Late Battle in the West


DESCRIPTION: Another account of the conquest of Vicksburg by Union troops. The focus is mostly on General Grant: "Oh bully for our chief... Old Jeff is getting scared, Grant's getting bolder... Three cheers for Grant, and the Union forever!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1862 - Union general Ulysses S. Grant begins his Vicksburg campaign. His first four attempts to reach the city fail
Apr 16, 1863 - Porter's gunboats run past Vicksburg, opening the way for Grant's final successful campaign
May 12-17, 1863 - Grant fights a series of minor battles which bring him to the defences of Vicksburg
May 22, 1863 - Grant's attempt to take Vicksburg by storm is a bloody failure. The Union army settles down to a siege
July 4, 1863 - Lt. General Pemberton surrenders Vicksburg
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden, pp. 371-372, "Late Battle in the West" (1 text)
Roud #7764
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Vicksburg" (subject)
cf. "Victorious March" (subject)
NOTES: Every historical event in this song is described in the notes to "Victorious March"; see the notes to this song.
Although this is surely a composed song, the informant almost certainly had it from oral tradition. This shows in the names of the officers. He mentions, in addition to Grant, three generals: MacPherson (James B. McPherson, 1828-1864, one of Grant's corps commanders), Logan (John A. Logan, 1826-1886, a division commander), and "McClellan."
George B. McClellan, former commander of the Army of the Potomac, of course did not serve at Vicksburg. The reference, I think, must be to John A. McClernand (1812-1900), a politician who had become one of Grant's corps commanders in exchange for raising many of the troops used in the expedition. He was not particularly competent, and would later be relieved. - RBW
File: Beld371

Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown)


DESCRIPTION: "Late last night when Willie came home Heard a mighty rapping on the door... Willie don't you rap no more." The song then veers to floating verses. Chorus: "Oh me, oh my, what's gonna become of me I's downtown, fooling around No one to stand for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: drink prison nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 166, "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
MWheeler, p. 87-89, "Come On, My Pink, an' Tell Me What You Think" (1 text, 1 tune, consisting of many floating verses -- the first, e.g., comes from "Little Pink" -- but which overall seems closest to this)
Handy/Silverman-Blues, pp. 58-59, "Ever After On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7691
RECORDINGS:
Frank Blevins, "Late Last Night when Willie Came Home" (Columbia, 1927; unissued)
Uncle Dave Macon w. Sam McGee, "Late Last Night When My Willie Come Home" (Vocalion 5095, 1926; on RoughWays2)
Poplin Family, "Hammer Ring" (on Poplin01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home" (on NLCR02)
Louise Foreacre, "Last Last Night" (on Stonemans01)
Doc Watson, Clint Howard & Fred Price, "Way Down Town" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Late Last Night When My Willie Came Home
NOTES: It's hard to tell if the Handy text "Ever After On" belongs here. Certainly they derive from the same roots; the Handy text begins "Late last night when my baby come home I heard a mighty knocking on my door... Told him Baby don't you knock no more." The chorus runs, "But I'll love my baby till the seas run dry... Oh ain't it hard... To love a man that don't love you."
The rest, like the version in Wheeler, is fairly standard for a traditional blues: Verses unrelated except in their sorrowful feeling, and borrowed from all over. I initially listed it as a separate song based on the notes in Handy/Silverman, which imply multiple versions in Odum and Johnson. But I suspect those are actually versions of "Late Last Night." - RBW
File: CSW166

Late One Night


See Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8] (File: LI08)

Lather and Shave


See The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)

Lauchie


DESCRIPTION: Lauchie comes from the Highlands looking for work and enlists. "She always wore her ruffled shirt and clean was shaved" and made a fine impression on the Major. She becomes a drill sergeant. She leaves the army when the war ends.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 530, "Lauchie" (2 texts)
Roud #6009
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tullochgorum" (tune, per GreigDuncan3)
cf. "The Soldier Maid" (plot)
cf. "The Banks o' Skene" (plot)
cf. "The Drum Major (The Female Drummer)" (plot)
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 530A mixes 12 sung verses and three spoken lines by the recruiter or master sergeant and responses, primarily by the heroine. All the actors are made out to be fools. For example, having made drill sergeant, she says, "O Neil, Neil, if I was known you for a leer, I was believe you, but you was in the bad habit of crying 'Amashew,' ['Here'] whether you was hear or not, for that I will mark you down absent."
While the recruiter recognizes Lauchie from home, "a soldier she was made," and others think "she's a braw lad."
GreigDuncan3 530B is a fragment of one-and-a-half verses with no spoken lines. - BS
For notes on legitimate historical examples of women serving in the military in disguise, see the notes to "The Soldier Maid." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3520

Laughing Song


DESCRIPTION: "As I was coming 'round the corner, I heard some people say, Here comes a dandy darky; here he comes this way. His heel is like a snowplow, And his mouth is like a trap, And when he open it gently you will see a fearful gap." Chorus is mostly laughing
AUTHOR: George W. Johnson
EARLIEST DATE: 1894
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad Black(s)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 171, "Laughing Song" (1 fragmentary excerpt)
Roud #6352
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough" (chorus)
NOTES: Greenleaf/Mansfield replaces the "dandy darky" reference by "laughing jackass" and uses elipses to give the impression that the chorus is just "Ha, ha ha ha ha ha, ha, ha, ha, Ha, ha," etc.
Johnson's chorus is
Then I laugh ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
I couldn't stop my laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
Ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
I couldn't stop my laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Johnson's sheet music and recording were an immediate hit "selling tens of thousands of records by 1894 alone" per "The Ragtime Ephemeralist" site. The text is on on the Archeophone Records site recording of the month for February 2002.
This song is sometimes confused with another laughing chorus song, Cal Stewart's 1901 "I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough." - BS
File: GrMa171

Laundry Song, A


DESCRIPTION: "I used to work in the kitchen And wash the pans and crocks, But now I work in the laundry And wash the stinking socks." Brought up well, the singer falls in with a bad crowd, and stands guard during a robbery. The others escape; he ends in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: trial punishment crime work prisoner clothes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering 148, "A Laundry Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GC148 (Partial)
Roud #3674
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No More Shall I Work in the Factory" (lyrics)
NOTES: The informant from whom this song was collected said that he did not know where he learned the song -- but he was "a boy of fifteen in the Detention Home, Detroit." One suspects he or someone he knew composed it, based on something like "No More Shall I Work in the Factory." - RBW
File: GC148

Laurel Hill


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls sailing from Ireland to fight Napoleon with Wellington. He fights in Spain and all the way to Waterloo. At last her returns to find his love bewailing his death. He reveals himself to her; they settle down. He praises Wellington
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion Napoleon soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1809 - Wellington takes command in the Peninsula (to 1814)
1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
SHenry H8, pp. 311-312, "Laurel Hill/Kyle's Flowery Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 193, "Laurel Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LAURLHIL
Roud #2917
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Burns and His Highland Mary" [Laws O34] (tune)
NOTES: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Sweet Laurel Hill" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: HHH008

Lavender Blue


DESCRIPTION: "Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly..." Singer tells his lady that she must love him because he loves her. He tells of a vale where young man and maid have lain together, and suggests that they might do the same, and that she might love him (and also his dog)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1685 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: courting sex love dog colors
FOUND IN: Britain US(NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Linscott, pp. 229-230, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 299, "Lavender's blue, diddle, diddle" (3 texts plus a plate facing page 266 showing the "Diddle Diddle" broadside of c. 1680)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #137, p. 113, "(Lavender blue and rosemary green)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 158, "Lavender Blue" (1 text)
DT, LAVNDER2
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #140, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text)
Roud #3483
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(56a), "Diddle, diddle" or "The Kind Country Lovers ("Lavenders green, didle, didle"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clark (London), 1674-1679
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Diddle, Diddle (Or The Kind Country Lovers)
NOTES: When I was four years old, I thought this song was stupid. Forty-five years later, I see no reason to change my mind. - PJS
Hard to argue that point based on the versions that I've heard, but the broadside version in the Digital Tradition hints that there is at least a little more going on behind the scenes. Linscott explains that the song, "of English origin, is connected with the amusements of Twelfth Night and refers to the choosing of the king and queen of the festivities."
The real problem may be that the version most people know comes from a Disney film. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FSWB158A

Lavender Cowboy, The


DESCRIPTION: "He was only a lavender cowboy, The hairs on his chest were two." Troubled by dreams, the boy tries all sorts of worthless hair nostrums. At last he "battled for Red Nellie's honor... He died with his six-guns a-blazing And only two hairs on his chest."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Ewen Hail)
KEYWORDS: death dream cowboy fight
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fife-Cowboy/West 39, "The Lavender Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 30, "The Lavender Cowboy" (1 text)
DT, LAVCOWBY
Roud #11213
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Lavender Cowboy" (Bluebird B-8229, 1939)
Ewen Hail, "Lavendar Cowboy" (Brunswick 141, 1927; Brunswick 433, 1930)
NOTES: Vernon Dalhart recorded this song in 1938 in an ill-fated comeback on Bluebird, only to see the song blacklisted. - RBW
File: FCW039

Lavender Girl


DESCRIPTION: "Wen the sun climbs over the hills And the skylark sings so merrily, Then I my little basket fill And trudge away to the village cheerily." The girl sells lavender to "keep my mother, myself, and my brother"; she cries, "Come and buy my lavender."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: commerce home mother family orphan
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 245, "Lavender Girl" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Lavender Girl" (source notes only)
Roud #15774
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Blooming Lavender" (theme)
File: Br3245

Lavender's Blue


See Lavender Blue (File: FSWB158A)

Lavender's Blue, Diddle, Diddle


See Lavender Blue (File: FSWB158A)

Lawland Lass, The


See The Highland Lad and Lawland Lass (File: GrD1123)

Lawlands o' Holland, The


See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Lawson Murder, The (Charlie Lawson) [Laws F35]


DESCRIPTION: Charlie Lawson goes mad on a Christmas evening and shoots first his wife and then, despite their pleas, his six children. He prepares them for burial, bids goodbye, and kills himself also. The family is buried in a common grave
AUTHOR: Wiley Morris? Walter "Kid" Smith?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, The Carolina Buddies)
KEYWORDS: murder family burial suicide madness children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 25, 1929 - 43-year-old Charles D. Lawson shoots his family and himself
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws F35, "The Lawson Murder (Charlie Lawson)"
Warner 114, "The Lawson Family Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 298, "The Lawson Murder" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Darling-NAS, pp. 206-207, "The Lawson Murder" (1 text)
DT 729, LAWSNMRD
Roud #697
RECORDINGS:
[Walter "Kid" Smith and the] Carolina Buddies, "Murder of the Lawson Family" (Conqueror 15537, 1930)
Spencer Moore with Everett Blevins, "The Lawson Murder" (on LomaxCD1705)
The Morris Brothers, "The Story of Charlie Lawson" (Bluebird B-7903, c. 1938)
E. R. Nance Singers, "The Lawson Murder" (Brunswick 542, 1931)
Glen Neaves, "The Death of the Lawson Family" (on Persis1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dark Knight" (plot)
cf. "William Beadle" (plot)
NOTES: As is typical of songs from the early era of recorded music, the authorship of this is uncertain. D. K. Wilgus credits this to Wiley Morris of the Morris Brothers. But Richard Dress informs me that Walter "Kid" Smith of the Carolina Buddies also claimed to have written it -- and, of course, his recording came first; the Morris recording actually postdates the first field collection (Brown).
Whoever wrote it sure came out with it fast, since the song was released only months after the murder.
It has become quite popular with bluegrass performers in recent years, starting with the Stanley Brothers. - RBW
File: LF35

Lawyer and Nell, The


DESCRIPTION: A lawyer seduces his housekeeper. She has him wish the Devil would take him if he does not marry her. He deserts her for a lady. She conspires with a chimney-sweep to play the Devil and threaten to take him. They marry. She reveals the plot. He is happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1826 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1089)); 18C (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(180b)
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction bargaining promise disguise trick humorous lawyer servant Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan2 308, "The Lawyer and Nell" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #555
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(180b), "The Politick Maid of Suffolk" or "The Young Lawyer Out-witted ("Come young men and maidens"), unknown, 18C; also Harding B 1(97), "The Politick Maid of Suffolk" or "The Lawyer Outwitted"; Harding B 25(1089), "The Lawyer and Nell" ("You lads and you lasses draw near")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22]" (plot)
cf. "The Jealous Husband Outwitted" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Well Done Nell
There Was a Noble Lawyer
NOTES: GreigDuncan2 entries are incomplete; broadside Bodleian Harding B 1(97) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2308

Lawyer Outwitted, The [Laws N26]


DESCRIPTION: A squire's son loves a lawyer's daughter. He disguises himself to ask the lawyer's advice on how to get married against a father's wishes. The lawyer gives detailed advice, which the children follow. Presented with a fait accompli, he blesses the union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1764 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 3(14a))
KEYWORDS: lawyer courting disguise marriage trick
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws N26, "The Lawyer Outwitted"
SharpAp 68, "The Councillor's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #90, p. 2, "The Lawyer's Bonnie Peggy" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan5 1016, "The Lawyer's Bonnie Peggy" (8 texts, 5 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 37, "The Councillor's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 24, "Rich Counsellor" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN2078, "Of a rich Counsellor I write"
DT 455, LAWYROUT
Roud #188
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(14a), "The Crafty Lover" or "The Lawyer Outwitted," W. and C. Dicey (London), 1736-1763; also Harding B 4(52), "The Crafty Lover" or "The Lawyer-Out-Witted"
SAME TUNE:
I'll Love Thee More and More (per broadsides Bodleian Douce Ballads 3(14a), Bodleian Harding B 4(52))
File: LN26

Lawyer's Bonnie Peggy, The


See The Lawyer Outwitted [Laws N26] (File: LN26)

Lay Dis Body Down


See I Know Moonlight (File: San451)

Lay Down Body


See I Know Moonlight (File: San451)

Lay Me Down


See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

Lay of Oliver Gogarty, The


DESCRIPTION: Senator and doctor Oliver St John Gogarty is asked at home by a lady in a Rolls-Royce to make a house call for a sick man. In the car he is abducted by rebel "masked ruffians" but escapes to the safety of the Civic Guard
AUTHOR: William Dawson (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: abduction escape patriotic doctor police IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 12, 1923 - "[Free State] Senator Oliver St. John Gogarty [1878-1957] ... escaped from his IRA captors by swimming the Liffey." (source: _Chapters of Dublin History_ on the eircom site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 16, "The Lay of Oliver Gogarty" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OLcM016

Lay Out, Tack Sheets and Haul


See Paddy, Get Back (File: Doe054)

Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom


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

Lay This Body Down


See I Know Moonlight (File: San451)

Lay Up Brother Near Brother


See The Dying Californian (I) (File: R183)

Lay Your Love Lightly on a Young Man


DESCRIPTION: "Lay your love lightly on a young man. For he will deceive you, then he will grieve you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: love seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1355, "Lay Your Love Lightly on a Young Man" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7233
NOTES: The current description is based on the GreigDuncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71355

Lazarus (I)


DESCRIPTION: "There was a man in ancient times" who dressed and ate well "And spent his day in sinning." Lazarus comes to his door to beg, but is turned away. Lazarus dies and is taken to heaven; the rich man dies, goes to Hell, begs mercy, and is lectured
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); + 1889 (JAFL2)
KEYWORDS: religious poverty punishment Hell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bronson 56, "Dives and Lazarus" (13 versions, of which #10, #11, and #12 are this piece and #9, a tune with no text, might be)
BrownII 210, "Dives and Lazarus I" (1 text)
Davis-Ballads 14, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, listed as "Dives and Lazarus" but clearly this piece; 1 tune, entitled "Lazarus and Dives, or The Rich Man Dives") {Bronson's #11}
SharpAp 84, "Lazarus" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6566
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
NOTES: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
It's worth remembering that this is not something that actually happened in the Bible; rather, it is a story Jesus told as a warning. Thus this is a warning about a warning. (At least one version, the Tennessee text of J. C. Jarnigan, makes this explicit.)
Bronson lists this song with "Dives and Lazarus," but in an appendix, and it appears to be a separate song; in this judgment Belden concurs. It has at least two key features: The introductory line about the man in ancient times, and the lack of mention of Dives/Diverus. - RBW
File: C056A

Lazarus (II)


See The Little Family [Laws H7] (File: LH07)

Lazarus and Dives, or The Rich Man Dives


See Lazarus (I) (File: C056A)

Lazarus and the Rich Man


DESCRIPTION: The singer urges all people to listen as he relates how Lazarus suffered and the rich man ignored him. Indeed, the rich man enjoyed Lazarus's sufferings. Now the rich man is in torment; the listeners are urged to turn to God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible death warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 661, "Lazarus and the Rich Man" (1 text)
Roud #7582
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
cf. "The Rich Man and the Poor Man" (theme)
NOTES: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
It's worth remembering that this is not something that actually happened in the Bible; rather, it is a story Jesus told as a warning. Thus this is a warning about a warning. - RBW
File: R661

Lazy (Young) Man, The


See The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)

Lazy Club, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about his lethargic family: "My wife is such a lazy Turk, she will not do a bit of work." "My eldest daughter's just as bad; I really think she's lazy-mad." And so on, through son, servant, even dog -- leaving him to pay their debts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Elton's Song Book)
KEYWORDS: work money
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
FSCatskills 107, "The Lazy Club" (1 short traditional text plus part of a broadside version, 1 tune)
ST FSC107 (Partial)
File: FSC107

Lazy dukes, that sit on their neuks


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

Lazy Farmer Boy, A


See The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)

Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai)


DESCRIPTION: The workers set out for Sydney, but upon reaching Lazy Harry's, stop for a drink. And "the girl who served the poison, she winked at Bill and I, So we camped at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai." The men revel until their money is used up.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: drink money rambling
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 253-255, "On the Road to Gungagai" (1 text)
DT, GUNDAGI2*
Roud #10726
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai)" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jacksons" (plot, lyrics, portions of tune)
cf. "Jog Along Till Shearing" (theme)
NOTES: Gundagai was a town of no particular account in itself. Its position at the midpoint of the Sydney-Melbourne road has, however, made it the setting for many folk songs. - RBW
File: DTgundag

Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up)


DESCRIPTION: The mother calls the girl, but she "won't get up, she won't get up, she won't get up today." The mother makes various offers to entice the girl; she refuses each one. Finally a young man is offered, and the girl rises.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914
KEYWORDS: dialog humorous mother family courting
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 396, "She Won't Get Up" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 110, pp. 225-226, "What Will You Give Me If I Get Up?" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 31-33, "Lazy Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R396 (Full)
Roud #6561
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (theme)
File: R396

Lazy Old River


See Powder River (I - Lazy River) (File: FCW061)

Le Bal Chez Boule (Boule's Ball)


See Bal Chez Boule, Le (Boule's Ball) (File: FJ108)

Le Sergent


See Sergent, Le (File: FMB060)

Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme


See My Good Old Man (File: R426)

Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina)


DESCRIPTION: "Lead her up and down, Rosa Betsy Lina (x3) And I want you to be my darling." "Wheel and turn the old brass lantern..." "Swing corners all, Rosa Betsy Lina..." "All promenade...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Texas Folklore Society)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 552, "Lead Her Up and Down" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Roud #7679
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rosa Betsy Lina
Rosa-becka-lina
Betsy Larkin (?)
File: R552

Lead Me to the Rock Higher and High


See Lead Me to the Rock Higher Than I (File: Solmttrh)

Lead Me to the Rock Higher Than I


DESCRIPTION: "Won't you lead me to the rock, (Higher and Higher/Higher than I) (x3), Shelter in the time of storm." "My mother is a rock...." "King Jesus is a rock...." "My God is a rock...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (Sing Out! Volume 35, #4)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 35, #4 (1991), p. 15, "Lead Me To the Rock Higher and High" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Obviously a church hymn, but reportedly widespread enough that it perhaps deserves inclusion in the index. The Sing Out! version was collected by Guy Carawan from Janie Hunter, who gave him at least one other unusual song, "Barney McCabe." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Solmttrh

Lean on the Lord's Side


DESCRIPTION: "Wai', poor Daniel, He lean on the Lord's side. Say, Daniel rock the lion's joy (=jaw). Lean on the Lord's side. (Say) the golden chain to ease him down...." "The silver spade to dig his grave."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 100, "Lean on the Lord's Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12058
NOTES: Allen/Ware/Garrison call this a variant of "Who Is on the Lord's Side," but the tunes are different and there are only a few lines in common; Roud and I both split.
Allen/Ware/Garrison give the second line as "Daniel rock the lion's jaw," which they link with the story of Samson (who tore a lion to pieces; Judges 14:5fff). I suspect that should be "Daniel LOCK the lion's jaw." The whole point of Daniel, chapter 6, is that God shut the jaws of the lions. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG100

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms


DESCRIPTION: Gospel song, with chorus "Leaning on the everlasting arms." The rest is a combination of confidence in Jesus, comfort at being in fellowship with Jesus, and simple anticipation
AUTHOR: E. A. Hoffman and A. J. Showalter
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Darling-NAS, pp. 260-261, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (1 text)
DT, LEANARMS*
RECORDINGS:
Irene Spain Family, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (OKeh 45322, 1929)
NOTES: At first glance, and even at second glance, this looks like just another gospel song. I don't know of any reason to think it's any more traditional than any other church hymn. But it has achieved a certain popularity with folk revival singers, so it's here. - RBW
File: DarNS260

Learmont Grove


See The Banished Lover (The Parish of Dunboe) (File: HHH023)

Leather Breeches


DESCRIPTION: "I went down town And I wore my leather breeches. I couldn't see the people For looking at the peaches." "I went down town And I got a pound of butter; I come home drunk And I throwed it in the gutter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink clothes food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 322, "Leather Breeches" (1 short text)
Roud #15748
NOTES: A fiddler's mnemonic for Leather Britches? It's not possible to tell from Brown. - RBW
File: Br3322

Leather Britches


See The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)

Leatherwing Bat


See The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)

Leave for Texas, Leave for Tennessee


See T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1) (File: LoF152A)

Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Leave her, Johnny, leave her... And it's time for us to leave her." Tells of the troubles on the voyage and of what Johnny can hope for as the ship arrives in port. Some versions have a chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Robinson)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor separation return
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SW) Ireland Australia Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Doerflinger, pp. 89-90, "Time for Us to Leave Her (Leave Her, Johnny)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 48-49, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone, pp. 135-136, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 119-121, "Leave Her, Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 99-100, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 293-298, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (5 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 218-221]
Sharp-EFC, II-III, pp.3-4, "Leave Her Johnny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 86-87, "Time to Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 46-47, "Leave Her, Jollies, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 412, "Leave Her, Bullies, Leave Her" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text, which is this song, is very short; the "B" text is "Across the Western Ocean")
Scott-BoA, pp. 135-137, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, p. 233, ("Leave Her, Johnny") (1 text)
SHenry H96, p. 96, "It's Time for Us to Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment, short enough that it could be this or "Across the Western Ocean")
Silber-FSWB, p. 97, "Leave Her, Johnny" (1 text)
DT, LEAVEHER* LEAVHER2*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment called "Tis Time for Us to Leave Her" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Roud #354
RECORDINGS:
Leander Macumber, "Leave Her Johnny, Leave Her" (on NovaScotia1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Across the Western Ocean" (floating lyrics; tune)
NOTES: According to Walton/Grimm/Murdock, this shanty was saved for the last duty of a voyage: Pumping out a ship after she reached port and was unloaded. Since the sailors wanted to get ashore, this was considered a particularly unpleasant task -- hence this song, about getting away from the work. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Doe089

Leave Her, Jollies, Leave Her


See Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her (File: Doe089)

Leave Me Alone (I)


DESCRIPTION: I hev a roustabout for my manÑ Livin' with a white man for a sham, Oh, leave me alone, Leave me alone, I'd like you much better if you'd leave me alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 593, [no title] (1 text)
File: DMRF593A

Leave Me Alone (II)


See Going to Chelsea to Buy a Bun (File: GrD71352)

Leaves of Life, The


See The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life) (File: OBB111)

Leaves So Green, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer, who "never loved to tread" populated areas, asks that his body, when he dies, be taken "to some green lonely spot, Where none with careless steps shall tread." He recalls the flowers and birds, and can rest most easily among them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: burial flowers bird nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H719, p. 63, "The Leaves So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13332
File: HHH719

Leaving Erin


DESCRIPTION: "Farewell Erin, I now must leave you for to cross the raging main." The singer is leaving Ireland for America even though his parents have lived in Ireland since Brian Boru. He misses his family's graves, and hopes the Irish will come home for vengeance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: Ireland emigration home revenge
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 23, 1014 - Battle of Clontarf. Brian Boru defeats a combined force of Vikings and rebels from Leinster, but dies in the battle
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, pp. 109-110, "Leaving Erin" (1 text)
Roud #9577
NOTES: Since this song mentions starvation only briefly, it appears it does not date from the potato famines but rather from one or another of the periods when landlords were squeezing tenants off their properties. It does not mention the Fenians by name, so perhaps it is early. I wouldn't bet too much on that, though. - RBW
File: Dean109

Leaving Home


See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Leaving of Liverpool


DESCRIPTION: The singer is preparing to sail from Liverpool. He bids farewell to the city and most especially to his sweetheart. He describes the difficult conditions he will face aboard the Davy Crockett under Captain Burgess
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Doerflinger)
KEYWORDS: sailor parting abuse
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doerflinger, pp. 104-105, "The Leaving of Liverpool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 97, "The Leaving of Liverpool" (1 text)
DT, LEAVLIV1*
Roud #9435
NOTES: Despite the beauty of this song, it seems to have survived only in the single copy published by Doerflinger, which gave rise to all the pop/folk recordings.
Although the song refers to the ship as the "Davy Crockett," there was never (according to Howe/Matthews, p. 126) a clipper by that name; the ship was called the David Crockett. She was launched in late 1853. Designed for the Liverpool-to-New-York trade, she was transferred to the San Francisco route in 1857.According to Lubbock, p. 46, she "could hardly have been improved upon as a Cape Horner, being possessed not only of unusual speed and strength but of good carrying capacity." Similarly Paine, p. 133, reports that she "combined large carrying capacity with good speed and was regarded by some as 'almost perfect.'"
She was also famous for her fast voyages, a tribute partly to her design but mostly to the harshness of her masters.
John A. Burgess took command of the ship in 1860, having previously commanded the Governor Morton and the Monarch of the Seas. Burgess, according to Lubbock, p. 28, Òwas not only a navigator of exceptional reputation, but one of those seamen who delighted in the art of driving a ship under sail. Though a strict disciplinarian, he would allow no bucko methods, and was one of those rare master-men who were never known to swear or use bad language. His mates, Griffiths and Conrad, were men of the same type, who could get work out of an indifferent or vicious crew without using belaying-pins or knuckle-dusters."
Lubbock, pp. 266-267, gives a catalog of the Crockett's trips around the Horn -- a total of 25 from 1857 to 1983. Burgess took command on her fourth voyage (1860), and captained 13 trips before his death; his mate John Anderson finished that trip and commanded the next two.
Burgess was on his way home to San Francisco to retire when he was washed overboard in 1874. According to Lubbock, p. 28, he was attempting to remove wreckage, a task he took upon himself rather than risk a crewman's life.
The Crockett did not become an easier ship after his death. Wilson/AmHist discusses impressment ("crimping," in American terms) on the American West Coast. It notes on p. 80 that one Andreas Stork in 1882 sued second mate Jesse Millais of the Crockett for abuse -- and won! Given that sailors were expected to face harsh treatment, conditions on the Crockett must have been bad indeed.
Based on Lubbock's list of voyages, the Crockett made only one trip in 1882 and a last voyage in 1883. I wonder if the Stork suit didn't hasten her retirement from the route.
According to Lubbock, p. 49, the Crockett was converted to a coal barge in 1890 and wrecked in 1899. Paine, p. 133, notes that her figurehead still exists and is held by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.- RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: Doe104

Leaving of Merasheen, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers life on the "little isle of Merasheen down in Placentia Bay" and mourns having to leave it. "Those days are gone forever now and so is Merasheen."
AUTHOR: Ernie Wilson
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: homesickness home parting lament nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 65, "The Leaving of Merasheen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: "The Resettlement Program was carried out in Newfoundland during Joseph Smallwood's government [1950s to 1970s].... Its aim was to relocate ... coastal communities to larger centers where they would find better job opportunities and public facilities such as hospitals and schools.... When the smoke had finally cleared over three hundred communities had been completely closed down and those that remained were tombstones marking the passing of a large and noble part of our history."
See "The Blow Below the Belt" for another resettlement song - BS
Joey Smallwood began his career as a radio broadcaster, and used his position to push Newfoundland into Confederation with Canada; according to Craig Brown, e.d, The Illustrated History of Canada, p. 374, "Mainland prosperity, urged by Joey Smallwood... won out against the proud penury of independence."
But Smallwood, who went from broadcaster to Newfoundland premier and led the province for more than twenty years, by the late Fifties was turning to "increasingly illiberal one-man rule" (p. 491). The result of his policy was complaints like these. - RBW
File: LeBe065

Leaving Old England


DESCRIPTION: The singer is sadly leaving England, and asks for his mother's blessing as he departs. He regrets leaving home, but poverty forces him away. He comments on England's social system that is so hard on the poor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: emigration family political mother
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 55-56, "Leaving Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Meredith amd Anderson suggest that this might be the ancestor of "Botany Bay"; the tunes are similar. There is, however, no firm evidence of this. - RBW
File: MA055

Lee's Ferry


DESCRIPTION: "Come all you roving cowboys, bound on these western plains... We'll go back home again... We'll cross over Lee's Ferry, oh, and go back home this year." The cowhands agree that they will go home, but they grow old without ever returning
AUTHOR: Romaine Lowdermilk
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: cowboy home travel age
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HBT 37, "Lees' Ferry" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19] (character of John D. Lee)
NOTES: Lee's Ferry (named for Mormon pioneer John D. Lee) was at one time the only way to cross the Colorado River in Arizona. The region north and west of the river (the "Arizona Strip"), surrounded on two sides by river, and with desert to the west and hills to the north, was decent cattle country but very isolated. Hence this song.
For more about John D. Lee, very little of it good, see the notes to "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]. - RBW
File: Ohr047

Lee's Hoochie


DESCRIPTION: A soldier visits "Miss Lee" in Seoul, and contracts a venereal disease. He advises it is better to avoid Lee's hoochie than to have "Old Smoky," his penis, blue.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease sex warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1950-1953 - Korean War
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray, pp. 407-409, "Lee's Hoochie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10409
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (tune)
NOTES: This song, for which there seem to be no direct antecedents, dates from the Korean War. - EC
File: EM407

