his arrest (Mark 14:32f. and parallels; compare John 12:27, 13:21 and the probably interpolation of the "bloody sweat" in Luke 22:43-44). I doubt it, though; lots of people can be troubled in mind without needing a Bible setting to justify it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG030B

I'm A'Deen, Johnnie


DESCRIPTION: The singer says "First when I cam' to this toon, I was red an' white an' bonnie" but now she's "done for likin' Johnnie" She writes him a letter. [lost text] She would have her baby tell Johnnie he's the father.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: pregnancy nonballad separation father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan6 1082, "I'm A'Deen, Johnnie" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)" (lyrics)
File: GrD61082

I'm Alabama Bound


See Alabama Bound (II) (File: PSAFB044)

I'm All Out an' Down


DESCRIPTION: "Honey-y-y, I'm all out an' down, Honey-y-y, I'm broke, babe, an' I ain't got a dime, Ev'ry good man gets in ha'd luck sometime, Don't they, baby?" Blues complaining of poverty, the noise made by women and hungry animals, work in the mud, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes poverty
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FSNA 307, "I'm All Out an' Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15203
File: LoF307

I'm Alone, All Alone (I)


DESCRIPTION: "I have no father (mother, sister, brother, sweetheart) in this world...Take me home, dear Saviour, take me home" Cho: "I'm alone all alone in this world...Take me home, dear Saviour take me home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording, Ernest V. Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: loneliness nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman w. Mike Seeger, "I'm Alone, All Alone"; Ernest Stoneman and Eddie Stoneman, "I'm Alone, All Alone" (ARC, unissued, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Free Little Bird" (lyrics)
cf. "Shivering in the Cold" (theme)
NOTES: My first thought, upon seeing Paul Stamler's description, was that this was religious version of "Free Little Bird." But it's a much simpler form, though there is likely some sort of dependence. It may also have something to do with "Shivering in the Cold," with which it shares some ideas and even an alternate title. - RBW
File: RcIAloAA

I'm Alone, All Alone (II)


See Shivering in the Cold (File: R327)

I'm An Irish Boy


See My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy) (File: HHH592)

I'm Bidding Adieu


DESCRIPTION: The singer, a poor farmer from Tralee, must emigrate. "They say there's luck in a foreign land, there's health and wealth galore." "We'll toil both night and day" He will return "of course" and dance "on the good old barn floor"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration return Ireland nonballad dancing work
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride 10, "I'm Bidding Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: McB1010

I'm Bound Away


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "For the sake of you, my lassie, I'm bound away, my lassie. For the sake of you, my lassie, I'm bound away." Only this one verse given by Hugill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (C. F. Smith, _A Book of Shanties_)
KEYWORDS: shanty farewell
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, p. 497, "I'm Bound Away" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, quoted from C.F. Smith) [AbEd, p. 365]
Roud #11254
File: Hugi497

I'm Bound for the Promised Land


See Bound for the Promised Land (File: LxU099)

I'm Bound For the Rio Grande


See Rio Grande (File: Doe064)

I'm Bound to Cross the Jordan


DESCRIPTION: "I'm boun' to cross the Jordan(x5), Hallelujah!" "Oh, brothers, won't you join me? Sisters, won't you join me? Sinners, won't you join me? For I'm bound to cross the Jordan, Hallelujah!" "Oh, my brother's over Jordan, My sister's...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 532, "I'm Boun' to Cross the Jordan" (1 text)
Roud #11872
File: Br3532

I'm Bound to Follow the Long Horn Cow


See I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows (File: LoF186)

I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows


DESCRIPTION: "I'm bound to follow the longhorn cows until I git too old. It's well I work for wages, boys, I git my pay in gold." The singer boasts of his skills as a cowboy. He describes the difficulties of stampedes. He hopes to save up money to be married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work bragging money gold loneliness love marriage
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Larkin, pp. 162-163, "I'm Bound to Follow the Long Horn Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 186, "I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 97, pp. 228-229, "The Jolly Cowboy" (1 text, much shorter than Lomax's)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 104, "The Lone Star Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 114, "Lone Star Trail" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5765
RECORDINGS:
Ken Maynard, "The Lone Star Trail" (Columbia 2310-D, 1930; on AAFM3, WhenIWas1)
NOTES: This song was featured in the film "The Wagon Master"; Ken Maynard is described as the "pioneer of cowboy singing stars" in the movies. - PJS
If the texts printed by the Fifes are any indication, this piece can take on almost any form, and the incidents can take place in almost any order; the only line their texts have entirely in common is "My trade is cinches and saddles and ropes and bridle reins." And the Lomax text is again very different, with changes in all the verses, much new material, and a different order. - RBW
File: LoF186

I'm But a Peer and Misguided Man


DESCRIPTION: "I'm but a peer and misguided man, Wi' a reeky [made dark by smoke] hoose, and a rinnin' oot [overflowing] pan [commode?], A girnin' [snarling] geet [brat], and a wife to ban [curse]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: poverty children wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1913, "I'm But a Peer and Misguided Man" (1 fragment)
Roud #13557
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81913

I'm Crossing Jordan River


DESCRIPTION: "I'm crossing Jordan river, Lord I want my crown (x2)." "Oh when I'm crossing Jordan River, I want my crown." "Jordan river chilly and cold, The love of Jesus is in my soul." "Jordan river deep and wide, None can cross but the sanctified." And similarly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: religious river nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, pp. 258-259, "I'm Crossing Jordan River" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" (floating lyrics)
File: CNFM258

I'm Despised for Being Poor


DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, false girl(s), I leave you In sorrow and in pain, My absence cannot grieve you, Soon you'll bear a stranger's name." He recalls courting the girl; though it grieves her, she has abandoned him for a rich stranger. He will enlist as a soldier
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal money soldier
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden, pp.194-195, "I'm Despised for Being Poor" (1 text)
Roud #7944
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Was Despised Because I Was Poor
NOTES: Nearly every word of this has close parallels elsewhere, except for the final line of each verse, "I'm despised for being poor" (or variants). But since that's the key to the whole song, the result probably should stand on its own. - RBW
File: Beld195

I'm Dying for Someone to Love Me


DESCRIPTION: The girl reports "I am dying for someone to love me." Flirting and friendship are not enough; she wants the real thing. None of the local young men are up to the task. Mother calls her crazy, but the girl recalls that she was once much the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (The Wonderful Eight Book of Poetry and Song)
KEYWORDS: love loneliness family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 373, "I'm Dying for Some One to Love Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 303-305, "I'm Dying for Someone to Love Me" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 373)
Roud #7620
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" (lyrics)
NOTES: Quite a few of the lyrics to this remind me of "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" -- enough so that I suspect this may be a parody. But the thrust of the song is different.
The version in the "Wonderful Eight Book" is credited to W. F. Shaw, but Cohen notes that a song with this same title (not necessarily the same song) was copyrighted 1877.
Randolph's informant, Booth Cambell, thought he learned it around 1880. - RBW
File: R373

I'm From Over the Mountain


See The Trip Over the Mountain (File: HHH161B)

I'm Gaein in the Train


DESCRIPTION: "I'm going in a train, And you're not coming with me; I've got a lad of my own, and his name is Kilty Jimmy." "Jimmy wears a kilt, He wears it in a fashion, And every time he twirls it around, You cannot keep from laughing!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 153, "(I'm going in a train)" (1 text)
Roud #18663
NOTES: Roud lumps this with something similar to "I Know Where I'm Going," and that certainly was what I thought of when I first read the piece. Still, the evidence is thin. I'm including it in the Index, hesitantly, and giving it its own entry, hesitantly. - RBW
File: MSNR153

I'm Gaun Some Wye


See Salmon Fishers (File: MSNR078)

I'm Gaun to the Wood


See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

I'm Gaun to the Wood (I)


DESCRIPTION: Dialog between "bonny keen Nancy" and "silly coordy Willsie": Nancy: tomorrow is market day. Willsie: Maybe I have no silver. Nancy: Maybe I can lend you some. Willsie: Maybe I won't repay it. Nancy: Maybe I won't care.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: money dialog humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 811C, "I'm Gaun to the Wood" (1 text)
Roud #298
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Greeting Wilsie" (dialog format and characters)
File: GrD4811C

I'm Gaun to the Wood (II)


See Poor Greeting Wilsie (File: GrD4811A)

I'm Goin' Away to Texas


DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' away to Texas, Oh dear me...." "Just go on an' just keep a-goin'." "When I get there I'll write you a letter." "I don't want you nor none of your letters." "You'll be sorry for all this." "If I am, you never will know it." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: dialog husband wife separation rejection shrewishness
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 363, "I'm Going Away to Texas" (3 texts, 1 tune, but only the "A" text and tune really belong here; "B" is "I Love You And I Can't Help It" and "C" is perhaps "The Quaker's Courtship" )
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 327-329, "I'm Going Away to Texas" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 363A)
Lomax-FSNA 166, "I'm Going Away to Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6691
File: R363

I'm Goin' Back to North Carolina


See My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (File: Wa124)

I'm Goin' Down the River Befo' Long


See Chilly Winds (File: MWhee029)

I'm Goin' Down the Rivuh


See I'm Going Down the River (File: MWhee050)

I'm Goin' to Beat This Rice


DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' to beat this rice, Goin' to beat 'em so, Goin' to beat 'em till the husks come off, Ah hanh hanh!" "Goin' to cook this rice when I get through." "Goin' to eat my belly full."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: work food nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, p. 116, (no title) (1 text)
File: CNFM116B

