Och, Och, Eire, O!


DESCRIPTION: The Irish exile misses home and his "native bay." He recalls the races and games at Christmas. The new home is "lonely and drear"; there is no call of the corncrake. He wishes he had a boat to row back home
AUTHOR: English translation by Eleanor Hull
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (for the Gaelic version; Gaelic Journal)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H819, pp. 219-220, "Och, Och, Eire, O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH819

Ode to Newfoundland


DESCRIPTION: Known by the last verse, "As loved our fathers, so we love, Where once they stood we stand, Their prayer we raise to heav'n above, God guard thee, Newfoundland"
AUTHOR: Words: Sir Cavendish Boyle/Music: C. Hubert H. Parry
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle)
KEYWORDS: nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doyle3, p. 7, "Ode to Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, Front-Cover, "The Ode to Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7304
NOTES: "The National Anthem of Newfoundland, written by Sir Cavendish Boyle ... while he was Britain's Governor of Newfoundland between 1901 and 1904 .... First public performance... 1902" [per GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site] - BS
It should be recalled that, at that time, Newfoundland was not a part of the Dominion of Canada. - RBW
File: Doyl3007

Of All the Birds


DESCRIPTION: "Of all the birds that ever I see, the owle is the fairest in her degree, For all the day she sits in a tree... Te-whit, te-whow, to whom drinks thou... Nose, nose, nose, nose, And who gave thee thy jolly red nose? Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves."
AUTHOR: Thomas Ravenscroft?
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: bird drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 141-142, "Of All the Birds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 50, "Of all the gay birds that e'er I did see" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #248, p. 155, "(Of all the gay birds that e'er I did see"); #138, p. 114, ("Nose, nose, jolly red nose")
DT, ALLBIRDS
Roud #496
NOTES: This piece is a curiosity. Published by Ravenscroft, it is rare although not quite unknown in tradition (the Opies mention an 1842 Lincolnshire version). But, in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act I, scene v, lines 45-46, we find Old Merrythought singing,
Nose, nose, jolly red nose,
And who gave thee this jolly red nose?
And in lines 51-52, Merrythought follows this up with
Nutmegs and ginger, cinnamon and cloves;
And they gave me this jolly red nose.
(Wine, p. 316.)
Merrythought's songs, where they can be identified at all, are mostly traditional pieces -- and we note that his words are not identical to Ravenscroft's. Nor is the Baring-Gould text identical. This raises at least the possibility that the song is traditional. So I've include it here.
The real question is the relationship between the stanzas. Ravenscroft includes "Of all the birds" and "Nose, nose, (jolly red) nose" in one item. The Opies and Baring-Goulds split them, but based on books more recent than Ravenscroft's (the Opies say the "Nose" stanza was independent by 1632). If they are songs at all, are they two joined by Ravenscroft or one split by tradition? Or was it simply such a hit for Ravenscroft that Beaumont and Fletcher latched onto it before it was forgotten?
One thing is certain: It can't be much older than the "Knight of the Burning Pestle," because of the mentions of nutmeg and cloves. Nutmeg, until transplanted, was found only on the seven Banda Islands in the Moluccas, and cloves only from the islands of Ternate and Tidore in the same chain (Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 26). The Moluccas were not known to Europeans until 1512, and it was some time after that before the properties of those particular plants would have been known. The spices were expensive for many years after their discovery; in the 1660s, the Dutch were willing to trade their North American colonies for the one of the nutmeg islands the British controlled (Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 4).
In the footnotes-that-probably-aren't-important department, eugenol, the aromatic ingredient in cloves, and isoeugenol, which gives nutmeg its scent and taste, are chemically extremely similar, differing only in the location of a double bond in a short carbon chain (Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 29). Zingerone, which is the key ingredient in ginger, is also related, although not quite as closely (where eugenol and isoeugenol have a double carbon bond and a hydrogen atom, it has an oxygen atom. Vanillin, the main flavorant in vanilla, is also somewhat akin; Le Couteur/Burreston, pp. 129-130). Cinnamon is slightly more distinct, but cinnamaldehyde has a similar benzene core with a single long tale (Atkins, p. 134); it looks sort of like a molecule of eugenol stripped of most of the accessories, Ravenscroft of course could not know this, but it is interesting to see these three extraordinarily similar spices linked.
Perhaps some of it has to do with the fact that nutmeg also has intoxicant properties -- the consumption of a single whole nutmeg can cause nausea, high blood pressure, flu-like illness, and prolonged hallucinations (Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 31). Smaller quantities would not cause illness but probably could add to the effect of alcohol.
Another curiosity: Why is the owl declared the fairest bird? It was generally considered an ill-omened bird in Britain. Simpson/Roud, p. 270, tell us "[t]hat an owl's cry means death or disaster is an old and widespread motif, both as a folk belief and as a literary convention" -- adding that seeing the bird in daylight is especially bad. Hazlitt, pp. 468-470, gives numerous examples -- and points out that the feeling goes back to the Romans. He notes that "[t]the ancients held owls in the utmost abhorrence" and notes an instance when all Rome undertook a purification ceremony when one entered the capital precinct.
So why did Ravenscroft (or whoever) praise it? Two possible explanations occur to me. One is that this is the period when there was a revival of classical learning -- and the Greeks, unlike the Romans, did not despise the owl. Jones-Larousse, p. 338, observes that "it was the emblem of Athena and hence a symbol of wisdom (Athens was renowned for its profusion of owls)." An owl, in fact, may have indirectly saved Greece during the Persian Wars: Plutarch tells a tale of an owl being seen perched on the mast of Themistocles's ship, convincing the Greeks to go along with his plans -- and hence win the Battle of Salamis and the war (Plutarch/Scott-Kilvert, p. 89; section 12 of Plutarch's biography of Themistocles).
The other possibility that strikes me is that this is a sort of cuckoo analogy: The owl is seen as spending the days in someone else's bed, then flying off when the husband comes home. This would fit in with the love of cuckoldry jokes around 1600, but I will admit it is extremely forced. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: ChWI141

Of All The Gay Birds That E'er I Did See


See Of All the Birds (File: ChWI141)

Off to Epsom Races


See Epsom Races (File: K318)

Off to Sea Once More (I)


See Dixie Brown [Laws D7] (File: LD07)

Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie


DESCRIPTION: Singer says that one old woman in the town is lying about her, and wishes the old woman would die. "Been all around this whole round world/I just got back today.... Oh, babe, it ain't no lie (x3), (Know) this life I'm living is very (hard/high)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Elizabeth Cotten)
KEYWORDS: lie nonballad floatingverses hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 121, "Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 184, "Oh, Babe, It Ain't No Lie" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" (on Cotten01)
NOTES: Elizabeth Cotten learned this song from country blues singers around Chapel Hill, NC. - PJS
I would note that the versions I've heard of this piece are very diverse; most seem to consist of floating lyrics (or at least themes) held together by the chorus "Oh babe, it ain't no lie." - RBW
File: CSW121

Oh Bonnie Laddie Be Mine


DESCRIPTION: "My dearest Abdebter I send you this letter To fix your affection on mine You may get a richer but never a better So oh bonnie laddie be mine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1833, "Oh Bonnie Laddie Be Mine" (1 short text)
Roud #13600
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 text.
GreigDuncan8: apparently a verse for a valentine or album. - BS
With the name or word "Abdebter"? All of Google cannot find a single genuine instance of the term.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1833

Oh But I'm Weary


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, but I'm weary, weary waitin'... Oh, mither, gie me a man Will tak this weariness away." The mother suggests a plowman, mason, miller, etc.; the daughter rejects each (e.g. a plowman's wife works too hard); she wants a man who lives "by the pen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: mother children marriage work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #98, p. 1, "Oh, But I'm Weary"; Greig #99, p. 2, "Oh, But I'm Weary" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan7 1332, "O But I'm Weary" (7 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord, p. 150, "Oh, But I'm Weary" (1 text)
Roud #5555
NOTES: One rather suspects this was written by some weedy young poet trying to convince a girl he was a better catch than a more handsome fellow with a lower-class job.
Wish I'd thought of that trick way back when.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord150

Oh California


DESCRIPTION: "I come from Salem City with my washbowl on my knee. I'm going to California The gold dust for to see." A parody of "Oh! Susanna," telling of the sea voyage to San Francisco. The singer of course expects to get rich
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: gold derivative humorous ship travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1849 - California gold rush
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 114-117, "I Come from Salem City" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OHCALIF*
Roud #8824
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune)
File: ShaSS114

Oh Charlie, O Charlie


See Charlie, O Charlie (Pitgair) (File: Ord216)

Oh Cruel


DESCRIPTION: "Oh cruel were my parents that stole [imprest?] my love fae me," but he has returned safely. They go to Almeldrum, a poor town of little water, tasteless food, a frail bridge, and a council so down on sin they might let one baby cross but not twins.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3) [but note parodies printed before 1813]
KEYWORDS: courting parting return travel commerce humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan3 513, "Aul' Meldrum Toon" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 324, "Oh Cruel" (1 text, possibly this or perhaps one of the parodies)
Roud #5997
NOTES: GreigDuncan3: "For the sub-title and opening stanza, cf. the song 'Cruel was my father' of which Greig received a version from Miss H. Rae." Since that verse is not reproduced in Greig or the Greig-Duncan collection we are left to guess what song that might be. It might be "Riley's Farewell" - though Greig does have that as "John Rylie" - which, in Greig's version includes the lines "Cruel were my parents to persecute my love" [by having him imprest]; that line in, for example, Ashton,Modern Street Ballads, "Riley's Farewell" is "Cruel was my father that thought to shoot my love."
There are different broadside parodies of "Oh Cruel." For example, see
Bodleian, Harding B 17(9a), "The Answer to 'Oh! Cruel'" ("Oh! cruel were my parents that envied our love "), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.13(91), Harding B 11(81), "The Answer to 'Oh! Cruel'"
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1396), "Another Oh, Cruel! A sketch of the life of Sammy Simple, a tale, alas too true!" ("O cruel was the serjeant who did my lovey list"), J.K. Pollock (North Shields), 1815-1855
Bodleian, Harding B 11(81), "Oh! Cruel" ("Oh! cruel were my parents, as tore my love from me")["Written and sung by a gentleman (In the Character of a Female Ballad Singer)"], J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.12(207), Firth c.12(205), 2806 c.18(220), Harding B 11(672), "Oh Cruel!"; Harding B 25(1930), "Tommy Strill"; Johnson Ballads 2304[some lines illegible], "The Answer to Oh! cruel"
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 250, "Dr. Shuffle" ("Oh! cruel 'twas of you pa, to force this job on me"), G. Stewardson (Norwich), no date
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Old Meldrum (513) is at coordinate (h2-3,v8) on that map [roughly 16 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3513

Oh Dear Mother


DESCRIPTION: "What a cold I've got." The singer asks the doctor whether s/he will die. The answer may be yes [eventually] or no; in any case, to cure this cold "take your medicine twice a day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: disease medicine nonballad doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1613, "Oh Dear Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13501
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh Mother Mother
NOTES: GreigDuncan8: "It is also similar to part of Opie, Singing Game, No. 147 'The Johnsons Had a Baby' and lines in 'Mistress Brown' referred to at [GreigDuncan8] 1617 'Mrs Brown Went to Town'." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81613

Oh Death (I)


See Death and the Lady (File: ShH22)

Oh Death (II)


See Conversation with Death (Oh Death) (File: R663)

Oh Death (III)


DESCRIPTION: Known mostly by the chorus, "(Oh death/Lord), Spare me over till another year." Despite the worries about dying, the singer praises the afterlife; God or Jesus or someone will has "made for me a home in heaven," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 201-203, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OHDEATH*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Conversation with Death (Oh Death)" (lyrics)
NOTES: Although this shares lyrics with "Conversation with Death (Oh Death)," the feeling is very different. - RBW
File: ThBa201

Oh dem Golden Slippers


See Golden Slippers (File: RJ19144)

Oh Did Ye See a Bloody Knight


See Young Johnstone [Child 88] (File: C088)

Oh Dinna Quarrel the Bairnies


DESCRIPTION: "Oh dinna quarrel the bairnies, try till agree; Be kind to ane anither, be advised by me. Ye'll a 'gree thegither yet in far less room"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 671, "Oh Dinna Quarrel the Bairnies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6097
File: GrD3671

Oh Fudge, Tell the Judge


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, fudge, Tell the judge, Mother's got a baby. Oh, joy, It's a boy, Father's nearly crazy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid)
KEYWORDS: mother father baby judge nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 239, (no title) (1 short text)
File: MHAp239C

Oh Gin My Love War a Red Rose


DESCRIPTION: The singer says that if his love were a rose and he a drop of dew he would fall on her; if she were frozen ale her kiss would keep him warm; if she were locked up in a coffer and he had the key he would open the coffer twenty times a night.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love flowers nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 936, "Oh Gin My Love War a Red Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6751
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Monthly Rose" (some verses)
cf. "My Lovie She's Little" (lyrics about ale warming on the coldest night)
NOTES: The first verse was adapted by Burns for the beginning of his second verse of "O Were My Love Yon Lilac Fair" (Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), p. 383). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5936

Oh Hae Ye Seen My Jamie?


DESCRIPTION: Have you seen my Jamie? He's gone on a spree.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1795, "Oh Hae Ye Seen My Jamie?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #12998
NOTES: GreigDuncan8: "April 1906. 'Sung at performance of "Gentle Shepherd" in Whitehill School, some thirty-five years ago.'" I don't find the song itself in Ramsay's play "The Gentle Shepherd" (Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd (Glasgow, 1743 (seventh edition "Digitized by Google")) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81795

Oh How Can I Leave You


DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Liza and "long[s] for the day I can call you my own" He remembers a May meeting "when with you I sported among the new hay" and "a lone winter's evening" when "your smiles made me cheery"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 713, "Eliza" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6155
NOTES: GreigDuncan4 quoting Greig: "Said to be by Dr. [James] Robertson of Ellon [1803-1860]." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4713

Oh Jeannie, There's Naething to Fear Ye


DESCRIPTION: "O! My lassie, our joy to complete again, Meet me again in the gloamin, my dearie" to their "bed in the greenwood." The singer names things that might be frightening (bats, bogle, and brownie) but says there's nothing to fear: "Love be thy sure defence"
AUTHOR: James Hogg (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: courting sex lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1858, "Oh Jeannie, There's Naething to Fear Ye" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, p. 433, "O! Jeannie, There’s Naething to Fear Ye"
Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), p. 69, "O Jeanie"
Roud #13212
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blue Bonnets Over the Border" (tune, per Whitelaw)
NOTES: "The bogle or goblin was a mischievous, freakish spirit who took delight in frightening and perplexing rather than in helping or seriously injuring mankind.... The brownie, on the other hand, was a kindly spirit sincerely attached to the household" (source: James Cranstoun, editor, The Poems of Alexander Montgomerie (Edinburgh, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 324). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81858

Oh Judy, Oh Judy


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Judy [Judas], oh Judy, hit's time that I go, I know you will 'tray me though I love you so." Jesus tells Judas to buy food for the poor, but Judas sells Jesus. Jesus condemns Judas for his betrayal
AUTHOR: unknown ("collected" by John Jacob Niles)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: Jesus betrayal death money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles 16C, "Oh Judy, Oh Judy" (1 text, which Niles considers part of Child 23, but this is clearly not the case)
File: Niles16C

Oh Lily, Dear Lily


DESCRIPTION: "My foot is in the stirrup, My bridle's in my hand, I'll go court another And marry if I can. Oh Lily, oh Lily, my Lily fare you well. I'm sorry to leave you, For I love you so well." "So fare you well, (Molly), I'll bid you adieu, I'm ruined forever..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: love separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 731, "Oh Lily, Dear Lily" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
BrownII 139, "Sweet Lily" (1 text)
Roud #7583
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell, Sweet Mary" (floating lyrics)
cf. "My Foot Is in the Stirrup"
NOTES: I don't think there is a single line in Randolph's texts that is not paralleled elsewhere. But he treats this as a separate song, and he collected it, so I follow his lead. Similarly the longer version in Brown; the editors give notes about all the various parallels. The possibility must be admitted, however, that this is a worn-down form of something else -- or even that Randolph's two versions, and Brown's one, are separate pieces. - RBW
File: R731

Oh Lord, What a Morning


See When the Stars Begin to Fall (File: LoF237)

Oh Molly, I Can't Say That You're Honest


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Molly, I can't say that you're honest, You've stolen my heart from my breast." "I know that you father is stingy... 'Tis mighty small change that you'll bring me Exceptin' the change of your name." He throws a rock at her window to say he was there
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: love courting father mother humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SHenry H82, p. 262, "An Irish Serenade" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 14, "Oh Molly, I Can't Say You're Honest" (1 text)
Roud #6918
File: HHH082

Oh Mother, Take the Wheel Away


DESCRIPTION: "Oh (mother/father), take the (wheel/cow) away And put it out of sight, For I am heavy-hearted And I cannot (spin/milk) tonight." The rest of the song apparently concerns the lover the singer has lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 814, "Oh Mother, Take the Wheel Away" (2 fragments)
Roud #7430
NOTES: This is probably a fragment/remnant of something else -- but Randolph's texts are so fragmentary that we cannot tell what. - RBW
File: R814

Oh My Comrades You Must Know


See The Sailor's New Leg (File: GrD1147)

Oh My Darling Clementine


See Clementine (File: RJ19148)

Oh My Johnny Was a Shoemaker


See My Johnny Was a Shoemaker (File: OLcM044)