Leeboy's Lassie, The


See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

Leesome Brand [Child 15]


DESCRIPTION: Leesome Brand impregnates his love. When her time comes she has him take her riding, then go hunt, sparing the white hind. He returns to find her and his son dead. He laments his knife and sheath. His mother gives him St. Paul's blood to revive them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1827 (Motherwell)
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy death hunting resurrection
FOUND IN: FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 15, "Leesome Brand" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan2 335, "Lishen Brand" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 90-96, "Leesome Brand" (2 texts)
OBB 56, "Leesome Brand, or, The Sheath and the Knife" (1 text)
PBB 52, "Leesome Brand" (1 text)
DBuchan 43, "Leesome Brand" (1 text)
Roud #3301
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sheathe and Knife" [Child 16] (lyrics about the "sheathe and knife")
File: C015

Left Jim and I Alone


See Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone) (File: BrII150)

Leg of Mutton Went Over to France, A


DESCRIPTION: "A leg of mutton went over to France ... The ladies did sing and the gentlemen dance." Anyway, a man dies, a doctor looks in his head and finds a spring in which 39 salmon are learning to sing, with a pool for young salmon to go to school.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Journal of Folk-Song Society, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: France humorous nonsense talltale wordplay
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peacock, p. 14, "A Leg of Mutton Went Over to France" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 357, "As I was walking o'er little Moorfields" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #244, p. 155, "(As I was walkin o'er little Moorfields)"
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 49, "As I Was Going to Banbury" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2423
NOTES: The ending floats: "perhaps you think I ... lie", "If you want any more ...", even if entire verses don't.
Opie-Oxford2: "[Moorfields] would be an appropriate setting for a nonsense song, for in 1675 the Old Bethlem Hospital was moved to Moorfields from Bishops Gate Without." - BS
I suspect the "As I Was Going to Banbury" version is a compound of two different items. As, however, it appears to exist only in the version Cecil Sharp collected from Emma Sister, there seems no need to create a separate item for it. The ending is this song; it merely starts with the verse "As I was going to Banbury, Ri fol lat-i-tee O...." - RBW
File: Pea014

Legacy


DESCRIPTION: "When in death I shall calm recline O bear my heart my mistress dear, Bid her not shed one tear of sorrow To sully a heart so brilliant and light; But balmy drops of the red grape borrow To bathe the relict from morn till night."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Missouri Harmony)
KEYWORDS: death drink religious
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg, p. 155, "Legacy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: San155A

Legend of Pot Sunk Ann, The


DESCRIPTION: Baron Keith and Ann Crawford marry and have a son. King Edward of England, pursuing the Scottish crown, visits them. He falls in love with Ann. Ann dreams of trouble. Her gipsy advisor tells her to flee. In a storm she tries to cross a stream but drowns.
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: GreigDuncan2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: drowning dream storm England Scotland wife royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #56, pp. 1-2, "The Legend of Pot Sunk Ann" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 343, "The Legend of Pot Sunk Ann" (1 texts plus an additional stanza on p. 586)
Roud #5871
NOTES: Greig: "Pot Sunken, as it is now most commonly called, is a deep sluggish pool in the bend of the river Ugie almost immediately below Inverugie Castle." The Baron's castle, Ravenscraig, is nearby.
The English king here is Edward I and the time the period following the death of Margaret, in 1290, Edward's support of John Balliol as King of Scotland, and his 1296 attack of Scotland. The ballad has Edward ready to divorce Eleanor in order to marry Ann but Eleanor would have already died in 1290. (Source for dates: Earle, "The Plantagenets (Edward I 1272-1307)" in The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, ed. Fraser (London, 1975)) - BS
Eleanor of Castile did indeed die in 1290, the same year as Margaret the Maid of Norway (for background on this, see "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child 58]). But Edward I did remarry (to Margaret daughter of Philip III of France) in 1299. By the time John Balliol had been pushed aside (for this, see the notes to "Gude Wallace" [Child 157]), Edward would theoretically have been in position to divorce another wife. And he was still capable of siring children -- he and Margaret had three. And he was certainly in Scotland many times in his later years!
And yet, such evidence as we have makes Edward pretty faithful to his wives. According to Mike Ashley, British Kings and Queens, Barnes & Noble, 2000 (originally published as The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens, 1998), p. 589, there is only one report of an illegitimate child, and that "suspect." B. Wilkinson, The Later Middle Ages in England, 1216-1485, Longmans, 1969 (I use the 1980 paperback edition), p. 83, declares him a "dutiful husband." So I think this must be labelled simply fiction. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2343

Legend of the Rosie Belle Teeneau


See The Rosie Belle Teeneau (File: WGM158)

Legion of the Rearguard, The


DESCRIPTION: "Up the republic, they raise their battle cry, Pearse and McDermott will pray for you on high, Eager and ready, for the love of you they die." The soldiers for the Republic die proud, bloody deaths to accomplish an unstated goal
AUTHOR: J. O'Sheehan
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (copyright, according to the Clancy/Makem songbook)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political soldier death nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, LGNREAR
NOTES: Why is it that the Irish nut cases get all the good songs?
After the 1916 rebellion, the Irish people finally turned truly nationalist. And, after World War I, Michael Collins and others turned up the heat so much that the British, after repression failed (see the notes, e.g., to "The Bold Black and Tan"), gave up and started negotiating.
The result was the Anglo-Irish Treaty (for which see, in particular, "The Irish Free State"). This would have turned Ireland into a British Dominion (a nearly-independent state; Canada was the prototype). But there were two things in the Treaty that were objectionable: The Irish still owed nominal allegiance to the British crown, and Ireland was to be partitioned between Ulster and the Free State, according to a boundary to be determined.
Rationally, it was a fair agreement for Ireland; it was not George V and the current generation of the royal family who had oppressed them, but Elizabeth I (no descendants), Oliver Cromwell (repudiated by the English), William of Orange (not the ancestor of the current dynasty), and David Lloyd George, who wouldn't hold power much longer. And, had the boundary commission worked, Ireland would have gotten rid of those ungovernable Ulstermen that gave England almost as much trouble as they gave Dublin.
But the war with Britain had been fought by the IRA and other, even more secret and terrorist, forces, and they wanted complete independence. When Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins brought home the Treaty, Eamon de Valera (head of state and chief hard liner) rejected it. The Dail, the Irish parliament, however, went against him and -- despite being composed entirely of Sinn Fein members -- voted for it by a narrow margin. The national election which followed showed strong support for it; even the pro-Republican historian Calton Younger's statistics (pp. 313-314) make it appear that only 22% of the voters voted to reject the Treaty.
But 22% is more than enough for an insurgency. The IRA was split into pro- and anti-treaty factions. Speaking very loosely, the anti-treaty forces were concentrated in the south and west, with Cork their chief center (hence, presumably, the song's reference to the martial tramp of the Republicans being heard "from Cork to Donegal"). The anti-treaty forces promptly went to war against the pro-Treaty provisional government.
The insurgents scored one and only one real success: On August 22, 1922, they succeeded in killing Michael Collins, the effective head of the government. (For this, and much additional background, see the notes to "General Michael Collins").
It was the ultimate in pyrrhic victories. Collins had started his career as a terrorist, but he was also a realist and a genius. He might have managed to control the rebellion with relatively slight loss of life and liberty. Without him, the new government, headed by William Cosgrave, Kevin O'Higgins, and Collins's former Chief of Staff Richard Mulcahy, turned Ireland into a temporary police state; the Dail gave them emergency powers, and they set up military tribunals and indeed engaged in arbitrary executions; the rebels were explicitly denied prisoner of war status (Kee,, pp. 168-169). What should have been a noble cause got off to a dreadful start. But it suppressed the rebellion.
This song -- the only thing I've ever encountered by O'Sheehan -- seems to have played its part. In 1923, Eamon de Valera, whose refusal to accept the Treaty had contributed to much to causing the Irish Civil War, finally gave in and urged the anti-treaty forces to lay down their arms. And he addressed them as "Soldiers of the Republic, Legion of the Rearguard" (Kee, p 175; see also p. 170). They were so-called because they had once been (and hoped to be again) the vanguard of Irish independence, but now were fighting a rearguard action to keep the dream alive.
In the long run, of course, de Valera would succeed in "freeing" the 26 counties; Ireland is no longer a British dominion. But it would surely have been a lot easier had he pursued a political solution.
Besides de Valera, the song mentions:
Pearse - Padraig Pearse, the leader of the 1916 uprising, who was executed in that year; see in particular the notes to "The Boys from County Cork."
McDermott - Sean McDermott, another executed in the aftermath of the Easter Rising; he was one of those who joined Pearse in organizing the rebellion. According to Foy/Barton, p. 4, he and Tom Clarke were "the key figures who, in the years before 1916, shaped the policies of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.Ó Still in his early thirties at the time of the rising, he had suffered from polio in his late twenties, and could barely shuffle along with a cane or walking stick. I wonder if he may not have been offered as an example precisely *because* he was a cripple whom the British executed anyway.
"Wolfe Love" - This is what the Clancy Brothers record as the text, but I have to think this is an error of some sort. Certainly the reference is to (Theobald) Wolfe Tone, who helped inspire the 1798 rebellion and tried to win French support in the years before that; for his activities and his condemnation by the British, see e.g. the notes to "The Shan Van Voght."
Emmett - Robert Emmet (the usual spelling), whose 1803 attempt at rebellion was a complete botch but who inspired many songs; see e.g. the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet."
I doubt this song is actually traditional; I think the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (violent nationalists all) picked it up because of their political beliefs rather than its historic status. But since they recorded it, it perhaps deserves an Index entry. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: DTlgnrea

Lehigh Valley, The


DESCRIPTION: A stranger explains he is hunting the city slicker who stole his girlfriend Nelly "if it takes till Judgment Day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (As "The Tramp's Lament" in Edward Harrigan's play "Squatter Sovereignty")
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody love seduction elopement hobo
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray, pp. 198-200, "The Lehigh Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 272-274, "The Lehigh Valley" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
JHJohnson, pp. 16-18, "Down in the Lehigh Valley" (1 text, bowdlerized)
DT, LEHIGH*
Roud #9389
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight?" (plot)
cf. "The Tramp's Story" (plot)
NOTES: According to Vance Randolph, this is a parody of Harrigan's "The Tramp's Lament." - EC
For additional thoughts on this point, see "The Tramp's Story" (the name the Index uses for the Harrigan song)
The details of this song apparently vary widely (though some of this may be due to editorial tampering). The final two lines, "I'll hunt the runt that swiped my cunt, If it takes till judgement day," seem however to be absolutely diagnostic. - RBW
File: EM198

Leinster Lass, The


See The SS Leinster Lass (File: HHH808)

Lenora


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I left to make a fortune, in the glowing West, Then I returned at least to marry the one that I loved best, I had made a half a million in a mine of gold...." "Lenora, darling, I think of you only... Lenora, love me as I love you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage gold
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 790, "Lenora" (1 short text)
Roud #7420
File: R790

Lenshie


DESCRIPTION: Fickle Nellie leads both farmer Lenshie and Gordie Ross to think she would marry. After "bemoaning our his muckle fate," Lenshie decides to court Melly Gray who has some money and waste no more time on Nellie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity rejection money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan6 1205, "Lenshie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6799
NOTES: GreigDuncan6 "Lenshie is a farm in Auchterless, and Mr Isaac Troup states that the incidents referred to actually occurred, and were remembered by old people." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61205

Leo Frank and Mary Phagan


See Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)

Leprechaun, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a leprechaun and laughs anticipating a purse of gold. He grabs the leprechaun to claim the purse but is tricked into releasing the leprechaun. The singer laughs to think how he had been fooled.
AUTHOR: Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883) (source: Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (recording, Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman)
KEYWORDS: trick gold supernatural
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 527, "The Leprahaun"
Roud #5274
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, "The Leprechaun" (on Voice14)
NOTES: The trick: singer is told that the [non-existant] lady by his side has the purse in her hand. - BS
Robert Dwyer Joyce is also credited with the Irish political songs "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and "The Boys of Wexford" in this index. - RBW
File: RcTLepr

Les Darcy


DESCRIPTION: The singer mourns for Les Darcy. He recalls "how he beats, Simply eats them, Every Saturday night." "(The Yanks) called him a skiter, but he proved himself a fighter, (so they killed him, down in Memphis), Tennessee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: fight Australia death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 24, 1917 - Death of Les Darcy in Memphis, Tennessee
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 218-219, "Les Darcy" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Les Darcy" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Les Darcy" (plot, subject)
NOTES: Les Darcy was an Australian boxer of whom great things were expected. He did not live long, and so his major bouts were few, but the Australians made him one of their great heroes. When he died in 1917, the Americans gave the cause of death as pneumonia; Australians claim he was poisoned.
Two songs about Darcy are found in the tradition; this one, based on "Way Down in Tennessee," begins, "In Maitland cemet'ry (or "Way down in Tennessee") lies poor Les Darcy...." It has been surmised that this one was written by P.F. Collins (under the pseudonym "Percy the Poet"). The piece seems to have truly entered oral tradition, however; Fahey reports collecting it twice, and his text differs significantly from that used by John Greenway.
The other, more literary, Les Darcy song has eight lines per stanza and begins "We all get a craving to roam, Far from home, o'er the foam...." - RBW
File: FaE218

Les Reeder


DESCRIPTION: Les Reeder's mother begs him not to work on Sundays. He tells her he won't any more after this one last time. Needless to say, he's killed on the skidway by a log.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering logger death work mother
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 63, "Les Reeder" (1 text)
Roud #4053
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (theme)
NOTES: [Beck reports,] "Logs were skidded to the skidway, where they were piled to be hauled to the rollways or to the narrow-gauge railroads." - PJS
This song is item dC34 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Be063

Lescraigie


DESCRIPTION: Pretty Peggie is advised to prepare the cot, "For the fair-haired laddie will be here." "He winna lie in the kitchen... But he'll lie in your bed, Peggie, And you in his airms twa." With the harvest done, Sandy Fraser is coming to take her away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: love courting harvest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #178, p. 2, "Peggie" (1 text)
GreigDuncan7 1490, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "Lescraigie" (13 texts, 12 tunes)
Ord, p. 285, "Lescraigie" (1 text)
Roud #3940
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Duke o' Gordon's Three Daughters" (tune, per GreigDuncan7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bonnie Woods o' Keldie O
File: Ord285

Leslie Allen


DESCRIPTION: Leslie Allen comes to Black Brook from Moncton. He wanders from town one day and a search team of "three hundred men and two bloodhounds" follow his tracks "but the search was unavailing" He is never found.
AUTHOR: Michael Whelan "the poet of the Renous" (Manny/Wilson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: manhunt
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson 29, "Leslie Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi029 (Partial)
Roud #9188
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Barbara Allen" (tune)
NOTES: Black Brook is a tributary of the Main Southwest Miramichi River in New Brunswick.
Manny/Wilson: A true story of Leslie Allen, a lost hunter. - BS
File: MaWi029

Let Go the Peak Halyards


DESCRIPTION: "Let go the peak halyards, Let go the peak halyards, My knuckles are caught in the falls. LET GO!" (last line shouted)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-SeaSongs, p. 125, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Go the Reef Tackle" (form)
NOTES: Shay apparently thinks this a fragment of something. To me, it looks more like a curse -- and quite possibly cleaned up.
As a wild speculation, Don Nichols repeated a story Stan Hugill is is said to have told a story about a sailor who stuttered but was able to sing clearly. DoN recalled the story as follows:
There was a sailor... up the mast who was in obvious distress. He kept trying to tell what was wrong, and the stuttering got in the way. From the deck, the bosun cries "For God's
sake man -- *sing* it!". So, from the mast comes:
Slack off your reefy tackles
reefy tackles, reefy tackles.
Slack off your reefy tackles,
Me Bollocks are Yammed!
No words in common with this piece, of course, but the *feeling* sure sounds familiar. That song occurs in the Index as "Let Go the Reef Tackle," but with a much-cleaned-up feel. - RBW
File: ShaS125B

Let Go the Reef Tackle


DESCRIPTION: The ship sails out the channel as the sailor cries out, "Let go the reef tay-ckle, Let go the reef tay-ckle, Let go the reef tay-ckle, My sheets they are jammed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: sailor work
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doerflinger, p. 165, "Let Go the Reef Tackle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 170-171, "Let Go the Reefy Tackle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, p. 503, "Slack Away Yer Reefy Tayckle" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 371]
Roud #9145
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Go the Peak Halyards" (form)
File: Doe165

Let God's Saints Come In


DESCRIPTION: "Come down, angel, and trouble the water (x3), And let God's saints come in." "Canaan land is the land for me, And let God's saints come in." The story of the Exodus, and of Moses's role, is briefly told.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 76, "Let God's Saints Come In" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The reference to an angel coming down and troubling the water is assuredly to John 5:4 as it is found in the King James Bible -- though in fact this verse is almost certainly secondary; of the nine earliest manuscripts of John, only one includes it (and it omits part of verse 3).
God's instructions to Moses are in Exodus 3.
The incident in which God shows Moses the backside of his glory, but not his front, is in Exodus 33:22-23, and the passage has been provoking scholars for centuries with its seeming anthropomorphism. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG076

Let Her Go By


See Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye (File: BMRF591)

Let Me Call You Sweetheart


DESCRIPTION: "Let me call you 'sweetheart'...." The singer professes his lover in the usual sorts of empty phrases
AUTHOR: Words: Beth Slater Whitson/Music: Leo Friedman
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuld-WFM, p. 327, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart"
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (Columbia 405-D, 1925)
SAME TUNE:
Don't You Call Me Sweetheart (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 113)
Let Me Call You Lizzie (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 113)
Let Me Call You Sweetheart (I'm In Love With Your Automobile) (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 146)
NOTES: Not a folk song by any stretch I can imagine. It's listed here because of all the parodies it inspired. - RBW
File: xxLMCYS

Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's


See Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's) (File: Doyl3039)

Let Me Fly


DESCRIPTION: "Way down yonder in the middle of the field, Angel workin' at the chariot wheel... Now let me fly (x2), Let me fly to Mount Zion, Lord, Lord." The singer hopes to meet mother in Heaven, and advises avoiding hypocrites
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 364, "Let Me Fly" (1 text)
DT, LETMEFLY*
File: FSWB364

Let Me Go Home, Whiskey


DESCRIPTION: "Let me go home, whiskey, Let me go out that door... Well, I'm feelin' so fine, But I just can't take it no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, p. 20, "Let Me Go Home, Whiskey" (1 text (probably incomplete), 1 tune)
File: CNFM020

Let Me In This Ae Nicht


DESCRIPTION: The (Laird o' Windy Wa's) comes to the girl's window (in bad weather) and begs her, "Let me in this ae nicht." The girl protests. He convinces her to let him in discreetly. She does, and he takes her maidenhead and steals away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: sex nightvisit bawdy mother father trick grief courting request rejection storm father lover mother soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan4 778, "The Laird o' Windywa's" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy 90, "Glaw, Keser, Ergh Ow-cul Yma [It Rains, It Hails and Snows and Blows]" (1 text + Cornish translation, 1 tune)
DT, AENICHT COLDRAIN*
ADDITIONAL: David Herd,"Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc." (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol. II, pp. 167-169, "Let Me In This Ae Nicht"
Roud #135
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht" (chorus, theme)
cf. "Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails)" (plot)
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Laird o Windy Wa's
The Laird o Udny
Cold Haily Windy Night
Cold Blow and a Rainy Night
NOTES: This is a complicated story. Kennedy seems to split this song from "Cold Blow and a Rainy Night" but I unhesitatingly lump them. [As do I - RBW.] The plot combines elements of the first three night-visiting songs cross-referenced, but has a distinctly different ending, more reminiscent of "The Barley Straw."
Kennedy's Cornish words are a revivalist translation from the English. Digital Tradition mentions a 19th-century broadside in Baring Gould's collection, but offers no details, and it's not in Kennedy. - PJS
Archie Fisher and Kennedy both say this is part of a longer song found in Herd. But is it a part, or a relative (compare "Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht")? I flatly don't trust Kennedy's list of versions.
Paul Stamler wanted to file this as "Cold Haily Windy Night," on the basis that it's the one best known to folkies, citing recordings by Steeleye Span and Martin Carthy. But I had already assigned the title I learned.... - RBW
The "laird o' windy-wa's," not capitalized in Herd, seems to me to be a comment rather than a title; after all, in Herd, the singer says "The morn it is the term-day, I maun awa', I canna stay," hardly the statement of a Laird. The "term-day" is the termination day of the farm help hired for six months. (See also, "South Ythsie," "Straloch" and "O Bonny Sandy.")
Kennedy's text, at least, shares little with the Herd or GreigDuncan4 texts. On the other hand it is very close to GreigDuncan5 983, "Forty Long Miles" and Kidson's Traditional Tunes pp. 58-59, "Forty Miles." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: DTaenich

Let Me Lose


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

Let Me Ride


DESCRIPTION: "Well, I'm a soldier, let me ride (x3); Low down your chariot and let me ride!" "I've been converted, let me ride..." "I've got my ticket..." "I'm bound for Heaven..." "In the Kingdom..." "Troubles over...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner 170, "Let Me Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 72, "(Low Down the Chariot and Let Me Ride)" (1 text); p. 250, "Let Me Ride" (1 tune, partial text)
ST Wa170 (Partial)
Roud #7500
RECORDINGS:
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Low Down the Chariot and Let Me Ride" (on NFMAla5) (on ReedWard01)
NOTES: This became a staple of gospel quartet recordings in the 1940s. - PJS
File: Wa170

Let Mr. Maguire Sit Down


See Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down (File: RcLMMSD)

Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down


DESCRIPTION: When Mick McGuire calls to court Kitty Donahue, her mother makes sure that he, a farm owner, had the seat by the fire. (Once married, Mick spends her father's legacy, or he proves poorer than expected.) Now her mother won't have him sit by the fire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean); c.1845 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1270(020))
KEYWORDS: courting dowry marriage humorous mother money poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, p. 86, "Kate OÕDonahue" (1 text)
Roud #4249
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Let Mr. Maguire Sit Down" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Mick McGuire" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Dinny (Jimmy) Doyle and Larry Griffin, "Let Mr McGuire Sit Down" (on USBallinsloeFair)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(135), "Barney, Get Up from the Fire", unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, L.C.1270(020), "Barney Get Up from the Fire!", unknown, c.1845
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mick Maguire
Kitty Donahue
NOTES: The 1928 date for USBallinsloeFair is according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #1122.
Broadsides NLScotland L.C.1270(020) and Bodleian 2806 c.16(135) are clearly the same song with the same chorus as the recordings but [have] a different twist. Barney is Kate's brother and tries to blackmail Paddy M'Guire ("I saw you courting Peggy Brown, I'll tell my sister Kate, But if you give me a sixpence, maybe I'll hold my prate.") but mother saves the day; they marry happily and without recriminations on anyone's part. - BS
File: RcLMMSD

Let Old Nellie Stay


DESCRIPTION: The bartender is closing up, and demands that the "old lady in red" depart. As she starts crying, someone explains, "Her mother never told her The things a young girl should know... So do not treat her harshly Because she went too far...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: drink age sin recitation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HBT 44, "Let Old Nellie Stay" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" (theme)
File: Ohr044

Let Recreant Rulers Pause


DESCRIPTION: "Rouse! Orangemen, rouse! in God be your hope, For England is now allied with the Pope." "The Papists are plotting our Church to pull down." "For wearing a ribbon of Orange and Blue, The prisons were filled with the loyal and true" but we remain loyal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 26, 1869 - Irish Church Disestablishment Act
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OrangeLark 18, "Let Recreant Rulers Pause" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Downfall of Heresy" (subject)
NOTES: OrangeLark: "This song is a protest against the proposal [sic] disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of Ireland, which was to take place in 1871." - BS
"Disestablishment" was the process under which Catholic tithes ceased to support the Protestant church and clergy. For the Catholic view of the matter, see "The Downfall of Heresy."
The absurdity of the claim that Britain was allied with the Pope is shown by the fact that, to this day, Catholics are excluded from the British succession. Not only is it illegal for a Catholic to be the crowned monarch, it's illegal for one even to marry a Catholic. - RBW
File: OrLa018

Let That Liar Alone


DESCRIPTION: On the theme of the wickedness a liar can do. "Come to your house, stay all day...." "Tell you such a lie it'll surprise your mind...." Sometimes the liar is Satan. Cho: "If you don't want... to get in trouble...You'd better let that liar alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recordings, Rev. Edward Clayborn, Rev. Isaiah Shelton)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Words vary, but always on the theme of the wickedness a liar can do. "Come to your house, stay all day" "Tell you such a lie it'll surprise your mind/Mix a little truth just to make it shine" Sometimes the liar is Satan. Chorus: "If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble...You'd better let that liar alone"
KEYWORDS: lie nonballad religious devil
FOUND IN: US
Roud #5120
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Let That Liar Alone" (Vocalion 5229, c. 1928)
Carlisles, "Leave That Liar Alone" (Mercury 70109, 1953)
Carter Family, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 5518, 1938, rec. 1937)
Rev. Edward Clayborn, "Let That Lie Alone" (Vocalion 1093, 1927)
Fairfield Four, "Better Leave That Liar Alone" (Bullet 253, n.d.; rec. 1946)
Golden Gate Quartet, "Let That Liar Alone" (Bluebird B-7835, 1938)
Rev. Anderson Johnson, "Leave That Liar Alone" (Glory 4016, n.d., rec. 1953)
Mound City Jubilee Quartette, "Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 7058, 1935)
Rev. Isaiah Shelton, "The Liar" (Victor 20583, 1927; on Babylon)
Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (OKeh 8667/Velvetone 7078/Clarion 6052/Diva 5175, 1929; rec. 1928)
Rosetta Tharpe, "Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 48023, n.d.; rec. 1943)
Trumpeteers, "Leave That Lie Alone" (Score 5057, n.d.; rec. 1946)
Rev. T. E. Weems, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (Columbia 14469-D, 1929; rec. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Satan's a Liar (Ain't Gonna Worry My Lord No More)" (theme)
NOTES: This is a messy song; the verses vary all over the place, sometimes secular, sometimes religious, but the chorus is constant. - PJS
File: RcLTLA

Let the Back and Sides Go Bare


DESCRIPTION: Beggar sings of the pleasures of his life -- drinking, starving, sleeping in filth, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: drink begging starvation humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sharp-100E 78, "The Beggar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT BCK&SID2*
Roud #1573
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Begging I Will Go" (theme)
cf. "Jolly Good Ale and Old (Back and Sides Go Bare)" (chorus)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Beggar's Song
NOTES: The chorus, "Let the back and the sides go bare, go bare/let the hands and the feet grow cold/but give to the belly, boys, beer enough/whether it be new or old" appears in Gammer Gurton's Needle (1575), but the verses are quite different. -PJS
The themes are rather similar, though; I suspect the dependence is literary. - RBW
File: ShH78

Let the Bullgine Run (I)


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

Let the Bullgine Run (II)


See Run, Let the Bullgine Run (File: Hugi342)

Let the Cocaine Be


See Take a Whiff on Me (File: RL130)

Let the Deal Go Down


DESCRIPTION: "Let the deal go down, boys, Let the deal go down." (Sound effects indicate cards being dealt.) "If your cards ain't lucky, Y' oughta be in a rollin' game." "I want to win for my sweet mama, She needs a new pair of shoes." Verses about (problem) gambling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Hurston, Mules and Men)
KEYWORDS: gambling cards
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 296, "Let the Deal Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Zora Neale Hurston, _Mules and Men_ (New York,1990 (paperback edition of 1935 original)), pp. 271-272, "Let the Deal Go Down" (with tune)

NOTES: Not to be confused with "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down." - RBW
The game referred to in this and similar songs is the "Skin Game" or "Georgia Skin Game." -PJS
File: LoF296

Let the Dove Come In


DESCRIPTION: "(Oh,) Noah, hoist the window (x3), Hoist the window, let the dove come in." Describes how Noah's neighbors scorned him for his work, but he had the last laugh.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: ship Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, p. 45, (no title) (partial text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Noah's Ark" (lyrics)
NOTES: In this song from the Georgia Sea Islands, the name "Noah" is pronounced "Norah." - RBW
File: CNFM045

Let the Lower Lights Be Burning


DESCRIPTION: "Brightly beams our Father's mercy, from his lighthouse evermore." "Let the lower lights be burning, Send a beam across the wave, Some poor fainting, struggling seaman, You may rescue, you may save." In a dark night of sin, many are seeking light
AUTHOR: Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (first published, according to Dright Boyer, Ships and Men of the Great Lakes)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 214-216, "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOWERLTS
Roud #16709
NOTES: Many P. P. Bliss hymns have some sort of story associated with them (see, for instance, "Hold the Fort," inspired by a message General Sherman sent to a subordinate). Dwight Boyer, Ships and Men of the Great Lakes (Freshwater Press, 1977) devotes a whole chapter to Bliss and this song., and tells the story on pp. 41-42 (also found in Walton/Grimm/Murdock). Apparently, in this case, a ship was trying to make Cleveland harbor. But the crew could not see the lights of the town (the "lower lights") in the storm, and failed to navigate into the harbor, and the boat was lost.
Bliss made an analogy: God manages the "great lighthouse," but people are the "lower lights" which help with parts of the navigation, and hence should present the best light they can.
According to Boyer, p. 41n., no such boat wreck can be identified, but of course it doesn't really matter for purposes of the song.
Walton/Grimm/Murdock claims that several Great Lakes sailors recalled this song, but cites no names; it appears the version in the book is from print. So I have not listed the Great Lakes in the "Found In" field; I am not convinced this song is genuinely traditional.
Nonetheless Walton/Grimm/Murdock did not invent the Great Lakes association, since Boyer also describes it.
Boyer on p. 40 says of Bliss "was best-known for his golden-voiced renditions of hymns he himself had composed. So beautiful and emotional was his delivery that tears would often stream from his eyes, and his audiences frequently reacted likewise.
According to Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), Bliss (born July 9, 1838) sold his first song to Root and Cady in 1864. He even worked for that time for Root and Cady before becoming choir director of Chicago's First Congregational Church. He went on to work with Dwight L. Moody.
In 1874, Bliss published his collection Gospel Songs -- apparently the first substantiated use of this term.
Bliss died in 1876 in a train wreck. He and his family were making a trip through Ohio on December 29 when the train went off the track near a bridge in a snowstorm (Boyer, pp. 43-46). As the train cars fell, they caught fire. Boyer says that 92 passengers were killed and 64 injured. Bliss and his wife were among them. A legend I saw somewhere says that he was killed while going back into the inferno to rescue other passengers. (Johnson, p. 145, says he was trying to rescue his wife)
Daniel Webster Whittle, who also wrote "Neither Do I Condemn Thee," posthumously published the memoirs of Bliss; that book seems to be the major source of information about him.
Among songs in this Index, Bliss is responsible for "Hold the Fort," "Pull for the Shore," and "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning"; he also supplied the tune for "It Is Well With My Soul." Brown attributes "Little Birdie in the Tree" to him; it doesn't sound much like his style to me, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: WGM214