I'm Goin' to Pick my Banjo (Old Woman in the Garden)


DESCRIPTION: The singer watches his wife hoe the garden and cook while the lazy hound sits. He picks the banjo. The preacher tells him he'll never get to heaven; he repeats his refrain: "I'm goin' to pick my banjo... pick it while I can... right to the Promised Land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: music clergy work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner 125, "I'm Goin' to Pick my Banjo (or, Old Woman in the Garden)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa125 (Partial)
Roud #7478
RECORDINGS:
Frank Profffitt, "Old Woman in the Garden" (on USWarnerColl01)
File: Wa125

I'm Going Away to Texas (II)


See The Quaker's Courtship (File: R362)

I'm Going Away to Texas (III)


See I Love You And I Can't Help It (File: R363B)

I'm Going Down the River


DESCRIPTION: "I'm going down the river before long, Ba-baby..." "I know you're going to miss me when I'm gone." "Miss me from rollin' in your arms." "I think I heard the Joe Fowler blow." "She blowed like she ain't going to blow no more." And so forth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: river ship separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MWheeler, p. 50-51, "I'm Goin' Down the Rivuh" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 29, "I'm Goin' Down the Rivuh Befo' Long" (1 text, 1 tune, a combination of this blues with "Chilly Winds"); also presumably pp. 46-50, "The Joe Fowler Blues" (1 text, 1 tune, with all of the lyrics found in this song; compare p. 116, "The Kate Adams," with many of the same lyrics) and pp. 114-115, "I'm Goin' Down the Rivuh, Baby" (1 text, 1 tune, with still another set of verses)
Roud #10004, etc.
NOTES: According to Wheeler, the Joe Fowler was one of the large stable of boats built by the Fowler family for use on the Mississippi. Built in 1888, she burned in 1920. Her single-tone whistle was reportedly famous.
Like most pieces in Wheeler, her version of song is more blues than ballad, and consists mostly of words which could appear in any blues. But the reference to a specific boat hints that there might be something more complete out there somewhere.
It is possible that the "Joe Fowler Blues" is a separate song which was taken up entirely in the Wheeler text of "I'm Going Down the River" (after all, she has another "Going Down the River" text which swallowed part of "Chilly Winds" and still a third which is mostly about a man leaving home while boasting of his sexual prowess). But I know of no other versions to prove this, so for the moment they are combined. Roud splits them (10004, 10014, 10043), but they're all one-shots. - RBW
File: MWhee050

I'm Going Down This Road Feeling Bad


See Going Down this Road Feeling Bad (File: LxU072)

I'm Going Home (I)


DESCRIPTION: "I sought my Lord In the wilderness (x3), I sought my Lord in the wilderness, For I'm a-going home. For I'm going home (x2), I'm just getting ready, For I'm going home." "I found free grace in the wilderness." "My father preaches in the wilderness."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 84, "I'm Going Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12042
File: AWG084

I'm Going Home (II)


See Homeward Bound (I) (File: Doe087)

I'm Going Home to Die No More


See The Road to Heaven (File: R600)

I'm Going to Be Married on Monday


See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

I'm Going to be Married on Sunday


See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

I'm Going to be Mother Today


DESCRIPTION: Singer's wife is ill so he cooks and watches the children: is mother. He cooks bacon, spills milk, the frying pan catches fire. The water boils over, he bumps his head and gets a black eye. He tells his wife "you can !!!!ing well do the cooking yourself"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (recording, Johnny Doughty)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad children wife food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #8093
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Doughty, "I'm Going to be Mother Today" (on Voice14)
File: RcIGTBMT

I'm Going to Buy Me a Little Railroad


DESCRIPTION: "Well, I'm goin' to buy me a little railroad of my own, Ain't goin' to let nobody ride it but the chocolate to the bone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 240, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: Scarborough explains this as a reference to the singer's love. My instinctive reaction, though, was that the piece is political: In a day when Blacks were denied equal access to transportation, they might want to have a railroad where *they* were the ones with the rights. - RBW
File: ScaNF240

I'm Going To Cross the Sea


DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to cross the sea, my love, Oh how I hate to start, I'll shake your hand in a long farewell, And then we have to part." "Sift your meal and save your bran, There's gonna be a wedding down in Alabam." "Slice your bread and butter fine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty separation food
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 587, "I'm Going To Cross the Sea" (1 text)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 40-42, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7674
NOTES: Although there are many songs with similar lines, there is no reason I can see (based on Randolph's fragmentary text) to link this with any other "Going Cross the Sea" song.
Thomas's text is similar in scope: Three stanzas, sharing the first few lines with Randolph's and then being mostly floating. She does not list it as a playparty, rather as a chantey -- but her clasifications are suspect. - RBW
File: R587

I'm Going to Georgia


See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

I'm Going to Get Married


See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

I'm Going to Get Married Next Sunday


See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

I'm Going to Join the Army


See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

I'm Going to Ride in Pharaoh's Chariot


DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' to ride in Pharaoh's chariot (x2), One of these days God knows that, I'm going to ride in Pharaoh's chariot One of these days." Similarly, "I'm goin' to cross the river of Jordan," "...walk the golden streets," "talk with Paul and Silas," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 591, "I'm Goin' to Ride in Pharaoh's Chariot" (1 text)
Roud #11906
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire)" (form)
NOTES: The reference to riding in Pharaoh's chariot is presumably to Genesis 41:43, where Joseph, after being made viceroy of Egypt, is made to ride "in [Pharaoh's] second chariot." - RBW
Paul Stamler mentions the possibility that this is a version of the "Welcome Table" group. This is very possible, though we can't prove it without a tune. But the emphasis seems to be a little different. I am, for the moment, keeping them separate, though I'm far from sure. - RBW, (PJS)
File: Br3591

I'm Going to Stand In My Back Door


DESCRIPTION: "I'se gwine to stan' I my back do', An' I'se gwine ter hab -- Let de Debbil blab! -- Dat gal wid de blue dress on. Oh, swing dat gal wid de blue dress on, Swing, you niggers, swing!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: home clothes love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 231, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScaNF231

I'm Going Uptown


See Goin' to Have a Talk with the Chief of Police (File: CNFM098)

I'm Gwine Away to Georgia


DESCRIPTION: "I'm gwine away to Georgia, U'm gwine away to roam, U'm gwine away to Georgia, chile, Fer to make it my home." "The turkle dove is a hollerin' 'Cause he hears my sad cry, U'm gwine away to Georgia now Fer to live till I die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love home separation bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 449, "I'm Gwine Away to Georgia" (1 text)
Roud #413
NOTES: Roud links this with "The Cuckoo." I've no idea why. - RBW
File: Br3449

I'm Gwine to Alabamy


DESCRIPTION: "I'm gwine to Alabamy, Oh, For to see my mammy, Ah!" "She went from Old Virginny And I'm her pickaninny." "She lives on the Tombigbee, I wish I had her with me." "Now I'm a good big nigger, I reckon I won't get bigger." "But I'd like to see my mammy..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: slave mother separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 89, "I'm Gwine to Alabamy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 904-905, "I'm Gwine to Alabamy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12047
File: BAF904A

I'm in the Bottom


DESCRIPTION: Improvised cross-cutting song: "In the bottom, Oh Lordy now, wo, I'm in the bottom, Wo Lord." "I'm shovellin' dirt." "I'm gettin' tired." The singer complains about the captain, wishes for water, a doctor, rest; he begs for help from home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (collected from Johnny Jackson by Bruce Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 215-217,"I'm in in the Bottom" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES: This is an interesting item: A piece of ephemera which happened to be recorded. Bruce Jackson reports that Johnny Jackson made up the song as he worked while Bruce was there. When Bruce returned, Johnny did not remember what he had done but said he could make up another song if need be. (Given the simplicity of the form, he probably could.)
It makes you wonder how many similar songs have been made up and vanished simply because there was no Bruce Jackson along with recording equipment. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM215

I'm In Trouble


DESCRIPTION: "I'm in trouble, Lord, I'm in trouble, I'm in trouble, Lord, about my grave. Sometimes I weep, sometimes I mourn, I'm in trouble about my grave, Sometimes I can't do neither one, I'm in trouble about my grave."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 94, "I'm In Trouble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12049
File: AWG094A

I'm Just A-Going Over Jordon


See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

I'm Just from the Fountain


DESCRIPTION: "I am just from the fountain, I'm just from the fountain, Lord, I'm just from the fountain that never runs dry, Oh fathers, I love Jesus, I love him, yes I do, Oh fathers, I love Jesus, and you must love him too." "Oh mothers, I love Jesus," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 636, "I'm Just from the Fountain" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7562
File: R636