Oh My Little Darling


DESCRIPTION: "Oh my little darling, don't you weep and cry/Some sweet day a-coming, marry you and I" "Oh my little darling, don't you weep and moan/Some sweet day a-coming, take my baby home" "Up and down the railroad, 'cross the county line..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recorded from Thaddeus C. Willingham)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness courting love marriage reunion separation dancetune nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Thaddeus C. Willingham, "Oh My Little Darling" (on AFS 3115 B1, 1939)
Mike Seeger, "Oh My LIttle Darling" (on MSeeger01)
NOTES: Nonballad, but it's attained sufficient popularity among old-time musicians, beginning with Mike Seeger, to warrant its inclusion. - PJS
File: RcOMLD

Oh My, Oh She Had Lovely Curly Hair


DESCRIPTION: The singer "really thought my bride I would make her" until he found out that she lived with "a dashin' flashin' Irish navigator"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting sex rake hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan6 1210, "Oh My, Oh She Had Lovely Curly Hair" (1 text)
Roud #6798
File: GrD61210

Oh That I Had in My Coffin Been Laid


DESCRIPTION: The old man complains that his silly young wife won't let him sleep: "when she comes to bed to me she winna lie still." What does she want? He wishes he had died before he married, or that she "would but sicken and die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: age sex nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1309, "Oh That I Had in My Coffin Been Laid" (1 text)
Roud #7205
File: GrD71309

Oh the Miller He Stole Corn


See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Oh the Rose


DESCRIPTION: A sailor, bound for the sea, asks a girl to leave her milk pails and go with him. She refuses. He sends her a letter that "he was going to serve the queen." She rejects him again. He says "Fare ye well ye saucy girl, It's better to go free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting ring rejection farewell flowers sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #147, p. 2, ("There was a lad, a nice young lad"); Greig #150, p. 2, "Oh the Rose" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan6 1218, "Oh the Rose" (6 texts, 7 tunes)
Roud #6312
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broken Down Rose
The Lassie Wi' Her Milkin Pail
NOTES: GreigDuncan6 deduces that Greig's #150 text is a composite of two or three texts.
The GreigDuncan6 title is from the chorus "Oh the rose, the broken down rose, The diamond of a ring! A broken heart will surely mend again, And maybe sae will mine." The diamond ring reference is from "He wrote a letter to his love, And sealed it with his ring." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61218

Oh Then


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

Oh Tibbie, Are Ye Sleepin'


DESCRIPTION: Charlie is cold and wet and waiting at Tibbie's door. If she's not sleeping he would have her come down and speak a minute. He says he won't see her so often now but will think about her as he passes her door.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nightvisit nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 782, "Oh Tibbie, Are Ye Sleepin'" (1 text)
Roud #6196
File: GrD4782

Oh What an Afternoon


DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a song of my Uncle Pete" who did outlandish things. "He polished his boots with pumpkin squash." He kept tame butterflies that he fed on "ticktacks, cinders and lard." He himself ate in "a common dinner pail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: talltale food bug
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1708, "Oh What an Afternoon" (1 text)
Roud #13137
File: GrD81708

Oh What Care I for Your Weel-Made Beds


DESCRIPTION: "O what care I for your weel-made beds, Or gold rings to adore me? Weel micht I been a maiden the streen Gin Lord Huntly had never seen me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: sex rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan6 1265, "Oh What Care I for Your Weel-Made Beds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6794
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan6 fragment. - BS
My gut tells me this is derived, somehow, from "The Gypsy Laddie" [Child 200], but I can offer no evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61265

Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?


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

Oh Write Me Down, Ye Powers Above


See Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)

Oh Ye Young, Ye Gay, Ye Proud


DESCRIPTION: "Oh ye young, ye gay, ye proud, You must die and wear a shroud, Death will rob you of your bloom, He will drag you to the tomb, Then you'll cry I want to be Happy in eternity."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 639, "Oh Ye Young, Ye Gay, Ye Proud" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7564
File: R639

Oh You Caint Go to Heaven


See Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More (File: R300)

Oh You Who Are Able....


DESCRIPTION: "Oh you who are able go out to the stable And throw down your horses some corn If you don't do it the sergeant will know it And report you to General Van Dorn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: Civilwar horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 1862 - Earl Van Dorn appointed to command the Confederate armies in Missouri and Arkansas
Mar 7-8, 1862 - Battle of Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern. Despite superior numbers, Van Dorn cannot dislodge the Federals
Oct 3-4, 1862 - Battle of Corinth. Van Dorn abandons the field after failing to break the Federal line. Although cleared of charges of mismanagement, he is transferred to the cavalry
May 8, 1863 - Murder of Van Dorn, allegedly for seducing the wife of a local resident
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 250, "Oh You Who Are Able..." (1 fragment)
Roud #7716
NOTES: I can't escape the feeling that this song is somehow connected to Earl Van Dorn's reputation as a flashy ladies' man without a great deal of depth or ability (Foote p. 725, quotes an unnamed senator as saying, "He is the source of all our woes, and disaster, it is prophesied, will attend us as long as he is connected with this army. The atmosphere is dense with horrid narratives of his negligence, whoring, and drunkenness, for the truth of which I cannot vouch; but it is so fastened in the public belief that an acquittal by a court-marshal of angels would not relieve him of the charge." Indeed, Van Dorn would later be murdered by an angry husband who accused him of an affair with his wife (Boatner, p. 867). And he lost both of his major battles as an infantry commander, at Pea Ridge and Corinth). But I can't prove the connection based on the fragment I've seen.
Foote also notes, on p. 278, that at one time he had a higher price on his head than General Beauregard, the commander of the attack on Fort Sumter, who was widely regarded as the Great Enemy of the north in late 1861 and early 1862.
Catton, p. 207, describes his better attributes: "a slim, elegant little soldier with curly hair, charming manners, and a strong taste for fighting. A West Pointer in his early forties, Van Dorn had an excellent record. He had been an Indian fighter of note, with four wounds received in action on the western plains, and he had done well in the Mexican War, taking another wound and winning promotion for gallantry." Catton regards him as very unlucky, however (p. 209).
HTIECivilWar observes in its entry on Van Dorn that he faced a charge of drunkenness at a court-martial after Corinth, notes that he was "frequently the center of controversy, both for his military tactics and the conduct of his personal life," and says that he "was killed by an irate husband at his headquarters in Spring Hill, Tenn[essee], 7 May 1863."
There is a fragment in Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 227, "It was at the battle of Elkhorn, Van Dorn he lost his hat, And for about a half a mile He laid the bushes flat." I can't identify it with anything else; the mention of the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern might connect it with "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, or The Pea Ridge Battle [Laws A12]," or perhaps with one of the General Price songs -- but if I had to guess, I'd guess it goes here; the feeling is right. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: R250

Oh, Absalom, My Son


See David's Lamentation (File: FSWB412B)

Oh, Baby, 'Low Me One More Chance


DESCRIPTION: "A burly coon you know Who took his clothes an' go, Come back las' night. But his wife said, 'Honey, I'se done wid coon, I'se gwine to pass for white.'" He promises to reform, to be satisfied with little, even to do the cooking. She does not relent
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: abandonment home rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 275-276, (no title) (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" (theme)
NOTES: Sort of a "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" with the gender roles reversed and the proper ending to the piece. - RBW
File: ScNF275B

Oh, Be Ready When the Train Comes In


DESCRIPTION: "We are soldiers in this blessed war, For Jesus we are marching on, With a shout and song." "We are sweeping on to claim the blessed promise... Oh, be ready when the train comes in." Harlots, idolaters, loafers, jokers will not be allowed aboard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 258, "Oh, Be Ready When the Train Comes In" (1 text)
NOTES: Very little of this is actually Biblical (smoking, e.g., is not mentioned in the Bible, and the Bible isn't entirely unhumorous -- the book of Jonah, e.g., contains many farcical elements). The one fairly clear allusion is to the "land of Beulah" -- a reference to Isaiah 62:4, where the King James version leaves the word beulah -- "married" -- untranslated. - RBW
File: ScaNF258

Oh, Bedad Then, Says I


See I Don't Mind If I Do (File: MA263)

Oh, Brother Will You Meet Me?


See probably The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Oh, Captain, Captain, Tell Me True


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

Oh, Dat Watermilion


See Watermelon on the Vine (File: Br3454)

Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?


DESCRIPTION: "Oh dear, what can the matter be? (x3), Johnny's so long at the fair." Johnny had promised to bring the singer various gifts, such as "blue ribbons... to tie up my bonny brown hair," but he is long in coming
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1792
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber) US(SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1685, "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownIII 122, "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 85, "Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 280, "Johnny shall have a new bonnet" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #158, p. 118, "(Johnny shall have a new bonnet)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 150, "Oh, Dear! What Can the Matter Be"" (1 text)
Fuld-FFM, pp. 398-399, "Oh! Dear, What Can the Matter Be?"
DT, ODEARWHA* ODEARWH2
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #78, "Oh! Dear1" (1 text)
Roud #1279
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(103/104), "Dear! What Can the Matter Be," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2743), Harding B 11(2743), "Oh! Dear What Can the Matter Be"
LOCSinging, sb10024a, "Bunch of Blue Ribbons," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sailor Boy (A Sailor Boy in Blue)" (theme)
cf. "Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Seven Old Ladies (File: EM119)
Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint) (File: Moyl038)
NOTES: Fuld reports this song appearing, almost as if by magic, in sundry editions and manuscripts between 1770 and 1792. None list authors, and few can be dated exactly. The origin of this song, clearly more popular for its tune than its banal lyrics, must therefore remain a mystery.
The Opies note a clear resemblance with their #280, which begins
Johnny shall have a new bonnet,
And Johnny shall go to the fair,
And Johnny shall have a blue ribbon
To tie up his bonny brown hair.
The Opies call this "the nursery, and possibly original, version" of the song. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10024a: 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: FSWB150B

Oh, Freedom!


See O Freedom (File: LxU108)

Oh, Gin Ye Were Deid, Goodman


See I Wish That You Were Dead, Goodman (File: HHH531)

Oh, Give Me a Hut


See Give Me a Hut (File: MA137)

Oh, Give Me a Hut in My Own Native Land


See Give Me a Hut (File: MA137)

Oh, Hard Fortune!


See Kind Fortune (File: KaNew074)

Oh, Haud Awa'


See Haud Awa, Bide Awa (File: GrD4858)

Oh, Ho, Baby, Take a One On Me!


See Take a Whiff on Me; also perhaps Take a Drink on Me (File: RL130)

Oh, Honey, Where You Been So Long?


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, honey, where you been so long? Oh, honey, where you been so long? 'I been round the bend and I come back again, Oh, honey, where you been so long?" "Oh, honey, where you been so long? (x2) And it's when I return with a ten dollar bill, it's Honey..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad return money
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 317, "Oh, Honey, Where You Been So Long?" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (lyrics)
NOTES: Every word of Brown's text of this is found in "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground," and my first inclination was to include it as a worn-down version of that song. But the notes in Brown say there is a longer version in Gordon, so here it sits. Tentatively. - RBW
File: Br3317

Oh, How He Lied


DESCRIPTION: An "old villain" sits by a girl and smokes his cigar. She plays her guitar. "He told her he loved her but oh how he lied." They agree to marry, "but she up and died." She goes to heaven, he to hell ("sizzle, he fried"), listeners are warned against lies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Joe Foss & his Hungry Sand Lappers)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage music death lie Hell humorous
FOUND IN: US Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 130-131, "Don't Tell a Lie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 257, "She Sat on Her Hammock" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 31, "Oh, How He Lied" (1 text)
DT, HELIED*
Roud #13621
RECORDINGS:
Joe Foss & his Hungry Sand Lappers, "Oh How She Lied" (Columbia 15268-D, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Oh How He Lied" (on PeteSeeger31)
NOTES: Meredith/Covell/Brown notes that the tune for this is a waltz by Joseph Franz Karl Lanner. - RBW
File: FSWB031B

Oh, How They Frisk It


See Under the Greenwood Tree (File: ChWIII053)

Oh, I Used to Drink Beer


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I used to drink beer, But I throwed it all away (x3), Oh I used to drink beer, But I throwed it all away, And now I'm free at last." "Oh, I used to chew tobacco." "Oh, I used to love sin." "Oh, I gave hell a shake When I came out de wilderness."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 618, "Oh, I Used To Drink Beer" (1 text)
Roud #11920
NOTES: The real keyword for this song should probably be "obnoxious-unconvincing-moralizer." I don't drink or smoke -- but this is the sort of song that almost makes me wish I did. - RBW
File: Br3618

Oh, I Wish I Were Single Again


See I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again (File: Wa126)

Oh, I'll get ribbons to my hair


See The Navvy (File: GrD5977)

Oh, I'll Never Go With Riley Any More


DESCRIPTION: Singer's friend Riley, just paid, invites him on a spree; they wind up in a fight. Riley punches a policeman; the singer ends up jail. Riley gets killed: "Oh, he thought the wire was dead/But it was full of life instead." Singer won't go with Riley again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Pat Ford)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer's friend Riley, just paid, invites him on a spree; they wind up in a fight. Riley punches a policeman but the singer, badly bruised, gets put in jail. Riley, meanwhile, gets killed: "Oh, he thought the wire was dead/But it was full of life instead." Singer says he'll never go out with Riley any more
KEYWORDS: fight prison death technology drink injury friend police
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #15473
RECORDINGS:
Pat Ford, "Oh, I'll never go [out] with Riley anymore" (AFS 4211 A3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES: The [AMMEM] index includes the word "out" in the title, but the page devoted to the item itself does not. - PJS
File: RcOINGOW

Oh, Johnny, Johnny


DESCRIPTION: A conversation between two former lovers, comprised mostly of floating lyrics. The singer tells Johnny that she loves him; he was the first boy she ever loved. He tells her that she betrayed him, and he now has a new sweetheart. He regrets her infidelity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H16, pp. 392-393, "Oh Johnny, Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Fair and Tender Ladies" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Tavern in the Town" (floating lyrics"
NOTES: If one had deliberately set out to create an amalgam of every lost love cliche in folk song, one could hardly do better than this. Without even trying, I observe elements of "Waly, Waly," "Love is Teasing," the "Tavern in the Town" cluster, and "Fair and Tender Ladies," as well as parallels to everything from "Peggy Gordon" to "Barbara Allen."
I suppose one of these songs is the "original," and all the others simply offered verses to be incorporated into the whole, but at this point there is no telling the original source. - RBW
File: HHH016

Oh, Lawd, How Long


See Oh, Lord, How Long (File: R615)

Oh, Lord, How Long


DESCRIPTION: "Before this time another year, I may be (dead and) gone, Down in some lonesome graveyard, Oh Lord, how long!" "Just as the tree falls, just so it lies; Just as the sinner lives, just so he dies." "My mother broke the ice and gone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Odette & Ethel)
KEYWORDS: religious death family nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 615, "Oh Lord, How Long!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 586-587, "Oh, Lawd, How Long?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, p. 169, "Oh Lord, How Long?" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R615 (Full)
Roud #7546
RECORDINGS:
Sister L. Brown & congregation "Before This Time, Another Year" (on MuSouth09)
The Chosen Gospel Singers, "Before This Time Another Year" (Specialty 848, n.d.)
Cleveland Simmons and Mr. Taylor, "I May Be Gone" (AAFS 422 A2, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
Odette & Ethel, "Befo' This Time Another Year" (Columbia 14169-D, 1926)
NOTES: This is really a chorus with extra lyrics. Bessie Jones sang a version with irregular lines (interspersed with the phrase "how long"?), which broke into the chorus at random intervals. The Lomax text proceeds in double lines, but of different lengths. Some of the versions are regular. But the song is recognized by the chorus "Before this time another year, I may be gone...." - RBW
File: R615

Oh, Lord, I'se Steppin' HIgher


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lord, I'se steppin' higher; Doan' let de ladder break. Saint Peter, open up de do' An' gib mah han' a shake!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 619, "Oh, Lord, I'se Steppin' Higher" (1 text)
Roud #11922
File: Br3619

Oh, Lord, Send Us a Blessing


DESCRIPTION: "Oh Lord, send us a blessing, And oh Lord, send us a blessing, And oh Lord, send us a blessing, And send it down today."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 649, "Oh, Lord, Send Us a Blessing" (1 fragment)
Roud #7570
File: R649

Oh, Love is Teasin'


See Love is Teasing (File: Rits024)

Oh, Lovely, Come This Way


DESCRIPTION: "I had an old shoe, it had no heel (x3), I looked like a preacher with a mouthful of meal." "Oh, lovely, come this way (x3), Never let the wheels of the church roll away." Other verses often extravagant and floating, e.g. "Whip old Satan round the stump"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty floatingverses devil clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 98, "Oh, Lovely, Come This Way" (1 text)
Roud #8372
NOTES: About half of the verses in Brown are paralleled in the Woodie Brothers recording "Chased Old Satan Through the Door," but as that piece has a different chorus, form, and apparent purpose, I classify them separately. - RBW
File: Br3098

Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep


DESCRIPTION: "If I could I surely would Stand on the rock where Moses stood, Pharaoh's army got drowned, Oh Mary don't you weep." Verses describing the Exodus and how God cares for humanity, with the "Pharaoh's army..." chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (recording, Fisk University Male Quartette)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
BrownIII 545, "Pharaoh's Army" (4 texts, mostly short)
Sandburg, pp. 476-477, "Pharaoh's Army Got Drowned" (1 short text, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 200, "Pharaoh's Army Got Drownded" (1 short text, with chorus "Pharaoh's army got drowned In the deep blue sea"; it might be a separate song, but is too short to classify on its own.)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 78, "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 354, "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (1 text)
DT, OHMARY
Roud #11823
RECORDINGS:
Biddleville Quintette, "Pharoah's Army Got Drowned" (QRS 7073, 1929)
Birmingham Jubilee Singers, "Pharoah's Army Got Drowned" (Columbia 14203-D, 1927)
Leo Boswell & Merritt Smith, "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" (Supertone 2825, n.d.)
Fisk University Male Quartette, "O Mary, Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn" (Columbia A1895, 1915)
Georgia Yellow Hammers, "Mary Don't You Weep" (Victor 20928, 1927)
Morris Family, "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" (Vocalion 5465, 1940)
Richmond Starlight Quartette, "Mary, Don't You Weep" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
Pete Seeger, "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep" (on PeteSeeger15, 2 versions) (on PeteSeeger17); "Mary Don't You Weep" (on PeteSeeger24); "O Mary Don't You Weep" (on PeteSeeger26)
Southern Four, "Good News, Chariot's Comin'! and O Mary, Doan You Weep" (Edison 50885, 1921)
Ex-Governor Alf Taylor & his Old Limber Quartet, "Pharoah's Army Got Drownded" (Victor 19451, 1924)
Virginia Female Jubilee Singers, "O Mary, Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn" (OKeh 4430, 1921)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Can'cha Line 'Em" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't You Hear My Hammer Ringing" (lyrics)
cf. "Heaven and Hell" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Lord, I Never Will Come Back Here No Mo'" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Although loosely based on the stories of the Exodus, there is a lot that is non-Biblical here (e.g. there is no reference in the New Testament to Mary ever wearing a chain. The closest reference I can think of is Luke 2:25, where Simeon tells Mary, "A sword will pierce your own soul too").
The reference to the "rock where Moses stood" is, I believe, to Ex. 17:5, where Moses stood on the rock and struck it to bring forth water.
Moses, according to modern interpretations, did not "smite" the Red Sea (or "Sea of Reeds"), but in Ex. 14:15 he may have stretched the staff over the sea (in Ex. 14:21, 26-27 he simply "stretched his hand over the sea"; it's worth noting that most scholars think there are two mixed accounts here, one where a wind blew the water aside and one where the waters miraculously parted).
God gave the sign of the [rain]bow in Gen. 9:13f. - RBW
In every version I've heard of this song, the word in the chorus is "drownded," not "drowned." - PJS
Same here. On the other hand, I've only heard Pop Folk sorts of versions. Of Brown's four versions, two (including the most substantial) have "drowned," two have "drowneded." - RBW
File: San476

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


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mr. Revel! Did you ever see the devil With wooden spade and shovel A-digging up the gravel With his long toe-nail?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: devil work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 141, "Oh, Mr. Revel" (2 short texts)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 284, (no title) (2 fragments)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 252, "Did Ye Ever See the Divil" (1 short text)
Roud #16319
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Did You Ever, Ever, Ever" (theme)
File: Br3141

Oh, My God, Them 'Taters


See Whoa Back, Buck (File: LxU067)

Oh, No, Not I


DESCRIPTION: A "Newfoundland sailor" and a noble lady meet. He asks her to marry; she say, "Oh, no, not I"; his birth is too low. When she bears a child nine months later, she writes to ask him to come back; he tells her, "Oh, no, not I," and bids her go begging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1375))
KEYWORDS: pregnancy separation rejection marriage nobility
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Que)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fowke-Lumbering #56, "No, My Boy, Not I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 304-305, "Oh No, Not I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 112, "Hello, My Boy, Not I" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARRYNO
Roud #1403
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1375), "No, My Love, Not I," J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.18(293), Firth b.34(208), Firth b.34(97), Harding B 11(2715), Harding B 17(220b), "No, My Love, Not I"; Firth c.13(169), Harding B 25(1340), "The Newfoundland Sailor"; Firth c.18(292), Harding B 25(1422), 2806 c.18(223), Harding B 20(119), Harding B 11(1635), "O No My Love, Not I"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yellow Handkerchief (Flash Company)"" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Courting Coat" (floating lyrics)
cf. "You Say You Are of Noble Race" (theme)
cf. "The Roving Shantyboy" (plot)
cf. "Barley Raking (Barley Rigs A-Raking)" (plot)
NOTES: Recorded by Margaret Christl and Ian Robb, who in turn inspired Stan Rogers to record it (nearly the only traditional song he ever recorded). Kenneth Peacock found it in Newfoundland, and other versions are few (by my standards; Roud has many in his list, but many appear to be different songs with common lyrics). Fowke calls it a "neat localizing of a popular British ballad that appeared on many nineteenth-century broadsides as 'O No, My Love, Not I.'" - RBW
File: DTmarryn

Oh, Once I Had a Fortune


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes how drink has cost him money and sweetheart: "Oh, once I had a fortune, All locked up in a trunk. I lost it all in a gambling hall One night when I got drunk. I'll never get drunk any more...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: drink poverty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 316, "Oh, Once I Had a Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 203-205, "I Had a Handsome Fortune" (1 text)
BrownIII 36, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More" (4 texts, all mixed, but the "D" text is mostly this piece, and "C" probably originated with this also)
Roud #7792 and 1993
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "Once I Had a Fortune" (Edison 51935, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5357, 1927); Ernest V. Stoneman and His Blue Ridge Cornshuckers, "One I Had a Fortune" (Victor, unissued, 1928)
File: R316

Oh, Pretty Polly


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

Oh, See My Father Layin' There


See I Have No Loving Mother Now (Oh, See My Father Layin' There) (File: Br3622)

Oh, Some Say That He Claw'd


DESCRIPTION: Donald and Maggie McCraw "claw'd ane anither an' a'." When Maggie got a flea on her rump it made a lot of work "for he claw'd and she claw'd She claw'd and he claw'd"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: violence humorous nonballad husband wife bug
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1507, "Oh, Some Say That He Claw'd" (1 text)
Roud #7168
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Sheriffmuir" (tune, per GreigDuncan7)
File: GrD71507

Oh, Susanna (II)


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Swedish version has a sailor leaving his true love and (for a change) actually returning after she has pined for a while. Another (English) fragment has two verses referring to "the Sovereign of the seas." Both use the familiar Foster tune.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: fo'c'sle sailor shanty return derivative
FOUND IN: US Sweden
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 116-117, "Oh, Susanna," "Susannavisan (The Susanna Song)" (3 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune)
NOTES: Hugill got the Swedish version from Sang under Segel (Sternvall, 1935), which has notes claiming that this text and melody can be traced to the 1750s. If that's true it would put a rather different light on both the Stephen Foster and the gold rush connection. - SL
I have to admit that I don't buy this. I donÕt know what Sternvall's evidence is, but Foster exuded tunes the way a politician exudes falsehoods about what is mathematically possible. If he'd been better at writing lyrics, he'd have had probably twice as many hits. So I strongly doubt he would have had to steal a tune.
Could the dating somehow be related to The Sovereign of the Seas? There were sundry ships of that name, including an American clipper built in 1852 -- but the most famous ship of that name was Phineas Pett's great battleship of 1637. It was not a very successful ship -- it was too big for the shipbuilding techniques of the time, and as a result was very slow -- but it was so big that it established a reputation based on sheer size and gunpower. - RBW
File: Hugi116

Oh, the Brave Old Duke of York


See The Noble Duke of York (File: FSWB390B)

Oh, the Heavens Shut the Gates On Me


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the heavens shut the gates on me, Oh, the due time, shut the gates on me, Sometimes I weep, sometimes I mourn, Sometimes I do nary one. Oh, the heavens shut the gates on me, Oh, the due time, shut the gates on me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 620, "Oh, the Heavens Shut the Gates On Me" (1 text)
Roud #11923
File: Br3620

Oh, They Put John on the Island


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, they put John on the island When the Bridegroom comes, They put John on the island when he comes." "They put him there to starve him." "But you can't starve a Christian." "They fed him on milk and honey." "Oh, look down Jordan river."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 546, "Oh, They Put John on the Island" (1 text)
Roud #11824
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Weep After Me" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This song contains an odd mix of elements -- the final verses in Brown seem to be imports, and insignificant. But the early verses seem a conflation.
According to Revelation 1:9, John was "on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." Note that there is no sign he was exiled there; indeed, the general sense is that he voluntarily fled there (probably during the persecution of Domitian, reigned 81-96 C.E.).
Nowhere, however, do we read of John being miraculously fed, let alone with milk and honey (in 10:9-11, he is fed a scroll that tastes like honey, but that's hardly the same thing!). The closest parallel I can think of is in the gospels: In Matthew 4:11, after the temptation by the Devil, "angels came and tended [Jesus]." No mention of milk and honey, though. - RBW
File: Br3546

Oh, What a Beautiful City


See Twelve Gates to the City (File: PSAFB081)

Oh, When I Git My New House Done


See Sail Away, Ladies (File: CSW203)

Oh, Where Is My Sweetheart?


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, where is my sweetheart? Can anyone tell? (x3) Can anyone, anyone tell?" "He is flirting with another, I know very well." "He told me he loved me, he told me a lie." "I've found me another I love just as well." "...I love him, I wish he was mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 303, "Oh, Where Is My Sweetheart?" (2 text plus an excerpt)
Roud #11319
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Br3303

Oh, Whistle, Whistle, Daughter


See Whistle, Daughter, Whistle (File: R109)

Oh, Ye've Been False, or, The Curse


DESCRIPTION: "As I cam' in by yon bonnie waterside... There I spied my ain dear love, And I left my heart wi' him." Finding him false, the singer curses the church where he will marry, hopes his wife buries five sons, and wishes mortal wounds to she who "sinnert" them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: betrayal curse rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord, pp. 173-174, "Oh, Ye've Been False; or The Curse" (1 text)
Roud #5584
File: Ord173

Oh! 'Tis Pretty to be in Ballinderry


See Ballinderry (File: HHH080)

Oh! An Irishman's Heart


DESCRIPTION: "Oh! an Irishman's heart is as stout as shillelah." Invaders beware, "but the battle once over, no rage fills his breast." "Give poor Pat but fair freedom, his sweetheart and whisky, And he'll die for old Ireland, his king, and his friend"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 117-118, "Oh! An Irishman's Heart" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kinnegard Slashers" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
File: CrPS117

Oh! Blame Not the Bard


DESCRIPTION: Don't blame the bard for his songs of love rather than glory. Don't blame him if he "should try to forget what he never can heal." "But though glory be gone, and though hope fade away, Thy name, loved Erin! shall live in his songs"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (_Irish Melodies_ by Thomas Moore, according to Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad minstrel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Zimmermann, p. 77, "Oh! Blame Not the Bard" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 180-181, "O, Blame Not The Bard"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 375-376, "Oh Blame not the Bard" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 269-270, (no title) (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(281), "Oh! Blame not the Bard" ("Oh, blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 77 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian 2806 b.9(281) is the basis for the description.
Zimmermann [uses] this song to illustrate his point that "the mission of the bard is to weep for his country." - BS
File: BrdOBNtB

Oh! Breathe Not His Name


DESCRIPTION: Someone who must not be named has been buried "in the shade Where cold and un-honoured has relics are laid! ... And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls, Shall long keep his memory green in our souls"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (_Irish Melodies_ by Thomas Moore, according to Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: grief memorial nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 159, "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(20), "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" ("Oh! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade ," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
LOCSheet, sm1879 06663, "Oh, Breathe Not His Name ," Edw. Schuberth (New York), 1879 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She is Far From the Land" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "When He Who Adores Thee" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "The Man from God-Knows-Where" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 77 Fn. 11 speculates that this is "perhaps inspired by Lord Edward Fitzgerald's death." Moylan 159 in The Age of Revolution: "This, the third of Moore's songs on [Robert] Emmet, seems to echo Emmet's dying request from the world for 'the charity of its silence'. [Lord Edward Fitzgerald [1763-1798], head of the military committee of the United Irishmen died June 4, 1798, in Newgate, Dublin after being wounded and arrested by Major Henry Charles Sirr on May 19; Wexford Rebellion begins May 26, 1798 (source: The Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site entry for [Lord] Edward Fitzgerald)] [Robert Emmet (1780-1803) "Irish nationalist rebel leader. He led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1803 and was captured and executed." (source: "Robert Emmet" at the Wikipedia site)]
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(20): 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
The song is so short (two stanzas, neither of which describes the dead man beyond noting that he's dead) that we cannot be dogmatic about the man being memorialized. On the one hand, Emmet asked that no epitaph be written for him (see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet"), but if he were meant, I'd think the song would be a little more specific. Still, if it is certain that Moore's other poems were about Emmet, then he seems the best candidate. And we should note that Moore knew Emmet; according to Robert Kee, who quotes this song on p. 168 of The Most Distressful Country (being volumeI of The Green Flag), Moore was "Emmet's old friend and fellow student at Trinity." Kee regards Moore as having "set the tone" for Emmet's legend. - RBW
File: BrdOBNHN

Oh! Gin I Were Where Gaudie Rins


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

Oh! I Ha'e Seen the Roses Blaw


See O I Hae Seen the Roses Blaw (File: StoR016)

Oh! My! You're a Dandy for Nineteen Years Old


See Oly Nineteen Years Old (File: RcOn19YO)

Oh! No, No


DESCRIPTION: "Come here, dearest Peggy, you're my whole heart's delight... So fain I wad bide, love, but away I must go." He says he would guard her if they were together. She goes into frenzies of grief; he stops her, saying he will not leave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig #107, p. 1, "Oh No, No" (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 1053, "Oh No, No" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
GreigDuncan8 1933, "No, Lassie No" (1 text)
Ord, p. 136-137, "Oh! No, No" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #832
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie" (lyrics)
cf. "The Manchester Angel" (lyrics)
cf. "The Girl Volunteer" (theme: sweetheart tries to convince soldier to let her accompany him)
NOTES: This guy is enough of a jerk to make John Riley look good.
Roud lumps this item with "Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie," and there are lyrics in common. But this has no chorus, and does have a happy ending -- if you believe that it's a happy ending when a man taunts a girl needlessly and then declares it a joke. There is kinship, but it doesn't look like the same song to me. - RBW
GreigDuncan8 notes the similarity of the one verse of its text "to [GreigDuncan5] 1053, especially to version F, [but] its different structure distinguishes it as a different song." Roud, who numbers the GreigDuncan8 verse Roud #16606, apparently agrees. The verses in question, and Ord p. 136, verse 1, do not seem to me to be different enough in structure to be classified as separate songs. Here is Ord:
Come here dearest Peggy, you're my whole heart's delight,
But the fairest of days love, brings on the dark night;
So fain I wad bide, love, but away I must go,
And ye canna win wi' me, love, oh! no, no.
Here is GreigDuncan8 1933:
Farewell my dear jewel and whole heart's delight
The brightest of mornings fesses on a dark night,
And it's been cruel fortune that's caused it so
But will I win ye Johnie No lassie no,
But will I win ye Johnie No lassie no.
Which leads to the next question: is this related to "The Girl Volunteer" ("The Cruel War is Raging") [Laws O33]? Ord has a war connection ("You see yon soldiers ... So fain's I wad bide, love, but away I must go"; "If ye were in India, 'mong the frost and rain, Your color it wad fade love ... If I were in India, 'mong the frost and snow, I wad stand at your back lovie, and keep off the foe"). Maybe the end is enough to separate the songs: in "Cruel War" he sometimes lets her join him; in Ord he admits "I never intended away for to go." It's too bad that Laws did not say what British broadsides might have provided the source for his O33. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord136

Oh! Steer My Bark to Erin's Isle


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I have roamed o'er many lands ... In Erin's isle I'd pass my time." If the singer's home were England or Scotland, he'd love that home; "pleasant days in both I've past," But he'll "steer my bark to Erin's isle, For Erin is my home."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Haynes Bayly
EARLIEST DATE: before 1869 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(537))
KEYWORDS: home travel Ireland lyric nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor, p. 155, "Oh! Steer My Bark to Erin's Isle" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(537), "Oh, Steer my Barque to Erin's Isle", J. Moore (Belfast), 1852-1868; also 2806 c.15(318), 2806 c.15(257), "Oh, Steer my Bark to Erin's isle"
NOTES: Bodleian makes the author N.T.H Bayly; O'Conor has F.H. Bayly. - BS
The latter, of course, is an easy misreading of "T. H. Bayly." Spaeth's A History of Popular Music in America also credits the lyrics to Bayly (p. 85), adding that the tune is German, arranged by Ignaz Moscheles.
Curiously, the uncredited book The Library of Irish Music (published by Amsco) credits the *music* to T. H. Bayly with words by "S. Nelson"!
Incidentally, there seem to be conflicting dates for Bayly; Spaeth says he lived 1797-1829. - RBW
File: OCon155A