Let Us Be Merry Before We Go


See The Deserter's Lamentation (File: OLcM087A)

Let's Go a-Hunting


See Billy Barlow (File: SBoA165)

Let's Go a-Hunting, Says Richard to Robert


See Billy Barlow (File: SBoA165)

Let's Go to the Woods


See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

Letter Edged in Black, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer cheerfully greets the postman, only to be handed a letter edged in black. The letter is from his father, informing him that his mother is dead.
AUTHOR: Hattie Hicks Woodbury (Hattie Nevada)
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death mother mourning
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 703, "The Letter Edged in Black" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 475-476, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 703A)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 169-171, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 38-39, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 267, "The Letter Edged In Black" (1 text)
DT, LETTRBLK
Roud #3116
RECORDINGS:
Cotton Butterfield, "Letter Edged in Black" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Letter Edged In Black" (OKeh 7008, 1924)
Pete Cassell, "The Letter Edged in Black" (Majestic 6007, c. 1947)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Letter Edged in Black" (Lincoln 2426, 1925) (Edison 51649, 1925) (Victor 19837, 1925) (Cameo 809, 1925) (Banner 1653, 1926; Challenge 560, 1927; Conqueror 7074, 1928) (Bell 396, 1926) (Challenge 160/Challenge 319, 1927) (Champion 15906, 1930; Champion 45096, 1935; rec. 1928) (Brunswick 2900, 1925; Supertone S-2000, 1930) (Columbia 15049-D [as by Al Craver], c. 1926) (Brunswick 6799, 1934) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5085 or 5086, 1925) (Durium 9-2, n.d.)
Bradley Kincaid, "Letter Edged In Black" (Bluebird B-5895, 1935; rec. 1934)
Frank Luther, "Letter Edged in Black" (Decca 435, 1935)
George Reneau, "Lettter Edged in Black" (Vocalion 14998, 1925/ Vocalion 5058, c. 1926)
Marc Williams, "Letter Edged in Black" (Decca 5327, 1937; rec. 1934)
File: R703

Letter in the Candle, The


DESCRIPTION: "There's a letter in the candle, It points direct to me, How the little spark is shining, From whoever can it be." The singer describes the "writer From far across the sea." Her last letter in a candle meant her sailor was coming home....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 777, "The Letter in the Candle" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 37-38, "The Letter in the Candle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7412
File: R777

Letter that Never Came, The


DESCRIPTION: Day after day, a man asks the mail carrier if there is a letter for him. Day after day, he is disappointed. The chorus asks from whom the letter might come. But come it never does; the man dies, and asks that the letter, if it comes, be buried with him
AUTHOR: Paul Dresser (1857-1906) and Max Sturm
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: death lastwill
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rorrer, p. 76, "The Letter That Never Came" (1 text)
Gilbert, p. 142, "The Letter that Never Came" (1 text)
ST Gil142 (Full)
Roud #4860
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "The Letter that Never Came" (Columbia 15580-D, 1930)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "The Letter That Never Came" (Supertone 9363, 1929)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "The Letter That Never Came" (Columbia 15179-D, 1927; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Letter in the Mail" (theme)
cf. "The Eight-Pound Bass" (tune and structure)
NOTES: Gilbert observes that this song, unlike almost all popular music, preserves the mystery to the end: We never do learn from whom the letter might have come.
For the story of Paul Dresser, see the notes to "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away." - RBW
File: Gil142

Letters of Love, The


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

Letty Lee


See Young Kitty Lee (Letty Lee) (File: Pea605)

Levee Camp Holler


DESCRIPTION: "We git up in de mornin' so dog-gone soon, Cain'[t] see nothin' but de stars and moon. Um...." An enumeration of typical travails in a hard day behind a team of mules.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: poverty work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 569, "Levee Camp Holler" (1 text (composite, from Lomax), 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 49-52, "Levee Camp 'Holler'" (1 text, obviously composite, 1 tune)
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 67-70, "I Can Buckle a Wheeler" (2 texts, 2 tunes, both probably the same as one of the composite parts of Lomax's "Levee Camp Holler"; the "A" text also contains a large part of "Mule Skinner Blues")
Roud #15580
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roustabout Holler"
cf. "Steel Laying Holler"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Worked Old Moll
File: BMRF569

Levee Moan (I'm Goin' Where Nobody Knows My Name)


DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' whe' nobody knows mah name, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, I'm goin whe' nobody knows mah name." (x2) "I'm goin' whe' dey don't shovel no snow...." "I'm goin' whe' de chilly wind don't blow...." "Oh, baby, whe' you been so long...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg, pp. 225-227, "Levee Moan" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES: This looks to me like a cross of "Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad" with "Chilly Winds" -- but I can't prove it. - RBW
File: San225

Lewie Gordon (Lewis Gordon)


DESCRIPTION: "O send Lewie Gordon hame, And the lad I darena name" The singer describes her true love. "O to see this princely one Seated on his father's throne!" "Weel wad I my true love ken Amang ten thousand Highlandmen"
AUTHOR: Alexander Geddes (1737-1802) (source: _Fraser's Magazine_; see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (_The Scots Nightingale_, according to GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: rebellion exile nonballad Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg2 41, "Lewie Gordon" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan1 133, "Lewie Gordon" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #5777
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1547), "Lewie Gordon" ("O send Lewie Gordon hame"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), c.1840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tarry Woo" (tune, according to Hogg2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Hielan'man
My Highland Love
NOTES: Hogg2: "'Lewie Gordon' has always been a popular ditty, and was supposed to have been made by a Mr Geddes, priest at Shenval in the Enzie, on the Lord Lewis Gordon...; on the rising in 1745, declared for Prince Charles; ... after the battle of Culloden he escaped abroad; was attainted by act of parliament, 1746; and died at Montreuil, in France, on the 15th of June, 1754."
The source for the author is Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, (London, 1866 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. LXXIII, p. 575, which also credits Geddes for "Wee Wifikie." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1133

Lexington Murder, The


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

Leys o' Logie, The


DESCRIPTION: "The lang leys[leas] o' Lessendrum, And the parks abeen Pittodrie, And I canna win where my lovie is For the weary leys o' Logie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan6 1190, "The Leys o' Logie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #6811
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan6 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61190

Li'l Liza Jane


DESCRIPTION: "I've got a gal who loves me so, L'il Liza Jane, Way down south in Baltimore... Oh, Eliza, L'il Liza Jane." The singer loves Liza at first sight, and so "Now I've got me a mother-in-law," plus a house and children in Baltimore, and a home which he loves
AUTHOR: Countess Ada de Lachau
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage children
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 436, "Eliza Jane (I)" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 37, "L'il Liza Jane" (1 text)
Roud #825
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Vocalion 15638, 1927)
Harry C. Browne, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Columbia A2622, 1918)
Al Campbell & Henry Burr, "Liza Jane" (Columbia A2621, 1918)
Carter Bros. & Son, "Liza Jane" (OKeh 45202, 1928)
Taylor Flanagan & his Trio, "Li'l Liza Jane' (Brunswick 573, 1931; rec. 1930)
Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Victor 18394, 1917)
Louise Massey & the Westerners, "Lil Liza Jane" (Vocalion 05361, 1939)
Ollie Shepard & his Kentucky Boys, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Decca 7651, 1939)
Win Stracke, "Little Liza" (Mercury 5777, 1952)
NOTES: Hard to believe that this isn't a variant of one of the other Liza Jane songs. But there is no evidence that it is. - RBW
It's a composed song, published in 1906, from the show "Come Out of the Kitchen." - PJS
Which probably holds some sort of record for obscurity. I can't even determine if "Countess" is part of de Lachau's name (which I suspect of being a pseudonym), or if she really was a slumming member of some obscure branch of the nobility.My library contains no references to her, and an internet search turned up nothing of use except copies of the sheet music to this song. - RBW
File: FSWB037

Liam O Raofaille (Willy Reilly; The Virgin Widow)


DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: The singer and her Liam (Willie) are married on the island where they live, but as he rows the priest back to the mainland after the ceremony, the boat sinks and both are drowned. She is left a widow on her wedding night
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recording, Sean 'Ac Donnca)
KEYWORDS: grief love virginity wedding death drowning ship foreignlanguage lament husband wife clergy
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Sean 'Ac Donnca, "Liam O Raofaille" (on TradIre01)
File: RcLiamOR

Liam OConnell's Hat


DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to Coolea "on a dancing expedition." After the dance and drinks his famous hat is missing. It had been worn by Brian Boru, Alfred the Great,... He searches all Ireland but, finally, a witch tells him it is in the Lake.
AUTHOR: "[Jimmy?] Crowley the tailor" (source: OCanainn)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink music humorous talltale witch clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn, pp. 96-97,124, "Liam OConnell's Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The tall tale nature of this song is shown by the two kings mentioned. Alfred reigned in Wessex (southwestern England) from probably 871 to c. 899. Brian Boru was born a copule of generations later, and died at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Thus it is chronologically possible that the hat could have passed on -- but there was effectively no contact between Wessex and Ireland at this time. Unless the Vikings captured the hat from Wessex and carried it to Ireland. But what are the odds of it surviving that? (Even if you assume it survived everything else). - RBW
File: OCan096

Liar's Song, The


See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Liberty for the Sailors


DESCRIPTION: "The Bellman's called it round the town, And far and near the news has flown; Each wife seeks out her last new gown, There's liberty for the sailors." The revels are told as "every lass will get her lad And every bairn will see its dad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: sailor home food drink party
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 188-189, "Liberty for the Sailors" (1 text, 1 tune); some additional words given on p. 198
DT, LIBSAILR*
Roud #3179
File: StoR188

Liberty Tree (I), The


DESCRIPTION: "Columbus, a man of great genius, Came from the European shore [to America where] Great God himself has created A place for the Liberty Tree." Great Britain jealously tried to clamp down on the Americas, but they remain a beacon of liberty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad America exploration
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 47-50, "The Liberty Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The phrase "The Liberty Tree" is probably inspired by a publication of Thomas Paine's, itself found as a song, though I don't know if it's traditional.
The piece in Thomas doesn't strike me as a real result of the folk process; it looks like one of those pieces certain teachers wrote to teach their students.
For other songs about the Tree of Liberty, and some discussion of its origin, see the notes to "The Tree of Liberty." - RBW
File: ThBa047

Lichtbob's Lassie, The


See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

Lie Low


See The Major and the Weaver [Laws Q10] (File: LQ10)

Life Boat, The


DESCRIPTION: "The life boat is comin', by the eye of faith I see, As she sweeps through the water to rescue you and me." The singer rejoices that the life boat will take him/her (and his/her companions) away from worldly sorrows and into heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 629, "The Life Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3405
File: R629

Life in a Prairie Shack


DESCRIPTION: The singer points out the difficulties of "life in a prairie shack." The tenderfoot can't handle the cold and rain, is thrown from his horse, and hits his toe with an axe. His conclusion: "This bloomin' country's a fraud, And I want to go home to my ma."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes injury mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fife-Cowboy/West 36, "Life in a Prairie Shack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 33, "Life in a Prairie Shack" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PRAIRSHK*
Roud #4472
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (tune)
File: FCW036

Life in California


DESCRIPTION: Singer leaves his family in Maine to seek California gold; he loses his money at cards and catches the "fever-n-ager." He asks for food, drink, lodging. Cho: "I'm a used-up man, a perfect used-up man/And if ever I get home again, I'll stay there if I can"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1853 (California Songster)
KEYWORDS: disease homesickness loneliness poverty home emigration separation travel mining cards death family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1848 - gold found in Sutter's Mill, California.
1849 - multitudes of easterners emigrate west, hoping to "make their pile"
FOUND IN: US(SW)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Life in California" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Used-Up Man" (tune)
NOTES: Fever and ague: Malaria. - RBW
File: RcLiICal

Life Is a Toil


See The Housewife's Lament (File: FSC097)

Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad


See Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad) (File: DTlifera)

Life of Georgie, The


See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Life on the Ocean Wave, A


DESCRIPTION: "A life on the ocean wave, a home on the rolling deep, Where the scattered waters roll And the winds their revels keep." The sailor thrills to the sea life, so much that he welcomes even the storms
AUTHOR: Words: Epes Sargent/Music: Henry Russell
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 87-89, "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2033
File: SWMS087

Life Presents a Dismal Picture


DESCRIPTION: The physical and psychological woes of a family detailed. (The problems are usually sexual in nature, and the family may be very extended.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy family humorous nonballad scatological
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray, pp. 114-116, "Life Presents a Dismal Picture" (2 texts, tune indicated)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 527-530, "Life Presents a Dismal Picture" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #10130
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Letter from Home
My Family Life
NOTES: Sung to the melodies of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" or "Scarlet Ribbons." - EC
File: EM114

Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)


DESCRIPTION: "Life is like a mountain railroad With an engineer that's brave; We must make the run successful." The listeners are warned, in railroad terms, of the difficulties in life, and promised that if they do well, they will be praised by God the superintendent
AUTHOR: Words: M. E. Abbey/Music: Charlie Tillmann
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: religious railroading nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 611-618, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (1 text plus a text of "The Faithful Engineer", 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 15-16, "(Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (1 text, plus fragments of assorted parodies)
Silber-FSWB, p. 364, "Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad" (1 text)
DT, LIFERAIL
Roud #13933
RECORDINGS:
Allen & Hart, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (CYL: Edison [BA] 3441, n.d., prob. mid-1920s)
Allen Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (OKeh 45196, 1928; rec. 1927)
Blue Ridge Duo, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Edison 51498, 1925)
Curly Bradshaw [King of the Harmonica], "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Acme J-102, n.d.)
Calhoun Sacred Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 20543, 1927; Montgomery Ward M-4350, 1933)
Criterion Male Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Brunswick 2931, 1925; Supertone S-2120, c. 1930)
Sid Harkreader, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Broadway 8129, c. 1930)
Harper & Turner, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Supertone 9658, 1930)
Charles Harrison, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 19825, 1922)
Bradley Kincaid, "Life is Like a Mountain Railroad" (Bluebird B-8501, 1940; rec. 1934)
Fred Kirby, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Melotone [Canada] 45037, 1935)
Smilin' Ed McConnell "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 23823, 1933; Bluebird B-8194, 1939)
Montgomery Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Decca 146, 1934)
Pace Jubilee Singers, "Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad" (Victor 23350, 1932; rec. 1929)
Pickard Family, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Oriole 1934, 1930)
George Reneau, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 14811, 1924; Vocalion 5030, c. 1926)
Homer Rodeheaver, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 14339, 1922) (Columbia 165-D [as Rodeheaver and Asher], 1924)
John Seagle & Leonard Stokes, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 22060, 1929)
Oscar Seagle [baritone], "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia A3420, 1921)
Smith's Sacred Singers, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia 15159-D, 1927; Vocalion 02921, 1935)
Southern Railroad Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven' (Victor V-40002, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-8129, 1939; rec. 1928)
Mr. & Mrs. J. Douglas Swagerly, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (OKeh 40086, 1924)
Ernest Thompson, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia 158-D, 1924) (Diva 6003/Harmony 5096-H, 1930 [both as Jed Tompkins])
Frank Welling & John McGhee "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Champion 15971 [as Hutchens Bros.], 1930; Champion 45125, c. 1935)
Hermes Zimmerman, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 1018, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballad of the Braswell Boys" (tune)
cf. "Miner's Lifeguard" (tune)
cf. "Weaver's Life" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Ballad of the Braswell Boys (File: MN1048)
Miner's Lifeguard (File: BSoF730)
Weaver's Life (File: CSW090)
NOTES: The original [sheet music] publication also includes an alternate set of lyrics composed by Jack Penn, under the title "The Gospel Highway"; they seem not to have entered tradition. - PJS
The origin of this piece is looking more and more complicated the more I look at it. In previous editions of the Index, I noted a connection to "The Road to Heaven," which dates from probably 1854. Paul Stamler thought the notion of a railroad to heaven could occur independently. It almost doesn't matter; "The Road to Heaven" is among the earliest "spiritual railroad" songs, but Cohen in Long Steel Rail, pp. 597-603, notes many examples of the genre. There were certainly lots of forerunners to choose from, although only a handful went into tradition.
The interesting feature of this song is its relationship to "The Faithful Engineer," by Will S. Hays, published in 1886. This begins, "Life is like a crooked railroad, And the engineer is brave, Who can make a trip successful From the cradle to the grave."
The connection to this piece can hardly be denied, though the rest of the Hays poem is not quite so closely related.
So how did Abbey and Tillman get away with copyrighting this as an entirely new piece? I have no answer; neither has Cohen, though he speculates about intermediate versions. This seems likely enough, given how rapidly the song spread. Perhaps Abbey did not rewrite Hays, but rewrote some anonymous copy or rewrite of Hays. - RBW
File: DTlifera

Lifeboat, The


DESCRIPTION: "We're floating down the streams of time, We have not long to stay, The stormy clouds of darkness Is turned to brightest day. Oh let us all take courage... The lifeboat soon is coming To gather his jewels home." The joys of life with Jesus are outlined
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FSRA 99, "The Lifeboat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ChFRA099 (Partial)
Roud #6629
NOTES: Roud lumps several "lifeboat" songs under this number, but one is a secular ballad, "The Little Clare Mary (Dailey's Lifeboat)." - RBW
File: ChFRA099

Lift Him Up That's All


DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets a woman at Jacob's well; she wonders at his being a Jew, but when she sees it is Jesus she runs to town: "Come and see a man who told me all that I have done." He asks her for water; she tries to hide her sins, speaking of "race pride."
AUTHOR: Washington Phillips
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Washington Phillips)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets a woman at Jacob's well; she wonders at his being a Jew, but when she sees it is Jesus she runs into town saying, "Come and see a man who told me all that I have done." He asks her for some water, and she tries to hide her sins, speaking of "race pride." Ch.: "Lift him up, that's all/Lift him up in his word/If you tell the name of Jesus everywhere...He will draw men unto him."
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus Jew
FOUND IN: US(SW)
RECORDINGS:
Washington Phillips, "Lift Him Up That's All" (Columbia 14277-D, 1927; on Babylon)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid and the Palmer" [Child 21] (subject)
cf. "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (subject)
cf. "See the Woman at the Well" (subject)
NOTES: For the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, see John 4:5-26 - RBW
File: RcLHUTA

Light on Cape May, The


DESCRIPTION: As the ship sails on a pleasant sea, the lookout spots a light. The crew is given the good news that it is the Cape May light.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sea
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger, p. 130, "The Light on Cape May" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter identified as "The Bigerlow" and taken from Sandburg)
DT, CAPEMAY*
Roud #9438
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bigler's Crew" [Laws D8] (tune, lyrics) and references there
NOTES: Doerflinger describes this as a "salt-water variant of... 'The Timber Schooner Bigler.'" - RBW
File: Doe130

Lightning Express, The


See Please, Mister Conductor (The Lightning Express) (File: R720)

Lights of London Town, The


See A Picture from Life's Other Side (File: R603)

'Ligion So Sweet


See Religion So Sweet (II) (File: LxA582)

Like an Owl in the Desert


DESCRIPTION: "Like an owl in the desert I weep, mourn and cry; If love should overtake me I surely would die." "I can love like a lawyer... I can love an old sweetheart Till a new one comes along." "I can love him and kiss him... And turn my back on him ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 304, "Like an Owl in the Desert" (1 text)
Roud #16860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Br3304

Likes Likker Better Than Me (Brown-Eyed Boy)


DESCRIPTION: "Oh I'm in love with a brown-eyed boy And he's in love with me But he's in love with a whiskey jug...." Singer laments that her young man "likes likker better than me." She says she thinks of marrying him, but life's hard as a whiskey-drinker's wife.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Woodie Brothers)
KEYWORDS: love courting drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 75, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRWNEYED*
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (on NLCR01) (NLCR12)
Woodie Brothers, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (Victor 23579, 1931; on LostProv1)
NOTES: Pity we don't have the keywords "alcoholism" and "co-dependency." -PJS
File: CSW075

Likes Liquor Better than Me


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

Likewise We Hae a Hoosemaid


DESCRIPTION: The housemaid "wears her hair oot owre the croon To scare the lads awa" "... toothless Annie Her vera face wad fleg [scare] the rats ..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad servant oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 402, "Likewise We Hae a Hoosemaid" (1 text)
Roud #5932
File: GrD3402

Lila Lee


See Lily Lee (File: R098)

Lilli Burlero


See Lilliburlero (File: FR286)

Lillian Brown


DESCRIPTION: "While the sun in his sinking beauty Was shining brightly in the West, A fair fortune maiden was thinking How soon she would meet her death." Lillian Brown, a Virginian boarding near West Durham Mill, takes poison and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: suicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1914 - Reported date of Lillian Brown's suicide
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 299, "Lillian Brown" (1 text)
ST BrII299 (Full)
Roud #6638
NOTES: This piece, only three stanzas long, gives no motivation for Ms. Brown's suicide, and the editors of Brown were not able to elucidate. - RBW
File: BrII299

Lilliburlero


DESCRIPTION: Two Irish Catholics congratulate one another on victory over the Protestants, and make nasty remarks about what they intend to do to them. The song was written by a Protestant Englishman, in a burlesque of Irish dialect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1688 (broadside, Bodleian (Wood 417(168)-Wood 417(172)))
KEYWORDS: hate Ireland humorous nonballad political dancing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1685-1688 - Reign of James II (James VII of Scotland), the last Catholic king of Britain
1688 - Glorious Revolution overthrows James II in favour of his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband and first cousin William III of Orange
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 359-362, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
OLochlainn 36, "Lillibulero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 286, "Lilliburlero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge II, pp. 58-60, "Lilliburlero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 303, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 90-91, "Lilliburlero" (1 text)
DT, LILIBURL
ADDITIONAL:
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 441-443, 513, "Lillibulero"
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 178-179, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
Roud #3038
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, (Wood 417(168), A New Song [The first part of "Lill-li-burlero bullen a-la"] ("Ho brother Teague dost hear de decree") , unknown, [the date is illegible; see part 2];Wood 417(172), The second part of "Lill-li-burlero bullen a-la" ("There was an old prophesie found in a bogg") , unknown, "Printed in the Year 1688"); also Firth b.20(145), "A New Song" ("Ho brother Teague dost hear de decree"), unknown, see notes; Firth b.21(103), Harding B 5(33), A new song. Being a second part to the same tune of "Lillibullero" ("A treaty's on foot, look about English boys") (see notes for broadsides with a tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Overtures from Richmond" (tune)
cf. "There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
My Thing Is My Own (BBI ZN1181, DT THINGOWN)
Overtures from Richmond (File: SCW46)
Bumpers, Bumbers, Flowing Bumpers (File: CrPS094)
There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket (File: OO2544)
You that love mirth, give ear to my song/Teague and Sawney (BBI ZN3133)
The Martial drum no sooner did beat/The Couragious Soldiers of the West (BBI ZN1757)
I have been long in Custody here/The Chancellors Resolution (BBI ZN1282)
Come all ye Protestant Lads in the Land/The Protestants Delight, Or An Health to His Highness (BBI ZN515)
I'll sing ye a Song, if you'll pay me but for't/The Brandy-Bottle Plot (BBI ZN1357)
We came into brave Reading by Night/The Reading Skirmish (BBI ZN2745)
Protestant Boys, both valliant and stout/ Undaunted London-Derry (BBI ZN2262)
Protestant Boys, good tydings I bring/Dublin's Deliverance..Surrender of Drogheda (BBI ZN2263)
Protestant Boys now stand your Guard/The discovery of the New Plot (BBI ZN2264)
You that a fair maids heart would obtain/Faint Heart never won fair Lady: Or, Good Advice to Batchelors (BBI ZN3109)
Pray now attend and listen a while/The False-hearted Glover (BBI ZN2235)
The Protestant subjects of England rejoice/ ..Kingdom's Joy for the Proclaiming King William (BBI ZN2266)
I am a Lad that's come to the Town/West-Country Tom Tormented (BBI ZN1201)
Sound up the Trumpet, beat up the Drum/The Protestant Courage..of Valiant Sea-men (BBI ZN2391)
The coffee-house Trade is the best in the town/The City Cheat discovered (BBI ZN498)
Boys let us sing the Glory and Fame/Couragious Betty of Chick-Lane (BBI ZN427)
Hore-Belisha, Bludgeons and Blood (People's Parodies; Edward J. Cowan, _The People's Past_, p. 167)
NOTES: The tune was used, under its own name, for an English country dance. A fragment of it is also played on the BBC World Service, 20 seconds before every hour. -PJS
Chappell/Wooldridge report of this piece, "The words have been variously ascribed to Lord Wharton and Lord Dorset, but probably neither was the author. The tune is a harpsichord lesson by Purcell, printed... in... Musick's Handmaid, two years before Tyrconnel's appointment as Lord Deputy." They quote Percy, "[The piece] was written, or at least re-published, on the Earl of Tyrconnel's going a second time to Ireland, in 1688. 'Lilliburlero' and 'Bullen-a-lah' are said to have been words of distinction used among the Irish Papists in their massacre of Protestants, in 1641."
The appointment of Tyrconnel is explicitly mentioned in the song:
Ho brother Teague, dost hear de decree...
Dat we shall have a new deputie...
Ho, by my Soul, it is a Talbot.
Talbot is Richard Talbot (1630-1691), Earl of Tyrconnel since 1685, appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1687. He proceeded to "reform" the Irish army by removing its Protestant officers and increasing its size. Catholics were appointed to other positions as well. The Protestants, naturally, panicked; "Lilliburlero" is one sign of this.
It is said that this song "whistled James II from his throne." (For background on this, see the notes to "The Vicar of Bray.") RBW
Broadside Bodleian Wood 417(168) has the tune.
Broadside Bodleian Firth b.20(145) has another tune and the annotation "Made upon ye Irish upon Tyrconnells goeing Deputy thither 25 Oct. 1688."
Sparling: "Generally attributed to Lord Wharton, but this has never been conclusively proved.... A copy printed in London, 1689, is in the British Museum." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FR286

Lillie Shaw


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the crowd gathered to see his execution "for the murder of Lillie Shaw, Who I so cruelly murdered And her body shamefully (?) burned." He recalls the crime, sees his parents in the crowd, and hopes for forgiveness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Henry, from the singing of Sofia Hampton)
KEYWORDS: murder execution punishment gallows-confession
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 55-56, "Lillie Shull" (1 text)
BrownII 308, "Lillie Shaw" (1 text)
Roud #4627
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pretty Fair Widow (Lillie Shaw)" (subject)
NOTES: Although there are two songs on this subject, and this one at least spread enough to be collected three times, no one seems to have found details on the fates of Lillie Shaw and Jim Wilcox/E. B. Preston.
Frank Proffit, who supplied the Warner ballad, claimed the murder took place in the 1880s in Mountain City, Tennessee. - RBW
File: BrII208

Lillie Shull


See Lillie Shaw (File: BrII208)

Liltin Ooral Ay


DESCRIPTION: "Liltin oo, ooral oo, Liltin ooral ay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS:
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1783, "Liltin Ooral Ay" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment. - BS
Which, of course, will never be identified with any other song. Hard to imagine why it was printed on paper. Fortunately, we aren't on paper, so we aren't wasting any. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81783

Lily Fair Damsel, A


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

Lily Lee


DESCRIPTION: (Nathan Gray) sets out across the sea to gain the money to marry (Lily/Lilla) Lee. One night he dreams that Lily is dead. He returns home in fear, to find that she has indeed died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (LoC recording, David Rice)
KEYWORDS: separation love death travel
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 98, "Lily Lee" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 513-514, "Lily Lee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 98B)
ST R098 (Full)
Roud #3268
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel" [Child 75]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lila Lee
File: R098

Lily Munroe


See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Lily of Arkansas, The


See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Lily of the Lake


DESCRIPTION: Singer describes the beauties of Lake Champlain, then the beauty of fair Mary, who glides on its waters. He sits down by her, proposes to her; she accepts with a blinding smile -- "She is the lovely Mary, the Lily of the Lake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: courting love beauty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Lily of the Lake" (on PeteSeeger29)
NOTES: This was only collected from tradition once, but it was from Yankee John Galusha, and that's good enough for me. - PJS
File: RcLotL

Lily of the West, The [Laws P29]


DESCRIPTION: The singer courts (Mary/Flora), only to see her courting another man. He stabs the other man to death. He is taken and sentenced, all the while saying that he loves the Lily of the West despite her betrayal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839
KEYWORDS: murder jealousy betrayal trial
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South,West) Ireland US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws P29, "The Lily of the West"
Belden, pp. 132-133, "The Lily of the West" (1 text plus reference to 1 more)
Randolph 145, "The Lily of the West" (3 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Eddy 49, "The Lily of the West" (2 texts, 1 tune)
BrownII 267, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, with little of the plot remaining)
Chappell-FSRA 113, "The Lily of the West" (1 fragment)
SharpAp 148, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 54, "Lily of the West" (2 texts, 1 tune)
SHenry H578, pp. 416-417, "Flora, The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 133-136, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 93, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 473-474, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 42, "Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 225, "Lily Of The West" (1 text)
DT 507, FLORAWST*
Roud #957
RECORDINGS:
W. Guy Bruce, "The Lily of the West" (on FolkVisions1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(104), "The Lily of the West," W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 b.9(276), 2806 c.15(122), 2806 b.11(137), Harding B 19(15), "The Lily of the West"
LOCSinging, as107800, "The Lily of the West," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as107780, sb20280a, as107790, "The Lily of the West"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(87a), "Flora The Lily of the West," Poet's Box? (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
SAME TUNE:
Caroline Of Edinburgh Town (per broadsides Bodleian LOCSinging as107800, LOCSinging as107780, LOCSinging sb20280a)
NOTES: OLochlainn 93 ends happily: "I then did stand my trial, and boldly I did plead, A flaw was in my indictment found and that soon had me freed."
Broadside LOCSinging as107800: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: LP29

Lily White Robe


See Little White Robe (File: RcLWRobe)