I'm Just Going Down to the Gate


DESCRIPTION: Though the singer's sweetheart's parents think she is too young to marry, she's allowed to wander as far as the garden gate, where the two lovers meet regularly. Someday they will slip off to the parson's.
AUTHOR: Gus. Williams
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (sheet music published)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his sweetheart as a "sly little fairy"; though her parents are protective and think she's too young to marry, she's allowed to wander as far as the garden gate, where of course she meets him. They talk sweet nothings while the parents debate weighty matters inside; she tells them "there's no sign of a storm, and the night is so warm." Someday they will slip off to the parson's. Chorus: "I'll just go as far as the gate, dear ma...The moon is so bright, and it's such a fine night/I love to stand here by the gate"
KEYWORDS: age courting elopement marriage nonballad family lover
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
Roud #6407
RECORDINGS:
Sid Harkreader, "Only As Far As the Gate" (Paramount 3035, 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Only As Far As the Gate Dear Ma" (Vocalion 15323, 1926)
Murphy Brothers Harp Band, "When Katie Comes Down to the Gate" (Champion 16455, 1932)
NOTES: Chris Valillo has documented that this was taught at a singing school in Badet, IL as early as 1884. I've used the title of the original song, although it has apparently not been used much in tradition. - PJS
File: RcJGDttG

I'm Leaving Tipperary


DESCRIPTION: The singer is about to sail "across the broad Atlantic" on the "Dan O'Leary," "bound for New York City, boys, three thousand miles away." His portmanteau is packed with food. He bids all farewell. He will bring Mollie Burke when he is settled.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (OConor)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell food America Ireland friend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1754, "My Good Ship Sails in Half-an-Hour" (1 text, 1 tune)
OConor, p. 33, "Good-By, Mike, Good-By Pat" (1 text)
DT, GDBYMICK
ADDITIONAL: Michael D Morrissey, editor, Song and Story: An Anthology of Irish Folk Songs, (Aachen, 2001 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 82, "Goodbye, Mick"
Roud #3313
NOTES: OConor includes the line "I'll take my trunk upon my back and walk to Castle Garden." For a discussion of Castle Gardens, the New York entry point for immigrants between 1845 and 1890, see "Castle Gardens" (I). - BS
Although all the (handful of) versions of this song I have seen say that the singer sails on the Dan O'Leary, I wonder if (assuming the song is historical) it should not be the John O'Leary, after the co-editor of the Irish People (lived 1830-1907). I have so far failed to locate either a ship or a man of significance named "Dan O'Leary." Of course, this depends on just when the song came into existence. But the ship is apparently a steamer which keeps a regular schedule; this strongly implies a late nneteenth century date. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81754

I'm Lonesome Since My Mother Died


DESCRIPTION: Mother dies and father remarries. My stepmother "beat me and she turned me out When I speaks of my mother dear." "If I could only call her back, Once more to sit down by her side, I would like her better than before; I'm lonesome since my mother died."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: grief death mourning lament mother stepmother youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 181, "I'm Lonesome Since My Mother Died" (1 text)
Roud #6361
File: GrMa181

I'm Looking Over My Dead Dog Rover


DESCRIPTION: Concerning the death of Rover, usually caused (inadvertently, one hopes) by the singer (e.g. by hitting Rover with a power mower). The text varies extremely, as does the cause of death; the only constant element seems to be the title line.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988
KEYWORDS: dog animal death humorous parody
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 136, "I'm Looking Over My Dead Dog Rover" (2 texts, tune referenced)
DT, DEADROVR
Roud #15720
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" (tune)
NOTES: I've never seen two versions of this song alike, and none of the printed versions matches my father's text. Looks to me like a genuine folk song, even if the plot is completely unfixed. - RBW
File: DTdeadro

I'm My Own Grandpa


DESCRIPTION: Singer marries a pretty widow; his father marries her red-haired daughter. By tortuous logic, the singer explains that this makes him his own grandfather. Chorus: "I'm my own grandpa...It seems funny, I know/But it really is so/I'm my own grandpa"
AUTHOR: Dwight Latham & Moe Jaffe
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (recordings, Grandpa Jones, Korn Kobblers); reportedly copyright 1947
KEYWORDS: marriage nonsense paradox family father mother
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, OWNGRNPA
Roud #10444
RECORDINGS:
Grandpa Jones, "I'm My Own Grandpa" (King 694, 1948)
Korn Kobblers, "I'm My Own Grandpaw" (MGM 10136, 1948)
Lonzo & Oscar, "I'm My Own Grandpa" (RCA Victor 20-2563, 1947)
NOTES: This is included because it seems to have begun passing into oral tradition [or at least universal folklore - RBW] -- certainly it appears often enough on the internet (in genealogy sites!) without attribution. The song is based on a short story by Mark Twain. - PJS
To make matters even more complicated, Fiddlin' John Carson's song "Papa's Billy Goat" (a version of what we index by its "urban" name of "Bill Grogan's Goat"), first recorded in 1923, concludes with this verse:
Then I acted an old fool, married me a widow,
And the widow had a daughter and her name was Maude;
Father being a widower married her daughter,
And now my daddy is my own son-in-law.
Obviously that isn't the whole burden of "I'm My Own Grandpa," but it's getting there, and Carson's version was popular enough that he was asked to re-record it twice.
Incidentally, Robert A. Heinlein eventually went this one better, and produced a story in which (by means of time travel and gender surgery) the main character became his own mother. And father. And, hence, grandmother and grandfather and.... (Wouldn't cloning have been easier?)
Not too surprisingly, that story ("All You Zombies," from 1959) mentions this song. It is, in a side note, the next-to-last short story Heinlein ever wrote (the last being "Searchlight," from 1962), and the last not associated with his "Future History" series.
Nor did Heinlein invent the conceit of a time-traveler who was his own parent. In the July 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction is a story by Frank Holby entitled "The Strange Case of the Missing Hero." A hero named Elliot Gallant had saved the world, then volunteered to ride a time machine. He was never seen again. A research firm eventually set out to find out his fate. The final sentence: "Elliot Gallant killed himself when he found out, with his great mind power, that he was his own father!"
Believe it or not, there is an actual bit of history which almost resembles this, except that it didn't quite come off. Christopher Allmand, Henry V, University of California Press, 1992, writes :The year 1395 was to witness the first attempt to arrange [a marriage for Henry of Monmouth, the future Henry V]. His prospective bride was to be Marie, daughter of John IV, duke of Brittany, and his duchess, Joan. The plan fell through.... Yet the Breton link was not lost. In 1403 Henry's own father was to marry the duchess Joan,by then widowed. Thus the lady who might have become [Henry's] mother-in-law became his stepmother instead."
Again, not this exact plot -- but one can imagine getting to this plot from that one. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: DTowngrn

I'm Nae Awa


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

I'm nae awa' to bide awa'


See My Ain Kate (File: GrD2257)

I'm No' Comin' Oot the Noo


DESCRIPTION: "O a nice wee lass, a bonnie wee lass Is bonnie wee Jeannie McKay," but when she and the singer are to go out, her says "My mother's ta'en my claes tae the pawn... And I'm no comin' oot the new." In any situation, the singer pleads poverty and stays in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (recording, the Stewarts of Blair)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes bug poverty humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
ST RcINCOtN (Partial)
Roud #5298
RECORDINGS:
Belle, Sheila, and Cathie Stewart, "I'm No' Comin' Oot the Noo" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
File: RcINCOtN

I'm Nobody's Darling on Earth


See Nobody's Darling on Earth (File: R723)

I'm not going away to stay away


See My Ain Kate (File: GrD2257)

I'm Not Myself At All


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I'm not myself at all, Molly dear, Molly dear." At confession the singer asked Father Taff for half a blessing because his other half belongs to Molly Brierly. The singer wants her to marry him before he disappears entirely.
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1861 (broadside, LOCSinging as201450)
KEYWORDS: courting love humorous nonballad clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor, p. 22, "I'm Not Myself At All" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(267), "I'Am Not Myself At All", H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860 [same as LOCSinging as201450]; also Harding B 11(3984), "I'm Not Myself At All"; Harding B 11(4325), "Molly Dear" or "I'm Not Myself At All"
LOCSinging, as201450, "I'am Not Myself At All", H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(267)]; also sb20205a, "I'am Not Myself At All"
NOTES: Broadsides LOCSinging as201450 and Bodleian Harding B 18(267): 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: OCon022

I'm Now Twenty-Two


DESCRIPTION: The singer had a new suit, fancy tie and watch chain, and swaggered. He describes his oiled moustache, but mourns his "half-Buchan English." The girls reject him because he is not well read. He gives up vanity: "I'll try and put wisdom into my heid"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: vanity courting rejection clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 650, "I'm Now Twenty-Two" (1 text)
Roud #6079
NOTES: GreigDuncan3: "Got from an old lady [Mrs Taylor] at Rora, who says it was written by one Gibb, who resided at Longside, fifty years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3650

I'm O'er Young to Marry Yet


See I'm Ower Young to Marry Yet (File: GrD4900)

I'm Often Drunk and I'm Seldom Sober


See I'm a Rover and Seldom Sober (File: DTimarov)

I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober


DESCRIPTION: Singer is seldom sober and "a rover in every degree," He says his lover is "as clever a woman as ever trod upon London ground." He wishes he were in Dublin or across the sea beyond lawyers' reach. She says her love is clever. They both love drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1831 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(894))
KEYWORDS: drink floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #3135
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(894), "I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober" ("Many cold winter nights I've travelled"), R. Walker (Norwich), 1780- 1830; also Harding B 25(893), Harding B 11(1731), "I'm Often Drunk, and Seldom Sober ("The sea is wide and I can't get over")
NOTES: Description is from broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1731). - BS
File: BdIODASS