Oh! Susanna


DESCRIPTION: Nonsense song about a man going to see his beloved Susanna. The singer tells his love, "Oh Susanna, Oh! don't you cry for me, I've come from Alabama, wid my banjo on my knee." The song describes the impossible means he took to reach her
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1848
KEYWORDS: love travel dream humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 152-155, "Oh! Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 408, "Oh, Susanna!" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 4 more; the "E" text has a chorus from elsewhere)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 103, (no title) (1 fragment, with a verse probably from "Napper" but the chorus of this song)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 198, "Susanna" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 244, "Oh, Susanna" (1 text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 46, "Oh, Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 404-405, "Oh! Susanna"
DT, OSUSANNA*
ST RJ19152 (Full)
Roud #11745
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Oh Susanna" (Romeo 539, 1928)
Vernon Dalhart w. Carson Robison & Adelyne Hood, "Oh! Susanna" (Victor 21169, 1928)
Light Crust Doughboys, "Oh! Susanna" (Vocalion 03345, 1936)
Chubby Parker, "Oh, Susanna" (Silvertone 25013, 1927; Supertone 9191, 1928)
Riley Puckett "O! Susanna" (Columbia 15014-D, c. 1925; rec. 1924; Silvertone 3261 [as Tom Watson], 1926)
Rice Brothers Band, "Oh Susannah" (Decca 5804, 1940)
Pete Seeger, "Oh, Susanna" (on PeteSeeger18)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Prospecting Dream" (tune)
cf. "Oh California" (tune)
cf. "Oh, Susanna (II)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Oh California (File: ShaSS114)
Oh, Susanna (II) (File: Hugi116)
O Susanne! (a Danish song built around Fosters's tune but about a boy who became a sailor; Rochelle Wright and Robert L. Wright, _Danish Emigrant Ballads and Songs_, Southern Illinois University Press, 1983, #59, p. 137)
NOTES: This song is one of the best examples of Foster's bad luck as a businessman. The first (unauthorized) printing never mentioned Foster's name, though it associates the song with the Christy Minstrels. Foster then gave the piece away; the next printing had his name on it, but if he received any money at all, it was a flat up-front fee.
This was one of Foster's very earliest pieces, and (along with "Uncle Ned") one of his first big hits. According to Bernard DeVoto, The Year of Decision: 1846, Little, Brown and Company, 1943, p. 134, 'in March of [1846] a twenty-year-old Pittsburg youth failed of appointment at West Point, and so at the end of the year he went to keep books in his brother's commission house at Cincinnati. He took with him the manuscripts of three songs, all apparently written in this year, all compact of the minstrel-nigger tradition. One celebrates a lubly collud gal, Lou'siana Belle. In another an old nigger has no wool on the top of his head in the place whar de wool ought to grow.... And in the third American pioneering was to find its leitmotif for all time: it was 'Oh Susanna!'"
The early popularity of this song seems to be indicated by the existence of a Gold Rush version, a fragment of which is quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House in the Big Woods (chapter 13):
Oh, Susi-an-na, don't you cry for me,
I'm going to Cal-i-for-ni-a,
The gold dust for to see. - RBW
File: RJ19152

Oh! When a Man Get the Blues


See When a Woman Blue (File: San236)

Ohio


DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers the dead at Stones River. He recalls finding a dying youth. The soldier sends greetings to his family, then dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar dying
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 31, 1862-Jan 2, 1863 - Battle of Stones River/Murfreesboro
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy 127, "Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E127 (Full)
Roud #5343
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Stone River" (subject: The Battle of Stones River/Murfreesboro)
NOTES: It is hard to say who won the Battle of Stones' River/Murfreesboro. The battle pitted William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland against Braxton Bragg's Confederate army. Rosecrans had been advancing into Tennessee, and Bragg set out to stop him.
In the first phase of the battle, on Dec. 31, Bragg drove back but did not destroy Rosecrans's right. Jan. 1, 1863 was quiet, but Bragg tried again on Jan. 2. Again he failed to decisively defeat the Federals.
After spending the day of Jan. 3 on the field, Bragg's army retreated. The federal army had been so badly mauled that it would be half a year before it moved again -- but Rosecrans held the field and his gains.
For a fuller account of the battle, see "The Battle of Stone River" (sic.). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: E127

Ohio River, She's So Deep and Wide


DESCRIPTION: "Ohio River, she's so deep and wide, Lord, I can't see my poor gal from the other side." "I'm going to river, take my seat and sit down, If the blues overtake me, I'll jump into the river and drown." "I've got the blues... I ain't got the heart to cry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MWheeler, p. 81-83, "Ohio Rivuh, She's So Deep an' Wide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10028
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Abilene" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Kansas City Blues" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This is one of those songs composed entirely of floating lyrics. But since there doesn't seem to be a dominant "ingredient," it gets listed separately. - RBW
File: MWhee081

Oil of the Barley, The


See (references to tune under) Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)

Ol' A'k's A-Movin', The


See The Old Ark's A-Moverin' (File: LoF248)

Ol' Arboe


See Old Arboe (Ardboe) (File: HHH505)

Ol' Gen'ral Bragg's a-Mowin' Down de Yankees


DESCRIPTION: The master (?) tells the slaves that Bragg is defeating the Yankees, and warns them to behave. But then the southern troops appear to be running. Master runs off to the swamps, "while Dinah, Pomp, an' Pete dey look As if dey mighty pleas'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar slave battle freedom
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownII 233, "Ol' Gen'ral Bragg's a-Mowin' Down de Yankees" (1 text)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 104-105, "Old Massa He Come Dancin' Out" (1 text)
Roud #6619
NOTES: It is difficult to correlate this song with any particular Civil War battle. Braxton Bragg (1817-1876) commanded at four major conflicts: Perryville (Oct. 8, 1862), Murfreesboro/Stones River (Dec. 31, 1862-Jan. 2, 1863), Chickamauga (Sept. 19-20, 1862), and Chattanooga (Nov. 23-25, 1863).
None of these battles fit the song. Perryville ended with Bragg retreating, but it was a voluntary retreat -- and it was in Kentucky anyway, where the slaves were not freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.
Stones River also ended with Bragg retreating, but again, his forces retreated in good order; there was no running.
Chickamauga was an overwhelming Confederate victory; only the Yankees fled.
The best fit, then, is Chattanooga, where Bragg at first held the Federals easily -- he held an overwhelmingly strong position on the ridges above the town) but then saw his troops fall apart. (He was relieved afterward.0 -- But the area through which the Confederates fled had been in Union hands previously, and was not good planting country; there were few slaves in the area.
According to Greenway, the mother of collector Merton Knowles learned the song after the Civil War. - RBW
File: BrII233

Ol' John Brown


See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Ol' Mars'r Had a Pretty Yaller Gal


See Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)

Ol' Mickey Brannigan's Pup


See Brannigan's Pup (File: FSC122)

Ol' Rattler


See Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)

Ol' Virginny Never Tire


See Old Virginny Never Tire (File: ScaNF109)

Olban (Alban) or The White Captive [Laws H15]


DESCRIPTION: A young woman (Amanda) has been taken captive by Indians. She is about to be subjected to torture or death when one of the tribe (the chief, young Albion?) rescues her and brings her home, (asking no reward but his food)
AUTHOR: Rev. Thomas C. Upham
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (The "Columbia Sentinel" of Boston)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) rescue
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE,So,Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws H15, "Olban (Alban) or The White Captive"
Randolph 674, "Her White Bosom Bare" (2 texts)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 160-163, "Young Alban and Amandy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 761, WHTCAPTV
Roud #657
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Lamanda" (AFS 4203 B1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Captive" (theme)
NOTES: Several scholars have sought for the events which lie behind this ballad. One even connected it with a story by James Fennimore Cooper! Given that all the accounts disagree, and that the Cooper story ("Wish-Ton-Wish") was not published until 1832, each must probably be taken with a grain of salt. - RBW
In Ford's version, Olban (called "Alvin") asks for food for his people rather than himself. - PJS
File: LH15

Old Abe Is Sick


DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe is sick (x2), Old Abe is sick in bed. He's a lying dog, a dying dog, With meanness in his head." "He wants our cotton... He shall have it, he will have it, Some tar and feathers too." "Down with Old Abe... And all his Yankee crew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: political Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 388, "Old Abe is Sick" (1 text)
Roud #11754
File: Br3388

Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness


DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness, Out of the wilderness, Out of the wilderness, Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness, Down in Illinois."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: political parody nonballad derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1809 - Birth of Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky . He later moved to Illinois
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 is re-elected President
1865 - Lincoln assassinated
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg, p. 168, "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, p. 17, "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 287, "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (1 text)
Thomas-Makin', p. 53, (no title) (1 short text, probably a fragment of a modified version of this song)
Roud #11629
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" (tune)
cf. "I Wait Upon the Lord" (tune, structure)
File: San168

Old Abe's Elected


DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe's elected so they say Along with Darkey Hamlin, The Yankees think they'll gain the day By nigger votes and gamblin'." (To the tune of Yankee Doodle)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political parody
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861-1865 - Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin are President and Vice President
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 245, "Old Abe's Elected" (1 text)
Roud #7712
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Honest Abe" (subject)
NOTES: Abraham Lincoln hardly needs introduction. Hannibal Hamlin was Lincoln's vice president; a former Democrat, he joined the Republicans over the issue of slavery. He was replaced as vice president, in Lincoln's second term, by Andrew Johnson.
This piece clearly shows the level of political rhetoric that was being fired about during the election of 1860; Hamlin was anti-slavery, but not radically so; certainly neither he nor Lincoln had, at that time, any plan to enfranchise the southern slaves. And, at this time, a referendum in New York to grant Blacks the franchise failed miserably. For background on the amazingly complex election of 1860, see the notes to "Lincoln and Liberty." - RBW
File: R245

Old Adam


DESCRIPTION: "I'm very sorry for old Adam, Just as sorry as can be, For he never had no mammy For to hold him on her knee." "And I've always had the feeling He'd a-let that apple be If he'd only had a mammy For to hold him on her knee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: Bible mother
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg, p. 339, "Old Adam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4566
File: San339

Old Adam and Eve


DESCRIPTION: "The praise of dear women I'll sing." Adam had food, a garden, horses and foxes to hunt. His happiness was not complete until his wife was taken from his side to be his equal and partner. A man without a wife is a beggar; a beggar with a wife is blessed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: marriage Bible nonballad wife gardening animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1269, "Old Adam and Eve" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #728
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(242), "Adam & Eve" ("Both sexes give ear to my fancy"), W. Ford (Sheffield), no date; also Harding B 28(19), "In Praise of Dear Women I Sing ("Both sexes give ear to my fancy")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Adam Was Created (Wedlock)" (theme)
NOTES: GreigDuncan7: "Fifty-three years ago." [1905]
Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.13(192), "When Adam was first created" ("Both sexes give here [sic] to my fancy"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866 is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
The tale of the creation of the woman from the rib of the man is told in Genesis 2:21-22 (with the description of her as his partner continuing until 2:24, and the statement that none of the animals was a partner fit for him in 3:20). The other account of the creation, in Genesis 1:27, strongly implies that men and women were created at the same time (implying, obviously, a different sort of partnership). This account also places the creation of humanity at the end of the creation of life, not the beginning. . - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71269

Old and Only in the Way


DESCRIPTION: "When you walk along the street, how often do you meet Some poor old man who's getting old and gray?" Poor old men find that their children do not care for him, and rich old men have heirs waiting impatiently. The singer complains about the young
AUTHOR: P. J. Downey and L. T. Billings
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: youth age money work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rorrer, p. 83, "Old and Only in the Way" (1 text)
DT, OLD&GRAY
Roud #6440
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Old and Only in the Way" (Supertone 9639, 1930)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Old and Only in the Way" (OKeh 40181, 1924) (OKeh 45273, 928; rec. 1927) (Bluebird B-5959, 1935)
Byron G. Harlan, "Always In the Way" (CYL: Edison 8501, 1903)
Kentucky Girls, "Old and Only in the Way" (Columbia 15364-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Oliver Moore [pseud. for Ted Chestnut], "Old and Only in the Way" (Challenge 422, 1928)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Old and Only in the Way" (Columbia 15672-D, 1931; rec. 1928; on CPoole03)
File: DToldgra

Old Arboe (Ardboe)


DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the powers to help him praise Ar(d)boe. He praises the land, the waters, the wildlife, the winds. He talks of the holy days they celebrate. The singer has traveled the world, but has seen no better place
AUTHOR: James Cairnes ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
SHenry H505, p. 157, "Old Ardboe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 82-84, "Ol' Arboe" (1 text)
OBoyle 20, "Old Arboe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2984
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Cross of Ardboe" (subject)
NOTES: Sam Henry has notes on the various feast days mentioned in the song. These seem more accurate than the geography of the Biblical references to "the shores of Cana and Galilee"; neither name was proper in the author's time, and Galilee had no true seacoast (the "sea of Galilee" is a lake). Cana is not on any shore at all; it was half way between the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee. - RBW
For the cross reference [to The Old Cross of Ardboe"] see Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 38-39, "The Old Cross of Ardboe" attributed to "the 'Poet' Canavan." The songs are close in theme and approach, but share no lines. Here is a description of "The Old Cross of Ardboe": The singer bids farewell to the places in Tyrone "where I spent my childhood days" He wonders if he will ever return. "May the star of Freedom smile ... And the shamrocks verdant grow Green around those graves near Lough Neagh's waves, And the Old Cross Ardboe." - BS
File: HHH505

Old Ark's A-Moverin', The


DESCRIPTION: "O the old ark's a-moverin... an' I thank God." Sundry verses on the flood, salvation, and those who are too proud, e.g. "How many days did the water fall? Forty days and nights and all." "See that sister dressed so fine? She ain't got Jesus on her mind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (recording, Fisk University Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad flood
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 213-214, (no title) (1 text, with this chorus though many of the verses are about Jesus; it may be conflate, but in the present state of Thomas's text it's hard to tell)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 7, (no title) (1 fragment, the "Paul and Silas bound in jail" lyric but with an internal chorus that might be this -- or might not); p. 28, "The Ol' A'k's A-Movin'" (1 short text, with a slightly different form but too similar to classify separately)
Lomax-FSNA 248, "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 77, "The Old Ark" (1 text, 1 tune, with first verse and chorus from "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" and additional verses from "Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly)")
Silber-FSWB, p. 360, "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" (1 text)
Roud #11948
RECORDINGS:
Alphabetical Four, "The Old Ark's a-Moverin'" (Decca 7546, 1938; on AlphabFour01)
Atlanta Harmony Singers, "The Old Ark's a Moverin'" (Champion 15616, 1928)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "The Ole Ark" (Victor 16840, 1911)
Homer Rodeheaver, "The Old Ark's a-Moverin'" (Silvertone 5141, c. 1927)
Virginia Female [Jubilee] Singers, "The Old Ark's a-Moverin'" (OKeh 4482, 1922; rec. 1921)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Built the Ark?" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Pete Seeger, "We'll All Be A-Doubling" (on PeteSeeger48)
NOTES: For the statement that the rain fell for forty days during Noah's flood, see Gen. 7:12 (the total duration of the flood is given in 7:17, 8:6? as 40 days and in 7:24, 8:3 as 150 days; the different numbers are believed to have come from different sources). The landing on Mount Ararat/Uratu is mentioned in 8:4. - RBW
File: LoF248

Old Arkansas


See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

Old Arm Chair, The


See Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)

Old Aunt Dinah


DESCRIPTION: "Old Aunt Dinah, ho pee, ho pee... Gwine away to leave yer..." "Old Aunt Dinah -- sick in bed... Send for the doctor... You ain't sick... All you need... is a hickory stick." Alternately, Dinah may have four daughters and wants one to marry the singer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: separation doctor disease
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 126-128, "Old Aunt Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 487, "Old Aunt Dinah" (1 fragment)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 187-188, "Ole Aunt Dinah" (1 fragment, plus a second which inserts Aunt Dinah into an "Old Dan Tucker" stanza)
Roud #11803
NOTES: There is no particular reason to associate the Brown and Scarborough fragments, since they describe different events and have different nonsense refrains. But both are about Aunt Dinah, both are fragments, both have nonsense refrains, and both seem unique.
The fullest text is Jackson's, which is a song of Dinah and her children; she offers the singer money to marry one of them, but he prefers a different daughter. It ends with standard work song stanzas.
It would appear that Old Aunt Dinah is little more than a framework character. If we had more versions, we might split the songs, but with the versions as they are, there seems little point. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Br3487

Old Aunt Kate


DESCRIPTION: "Ole Aunt Kate she bake de cake, She bake hit 'hine de garden gate; She sift de meal, she gimme de dust, She bake de bread, she gimme de crust, She eat de meat, she gimme de skin, An' dat's de way she tuck me in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 99, "Ole Aunt Kate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11617
NOTES: Scarborough reports that this is an "elaboration" from "Juba." Be hard to prove either way. - RBW
File: ScaNF099

Old Aunt Katy


DESCRIPTION: "Old Aunt Katy was a good old soul, Patched my breeches right full of holes." "Up the ridge and down the ridge And run old Katy home." "Old Aunt Katy was a good old soul, Crossed the bridge and paid her toll." "Old Aunt Katy dressed mighty fine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 323, "Old Aunt Katy" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #15889
NOTES: The notes in Brown suggest that this is a play-party. It feels more like a fiddle tune to me. But with no tune and no gaming instructions, we can't say. - RBW
File: Br3323

Old Aunt Mariar


See Aunt Maria (File: BSoF705A)

Old Bachelor (I), The


DESCRIPTION: Singer, an old bachelor ignorant of women, marries a 16-year-old, primarily to keep him warm at night. She wants more from him, which baffles him until her mother tells him the facts of life. He obliges; a fine son results, to his surprise and delight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex bawdy humorous mother bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #19, p. 2, "The Auld Bachelor" (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan7 1390, "I Am an Auld Bachelor" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #7162
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Old Bachelor" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" (theme) and references there
File: RcTOB

Old Bachelor (II), The


See Stern Old Bachelor (File: R481)

Old Bachelor (III), The


See A Bachelor's Lament (File: JHCox160)

Old Bachelor (IV), The


See The Brisk Young Bachelor (File: ShH69)

Old Bachelor (V), The


DESCRIPTION: The singer would not court a rich girl, and beautiful ones reject him. He would marry a well mannered farmer's daughter. He has a pleasant home with plenty of food and goods. "I wish that I may, get a prudent, chaste, and a virtuous wife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1391, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7249
NOTES: GreigDuncan7: "George Garioch: from P. Murray about sixty years ago. Noted 24 July 1907." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81391

Old Bangum


See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Old Bangum and the Boar


See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Old Barbed Wire, The (I Know Where They Are)