Lily-White Flower


See Wallflowers (File: HHH048d)

Limber Jim


DESCRIPTION: A long collocation of (often) floating verses, with recurrent themes of gambling, women, comparisons between black and white, "rebels," all in no apparent order, with a variable refrain including the words "Limber Jim" and the chorus response "Shiloh!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: gambling nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 593, "Limber Jim" (1 text)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 120-121, "(Shiloh)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Went to the River (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Buckeye Jim"
File: BMRF593B

Limbo


DESCRIPTION: "Many thousands I've spent on Rachel and Ruth... Bridget and Pegs." A rich uncle gets the singer out of limbo prison; he'd "put you once more on your legs" if he'd settle down. He shows the girls his money. They try to get it from him; he turns them away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3214))
KEYWORDS: prison rake family money
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 124-125, "Once I Was Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan, pp. 304-307, "The Spendthrift clapt into Limbo" (1 text)
ST CrMa124 (Partial)
Roud #969
RECORDINGS:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3214), "The Rakes Complaint in Limbo," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (theme)
cf. "The Wild Boy" [Laws B20] (theme)
NOTES: Steve Gardham has this answer to my question as to whether there is/was a "Limbo Prison" (quoted with permission):
"No there was never a Limbo prison. The term applied to prisons evolved from the religious use of the word i.e. the medieval term for purgatory from Limbus Patrum. The leap isn't far from purgatory to prison if you think about it.
According to Partridge [The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang] the use of the word for a place of confinement dates from c1590. Partridge also gives other uses of the word:
a pawnshop c1690 to 1820,
female pudend 19thC,
bread- military late 19th century.
Roxburgh Ballads. Vol 8 p. 811 and Logan's Pedlar's Pack p. 304 have plenty to say on Limbo songs." - BS
File: CrMa124

Lime Juice Tub, The


See The Limejuice Tub (File: MA140)

Lime Stone Water


DESCRIPTION: "Lime stone water and cedar wood, A kiss from you would do me good."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 232, (second of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
File: MHAp232B

Limejuice and Vinegar


See According to the Act (File: FaE042)

Limejuice Ship, The


See According to the Act (File: FaE042)

Limejuice Tub, The


DESCRIPTION: A sarcastic song about the ignorance of new chums just arrived in Australia. Recognized primarily by the chorus, "With a rowdem rowdem a rub a dub dub, We'll send you back (or "drive them back") to the limejuice tub."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: emigration humorous Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, p. 140, "Rub-a-dub-a-dub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 124-125, "The Limejuice Tub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, p. 108, "The Limejuice Tub (The Whalers' Rhyme)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 160-161, "The Limejuice Tub" (1 text plus a fragment possibly of this song)
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Lime Juice Tub" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd10)
NOTES: "Limejuice tubs" were British immigrant ships, so named after the lime juice used to prevent scurvy. (Ironically, the lime juice was usually lemon juice, but called "lime." A little propaganda to make it sound less sour, perhaps.) - RBW
File: MA140

Limerick is Beautiful (Colleen Bawn)


DESCRIPTION: The city of "Limerick is beautiful ... The girl I love ... lives in Garryowen, And is called the Colleen Bawn." If I were "Emperor of Russia ... Or Julius Caesar, or the Lord Lieutenant" I'd give up everything to have her be my bride.
AUTHOR: Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (in play "The Colleen Bawn")
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad beauty Ireland courting rejection lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor, p. 12, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text)
OLochlainn 72, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 23-24, "Coleen Bawn" (1 text)
Roud #3002
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Colleen Bawn (Limerick Is Beautiful)" (on Abbott1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(100), "Limerick is Beautiful", P Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; 2806 b.11(40), "Limerick is Beautiful"; also Harding B 26(101), "Colleen Bawn" ("Limerick is beautiful as every body knows")
LOCSinging, sb20290b, "Limerick is Beautiful!", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Varty" (tune)
cf. "Over Hills and Mountains" (theme: singer would give up the crown or great wealth he doesn't have for love)
SAME TUNE:
Limerick is Beautiful (Rebel Version ) (DT, LIMBEAUT)
NOTES: Given how often most of the characters the singer envies were assassinated, I might be tempted to give up the job too. - RBW
Fowke notes that the song was included in Boucicault's play, and that he is therefore sometimes credited with authorship. A more literary version was penned by the Irish poet Michael Scanlan. - PJS
The song is from Dion Boucicault's play "The Colleen Bawn" which opened September 10, 1860 at the Adelphi Theatre, London [sources: Templeman Library University of Kent site "Richard Fawkes Dion Boucicault Collection" (gives attribution for "composer" as "Levey, R. M., Mr"; "The Adelphi Theatre 1806-1900" at Eastern Michigan University site for English Language and Literature).]
Broadside LOCSinging sb20290b includes the statement "Sung by Dan Bryant in the great Irish drama, the Colleen Bawn, at Wallack's Theatre, New-York."
"Garryowen (Garrai Eoin, 'the garden of Eoin') on the edge of the old city of Limerick Eoin is the older Irish form of the name John" (source: Odds and Ends from May 26, 2001 online edition issue Limerick Leader site)
Broadside LOCSinging sb20290b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: OCon012

Limerick Races


DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a simple Irish lad," goes to Limerick to see the races. He hitches a ride on a coach and four but is thrown off for not paying. He tries to bet, selecting whatever horse finishes first. He enjoys a play when they sing "Paddy Carey"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2132))
KEYWORDS: travel gambling music humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1751, "The Braw Irish Lad" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #12871
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2132), "Limerick Races" ("I'm a simple Irish lad, I've resolved to see some fun, sirs"), Ryle and Paul (London), 1838-1859; also Harding B 11(2135), 2806 c.15(267), Firth c.19(84), Firth b.25(266), 2806 b.11(246), Firth b.26(276), "Limerick Races[!]"
LOCSinging, s107810, "Limerick Races" ("I'm a simple Irish lad, I've resolved to see some fun, sirs"), Hopkins (New Orleans), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy Carey" (mentioned in this song)
NOTES: GreigDuncan8 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2132) is the basis for the description.
Here is a "simple Irish lad" but not quite so simple as in "Paddy Backwards" and "Paddy's Ramble to London." One theme he does share with "Paddy's Ramble to London" is the coach trip abandoned for lack of funds. His adventures are mild and he comes off little the worse for them. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81751

Limerick Rake, The


DESCRIPTION: Singer brags of being a rake; his fancy is young women. Rich men die "among nettles and stones"; he wants to be like wise Solomon with 1000 wives who will cry at his wake. when he goes to the tavern, he's welcomed "where Bacchus is sportin' with Venus."
AUTHOR: words: Unknown; music: attributed to Robert Thompson
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(71))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer brags of being a rake; raised properly by his father and well educated, his main fancy is young women, whom he lists in great number -- he's in love with one from Arda. The money he spends on the girls causes his parents much chagrin. He says he's not inclined for riches; Rich men die "among nettles and stones" but he wants to be like wise Solomon with 1000 wives who, with their children, will cry at his wake. He will buy a cow that will never run dry, for riches won't last past the grave; when he goes to the tavern, he's welcomed "where Bacchus is sportin' with Venus." Macaronic refrain: "Agus fagaim id siud mar ata se"
KEYWORDS: courting sex bragging beauty money death Ireland foreignlanguage animal father rake humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn 42, "The Limerick Rake" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LIMERAKE*
Roud #3018
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "The Limerick Rake" (on Barry-Gorman1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(71), "The Limrick Rake," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also Harding B 26(354), "The Limerick Rake"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vive la Compagnie" (on Bacchus & Venus line, otherwise unrelated)
SAME TUNE:
I'm Champion at Keeping 'Em Rolling (MacColl-Shuttle, p. 7)
NOTES: I believe the tune was used by Ewan MacColl for his song, "Champion at Keepin' 'em Rollin'"; Barry states that it was written by her grandfather, Robert Thompson, a famous piper. The Gaelic refrain translates as, "Leave it as it is," or, "Leave well enough alone." - PJS
The tune in fact has been much-used; recently, Ian Robb turned it into "Champion at Driving 'Em Crazy." The Digital Tradition, in fact, lists seven songs with this tune, though only one other, "The Pensioner's Complaint," has any any sort of traditional status. And it's listed as having two tunes, so it's not clear whether that affects Thompson's claim to authorship. We do note that he was unlikely to have been of "composing age" at the time the first broadsides were published. - RBW
File: DTlimera

Limerick Shanty, The


DESCRIPTION: Shanty or forebitter. Verses are in the form of limericks, and any limerick will do. Chorus: "Oh, the elephants walked around, and the band begins to play. And all the girls in Bombay town, were dressed in the rig of the day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall's _Sang under Segel_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty or forebitter. Verses are in the form of limericks, and any limerick will do. Chorus: "Oh, the elephants walked around, and the band begins to play. And all the girls in Bombay town, were dressed in the rig of the day." The verses printed were fairly mild but one could easily see this turning into something like "The Good Ship Venus."
KEYWORDS: shanty humorous foc's'le wordplay
FOUND IN: Sweden Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 511-513, "The Limerick Shanty" (1 text plus fragments, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hugill found this in Sang under Segel, though he figures it was British in origin and was picked up by Swedish sailors, a practice which apparently was not unusual, given the number of English worded shanties sung on Scandinavian ships. One significant difference in practice however, is the use of many popular Victorian English "sea-songs." While these were sung ashore by British seamen, they rarely used at sea (and never as shanties), but the same songs were often sung at the capstan by Scandinavian and German sailors. - SL
File: Hugi511

Limmer, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer has a hard-hearted jade. She hit him with a stool and a poker. He threatens to hang her. She goes to bed frightened and died. Her friends mourn but he has no tears and "wished them a joyful meetin'." He'll remain a widower.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage violence abuse death husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 30, ("I ance had a wife o' my ain") (1 text)
GreigDuncan8 1866, "The Limmer" (2 texts)
Roud #13584
NOTES: A "limmer" is a scoundrel. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81866