I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough


DESCRIPTION: Singer describes himself as a happy old gentleman whom the girls adore. Chorus consists mostly of laughing
AUTHOR: Cal Stewart?
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1900 (recording, Cal Stewart)
KEYWORDS: age humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US
Roud #15460
RECORDINGS:
Andrew Keefe, "I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough" (CYL: Edison 9152, 1905)
Cal Stewart - change reference to: (Columbia 22, 1901; Columbia A-299, 1909; rec. 1900) (Victor 659, 1901; Zonophone C-5321, n.d.) (Victor 16403, 1909; rec. 1907)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Laughing Song" (chorus)
NOTES: This is a pop song, pure and simple, and I wouldn't include it in the Index, except that a massively folk-processed version of the song was collected in the 1970s from the Arkansas singer Tip McKinney (former member of Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, who made 78s of traditional music in 1928). It's a classic example of a song moving from popular music into tradition. - PJS
File: RcIOBIAT

I'm On My Way


DESCRIPTION: "I'm on my way, and I won't turn back! I'm on my way, great God, I'm on my way." "I'm on my way to Canaan's land." "I ask my sister to go with me." "If she says no, I'll go alone." "I ask my boss to let me go." "If he says no, I'll go anyhow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-AFP, p. 100, "I'm On My Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 302, "I'm On My Way" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "On My Way to Canaan's Land" (Bluebird B-8167, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "I'm On My Way" (on PeteSeeger04) (on PeteSeeger15) (on PeteSeeger26); "I'm On My Way to Canaan's Land" (on PeteSeeger44)
File: Grnw100

I'm Ower Young to Marry Yet


DESCRIPTION: The singer says "I'm owre young to marry" and "lads, ... ye for me maun tarry." It would "be a sin" to take "me frae my mammy." She has had her own way: "None daur to contradict me yet." and "in truth I darena venture yet," Soon she will have to obey.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.14(69)); Burns's version is from 1788
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan4 900, "I'm Ower Young to Marry Yet" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #195, pp. 305-306, "I'm o'er young to Marry Yet" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1788)
Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), p. 123, "I'm Owre Young"
Roud #6142
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(69), "I'm Owre Young to Marry Yet" ("I'm owre young, I'm owre young"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Love She's But a Lassie Yet" (tune, per GreigDuncan4)
NOTES: Whitelaw: "This is an old song, dressed up a little by Burns for Johnson's Museum." Whitelaw prints Burns's version. The description is based on broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.14(69). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4900

I'm Poor But a Gentleman Still


See Poor, But a Gentleman Still (File: FSC103)

I'm Sad and I'm Lonely


DESCRIPTION: "I'm sad and I'm lonely, My heart it will break. My sweetheart loves another; Lord I wish I were dead." The singer warns against the lies that young men tell, which are more numerous than "cross-ties on the railroad or stars in the skies."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: love separation lie desertion floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sandburg, pp. 243-245, "I'm Sad and I'm Lonely" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 167, "I'm Sad And I'm Lonely" (1 text)
Cambiaire, p. 84, "I'm Sad and I'm Lonely" (1 text)
ST San243 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Eller Family, "I'm Goin' to Georgia" (on FolkVisions1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Troubled In My Mind" (floating lyrics)
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (floating lyrics)
cf. "A Warning to Girls" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This appears to be another of those collections of floating verses that has taken on some life of its own. - RBW
The Eller Family recording is actually a mishmosh of floating verses from here, "On Top of Old Smoky," "The Cuckoo" and, if I'm not mistaken, "Poor Ellen Smith." But I put it here because, well, why not? It has to go somewhere. - PJS
File: San243

I'm Scarce Sixteen Come Sunday


See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

I'm Seventeen 'gin Sunday


See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

I'm Seventeen Come Sunday


See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

I'm Seventy-Two Today


DESCRIPTION: "I'm seventy-two today, my boys; They say I'm growing old. I feel as young as I used to be; My heart is strong and bold." The old man says he can and will ride and court as well as ever (if perhaps a bit faster), and expects to enjoy the process
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: age courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 433, "I'm Seventy-Two Today" (1 text)
Warner 158, "Seventy-Two Today" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R433 (Full)
Roud #4387 and 7485
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If I Were As Young As I Used to Be (Uncle Joe)" (plot)
File: R433

I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II)


DESCRIPTION: "Oh I'm sitting on the stile, Mary, where we sat side by side." He thinks of their life together and the graveyard where he buried her "with your babe all on your breast." He promises not to forget her "in that land I'm going to"
AUTHOR: Words: Lady Helena Selina Blackwood Dufferin (1807-1867), Music: William R. Dempster (1843?)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4048))
KEYWORDS: marriage emigration burial lament baby wife separation promise
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Peacock, pp. 462-464, "I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary" (1 text, 2 tunes)
O'Conor, p. 156, "The Irish Emigrant" (1 text)
Dean, p. 81, "The Lament of the Irish Emigrant" (1 text)
BrownII 133, "I Was Sitting on a Stile" (1 fragment, which the editors apparently regard as a part of this song -- though with only four lines, it's almost unfileable)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 302-303, "The Lament of the Irish Emigrant"
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #574, pp. 919-920, "Lament of the Irish Emigrant" (by bHelena Selina, Lady Dufferin)
ST Pea462 (Partial)
Roud #2661
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4048), "The Irish Emigrant" ("I'm sitting on the stile, Mary"), G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also 2806 c.14(195) View 4 of 5, Harding B 11(1773), Firth b.25(157), Johnson Ballads 1690, Firth b.27(499), Firth c.12(134), Harding B 11(2181), Firth c.26(135), Harding B 11(465), 2806 c.16(140), Harding B 11(1778), Harding B 11(1777), Firth b.25(303), Harding B 11(239), Harding B 26(270), Harding B 6(18), 2806 b.10(93), 2806 b.10(76), Harding B 20(74), Harding B 15(139a), Harding B 11(1776), "The Irish Emigrant"
LOCSinging, as107440, "Lament of the Irish Immigrant," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
Murray, Mu23-y4:016, "Irish Emigrant," John Ross (Newcastle), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70.(2a), "The Irish Emigrant," Robert McIntosh (Glasgow), c. 1875
SAME TUNE:
Parody on The Irish Emigrant (broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:068, "Parody on "The Irish Emigrant" ("I'm sitting on a rail Judy, Where oft across ye'd stride"), James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Irish Emigrant's Lament
NOTES: Not the song by William Kennedy.
GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site is one of many sources for the author of the words; Museum of the City of New York site refers to sheet music source for tunesmith.
Killeagh County Down site: The village of Killyleagh grew up around a fortified tower, built in the 12th century by a Norman knight, John de Courcy....Lady Helen Dufferin wrote the famous poem "The Lament of the Irish Emigrant" in the castle, It is still possible to visit Mary's Stile in the shadows of the Castle today.
Murray, Mu23-y1:068, "Parody on the Irish Emigrant," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C (the singer stays in Ireland, glad his wife has died)
Bodleian, Firth b.26(206), "Answer to the Irish Emigrant" ("I'm coming back to you, Mary, Australia's shores I find"), A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(88), "Answer to the Irish Emigrant" (the singer returns from Australia)
LOCSinging, as107460, "Lament of the Irish Gold Hunter," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as107450, "Lament of the Irish Gold Hunter!!" (Tune: "I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary"; the singer is digging for gold but expects to return to Ireland, if he survives "sitting on the stile, Mary, Away up in the mines")
LOCSinging, hc00011a, "Paddy's Lament" ("I'm sitthin on de sthile, Molly, wid a grape shot in my leg"), Charles Magnus (New York), 1864 (Tune: "I'm sitting on the stile &c."; attributed to John Ross Dix; the singer is fighting in America for the Union but hopes to return "when peace returns once more."
"A new set of lyrics to William Dempster's [tune for] 'Lament of the Irish Emigrant' changed the subject from an oppressed Irishman to a drunken one: [two verse text]." (source: Robert R Grimes, How Shall We Sing in a Foreign Land? (1996, Notre Dame), p. 56, quoting an 1849 issue of Boston Pilot.).
Broadside LOCSinging as107440 and LOCSinging as107460: 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
There is some question about who wrote the music to this. Amsco's uncredited book The Library of Irish Music lists the tune as by G. Barker. But many of its attributions are inaccurate. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Pea462

I'm Sixteen Thousand Miles from Home


See Sixteen Thousand Miles from Home (File: MA067)

I'm So Glad My Time Have Come


DESCRIPTION: "I'm so glad my time have come, Around Sheman no more will I bum, The last bummin' I did I remember it still, With six long months I stayed in the cell." "Oh judge, oh judge, I liked to forget." Chorus: "I've tidied I rule, I've a rudulideer" (x2)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes travel prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-DeadMan, p. 84, "I'm So Glad My Time Have Come" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Jackson suspects that the first stanza of this may be from a pop recording. This strikes me as reasonable, but I don't recognize it, and the song does not seem to occur in tradition elsewhere. I suspect the nonsense chorus started out as "I traveled the road...." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM084

I'm Sticking to the Murphys


DESCRIPTION: "I'm sticking to the Murphys, I'll fight 'em till I die; I can't help spitting cotton Because I am so dry. You'll bust your lips with laughter; Stick to the pledge I must, But the more I drink cold water The more I'm belching dust."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Springfield News and Leader)
KEYWORDS: drink promise
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 340, "I'm Sticking to the Murphys" (1 text)
Roud #7811
NOTES: The Murphy movement was a temperance program of the 1870s or so. Men signed a pledge to avoid alcohol (and to try to convince others to do the same), and were rewarded with a blue ribbon. - RBW
File: R340