DESCRIPTION: "If you want to find the privates, I know where they are (x3) -- They're up to their knees in mud (or: "Hanging on the old barbed wire"). I saw them...." Meanwhile, the captains, colonels, and generals enjoy themselves and stay away from the fighting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: soldier war
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sandburg, pp. 442-443, "Where They Were" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. "If You Want to Know Where the Privates Are" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BARBWIRE
Roud #9618
ALTERNATE TITLES:
If You Want to See the Captain
I'll Tell You Where They Were
NOTES: Internal evidence clearly dates this to the First World War, with its trenches and barbed wire and mud that threatened to swallow the Allied armies whole. Jerry Silverman includes it in his book Ballads & Songs of WWI, without indication of source. What's more, until WWI, officers -- including brigade and sometimes even divisional officers -- were expected to lead their men from the front. Only in the twentieth century did officers become so valuable that they were allowed to "lead" from the rear. But I know of no actual testimony to the song from soldiers of that war. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: San442

Old Barge Oliver Cromwell, The


DESCRIPTION: "On November first in eighty-nine from Port Huron we set sail." The barge Cromwell is hauled by the Lowell. They struggle with weather near Bay City and with snow near Tawas bay. They have to pump in the storm. The singer warns against lumber barges
AUTHOR: reportedly Hank Stone
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from A. P. Gallino and William J. Small by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor storm hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 144-146, "The Old Barge Oliver Cromwell" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
John Gallino, "The Old Barge Oliver Cromwell" (1938; on WaltonSailors; the tune does not match that printed in the text)
File: WGM144

Old Bark Hut, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer, whose name varies, relates, "I once was well to do, but now I am stumped up, And I'm forced to go on rations in an old bark hut." There follows a list of the ways the singer makes do or tolerates the poor conditions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 105-106, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 126-127, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 298-302, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 87-89, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 133-134, 290-291, "The Old Bark Hut" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NOTES: This is sort of the Australian version of "The Old Chisholm Trail," with nearly infinite verses. Henry Lawson reports riding on a train from Bourke to Sydney with a band of shearers, who sang the song the whole time without repeating a verse. - RBW
File: MA105

Old Bay State, The


DESCRIPTION: "Come all good people from far and near... I will sing you the loss of the old Bay State that sailed in the Crawford Line." On the morning of November 2, she sets out and is never seen again. "It's hard to think so many lives down with her had to go."
AUTHOR: Thomas Peckham?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (collected from John S. Parsons by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 2, 1862 - final voyage of the _Bay State_
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 225-226, "The Old Bay State" (1 text)
File: WGM225

Old Bee Makes de Honeycomb


See Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb (File: Br3479)

Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb


DESCRIPTION: "Old bee (makes the honey comb/sucks the blossom), Young bee makes the honey. (Poor man/Colored folks) plant the cotton and corn, (Rich man/White folks) make the money."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses work bug
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 479, "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" (1 fragment); also 480, "Hard Times" (1 text, massively composite: Chorus from "Lynchburg Town" and verses from "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" and the "White Folks Go to College" version of "Hard to Be a Nigger")
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 165, "Old Bee Make de Honeycomb" (1 text, with this stanza but many more associated primarily with "Raccoon")
cf. Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #194, p. 136, ("God made the bees")
Roud #5029
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haul Away, Boys, Haul Away" (lyrics)
NOTES: Reportedly found also in Uncle Remus, this is one of those floating verses that seems to exist in many songs. Since Brown has it as a standalone, it files here, with many cross-references.
The nursery rhyme version, which I suspect is close to the original, runs:
God made the bees
And the bees make honey.
The miller's man does all the work
But the miller makes the money.- RBW
File: Br3479

Old Beggar Man, The


See Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

Old Bell Cow


DESCRIPTION: Humorous description of a cow that's difficult to milk: "Went down to the cornfield to pick a mess of beans, Along come the bell cow a-pecking at the greens." "Some of these days when I learn how, I'm gonna milk that old bell cow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Dixie Crackers)
KEYWORDS: farming work humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 110-111, "Old Bell Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Dixie Crackers, "The Old Bell Cow" (Paramount 3151, 1929; on CrowTold01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Old Bell Cow" (on NLCR10) (NLCR16)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bell Cow
NOTES: It has long been a custom to tie a bell around a cow's neck so she can be found easily. - PJS
File: CSW110

Old Betsy Lina


See Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina) (File: R552)

Old Betty Larkin (Betsy Larkin, You Stole My Pard, Steal Partners, Stole My Partner)


DESCRIPTION: "Hop around, skip around, old Betty Larkin (x3), and also my dear darlin.'" "Steal, steal, old Betty Larkin...." ""You take mine, and I'll take another...." "Needles in a haystack, old Betty Larkin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting abandonment playparty dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritchie-Southern, p. 15, "Old Betty Larkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 586, "You Stole My Pard" (1 fragment)
Roud #7404; also 7673
NOTES: Randolph's is only a two-stanza fragment: "You stole my pard to my dislike (x3), And also my dear darlin'." "I'll have her back or fight all night (x3), And also my dear darlin'." It may be a separate piece (Roud separates them). But that key line about the "dear darlin'" seems to me to link his text with the Ritchie Family "Betty Larkin" texts. - RBW
File: R586

Old Bill


See Tell Old Bill (File: San018)

Old Billy Dugger


DESCRIPTION: "Old Billy Dugger he looks mighty cross; He shot at a man and killed Jack's hoss."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: soldier death horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 283, "Old Billy Dugger" (1 text)
Roud #6642
NOTES: Reported to be based on a Civil War incident -- but it's a soldier's joke I've seen elsewhere. - RBW
File: BrII283

Old Binnie


DESCRIPTION: Old Binnie is urged to come see the Irishman work with his penis
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: bawdy
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray, p. 264, "Ditties," of which the first is "Old Binnie"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune)
File: EM264

Old Black Alice


DESCRIPTION: "Old Black Alice are my name, Wellshot are my station. It's no disgrace, the old black face, it's the colour of my nation." The singer tells how she can dance, points out that God made her as well as whites, and notes the several men who like her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: Australia discrimination
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manifold-PASB, pp. 92-93, "Old Black Alice" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
File: PASB092

Old Black Booger, The


See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Black Duck, The


See The Fox (File: R103)

Old Black Hen, The


DESCRIPTION: "Master had an old black hen, Black as any bear, Laid and set in an acorn shell, Eighteen inches square."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 159, "The Old Black Hen" (1 text)
File: Br3159

Old Black Joe


DESCRIPTION: "Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay, Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away, Gone from the earth to a better land I know, I hear their gentle voices calling 'Old Black Joe.'" The singer, having outlived so much, says "I'm coming"
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1860
KEYWORDS: age nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 156-159, "Old Black Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saunders/Root-Foster 2, pp. 99-102+428, "Old Black Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 126-127, "Old Black Joe" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 407, "Old Black Joe"
DT, OLDBLACK*
ST RJ19156 (Full)
Roud #9601
RECORDINGS:
Criterion Quartet, "Old Black Joe" (CYL: Edison [BA] 3092, n.d.)
Edison Quartette, "Old Black Joe" (Edison 8823, 1904)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Old Black Joe" (Victor 35097, 1909)
Ford Hanford, "My Old Kentucky Home and Old Black Joe [medley]" (Victor 18767, 1921)
Riley Puckett, "Old Black Joe" (Columbia 15005-D, 1924)
SAME TUNE:
Come Up, Dear Dinner, Come Up (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 121)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Poor Old Joe
NOTES: By the time Foster wrote this piece, his parents were dead, his marriage was troubled, and he was in bad financial shape. It has been theorized that this put him in a nostalgic mood. As always, he set it on the plantation -- but for once not in dialect. - RBW
File: RJ19156

Old Black Steer, The


See Windy Bill (II) (File: TF02)

Old Blacksmith's Shop, The


DESCRIPTION: "Some people ramble to lands far away... But the place I love best and am longing to see... And there I forever could stop... In the old village blacksmith's shop." The singer recalls visiting and playing with the blacksmith, but now the man is long dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work worker loneliness age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H541, p. 207, "The Old Blacksmith's Shop" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH541

Old Blind Drunk John


See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Old Blind Horse, The


DESCRIPTION: Old man's will leaves everything to Uncle Bill and an old blind horse. When the horse finally dies "we took his skin for to make some shoes" and give the rest to the crows who "crawed" as they flew by "old horse you had to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: death horse bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 130-131, "The Old Blind Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2703
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Horse (III)" (theme)
NOTES: Creighton-Maritime first verse "If you'll join the chorus whilst I sing This very night I'll make this old shanty ring" would seem to put it in a logging camp. The chorus, "And its come, come along with me For the moon is fast a climbing, Young girls, young girls, can't you see? For the dew on the grass is shining" is reminiscent of "Raise a Ruckus." - BS
File: CrMa130

Old Blue


DESCRIPTION: "I had a dog and his name was Blue...." The singer tells how Blue aided him in 'possum hunting, then goes on to describe Blue's death and burial.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913
KEYWORDS: dog death burial hunting
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 295, "Old Blue" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
BrownIII 220, "Old Blue" (1 text)
Hudson 74, pp. 201-202, "Old Blue" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 7, "Old Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 157, "Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 738, "Old Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 396, "Old Blue" (1 text)
DT, OLDBLUE
Roud #4313
RECORDINGS:
Jim Jackson, "Old Dog Blue" (Victor 21387B, 1928; on AAFM2) (Vocalion 1146, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Old Blue" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
Art Thieme, "The Split Dog" [combines song and tall-tale] (on Thieme01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Deep Blue Sea (II)" (floating lyrics)
File: R295

Old Blue Was a Gray Horse


See Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)

Old Bo's'n, The


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

Old Bob Ridley (Hobo Diddle De Ho)


DESCRIPTION: "When I was young we crossed the mountains, Crossed so many I quit a-countin', Hobo diddle de ho, An' a hobo diddle de ho." "We seen the buffalo a-comin', Seen so damn' many I couldn't count 'em...." "(Ho/oh), (old) Bob (Ridley/Bridely)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1853 550030)
KEYWORDS: travel humorous talltale
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1898, "Bob Ridley" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph 499, "Hobo Diddle De Ho" (1 text)
BrownIII 194, "Old Bob Ridley" (4 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 162, "(Old Rob Ridley)" (1 short text)
Roud #753
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Carolan, "Young Bob Ridley" (on Voice07)
Henry Griffin, "Holler Jimmy Riley Ho" (on HandMeDown1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(358), "Bob Ridley, oh!," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.27(30), "Old Bob Ridley O!," unknown, n.d.
LOCSheet, sm1853 550030, "Old Bob Ridley," J. E. Boswell (Baltimore), 1853 (tune)
LOCSinging, as110090, "Old Bob Ridley, O," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also cw104110, as110080, "Old Bob Ridley"; sb30400a, "Old Bob Ridley O"
NOTES: This was a popular minstrel piece that crossed the Atlantic. - PJS
According to the notes in Brown, it became a corn-shucking song in the U. S. The North Carolina versions are certainly very diverse. The British version had talltale elements, with Bob Riddley doing the impossibly in humorous ways. - RBW
Hall, notes to Voice07, re "Young Bob Ridley": "American minstrels first visited Britain and Ireland in the mid-1830s and subsequently local professional and amateur minstrel troupes remained popular until the Great War, contributing tunes and ditties to the traditional repertory."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(358) includes the verse
At boxing I am sure to gain on,
A tousand times I've lick'd Jack Heenan;
And for winding up the belt affairs,
Next I'm going to belt Tom Sayers.
Dis Bob Ridley, oh!
Since John C. Heenan fought Tom Sayers in 1860 the dating of the broadside is certainly incorrect.
Broadside printer John Pitts died April 15, 1844. While the old ballad stock continued to circulate the house name did not continue. (source: Leslie Shepard, John Pitts: Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844 (Private Libraries Association, c.1969), pp. 75,84).
Broadside LOCSinging as110090: 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
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R499

Old Bog Hole, The


See The Ould Bog Hole (File: FVS290)

Old Brass Wagon


DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Circle to the left, Old Brass Wagon, You're the one, my darling." "Swing oh swing, Old Brass Wagon...." "Promenade home...." "Shottische up and down...." "Break and swing...." "We'll all run away with the old brass wagon...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL 24)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 527, "The Old Brass Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 159, "Old Brass Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 388, "Little Brass Wagon" (1 text)
ST San159 (Full)
Roud #5034
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian)" (tune)
File: San159

Old Brig, The


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Verses relate various problems with the ship, an inept and/or drunk bosun, captain and/or cook, bad food. The usual sailor complaints, some of them probably justified. Hugill had four different language texts for this, all basically the same song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Opsang fra Seilskibstiden)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Verses relate various problems with the ship, an inept and/or drunk bosun, captain and/or cook, bad food. The usual sailor complaints, some of them probably justified. Hugill had four different language texts for this, all basically the same song. Different versions listed were "Svineper" (a.k.a. The Dirty Old Pig, The Old Brig)-Norwegian, "Den Gamla Briggen"-Swedish, "Die Gut Alte Brigg"-German.
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty ship cook
FOUND IN: Norway Sweden Germany
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 232-234, "Svineper" (2 texts-English & Swedish, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waiting for the Day" (same theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dirty Old Pig
The Old Brig
Den Gamla Briggen
Die Gute Alte Brigg
The Good Old Brig
NOTES: A note in Knurrhahn says this is an "old Scandinavian sailor song, of about 1800; known to many old-time seamen in other languages."
To second PJS's comment [in the notes to "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?"], if we can't have "bitching" as a keyword, how about "complaining," or even "whining"? - SL
File: Hugi232

Old Brown Coat, The


DESCRIPTION: "...Come listen while I sing about The old brown coat and me." Having worked long on his father's farm, the singer at last gets his own property. The girl he loves favored another, but he proved guilty of theft. She turns to the singer; they live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes marriage family home work
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 791, "The Old Brown Coat" (1 text)
JHCoxIIB, #26, pp. 190-192, "My Old Brown Coat and Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R791 (Partial)
Roud #3114
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence Older, "My Old Brown Coat and Me" (on LOlder01)
File: R791

Old Brown Sat in "The Rose and Crown"


DESCRIPTION: Brown in the pub is talking about the war and drawing the lines on the table with beer. "Five minutes" is called. Not enough time, complains Brown. "'For another half pint and we'd been in Berlin. Do you want us to lose the war?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Albert Smith)
KEYWORDS: war drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Albert Smith, "Old Brown Sat in 'The Rose and Crown'" (on Voice14)
File: RcOBSIRC

Old Bullock Dray, The


DESCRIPTION: The bullock driver is preparing for a good life in the bush. He seeks a wife, and prepares to head out to find land. He urges others along: "So it's roll up your blankets, and let's make a push; I'll take you upcountry and show you the bush...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: Australia travel settler
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, p. 127, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 66-67, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 140-141, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 143-149, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "The Old Bullock Dray" (on JGreenway01)
NOTES: Settlers in Australia had two major problems: Lack of women (since most convicts were men) and lack of land (since the good properties had been snatched up by early settlers and the wealthy). In 1861, Sir John Robertson (the "Jackie Robertson" of some versions of the song) promoted the New South Wales Free Selection Act, which made at least some land available to newcomers. Although it didn't really solve the problem, it promoted the era of good feeling apparently described in this song.
The "depot" mentioned in some texts is the compound at Parramatta where female immigrants were kept. Referred to as the "Female Factory," it allowed settlers to come in and seek wives. - RBW
File: MA127

Old Bumpy


See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Camp Meetin'


DESCRIPTION: "Long ago, when but a boy, at old camp meeting time, How my heart would leap with joy...." "I like the old time preachin', prayin', shoutin', singin'...." The singer remembers his father celebrating
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (collected by Shellans from Ruby Vass)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans, pp. 93-94, "Old Camp Meetin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7334
File: Shel093

Old Canal, The


DESCRIPTION: "There's a little silver ribbon runs across the Buckeye State, 'Tis the dearest place of all this earth to me." "Cleveland is the northern end and Portsmouth is the south." The singer describes the places along his "pal," the Ohio-Erie canal
AUTHOR: probably Pearl R. Nye
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (OHS)
KEYWORDS: ship travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "The Old Canal" (1 text, 1 tune, from Pearl R. Nye)
NOTES: According to the notes in the Ohio Historical Society booklet, Pearl R. Nye had about 80 verses of this song describing points along the Ohio-Erie Canal (not to be confused with the Erie Canal; it ran from Cleveland on Lake Erie to Columbus, Ohio and on down to the Ohio River at Portsmouth). They cut it down to six, and even that is probably more than a non-canaller would want to sing. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: OHSOldCa

Old Carathee


DESCRIPTION: Sean McNamara from County Down looks for a wife in Carathee. First, Red Danny shows him his selection. He picks Julia, a hawker. The first month they are happy. The second they argue. The third she beats him. You can find such a wife in Carathee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, John Reilly)
KEYWORDS: marriage violence humorous wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #3377
RECORDINGS:
John Reilly, "Old Carathee" (on Voice15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] (theme)
NOTES: Hall, notes to Voice15: "'Old Carathee' tells of an Irish traveller, who chooses for a wife at a fair, thinking she would make him a good hawker."
Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Reviews - Volume 15" by Fred McCormick - 27.2.99: "John Reilly's 'Old Carathee,' is about a bachelor who obtains a wife at a horse fair and ends up with a less than blissful match. Matrimonial bargains of this kind were common in Ireland at one time and survive into the present with the famous matchmaking fair at Lisdoonvarna in County Clare." - BS
File: RcOlCara

Old Chimney Sweeper, The


See I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper (File: Wa189)

Old Chisholm Trail, The


See The Chisholm Trail (I) (File: R179)

Old Chizzum Trail, The


See The Chisholm Trail (I) (File: R179)