Lincoln and Liberty


DESCRIPTION: From Lincoln's 1860 presidential campaign, to the tune of Rosin the Beau: "Hurrah for the choice of the nation! Our chieftain so brave and so true, We'll go for the great reformation, For Lincoln and Liberty too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860
KEYWORDS: political derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1809 - Birth of Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky (hence the references to "the son of Kentucky")
1858 - Lincoln runs for Senator from Illinois against Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas won the election, but a series of debates between the two brought Lincoln to national attention
1860 - The Republicans, looking for a candidate who does not carry much baggage, nominate Lincoln for President. In a four-way race, Lincoln receives 40% of the popular votes and enough electoral votes to be elected President. The result is the Civil War
1864 - Lincoln re-elected President
1865 - Lincoln assassinated
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sandburg, p. 167, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, p. 75, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 50, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 40-41, "Lincoln and Libery" (1 text, filed under "Old Rosin, the Beau"; tune referenced)
Darling-NAS, pp. 345-346, "Lincoln and Liberty, Too" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 292, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text)
DT, LINCLBRT*
Roud #6602
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Lincoln and Liberty" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A." (subject)
cf. "Adams and Liberty" (concept)
cf. "Jefferson and Liberty" (concept)
NOTES: I have seen several authors (F.A. Simkins, Jesse Hutchinson) listed as writing these words. I think the matter must be considered uncertain.
To explain the complicated situation behind it requires a lot of history. Assuming you want the background, bear with me if it's quite a few words before I even mention the name "Lincoln."
Most histories of the Civil War, quite properly, begin some time around the end of the Mexican War, because this is when the sectional conflicts over slavery started to really tear the country apart. But it wasn't sectional rivalry that elected Lincoln; it was party division. And that division was due largely to the fact that the parties of the mid-nineteenth century were still very fragile things.
It all really started with the War of 1812. This was, in some very real ways, almost a civil war as well as a foreign war. New England, with its economy built upon the sea, hated the war with Britain, even though it was the part of the country that suffered most of the insults inflicted by the British Navy.
The internal struggle in 1812 fell largely along party lines. The two factions which had existed since the passing of the Constitution were the Federalists, with a relatively strong concept of the power of the government, and the Jeffersonians ("Republicans," but not the same party as the current Repubican party) with a much more limited notion of government. And New England, which opposed the war, was almost entirely Federalist in politics.
But the country was governed by the Republicans, based in the South and with little reliance upon trade at sea. They were the ones who declared the war-- and nearly destroyed the young nation in the process, since they utterly bungled both finances and military strategy. By the end, so bitter was the conflict that Federalist New England was holding an event called the "Hartford Convention" which at least considered withdrawing from the Union (Hickey, pp. 270-281, with the results of the Convention itself occupying pp. 277-278).
But then the war ended. The Americans didn't win -- the two sides essentially called it all off on the basis of the status quo. The wreck of the government finances proved that the Federalists had in fact been mostly right. But Americans *felt* they had won -- and the Federalists were the party of the Hartford Convention, which in the wake of "victory" looked like near-treason. Plus the Jeffersonians had found themselves unable to manage the country on their strictly hands-off basis, and came to adopt more and more Federalist-type measures (Schlesinger, p. 19).
Between having little to distinguish it from the Republicans and having the stain of lack of loyalty, the Federalist party died (Hickey, p. 308) -- died so fast that, five years after the war, James Monroe was re-elected with 231 out of 232 electoral votes, and I've heard that it would have been 232 out of 232 except that a New Hampshire elector disliked Monroe (Schlesinger, p. 19) and felt that no President except George Washington should be elected unanimously (for the electoral vote breakdown, see e.g. the Hammond Atlas, p. U-58). There was a feeble attempt to form a "Tertium Quid," or third party, in the original Jefferson mold, but it failed completely (Schlesinger, pp. 20-21).
For a dozen years, there were no real political parties as such; everyone was a Republican of one stripe or another. Then Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828 (he had nearly won in 1824; he led the popular vote but did not have a majority of the electoral votes, and the House made John Quincy Adams president), and *he* roused opposition (Holt, p. 17, etc.; Schlesinger, pp. 3-7, describes the near-panic in Washington as Jackson prepared to assume the presidency). Indeed, the opposition party which formed in the years after that came to be called Whigs because the British Whigs were generally the anti-Monarchy party, and American Whigs opposed "King Andrew."
The Democratic (Jacksonian) party was never as united as it is sometimes portrayed; there were always factions such as "barnburners," "hunkers," and "locofocos" within it (see, e.g., Schlesinger, p. 398), and it was always possible that they would split off. What held the party together was that the government, inefficient in most other ways, was very good at patronage (see the sweeping indictment of the "spoils system" in Nevins1847, pp. 173-181, which demonstrates how government offices were handed out based on favors, not competence). What kept the nation together was the fact that these were not truly widespread movements, if New York barnburners, say, tried to separate from the United States, they could not take a block of states with them. The most they could do was hijack the party.
A hijack of "the Democracy" might have happened had the opposition been weaker -- or stronger. But the Whigs never really managed to produce a coherent ideology either. They had some common opinions -- support for internal improvements, e.g. -- but on most other issues they had contradictions. For example, although theoretically the anti-war party (Jackson had been elected in part based on his wars against various Indian tribes, including the Creeks and Cherokees, and the Mexican War was started by Democrats), the only two Presidents the Whigs elected (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor) were both generals.
Meanwhile, the South's pro-slavery attitude was hardening. As late as 1830, there were still significant numbers of southerners who opposed slavery, or at least wanted to see it restricted. But then came Nat Turner's rising. The rising failed quickly, with the participants almost all killed (Vandiver, p. 5) -- but the brought home to southerners the truth that there *could* be a slave rebellion. Ever after, the great fear of southerners was another Santo Domingo.
There was also John C. Calhoun. Originally a strong nationalist with a desire for internal improvements, in the 1820s he started spending more time in his home of South Carolina, and he started beating the drums of sectionalism (Schlesinger, pp. 52-54). Later, for purely personal reasons, he came to resent the northern Democrats who had thwarted his presidential hopes and supported Martin Van Buren (Schlesinger, pp. 54-55, shows just how vicious Calhoun became in this vendetta). And he was so strong an intellect, and so widely respected, that his opinions swayed even those who did not agree with him.
He had also changed how leaders were selected: "With General Jackson, I put the Congressional caucus system under foot, but I did not expect to see this monstrous system of national conventions take its place" (Nevins1847, p. 194). National political conventions, and their platforms, have obviously survived, but at this time the rules were still fluid and the results highly unpredictable (Holt, p. 293) -- except for the certainty of pandering. There was a sense that "party dictation meant slavery" (Holt, p. 32), so the strongest leaders did little to bind the parties to themselves or themselves to the parties.
By the 1840s, the Whigs were discovering that they just didn't have any answers on the question of slavery. And that oh-so-Democratic war, the Mexican War, made the problem worse, because suddenly the United States gained a lot of southern land -- Texas, California, plus lands in between containing most of what is now Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and more -- that had to be opened to slavery or kept as free soil (Mexico, unlike the U.S., banned slavery categorically, though its peonage system looked very like slavery to some observers).
Theoretically, the problem shouldn't have arisen. President Polk, who started the Mexican war, had campaigned on the platform of annexing Texas *and* a large part of what is now western Canada ("Fifty four forty or fight!"). Had he gained all the territory he wanted, he would have added as much northern territory (that is, north of the 36 30' Missouri Compromise line -- land which clearly would not accomodate slavery) as southern.
But, not wanting to fight two wars at once, he had compromised on the Oregon/Canada business, meaning that he brought in less northern territory than expected -- but the Mexican War took over more southern territory. So Polk had supplied less free territory, and more slave territory, than anticipated. This led to charges of bad faith on the part of northwesterners (Nevins1847, p. 7).
The worst of it was that it potentially upset the balance of power in the Senate. California and New Mexico were thought to be mostly desert areas, which would always have small populations -- but they would have lots and lots of Senators (eight to ten, under the territorial arrangement envisioned at the time; Nevins1847, p. 21).
William Lowndes Yancey, who thirteen years later would be more responsible than anyone else for splitting the Union, made matters worse: His "Alabama Resolutions" called for repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to open all the territories to slavery (Nevins1847, p. 12). Already he was threatening secession if he didn't get what he wanted.
It's interesting to note that, at this time, few called the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional; it had passed by a margin of three to one, with no questions about its legality (Nevins1847, pp. 26-27). It had generally been agreed that Congress could legislate slavery in the Territories -- until that started to threaten the Peculiar Institution.
Ironically, it was a Democrat, David Wilmot, who introduced the Wilmot Proviso, intended to bar slavery from the territories captured in the War (Holt, p. 251); in this regard, it modelled itself on the great Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (Nevins1847, p. 9) -- something that, in theory, should have made it appeal to conservative Democrats. But it was anti-slavery Whigs who became devoted to it.
This proved an elaborate form of party suicide. The Whigs won the election of 1848 with Zachary Taylor as their candidate, but the process of electing him caused much damage to the party, which broke into "cotton Whigs" and "Conscience Whigs" (the latter basically pro-Wilmot Proviso and anti-slavery; Nevins1847, pp. 201-202). In 1850, the Whigs lost ground in congress. And then they had to pick a presidential candidate for 1852. It took them 53 ballots to nominate someone, and the division was almost entirely sectional (McPherson, p. 116). They finally set aside sitting president Millard Fillmore (who had alienated the Free Soil forces by enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law) to endorse Winfield Scott (Nevins1852, pp. 28-30). He was, in a way, a compromise, but after the nomination, many southern Whigs abandoned the party (McPherson, p. 118).
(Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the Whig confusion is simply to look at their election record. The Whigs contested five elections, those of 1836-1852. In their worst election, that of 1852, four states gave their electoral votes to the Whigs. All four of those states had voted Whig in every presidential election involving a Whig. The four states? Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Vermont; Hammond Atlas, pp. U-58, U-59. Since the latter two were among the strongest against slavery, and the former two were slave states, the problem is evident.)
Even as the Whigs were struggling over a nominee, Democrats were uniting behind Franklin Pierce. (The Democratic convention of 1852 would how chaotic the convention system could be: The convention was deadlocked after many ballots, with Cass and Buchanan the clear favorites. The Buchanan forces then tried a strange strategy of putting up what they thought were straw men, to be quickly defeated. The idea apparently was to convince Cass delegates that there was no other alternative -- only Buchanan could draw wide support. Instead, on ballot #49, the convention precipitated around Franklin Pierce; Nevins1857, pp. 18-20. Since Pierce was a handsome fool, it shows the problems of the time. Of course, the current system, in which the convention does nothing except use up a lot of fossil fuels ratifying what is already decided, is no better.)
Nevins1852, p. 32, notes great glee on the Democratic side: "the main reason for Democratic exuberance was that the party had patched up its slavery quarrels, while the Whigs had not." And, indeed, though Scott picked up a respectable vote total, the election was a blowout. Holt, p. 758, gives a table analyzing the election of that year; so bad was the rout that, in Alabama and Mississippi, the Whig percent of the vote dropped by more than half. It was "the most stunning defeat in the party's history" (Holt, p. 754). They won only 44% of the popular vote, and only 42 out of 296 electoral votes, against the vacuous Pierce. Their representation in congress fell dramatically, too -- the Democrats gained two-thirds of the seats in the House, and nearly two-thirds of the Senate (McPherson, p. 119).
No wonder that Alexander Stephens declared, "The Whig party is dead" (McPherson, p. 118). By 1854, even the corpse was collapsing; battered not only by slavery, but by an anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant backlash prompted in part by the Irish famines, and even by the temperance movement (McPherson, p. 135), splinters broke off in all directions. Holt, p. 838 says that the "congressional, state, and local elections between August 1854 and December 1855 were the most labyrinthine [and] chaotic... in all of American political history." They would be followed, two elections later, by the most labyrinthine presidential election.
Unfortunately, President Pierce was a failure. It's not that he was completely incompetent; had he beenin a position such as the Queen of England, who at this time had an important role in forming governments though she did not rule directly (similar to the President of Israel today, say), he might have done good work. What he could not do is formulate a policy. Nevins1852, p. 43, notes, "Pierce, taking up the reins of office in 1852, had a clear choice between two line of policy and unhesitantly took the weaker and more convenient." That is, he could have supported the Compromise of 1850 with all his might (or perhaps proposed a workable alternative) -- but instead he just tried to drift along. His cabinet was curious -- it was full of able men like Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and Secretary of State William L. Marcy, but they had no coherent policy; in effect, the Cabinet became a parliament of independent duchies rather than a government (Nevins1852, pp. 45-48). ÒAnd when a brilliant young Alcibiades grasped the leadership that Nicias did not exercise, Pierce had to fall in behind a chariot that was being driven headlong toward the ruin of the Administration" (Nevins1852, p. 44).
But at least the Democrats were still theoretically in charge, which allowed them to survive. By 1856, the prediction of Alexander Stephens was proved correct: the Whigs were dead (they held a convention of sorts in that year -- but instead of nominating a candidate, they simply endorsed Know-Nothing candidate Fillmore; RandallDonald, p. 104. It was their last act). With their party evaporated, former Whigs had to decide which way to go. Those who accepted slavery almost all turned Democratic. But northern Whigs founded a new party. It might have been called "Free Soil" (there was a "Free Soil" splinter party in 1852), or the "Liberty" party, or even "Wilmotite" party -- but the name they ended up with was "Republican."
The anti-immigrant Know-Nothings (who by now were calling themselves the "American" party) also started to fracture in 1856. Northern Know-Nothings nominated Nathaniel P. Banks (the Speaker of the divided House, and a future thoroughly inept Civil War general) even as the southerners nominated Millard Fillmore, and Banks then withdrew in favor of the Republican candidate John C. Fremont (who had gotten the job mostly because he carried no political baggage). In 1856, this split in the Know-Nothings helped the Democrats -- but in the longer term, it cemented the Republicans as the "other" party (McPherson, pp. 153-155).
The Republicans stood for a number of things -- e.g. most of them, as former Whigs, believed in a strong program of internal improvements. But they stood for one thing unequivocally: An absolute prohibition on slavery in the territories (Nevins1857, pp. 410-411; he claims this as the moderate position of Lincoln, as opposed to the more radical Seward, who considered the party's dominant idea to be "the equality of men before human tribunals and laws." Lincoln and the moderate Republicans wanted to fence in slavery so that it could not grow; the more radical wing of the part was for more or less immediate abolition).
Even the moderate position -- no slavery in the Territories -- was unacceptible in the South. It threatened slavery twice. It threatened it politically because, if all those territories became free states, they would eventually become numerous and populous enough to amend slavery out of the Constitution.
But the real threat, as some realized at the time, was economic. The southern economy was built around "King Cotton" -- and cotton ruined the soil. (This apart from the fact that mass cotton production meant the Southerners were falling into the economic trap of putting all their eggs in one raw material. The South, even as the planters built their mansions, was growing poorer in both absolute and relative terms. The planters were forever in debt, and there was no capital for the non-planters to build decent farms or anything else. Really, by 1860, the South was a colony of the British and New England textile mills; cf. Catton-Coming, p. 84; also McPherson, p. 95, which notes that there were more cotton spindles in Lowell, Massachussetts alone than in *all eleven future Confederate states combined*.)
Even had the South wanted to change -- and some did; the well-respected DeBow's Review, e.g., was always calling fore more industry (McPherson, p. 96) -- the economy was ill-structured for change. All the capital was absorbed in land and slaves (McPherson, p. 97; Vandiver, p. 4 says that slaves alone "represented no less than a third of the section's wealth"). But, somehow, the South failed to realize that they were turning their fate over to their perceived enemies. Cotton consumption was growing so fast that the South took to the golden treadmill (the same treadmill that today keeps Saudi Arabia what it is).
William H. Seward was not simply being an anti-slavery man when he wrote that southern territory consisted of "exhausted soil, old and decaying towns, wretchedly-neglected roads, and, in every respect, an absence of enterprise and improvement" (Foner, p. 41). The poverty of slave territory was clear to all who saw it.
Seward apparently thought this entirely a moral effect -- slavery causing the decay. Not really; it was the cotton itself. A sufficiently smart owner could mitigate this -- Edmund Ruffin, who would later fire the first shot at Fort Sumter, had shown that marl (consisting largely of old seashells, and rich in calcium and magnesium) could replenish soil fertility. It didn't matter. Most plantation owners were too foolish to engage in scientific farming (these are, after all, people who thought slaveholding a *desirable* state -- RandallDonald, p. 107, quotes Albert Gallatin Brown: "That slavery is a blessing to the masters is shown by simply contrasting a Southern gentleman with a Northern abolitionist. One is courageous, high-bred, and manly. The other is cowardly, low-flung, and sneaking." Nevins1859, p. 126, cites R. M. T. Hunter, "the very keystone of this arch [the Union] consists of the black marble cap of African slavery; knock that out, and the mighty fabric, with all that it upholds, topples and tumbles to its fall."). Since slavery ruined the land it was on, they saw the only way slavery could survive was if new land was opened to the slaveholders.
Catton argues that there was another reason why the South clung to slavery: It meant they could avoid the issue of what to do with the former slaves (Catton-Coming, pp. 85-86). Certainly it was a problem we're still struggling with; at the time, even liberals like Lincoln thought the best solution was sending the slaves to found colonies outside the U.S. Many states, north and south, refused to let free Blacks live there. It was a time when racism was so ingrained that no one questioned it. Foner, indeed, argues that many Republicans were not against slavery in the territories because they upposed slavery but because the Whites in the north wanted to make sure plantation culture didn't take over the land -- these Republicans wanted it for themselves, not for the plantation-owners (Foner, p. 61).
The decline of slavery had, in fact, already taken place in many slave states. Delaware in 1860 had a population roughly 20% Black -- but 19,723 of those Blacks were free and only 1798 slaves; the number of slaves had significantly *declined* in the last decade (RandallDonald, pp. 4-5), and by 1860 there were only 111 households left with five or more slaves (RandallDonald, p. 68). Maryland's Blacks were almost half free (Nevins1859, p. 488). Virginia still had plenty of slaves, but relatively few real plantations; to a significant extent, slavery persisted there to breed slaves for the cotton states (McPherson, p. 102).
But the truly ridiculous situation was Kansas. The state had fought a low-grade civil war for half a dozen years over the issue of slavery, and had (with some conniving from Missouri and Federal authories) tried to join the Union as a slave state -- but the 1860 census showed exactly *two* slaves resident in the region (RandallDonald, p. 99).
It didn't help that, in the decade of the 1850s, there had been all sorts of irritants between the regions -- California, Kansas/Nebraska, the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, John Brown, the filibusterers (southerners who took semi-private invading forces into places like Nicaragua or Cuba hoping to capture more territory for slavery), physical violence in the Senate (Senator Charles Sumner had made a speech attacking South Carolina's Andrew Butler. Butler's nephew Preston Brooks answered by entering the Senate and beating Sumner unconscious with his cane. Sumner needed four years to recover, but his state refused to replace him; Brooks was easily re-elected; Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 398).
None of these actually affected the electoral situation in the slightest, so I won't detail them. What mattered was that every one of them led to more distrust between South and North.
Plus people no longer trusted the Supreme Court. As early as the 1840s, during the debate over the Texas territories, there was an attempt (the "Clayton Compromise") to turn the whole issue over to the courts. This failed; too many people thought the courts unreliable. And then, right after the Election of 1856, came the infamous Dred Scott decision, in which the courts upheld the Southern position in almost every particular -- no compromise, and no limits on the right to slavery. The North was outraged. The reservoir of national goodwill built up since the end of the War of 1812 was completely used up.
You will sometimes hear people claim that secession was not about slavery; it was about States Rights. This is entirely false, as the above information clearly shows. But this does not mean States Rights was trivial. On the contrary, the belief in States Rights was what allowed the South to secede: They felt they were *entitled* to secede -- that each state was sovereign and had the right to leave the Union. The Constitution was, one might say, a treaty which might be revoked at any time, not a binding contract (cf. Nevins1859, pp. 329-331). The distinction is subtle but real: The South did not secede *in defence of* States Rights but *because they believe in* States Rights.)
It should be noted that this principle was never properly tested. The Constitution does not mention secession. The principle could have been taken to the Supreme Court -- e.g. President Buchanan could have sought an opinion on the matter when South Carolina pulled out. With a southern-dominated court led by Roger B. Taney of Dred Scott infamy, it is hard to guess how they might have ruled. But no one did so. The whole thing reminds me a lot of the Book of Judges: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes" (21:25 and parallels).
This was the more so because the period had seen the passage of the last men who remembered the founding of the United States. Andrew Jackson died in 1845. John C. Calhoun followed in 1850, and Henry Clay and Daniel Webster in 1852. The leaders who had held the nation together for thirty years were all gone. So it was more or less accepted: If a Republican became President, the South would leave the Union.
In the place of the great leaders of the second generation there arose -- Stephen A. Douglas.
Catton- Coming, p. 6, sums up the man brilliantly: "Senator Douglas was a man about whom no one could be indifferent. He was either a remorseless scheming politician or a hero defending eternal truth, the appraisal depending partly on the observer's point of view and partly on what Douglas himself was up to at the moment. As a scheming politician he had opened the door for the great tempest in Kansas and now he was standing in the wind's path, defying the storm and those who had made it; a man who could miscalculate drastically but who would not under pressure run away from what he had done. Very few men either hated or admired him just a little. A passionate man himself, he evoked passion in others, in his friends and in his enemies."
Except for the Dred Scott decision, there was very little that happened in the 1850s that he had not influenced. First chosen for the Senate in 1847, he made a reputation for himself three years later. It was Henry Clay the Whig who put together the Compromise of 1850, but Clay was too old to put in the effort to push it through, and it was Douglas the Democrat who had gotten it passed (McPherson, p. 75; RandallDonald, p. 97). Yet, just a few years later, for reasons which eem completely inadequate, he in effect, ruined the Compromise -- and even the 1820 Missouri Compromite -- with his actions regarding Kansas (RandallDonald, pp. 94-95).
By 1858, he was the most important figure in the country, not excepting President Buchanan, but he was widely regarded as being in trouble in his run for re-election to the Senate (Nolan, p. 133). His attitudes had turned the administration against him to the extent that they tried to run another Democrat to make it a three-way contest (Nevins1857, p. 351), which would naturally have led to a Republican landslide. To this end, they were brutal to Douglas supporters in the state (Nevins1857, p. 372). In the view of Nevins, it made the 1858 Senate contest much more than an ordinary Senate race. Potentially it would decide the direction of the Democratic party -- and with it the nation.
Douglas managed to halt Buchanan insurgency (though naturally the administration never gave him any support), but found himself being trailed around the state by his Republican opponent Abraham Lincoln (Nolan, pp. 135-137). To stop the "stalking," he agree to a series of seven debates, organized by congressional districts.
Not all the debate were memorable or even particularly honest; Nevins1857, pp. 385-386, for instance, talks of the Charleston debate as almost a case of political trickery, and says that its "shadowboxing was unworthy of such men." But the Galesburg debate asked a question still worth asking today. Douglas, declaring Republicanism to be a sectional doctrine, declared that "no political creed is sound which cannot be proclaimed freely in every State of this Union." To which Lincoln wondered if the true test of the doctrine was whether people would not let it be proclaimed everywhere (Nevin1857, p. 387). This was the ultimate difference between the two: Lincoln had a much stronger belief in a higher law. Douglas held as his highest principle popular sovereignty: True democracy (as long as you were male and white and an American citizen and, probably, protestant); Nevins1857, p. 390.
The key was the second debate, at Freeport in northern Illinois. The Dred Scott decision, annulling the Missouri Compromise, allowed Lincoln to put Douglas on the spot: Was there *any* way the people of a territory could exclude slavery in the wake of the Supreme Court's action? Douglas, never one to dodge an issue, formally stated an opinion he had informally held for years (Nevins1857, p. 381). Now known as the Freeport Doctrine, his position was that the Federal government *could not* impose slavery on people, because they would simply not enforce it (Catton-Coming, p. 7; Current/Williams/Freidel, pp 402-403).
Historians -- most of them, of course, anti-slavery -- generally think that Lincoln won his "debates" with Douglas (McPherson, p. 187). Certainly it was the Republican party that distributed tens of thousands of copies (Nevins1859, p. 394).
But the debates and the Freeport Doctrine won "The Little Giant" re-election to the Senate -- just barely. RandallDonald, p. 120, implies that this was partly a result of out-of-date and perhaps gerrymandered district boundaries; Democratic parts of Illinois carried more legislative seats than they were due. (Recall that, at this time, Senators were elected by the state legislatures.)
Nevins1857, pp. 396-398, says that Republican legislative candidates won125,275 votes; Douglas Democrats 121,090, with the Buchanan Democrats picking up a pitiful 5,071 votes. The map in Nevins1857, p. 397, shows county-by-county totals, with Lincoln taking every county north of roughly Peoria, Douglas winning all but three in the south (roughly below Effingham), and the east-central counties supporting Linoln while the west-central went mostly to Douglas. (It's an amazing map. Apart from those three Lincoln counties in the south, each candidate had one solid mass; there was no checkerboard border such as we usually see in sectional elections).
McPherson, pp. 187-188, has Democrats winning 51 of 54 southern Illinois districts and Republicans winning 42 of 48 in the northern part of the state. It added up to a legislature that gave Douglas 54 votes for the Senate seat and Lincoln 46.
It was, however, a rather pyrrhic victory: Douglas had won Illinois -- but it was otherwise a devastating election for the Democrats.While Republicans had not won control of congress (resulting in a second many-month battle over who would be Speaker), they had become the largest party: 109 Republicans, 101 Democrats (only 32 of them from the north, down from 56 in 1856; McPherson, p. 188), 26 Know-Nothings, and one stubbornly self-declared Whig (Catton-Coming, p. 13).
What's more, the cracks in the Democratic party were showing. While it was still officially a unity, it was divided into two factions: The Douglas faction and the Administration faction which followed Buchanan (and his several southern advisors). And the South hated Douglas. Intent on States Rights when that meant slavery, Southerners would not accept States Rights when that meant free soil.
Administration supporters were known as "Lecompton men," after the Lecompton Constitution fraudulently foisted on Kansas. Nevins1857, p. 402, notes that "It was significant that nearly all Northern Congressmen who had supported the bill at the Directory's [i.e. the Administration's] behest had run pell-mell for cover as soon as they faced the voters.... Wherever Lecompton was a direct issue, the popular vote was decisive. In Buchanan's own State, for example, ten Lecompton Representative went down; two beaten for renomination, eight for election." Pandering to the South meant defeat in the north -- but failing to give in to the south meant the threat of secession.
Even churches were splitting over the issue; Vandiver, p. 10, notes the formation of the Methodist Church, South and the Southern Presbyterian Church in this period.
Ironically, the pro-Douglas, anti-Lecompton Democrats were not worried; Nevins1857, p. 403, notes "exultant as the Republicans were [after the 1858 elections], the popular sovereignty Democrats were happier still." They thought that their success would bring the rest of the Democratic party in line behind them. In fact, all they had won was gridlock: "A feeble president, the captive of a self-willed faction of his party, now repudiated by the North; a divided Congress which faced a certain deadlock on any important legislation; a Supreme Court discredited in half the nation [by the Dred Scott decision] -- such would be the government of the next two years" [Nevins1857, p. 404]. With the nation completely leaderless, is it any wonder that southern fire-eaters were maturing plans for secession?
Indeed, in some ways, the rebellion started even before the Civil War. Many Northerners had long resisted enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law (which, when you think about it, was largely an expression of the Freeport Doctrine. But no one -- not even Douglas -- seems to have looked at it that way).
The South was coming up with its own answer: In the good old days when everyone had wanted slavery to die out, North and South had agreed to pass a ban on further importation of African slaves; all future slaves would be the children of existing slaves. Now, with slavery regarded as a positive good rather than an evil to be tolerated, plantation owners wanted to re-start the importation of slaves. And there were plenty of vile sailors willing to do their bidding. Some slipped through the (obviously quite loose) blockade intended to prevent this. Some were caught by the American navy. But when brought to trial in the South, juries refused to convict them even when the slavers were clearly guilty of atrocities (Nevins1857, pp. 433-437). (There was also agitation to make the trade legal; it's hard to say which was more disgusting. But, of course, both inflamed anti-slavery sentiment in the North.)
President Buchanan also promoted an attempt to annex Cuba -- something Spain would never voluntarily allow; it was just another irritant to northern anti-slavery forces (since Cuba was already slave territory and would strengthen pro-slavery forces (Nevins1857, pp. 448-450).
And then came 1860, and its presidential election. Douglas was the great issue. He was too powerful to ignore and too hated to be generally acceptable. It showed in the run-up to the 1860 presidential conventions: Douglas was the only true candidate on the Democratic side (Catton-Coming, p. 6; Nevins1859, p. 209, notes that various anti-Douglas politicians supported vice president Breckinridge, or secretary Guthrie, or Senator Hunter, or even Andrew Johnson. Several of these men, ironically, would stay with the Union).
Even had they stayed united, the Democrats had other problems, as the election of 1856 had shown. It had looked like a blowout in the electoral college -- President Buchanan had earned 174 of 296 electoral votes, or 59%. But a glance at the actual results (see e.g. p. U-59 of the Hammond Atlas) shows a different picture: There had been three candidates: Buchanan, the Democrat; Fremont, the Republican; and Fillmore, the Know-Nothing (the Know-Nothings were technically called the American party. Which actually translated as the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic party). Buchanan had won only 45% of the popular vote (only 41% in the north, according to McPherson, p. 162), with Fremont taking 33% and Fillmore 22%. It was southern electoral votes which had put Buchanan in office, and Southerners, as it proved, would make sure Buchanan knew he owed them.
And the Republican party in 1856 was brand-new and had little national organization; only a few states had a significant apparatus. It had clearly grown stronger in the years since 1856, when a battle over the house speakership had forced its congressional delegation to cooperate (McPherson, p. 144).
Plus the election was followed by the Panic of 1857, which shattered the economy; the after-effects were still being felt in 1860. It was hardly Buchanan's fault -- Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 399, blame it mostly on a decline in demand for American products after the end of the Crimean War -- but of course Presidents and their party are always blamed for the state of the economy.
There was every expectation Republicans would improve their showing in 1860 (which incidentally pretty well ruined the idea of a split Democratic ticket: If no candidate won the electoral vote, resulting in the election going to the House of Representatives, the House would very likely elect the Republican. Indeed, Douglas himself declared that he would not allow such an outcome: "before it shall go into the House, I will throw it to Lincoln" -- CattonRoads, p. 232; Nevins1859, p. 285).
Then, too, there was the distribution of votes in 1856. Fremont has won New York, all of New England, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Only five free states -- California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (which was Buchanan's home state) -- had gone for Buchanan. Already it was a sectional contest: Buchanan versus the Republican candidate Fremont in the north and against the Know-Nothing Fillmore in the south (McPherson, p. 157). The Democrats won only by taking all of the South and a little in the North. If they lost ground in either section, they were doomed.
And the electoral balance continued to tilt northward. Two states (Oregon and Minnesota) had joined the Union since 1856; the latter was almost certain to go Republican, and they had at least a chance for the former. In 1860, if the Republicans could hold the states they had won in 1856, win the two new states, and take Pennsylvania plus any one of the other Democratic states, they would have at least 152 out of 303 electoral votes and would elect a President. The Democrats, to win, had to somehow to come up with a candidate who would run strong in the Northeast or Midwest. Problem was, there were no Democrats, except Douglas, who seemed likely to run strong there (Catton-Coming, p. 9).
It's a situation really quite reminiscent of the early twenty-first century: Two parties dominated by extremists. The Democrats still had a chance -- a very good chance -- if they could keep their party united and their voters in line.
But who could they nominate? The incumbent, James Buchanan, had been nominated in 1856 mostly because he had been an ambassador and so was not burdened with baggage about Kansas (Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 398). But by 1860 he was obviously no longer free of that taint -- and was so worn and worthless that not even the Democrats seriously considered re-nominating him.
The leading man in the party was Senator Douglas, the man who had beaten Abraham Lincoln in that 1858 Illinois Senate Race. But -- Douglas had (rather gratuitiously) created the infamous Kansas/Nebraska conflict. And, to win that 1858 election, he had supported the doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty" (in simplest terms, that the local [white male] residents always decide about Slavery), and added the "Freeport Doctrine" (not a law, simply an opinion: That locals would always end up making the decision about slavery, because only locals were in a position to enforce the law. If they didn't like a law, it would be ignored).
The centrist who would be easiest to elect nationally was almost impossible for the reactionary Democrats to stomach.
Douglas faced other handicaps. He had, in 1856, stepped aside to open the door for Buchanan's candidacy, at significant financial cost to himself (Nevins1847, p. 175), but gratitude is rare in politics. The Buchanan administration hated him, and they dominated controlled several state delegations that might otherwise have gone for Douglas at least in part (Nevins1859, p. 211). The convention was held in Charleston -- a decision made four years earlier, when Democrats had seemed likely to dominate for years; this was before Dred Scott and John Brown. But Charleston was probably the most reactionary, anti-Douglas city in the country (Catton-Roads, p. 201)
The Democrats were supposed to nominate their candidate first; they were to meet in Charleston at the end of April 1860. But "[m]ost southern Democrats went to Charleston with one overriding goal: to destroy Douglas" (McPherson, p. 213). The southerners, according to Catton-Coming, p. 11, were clear: "There was going to be a showdown; once an for all the South would find out whether Northern Democrats would stand squarely with the South on true Constitutional principles [i.e. making people accept slavery whether they wanted it or not]. Both platform and candidate would have to be explicit; 'there must be no Douglas dodges -- no double constructions -- no janus-faced lyring resolutions -- no double-tongued and doubly damned trifling with the people.'" It was an attitude which hardly encouraged compromise.
The Southerners at least made this brutally clear, offering this plarform language: "Resolved... First, that Congress has no power to abolish slavery in the Territories. Second, that the Territorial Legislature has no power to abolish slavery in any Territory, nor to prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any power to exclude slavery therefrom, nor any right to destroy or impair the right of property in slaves by any legislation whatever" (Catton-Coming, p. 30; Nevins1859, p. 214, comments that, by the day before the platform was due, "everyone agreed that the platform committee must bring forward either a subterfuge or a bombshell")
Their choice was the bombshell. The platform committee had been stacked with anti-Douglas delegates, determined to produce a platform he couldn't accept (Nevins1859, p. 213; Catton-Roads, p. 203), and a majority of the committee adopted the southern position, with a vocal minority producing a more moderate document (Nevins1859, pp. 214-215). When the southern version of the platform was brought up, the Northern Democrats in effect said, "We've been suffering because of you for years, and now you want *this*?" (Catton-Coming, p. 32). The result was pandemonium, halted only be adjourning the day's session (Catton-Coming, p. 33; Nevins1859, p. 217).
When the delegates finally came back together, they rejected the proposed slavery-or-else language 165 to 138 (Catton-Coming, p. 34). This was no surprise; there were more northern than southern delegates. But the southerners were ready -- or had backed themselves into a corner. The delegations from the cotton states walked out (Catton-Coming, p. 34). Formally, the southern states were still part of the U.S. But they had, for practical purposes, already seceeded. According to Catton-Roads, p. 204, they were not committed to seccession; their goal was simply to get rid of Douglas. If he were gone, they were willing to come back on more moderate terms. But the Douglas supporters, thinking only a few delegates would withdraw, refused to give in at this time.
The seceeders totalled only about fifty delegates (Catton-Coming, 36). The convention tried to continue. But, it was ruled, any resolution must get a majority (for some sorts of motions, a two-thirds majority) of all delegates, including those who had walked out (Catton-Coming, p. 36). It wasn't going to happen. There were 303 total delegates, of whom 253 (give or take a few) were still in the convention. 202 were needed to nominate a candidate -- 80% of those still present.
Six candidates were nominated: Douglas; former treasury secretary James Guthrie; Senator R.M.T. Hunter; Daniel S. Dickinson; Andrew Johnson; and Joseph Lane (Nevins1859, p. 222). Douglas on the first ballot earned 145.5. His best total was 152.5, and that only briefly. Thus he barely reached even 50% of total delegates, and never came close to two-thirds. But no other candidate was even close to him; on the first ballot, Hunter had 42, Guthrie 36 and a half, and the others less.
Nor could anti-Douglas forces come together; the leading alternative, Guthrie, peaked at 64 and a half. After nearly sixty ballots, the convention gave up (Catton-Coming, pp. 37, 39). There would be no nomination at this time. It was decided to reconvene six weeks later (Catton-Coming, p. 39).
The Republicans, whose convention followed, were thrilled. Nevins1859 reports that the convention chairman's gavel was "made of oak from Commodore Perry's flagship at the Battle of Lake Erie" (for background on which, see the notes to "James Bird" [Laws A5]). The chairman, noting this, declared, "All the auguries are that we shall meet the enemy and they shall be ours."
It seemed pretty clear a Republican could win the Presidency -- as long as they convention produced a candidate who didn't alienate any segment of the North. The same arithmetic that said they needed to add only Pennsylvania plus one other state to their 1856 tally in order to win the presidency also meant that they could not spare many northern states -- e.g. the loss of New York would effectively doom them (Catton-Roads, p. 219). So they had to pick a candidate who wouldn't alienate any of their potential supporters.
(How sectional were the Republicans? Apart from what Nevins1859, p. 251, calls a "flagrantly bogus" Texas delegation, only five slave states -- Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Virginia -- were even represented at their convention; Catton-Coming, p. 51. Note that four of the five would stay in the Union, and the fifth, Virginia, would have West Virginia secede when the rest of the state went South. There were no representatives of the cotton-growing areas at all. And the only one of those five states they had any hope of winning was Missouri, and that only because of Saint Louis.)
So the Republicans gathered, in effect, to seek a dark horse who didn't have any record for people to run against. And they were meeting in Chicago, Illinois. William H. Seward was their leading man, but he had spoken of the "Irrepressible Conflict," and he was just a little too prominent. The largest block in the Republican convention supported him. The rest, almost to a man, were "anyone but Seward" types. On the first ballot, Seward had 173.5 votes (out of 233 needed to nominate), favorite son Lincoln 102, and there were rather more than a hundred scattered votes.
The Lincoln team had worked hard. They were everyone's second choice. On the second ballot, it was Seward 184.5, Lincoln 181. The third ballot saw Lincoln at 231.5, and several delegates then changed their votes and Lincoln was over the top. (Catton-Coming, p. 63).
Then it was the Democratic turn to try again. And fail again. They met in Baltimore in mid-June -- and found themselves in a fight over credentials; there were now multiple delegations (pro- and anti-Douglas) from some of the states (Catton-Coming, pp. 69-74). Douglas himself had stated in writing that he woul withdraw from the race if it would help (Nevis1859, p. 270). His followers never even revealed the letters, because they saw no signs that the Southern delegates would compromise.
Once again there was a walkout. The rump, naturally, nominated Douglas -- but of course many Democrats did not consider him "their" candidate. Indeed, right there in Baltimore, supported by a meeting in Richmond, the seceders nominated Buchanan's vice president John C. Breckinridge, and he was nominated on the first ballot among those in this small meeting (Catton-Coming, p. 77 -- a rather amazing outcome for this conservative bunch, since Breckinridge was not yet forty). The Democratic party was split, just as the Whigs had two elections earlier. It would be oversimplified to say that Douglas was the northern Democrat and Breckinridge the Southern (as the election proved, Douglas earned votes everywhere) -- but still, there were two Democratic candidates, and that was the general feeling (though Breckinrige, unlike most of his followers, was not committed to secession if he lost -- he was, after all, the vice president!). And, with the situation so messy, a fourth candidate, John Bell, was thrown into the game.
Bell was a last-minute draft, called in in response to the Democratic debacle. But so severe was the train wreck that he was technically was the first candidate nominated. On May 9, after the Democratic failure in Charleston but before the Republicans met in Chicago, a group of (mostly) doddering elders (McPherson, p. 221, reports that "few... were under sixty years of age) representing 24 states met in Baltimore with the express purpose of preserving the Union.
Their leading light was Kentuckian John J. Crittenden, who would later offer the "Crittenden Compromise" (and who had sons who were generals on both sides in the war). But he took himself out of the running on the grounds that he was too old. That left Bell and Texas's Sam Houston as the only significant contenders. Bell earned some two-thirds of the votes (Nevins-1859, pp. 161-162).
Calling themselves the "Constitutional Union" party, they nominated Edward Everett as Bell's running mate, passed a platform standing for Union, the Constitution, enforcement of laws (plus, presumably, motherhood and apple pie), refusing even to mention the word "Slavery" (Catton-Coming, pp. 47-48) -- though Bell himself was a slaveholder (McPherson, p. 221).
Bell had had a distinguished career -- Speaker of the House in 1834, Secretary of War under Harrison, many years in the Senate. An independent thinker, he had opposed the pro-Slavery extremists on many occasions, so he could be called a genuine moderate (Nevins1859, pp. 272-273). He would even have praise for Lincoln, saying that the congressman from Illinois had impressed him (Nevins1859, p. 275)
Distinguished or not, balanced or not, Bell's nomination was a forlorn attempt to find middle ground where there was none. And even though it happened before the Democrats finally split, it was largely in response to the Democratic disaster. (So most of the sources, anyway, though they also represented an attempt by the several dying parties to revive; RandallDonald, p. 131, considers them to be the last gasp of the Know-Nothings. Catton-Roads, p. 230, agrees in part, calling the party "Conservative in tone, largely old-line Whig and displaced Know-Nothing in composition, staffed principally by respectable, elderly citizens whose only formula for solving the sectional problem was to stop talking about it." McPherson, p. 221, considers it to be a remnant of the Whigs. Nevins1859, like Catton, thinks it included both Whigs and Know-Nothings; p. 161.)
In practice, not even the Constitutional Unionists could avoid the slavery issue; apparently a number of their supports in the south promised a slave code for the territories. That cost them whatever support they might have had in the North. They ended up winning only 3% of the vote in northern states (McPherson, p. 222).
The election which followed was hardly a legitimate example of taking the issues to the voters. Of the four candidates, only Douglas really went out and campaigned (Catton-Coming, p. 100). Bell was less a candidate than a platform which people could accept or reject; his supporters' primary campaign technique was to ring bells (Catton-Roads, p. 231).
Lincoln was the quietest of all, staying at home and explicitly refusing to make campaign statements on the grouns that his opinions were well-known (Nevins1859, pp. 277-278. Doesn't that sort of campaign sound heavenly today?). The Republican organizantion did produce a campaign newsletter, The Railsplitter, but it did little except print falsehoods about Douglas (Catton-Coming, p. 92). What little the voters knew (apart from those who read the many speeches Lincoln had given earlier, and which were the basis for his statement that his views were known) came from parades (staged by Republican "Wide Awakes" and Douglasite "Minutemen"; Catton-Roads, p. 231) and word of mouth and songs such as this one and the much more negative "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A."
The Bell campaign was the weakest in this department; as Nevins1859, p. 281, comments, "The conservative businessmen and planters who ought to have toiled amain for Bell were just the most prone to indifference and apathy. They would vote, but they would not take off their coats and go to work." Plus, of course, such well-known and venerable men as Bell and Everett had long "paper trails," and opponents could almost always dig up something to make them appear "unsound" on some issue or another.
Breckinridge to a large extent relied upon the Democratic machinery governened by the White House; president Buchanan hated Douglas, and so gave all possible aid to Breckinridge (Nevins1859, p. 284).
Indeed, the administration contributed greatly to the debacle which followed. President Buchanan's hate of Douglas, combined with a pro-southern attitude and a fatal weakness (he is regarded by many historians as the worst president in American history. And, yes, liberal folkies, that includes George W. Bush in the calculations) meant that he did absolutely nothing to try to control the nation's divisions or to try to bring together the anti-Lincoln forces (Nevins1859, pp. 289-290).
We should perhaps not blame Buchanan too much; Nevins1847, pp. 186-187, notes that "For twenty-five years after Jackson left the White House, no man of high abilities entered it. What was more, the country knew that no man of high abilities occupied it." The parties did not want great men; they were bound to alienate one or another faction. Polk, who served from 1845 to 1849, was at least forceful, but Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) was too inexperienced and died too soon; Millard Fillmore (1850-1853) was a non-entity, Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) quite literally a pretty face, and Buchanan (1857-1861) got the job as the only Democrat who didn't have a track record on Kansas!
Nevins1847, pp. 188, sums up the situation this way: "With a clumsily managed, hopelessly divided Congress and a series of weak chief magistrates, the country watched the national crisis grow to a point where evenstrong leadership could not control it. In 1860 all three parties selected strong men. Douglas, Breckinridge, and Lincoln were alike leaders of intellectual power and stalwart character. At last the country was certain of a President of statesmanlike parts -- but it was too late."
There were side issues: excessive corruption in the Buchanan administration, Pacific railroads, the need for a Homested Act, tariffs (Nevins1859, p. 301, 304-305). The Republicans, stung by Democratic charges that they were in favor of Black equality, used these issues in some areas. (To show the tenor of the times -- there was a ballot initiative in New York at this time to give Blacks the vote. New York voted 54% for Lincoln -- but only 37% of the citizens of the state supported the ballot proposal; McPherson, p. 225.) But in the South in particular, the issue was slavery. And, indeed, the Republicans had made it clear that it would be; at the Chicago convention, when someone had nominated David Wilmot (of the Wilmot Proviso, banning slavery in the territories) to be temporary chairman, the proposal was greeted by "a tempest of applause" (Nevins1859, p. 251).
Not even the presence of an official (but extremely minor) Abolitionist candidate, Gerrit Smith, could cover up the fact that Republicans were the party of controlling slavery (just as Breckinridge was the candidate of appeasing the South). Nor did the false rumors of slave revolts change anything (Nevins1847, p. 307) -- after all, no one in the South intended to vote for Lincoln anyway!
All four candidates, ironically, seem to have thought that they were the only one who could save the Union. Breckinridge wanted to save it by giving in to the South. Bell wanted to save it by pretending there was no problem. And the Republicans believed in standing firm -- in effect, telling the South that they had cried wolf too many times.
That was indeed the South's problem; they *had* cried seccession every election since 1848 (Catton-Coming, pp. 96-97), and the Republicans thought it was just noise. But, in fact, every previous cry for seccession had won some sort of compromise. Now, compromises there were none. The forces opposed to the Republicans couldn't even compromise on a candidate; Catton-Roads, p. 231 and Nevins1859, pp. 283-285 report that there were a few abortive attempts to combine the Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas tickets, but the Douglas camp insisted (almost certainly correctly) that only he could win anything in the North, so nothing came of that. And, as noted above, Douglas was unequivocally opposed to having the election settled in the House.
Douglas -- alone among the candidates -- actually wanted to address the issues. (No wonder he didn't win. In addition, he found it very difficult to raise funds, crimping his campaign activities; Nevins1859, p. 292.) He knew the Southerners were serious; he just felt they were dead wrong -- and told them so to their faces: The election of Lincoln was not grounds for secession, and if they did seceed, he declared, "it is the duty of the President of the United States and all others in authority under him to enforce the laws of the United States.... In other words, I think the President of the United States... should treat all attempts to break up the Union by resistance to its laws as Old Hickory treated the Nullifiers in 1832" (Nevins1859, p. 294).
Elections at this time were conducted over an extended period; Pennsylvania and Indiana voted before the rest of the North. When Pennsylvania went Republican, a number of papers in other states changed their attitudes, turning from Douglas to Lincoln or, in a few cases, Breckinridge (Nevins1859, p. 311). Douglas declared, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save the Union. I will go south" (Nevins1859, p. 295).
Douglas was dead right. There had been four-way elections before, in 1824, 1832, and 1836 (in 1836, in fact, five different candidates won states. 1832 and 1836 were cases of parties in effect nominating local candidates, but 1824 had four national candidates). But none was like this: Those had been about the person the public wanted as a leader. This was about the very nature of the United States, with each candidate standing for something very different. The bottom line of the 1860 election was straightforward:
* Lincoln: 40% of the popular vote, 180 electoral votes (Lincoln won California, Oregon, Minnesota, Iowa, plus all states north of the Ohio River except New Jersey, where he won four of seven electoral votes)
* Douglas: 29%, 12 electoral votes (9 from Missouri, 3 from New Jersey)
* Breckinridge, 18%, 72 electoral votes (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas)
* Bell, 13%, 39 electoral votes (Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, which at that time still included West Virginia)
The actual results weren't nearly as simple as the above would imply. Lincoln wasn't even a serious candidate in the southern states (Nevins1859, p. 312; Foote, p. 34, says that he earned no votes at all in five states; RandallDonald, p. 133, says he had no votes in ten of them. The footnote on that page shows that there is some uncertainty about the vote totals; McPherson, p. 223, says simply that the Republicans were not on the ballot in ten states. In the handful of slave states where Lincoln was on the ballot, they earned only 4% of the vote,with most of those from Saint Louis). Breckinridge had hardly more support in the northwest (e.g.he combined to only about 4500 votes in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa combined; Nevins1859, p. 313), though in total about a quarter of his votes came from free states (Catton-Coming, p. 113).
A look at the map in McPherson, p. 236, reveals an even more complicated situation. It shows the winners of the popular vote county-by-county. Only eight states had the same winner in every county: Connecticut, Maine (probably), Massachussetts New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont went for Lincoln, and Delaware and South Carolina went for Breckinridge (the latter meaning nothing, since onservative South Carolina didn't even conduct a popular vote in this period). The other states were split -- basically between Lincoln and Douglas in northern states, and between Bell and Breckinrige in the south, but several states divided three ways: In California and Oregon, various counties went for Lincoln, Douglas, and Breckinridge (the Breckinridge vote in the western states was just large enough to deny Douglas a win there); in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia we see different parts supporting Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas.
Missouri takes the prize. The state as a whole went for Douglas, but in terms of territory it was almost a perfect three-way split between Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas, with Lincoln actually winning Saint Louis and one other county. (Missouri had earlier been the first Slave state to elect a Repubican representative; Nevins1859, p. 300. He would be very lonely.)
Looking at sectional totals, Lincoln won 54% of the votie in the North, while in the South (not counting the border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia), Breckinridge won 45% of the vote and Bell 39% (MacPherson, p. 232) -- an interesting statistic, because it means that even in the South, the majority was still in favor of the Union. But the pro-Union group was a small majority, fragile and easily swayed. And in the deep South, Breckinridge had absolute majorities in most cases, though not in Georgia and Lousiana (Catton-Roads, p. 245).
Sliced one more way: Lincoln won more than 60% of the vote, and all but about two dozen counties, north of the 41st parallel (McPherson, p. 232) -- in other words, all points from a line passing south of Chicago, north of Pittsburg and Philadelphia, and just northof New York City. From that line to the Ohio River was won by Douglas (including, ironically, even Lincon's home county -- CattonComing, p. 110). Bell won from the Ohio River to roughly a line from Memphis, Tennessee to Norfolk, Virginia. And Breckinridge won south of the Memphis-Norfolk line. The United States had had elections divided by sectional interests before, and would have them again (just look at the 2004 electoral map) -- but never such a tiger-stripe based almost solely on north-south geography. It was, indeed, almost a tiger-scratch, ripping the nation apart.
To put that level of complication in another sort of a perspective: this was an election that could have had at least three different winners based on voting method. Lincoln won a plurality of the vote. He also won the Roman voting system vote (a.k.a. the Electoral College: Voting goes by tribes/states, with the winner of voting *within* the tribe earning all the tribe's votes). But if the current notion of Instant Runoff Voting had been in place, Douglas would probably have won. And if the other primary ranked voting method (assigned points, which is the voting method used by the Mathematical Association of America) had been used, my guess is that Bell would have won.
Some Democrats had hoped that, somehow, the three non-Lincoln candidates could combine to win an electoral majority, and a compromise could be worked out in the House. As it turned out, if Lincoln won a plurality in a state, he almost always won a majority; of the states he won, there were only three (California, Oregon, and New Jersey) where he did not win more votes than Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas combined. (MacPherson, p. 232) The states he won outright had a total of 169 electoral votes, or 17 more than a majority. Nevins1859, p. 312, notes, "Had Douglas been nominated at Charleston, Lincoln might well -- in view of the different trend which the campaign would have taken -- have lost." But Charleston had not nominated Douglas.
Two things were clear. One was that the country opposed the Southern doctrine that Slavery could be imposed on territories even if they didn't want it. Two-thirds of the population had voted either for Lincoln, who expressly opposed Slavery in the territories, or Douglas, who would allow its implicit limitation (Nevins1859, p. 316)
The other point was even clearer: Lincoln, despite the split in the vote, had won the election. And, as a special extra prize, secession and civil war.
The song is mostly accurate in its details about Lincoln's life -- e.g. the lines "They'll find what by felling and mauling, Our railmaker statesman can do" is reminiscent of Lincoln's own words: "I am not ashamed to confess that twenty five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flat-boat..." (McPherson, p. 28). Though this omits the fact that Lincoln, since then, had worked almost exclusively as a lawyer.
The song calls Lincoln "The pride of the Suckers so lucky." "Suckers" were inhabitants of Illinois. He was hardly their "pride," though, considering that he had won only one term in congress, and lost the 1858 Senate race. In 1860, Illinois hardly looked like the "Land of Lincoln." On the evidence, it was the "Land of Douglas." Until that November. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: San167

Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A.