I'm the Man That Kin Raise So Long


See Alabama Bound (Waterbound II) (File: BMRF598)

I'm the Man That Rode the Mule 'Round the World


See I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song) (File: R410)

I'm the Man that Rote Ta Rarra Bumdia


See I'm the Man that Wrote Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay (File: R409)

I'm the Man that Wrote Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay


DESCRIPTION: "I am the Man that Wrote Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay, Promise me you won't give it away...." The singer was a poor showman until he produced the famous song. Now the police seek him, people throw brickbats, and not even Shakespeare can equal his claim
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: parody music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 409, "I'm the Man that Wrote Ta Rarra Bumdia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7614
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e"
NOTES: For the actual (uncertain) authorship of "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e," see that song. - RBW
File: R409

I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes


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

I'm Tired of Living Alone


DESCRIPTION: "I'm tired of living alone. I went to the river, and I saw a pretty rose, I plucked it and called it my own. A rose will fade, and so will a maid; I'm tired of living alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: flowers loneliness
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 272, "I'm Tired of Living Alone" (1 fragment)
Roud #15744
NOTES: No doubt a part of something longer and perhaps widely familiar. But I can't identify it from the stanza in Brown. - RBW
File: Br3272

I'm To Be Marrit in May


DESCRIPTION: "The win' at the window is rattlin', The sheep huddle close on the brae... But what care I for the weather, I'm happy's a queen a' the day... And I'm to be marrit in May." The girl praises her love Johnny and describes the joy she feels
AUTHOR: James M. Taylor
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord, p. 164, "I'm To Be Marrit in May" (1 text)
Roud #5559
NOTES: Since Ord had this from the (reported) author, there is no real reason to think it exists in oral tradition. - RBW
File: Ord164

I'm Troubled


See Troubled In My Mind (File: LoF102)

I'm Troubled in Mind


See Troubled In My Mind (File: LoF102)

I'm Working My Way Back Home


DESCRIPTION: If "the boat keep steppin'" and his back doesn't give out, the singer will get back to his woman in Memphis. "All that I crave fo' many a long day Is yo' lovin' when I git back." He urges the fireman to make speed, and describes the route the boat follows
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: river work love separation ship
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MWheeler, pp. 13-14, "I'm Wukin' My Way Back Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 575, "I'm Wukin' My Way Back Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST BMRF575 (Full)
Roud #9991
File: BMRF575

I'm Wukin' My Way Back Home


See I'm Working My Way Back Home (File: BMRF575)

I'se Gwine Back to Dixie


DESCRIPTION: Singer, having left Dixie, pines for the usual things: home, food, etc. He swore that if he left, he'd never return, but now "time has changed the old man, his head is bending low." "I'm going back to Dixie...I'm going where the orange blossoms grow...."
AUTHOR: Charles A. White
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (sheet music publication)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, having left Dixie, pines for the usual things: home, the old plantation, hominy, punkin, and red gravy. He says that, working on the farm and on the river, he swore that if he left, he'd never return, but now "time has changed the old man, his head is bending low" and his heart turns back to Dixie. Chorus: "I'm going back to Dixie...I'm going where the orange blossoms grow...My heart turns back to Dixie, and I must go"
KEYWORDS: age homesickness loneliness home return travel farming river work food nonballad family
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, HEARTDIX
RECORDINGS:
Leo Boswell, "My Heart's Turned Back to Dixie" (Columbia 15748-D, 1932)
Climax Quartet, "Ise Gwine Back to Dixie" (Columbia [Climax] 753, 1902)
Greater New York Quartet, "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (CYL: Columbia 9010, c. 1898)
Haydn Quartet, "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (Berliner 024-N, rec. 1899; Victor 657, 1901) (Victor 4725, 1906; Victor 16104, 1908)
Leake County Revelers, "I'm Gwine Back to Dixie" (Columbia 15409-D, 1929)
Uncle Dave Macon, "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (Vocalion 5157, 1927)
Peg Moreland, "Going Back to Dixie" (Victor 21653, 1928)
Grover Rann & Harry Ayers, "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (Columbia 15638-D, 1931; rec. 1930)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Gwine Back to Dixie
File: DTheartd

I'se Gwine Land on Dat Shore


See I Don't Love Old Satan (File: Br3584)

I'se the B'y that Builds the Boat


See I'ze the B'y that Builds the Boat (File: FJ116)

I've a cherry, I've a chess


See Blawin' Willie Buck's Horn (File: GrD81640)

I've a Lad in Edinburgh


DESCRIPTION: The singer claims to have a lad in Edinburgh, Sta'bogie, Musselburgh, Ardlogie, and more. "I'm in love wi' twenty, I could adore as many more ... Variety is charming"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1484, "I've a Lad in Edinburgh" (1 text)
Roud #7178
File: GrD71484

I've Always Been a Rambler


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

I've Been a Foreign Lander


See Foreign Lander (File: JRSF064)

I've Been a Wild Boy


See Wild Rover No More (File: MA069)

I've Been All Around This World


See Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World) (File: R146)

I've Been Buked and I've Been Scorned


See Hell and Heaven (I've Been Buked and I've Been Scorned) (File: LxA588)

I've Been Faithful to You


DESCRIPTION: "Why did you turn from me, darling? Why all this coldness today?" The (girl) declares "I have been faithful to you," and asks why the other is false. Later he finds her body, holding tight to a note that reads "Love, I've been faithful to you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Henry, collected from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 161-162, "I've Been Faithful to You" (1 text)
File: MSAp161

I've Been to Australia-o


See I've Been to Australia, Oh! (File: FaE106)

I've Been to Australia, Oh!


DESCRIPTION: The singer warns, "So now my friends, take my advice, and never think to go Or you will rue the day you went to Australia-oh." While there, his wife, money, and clothes were stolen. Facing with high prices, he has to do manual labour. He hopes to go home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Old Bush Songs); Ron Edwards reportedly found a version dated 1862
KEYWORDS: Australia poverty work hardtimes emigration robbery
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 106-107, "I've Been to Australia, Oh!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 105-108, "I've Been to Australia-o" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pommy's Lament" (theme)
File: FaE106

I've Been Working on the Railroad


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes working on the railroad "all the live-long day" and waiting for Dinah to blow the horn. He describes someone being "in the kitchen with Dinah, strumming on the old banjo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Carmina Princetonia)
KEYWORDS: railroading work courting
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 537-542, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 234, "Working on the Railroad" (1 text plus two unrelated fragments, probably of "Roll on the Ground (Big Ball's in Town)"; the "A" text is a jumble starting with this song but followed up by what is probably a "Song of All Songs" fragment)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 248, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, with the first verse being this and the second being probably some sort of courting song)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 81, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 103, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, including some parody verses)
Fuld-WFM, p. 209, "I've Been Working on the Railroad -- (The Eyes of Texas)"; p. 513, "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah"
DT, WORKRAIL
RECORDINGS:
Blankenship Family, "Working on the Railroad" (Victor 23583, 1931)
Art Mooney, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (Vogue R-713-32, n.d. but prob. 1930s)
Sandhills Sixteen, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (Victor 20905, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (on PeteSeeger21) (on PeteSeeger32)
SAME TUNE:
We've Enlisted in the Navy (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 151)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Levee Song
NOTES: Although this is surely a composed song, Fuld cannot find any references to the "Railroad" verses prior to 1894 (when it was twice published as "The Levee Song," and in both instances associated with Princeton). No composer is listed in the extant materials.
The "Dinah" verses are dated by Fuld to the period before 1850. How they came together is a mystery; they don't fit all that well -- but as I've never heard the halves done separately (though Scarborough's text consists only of the first part, and the Cohen text, from the Blankenship family omits the"Dinah Won't You Blow" stanza, substituting something Cohen thinks is a school rouser), I keep them together here.
Cohen cites Theodore Raph as claiming the song became popular in 1881. But Cohen himself agrees with Fuld's 1894 date. Probably it will take a much more detailed study than any undertaken so far to finally settle the matter. - RBW
File: FSWB209

I've Bin to the 'Bama and I Just Got Back


DESCRIPTION: "I've bin to the 'Bama and I just got back. I didn't bring no money but I brought the sack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: money travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 498, "I've Bin to the 'Bama and I Just Got Back" (1 fragment)
Roud #11765
NOTES: Roud lumps this with the "Hesitation Blues." Tough to prove either way. - RBW
File: Be3498

I've Built Me a Neat Little Cot, Darling


See Kitty Tyrrell (File: R788)

I've Buried Three Husbands Already (Wherever There's a Goose There's a Gander)


DESCRIPTION: "Oh I buried three husbands already ... And now I am mostly all ready For another young son to come on." "Wherever there's a goose there's a gander." "The older the bow and the fiddle, The sweeter the tune it can play"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: age marriage death humorous nonballad husband
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #16725
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "I've Buried Three Husbands Already" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES: Did someone set the Wife of Bath's prologue to music? - RBW
File: RcIB3HA

I've Got a Brother in the Snow-White Fields


DESCRIPTION: "I've got a brother in the snow-white fields, Praying all night long. I want to go to Heaven when I die, Oh my Lawd (x2), I want to go to...." "I want to go to Heaven and I want to go right... dressed in white." "I want to go to heaven at my own expense."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious death brother nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 535, "I've Got a Brother in the Snow-White Fields" (1 text)
Roud #11822
File: Br3535