Old Church Yard, The


DESCRIPTION: "Oh come, come with me to the old church yard, I well know the path through the soft green sward, Our friends slumber there we were wont to regard." The singer recalls the dead, gone from their troubles, and points out that they will rise again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (McDowell)
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 620, "The Old Church Yard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3386
NOTES: Randolph was told that this was a Millerite (early Adventist) hymn. If this was typical of their music, that might go almost as far to explain the failure of the Millerites as the fact that Miller's predictions of the end of the world were consistently wrong. - RBW
File: R620

Old Circus Song


See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Old Cloak, The


DESCRIPTION: In winter, the old wife urges the old man to go out and bring the cow in from the cold. He protests; his cloak is too old and thin. She reminds him of their history, and of the dangers of pride. At last he, to end the strife, goes out to care for the cow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: dialog husband wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Percy/Wheatley I, pp. 195-198, "Take Thy Old Cloak About Thee" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 188-189, "The Old Cloak" (1 text)
OBB 170, "The Old Cloak" (1 text)
ST OBB170 (Partial)
Roud #8207
NOTES: One of Percy's stanzas, beginning "King Stephen was a worthy peer," is quoted in Shakespeare's Othello (II.iii.80). But this stanza has nothing to do with the general plot of this song; I can't help but wonder if it is not some broadside-maker's insertion. - RBW
File: OBB170

Old Colony Times


See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Old Coon Dog


See Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog) (File: R350)

Old Corn Licker


See Cripple Creek (I) (?) (File: San320)

Old Country Party, The


DESCRIPTION: "Say, did ye iver go till an ould country party." The singer describes his first. He describes the food and punch, music and dancing until "the bottle was dry." Now he's away from home and "the tears rushes into me eyes" when he thinks of those days.
AUTHOR: Harry M Palmer
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging sb30374b)
KEYWORDS: homesickness dancing drink music party nonballad moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor, p. 95, "The Old Country Party" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb30374b, "The Old Country Party", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as202780, "The Old Country Party"
Bodleian, Harding B 18(380), "The Old Country Party", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Irishman's Shanty" (tune)
NOTES: Broadsides LOCSinging sb30374b and Bodleian Harding B 18(380): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon095

Old Cow


See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Old Cow Died, The (Little Girl)


DESCRIPTION: Dialog/game: "'Little girl, little girl,' 'Yes, ma'am," "Did you go over the river?" "The old cow died, sail around." "Did you give her hot water? Yes, ma'am." "Did you send for the doctor?" "Did she die of the cholera?" "Did the buzzards eat her?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal death dialog playparty food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 396, "The Old Cow Died" (1 text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 141-142, "Little Girl" (1 text)
Roud #11598
NOTES: The Scarborough and Silber texts are noticeably distinct, Silber's being about the death of the cow while Scarborough's is intent upon the dialog and an adult asking a child about her activities (harvesting an egg, making corn pone, eating it, etc.) But the form is close enough that I've lumped them; the details of such songs are easily remade. - RBW
File: FSWB396A

Old Cowboy, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the hardships of his life as a cowboy "I've drunk water from the cow tracks, boys, when you bet it tasted good"; "I've starved and ate of the prickly pear"; "Been tortured by the Apaches." But now new cowboys are replacing him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: cowboy work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 110, "The Old Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11088
File: FCW110

Old Daddy Fox


See The Fox (File: R103)

Old Dan Tucker


DESCRIPTION: Vignettes: Old Dan Tucker arrives to court the girls, sell his produce, and/or get drunk. Example: "Old Dan went down to the mill / To get some meal to put in the swill. / The miller swore by the point of his knife / He never seen such a man in his life."
AUTHOR: attributed to Daniel Decatur Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: 1841
KEYWORDS: bawdy playparty talltale
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Australia
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Randolph 521, "Old Dan Tucker" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 431-433, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 tune, 3 texts)
BrownIII 509, "Nigger in the Woodpile" (1 two-line fragment, probably this though the vulgar idiom of the title is obviously common to many songs)
BrownIII 82, "Old Dan Tucker" (6 texts)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 188, (no title) (2 fragments, one clearly this and the other a Dan Tucker stanza but with "Ole Aunt Dinah" in Dan's place); also p. 199, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, with a verse from this song though it has a chorus about "Sambo")
Brewster 86, "Old Dan Tucker" (4 short text)
Fuson, p. 163, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Cambiaire, p. 140, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 fragment)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 263, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 160-162, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 27, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 258-262, "Old Dan Tucker" (2 texts, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 52, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 240, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 81, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
DT, DANTUCKR
ST R521 (Full)
Roud #390
RECORDINGS:
Bentley Ball, "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia A3087, 1920)
Harry C. Browne "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia A1999, 1916)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Old Dan Tucker" (OKeh 40263, 1925; rec. 1924)
Pat Ford, "Old Dan Tucker" [fragment] (AFS A 4211 B2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Old Dan Tucker" (Brunswick 295, 1929; rec. 1928)
Charlie Jones & his Kentucky Corn Crackers, "Old Dan Tucker" (Rondo R-168, n.d., prob. late 1940s)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Old Dan Tucker" (Vocalion 15033, 1925)
Pete Seeger, "Old Dan Tucker" (on PeteSeeger17)
Judge Sturdy's Orchestra "Old Dan Tucker" (Victor 20102, 1926; rec. 1925)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia 15382-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Clear the Track" (tune)
cf. "Johnny, Get Your Gun (II)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The End of Big Bill Snyder" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Clear the Track (I) (File: SCW48)
The End of Big Bill Snyder (Greenway-AFP, pp. 30-31)
The Workingman's Train (Greenway-AFP, pp. 87-88)
Henry Clay (Hudson, p. 211; cf. "Henry Clay Songs," File: SRW039)
NOTES: Randolph-Legman I offers a few bawdy verses to this otherwise immaculate dance tune. - EC
This was originally published as by "Dan Tucker Jr.," but it is generally believe that it was by Dan Emmett -- his first significant work. - RBW
File: R521

Old Darling


DESCRIPTION: Singer, a mule-driver, describes driving his team at a fast pace when Old Darling (the boss) reproaches him for breaking the rules. The singer offers to break Mr. Darling; then tells listeners not to tow to Slocum, because the food is rotten.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: warning work boss animal
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 31, "Old Darling" (1 text)
Roud #8855
NOTES: In the early days, the teamsters in the pinewoods drove oxen, later horses and (less often) mules.
The last verse is almost certainly tacked on from a completely different song. - PJS
File: Be031

Old David Ward


DESCRIPTION: Singer describes working in a lumber camp for David Ward, including a thieving foreman, an unpleasant employer, and a crooked scaler. The singer vows to leave and not return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: work lumbering logger nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gardner/Chickering 115, "David Ward" (1 text)
Beck 14, "Old David Ward" (1 text)
Roud #6498
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" and references there
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (lyrics)
NOTES: David E. Ward lumbered much territory north of Cadillac, Michigan; a small island village in the Manistee River, "Deward," is named for him. - PJS
File: Be014

Old Doc Jones


See Doctor Jones (File: Br3090)

Old Dog Blue


See Old Blue (File: R295)

Old Dog Tray


DESCRIPTION: "The morning of life is past, And evening comes at last, It brings me dreams of a once happy day... Sporting with my old dog Tray." The singer notes that people come and go, but dogs stay faithful. He concludes he will never have a better friend
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1853
KEYWORDS: dog age nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 396, "Old Dog Tray" (1 text)
Roud #2667
NOTES: "Tray" for some reason seems to have been a popular name for dogs in the early nineteenth century. Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) wrote a piece called "My Dog Tray," about a dog faithful to his Irish master, with enough thematic similarities to this that I suspect dependence. And there seems to have been another My Dog Tray" piece by John Bryon. - RBW
File: FSWB396B

Old Doorstep, The


See Goodbye to My Stepstone (File: R853)

Old Dumpty Moore


DESCRIPTION: (Old Dumpty/Darby) rides his mare everywhere, until it grows too (old/stubborn) to ride. The mare goes down into the swamp and dies. The neighbours cook it, and "From the top of her head to the end of her tail Old Dumpty ate his way!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: animal horse death food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 427, "Old Dumpty Moore" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7633
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)" (plot elements)
File: R427

Old Dun Cow, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the home of Dolly, "the girl I would like to make my spouse." He is bemused by the sight of her "milking her old dun cow." He hopes to win her love; "I'll get married very soon, tomorrow afternoon, for I feel in the humour now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H492, p. 238, "The Old Dun Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9473
NOTES: Not to be confused with "When the Old Dun Cow Caught Fire." - RBW
File: HHH492

Old Dyer, The


See The Dog in the Closet (The Old Dyer) [Laws Q11] (File: LQ11)

Old Early Camped at Fisher's Hill


See Battle of Fisher's Hill (File: ThBa058)

Old Elm Tree, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls old elm tree by the mill where he courted Laura. They become engaged, he goes to sea. In his absence, others convince her he was untrue. She dies for love and is buried beneath the old elm tree
AUTHOR: Words: Sarah S. Bolton/Music: Joseph Philbrick Webster
EARLIEST DATE: 1871
KEYWORDS: courting sea death burial
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Dean, pp. 27-28, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text)
Belden, p. 221, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text)
Randolph 708, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 174-176, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 47, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDELM*
Roud #2795
RECORDINGS:
Eugene Jemison, "The Old Elm Tree" (on Jem01)
File: R708

Old England's Gained the Day


See Sebastopol (Old England's Gained the Day; Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol; Cheer, Boys, Cheer) (File: SmHa041)

Old English Chantey


See The Sailor's Alphabet (File: RcTSAlp)

Old Erin Far Away


See The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II) [Laws J7] (File: LJ07)

Old Farm Gate, The


DESCRIPTION: "The old farm gate hangs sagging down"; it is old, rusty, and almost useless. Once children played on it, lovers courted by it, funerals passed through it. But all this was long ago, and "Time passes so quickly away"
AUTHOR: L. C. Wegefarth ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 852, "The Old Farm Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 476-478, "The Old Farm Gate" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 852)
Roud #7452
File: R852

Old Farmer John


DESCRIPTION: "Old farmer John expects a son Some time in this November"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1924, "Old Farmer John" (1 fragment)
Roud #15123
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81924

Old Fat Buck, The


See The Nottinghamshire Poacher (File: E053)

Old Father Gray


DESCRIPTION: "You've all heard of old Father Gray, Traveled over land and traveled over sea. (Chorus:) Wheel around and drive the Yankees back And make them know their places." The Yankees are driven back, and the girls encouraged to give their seats to gentlemen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting battle playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 567, "Old Father Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7660
File: R567

Old Father Grimes


See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Old Fish Song, The


DESCRIPTION: Humorous retelling of the Jonah myth. Jonah is ordered by God to preach repentance to Nineveh. Not wanting the job, he goes to sea. God raises a storm; the sailors throw Jonah overboard. He is swallowed by a whale. Children are warned to obey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (field recording, Blind James Howard)
LONG DESCRIPTION: God sees that the people of Nineveh are wicked, and sends Jonah to preach to them. Jonah says he's a hard-shell Baptist and refuses to go, being against foreign missions. He gets on a ship, but God, angered, raises a storm and the sailors throw Jonah overboard, where he's swallowed by a whale. The whale has indigestion, and vomits Jonah back out; Jonah heads for Nineveh and preaches and prophesies until the population repents. The moral is that one should be obedient: "When you disobey mammy, remember this tale/When you run off from home, bud, look out for a whale/There's varmints to get you on sea and on land/And a boy can be swallowed lots easier than a man."
KEYWORDS: captivity travel prophecy Bible humorous religious whale gods
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 124-125, "The Old Fish Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDFISH
RECORDINGS:
Blind James Howard, "The Old Fish Song" (AFS 74A, 1933; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Old Fish Song" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1)
NOTES: This hilarious song almost certainly began its life as a printed "ballot." - PJS
Book of Jonah, ch. 1-3. In the Bible, of course, it's a great fish rather than a whale. - PJS
Interestingly, the story leaves out most of chapter 4 of Jonah, in which the repentance of Nineveh causes Jonah to get mad at God again. Perhaps it's the author who's the hard-shell Baptist. - RBW
File: CSW124

Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)


DESCRIPTION: The "darky" remembers the "old folks at home" on "de Swanee ribber." Now forced to wander, he still longs "for de old plantation." He recalls growing up on the plantation, playing with his brother, and listening to the banjo. He hopes to go home.
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1851
KEYWORDS: home exile family slave
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 163-166, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 125-126, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Hill-CivWar, p. 218, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Krythe 5, pp. 74-99, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 407-408, "Old Folks at Home"
PSeeger-AFB, p. 83, "Swanee River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 268-269, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 258, "Old Folks At Home" (1 text)
DT, OLDFOLK
ST RJ19163 (Full)
Roud #13880
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Swanee River" (OKeh 45139, 1927; on TimesAint02)
Monroe Quartet, "Old Folks at Home" (OKeh 45133, 1927)
Riley Puckett, "Swanee River" (Columbia 15003-D, c. 1924)
Virginia Rea & Elias Breeskin, "Old Folks at Home" (Brunswick 10013, 1920)
Paul Robeson, "Old Folks at Home" (HMV [UK] B-3664, 1930)
Pete Seeger, "Swanee River" (on PeteSeeger24)
Unidentified quartette, "Old Folks at Home" (Imperial [UK] 44961, c. 1906)
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" (Vocalion 04387, 1938)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1232), "The Old Folks at Home!," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also Firth b.26(85), Firth b.26(240), Firth b.26(339), Harding B 20(268), Firth b.27(171), Firth c.16(291), Firth c.12(366), Firth b.26(378), Harding B 11(2797), "The Old Folks at Home[!]"
LOCSheet, rpbaasm 0473, "Old Folks at Home," Firth, Pond & Co. (New York), n.d. ["written and composed by E.P. Christy"]; also sm1875 03964, sm1885 23541, "Old Folks at Home" ["by S. C. Foster"] (tune)
LOCSinging, sb30401b, "Old Folks at Home," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as110190, "Old Folks at Home"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Refrain" (recalls this song)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Way Down upon the Swanee River
NOTES: The first sheet music version of this piece credits it to E.P. Christy. This was with Foster's consent; he sold Christy the right to claim authorship for $5. (Fortunately, Foster at least got the royalties on the song.) It finally appeared under his name in 1879 when the copyright was renewed.
In Foster's first draft, the river was the "Pedee," but he concluded that that didn't sound right. So he and his brother Morrison scouted an atlas for a better name, finally distorting "Suwanee" (a river in south Georgia and northern Florida) into "Swanee."
Phillips Barry posits that this tune is derived from "Annie Laurie." If so, there was a lot of reworking done along the way. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30401b: 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.
LOCSheet, sm1853 700590, "Old Folks at Home," Firth, Pond & Co. (New York), 1853 does not include words and has the attribution "Composed by Stephen C. Foster"
Another warning about relying on broadsides for anything: Bodleian, Firth b.27(171), "The Old Folks at Home!," unknown, n.d. has the note "AIR -- 'Old house at home'" - BS
File: RJ19163

Old Geezer, The


See The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)

Old Geezers, The


See The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)

Old General Lane


DESCRIPTION: "Here sits a young lady all down to mourn, She's mourning the loss of her own true love, It has been said that he was slain In the service of old General Lane (or "was shot A-fighting for old General Scott") Oh no.... He'll come back and be my beau"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: war battle death love separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 560, "Old General Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #940?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie Light Horseman"
NOTES: This piece instantly makes me think of the Napoleonic War-era piece "My Bonnie Light Horseman," but the link is tenuous.
If the soldier was shot in the army of General Scott, the war is presumably the Mexican War.
If instead we refer the song to "General Lane," it probably refers to General Walter Payne Lane, who fought in the Mexican War and served in the Confederate cavalry in the west (Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge) and was commissioned Brigadier General in 1865. There were, however, several other Generals Lane in the Civil War: James Lane (brigadier in Lee's army), and John Lane (brevet Brigadier in the Army of the Cumberland). There was also Senator James Lane, who had been Major General of the (Unionist) Kansas Militia. - RBW
File: R560

Old General Price


DESCRIPTION: "Old General Price is a mighty fine man, From women an' children he steals all he can, It's damn any man that will follow his trade... These hard times"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes Civilwar thief
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 224, "Old General Price" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Roud #7828
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sterling Price" (subject)
NOTES: Sterling Price (1809-1867), a former governor of Missouri and Confederate commander of Missouri troops, was almost certainly not a thief. His troops, however, were undisciplined and therefore even more likely to loot than the average soldier. Their depredations may account for the attitude toward Price shown in this fragment.
I have the strange feeling that "Old General Price" and "Sterling Price" are a single piece, one being adapted from the other -- but since we don't have a single complete stanza of either, and only one tune, this is beyond proof. - RBW
File: R224

Old Girder Bill


DESCRIPTION: "I'll write you a poem of an old mountaineer, Who spent his life hunting for raccoon and deer." Girder Bill goes hunting and sees a buck and doe; he shoots the buck and goes home, "A buck on his shoulder, a doe left for seed."
AUTHOR: Lije Littleton?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: hunting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', p. 124, "Old Girder Bill" (1 text)
File: ThBa124