DESCRIPTION: "There's an old plow 'hoss' whose name is 'Dug,' Doo-dah, doo-dah, He's short and thick, a regular plug... We're bound to work all night... I'll bet my money on the 'Lincoln Hoss,' Who bets on Stephen A.?" Douglas's political problems are parodied
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: political parody nonballad animal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1847 - Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) of Illinois elected Senator
1854 - In response to the Kansas slavery question, Douglas proposes "popular sovereignty"
1858 - Abraham Lincoln runs for Senator from Illinois against Douglas. Douglas wins the election, but is forced to declare moderate positions that cause extremists on both sides of the slavery question to oppose him.
1860 - A four-way race pits Lincoln (Republican) against Douglas, the southern Democrat Breckinridge, and the "Constitutional Unionist" John Bell. In a bitter campaign over slavery, Douglas is lampooned by both sides. Lincoln earns 40% of the vote and is elected President; Douglas earns 29%
1861 - Douglas dies after strenuous attempts to save the Union and, failing that, to support Lincoln's positions
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 42-43, "'Lincoln Hoss' and Stephen A." (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Camptown Races" (tune)
cf. "Lincoln and Liberty" (subject)
NOTES: In addition to having been a moderate on slavery issues, Stephen A. Douglas was a short, stout man. Hence this vicious satire on a man who, though he was not a strong opponent of slavery, was in every other way an honest and generous politician. - RBW
Oh, I don't know about that. James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom offers evidence that Douglas took pro-slavery positions to win the support of southern politicians for his attempts to obtain railroad concessions. His record, at least as detailed in that book, is considerably less than honorable. - PJS
Paul is right; McPherson, pp. 121-122, reports that Douglas was "a large investor in Chicago real estate" who "had enhanced the value of his property by securing a federal land grant for a railroad from that city to Mobile. Perhaps hopingto repeat the scenario from Chicago to San Francisco, Douglas and [William A.] Richardson in 1853 reported bills to organize Nebraska territory." But even McPherson admits his view is controversial.
Nevins1852, pp. 9, admits that he was a favorite of "an industrious bevy of lobbyists and privilege-hunters" and that he "had made a good deal of money in real estate [and] was something of a Western land speculator himself."
Great care must be taken not to see the men of 1860 in the light of today. If Douglas were alive today, we would consider him utterly vile -- it should be remembered that Douglas did not wish to destroy slavery. But it was an attitude of the time. Similarly, that was the era of the spoils system. Few people could make a career of politics, and elected officials weren't paid very well; naturally they tried to take advantage. Today, he would be in trouble with the Ethics Committee. But the rules were very different then -- and at least Douglas lived at a time when incumbents could be voted out of office!
In his defence, we note that Randall/Donald, p. 93, says that "His forthrightness, vigor, and aggressiveness, his force as a debater and talent as a political strategist, had made a deep impression; and the breadth of his natinal vision had given him a peculiar distinction in an age when the sectionalism of many of the nation's leaders was all too evident."
The real complaint against Douglas is that he destroyed the Compromise of 1850. Yes, he did, and he did it over Kansas. But the Compromise was doomed anyway. If it hadn't been for Kansas, it would have been Dred Scott, or the Wilmot Proviso (which hadn't been settled, merely buried) or the Mormons, or Cuba, or something; the Whig party, we must remember, was *already* dying over the Slavery issue in 1852, before the first drop of blood was shed in Kansas. And Douglas notably opposed the fraudulent Lecompton constitution for Kansas.
The majority of historians I've consulted consider Douglas as basically honest, though he certainly resorted to a lot of politicians' tricks. And when it came down to the breach during the election of 1860, Douglas -- and only Douglas -- went all-out, campaigning to save the Union. In the process, he did such harm to his health that he died soon afterward.
According to Catton, p. 233, after it became clear that the parties were split in 1860, and that diaster loomed, it was Douglas, and Douglas alone, who gave his all to try to prevent the war: "The final months of his life were a blaze of glory for the Little Giant, and the greatness that had always hovered above his dogged trail descended fully upon him at the last. Of all the varied courses pursued by America's leaders in the loud, uneasy campaign of 1860, his alone was that of the statesman. Not only grasping but squarely confronting the probably course of events that would follow a Republican victory, Douglas made the Union his sole platform.
"His purpose was simply to remind the electorate, and especially the Democrats, that defeat at the polls in a fair election was no valid cause for destroying the government.... Douglas even carried his message to the deep South, where it took real courage to glorify the Union and repudiate secession at this late date. Abuse, rotten eggs, and detailed threats of physical force attended his swing through the cotton states...."
Nevins1859, p. 293, says that Douglas even feared a sort of sourthern coup d'etat if southern Democratic candidate and sitting vice president Breckinridge won the border states, and that he campaigned heavily there to prevent it. The coup was probably just a daydream, but Douglas accomplished his ends, more or less: He took Missourri, John Bell won Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and Breckinridge's margin in Maryland was too small to allow any such games.
Elections at this time were conducted over an extended period; Pennsylvania and Indiana voted before the rest of the North. When Pennsylvania went Republican, Douglas declared, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save the Union. I will go south" (Nevins1859, p. 295).
Another measure of Douglas's character is that Alexander Stephens, the future Confederate Vice President who was also perhaps the most realistic man in the South, and one who knew Douglas, openly declared that he admired the man (Nevins1859, p. 296).
Nevins1862 p. 191, makes another very important point: Douglas, had he lived, would have been a War Democrat during the Civil War -- and, being as strong as he was, could probably have held the War Democrats together. With him dead, the War Democrats had no leader, and Peace Democrats dominated the party. They proved simply obstructionist, and the war was waged almost entirely by Republicans. As a result, the Democrats were very badly discredited by the War -- and reconstruction was run entirely by the Radical Republicans, who wanted vengeance and utterly botched the job. In the long run, they definitely weakened the country, and hurt rather than helped the former slaves. Douglas was missed, though few realized it at the time.
I guess I would sum it up this way: No man in the United States loved the Union more than Douglas. Was this a crime? Lincoln fought the Civil War to preserve the Union. The difference between the two is that Douglas loved the Union as it was; Lincoln loved it as it should have been. Certainly Lincoln's was a better Union -- but not an entirely good one. Lincoln, for instance, had no use at all for independent women; when Jesse Benton Fremont visited him in the White House, he brushed her off as a "female politician" (Nevins1861, p.338). Lincoln had reason to be irritated with her, but the remark shows that he too had a lot to learn. Lincoln was more right than Douglas on one specific issue. It was enough to make him President. But it doesn't prove that he was actually a much greater man.
Really, Douglas is one of the hardest characters in American history to grasp. The disagreement with Paul rather shows the point: Could Douglas be great without being good? He made things happen, but sometimes it almost seemed as if he was stirring things up just to see if he could enjoy the chaos. On the whole, he reminds me more of Theodore Roosevelt than almost any other American politician. (Which, I am sure, will draw more protests. But, of course, opinions of TR were also very mixed.)
For more background on the Lincoln/Douglas situation, see the notes to "Lincoln and Liberty." - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: SRW042

Lincolnshire Poacher, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer served as apprentice for seven years, then took to poaching, "For tis my delight of a shining night in a season of the year." The poachers go out hunting, but are spotted by a gamekeeper; they subdue him and continue to make merry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: poaching work apprentice fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy 258, "The Northamptonshire Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan, pp. 290-291, "The Poacher" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 203, "Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text)
DT, LINCPOCH*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #216, "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text)
ST K259 (Full)
Roud #299
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chandler's Wife" (tune)
cf. "The Nottinghamshire Poacher" (theme)
NOTES: Kennedy remarks, "Although Lincolnshire, Somerset and Leicestershire occur as the location for this most 'fam-e-rous' of poaching songs, more than half the versions from genuine sources favour Northamptonshire." This appears, from Kennedy's bibliography, to be true, but the oldest versions, and those usually sung, are associated with Lincolnshire, so that is the title I adopted. - RBW
File: K259

Lindy Lowe


DESCRIPTION: "Come smilin' Lindy Lowe, de pootiest gal I know, On de finest boat dat ever float, in de Ohio, de Mississippi or de Ohio." Verses have no story at all and only the second line ever changes, "Come smilin' Lindy Lowe, by de Gulf ob Mexico.." etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: worksong shanty
FOUND IN: Barbados
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow, pp. 201-202, "Lindy Lowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9170
NOTES: [Harlow's] notes give this as a Barbadian hand over hand shanty. - SL
File: Harl201

Linen Song, The


See Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron (File: ShH82)

Lingle Lingle Lang Tang (Our Cat's Dead)


DESCRIPTION: "Lingle, lingle, lang tang, Our cat's dead! What did she die with? With a sore head! All you that kent her, When she was alive, Come to her burial, Atween four and five."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 910 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: animal death burial
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1678, "Ting, Ting the Bell Rang" (1 text)
Greig #159, p. 2, ("Ting, tang, the bell rang: fa's noo deid?") (1 text)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 41, "(Lingle, lingle, lang tang)" (1 short text)
Roud #13025
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oor Cat's Deid"
NOTES: Roud lumps this with the Sam Henry piece "A Child's Lullaby" (indexed as "Oor Cat's Deid"). There is similarity in both form and subject matter -- but the lyrics are enough different that I decided to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MSNR041

Linkin' Owre the Lea


See I'm a Day too Young (File: GrD71311)

Linktem Blue (Reeling Song)


DESCRIPTION: "All along, all along, All along, all along, All along, all along, Linktem blue." "Linktem blue is a very fine song, All along, all along, All along, all along, All along, all along, Linktem blue." Reportedly used to count knots while weaving yarn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Brown, p. 34, "Reeling Song" (1 text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 19, (no title) (1 text)
ST FlBr034 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "Linktem Blue" (on MMacArthur01)
File: FlBr034

Linstead Market


DESCRIPTION: "He promised to meet me at Linstead Market, take me out to a show." The girl waits long, but there is no sign of Joe. At last a letter arrives, saying that he "just got married today." He promises to meet her the next day, though, and take her to the show
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: courting marriage infidelity
FOUND IN: Trinidad
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 335, "Linstead Market" (1 text)
File: FSWB335

Lint Pullin', The


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his early days as a lint puller. He is kind to the girls he works with, and makes sure they do well. One day, Mary Jane chooses to work with him; they prove the best. They go home together, and now will work together at marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work courting home marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H487, pp. 43-44, "The Lint Pullin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9299
File: HHH487

Linten Lowrin


See Rhynie (File: RcRhynie)

Linton Lowrie


DESCRIPTION: "I tint my heart ae morn in May When birdies sang on ilka tree... O, Linton Lowrie, Linton Lowrie, Aye sae fond ye trowed to be, I never wist sae bright a morn Sae dark a night would bring tae me." After wishing him back, she sets out to find him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H640, p. 291, "Linton Lowrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6888
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (tune)
NOTES: Not to be confused with "Linten Lowrin," filed in the index with "Rhynie." - RBW
File: HHH640

Lion and the Unicorn, The


DESCRIPTION: "The lion and the unicorn, Fighting for the crown, The lion beat the unicorn All around the town." Details of the battle, and of the beasts' reception, may follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1691 (according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: animal battle royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 304, "The lion and the unicorn" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #123, p. 103, "(The Lion and the Unicorn)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 39, "(The lion and the unicorn" (1 text)
NOTES: I've never heard this sung, but Lewis Carroll and other sources list it as a song, not a poem, so here it files.
The song definitely predates Lewis Carroll, appearing in several nursery rhyme anthologies, but I have been unable to determine exactly which, so I have to use Carroll as the earliest date.
Various theories revolve around this piece. Typical is the claim that it refers to the conflict between Scotland (whose arms featured a unicorn) and England (marked by lions). But both the Baring-Goulds and Martin Gardner in The Annotated Alice note that there was a traditional mythological rivalry between lion and unicorn over who would be the King of Beasts. Given that the lion is a carnivore and the unicorn presumably an herbivore (and how does it get its mouth to the ground with that thing on its head?), I suppose it's logical that the lion wins. - RBW
Opie-Oxford2: "MS inscription dated 1691 beside a woodcut of the royal arms with supporters in a copy of The Holy Bible, 1638 (Opie Collection), 'the unicorn & the lyon fiteing for the Crown and the lyon beat the unicorn Round About the town'" - BS
If the poem did arise in that period, one suspects it has to do with the quarrel between England and Scotland over the Covenant, Charles I, or Charles II, with Scotland wanting to retain its Stuart King (while putting some restraints on his behavior), whereas England was trying to get rid of the monarchy.
On the other hand, the Opies suggest that the original second verse referred to the lion beating the unicorn three times. This argues against the seventeenth century date. Contrary to Scottish folklore, the English won most of the battles with the Scots -- except in two periods: During the reign of Robert Bruce, when the Scots won Bannockburn and made many successful raids deep into England -- and during the reign of Charles I, when the Covenanters successfully defended their religion against Charles I's attempts to make them Episcopal. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BGMG123

Lion's Den, The


See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine


DESCRIPTION: When the young man comes to the girl's door, she confesses that she had once hastened to answer his call. But now he shows the signs of liquor; she warns him that "Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine." If he sobers up, she will reconsider
AUTHOR: George W. Young
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (unknown newspaper)
KEYWORDS: drink courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 341, "Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine" (1 text)
BrownIII 30, "The Lips That Touch Liquor Must Never Touch Mine" (2 texts, with the second perhaps a revised version of the Young original)
Roud #7812
File: R341

Lipto


DESCRIPTION: "Lipto, lipto, jine de ring, Lipto, lipto, dance an' sing; Dance an' sing an' laugh an' play, Fur dis is now a holiday. Turn aroun' an' roun' and roun'...." "Er holdin' uv dis golden crown, An' I choose my (gal/man) fur ter dance me down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 132, "Lipto" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring)" (lyrics)
NOTES: I have to suspect that "lipto" is a corruption of "tiptoe," but whether the confusion is the informant's or the collector's I can't tell.
I also suspect that this whole thing is a corruption of something, perhaps "Jingo Ring," but it's been very thoroughly corrupted. - RBW
File: ScaNF132

Lisburn Lass, The


DESCRIPTION: Henry loves a Lisburn Lass. Her parents' disapproval forces him to enlist for India. She offers to go with him. He says "All by my foes I am here cut down For loving a maiden in Lisburn town." He leaves her but promises to steal her if he returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Mary Anne Connelly on IRHardySons); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(530))
KEYWORDS: love army separation India father mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5694
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Connelly, "The Lisburn Lass" (on IRHardySons)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(530), "The Pride of Lisburn" ("You boys and girls where'er you be"), Haly (Cork), 19C

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Kilkee" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name) and references there
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(530) is the basis for the description.
Notes to IRHardySons: "Lisburn is in County Antrim, southwest of Belfast."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(530) includes these lines: "For to tell her name I don't intend For fear I might insult her friends But you all know her well, the truth I lay down, For her dwelling lies in Lisburn Town" - BS
File: RcLisLas

Lishen Brand


See Leesome Brand [Child 15] (File: C015)

Lisnagade


DESCRIPTION: The Ulster Protestants march to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne and meet an ambush at a fort at Lisnagade. There is shooting. The Catholic flag was inscribed "Hail Mary" but "my Lady Mary fell asleep, and so they ran away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (_The Patriotic Songster_, according to Zimmermann; Zimmermann believes it dates from "early 1790's")
KEYWORDS:
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1791 - "A group of 'Defenders', a secret Roman Catholic agrarian society, took up position in Fort Lisnagade to attack a group of 'Peep O' Day Boys' who were celebrating King William's [1691] victory at Boyne." (source: "Lisnagade" at the Musica site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann 93, "Lisnagade" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #13403
NOTES: "Lisnagade" refers to the white flag:
We had not march'd a mile or so when the white flag we espied,
With a branch of podereens on which they much relied,
And this inscription underneath -- Hail Mary! unto thee --
Deliver us from these Orange dogs, and then we will be free.
Zimmermann p. 43 fn. 42: "Previously to the green, the 'seditious' colour was the Jacobite white. This colour remained the symbol of the Catholic Defenders." - BS
File: Zimm093

Listen to the Mocking Bird


See Listen to the Mockingbird (File: RJ19110)

Listen to the Mockingbird


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his beloved Hallie, who is "Sleeping in the valley, And the mockingbird is singing where she lies." Now the song of the mockingbird makes him "Feel like one forsaken... Since my Hallie is no longer with me now."
AUTHOR: "Alice Hawthorne" (Septimus Winner) and Richard Milburn
EARLIEST DATE: 1854
KEYWORDS: death burial separation bird
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Dean, pp. 78-79,"Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 159, "Sweet Hally" (1 text)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 110-114, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 61-61, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 249, "Listen To The Mockingbird" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 333, "Listen to the Mocking Bird"
DT, MCKNBIRD
ST RJ19110 (Full)
Roud #8079
RECORDINGS:
Theron Hale & Daughters, "Listen To The Mocking Bird" (Victor V-40019, 1929)
Fiddlin' Red Herron, "Listen To The Mockingbird" (King 629, 1947)
Bela Lam and His Green County Singers, "Listen tothe Mocking Bird" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
W. MacBeth & Tom Collins, "Listen to the Mockingbird" (Vocalion 5282, c. 1929)
Morgan & Stanley, "Listen to the Mockingbird" (Columbia 1833, 1904) (Victor Monarch 4080, 1904)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & the Jr. Skillet Lickers, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (on DownYonder)

NOTES: Although now often used as an opportunity for fiddle players or other performers to produce strange sounds from their instruments, this piece was originally done "straight." After a few years of obscurity, the composer sold the copyright for a mere $5, only to see the song sell over a million copies.
Alice Hawthorne was a leading pseudonym of Septimus Winner; he also listed her as the author of "Whispering Hope." (The name was a tribute to his mother.) For some reason, Winner published such trivia as "Oh Where Oh Where Is My Little Dog Gone" under his own name.
The first edition of this piece gave a melodic credit to Richard Milbourne; this was dropped on later printings. It seems likely, however, that Milbourne did supply the tune; he was a young Negro errand-boy and beggar known as "Whistling Dick." Early in his career, Winner was willing to give credit to others; as he became more successful, he apparently wanted the praise for himself.
The song is reported to have been dedicated to Harriet Lane, the niece of president James Buchanan who was the White House hostess during that bachelor's presidency. (Buchanan was not yet President when the song was written, but Lane had already done duty as his social helper, so this is possible.) It is ironic to observe that Lane was almost an old maid, not getting married until 1866, when she was well into her thirties. - RBW
File: RJ19110

Little 'Dobe Casa, The


See The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)

Little Adobe Casa


See The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)

Little Ah Sid


DESCRIPTION: "Little Ah Sid was a Chinese kid, A neat little cuss, I declare...." One day, as Ah Sid is out playing, he spots a bee and, taking it for a butterfly, knocks it down and puts it in his pocket. It stings him; he remarks "Um bullifly velly dam hot!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: foreigner bug injury
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg, pp. 276-277, "Little Ah Sid" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Little Ah-Sid" (Conqueror 7887, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chinee Bumboatman" (style)
File: San276

Little Alice Summers


DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young parents, I'll sing to you a song Concerning Alice Summers Who was lost so long." Little Alice, not yet two, disappears in the cold. For long hours she is missing, and her family almost despairs. But her tracks are found
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Arkansas Charlie)
KEYWORDS: family children rescue
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 727, "Little Alice Summers" (1 text)
Roud #7391
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "Little Alice Summers" (Vocalion 5367, c. 1929)
File: R727

Little Annie Rooney


DESCRIPTION: "A winning way, a pleasant smile, Dressed so neat but quite in style... Has little Annie Rooney... She's my sweetheart, I'm her beau; Soon we'll marry, never to part, Little Annie Rooney is my sweetheart." The singer looks forward to life with Annie
AUTHOR: Michael Nolan
EARLIEST DATE: before 1885 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.28(8a/b) View 3 of 8)
KEYWORDS: love marriage home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 774, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text)
Geller-Famous, pp. 45-47, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 333-334, "Little Annie Rooney"
Roud #4822
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(8a/b) View 3 of 8, "Little Annie Rooney", R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Harding B 11(2154), Harding B 18(577), "Little Annie Rooney"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little Annie Roonie
NOTES: Michael Nolan was an obscure music hall performer; Annie Rooney is reported to have been his niece, and to have been three years old when this song was written.
According to James J. Geller, this song was a huge commercial success, but brought no compensation to Nolan, who swore off writing songs as a result. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(577) attributes music to George Le Brun. The 1889 sheet music was published in Boston by White-Smith; the American Memory LOC notes list George Le Brunn as the arranger [cover only, call number Music #572 no. 20 at Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University]. - BS
File: R774

Little Auplaine, The


See The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)

Little Ball of Yarn


See Ball of Yarn (File: EM089)

Little Beggar Boy, The


DESCRIPTION: The beggar boy's mother is gone and his father is a drunkard who beats him. He misses his mother and wishes to be buried by her. Last verse: "My coffin shall be black/Six white angels at the back/Two to watch, two to pray/Two to carry my soul away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Emily Baker)
KEYWORDS: poverty abuse death funeral begging nonballad father mother floatingverses playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacSeegTrav 122, "The Little Beggar Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BEGGRBOY*
Roud #6355
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go and Dig My Grave" (floating verses)
cf. "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I)" (floating verses)
cf. "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (lyrics)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "The Little Beggarman," an entirely separate song. The last verse is a floater, tacked on from elsewhere; MacColl & Seeger note that it's a children's game, found in Edinburgh. I've heard recordings of it from Americans as well. I use the keyword "playparty" for the final verse because we lack a keyword "game." - PJS
File: McCST122

Little Beggarman, The (Johnny Dhu)


DESCRIPTION: "I am a little beggarman, a-begging I have been, For three score years and more in this little isle of Green...." (Johnny Dhu) briefly narrates his life, including nights in barns and a "flaxy-haired girl's" attempt to court him. He sets out on his way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: rambling begging gypsy courting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy 345, "The Little Beggarman" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H751, pp. 50-51, "The Oul' Rigadoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-More 26, "The Beggarman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BEGGARDH*
Roud #900
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Doran et al, "The Little Beggarman" (on FSB3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Haired Boy" (tune)
cf. "Me Old Ragadoo" (tune, lyrics)
NOTES: See Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #172, pp. 447-448, "I Don't Give a Damn for Gaiging is the Best" [Scotto-Romani/Tinklers' Cant version from Maher (1972?)]. Coughlan also quotes an English text of "The Oul' Rigadoo" as performed at the Coleraine Musical Festival. - BS
File: K345

Little Benton


DESCRIPTION: "To little Benton I did fee, In Rhynie feein' fair," but it proves an unhappy agreement; he and Benton soon quarrel. The farmer tries to drive off the singer, who is determined to stay and earn every farthing. The singer warns others of Benton
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: farming money hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord, p. 238-239, "Little Benton" (1 text)
Roud #5580 and 5906
NOTES: Ord observes that "Benton" is Aberdeenshire dialect for "bantom," implying that it is a description of, rather than a name for, the unpleasant farmer. - RBW
File: Ord238

Little Bessie


DESCRIPTION: The little girl tells her mother that she is ill (with what sounds like heart disease). She reports that a voice called her, saying, "Come, be my child." The girl bids her mother not to grieve, then dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Recording, Buell Kazee)
KEYWORDS: death children mother religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 172-173, "Little Bessie" (1 text, the same as that in Abrahams/Foss; 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 132-134, "Little Bessie" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 122-123, "Little Bessie" (1 text, the same as that in McNeil-SFB2; 1 tune)
ST MN2172 (Partial)
Roud #4778
RECORDINGS:
Leroy Anderson, "Little Bessie" (Champion 45059, 1935)
Blue Sky Boys, "Little Bessie" (Bluebird B-8017, 1939)
Dixon Brothers, "Little Bessie" (Montgomery Ward M-7171, 1937)
Kelly Harrell, "I Heard Somebody Call My Name" (Victor 23747, 1929; on KHarrell02)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Little Bessie" (on Holcomb1, HolcombCD1)
Buell Kazee, "Little Bessie" (Brunswick 215, 1928)
Holland Puckett, "Little Bessie" (Gennett 6720, 1928/Supertone 9324, 1929)
Kid Smith [Walter Smith] & Family, "Little Bessie" (Victor 23576, 1931)
NOTES: McNeil reports that a song called "Little Bessie," credited to "someone named Keutchman," was published in 1870. No copies of this piece are known, however, so it cannot be determined if the two are the same.
Given how often this was recorded by old-time bands, and how rare it is in tradition, I have to suspect that Viola Cole (Foss's informant) learned it, at least indirectly, from a recording. - RBW
File: MN2172

Little Betty Pringle She Had a Pig


See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Little Betty Winkle She Had a Pig


See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Little Bird


DESCRIPTION: "Where are you going, little bird, little bird, Where are you going, little bird? I am going to the woods, sweet child, sweet child." What is in the woods? A tree. In the tree is a nest, in the nest, eggs, in the eggs, baby birds to sing "Praise the Lord"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: questions bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fuson, p. 89, "Little Bird" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 359-400, "The Tree in the Wood/Pretty Bird" (1 text)
ST Fus089 (Partial)
Roud #4281
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rattling Bog" (theme)
NOTES: Lumped by Scarborough with the Endless Circle/Tree in the Wood/Rattling Bog family. But the versions of this do not complete the circle, and add the religious motif. This may well have started from a fragment of the English song, but they're separate, sez I. - RBW
File: Fus089

Little Birdie


DESCRIPTION: "Little birdie, little birdie, Come and sing me your song. I've a short time for to be here And a long time to be gone." Often consists of floating verses, but concerns adultery: "Pretty woman... you made me love you, Now your husband has come."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: adultery bird love courting husband floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 676, "The Dark Hollow"" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune, with the "A" text perhaps somewhat mixed with "Dark Hollow")
Randolph/Cohen, pp. The Dark Hollow, "" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 676A)
BrownIII 255, "Kitty Kline" (2 text plus 4 fragments and 1 excerpt, which despite the title mostly file here; see Notes)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 187-188, "Little Birdie" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 397, "Little Birdie" (1 text)
DT, LILBIRDY
Roud #5742
RECORDINGS:
Willie Chapman, "Little Birdie" [instrumental] (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Coon Creek Girls, "Little Birdie" (Vocalion 04413, 1938)
Al Craver [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart], "Little Birdie" (Columbia 15044-D, 1925)
John Hammond, "Little Birdie" (Challenge 168 or 332 [one of these as "William Price"/Silvertone 5697, 1927; on BefBlues3)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Little Birdie" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
Robert Howell [pseud. for Holland Puckett], "Little Birdie" (Herwin 75563, 1927)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Little Birdie" (Montgomery Ward M-7127)
Wade Mainer & Zeke Morris, "Little Birdie" (Bluebird B-6840)
Wade Mainer, "Little Birdie" (King 1093, 1952)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Birdie" (on NLCR16)
Land Norris, "Little Birdie" (OKeh 45006, 1925)
Frank Proffitt, "Little Birdie" (on FProffitt01)
Sauceman Brothers, "Little Birdie" (Rich-R-Tone 457, n.d.)
Stanley Brothers, "Little Birdie" (Rich-R-Tone 1056, rec. 1952) (on FOTM)
Pete Steele, "Little Birdie" (AFS, 1938; on KMM) (on PSteele01)
Pete Seeger, "Little Birdie" (on PeteSeeger47)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "East Virginia (Dark Hollow)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Easy Rider" (theme)
cf. "Kitty Kline"
NOTES: No, not the producer of "Spirituals to Swing," nor his blues-singing son! - PJS
(I think the above is a reference to the recording by John Hammond. But it's all Urdu to me. - RBW)
Yes, it is such a reference. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren informs me that Charles Wolfe did some research on Hammond, learning that he cut only six sides. Wolfe was unable to trace his origins but suspects he came from northern Kentucky.
Very many of the versions in Brown contain references to "Kitty Kline (Clyde, etc.)," and the editors on that basis filed it under that title. But the versions are clearly what we know as "Little Birdie," sometimes mixed with references to Kitty Kline, and so I file them here. - RBW
File: R676

Little Birdie in the Tree


DESCRIPTION: "Little birdie in the tree, Singing a song to me, Singing about the roses, Singing about the tree; Little birdie in the tree, Singing a song for me."
AUTHOR: Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 146, "Little Birdie in the Tree" (1 text)
Roud #5259
NOTES: For more on Philip Paul Bliss, see the notes to "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning." - RBW
File: Br3146