I've Got a Master and I Am His Man


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I've got a master and I am his man, Galloping steadily on, Oh, I've got a master and I am his man, I'll marry me a wife as soon as I can, With a higglety pigglety, gambling gay, Higglety pigglety, gambling gay, Galloping steadily on."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: servant work horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 148, "I've Got a Master and I Am His Man" (1 fragment)
Roud #15768
File: Br3148

I've Got a Mother Gone to Glory


See probably The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

I've Got a Shilling


See I Love Sixpence (File: OO2480)

I've Got No Use for the Women


DESCRIPTION: "I've got no use for the women; A true one can never be found. They use a man for his money...." The singer tells how his partner killed a man who insulted his sweetheart's picture, and was himself killed and buried on the prairie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Travis B. Hale)
KEYWORDS: death murder revenge love burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 65, "I've Got No Use for the Women" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4104
RECORDINGS:
Edward L. Crain, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Crown 3239, 1932; Homestead 22991, c. 1932; on MakeMe)
Crowder Brothers, "Got No Use for Women" (Perfect 8-03-57, 1938)
Vernon Dalhart, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Conqueror 7729, 1931)
Delmore Bros. "Oh Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Montgomery Ward M-4060, 1933)
Travis B. Hale, "Oh Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Victor 20796, 1927)
Harry Jackson, "I Ain't Got No Use for the Women" (on HJackson1)
Bradley Kincaid, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Silvertone 5187/Silvertone 8218/Supertone 9208, 1928) (Vocalion 5474, 1930; Conqueror 8091, 1933)
Ranch Boys, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Decca 5341, 1937)
Carson Robison's Trio, "Oh Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Broadway 4060, n.d.)
Roy Shaffer, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Bluebird B-8213, 1939)
Tune Wranglers "I've Got No Use for the Women" (Bluebird B-7089, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)" (lyrics)
cf. "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (lyrics)
NOTES: What an excuse for not being able to find a girlfriend. - RBW
This uses more phrases from "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" than can be explained by coincidence. - PJS
File: FCW065

I've Just Come from Sydney


DESCRIPTION: "I've just come from Sydney across the range of mountains Where the nanny goats and the billy goats and the moo cows do dwell." He looks for his girl. Informed she has run off, he says he will wander by the sea and lay himself down and -- get up!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: love separation elopement humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manifold-PASB, p. 143, "I've Just Come from Sydney" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: From the language, this sounds like a children's song; from the tone, it's clearly a gag. I suspect it's a parody of something, but I've no idea what. - RBW
File: PASB143

I've Just Got in Across the Plains


DESCRIPTION: "I've just got in across the plains, I'm poorer than a snail, My mules all died but poor old Chip." The singer tells of his terrible troubles on the way to California, and warns those who would follow that gold is hard to find
AUTHOR: Enuel Davis?
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes animal gold warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden, pp. 345-346, "I've Just Got in Across the Plains" ( 1 text)
Roud #7775
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Miner's Song
NOTES: Belden mentions that this was written "on the California Trail around 1850 by Enuel Davis," who contributed other complaints about the trail to California. But in context, it appears possible that Davis was the transcriber or publisher. - RBW
File: Beld345

I've Lost My Love and I Kenna Weel Fu


DESCRIPTION: The singer says she has lost her love and "keena weel fu" [doesn't know how], but it would be childish to complain. Men are "as fickle as winter in sunshine an' shower." "The lossing o ane's the gainin o twa" He dares not return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan6 1147, "I've Lost My Love and I Kenna Weel Fu" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOSTLOVE*
Roud #2075
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O'er the Water to Charlie" (tune, per GreigDuncan6)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I've Lost My Love, and I Carena
File: GrD61147

I've Nine Bairns and That's Nae Mony


DESCRIPTION: "I've nine bairns and that's nae mony And if I get anither ane I'm gaun tae ca him Johnnie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: nonballad children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1453, "I've Nine Bairns and That's Nae Mony" (1 text)
Roud #7280
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan7 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71453

I've Rode the Southern and the L & N


DESCRIPTION: Blues; singer says he's ridden the Southern & L&N railroads, has been treated badly, is a rambling man, and has found his "two blue eyes" at last. He has had to offer her his watch, his chain, and all he had before she would agree to marry him
AUTHOR: Possibly Homer Callahan, but since it's mostly floating verses...
EARLIEST DATE: early 1930s (recording, Homer Callahan)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage bargaining rambling train floatingverses
FOUND IN:
Roud #8589
RECORDINGS:
Homer Callahan, "I've Rode the Southern and the L & N" (Conqueror 8557, 1935; Romeo 351011 (1935), also issued on Banner, Melotone, Oriole and Perfect; some issued under the name Callahan Bros.)
Merle Lovell, "I Rode Southern, I Rode L & N" (AFS 4111 A1, 1940; on LC61)
NOTES: The "L & N" was the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.
This barely qualifies as a ballad, but the narrative thread, though thin, is present, and while some of the floating verses come from Jimmie Rodgers via Homer Callahan, they've floated through enough places to become part of tradition. - PJS
File: RcIRtSLN

I've Sair'd wi' Men


DESCRIPTION: "I've sairt wi' men that eased me well Wi' men that tried to skin." The singer names the places he has worked but "the like o' the Aucheddly My fit was never in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 388, "I've Sair'd wi' Men" (1 text)
Roud #5922
File: GdC3388

I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening)


DESCRIPTION: "I've traveled this country both early and late; Hard has been my fortune and sad has been my fate." He comes to his love's home and sees her with another man. He gets drunk and/or questions her and wishes he were a fisherman and could catch her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden, p. 194, "Last Friday Evening" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, p. 333, "Lovely Polly" (1 text; tune on p. 447)
Roud #1795
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating lyrics) and references there
File: Beld194

I've Two or Three Strings To My Bow


DESCRIPTION: "I am a fair maiden forsaken, but I have a contented mind." Her love has forsaken him, but she does not intend to mourn; she has other options. She warns girls against men, and says she will "care no more for him than he cares for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1768 (Ramsey)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H70a+b, pp. 340-341, "I've Two or Three Strings To My Bow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4788
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (theme) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Frugal Maid
File: HHH070

I'ze the B'y that Builds the Boat


DESCRIPTION: "I'ze the b'y that builds the boat, And I'ze the b'y that sails her; I'ze the b'y that catches the fish And takes 'em home to Liza." Stories of a Newfoundland life and diet -- and of the odd things that can happen at a Newfoundland party
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: nonballad ship sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 116-117, "I'se the B'y that Builds the Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 43, "I'se the B'y that Builds the Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, p. 64, "I's the B'y That Builds the Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 30, "I'se The B'y" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 40-41, "I'se the B'y" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 78, "I'ze the Bye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 129, "I'se The B'y" (1 text)
DT, ISTHEBY*
Roud #4432
NOTES: Gordon Bok reports the following anecdote:
"A friend of mine came back from fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and he told me he was sitting in a bar in Cornerbrook when the fellow beside him punched him in the arm and said, 'How do you kill a Newfoundlander?'
"My friend says: 'I dunno.'
"The fellow says, 'You nail his boots to the floor and play "I'ze the B'y."'" - RBW
File: FJ116

I'ze the Bye


See I'ze the B'y that Builds the Boat (File: FJ116)

Ibby Damsel


DESCRIPTION: "Some old Robin Down they call me/But I'm a weaver by my trade/In this fair berth, in which I'm dwelling/And Ibby Damsel my heart betrayed." Two succeeding verses praise Ibby Damsel's beauty, and note that "from her chamber I can't get free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (collected from Rosie Hensley by Cecil Sharp)
KEYWORDS: captivity love betrayal beauty weaving
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SharpAp 119, "Ibby Damsel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3635
NOTES: A fragment, but it just avoids nonballad status by its hint of a narrative. There are no further notes on this song in Sharp's collection. - PJS
File: ShAp2119

Ice Bound Hunting Seals


DESCRIPTION: "The wind was still from the nor'east As we sat down to out humble feast" as the sealers talk of days gone by. They recall happier voyages; finally old "Garge" "Cried out, 'it's the "infarnal" steal -- that's what done it.'"
AUTHOR: probably James Murphy
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small)
KEYWORDS: hunting technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 67, "Ice Bound Hunting Seals" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: A manuscript text, with no author cited, but thought to be the work of James Murphy. - RBW
File: RySm067

Ice Was Thin, The


See Three Little Girls A-Skating Went (File: R588)

Ice-Floes, The


DESCRIPTION: The Eagle sails for the ice and sends out sealing parties. The crews find many animals. After several successful expeditions, the singer and colleagues are unable to find the ship. Some eventually find their way back, but 60 die
AUTHOR: E. J. Pratt
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Pratt, Here the Tides Flow)
KEYWORDS: storm disaster death hunting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, pp. 59-62, "The Ice-Floes" (1 text)
NOTES: Not traditional, not true, and not a song. As written, the poem cannot be set to music, and the event, while similar to some actual events (see, e.g., the several "Greenland Disaster" songs), was made up by the author.
Don't ask me what induced Ryan and Small to include it in their book. - RBW
File: RySm059

Ida Red (I)