Old Glory


DESCRIPTION: "Say, have you heard the joyful news of Burnside's expedition...?" "The other day at Roanoke... The boys, to play a Union joke, ran up the flag of glory." The singer praises the Union soldiers, taunts the Confederates, and calls for their hanging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb. 7, 1862 - Burnside's North Carolina expedition approaches Roanoke Island
Feb. 8, 1862 - Burnside defeats Henry Wise's local troops to capture Roanoke Island
Mar. 14, 1862 - Burnside takes New Bern
Apr. 26, 1862 - Burnside captures Beaufort
July 3, 1862 - Burnside and some 7500 of his troops are transferred to the Army of the Potomac
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
JHCox 71, "Old Glory" (1 text)
Roud #5461
NOTES: Burnside's expedition against the North Carolina coast was one of the first Union amphibious expeditions, and was quite successful (almost the only Union success in the war to this time). A large strip of North Carolina coast stayed in Union hands, which helped tighten the Union blockade.
This song was almost certainly composed in the early months of 1862 -- probably before the Battle of Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862), where Burnside had a chance to win the war, and muffed it. Certainly it must have been composed before the Battle of Fredericksburg that winter, when Burnside lost the last shreds of his reputation. The North Carolina campaign had been a pushover, requiring little but energy (which Burnside had). Defeating Robert E. Lee took brains (which Burnside didn't have). - RBW
File: JHCox072

Old Gospel Ship, The


DESCRIPTION: "I have good news to bring and that is why I sing... I'm gonna take a trip on that old gospel ship And go sailin' through the air." The singer advises others not to be ashamed of him/her, and admits to an inability to wait
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 351, "The Old Gospel Ship" (1 text)
DT, GOSPSHIP GSPLSHIP
Roud #7383
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Gospel Ship" (Melotone 6-07-56/Conqueror 8692, 1936; rec. 1935)
Leverett Bros. "Old Gospel Ship" (Country Church CC3/4, n.d.)
Monroe Brothers, "On That Old Gospel Ship" (Bluebird B-7273/Montogmery Ward M-7312, 1937)
Speer Family, "Old Gospel Ship" (Columbia 20418/Columbia 38155, 1948; rec. 1947)
Ruby Vass, "The Old Gospel Ship" (on LomaxCD1704)
File: FSWB351B

Old Grampus


See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Granddaddy's Dead


See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Grandma


DESCRIPTION: In praise of Grandma, who raised 21 kids right and lived the good life. "Old Grandma when ... infants came and times got bad, She stuck right on to old Grand-dad." "But young girls now are the other way: They're up all night and sleep all day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: mother children family
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,West)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 81-82, "Old Grandma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 94-95, "Old Grandma" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRTGRNMA*
Roud #4543
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Great Grand-dad"
File: FJ094

Old Grandma Hones


DESCRIPTION: The Liza leaves Sydney for Halifax and "Missus Hone's." Grandpa Hones tells tales. The girls welcome the sailors home. Grandma goes to bed and "leaves us all night with her daughters to sport"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: sex ship shore humorous whore sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 83-84, "Old Grandma Hones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9952
File: Pea083

Old Granite State, The


DESCRIPTION: "We have come from the mountains (x3) From the Old Granite State; With a band of music (x3) We are passing 'round the world." The song introduces the singers, their state of New Hampshire, and their progressive ideas
AUTHOR: Elaborated, and probably written, by the Hutchinson Family
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1843 391270)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home family drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, GRANITST*
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1843 391270, "The Old Granite State," Firth and Hall (New York), 1843 (tune)
NOTES: The Hutchinson Family, according to Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 95) used this song to introduce their act and their family.
The Digital Tradition says that the verse, "Yes, we're friends of Emancipation And we'll sing the Proclamation" is "an obvious later addition." This is not as clear as it sounds. It was Lincoln who put the two words together -- but the Hutchinsons were campaigning for emancipation (and other liberal causes such as temperance) well before the Civil War. The exact wording may date from 1862, but the family certainly was proclaiming abolition by the 1840s -- and would have felt Lincoln's half-emancipation completely inadequate.
The family's own history, by Joshua Hutchinson, credits the song to Jesse Hutchinson (the ninth child of Jesse Sr. and Mary Hutchinson), though the sheet music lists the whole family and is copyrighted by John (child #13; all told, the parents had 19 children, 16 of whom survived infancy). - RBW
File: DTgranit

Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal)


DESCRIPTION: "Old Granny she rose in the morning so soon,.. Saying, 'They're wronging my children that's over the sea." She meets Lord Cornwall, Lord Bute, Lord North, Lord Granville, and complains about the Tea Act. They argue; she wishes her children success
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Green Mountain Songster, according to Stanchfield)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad America nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 18, 1775 - Battle of Lexington. A British force routs the American Minutemen. The
colonials gain some revenge as the Redcoats advance on Concord
June 17, 1775 - American defeat at the Battle of Bunker Hill
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, GRNWALE2 (cf. GRNWALE.NOT)
ADDITIONAL: Bessie Mae Stanchfield, "Old Granny Wales," California Folklore Quarterly, Volume 4, #4. (October 1945), pp. 393-397.
Roud #2817
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Granuaile" (character of Granuaile) and references there
cf. "Revolutionary Tea" [Laws A24] (subject of the tea tax)
NOTES: It appears that there is only one traditional collection of this song, by Bessie Mae Stanchfield, taken from Elma Snyder McDowell of Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Stanchfield published the text (but not the tune) of this version in California Folklore Quarterly. McDowell had it from her father; based on Stanchfield's notes, this would appear to mean it was in circulation in Minnesota around 1880.
Stanchfield, in researching the song, consulted very many eminent folklorists (I have seen the letters she wrote; they are in the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society). They proved very unhelpful; none even noted the connection with Grace O'Malley, known as Granuaile (for whom see "Granuaile" and the related songs). Stanchfield's speculation was the Granny Wales either Benjamin Franklin (an "old granny" who was for a time, in effect, the American representative trying to negotiate with the British parliament) or perhaps the country of Wales itself.
I have no doubt, however, that Old Granny Wales is in fact Granuaile, and in this I am confirmed by Bruce Olson (Digital Tradition notes on Granny Wale), John Moulden (private communication), and Kenneth Porter (Notes and Queries, in Western Folklore, Volume 13, Number 1 (January,1954), p. 51; note that Western Folklore is the successor of California Folklore Quarterly). All four of us reached this conclusion independently: This is a song of the Irish wishing the Americans well in their rebellion.
Apart from Granuaile, the characters and events mentioned in the McDowell text are:
Lord Cornwall: Cornwall is properly a duchy, and I know of no one named Lord Cornwall in this period; I suspect this is an error for General Cornwallis. (Unless it's a sort of geographical error for the Earl Dartmouth, Secretary for the Americas when the troubles began.)
Lord North, Lord Granville, and infamous Bute: Frederick, Lord North, later second Earl of Guilford (1732-1792), was Prime Minister 1770-1782. His behavior toward the colonies was much better than this song might imply; he actually *repealed* most of the Townshend Duties which had made the colonies so restless, keeping only the tea tax as a sort of token of British sovereignty (the tea tax, Weintraub, p. 4, was a quarter of the tax charged in England; on p. 19, he notes that total taxes on Americans were only about 1/25 the effective tax rate paid by British subjects) and also as an attempt to get rid of a lot of tea stuck in East India Company warehouses (Cook, pp. 166-167; Marrin, p. 33). His real problem was that he was George III's Prime Minister, so he had to do something to keep that unwise monarch happy. For more on these guys, see "Taxation of America."
Lord Granville: George Grenville (1712-1770), MP from 1741, Secretary of State 1761, Prime Minister 1763-1765. He came into office with a big problem: According to Middlekauff, p. 57, he came into office with the national debt up to 122 million pounds (the result of the expensive battles of the Seven Years' War/French and Indian War). Britain was taxed to the limit, and the government felt that it needed to keep troops in America. Somehow, they had to be paid for. It was decided that the Americans would have to pay a share. After some fiddling with various tarriffs, Grenville imposed the Stamp Act, which was the first major cause of American revolutionary unrest (Marrin, pp. 14-15). (It is ironic to note that he lowered other duties, such as that on molasses -- Middlekauff, p. 58 -- but did his best to make sure it was collected.)
Infamous Bute: John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute (1713-1792). Prime Minister 1762-1763. He had been the tutor of the future George III from 1755, and his influence with that monarch was felt to continue long after he left office (OxfordCompanion, p. 145). He was, however, hated by just about everyone except the King (Cook, pp. 30-31), and he drove many Lords out of government.
Middlekauff, p. 20, has much to say of Bute, "The friendship [between George III and Bute] seems to have developed easily -- in part, we may suppose, because George craved affection and kindness and Bute responded with both. Yet... Bute held the upper hand: he was twenty-five years older, strongly opinionated, obviously intelligent, and he was in charge of the prince's education.... Bute himself knew much but did not understand men or human conduct. His pride reinforced the prince's; his propensity to judge others by abstract principles... strengthened a similar tendency in the prince. Master and pupil then and later commonly mistook inflexibility for personal strength and character" (p. 20).
It was Bute who first started building up the peacetime army, forcing the raising of money to maintain them. This started the cycle of taxes, continued by Grenville, which caused so much trouble with the colonies. Especially since Bute did nothing to make it clear why he did what he did.
Lexington Battle: The Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 18-19, 1775. Note that the colonists did not win at Lexington (where British regulars tore the Minutemen to pieces); the victory came in the guerilla actions on the way to Concord.
Bunker Hill: The Battle of Bunker Hill, fought on June 17, 1775 at Breed's Hill (not Bunker Hill). The British won, in that the Americans had to evacuate the site, The claim that 1200 Britons lay dead is exaggerated: This is about the number of actual casualties, but Cook, p. 226, says 232 British were killed and 950 wounded. For Bunker Hill, and Joseph Warren who died there, see "The Sword of Bunker Hill."
Darby. Bixby, and Graves: I'm guessing that Darby is Captain John Derby, whose ship brought the first word of Lexington and Concord to England (Cook, pp. 219-221). Bixby I can't identify, There were naval officers named Graves later in the war, though I don't know why they would be mentioned in 1775, which seems from internal evidence to be the date of this song. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: DTgrnwl2

Old Gray Goose (I), The (Lookit Yonder)


DESCRIPTION: Concerning a man's dead wife, whose return he fears: "On Saturday night my good wife died, On Sunday she was buried, But Monday was my courting day, And Tuesday I got married. Now, lookit here, and lookit there, and look way over yonder..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: wife husband death marriage humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
FSCatskills 147, "Lookit Yonder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy 153 (last of several "fragments of Irish songs" - 1 text, which could be this or "My Wife Died on Saturday Night")
DT, LOOKYOND*
Roud #3619
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Turkey Hen" (plot, lyrics; the two may be slightly modified forms of the same song)
cf. "I Had a Wife"
cf. "John Styles and Susan Cutter" (tune)
cf. "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (words)
cf. "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (floating verse)
NOTES: The first verse quoted here is the same as "My Wife Died on Saturday Night"; they are distinguished mostly by the chorus.
To add to the confusion, there is a nursery rhyme (Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #131, p. 106):
I married a wife on Sunday,
She began to scold on Monday,
Bad was she on Tuesday,
Middling was she on Wednesday,
Worse she was on Thursday,
Dead was she on Friday,
Glad was I on Saturday night,
To bury my wife on Sunday.
To this compare also Opie-Oxford2, #509, p. 410, which begins "Tom married a wife on Sunday, Beat her well on Monday," but the rest almost the same as the Baring-Gould version.
The Baring-Goulds also compare the well-known poem of "Solomon Grundy." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FSC147

Old Gray Goose (II), The


See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Old Gray Goose Is Dead, The


See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Old Gray Horse Come Tearin' Out o' De Wilderness


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

Old Gray Horse, The


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

Old Gray Mare (I), The (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)


DESCRIPTION: Concerning an old gray mare (old gray horse, little black bull) that came out of the wilderness (down the meadow, etc.) in Alabam/Arkansas/A long time ago/On to Galilee. Other animals may also be involved. May be used as a playparty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: horse animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 271, "The Old Gray Horse" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune); 559, "Out of the Wilderness" (1 short text, 1 tune); also possibly 429, "John the Boy, Hello!" (1 text, 1 tune, so short that one cannot tell whether it is the same piece or a different one)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 231-232, "The Old Gray Horse" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 271A)
BrownIII 174, "The Old Grey Horse Came Tearing Through the Wilderness" (3 short texts; "A" adds an unusual chorus, "Roll, Riley, roll (x3), Oh, Lord, I'm bound to go")
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 13-14, "Old Gray Horse Come Tearin' Out o' De Wilderness" (1 text plus bits of others, 1 tune); p. 183, (no title) (1 short text)
Sandburg, pp. 102-103, "Old Gray Mare"; 164-165, "Hoosen Johnny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 65-68, "Down in Alabam' or Ain't I Glad I Got Out de Wilderness"" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 45, "In the Wilderness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 336-338, "Tearin' Out-a Wilderness" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Silber-FSWB, p. 397, "Hoosen Johnny"; p. 398, "The Old Gray Mare" (2 texts)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 63, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, tune referenced)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 408-409, "The Old Gray Mare -- (Get Out of the Wilderness)"
Roud #751
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "The Old Grey Mare" (Conqueror 8686, 1936)
Al Bernard, "The Old Grey Mare" (Vocalion 15643, 1927)
Milton Brown & his Brownies, "The Old Grey Mare" (Decca 5260, 1936)
Fiddlin' John Carson & Moonshine Kate, "The Old Gray Horse Ain't What He Used to Be" (OKeh 45471, 1930)
Lew Childre, "The Old Grey Mare" (Champion 16093, 1930)
[Arthur] Collins & [Byron] Harlan "Old Grey Mare" (Victor 18387, 1917) (Emerson 7298, c. 1917) (Columbia A2382, 1917) (Little Wonder 780, 1918)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Old Grey Mare" (Perfect 12421/Conqueror 7071, 1928) (Banner 2180/Jewel 5187/Perfect 12421/Regal 8469/Conqueror 7071/Conqueror 7169, 1928; rec. 1927)
Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band, "The Old Grey Mare" (Victor 18369, 1917)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers[/Clodhoppers], "Old Gray Mare Kicking Out of the Wilderness" (OKeh 45183, 1928; rec. 1927)
Jimmy Johnson's String Band, "Old Blind Dog" (Champion 16541 [possibly issued as by Andy Palmer], 1932; on KMM)
[Billy] Jones & [Ernest] Hare, "The Old Grey Mare" (Edison 51618, 1925)
Elmo Newcomer, "Old Grey Mare" CroMart 101, n.d. but prob. late 1940s - early 1950s)
Land Norris, "Old Grey Mare" (OKeh 45047, 1926)
Obed Pickard, "The Old Gray Horse" (Columbia 15246-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "The Old Gray Mare" (Columbia 15170-D, 1927)
University Quartet, "The Old Gray Mare" (Pathe 20267, 1917)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (tune)
cf. "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" (tune)
cf. "The Big Black Bull"
cf. I Ain't a-Scared of Your Jail (tune, structure)
cf. "Horsie, Keep Your Tail Up" (lyrics)
cf. "Go in the Wilderness" (tune, structure)
cf. "Old Virginny Never Tire"
SAME TUNE:
Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness (File: San168)
Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts (File: PHCFS133)
Flaotin' Down the Delaware (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 157)
I Don't Give a Darn for the Whole State of Iowa (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 251)
I Ain't A-Scared of Your Jail (on PeteSeeger35)
Aren't You Glad You Joined the Republicans? (Republican campaign song, c. 1860; cf. e.g. Allan Nevins, _The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War 1859-1861_ [volume IV of _The Ordeal of the Union_] (Scribners, 1950, p. 315))
NOTES: The 1858 sheet music credits this to "J. Warner," but no information about Warner has been recovered, and there are indications that the song was in the Black traditional repertoire before the 1850s.
A common bit of folklore claims that this is based on the exploits (?) of an animal that took fright during the Second Battle of Bull Run in 1862. The date of the sheet music, of course, proves this false. - RBW
Sam Hinton traces this to an African-American spiritual, "I Wait Upon the Lord" ("If you want to get to heaven go in the wilderness... and wait upon the Lord"). - PJS [See now the Index entry for "Go Into the Wilderness." - RBW]
Are you sure this is the same ballad as "Little black bull come down the meadow/Hoosen Johnny, Hoosen Johnny"? I think they're part of the same family, but maybe we should split them. By the way, there's a great bawdy version of "Hoosen Johnny" called "Houston, Sam Houston", with sound effects. - PJS
It's another case of the extremes being different but the intermediate versions being too mixed to clearly distinguish. Easier to lump the whole family here. If we don't, we *will* mess up. Or, at least, I will. The versions of this song are so diverse that it gets to the point of parodying itself.... - RBW
File: R271

Old Gray Mule, The (Johnson's Mule)


DESCRIPTION: "Mr. Thomas had an old gray mule, And he drove him to a cart, And he loved that mule and the mule loved him." The song describes how Thomas mistreats the mule (currying it with a rake, feeding it on boot tops). The mule kicks and eventually dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: animal death work
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
LPound-ABS, 103, pp. 213-214, "The Old Gray Mule" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 186, "Johnson's Mule" (1 text)
BrownIII 512, "Johnson's Mule" (1 short text)
Roud #3704
NOTES: Reading Pound's text, I can't help but believe that parts of it were originally about a goat, not a mule. But I can't locate similar "goat" stanzas. In any case, many of the same lines appear in Gardner and Chickering.
Brown's text is also about a mule, but the few lines it contains are all goat-applicable. - RBW
File: LPns213

Old Grey Beard


See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Grey Goose, The


See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Old Grey Horse Came Tearing Through the Wilderness, The