Little Bit


DESCRIPTION: "Leddle bit-a Niggeh an' a great big toe, Meenie miny mo. Leddle bit-a Niggeh wid a great big fis', Jes' de size fo' his mammy to kiss. Leddle bit-a Niggeh wid big black eyes, Bright as de sun up in de skies...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love children nonballad lullaby
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 153, (no title) (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)" (lyrics)
File: ScNF153A

Little Bit of Heaven, A


DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever hear the story of how Ireland got its name?" A small piece of Heaven broke off and fell to earth; when an angel finds it, he proposes to leave it there because it fits so well. They proceed to make improvements such as adding shamrocks
AUTHOR: Words: J. Keirn Brennan / Music: Ernest R. Ball
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: Ireland talltale
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, pp. 6-7, "And They Called It Ireland" (1 text)
Roud #5495
NOTES: Ironically, although this song supplies an (obviously humorous) explanation of how Ireland came to be, it does not explain how it came to be called Ireland.
Dean does not seem to have known the first verse of the song, which is about leprechauns and their antics. It's no loss; other sources omit it as well. - RBW
File: Dean006

Little Bitty Baby


See Children Go Where I Send Thee (File: LoF254)

Little Black Bull, The


See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Little Black Mustache, The


See The Black Mustache (File: CW180A)

Little Black Train Is A-Comin'


DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Little black train is a-comin', Get all your business right... For the train may be here tonight." King Hezekiah is offered as an example. A young man lives a sinful life; when death comes, he is surprised and vainly begs for mercy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death Bible train
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 625-628, "Little Black Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 541, "The Little Black Train" (1 text)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 914-915, "Little Black Train Is A-Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 41, "(Little Black Train)" (partial text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 260-261, "The Little Black Train" (1 text)
ST BAF914 (Partial)
Roud #11594
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "The Little Black Train Is Coming" (Vocalion 5229, c. 1928)
Dock Boggs, "Little Black Train" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Carter Family, "The Little Black Train" (OKeh 03112, 1935; on CGospel1)
Rev. J. M. Gates, "Death's Black Train is Coming" (Columbia 14145-D,1926)
Harmon E. Helmick, "The Little Black Train" (Champion 16744, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Old World Ain't Going to Stand Much Longer" (subject)
NOTES: The story of Hezekiah's bout with sickness, God's threat, Hezekiah's repentance, and Isaiah's promise of fifteen additional years of life is told in 2 Kings 20:1-11 (repeated almost verbatim inIsaiah 38) and briefly summarized in 2 Chronicles 32:24-26.
The version in Brown accidentally replaces "Hezekiah" with "Ezekiel," but the former name is clearly correct. It tacks on the story of the Wise Fool, Luke 12:16-20. - RBW
File: BAF914

Little Blossom


DESCRIPTION: Lonely little (Blossom/Phoebe), left alone by her mother, sets out to find her father. She finds him in the saloon; when she interrupts him, he grabs a chair and attacks her with it. He comes to his senses, but the child is already dead
AUTHOR: (based on a poem by Martha J. Bidwell)
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: father drink murder children
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 311, "Little Blossom" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 260-263, "Little Blossom" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 311A)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 118-123, "Little Blossom (I), (II)" (2 texts)
DT, LTLBLSSM*
Roud #7788
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Little Blossom" (Conqueror 7886, 1931)
NOTES: Randolph notes, "Little girls in starched white dresses used to sing [this song] in front of the courthouse at election time." Almost makes modern political ads sound tolerable, doesn't it? - RBW
File: R311

Little Bo-peep


DESCRIPTION: Shepherdess Bo-peep can't find her sheep. When she finds them they are without their tails. One day she finds the tails hung on a tree to dry. She "tried what she could, as a shepherdess should, To tack again each to its lambkin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Monthly Literary Recreations, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale sheep shepherd injury dream
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1659, "Little Bo-Peep" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Opie-Oxford2 66, "Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #112, p. 93, "(Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep)"
cf. DT, MERRYLND
Roud #6487
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Simon Brodie" (theme: animal returns by itself, with its tail "behind")
NOTES: The Baring-Goulds note occurrences of the name "Bo-peep" before the 1810 edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland, which is the first date they mention. But no one seems to be able to trace the song earlier than this.
I'm amazed no one has tried to find a political interpretation. Were the piece earlier, one would be tempted to the English Civil War and Restoration. Or maybe the Stuart monarchy and the Jacobite rebellions. Given the early nineteenth century date, one thinks of the French Revolution, the guillotine, and perhaps Bonaparte's restoration of monarchy.
Or not. I don't really believe it. But it sounds so "folk-plausible." Even the name is right.... - RBW
Maybe "Little Bo-Peep" parodies a shorter song where the only verse is the first. Opie-Oxford2 says, "Several of the verses are based on pieces that seem to have been current in the 1760s, amongst them:
Our Jemima's lost her Mare
And can't tell where to find her,
But she'll come trotting by and by
And bring her Tail behind her."
Also, see "Simon Brodie" where the animal -- always a cow, but sometimes also a dove -- does return. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: OO2066

Little Boxes


DESCRIPTION: "Little boxes on the hillside... And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same." How people go to school and go into business and get put into "little boxes (houses) all the same" (except for minor differences in color)
AUTHOR: Malvina Reynolds
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Scott-BoA, pp. 378-380, "Little Boxes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 189, "Little Boxes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 314, "Little Boxes" (1 text)
DT, LITBOX1* (LITBOX2*) (LITBOX3*)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Little Boxes" (on PeteSeeger35, PeteSeeger36)
NOTES: The irony of this song, at least to me, is that while most Americans DO think the same thoughts and live the same lives and buy houses from the same contractors and watch the same sports on the same TV sets and otherwise follow the crowd and pollute the same environment with the same junk that they extract from the same oil wells, they at least have a choice about it. A medieval peasant was a medieval peasant no matter how hard he tried to be a freethinker, and even the nobility didn't have many choices....
This is of course not a traditional song by origin, and it probably hasn't goine into traition either; it's here because it's cited in many books, but none of them are field collections.
Although Reynolds is responsible for both words and music of the piece, but she seems to have been inspired (perhaps unconsciously) by the song "Pittsburg, Pennsylvania" ("There's a pawn shop on the corner In Pittsburg Pennsylvania"), made popular by a 1952 recording by Guy Mitchell. - RBW
File: SBoA378

Little Boy Billee (Le Petite Navire, The Little Corvette)


DESCRIPTION: English & French versions. Three Bristol men steal a ship and go to sea. Starving, Jack & Jimmy plot to eat Billee, but he asks to say his catechism first. Before he finishes, he sights the British fleet. Jack and Jimmy are hanged, Billee made an admiral
AUTHOR: Unknown, English version possibly translated by William Thackeray
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Davenson, French version)
KEYWORDS: crime execution punishment theft rescue death ship cannibalism foreignlanguage murder
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy 114, "Le Petit Navire [The Little Corvette]" (French version -- 1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 429-430, "Three Sailors of Bristol City" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Little Boy Billee" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
NOTES: The song was apparently widespread among French sailors. The English version, possibly translated by Thackeray, seems almost a burlesque. And the similarities to "The Ship in Distress" are so acute that I suspect the songs are related. - PJS
To me, the question is more of the relations between Kennedy's various texts in multiple languages. If two songs have the same plot, and there is a version in another language with the same plot, how do you tell which song it belongs with? - RBW
File: K114

Little Brass Wagon


See Old Brass Wagon (File: San159)

Little Brown Bulls, The [Laws C16]


DESCRIPTION: Bold McCluskey believes his steer can out-pull anything on the river, and backs his belief by betting that they can out-pull Gordon's little brown bulls. Despite McClusky's confidence, the bulls are victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: contest animal gambling lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws C16, "The Little Brown Bulls"
Rickaby 13, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 107, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 775-777, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
Lomax-FSNA 54, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 849-851, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 37, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-Lumbering #47, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 168-171, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 178-179, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
DT 603, BRWNBULL*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 39, #2 (1994), pp, 96-97, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune, a combination of two versions sung by Robert Walker)
Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 68-70, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
Roud #2224
RECORDINGS:
Charles Bowlen, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Warde Ford, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS 4213 B, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Carl Lathrop, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
NOTES: According to Fred Bainter, who sang Rickaby's "A" text, "the ballad was composed in Mart Douglas's camp in northwestern Wisconsin in 1872 or 1873. It was in this camp and at this date... that the contest between the big spotted steers and the little brown bulls was held" (quotation from Botkin, not Bainter; Laws quotes this information from Rickaby, but without comment on its truth or falsehood. Fowke notes that Beck had a different story).
Rickaby's second version lacks the Derry Down refrain, but the informant apparently knew it with the Derry Down tune. Fowke describes her tune as a "Villikens" variant. The Robert Walker recording is said to use the tune of "Rye Whisky." - RBW
Beck notes that some lumberjacks have suggested this song comes from Maine, but it is not included in R. P. Gray's collection Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks. - PJS
This is going to be hard to solve. As best I can tell, there are 23 or 24 versions of this known from tradition (depending on whether the Gard/Sorden text is independent or copied from someone else; the text gives no indication, although they say that almost all lumberjacks in Wisconsin knew it, and on page 3 they mention hearing it from "an old lady in Forest County).
Five of these (found in Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, and two from the Ford family in California) are clearly not native to their area. Of the other 18, six are from Michigan and six or seven from Wisconsin (plus the Ward and Pat Ford versions surely derive from that state). Two are from Maine, two from Ontario, one from New Brunswick, and one from Nova Scotia. Did the song originate in the Midwest and travel east? The fact that 14 versions are ultimately from Wisconsin and Michigan argues for this. But it is more likely for a song to move west with the lumbermen than for six versions to make their way east. I think we just have to say we don't know. If I had to choose, I'd argue for the Wisconsin origin, but I'm far from sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LC16

Little Brown Church in the Vale, The (The Church in the Wildwood)


DESCRIPTION: "There's a church in the valley by the wildwood, No lovelier spot in the dale; No place is so dear to my childhood...." "Come to the church in the wildwood, Oh, come to the church in the dale." The singer recalls the joys of church as both child and adult
AUTHOR: William S. Pitts
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (source: Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 172-173, "The Little Brown Church in the Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4970
NOTES: According to Johnson, this is largely about an actual church built in the 1860s in the town of Bradford, Iowa (near present-day Nashua). Bradford was bypassed by the railroads, and withered away, but as of his writing, the church still stood. - RBW
File: BdLBCitV

Little Brown Dog


DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy As fat as I could go, They set me there upon the fence...." The boy fights and defeats a giant, induces his hen to hatch out a hare, acquires a dog with legs ten feet long, and otherwise does the impossible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (JAFL 4)
KEYWORDS: talltale animal chickens dog horse sheep humorous nonsense fight
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),Shetlands) US(MA,NE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Randolph 357, "When I Was a Little Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
GreigDuncan8 1701, "Speculation" (8 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig #149, p. 1, "Speculation" (1 text)
FSCatskills 145, "The Lofty Giant" (1 text)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 101, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 129, p. 275, "To London I Did Go" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 24-29, "A Tale of Jests" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-Labrador 111, "The Lying Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 87, "The Liar's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 103-106, "The Little Bull Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 79, "The Little Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 394, "Little Brown Dog" (1 text)
DT, (AUTUMNTO)
Roud #1706
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Derby Ram"
cf. "The Swapping Boy"
cf. "The Seven Wonders"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Big Jeest
Once I Had
The Lie Song
A Lad's Adventures
NOTES: I've listed this song under a title by which it's well known; as it was extremely popular in the 1960s folk revival. -PJS
Versions of this song may take almost any form, as long as there is enough exaggeration. The piece is recognized by its short lines and stanzas. Here are samples: "When I was a little boy, To London I did go, Upon that banished (?) steeple, My gallantry to show." "I bought me a little hen, I did not take much care; I set her on an oyster shell, And she hatched me out a bear."
Hudson calls this a rhymed version of the story of Jack the Giant Killer. Some versions were doubtless influenced by that, but the song doesn't require killing a giant. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: VWL101

Little Brown Hands


DESCRIPTION: "They drive the cows home from the pasture Down through the long shady lane." "They know where the apples are reddest." These hard-working children shall one day be great. Many other secrets "are held in the little brown hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 327, "Little Brown Hands" (1 text)
Roud #15890
File: Br3327

Little Brown Jug, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer praises drink and the little brown jug it comes in: "Ha, ha, ha, you and me, 'Little brown jug' don't I love thee." Drink has turned his friends into enemies, left him poor and sick, and ruined his prospects -- but still he wants another drop
AUTHOR: Eastburn (Joseph Eastburn Winner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869
KEYWORDS: drink poverty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 115-118, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney, p. 28, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, p. 261, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus an excerpt from another)
Randolph 408, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a fragment which may or may not go here)
BrownIII 33, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus 6 excerpts)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 176-177, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune, probably composite, since it includes all the original verses plus some floaters)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 52-53, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 64-65, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 269, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 236, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 334-335, "Little Brown Jug"
DT, BROWNJUG*
ST RJ19115 (Full)
Roud #725
RECORDINGS:
[Gene] Austin & [George] Reneau, "Little Brown Jug" (CYL: Edison [BA] 4973, prob. 1924)
The Blue Ridge Duo [possibly a pseudonym for George Reneau?] "Little Brown Jug" (Edison 51422, 1924)
Uncle Tom Collins, "Little Brown Jug" (OKeh 45132, 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Brown Jug" (Perfect 12421, 1928)
Chubby Parker, "Little Brown Jug" (Gennett 6120/Silvertone 5013/Silvertone 25013, 1927; Supertone 9191, 1928) (Conqueror 7893, 1931)
Riley Puckett (w. Clayton McMichen), "Little Brown Jug" (Columbia 15232-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
George Reneau, "Little Brown Jug" (Vocalion 14812, 1924)
Ernest Thompson, "Little Brown Jug" (Columbia 147-D, 1924)
Welby Toomey, "Little Brown Jug" (Gennett 6025/Champion 15198, 1927; rec. 1926)
Henry Whitter, "Little Brown Jug" (OKeh 40063, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Woodpecker's Hole" (tune)
cf. "The Whiskey Seller" (tune)
cf. "The Poor Little Girls of Ontario" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Old Man's Lament (II) (File: Logs050)
NOTES: Joseph Winner (the brother of Septimus Winner, a.k.a. "Alice Hawthorne") published some twenty pieces in his career under the title Eastburn, but only this one had any commercial success. The title may have come from another song of the same name, but that piece (by George Cooper and W. F. Wellman, Jr.; copyright 1868) fell into instant obscurity. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RJ19115

Little Bull Song, The


See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Little Bunch of Roses, The


DESCRIPTION: "I am waiting here to meet my darling," "My little bunch of roses." They kissed last night and he anticipates the same tonight. He fell in love with her when they met as children. Now she is eighteen. He recalls his proposal and her acceptance.
AUTHOR: "written and composed by" W.H. Delahanty, according to broadside LOCSheet sm1871 06382) (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1871 06382)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 924, "The Little Bunch of Roses" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1871 06382, "Little Bunch of Roses," G. D. Russell & Co. (Boston), 1871 (tune)
NOTES: Composer attributions are notoriously unreliable on song sheets, frequently attributing the song to the arranger. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4924

Little Cabin Boy, The


DESCRIPTION: A fair lady falls in love with Billy, a cabin boy. She tries to convince his captain to release him, but the captain will not. She bids him farewell, goes into a garden, and dies for love. Billy's ship is lost in a storm with all hands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876
KEYWORDS: sea courting love death separation wreck
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(Scotland,England(South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
FSCatskills 56, "The Little Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, p. 83, "The Cabin Boy" (1 text)
ST FSC056 (Partial)
Roud #1168
File: FSC056

Little Carpenter (I), The


DESCRIPTION: Singer is courted successively by an old man, a blacksmith (who gives her a handkerchief and a finger ring) and a handsome young man (from Scarlet town!); she rejects all, preferring the little carpenter who, "hews with his broadaxe all day and sits by me
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (field recording, Blind James Howard)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection magic lover worker
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, LITCARP
ST DTLitCar (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Blind James Howard, "The Little Carpenter" (AAFS 1376 B2, 1933; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Little Carpenter" (on NLCR06, NLCRCD2)
NOTES: I've included the keyword, "magic" because the appearance of the handkerchief and finger ring hint at now-lost magical elements. Curiously, the field recording cited under, "Earliest Date" is the only time the song has been found, although its diction and images make it sound European. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren, who did a detailed examination of this song for a historical column, agrees. He notes several indications that the song is old: The change from third to first person, the "props" such as finger rings, the pentatonic melody (centering on the fifth rather than the tonic), and the general tone. One scholar speculated that it is a religious song in disguise.
The other very faint possibiility is that it's about the historical Cherokee chief Attakullakulla, known as "Little Carpenter," who lived at the time of the French and Indian Wars and ended up surrendering some land in the region of South Carolina after a nasty campaign in which both sides suffered significan casualties. I can, by twisting very hard, make some of the references here make sense in his context. But I think it highly unlikely, unless we find another version which makes the matter clearer. - RBW
File: DTLitCar

Little Carpenter (II), The


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

Little Chickens in the Garden, The


See Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)

Little Children, Then Won't You Be Glad?


DESCRIPTION: "Little children, then won't you be glad (x2), That you have been to heav'n, And you're going to go again, For to try on the long white robe..." "King Jesus, he was so strong That he jarred down the gates of hell." "Don't you remember what you promise..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus hell
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 87, "Little Children, Then Won't You Be Glad?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12045
NOTES: This is a curious mix of Biblical and non-Biblical material. The white robes are Biblical enough, being mentioned especially in the Revelation to John (Rev. 3:5, 18, 4:4, 6:11, 7:9-14).
The mention of the Harrowing of Hell, however, is not Biblical at all; it is a Catholic legend, and not a particularly early one. According to Henry Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church,. second edition, Oxford, 1963 (I use the 1967 Oxford editon), the "Old Roman Creed" which seems to have inspired the Apostle's Creed does not mention Jesus's descent into Hell. As far as we know, a Gallican creed of the sixth century is the first to include the phrase "he descended into Hell." This was later adopted into the Apostle's Creed (mid-eighth century?), but it will be evident that that Apostle's Creed is in fact not apostolic. The Nicene Creed mentions the descent into Hell not at all. And the detail that Jesus actually broke the Gates of Hell is presumably a still later embellishment (known, e.g., to Dante).
The mention of a chariot and its wheels is reminiscent of the first chapter of Ezekiel.
The reference to feeding the sheep is imagery from the Gospel of John, though the language appears to me to be inspired by both John 10 and John 21.
All in all, this looks like a very Catholic song to me.
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG087

Little Chimney Sweep, The


DESCRIPTION: A chimney sweep steals the child while his mother spins. After three years, the child is not found. The sweep returns and is hired by the woman; when his boy appears, she recognizes him. Women are warned to keep their children close at hand
AUTHOR: Unknown, possibly a Mr. Upton
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from William Hughes) -- but a broadside in the Madden collection, possibly called "The Lost Child Found", long predates it
KEYWORDS: reunion abduction crime mother worker children
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacSeegTrav 124, "The Little Chimney Sweep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1549
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Lost Child" (plot)
NOTES: The resemblance of this song to "The Little Lost Child" (composed 1894) is sufficient that I strongly suspect the author of the latter was familiar with "The Little Chimney Sweep", also known as "The Lost Child Found." According to MacColl & Seeger, it was quite popular among 19th-century broadside printers. - PJS
File: McCST121

Little Clare Mary, The (Daily's Lifeboat)


DESCRIPTION: "When the tempest was raging And the seas running high The little Clara May came scudding down by." The ship strikes a rock. The captain says Dailey will come in his lifeboat, but he never does. The sailors are finally rescued by the Mary Louise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster rescue cowardice
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownII 289, "The Song of Dailey's Life-Boat" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 32, "The Little Clare Mary" (1 text)
Roud #6629
NOTES: The notes in Brown describe their failure to find historical evidence for the events described here (which may explain the confusion in the name of the song: Brown's text calls it the Clara May, Chappell the Clare Mary). Nor is there evidence of cowardice in the (real) Dailey family.
Roud lumps several "lifeboat" songs under this number, but the other is a religious song. - RBW
File: BrII289

Little Cobbler, The


DESCRIPTION: The butcher goes to London; his wife takes the cobbler to her bed. When a policeman shows up, she invites him into bed while the cobbler hides beneath. The butcher then arrives with the cobbler still hidden. The butcher finds and punishes the cobbler
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (JFSS)
KEYWORDS: seduction trick bawdy humorous hiding
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 224-226, "The Little Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 197, "The Cunning Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #174
RECORDINGS:
George Spicer, "The Cunning Cobbler" (on FSB2, FSB2CD)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES: The Copper version of this piece appears, from the initial verse, to be very closely related to "The Major and the Weaver" [Laws Q10] . The Kennedy version, however, is distinct. I suspect the Copper version is a cross-fertilization.
Vaughn Williams observed that the piece must be modern (because of the policeman), and remarks "It is a modern example of the kind of fun we find in Chaucer's 'Clerk of Oxenforde.'"
This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
File: CoSB224

Little Cock Sparrow, The


DESCRIPTION: "A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree" A "naughty boy" with bow and arrow says he will shoot the sparrow to make a stew and pie. The sparrow says otherwise and flies away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Halliwell, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: escape hunting bird youth food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 111, "A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #182, p. 130, "(A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree)"
Roud #3368
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1117), "The Little Cock Sparrow," W. Oxlade (Portsea), n.d.
NOTES: Bird fanciers will note that this is the English sparrow, known in America as a "House Sparrow" but actually a weaverfinch, rather than a true sparrow; it's generally not possible to tell the genders of true sparrows without detailed examination. English sparrows are also generally more given to chattering, and spend more time in trees; true sparrows are groundfeeders. Not that a nursery rhyme writer is likely to worry about such details. - RBW
File: OO2111

Little Cora


See Darling Corey (File: LxU087)

Little Cory


See Darling Corey (File: LxU087)

Little Darling (II)


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

Little David, Play on Your Harp


DESCRIPTION: Recognized by the chorus, "Little David, play on your harp, Hallelu, hallelu." The rest can describe David's exploits, or almost anything else vaguely related to Biblical subjects
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (recording, Fisk University Male Quartet)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
BrownIII 609, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 81, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (1 text, 1 tune, possibly mixed with "On My Journey Now")
Courlander-NFM, pp. 46-49, (no title) (1 text, which appears composite); pp. 236-237, "King David"
Silber-FSWB, p. 361, "Little David" (1 text)
Roud #11831
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson & Earthy Anne Coleman, "King David" (on NFMAla4, DownHome)
Big Bethel Choir #1, "Little David Play Your Harp" (Columbia 14157-D, 1926)
Commonwealth Quartet, "Little David" (Domino 0173, 1927)
Brother Claude Ely, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (King 1375, 1954)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Little David, Play On Yo' Harp" (Victor 16448, 1909)
Fisk University Male Quartette (sic.), "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Columbia A2803, 1919)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "Little David, Play On Your Harp" (Musicraft 231, prob. 1939)
Joe Ramer Family, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Broadway 8106, c. 1930)
Joe Reed Family, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (c. 1925; on CrowTold02)
Noble Sissle & Lt. Jim Europe's Singing Serenaders, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Pathe 22084, 1919)
Southland Jubilee Singers, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (OKeh 4271/Phonola 4271, 1921)
Wood Bros. Quartet, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Rainbow 1094, 1923)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Spaeth lists a 1921 hit, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" as arranged by "Burleigh." I would assume that that is this song, and that it therefore is older than that date by some years. - RBW
The Courlander-NFM references certainly is composite, but the verses were compiled by the informant, Rich Amerson, not by Courlander. See his recording on NFMAla3 and DownHome. - PJS
File: CNFM046

Little Devils


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

Little Doogie


See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Little Drops of Water (Little Things)


DESCRIPTION: "Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean And (the pleasant/a beautiful) land."
AUTHOR: Julia A. Fletcher Carney (1823-1908)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Minnie Stokes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 242, (no title) (1 short text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #798, p. 293, "(Little drops of water)"
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 635-636, "Little Things" (1 text)
NOTES: This item has been variously attributed; Granger's Index to Poetry notes attributions to E. C. Brewer and Frances S. Osgood, but unequivocally lists the author as Julia A. Fletcher Carney. The Baring-Goulds also credit it to her, and Felleman agrees though it gives her name simply as Julia A. Fletcher.
This rather insipid piece (which continues, "So the little moments, Humble though they be, Make the mighty ages Of eternity") is clearly Fletcher Carney's "hit"; Grangers's lists nine books which contain it, but cites no other works from her pen whatsoever. - RBW
File: MHAp242A

Little Drowned Girl, The


See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Little Dun Dee


DESCRIPTION: "My uncle died and left me forty quid." The singer bets it all on Little Dun Dee in a match race. As the race progresses Little Dunny falls behind and the price rises. The pony falls behind the bay but just wins at the end and carts the money away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1793))
KEYWORDS: money racing horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #176
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Haynes, "Little Dun Dee" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Broadside Bodleian, Harding B 11(1793), "Little Dun Mare ("On the twenty-fourth of August last"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838 ; also Harding B 11(1794), Firth c.12(446), Harding B 11(2734), Harding B 25(1118)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(900), Harding B 11(1793), "[The] Little Dun Mare"; Johnson Ballads 895, "Dun Mare"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Skewball" [Laws Q22] (plot)
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (plot)
NOTES: The Bodleian broadsides go into more detail on the betting, the strategy, and the final weighing; the uncle does not die but is an active participant. The race takes place at Newmarket on July 14 or August 24. - BS
File: RcLiDuDe

Little Eau Pleine, The


See The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)

Little Family, The [Laws H7]


DESCRIPTION: Sisters Mary and Martha are deeply grieved when their brother Lazarus falls sick and dies. Jesus is informed that his friend Lazarus is sick, and hurries to Bethany. Finding the sisters weeping, he too weeps and raises Lazarus from the dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden, from a manuscript probably from 1865; Hudson's ms. was dated 1862)
KEYWORDS: family Jesus religious Jesus Bible
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws H7, "The Little Family"
Belden, pp. 447-449, "The Little Family" (2 texts plus a mention of 1 more)
Randolph 614, "The Little Family" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Eddy 133, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 151, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 134, "The Little Family" (2 texts)
BrownIII 610, "The Little Family" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more; also assorted stanzas in the notes)
Hudson 86, pp. 212-214, "The Little Family" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 195-196, "The Little Family" (1 text)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 218-222, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 734-736, "The Little Family" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 132-133, "Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 231-232, "[The Little Family]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, p. 183, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 647, LAZRUS
Roud #656
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Gilbert, "The Little Family" (on LomaxCD1704)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mary and Martha
Martha and Mary
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus
NOTES: This song closely parallels the account in John 11:1-44, with two exceptions. First, when Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, he did NOT hasten to Bethany, but sat around for two days (apparently to give the dead body a little extra time to rot!). Second, Jesus did not weep for Lazarus; he wept because of the hardness of heart of the Jews who did not think Lazarus would be raised. - RBW
File: LH07

Little Farm, The


See Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)

Little Fight in Mexico


DESCRIPTION: "They had a little fight in Mexico, It wasn't for the boys but the gals, you may know, Sing fa la la, sing fa la la, sing fa la la la day." Boys and girls "came to the place where the blood was shed," where (girls/boys) turned back but the dance continues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting dancing fight
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 549, "Little Fight in Mexico" (2 texts, 1 tune, although the texts do not really look related)
BrownIII 79, "Little Fight in Mexico" (1 fragment)
Hudson 141, pp. 288-289, "Had a Big Fight in Mexico" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 9, "Johnny Cake" (4 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text, entitled "Had a Little Fight in Mexico," is clearly this piece)
Roud #736
NOTES: Based on the content of this song, I would guess that it is not related to the Mexican War (Hudson states otherwise, but this is based only on the date; he knew people who claimed to have heard it c. 1860). - RBW
There is a town called Mexico in Missouri, although it's in the northern part of the state, not in the Ozarks. - PJS
File: R549

Little Fighting Chance, The [Laws J19]


DESCRIPTION: The "Little Fighting Chance" encounters a French warship. The battle is long, and the British take twenty casualties, but in the end they defeat the French vessel and take it home as a prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: ship battle navy
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws J19, "The Little Fighting Chance"
GreigDuncan1 42, "Box Them Off, My Jolly Tars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 82, "The Little Fighting Chance" (1 text)
DT 551, LILCHANC
Roud #980
File: LJ19

Little Fish, The


See Yea Ho, Little Fish (File: MA119)

Little Fisherman


See Cod Fish Song (File: EM005)

Little Gal at Our House


See Possum Up a Gum Stump (File: R280)

Little Geste of Robin Hood and his Meiny, A


See A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] (File: C117)

Little Girl (I)


See In the Pines (File: LoF290)

Little Girl (II)


See The Old Cow Died (Little Girl) (File: FSWB396A)

Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake, The


DESCRIPTION: Singer hears screams of his daughter, who's been attacked by "an awful, dreadful snake." He runs through the woods to rescue her, but arrives too late; she is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, Stanley Brothers)
KEYWORDS: death animal children father
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" (Decca 28878, 1953)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" (on NLCREP2, NLCRCD2) (NLCR16)
The Stanley Brothers, "The Little Girl And The Dreadful Snake" (Rich-R-Tone 1055, 1952)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Springfield Mountain" [Laws G16] (plot)
File: RcLGATDS

Little Girl and the Robin, The


DESCRIPTION: "There came to my window one morning in spring A sweet little robin that started to sing" "As soon as he had finished his... song A cruel young man with a gun came along. He killed... my sweet bird... No more will he sing at the break of the day"
AUTHOR: George J. Webb ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (New First Music Reader)
KEYWORDS: bird death hunting music
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 880, "The Sweet Little Birdie" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 538-539, "The Sweet Little Birdie" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 880A)
Roud #7545
NOTES: If this were a traditional song, I'm sure folklorists would be all over it looking for a hidden meaning. Even though it seems to be composed, I suspect there is an additional meaning -- but I can't see what it is. - RBW
File: R880

Little Glass of Wine


See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

Little Golden Ring, The


DESCRIPTION: A sailor bids his mother, "a lone, weeping widow," farewell. He promises to return. She gives him a ring, saying, "Wear it for your mother's sake." He does well at sea, but then his mother's letters stop. He comes home to learn that she is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Doerflinger)
KEYWORDS: sailor mother separation death ring return
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger, pp. 170-172, "The Little Golden Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9418
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(104b), "It Is But a Little Golden Ring," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: Doe170