DESCRIPTION: "Ida Red, Ida Red, I'm in love with Ida Red." Verses often concern Ida, but are frequently silly and exaggerated: "Ida Red, she ain't a fool, Bigger'n an elephant, stronger'n a mule."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Fiddlin' Powers & Family)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 442, "Ida Red" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 36, "Ida Red" (1 text)
Rorrer, p. 83, "Shootin' Creek" (1 text, with verses from this song but music and chorus from "Cripple Creek (I)")
MWheeler, p. 14, "Ida Red" (1 text, 1 tune, somewhat removed from the standard version but too close to list as a separate song)
DT, IDARED
Roud #3429
RECORDINGS:
Dykes Magic City Trio, "Ida Red" (Brunswick 125, 1927)
Land Norris, "Ida Red" (OKeh 45006, 1925)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Shootin' Creek" (composite, with tune and chorus from "Cripple Creek (I); Columbia15286-D, 1928; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
Fiddlin' Powers & Family, "Ida Red" (Victor 19434, 1924)
Pete Steele, "Ida Red" (on PSteele01)
Riley Puckett, "Ida Red" (Columbia 15102-D, 1926)
Gid Tanner & the Skillet Lickers, "Ida Red" (Montgomery Ward M-4846, 1935)
"T" Texas Tyler, "Ida Red" (4-Star 1228, n.d. but post-World War II)
Wade Ward, "Ida Red" [instrumental] (on GraysonCarroll1)
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Ida Red" (Vocalion 05079, 1939/Columbia 37725, 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cripple Creek (I)" (floating verses)
NOTES: Wheeler's version has the chorus, "Ida Red, I'm gettin' tired uv eatin' that shortnin' bread." Not enough reason to call it a separate song, to my mind -- though Roud, for once, appears to split (it's his #9992). Of course, he lumps this with "Ida Red (II)." - RBW
File: R442

Ida Red (II)


DESCRIPTION: "I went down one day in a lope, Fool around till I stole a coat." In love with Ida Red, the singer turns criminal (against Ida's wishes). He winds up in prison, and she cannot raise his bail. He regrets his mistake, and looks forward to seeing Ida again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: love prison separation theft
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 110-111, "Ida Red" (1 text)
Roud #3429
NOTES: This song is item dI23 in Laws's Appendix II.
Roud lumps this with Ida Red (I), which is a humorous item; this is a crime ballad. - RBW
File: LoA110

Idaho Cowboy Dance, An


See At a Cowboy Dance (File: FCW105)

Idaho, The


DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "She was laden with slates and heavy crates And was bound for New Orleans"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson, p. 127, "The Idaho" (1 fragment)
NOTES: Apparently not the Idaho that struck Coningmore Rock on June 1, 1878. - BS
File: Ran127D

Idumea


See Am I Born to Die? (Idumea) (File: LoF125)

Idyl of the Plains


See The Cowboy (File: FCW028)

Ierne United


DESCRIPTION: "When Rome, by dividing, had conquered the world," Ireland, united, escaped. Eventually "our domestic dissensions let foreigners in.... our freedom was lost.... Let us firmly unite, and our covenant be, Together to fall, or together be free"
AUTHOR: Theobald Wolfe Tone (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 120, "Ierne United" (1 text)
NOTES: The claim of this song is a half-truth: Ireland was never conquered, or even attacked, by Rome. But it wasn't because Ireland was united; it was because Ireland was *remote*. The Romans never finished conquering Britain, and had no harbors on her west coast; of course they didn't go after Ireland. But Ireland was not united at any time in its history prior to the Tudor conquest; there were always at least the four kingdoms of Leinster, Munster, Ulster, and Connaught, and those usually subdivided. A king like Brian Boru could say he ruled all as High King, but at best his authority resembled that of the modern British monarch: Respected, bowed to -- and utterly ignored.
Still, it is true that internal strife led to the English invasion: There was strife between Diarmat Mac Murchada (MacMurrough), king of Leinster, and Tigernan Ua Ruairk of Breifne/Breffni. There was also a conflict over who was High King of Ireland, which had lesser lords taking sides. In a complex multi-sided war, Diarmat was deprived of most of his power -- and sailed to England, where he offered to marry his daughter to Richard FitzGilbert de Clare, known as "Strongbow," the Earl of Pembroke.Pembroke invaded (1169, then in more force in 1170 as MacMurrough, successful in Leinster, decided to try for the High Kingship). King Henry II , who early in his reign had been granted a patent by the (English) Pope to straighten out the much-too-independent Irish church, later followed him to keep Strongbow under control (1172; Strongbow had become, in effect, King of Leinster when MacMurrough died, and Henry couldn't have that).
The Normans, by a combination of politics, marriage, and warfare,gradually took over eastern Ireland (see Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, pp. 58-73; Mike Cronin,A History of Ireland, pp. 11-15; Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 11). - RBW
File: Moyl120

If But One Heart Be True


DESCRIPTION: "There's mony a freen wea' may meet in bright and prosperous days Who when adversity draws near their confidence betrays Yet hopefully and cheerfully our courage we'll renew If but one heart be true to us, if but one heart be true"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad friend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 670, "If But One Heart Be True" (1 text)
Roud #6096
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. " Hard Up and Broken Down" (theme) and references there
cf. "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime" (theme)
cf. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (theme)
cf. "Up a Tree" (theme)
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3670

If Ever I Cease to Love


DESCRIPTION: Singer's true love is perfect: "a modern Taglioni and Sims Reeves rolled into one." If he stops loving her, may these things happen: "little dogs wag their tails in front," "cows lay eggs and fowls yield milk," "we never have to pay Income Tax..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.21(153))
KEYWORDS: love nonballad parody
FOUND IN:
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(153), "If Ever I Cease to Love" ("In a house, in a square, in a quadrant"), The Poet's Box(Glasgow), 1871; also Firth b.27(343), "If Ever I Cease to Love"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "That the Stones of the Street May Turn Up the Pig's Feet" (subject and some text)
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Firth c.21(153) is the basis for the description.
A parody of the "if ever I prove false" theme floating among songs such as "When First Into this Country" and "I Live Not Where I Love." The parody is carried further by a broadside on drinking, to the tune of "If Ever I Cease to Love":
Bodleian, Firth c.16(407)[some lines illegible], "If Ever I Cease to Lush" ("I think its a sin, if ever there was one"), unknown, n.d. [but with a reference to the performers N.C. Bostock and Mark Alberts].
Maria Taglioni (1804-1884) was an Italian ballerina, most famous beginning in 1832; she retired in 1848 (source: "Maria Taglioni" in Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Copyright (c) 2005). She is named as the quintessential dancer in other humorous broadsides; for example, see: NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(48a), "Newhaven Fishwife"; LOCSinging, sb30394a, "The Obstinate Girl."
John Sims Reeves (1818-1900) was an English opera singer who "made a great sensation" in 1848; he retired in 1891 (source: "John Sims Reeves" at the Wikipedia site). - BS
File: BdIEICTL

If Ever You Go to Kilkenny


DESCRIPTION: "If ever you'll go to Kilkenny Enquire for the Hole-in-the-Wall" for free or inexpensive food: the governor comes around with it in the morning. The singer was drunk there last Friday and the governor insisted he strip before entering.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: drink food nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #16989
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "If Ever You Go to Kilkenny" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "'The Hole in the Wall' was, from the middle of the eighteenth century to 1850, one of Ireland's more renowned supper-houses.... There was another 'Hole in the Wall' in Kilkenny ... where, before the existence of the public market, farmers used to sell ... farm produce. It is quite possible that Mary's song refers to this latter location although her text gives the impression that the premises referred to was a prison." The notes also mention the first verse of a song, referring to the supper-house, that is very close to the first verse here. - BS
File: RcIEYGTK

If I Die a Railroad Man


DESCRIPTION: "They took John Henry to the steep hillside, He looked to the heaven above, He said, 'Take my hammer and wrap it in gold And give it to the girl I love." "If I die a railroad man, go bury me under the tie So I can hear old Number 4 As she goes rolling by"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: train railroading death nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg, pp. 362-363, "If I Die a Railroad Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Green Bailey, "If I Die a Railroad Man" (Champion 15652 [as Aaron Boyd]/Supertone 9320 [as Harvey Farr], 1929; rec. 1928; on KMM)
Tenneva Ramblers, "If I Die a Railroad Man" (Victor 21406, 1928)
File: San362

If I Die in Arkansas


DESCRIPTION: "If I die in Arkansas (x2), Ship my body to my mother-in-law." "If my mother refuses me, ship it to my paw." "If my paw refuses me, ship it to my girl." "If my girl refuses me, shove it in the sea, Where the fishes... make a fuss over me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording by Bill Atkins)
KEYWORDS: death corpse burial family rejection humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 351, "If I Die in Arkansas" (1 text)
BrownIII 495, "If I Die in Tennessee" (1 text)
Roud #7628
File: R351

If I Die in Tennessee


See If I Die in Arkansas (File: R351)

If I Had a Scolding Wife (I)


See Lucy Long (I) (File: R279)

If I Had It You Could Get It


DESCRIPTION: "I went right down to my old friend Joe," (to ask for money?), but Joe has none to spare. "If I had it, you could get it, But I am very sorry I haven't got it. For I am all in and down and out." The singer says he will hold his money if he ever gets more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: money poverty hardtimes begging
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 494, "If I Had It You Could Get It" (1 short text)
Roud #11761
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (lyrics)
File: Br494

If I Had My Way


See Samson and Delilah (File: LoF251)

If I Had the Gov'ner


DESCRIPTION: "If I had the gov'ner Where the gov'ner has me, Before daylight I'd set the gov'ner free. I begs you' gov'ner, Upon my soul: If you won't gimme a pardon, Won't you gimme a parole?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: prisoner request pardon
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 31, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: Scarborough reports having gotten this from Texas governor Pat Neff, who heard it as the refrain of a song by a prisoner requesting help. I rather doubt this; it looks like a loose fragment of something else -- perhaps "Take This Hammer." But until something more definite emerges, it has to file separately. - RBW
File: ScaNF031

If I Lose, I Don't Care


DESCRIPTION: Floating verses; singer is clearly a rambler, but the song has no cohesion. "I can't walk/Neither can I talk/Just getting back from the state of old New York/One morning, just before day." Chorus: "If I lose, let me lose/I don't care how much I lose."
AUTHOR: credited to Tom Delaney
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Maggie Jones)
KEYWORDS: rambling gambling nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 187, "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer, p. 75, "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 284-285, "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (1 text)
DT, IFILOSE*
Roud #12399
RECORDINGS:
Maggie Jones, "If I Lose, Let Me Lose" (Columbia 14059-D, 1925)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "If I Lose, Let Me Lose" (Bluebird B-7471, 1938)
New Lost City Ramblers, "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (on NLCR05)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (Columbia 15215-D, 1927; on CPoole02 as "If I Lose, Let Me Lose")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "Joking Henry" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
If I Lose, Let Me Lose
Let Me Lose
File: CSW187

If I Lose, Let Me Lose


See If I Lose, I Don't Care (File: CSW187)

If I Was On Some Foggy Mountain Top


See Foggy Mountain Top (File: CSW042)

If I Were a Blackbird


See I Am a Young Maiden (If I Were a Blackbird) (File: FSC38)

If I Were a Fisher


DESCRIPTION: Composite of floating material: The singer goes to the garden to pick flowers. He wishes he were a fisher, to catch Molly, a salmon; he wishes he were a scholar. He would build Molly a castle. But he lost her by courting too slow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection flowers bird floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SHenry H709, p. 348, "If I Were a Fisher"; H24a, pp. 248-349, "The Star of Benbradden" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-NovaScotia 46, "Pretty Polly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6873
RECORDINGS:
Betty Garland, "Lovin' Nancy" (on BGarland01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Saro" (floating verses)
cf. "The Cuckoo" (floating verses)
cf. "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (floating verses)
cf. "The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass)" (floating verses)
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (floating verses)
cf. "As I Walked Out (I) (A New Broom Sweeps Clean)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Once Had a True Love" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Another composite of floating verses; see the cross-references. Sam Henry's earlier text, "The Star of Benbradden," starts with an original verse, but the rest is the same as "If I Were a Fisher." Since they're both composites, I decided to lump them -- and use the "If I Were a Fisher" name as more memorable.
I tossed Betty Garland's "Lovely Nancy" here on the same principle; it's massively composite, in the "Pretty Saro/If I Were a Fisher" mold.
Creighton's single stanza is really just a floating verse, but it's a floating verse often found with this song; this is as good a home for it as any. - RBW
File: HHH709

If I Were As Young As I Used to Be (Uncle Joe)


DESCRIPTION: The singer is now (84/92); his black hair has turned gray, and youngsters call him "Uncle Joe." But he still feels young, and promises "If any girl here is in love with me, She'll find me as young as I used to be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882
KEYWORDS: age humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 434, "Uncle Joe" (1 texts, 1 tune, plus two fragments that might or might not belong with this song)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 337-338, "Uncle Joe" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 434A)
FSCatskills 150, "If I Were As Young As I Used to Be" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 7-8, "Not So Young As I Used to Be" (1 text)
DT, UNCLEJOE
Roud #4377
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventy-Two Today" (plot)
File: R434

If I were back 'ome in 'Ampshire


See If I Were Back Home in Hampshire (File: CoSB296)

If I Were Back Home in Hampshire


DESCRIPTION: "If I were back 'ome in 'Ampshire, Where they birds do flock round I, I'd clap my 'hands an' laugh like buggery, An' all they birds would fly away." "I wonder where that blackbird be... 'E see I an' I see 'e an' I be after 'e...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: home England bird nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 296-297, "If I were back 'ome in 'Ampshire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16931
File: CoSB296

If the River Was Whiskey


See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

If the Seaboard Train Wrecks I Got a Mule to Ride


See Alabama Bound (II) (File: PSAFB044)

If This Book Should Chance to Roam


DESCRIPTION: "If this book should chance to roam, Box its ears and send it home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 238, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: This sounds more like a bookplate than a song, but I index it in the absence of better data. - RBW
File: MHAp238C

If You Can Love Me


DESCRIPTION: "If you can love me, why not love me, While you have so many in Tennessee! By this you may be led, To think of me when I am dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 232, (first of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
NOTES: Although the first line of this sounds "Green Grow the Lilacs"-ish, the form implies that it's something different. Don't ask me what. - RBW
File: MHAp232A

If You Don't Believe I'm Sinking


DESCRIPTION: "If you don't believe I'm sinking, just look what a hole I'm in. If you don't believe I love you, just look what a fool I've been. You made me love you and now your man have come, I'll see you later when I've got my gun."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love fight
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 447, "If You Don't Believe I'm Sinking" (2 fragments)
Roud #11783
File: Br3447

If You Get There Before I Do


DESCRIPTION: "If you get there before I do, all right, all right, Jesus will make it all right. Just tell them that I am coming too, all right, all right. If you get there before I do, all right, Just scratch a hole and pull me through, all right, all right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 531, "If You Get There Before I Do" (1 fragment)
Roud #11821
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wade in the Water" (floating lyrics) and references there
NOTES: The title line, of course, is common and floats (see the cross-references). But the chorus and form implies that this is a separate piece. - RBW
File: Br3531

If You Meet a Woman in the Morning


DESCRIPTION: "If you meet a woman in the morning, Bow yo' head, buddy, bow yo' head." "When you hear that turkle-dove a-hollerin', Sign it's gwi' rain, buddy, sign it's gwi' rain." Other bird calls indicate other times: Whip-poor-will planting, screech owls cold
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 446, "If You Meet a Woman in the Morning" (1 text)
Roud #11792
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swannanoa Tunnel" (form, lyrics)
NOTES: The notes in Brown suggest a link to "Swannanoa Tunnel." The form is obviously the same. But this, at the very least, is used for other purposes. - RBW
File: Br3446

If You See My Mother


DESCRIPTION: "If you see my mother, partner, tell her pray for me, I got life on the river...." "They 'cuse me o' murder, Never harmed a man." The singer bemoans the hard work on the prison, and asks a dead man to lighten his burden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recorded from Mack Maze by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: murder accusation lie prison hardtimes mother floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 79-80, "If You See My Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Almost every word of this has a parallel in other songs (so many and so various that it seems hopeless even to try to cross-reference them all), but the combination seems to be unique. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM079

If You Want a Bargain Handy


DESCRIPTION: Honest Sandy is the man to see for a bargain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1649, "If You Want a Bargain Handy" (1 short text)
Roud #13053
NOTES: From the sound of this, there were used car salesmen even before there were used cars to sell.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81649

If You Want to Go A-courting


See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

If You Want to Go to Heaven


See Talking Blues (File: LoF224)

If You Want to Know Where the Privates Are


See The Old Barbed Wire (I Know Where They Are) (File: San442)

If You Want to See the Captain


See The Old Barbed Wire (I Know Where They Are) (File: San442)

If You'll Only Let Liquor Alone


DESCRIPTION: The singer reminds her husband that he promised when they married "that you would leave liquor alone." Nevertheless, he breaks his vows "to your kind wife and baby at home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Ives-NewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: promise drink baby husband wife betrayal lie marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 90-92, "If You'll Only Let Liquor Alone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1951
File: IvNB90

If Your Gal Gets Mad


DESCRIPTION: "Ef yore gal gits mad an' tries to bully you (x2), Jes' take your automatic an' shoot her through an' through! (x2)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection murder
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 275, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: Needless to say, this method has not been shown to cause women to be come more amenable to men's wishes.
I suspect this may be the ending of a longer ballad in which the woman provokes the man until he shoots her, but I cannot recall seeing such a song. - RBW
File: ScNF275A

Ike Brown's Song


DESCRIPTION: "There is a few songsters, Their like could not be found, Who have been making a song Upon old Isaac C. Brown." The singer tells "how I tended my crops." He leaves home to "dredge the big canal." He describes other canal workers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes farming canal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FSRA 118, "Ike Brown's Song" (1 text)
ST ChFRA118 (Partial)
Roud #16942
NOTES: As it stands, the song in Chappell is singularly incoherent; at first glance, it appears to borrow parts of at least three songs. But until we can find another Ike Brown song, we can't say much with certainty. - RBW
File: ChFRA118

Il Faut Aller en Guerre (To War We Must Go)


DESCRIPTION: French. "We must go to war / Drink, then we'll go.". Soldier, leaving for war, visits his sweetheart. He finds her weeping; he asks why she is weeping, and she tells him it's because he's leaving. He tells her it's true. "We must drink, and then go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (BerryVin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief love war parting drink lover soldier
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BerryVin, p. 70, "Il faut aller en guerre (To War We Must Go)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
For all its potential tragedy, this sounds more like a drinking song. - PJS
File: BerV070
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