Little Gypsy Girl, The


See The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)

Little Harry Huston


See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Little Hero, The


See The Stowaway (File: GrMa051)

Little Indian Maid, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer grew up in American Indian culture: her father hunted and her mother worked in the wigwam. She helped her mother, but could not read, sew, or pray until the white man "taught poor Indians Jesus's name." She asks the Saviour to bless whites
AUTHOR: unknown, but I bet it wasn't an Indian [note from PJS]
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1957 (recording, Lotys Murrin)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of growing up in American Indian culture, while her hunter father roamed, "wild nature's child," and her mother stayed in the wigwam, wove baskets and sewed his moccasins. She helped her mother, but could not read, sew, or pray until the white man came and "taught poor Indians Jesus' name." Now she asks the Saviour to bless the white man
KEYWORDS: religious family Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
Roud #4807
RECORDINGS:
Lotys Murrin, "The Little Indian Maid" (on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Go Up to Shinum Place" (theme)
cf. "Indian Hymn" (theme)
NOTES: The song practically reeks of missionary origin, but Edith Fowke was unable to find a printed source. She notes that it was popular among lumberjacks. - PJS
Indeed, the several other songs of this type are generally produced by whites (hence their use of English, often pidgin English). Contrary to propaganda, the chief thing the locals caught from missionaries was not Christianity but epidemic diseases. - RBW
File: RcLitInM

Little Jack Horner


DESCRIPTION: "Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner Eating of Christmas pie. He put in his thumb And pulled out a plum, And said, What a good boy am I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1725 (Carey's Namby Pamby, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1682, "Little Jack Horner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 262, "Little Jack Horner" (1 text plus several perhaps-related fragments; also the cover of a chapbook print on a plate facing p. 234)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #50, p. 61, "(Little Jack Horner)"
cf. DT, MERRYLND
Roud #13027
NOTES: This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so it does have a musical tradition of sorts. I also seem to recall a second tune for the second part of the verse. I include it, very tentatively, on that basis.
If one believes that all nursery rhymes have political contexts, this obviously has to do with political or ecclesiastical corruption. The quasi-official version of the story, according to the Baring-Goulds, is that the real Jack Horner was Thomas Horner of Glastonbury, who at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries managed to sneak several deeds to Henry VIII (allegedly in a piecrust), and managed to extract one for himself.
The Opies, for once, do not reject this out of hand, but give it detailed analysis (which I would boil down to, "We can't prove it wrong, but there is no real reason to think it true either"). They do admit that the story did not become attached to the poem until the nineteenth century.
Carey's Namby Pamby, the source cited by the Opies, has itself some interesting references; according to Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, "Namby Pamby" was a name used by Carey, Swift, and Pope for the poetaster Ambrose Philips. According to Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, it was Carey who first bestowed the name on Phillps (a friend of Addison and of Steele, who died 1749) due to Phillips's "eminence in infantile style."
As with his earlier near-contemporary John Fell (of "I do not love you, Doctor Fell" fame), Philips seems to be remembered only for the quip at his expense. In the case of Fell, that was unfair; he did genuinely useful work. But Philips's most popular poem seems to have been "To Miss Charlotte Pulteney in Her Mother's Arms," which is probably a clue to his work.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BGMG050

Little Jimmy Murphy


See Jimmy Murphy (File: Beld291)

Little Joe the Wrangler [Laws B5]


DESCRIPTION: "Little Joe" runs away from home because of a parental remarriage. He is taken in by cowboys and learns how to herd cattle. When a storm starts blowing, he stops a stampede but is killed in the process
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp (1898)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Thorp's "Songs of the Cowboys")
KEYWORDS: cowboy death
FOUND IN: US(NW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws B5, "Little Joe the Wrangler"
Randolph 203, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife I, pp. 28-37 (9-11), "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (4 texts -- one of them being "Sister Nell" and another a parody about "Joe... That hung that bunch of cactus on the wall," 1 tune)
Logsdon 2, pp. 32-37, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 123-126, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 79, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 166-167, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 265, "Little Joe The Wrangler" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 207-208, "Little Joe, The Wrangler" (1 text)
DT 373, LITTLEJO*
Roud #1930
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (Victor 21470, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4344, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4780, 1935)
Leon Chappelear, "Little Joe the Wrangler" Champion 45068, c. 1935; Montgomery Ward M-4950, 1936)
Edward L. Crain, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (Crown 3239/Conqueror 8010, 1932; Homestead 22991, c. 1932)
Harry Jackson, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (on HJackson1)
Goebel Reeves, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (Melotone M-12214, 1931; Panachord 25313, 1932; on MakeMe)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (on AKStorm01)
Marc "The Cowboy Crooner" Williams, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (Brunswick 269, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (subject, tune)
NOTES: Larkin notes that, in a cattle ride, the horse wrangler (responsible for controlling the horses and bringing them to the riders as needed) stood low in the social hierarchy but often played a vital role when the herd was nervous or the riders busy.
Although the evidence is strong that Thorp wrote this song, I have seen a claim that D. J. O'Malley (the probable author of "The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot)" [Laws B27]) is responsible. For this claim, see Sing Out!, volume 41, #2 (1996), p. 134. - RBW
File: LB05

Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell


DESCRIPTION: The girl rides up to the cowboy's fire. She is looking for her brother Joe. The cowboys, reluctant to tell her that her brother is dead, listen to her sad story of a cruel stepmother. At last, seeing the brands on the cattle, she realizes the truth
AUTHOR: unknown (sometimes credited to N. Howard Thorp, author of "Little Joe the Wrangler"; Thorp himself in 1934 credited it to Kenneth Clark, according to Logsdon)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: abuse orphan death stepmother cowboy derivative
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 204, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife I, pp. 28-37 (9-11), "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (4 texts, 1 tune -- the "B" text being "Sister Nell")
Ohrlin-HBT 69, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4049
RECORDINGS:
Harry Jackson, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (on HJackson1, CowFolkCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler" [Laws B5] (tune) and references there
NOTES: This song is item dB36 in Laws's Appendix II. For background on authorship and such, see Logsdon 2, pp. 32-37, "Little Joe the Wrangle. - RBW
File: R204

Little John a Begging [Child 142]


DESCRIPTION: Little John (goes/is assigned by Robin to go) a-begging. He meets up with beggars feigning disabilities who do not want his company and they fall to blows. Little John overcomes them and is much enriched by their stores which he takes to Sherwood.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1663 (braodside printed by William Gilbertson); also a garland of 1663
KEYWORDS: Robinhood begging fight disability
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 142, "Little John a Begging" (2 texts)
Bronson 142, comments only
Leach, pp. 406-408, "Little John a Begging" (1 text)
BBI, RZN2, "All you that delight to spend some time"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Oudlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 521-526, "Little John a Begging" (1 text,based on one of the garlands)
Roud #3988
NOTES: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 525, note the inherent improbability of this song -- would Robin Hood, a "proud outlaw," permit his men to go begging? And would Little John, himself a proud man, consent, even under constraint? Unlikely. I find myself wondering if there might not have been an earlier song about someone exposing feigned beggars which some enterprising, but hardly competent, hack writer converted to a Robin Hood ballad. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C142

Little John Henry


DESCRIPTION: "It was early one mornin' And it looked like rain, Way roun' that curve, Lord, I spied a gravel train. O my little John Henry, Godamighty knows." "Now where'd you get your learnin'? Please tell it to me. On the Gulf and Colorado And the Santa Fe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: train
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 300, "Little John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 198-199, "My Li'l John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune, a fragment placed her based primarily on the chorus)
Roud #6715
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long)" [Laws I16]
NOTES: Probably a "John Henry-ized" version of "Casey Jones" -- but it may be that this is another case of the Lomaxes turning a song into something else. - RBW
File: LoF300

Little Johnny Green


See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

Little Log Cabin by the Sea


DESCRIPTION: Yet another song derived from "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane", but in this one the singer reminisces about the precious Bible his/her mother left behind in the log cabin by the sea
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Probably A. P. Carter; tune: Will S. Hays.
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible mother family
FOUND IN: US
Roud #15142
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Little Log Cabin by the Sea" (Victor 21074, 1927)
DeBusk-Weaver Family, "Little Log Cabin by the Sea" (on DeBusk-Weaver1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune, structure) and references there
NOTES: This shouldn't be confused with "Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream" or any of the other "Log Cabin" songs; it's indexed primarily to differentiate it from them. - PJS
File: RcLLCBTS

Little Lost Child, The


DESCRIPTION: "A passing policeman found a little child... Says to her kindly, you must not cry; I'll find your mother by and by." At the station he realizes she is his daughter Jennie, with whose mother he had quarreled. When the mother arrives, they are reconciled
AUTHOR: Words: Edward B. Marks / Music: Joseph W. Stern
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: father mother reunion children
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 728, "The Lost Child" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 148-150, "The Little Lost Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-Famous, pp. 132-137, "The Little Lost Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4651
RECORDINGS:
Earl Shirkey & Roy Harper, "The Little Lost Child" (Columbia 15642-D, 1931; rec. 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Chimney Sweep" (plot)
File: R728

Little Low Plain, The


See The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)

Little Lowland Maid, The


See The Lovely Lowland Maid (File: Pea620)

Little Maggie


DESCRIPTION: Singer laments Maggie's drinking and straying ("Over yonder stands little Maggie... She's a drinking away her troubles and a-courting some other man"). He praises her beauty extravagantly, saying she was made to be his, but plans to leave town.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Grayson & Whitter)
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting love rejection parting drink travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cambiaire, pp. 23-25, "Hustling Gamblers" (1 text, very long and with so much floating material that it could be linked with several songs, but "Little Maggie" seems to be the largest and most distinct part)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 102-104, "Hustling Gamblers" (1 text, from the same informant as Cambiaire, though apparently taken down independently and with some small difference, many of them orthographic)
Shellans, p. 11, "Little Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 48, "Little Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 277, "Little Maggie" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 193, "Little Maggie" (1 text)
DT, LILMAGGI*
Roud #5723
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Little Maggie" (on FBode1)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Little Maggie With a Dram Glass In Her Hand" Victor V-40135, 1929; Bluebird B-7072, 1937; rec. 1928)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers [or Wade Mainer], "Little Maggie" (Bluebird B-7201, 1937)
Wade Mainer, Zeke Morris & Steve Ledford, "Little Maggie" (Bluebird B-7201/Montgomery Ward M-7309, 1937; on GoingDown)
Ivor Melton & band, "Little Maggie"
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Maggie" (on NLCR16)
Frank Proffitt, "Little Maggie (on USWarnerColl01)
The Stanley Brothers, "Little Maggie" (Rich-R-Tone 423, rec. c. late 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Corey" (words)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little Maggie With a Dram Glass In Her Hand
NOTES: Although this shares several verses with "Darling Corey", it leaves out the latter song's central theme of moonshining; that, a different tune, and several divergent verses lead me to call this a different song. - PJS
Roud, of course, lumps them. I agree with Paul.
The notes to USWarnerColl01 note that this is widely recorded but rarely collected in the field; they speculate that its popularity derives from one or another old time country recording. This seems likely, with the first Grayson and Whitter version being the obvious candidate. - RBW
File: CSW048

Little Marget


See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Little Marian Parker


See Marian Parker [Laws F33] (File: LF33)

Little Marion Parker


See Marian Parker (III) (File: LdF57)

Little Mary Fagan


See Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)

Little Mary Phagan


See Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)

Little Mary, the Sailor's Bride


See Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)

Little Massie Grove


See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Mathy Groves


See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Maud


DESCRIPTION: As the singer sleeps on some lumber, a policeman awakes and arrests him. He says he has lost his pocketbook and money, his crops are damaged, and he doesn't have a cent to his name. Chorus: "Little Maud, little Maud/She's the dearest darling of all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers)
KEYWORDS: captivity poverty love prison farming police hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers, "Little Maud" (OKeh 45177, 1928, rec. 1927; on GoingDown)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willy, Poor Boy" (floating verses, some similarity in the tune)
NOTES: To say that this song is disjointed would be an understatement. The verses sound like floaters, but aren't. - PJS
File: RcLitMau

Little Maumee, The


See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Little Miss Muffet


DESCRIPTION: "Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet Eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider And sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1797 (cf. Baring-Gould-MotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: food bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 369, "Little Miss Muffet" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #141, p. 114, "(Little Miss Muffet)"
NOTES: This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so it does have a musical tradition of sorts. I include it, very tentatively, on that basis.
The Baring-Goulds state, incidentally, that this is the most frequently illustrated of all nursery rhymes, even though (according to them) the word "tuffet" is otherwise unattested.
The word "tuffet" may have been a forced rhyme, because Miss Muffet, according to Joe Schwartz, That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles, ECW press, 2002, p. 207, the story is real. Patience Muffet was the daughter of one Thomas Muffet, a physician who lived in the sixteenth century and kept spiders because he liked their webs.
The Opies, in fact, say that Thomas Muffet wrote poetry, causing some to attribute this to him. However, they add that his poetry was not very good. And they note several variations which eliminate that troublesome "tuffet." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BGMG141

Little Mohea, The


See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Little Mohee, The [Laws H8]


DESCRIPTION: A (foreign soldier) is greeted by a pretty Mohee. She offers to take him into her tribe if he will stay with her. He will not stay; he has a sweetheart at home. Returning home, he find his girl has left him, and wishes himself back with the Mohee
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) love abandonment infidelity
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws H8, "The Little Mohea"
Belden, pp. 143-145, "Little Mohea" (1 text plus references to 6 more)
Randolph 63, "The Pretty Mohee" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 484-486, "The Pretty Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 63A)
BrownII 110, "Little Mohea" (1 text plus mention of 11 more)
Hudson 47, pp. 162-164, "Little Mohea" (2 texts plus mention of 3 more)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 336-345, "The Indian Lass" (6 texts plus a fragment/excerpt, with local titles "Pretty Mauhee," "The Pretty Mohea," "Pretty Mohea," "The Lass of Mohee," "Mawhee," "The Pretty Mahee," (no title); 1 tune on pp. 448-449)
Brewster 29, "The Pretty Mohee" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 17-18. "The Lass of Mohe" (1 text)
Logsdon 40, pp. 211-214, "The Little Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 725-726, "The Little Mohee" (1 text)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 52, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, p. 84, "The Little Mohea" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 62-63, "The Pretty Mauhee" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 47, "Little Mohea" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 163-165, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 824-825, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 128-129, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H836, pp. 372-373, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text with many variant readings, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 91, pp. 197-198, "The Pretty Mohea" (1 text)
JHCox 116, "The Pretty Mohea" (3 texts)
JHCoxIIB, #12A-C, pp. 147-150, "The Pretty Mohea," "The Little Maumee" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 148-150, "The Lass of Mowee" ( text)
Colcord, pp. 199-200, "The Lass of Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 53, "The Young Spanish Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 103, "Little Mohee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 58, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 82-83, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 195-197, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 227-229, "The Little Mohee" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 148, "Little Mohee" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 482, "The Pretty Mohea" (source notes only)
DT 648, LILMOHEE*
Roud #275
RECORDINGS:
Hall Brothers, "Little Mo-Hee" (Bluebird B-6843/Montgomery Ward 7237, 1937)
Buell Kazee, "The Little Mohee" (Brunswick 156, 1927; Brunswick 436, 1930) (on Kazee01 [fragment])
Bradley Kincaid, "The Little Mohee" (Gennett 6856/Supertone 9402, 1929)
Flora Noles, "Little Mohee" (OKeh 45037, 1926)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "Little Mo-Hee", Perfect 5-10-14/Melotone 5-10-14, 1935; rec. 1934)
Riley Puckett, "Little Maumee" (Columbia 15277-D, 1928)
Roe Bros. & Morrell, "My Little Mohi" (Columbia 15199-D, 1927)
Ernest Stoneman and His Dixie Mountaineers, "The Pretty Mohea" (Edison, unissued, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (tune)
cf. "The Indian Lass" (theme, some verses)
cf. "I'm a Stranger in this Country (The Darger Lad)" (theme, verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cocoanut Grove
NOTES: Kittredge describes this as a "chastened" (i.e. de-bawdy-ized) American reworking of a British broadside, "The Indian Lass." It is agreed, though, that the American version is much superior to the British. [It may be agreed that this is superior to "The Indian Lass," but not by me. - PJS]
Barry, however, considers the American version original; it then became a sea song, with the girl transformed from a "Mohee" to a resident of Maui, and the British version descends from that. Belden concurs at least to the extent of calling it a sea song and saying "that the 'Indian lass' is a denizen not of America but of the South Seas."
Huntington splits the difference; he thinks the sea version is the original, and the source of the Native American version (he doesn't mention "The Indian Lass"). He offers no evidence for this view, except for the early dates of the whaling versions.
Just looking at the sundry texts, my (slight) inclination is to think "The Little Mohee" the original; "The Indian Lass" looks like this song with a little bit of "The Lake of Ponchartrain" mixed in and the Indian girl released from tribal affiliation.
Scarborough has a discussion of the matter, in which she supports Kittredge in calling it a British import. But she seems to consider the two still one song -- although her versions consistently mention the Mohee/Mauhee/Mawhee, she titles the song "The Indian Lass."
Whatever its origin, the song has become extremely popular in America (Laws lists in excess of two dozen versions, from more than a dozen states). Sundry tunes are used; many are close to "On Top of Old Smokey." - RBW
File: LH08

Little More Cider Too, A


DESCRIPTION: The singer loves drink and Miss (Snowflake/Dinah). He wishes they were apples rubbing against each other in the tree, and for more drink. Chorus: "A little more cider, cider, cider, a little more cider too, A little more cider for Miss Dinah...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink courting floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 46, "A Little More Cider Too" (2 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Roud #7866
File: Br3046

Little More Faith in Jesus, A


DESCRIPTION: "Mothers, don't you think it best, A little more faith in Jesus? Carry the witness in your breast, A little more faith in Jesus. All I want, all I need, All I want is a little more faith in Jesus." Similarly with fathers, children, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', p. 211, "A Little More Faith in Jesus" (1 text)
Roud #12067
File: ThBa211

Little Moscrow


See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Moses


DESCRIPTION: The story of Moses in brief: Set adrift in a small boat in Egypt, he is found and raised by the daughter of Pharaoh. When grown, he leads his people across the Red Sea to safety while Pharaoh's host is destroyed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jew royalty abandonment river rescue hiding Jew
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Belden, p. 449, "Moses in the Bulrushes" (1 text)
Randolph 662, "Little Moses" (1 text)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 74, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 128-129, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 361, "Little Moses" (1 text)
DT, LITMOSES
Roud #3546
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Little Moses" (Victor 23641/Victor V-40110, 1929; Bluebird B-5924, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-5010, 1936; on AAFM2)
A. P. Carter Family, "Little Moses" (Acme 992, n.d. but post-WWII)
Harmon E. Helmick, "Little Moses" (Champion 16705, 1934; Decca 5498, 1938)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Finding of Moses" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
By the Side of a River
NOTES: The story of Moses being abandoned by his parents (who had to hide him to prevent him from being killed) is told in Exodus 2:1-10. These verses also tell of his sister (presumably Miriam, since she is Moses's only known sister, though she is not named in this passage) following him as he floated away (his brother Aaron would have been only three and too young for the task), and of his mother nursing her own child. The crossing of the Red Sea is covered in Exodus chapter 14.
The final lines of the Carter Family version, "When his labors did cease, he departed in peace, And rested in the Heavens above" are more interesting. The only official word on Moses's fate is in chapter 34 of Deuteronomy: "Then Moses went up... to Mount Nebo... and the LORD howed him the whole land.... Then Moses... died... in the land of Moab. He was buried in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor, but no one to this day knows where hs is buried."
At the time of Moses's death, there was no Jewish tradition of an afterlife; all, good or bad, were thought to go to Sheol (which was quite clearly underground). Later, the idea of a heaven became widespread -- and a Jewish legend had it that Moses went there, or that he was taken up bodily to heaven, as was clearly reported of Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) and less clearly of Enoch (Genesis 5:24).
This view seems to be supported by the New Testament account of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8 and parallels), since Jesus is reported to have been talking with Moses and Elijah (though nothing ever makes it clear how Peter and James and John knew that the other two were Moses and Elijah...). - RBW
File: R662

Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81]


DESCRIPTION: (Lady Barnard), left alone at home by her lord, convinces (Little Musgrave) to sleep with her. Her husband returns unlooked-for, and finds Musgrave in bed with his wife. Lord Barnard slays Musgrave in a duel, and then kills his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1611 (Beaumont & Fletcher)
KEYWORDS: adultery death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Jamaica
REFERENCES (50 citations):
Child 81, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (15 texts)
Bronson 81, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (74 versions+1 in addenda)
Dixon III, pp. 21-29, "Lord Burnett and Little Munsgrove" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 150-194, "" (11 texts plus a collation, a fragment, and a text not from Maine, several of these being variants on versions learned from the same source; 8 tunes from Maine plus one from elsewhere; also extensive notes on version classification) {Ab=Bronson's #70, B=#59, Db=#21, E [Yankee Doodle]=#73, Gb=#60, H [The Little Red Lark] = #71, I=#66; the non-Maine tune is #13}
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 68-74, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Belden, pp. 57-60, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Randolph 20, "Little Mathy Groves" (1 short text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #58, C=#12}
Eddy 15, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #40}
Gardner/Chickering 7, "Lord Valley" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 195-237, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (10 texts, 7 tunes) {A=Bronson's #46, F=#65, J=#68}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 86-91, "Lord Arnold" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #46}
Davis-Ballads 23, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (6 texts, 1 tune entitled "Lord Daniel's Wife"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #72}
Davis-More 24, pp. 170-181, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownII 26, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts)
Chappell-FSRA 12, "Little Matthew Groves" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 50-54, "Lord Daniel" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 65-68, "Matha Grove" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 143-149, colectively "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard," with individual texts "Little Mose Grove," "Lord Donald's Wife" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts; 1 tune on p. 400) {Bronson's #36}
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 30-32, "The Lyttle Musgrave" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 23 "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (10 texts plus 7 fragments, 17 tunes){Bronson's #16, #18, #22, #9, #17, #11, #19, #20, #37, #27, #14, #29, #42, #43, #48, #38, #10}
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 18, "Matthy Groves (Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard)" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #17}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 43-49, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2, #23}
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 11-13, "Lord Arnold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 5, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 fragment, called "Little Matha Grove" by the singer, 1 tune) {Bronson's #47}
Peacock, pp. 613-616, "Lord Donald" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 11, "Matthy Groves" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 8, "Little Matha Grove" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Manny/Wilson 54, "Little Moscrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 265-273, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts)
Leach-Labrador 5, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBB 50, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 186, "Little Musgrave and the Lady Barnard" (1 text+2 fragments)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 22, "Little Matthew Grove (or, Lord Daniel's Wife)"; p. 62, "Lord Orland's Wife (or, Little Matthew Grew)" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {p. 22=Bronson's #51; p. 62=#6?}
Fuson, pp. 52-55, "Little Musgrove and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Warner 78, "Mathy Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 36, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB1, pp.119-122, "Little Massie Grove' (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 34, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 164, "Little Matthy Groves" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Gummere, pp. 337-340, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, printed in the notes to "Lord Randal")
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 123-127, "[Lyttle Musgrave]" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Hodgart, p. 60, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
TBB 17, "Little Musgrave" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 105-108, "Matha Grove" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
LPound-ABS, 15, pp. 37-39, "Little Matty Groves" (1 text)
JHCox 15, "Little Musgrave and Lary Barnard" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 47-50, "Lord Darnell" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 226, "Matty Groves" (1 text)
BBI, ZN286, "As it befell on a high Holyday"
DT 81, MATTIEGR* MATTIEG2*
Roud #52
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Mathie Groves" (on OldLove)
Green Maggard, "Lord Daniel" (AFS, 1934; on KMM)
Jean Ritchie, "Little Musgrave" (on JRitchie02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 401(91), "The Little Mousgrove, and the Lady Barnet," F. Coles (London), 1658-1664; also Douce Ballads 1(115b), Firth b.19(13)[many words illegible], "[The] Little Musgrove, and the Lady Barnet"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Birdy" [Child 82] (plot)
cf. "Run Mountain" (words)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Matty Groves
Matty Grove
Little Mattie Groves
Little Mathey Groves
Mathie Groves
Lord Barnard
Lord Arnold's Wife
Lord Daniel's Wife
Little Mathigrew
Lord Donald
NOTES: A fragment of this ballad is found in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act V, scene iii (Wine, p. 376):
And some they whistled, and some they sung,
"Hey, down, down!"
And some did loudly say,
Ever as the Lord Barnet's horn blew,
"Away, Musgrave, away!"
Chambers, p. 163, also mentions that a song of this title was entered into the Stationer's Register in 1630, so it was apparently well-known in the early seventeenth century.
There is a somewhat interesting twist in several of the versions. Usually the song says that the wife loves Musgrave/Mattie more than her Lord and all his kin -- but in both of Scarborough's texts and in Creighton and Barry/Eckstorm/Smythe, p. 164 and a version from Sharp (Bronson's #42) and another from Karpeles (Bronson's #56) she loves his finger, and in Creighton/Senior #1 his tongue. Maybe it just strengthens the comparison -- but they're interesting body parts to care for; maybe there was more going on in that bedroom than we thought.
It also occurs to me that there is a certain similarity in this tale to "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Not in plot, really, but in incident. Note that Lord Barnard kills Little Musgrave in a formal contest in which Musgrave is granted the first blow. This is obviously a variant on the Beheading Game of "Sir Gawain" -- though in fact the contest is older; the first instance of the Beheading Game appears to have been the Irish prose saga of "Fled Bricrend," "Bricriu's Feast" (cf. Tolkien/Gordon, p. xv); in this, Cuchulainn twice wins the Beheading Game (and others dodge the challenge -- O hOgain, p. 49).
The idea of surviving the Beheading Game might be inspired by the legend of St. Denis of France, who carried off his head after being beheaded; Benet, p. 969. Or, closer to England, there is the story of St. Nectan of Wales, who in the sixth century was killed and beheaded by robbers and supposedly carried his head to the well where he is buried; Kerr, p. 74) There is also a sort of a variant in Blind Harry's "Life of Wallace," in which Wallace cuts off the traitor Fawdoun's head, and Fawdoun returns to him carrying the head. This even has Fawdoun announce his presence by sounding a horn (Garnett/Gosse. volume I, p. 293.
But "Sir Gawain" adds to this the temptation of Gawain by a lady while her husband is out hunting. One might say that "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" is "Sir Gawain" if Gawain had given in to temptation.
Not that there is much likelihood of literary dependence; "Sir Gawain" was effectively lost (only one copy is extant, although there is a rougher parallel, "The Green Knight," in the Percy folio), and the tale seems to come from a region not associated with the main versions of "Little Musgrave." But there are a number of romances (listed in Tolkien/Gordon, pp. xvi-xvii) which are similar to "Sir Gawain" though weaker. Most of these are French, but they might have inspired the story.
The other thing it reminds us of is the idea of "trial by combat," which according to Benet, p. 1181 (under the title "wager of battle") goes back to "early Teutonic times," and was incorporated into English law by William the Conqueror, not being formally repealed until 1818.
Of course, there is an important footnote here: Three people ended up in Lord Barnard's bedroom: Barnard, his wife, and Musgrave. Only Barnard came out alive. Thus every detail must have been attested by Barnard. We could not know if there was actually a contest of blows, or what Lady Barnard said; it's perfectly possible, e.g., that Barnard struck Musgrave without warning, and that Musgrave inflicted Barnard's wound after he was himself struck. Or -- well, I leave the rest as an exercise for the reader, until someone comes up with an actual incident that might be the basis for the song. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: C081

Little Musgrove and Lady Barnard


See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Nell of Narragansett Bay


DESCRIPTION: "Full well do I remember My boyhood's happy hours... The bright and sparkling water O'er which we used to sail." The singer and Nell were never afraid at sea. But one day her body is found by the shore. Ten years later, he still weeps for the girl
AUTHOR: George F. Root (according to Norm Cohen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: ship death drowning separation mourning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 30-31, "Bright-Eyed Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, p. 119, "Little Nell of Narragansette Bay" (1 text)
Brewster 88, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (source notes only)
ST Brew88 (Partial)
Roud #3274
NOTES: There is another "Little Nell" ballad in the National Library of Scotland collection; this too revolves around a dead girl. It is suggested that the name was inspired by the Little Nell of Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop. The same suggestion might apply here. Or might not, of course. - RBW
File: Brew88

Little Old Dudeen


DESCRIPTION: If not for Walter Raleigh "I wouldn't be smoking my old dudeen." The singer smokes to keep peace when his wife grumbles. At his wake there'll be poteen but "into me gob, so help me bob, you'll find me old dudeen"
AUTHOR: Words: Ed Harrigan/Music: John Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock); reportedly written 1875
KEYWORDS: nonballad funeral
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1554-1618 - Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, credited in the song with bringing tobacco to Europe (in fact it was first introduced to Europe by Columbus, and cultivated in Iberia; the first American tobacco plantation was founded by John Rolfe)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 377-378, "My Old Dudeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea337 (Partial)
Roud #9787
NOTES: Library of Congress American Memory 19th century song sheets collection as "Little Old Dudeen": Words Ed Harrigan, Music John Braham, pub Boston 1875.
Harrigan and Hart famous vaudeville team per The Big Bands Database Plus site entry for David Braham.
See The Black Dudeen by Robert Service for one [use of the] phrase "tucked in me gub, me old dudeen." - BS
For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
File: Pea337

Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream (Rosalie)


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the happy time when he and the old folks partied with the fiddle and banjo. Now death has taken his (Rose/Rosalie) "From the little old log cabin by the stream." She was killed by "swamp fever"; and others are likely to be taken also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: death love fiddle
FOUND IN: US(MW,So, SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 710, "Rosalie" (1 text)
DT, LOGCABIN*
Roud #7376
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream" (OKeh 45198, 1928; rec. 1927)
NOTES: I'm not sure what to make of this piece; Randolph's version sounds like a southern minstrel piece, yet the Digital Tradition version, from Illinois, is neither southern nor minstrel-ish.
Making the matter more confusing is the fact that Randolph's informant, Rose Wilder Lane, is of course the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and might thus have had the song from the Ingalls (i.e. Wisconsin) tradition. - RBW
Yes, but it could have entered that tradition from the minstrel shows. They toured everywhere in the USA (and in Britain as well). - PJS
And there is a possibility that one or the other version, probably Lane's, could be from the Fiddlin' John Carson version. - (PJS,RBW)
File: R710
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