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

Old Grey Mare (II), The


DESCRIPTION: "Once I had an old grey mare (x3), Saddled her and rode her there." "When I got there she got tired, She laid down in an old courtyard." The singers in the yard scare her, and she flees; she singer finds her "in a mud hole flat on her back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1913 (JAFL26)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Once I had an old grey mare (x3), Saddled her and rode her there." "When I got there she got tired, She laid down in an old courtyard." The singers in the yard scare her, and she flees; she singer finds her "in a mud hole flat on her back." In other versions, the singer tells that the gray mare was blind and deaf; he takes her out to plow, but she doesn't know how; she runs away, he follows her and finds her on her back in a mudhole. She may get that good old-time religion
KEYWORDS: horse travel disability escape farming humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 175, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text)
SharpAp 223, "The Old Grey Mare" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #3442
RECORDINGS:
Buell Kazee, "Old Grey Mare" (on Kazee01)
Maude Thacker, "Once I Had an Old Grey Mare" (on FolkVisions1)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)"; in that song the horse comes out of the wilderness.
Buell Kazee allegedly recorded this in the 1920s, but I can't find it in the catalogs. And Sharp is said to have printed a version, but I haven't seen it yet. So, for the moment, the earliest date stands. - PJS
File: Br3175

Old Grey Mare (III), The


DESCRIPTION: .".. of traitors now beware There's none but men would glory win can ride my old Grey Mare. In Erin's Isle in ancient times She was rode by Brian Boru" and other heroes and others "not long ago" and "Brave Bonaparte" as well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn); first half 19C (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic talltale horse Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1014 - Battle of Clontarf; Brian Boru defeats a mixed force of Vikings and their Irish allies (but is killed in the battle)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn 35, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmermann 44B, "The Sporting Old Grey Mare" (1 text)
Moylan 164, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3039
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wonderful Grey Horse" (theme)
NOTES: Zimmermann: "The song probably has no emblematic meaning."
For a broadside with the same theme but different ballad see NLScotland, RB.m.169(243), "The Wonderful Grey Horse," unknown, c.1840. The similarity extends even to leading up to support of the Irish Home Rule Movement. - BS
File: OLoc035

Old Grimes (II)


See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Grimes Is Dead


See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Old Grumbler


See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Gum Boots and Leggings


See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Hal o' the West


See Henry Clay Songs (File: SRW039)

Old Hannah


See Go Down, Old Hannah (File: LoF286)

Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow


See Hen Cackle (File: RcOHCRGC)

Old Hewson the Cobbler


See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Old Holly, Crab, and I


DESCRIPTION: "We work for Hay and Company; we try to do what's right. We start at six in the morning and quit at six at night." The three workers, "old Holly, Crab, and me," work hard, then relax in the evening
AUTHOR: Ron Sisson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-Lumbering #25, "Old Holly, Crab, and I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4465
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Work for Hay and Company" (subject)
File: FowL25

Old Honest Abe


DESCRIPTION: "Old honest Abe, you are a babe In military glory. An iron fool, a party tool, A traitor, and a Tory." The singer challenges Lincoln to "whup us if you're able." Scott and Wool cannot win his battles; Scott can never defeat his mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Songs of the South)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden, pp. 356-357, "Old Honest Abe" (1 text)
Roud #7767
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Abe's Elected" (subject)
NOTES: Belden says this song was published in Songs of the South in 1863. Internal evidence implies that it was written rather earlier -- my guess would be around September or October of 1861, after the Confederates had won Wilson's Creek (August 10) and first Bull Run (July 21), making possible the claim of beating the Federals in every battle, but before Winfield Scott gave up the Commander in Chief's post in November of that year.
The "Scott" of the song was of course Winfield Scott (1786-1866), the original commander in chief of the Federal armies, who was a Virginian (hence the gibe about his inability to defeat his mother). Although Scott was soon pushed aside, we might note that his "anaconda plan" was the basic scheme by which the Union won the war.
"Wool" is John E. Wool (1789-1869), like Scott a veteran of the War of 1812, and considered the #2 Federal officer starting the war. He would serve until he retired in 1863, but he didn't really do much in the War; at no point did he command an important army. - RBW
File: Beld356

Old Horny Kebri-O (Shaggin' Away)


DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out and has "good luck," having sex with 14 women. He has less fortune at home, having only animals available. Other verses may involve other exploits of his "old horny kebri-o." Chorus: "Shaggin', shaggin', shaggin' away...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: sex animal whore bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon 49, pp. 235-237, "Old Horny Kebri-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10104
File: Logs049

Old Horse (II)


See The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)

Old Horse, Old Horse


See The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)

Old Hoss


See The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)

Old Hoss Kick, The


DESCRIPTION: "De old hoss kick And a hippy-doodle. De old hoss kick And a hippy-doodle. The old hoss kick hard in the stable, And he couldn't git his foot out Because he wasn't able!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 185, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScNF185A

Old Hoss, Old Hoss


See The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)

Old Hulk, The


DESCRIPTION: "When age has rendered some old hulk Unfit for merchant use, She's sold at auction, bought in bulk, Just for a whaling cruise." The singer described the dreadful conditions on a whaling ship, and laments that after all the toil he is still poor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Journal from the Governor Carver)
KEYWORDS: whaler work hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 32-33, "The Old Hulk" (1 text)
Roud #2007
File: SWMS032

Old Hundred


DESCRIPTION: "All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice." Alternately, "Make ye a joyful sounding noise, Unto Jehovah, all the earth." The listener is reminded that Jehovah is God, and is advised to enter "his courts with thankfulness."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1560
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(NE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Scott-BoA, pp. 28-29, "Psalm 100 (A Psalm of Praise)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 366, "Old Hundred" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 409-410, "Old Hundred"
DT, (OLDHUND*)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 26-27, "All People That On Earth Do Dwell" (1 text, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
Hymn for Syttende Mai (Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 18-19 -- though the words have to be squeezed pretty hard to fit)
The Dogsology (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 156)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Hundredth
NOTES: This tune is now better known as "The Doxology," but those words are a relatively recent addition -- they are part of a work by Thomas Ken (sometimes spelled Thomas Kenn). According to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 301, Ken was "one of the fathers of English hymnody," but few of his works are still used in any significant way. He lived from 1637 to 1711, perhaps lived for a time with Izaak Walton, and earned his M.A. in 1664. The Doxology apparently is from his Manuel for Winchester Scholars of 1674. He drifted into, then out of, royal favor, and produced many other books but nothing else of great quality or historical significance.
The source and age of the original words are subject to debate. They were not, perhaps, originally meant to be a hymn. Davies, p. 374 (article on "Metrical Psalms") reports that "The ancestor of the modern hymnal was the metrical psalter, comprising versifications of the psalms with simple strophic tunes designed to fit the metres employed. Perhaps the most familiar of the metrical psalm is the version of the hundredth psalm in which the original prose, 'O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands,' has become 'All people that on earth do dwell.' Included in almost every modern hymnal, and hence usually thought of as a hymn, these words first appeared in Fourscore and Seven Psalms of David published in Geneva in 1561. The tune always associated with them is from the still earlier Genevan Psalter of 1551. Thus both words and music take us back to the same source -- the English Protestant exiles who fled to Geneva in 1553 to escape persecution under Queen Mary."
Fuld too reports that the music is said to have been provided by Louis Bourgeois for Psalm 134 in the 1551 Genevan Psalter. However, no copies of this book survive, and the 1553 edition lacks the song.
The first certain printing, the 1560 edition "Psalms of David in English," has the piece with words credited to William Kethe. According to Johnson, William Kethe was a Scotsman, but apparently he ended up in England, because he "fled before the persecution of Mary 1555-1558 [i.e., by the dates, Mary Tudor of England, not Mary Stuart of Scotland] and found refuge in Geneva."
Johnson also reports that this song "was suggested to us by the McCormick Theological Seminary as expressing Calvin's and Presbuterian/Reformedhymn concepts in much the same way as A Mighty Fortress Is Our God could be said to represent Luther's."
The version printed by Scott (from the Bay Psalm Book of 1640) has the curious trait of using the name "Jehovah" rather than the theologically correct "the LORD" or the phonologically correct "YAHWEH." This version does have the advantage of being noticeably closer to the Hebrew in meaning.
The Missouri Harmony has a song, "Old Hundred" (as well as a "New Hundred") which doesn't seem to match any version of this I've ever seen in either text or tune.- RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: SBoA028

Old Hundredth


See Old Hundred (File: SBoA028)

Old Indian, An (The Indian Song)


DESCRIPTION: "An old Indian sat in his little canoe, / A-floating along o'er the water so blue. / He sang of the days when these lands were his own, / Before the palefaces among them were known." A lament for the loss of the Indians' land and culture
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) lament
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warner 30, "An Old Indian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 86-88, "The Indian's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 81, "The Indian's Lament" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 157-158, "The Indian's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 121, "Indian Song" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
ST Wa030 (Partial)
Roud #1846
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Tom Sullivan, "The Indian's Lament" (on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Steals of the White Man" (theme)
cf. "Logan's Lament" (theme)
cf. "The Fair Captive" (plot elements)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Poor Indian
File: Wa030

Old Inishowen


DESCRIPTION: The singer says there is no place in the country to match Inishowen's beauty. He lists the places nearby: Tyrconnell, the castle of Cahir. He laments that O'Donnell (of Tyrconnell) and O'Doherty (of Inishowen) are dead. He blesses his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H824, p. 166, "Old Inishowen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13477
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeting of the Waters" (tune)
NOTES: For O'Donell of Tyrconnell, see the notes on "O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)." - RBW
File: HHH824

Old Ireland


DESCRIPTION: "In the northwest of Europe there lies a green isle" land of majestic hills and fertile fields. The singer came from Columbia to view Ireland, and now praises Saint Patrick for a land without snakes. The singer bids farewell but says his heart will stay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H658, pp. 175-176, "Old Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13536
File: HHH658

Old Ireland Far Away


See The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II) [Laws J7] (File: LJ07)

Old Ireland I Adore


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Erin's Isle, my heart's delight, I long to see thee free." O'Connell fought to make Ireland free. "If you were free as once we were How happy would we be! No foreign landlord then would dare To lord it over thee"
AUTHOR: James Walsh
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 12(242))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor, p. 113, "Old Ireland I Adore" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(242), "The Exile's Lament", J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 b.10(82), Harding B 11(2918), 2806 c.15(287), Firth c.26(235), "The Exile's Lament"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls" (tune)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
File: OCon113

Old Jack


DESCRIPTION: Charles thinks his horse Old Jack should win a silver cup. Old Jack is a bag of bones, always hungry to eat anything. Nevertheless, he wins a trotting match race.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: racing humorous horse food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 85-86, "Old Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9953
File: Pea085

Old Jesse


DESCRIPTION: "One cold and frosty mornin' Just as the sun did rise, The possum roared, the raccoon howled, 'Cause he'd begun to freeze... Old Jesse was a gentleman among the olden times." Remaining verses are floating stanzas about a Black's learning and life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 71-72, "Old Jesse" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ScaNF071 (Partial)
Roud #3439
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On a Cold Frosty Morning" (lyrics)
cf. "Walkin' in the Parlor" (lyrics)
NOTES: This is one of those impossible items. Roud lumps Scarborough's text with "On a Cold Frosty Morning," presumably on the basis of the first line. But the next two verses ("Nigger never went to free school Nor any odder college..." and "Nigger used to pick de banjo, He play so berry strong...") are typical of "Walkin' in the Parlor."
The chorus, about Old Jesse (the father of David) is unique.
What's more, I have a recording of George and Gerry Armstrong, with the first verse and the Old Jesse chorus, combined with "Bye and Bye."
I really don't know what to make of the result. Separate song, or just a conflation? When in doubt, we split. If I had to file it somewhere, I would probably go against Roud and file it with "Walkin' in the Parlor" rather than "On a Cold Frosty Morning." - RBW
File: ScaNF071

Old Jig-Jog, The


See The Castlereagh River (File: MA045)

Old Jimmy Sutton


DESCRIPTION: Bill took the gun, Bill went a-huntin'/Bang went the gun, down went the mutton, baa!" and similar verses about an inept farmer. Cho: "Can't dance that, can't dance nothin'/I wouldn't give a blank for the old Jimmy Sutton, baa!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Grayson & Whitter)
KEYWORDS: hunting dancing food dancetune animal horse sheep farming
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #7878
RECORDINGS:
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Old Jimmy Sutton" (Gennett 6436, 1928, on GraysonWhitter01)
Vester Jones, "The Old Jimmy Sutton" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Glenn Smith, "Old Jimmy Sutton" [instrumental] (GraysonCarroll1)
NOTES: Just enough plot to avoid the nonballad keyword by a whisker. - PJS
File: RcOJiSu

Old Joe Camp


DESCRIPTION: "Old Joe Camp when he came to town, He enlisted under Captain Brown, Brown swore him on the very first slap, And sent him off to Manassas Gap." Brown rides Joe, who vows to desert, is captured (?), and is "fired back" to Brown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar desertion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
JHCox 79, "Old Joe Camp" (1 text)
ST JHCox079 (Full)
Roud #5463
NOTES: Despite the title, the stanza form implies that this is not a version of Old Joe Clark.
Cox's version is badly defective, and there don't seem to be other versions, so it's hard to tell what this is really about, except that it seems to involve an "old soldier" of the Civil War who does his best to avoid work -- and, when that fails, attempts to desert.
The only specific in the song is the reference to Manassas Gap; this is not enough even to allow speculation about the source of the song.
It was quite common, in the Civil War, for a well-to-do or well-connected man to volunteer to raise a company (or even a regiment), and become its commander as a result. It would seem that Brown was just such a company commander. - RBW
File: JHCox079

Old Joe Clark


DESCRIPTION: Old Joe Clark, a "fine old man" and a "preacher's son," lives an improbable life of courting, gambling, drinking, and sundry accidents. Versions range from the thoroughly clean (often involving animals) to the significantly bawdy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale nonballad animal playparty floatingverses bawdy dancetune
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Randolph 533, "Old Joe Clark" (10 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 399-401, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 533A)
BrownIII 86, "Old Joe Clark" (5 texts); also 111, "Wish I Had a Needle and Thread" (7 text, of which only "E" is really substantial; it is certainly the "Italy" version of "Going Across the Sea." The other fragments contain verses typical of "Shady Grove," "Old Joe Clark," and others)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 428-430, "Old Joe Clark" (5 texts, 1 tune)
SharpAp 183, "Old Joe Clarke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 25, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune -- plus the modern adaption "Round and Round Hitler's Grave")
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 277-279, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 814-818, "Old Joe Clark" (1 collated text, 1 tune)
JHCox 174, "Old Joe Clog" (1 text, partly from "Old Joe Clark" and partly floating verses, several of them from "Shady Grove")
Abrahams/Foss, p. 89, "Old Joe Clark" (1 partial text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 35, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 249-250, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 206, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text)
DT, JOECLARK*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 209, "(Old Joe Clark)" (1 text)
Roud #3594
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Old Joe Clark" (AFS 200 A3, 1933)
H. M. Barnes & his Blue Ridge Ramblers, "Old Joe Clark" (Brunswick 313, 1929)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Fare You Well Old Joe Clark" (OKeh 40038, 1924; rec. 1923) (OKeh 45198 [as "Old Joe Clark"], 1928, rec. 1927)
James Crase, "Old Joe Clark" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Old Joe Clark" (Gennett 6223/Challenge 333/Herwin 75565, 1927; on GoingDown)
The Hillbillies, "Old Joe Clark" (OKeh 40376, 1925) (Vocalion 15369, 1926)
Vester Jones, "Old Joe Clark" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Bradley Kincaid, "Old Joe Clark" (Brunswick 485, c. 1930; Conqueror 8090, 1933)
Clayton McMichen & his Georgia Wildcats, "Old Joe Clark" (Varsity 5029, 1942)
John D. Mounce et al, "Old Joe Clark" (on MusOzarks01)
Glen Neaves & band, "Old Joe Clark" (on HalfCen1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Old Joe Clark" (on NLCR05, NLCR11)
W. Lee O'Daniel & the Light Crust Doughboys, "Old Joe Clark" (Vocalion 02975, 1935)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Old Joe Clark" (AFS 197 A1, 1933)
Fiddlin' Powers and Family, "Old Joe Clark" (Victor 19434, 1924) (Edison 51662, 1925)
Riley Puckett, "Old Joe Clark" (Columbia 15033-D, c. 1925)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Old Joe Clark" (Victor 20302, 1926); Ernest V. Stoneman Trio, "Old Joe Clark" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "Joe Clark" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Old Joe Clark" (Columbia 15108-D, 1926)
Wade Ward, "Old Joe Clark" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cuckoo Waltz" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Fare You Well, Old Ely Branch (by Aunt Molly Jackson) (Greenway-AFP, pp. 268-269; on PeteSeeger13)
NOTES: Randolph-Legman I offers some of the rarely printed bawdy verses to this familiar square dance and quatrain ballad. - EC
Since this piece is often played as a fiddle tune, and since the verses are usually improbable, often come from other songs, and rarely show any connection to each other, this song has been suspected of having begun life as an instrumental. - RBW
Seeger states that Joe Clark was "an actual person, a veteran of the War of 1812." - PJS
I'd love to know what evidence there is to prove that this soldier inspired the song.... - RBW
This shouldn't be confused with the fiddle tune "Old Joe," which is separate. "Old Joe" is reported to have been a nickname for syphilis. - PJS
File: R533

Old Joe Clog


See Old Joe Clark (File: R533)

Old Joe's Barroom


See Saint James Infirmary (File: San228)

Old John Booker


DESCRIPTION: "Old John Booker, call that gone!" (repeated frequently, usually in groups of three). "I'm goin' down to telephone!" "Old John Booker, he feel like this!" "I'm goin' down -- on the farm!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, pp. 187-188, "(Old John Booker)" (1 text); p. 287, "Old John Booker" (1 tune, partial text)
File: CNFM187

Old John Wallis


DESCRIPTION: John Brown had an old mare. He wasn't bid one farthing for her at Caister fair. He had a cow that gave only enough milk for his sow. His hens got in his corn; he shot at them but killed his mare. He killed another mare running her head into a tree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Bob Brader)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous nonballad nonsense chickens horse floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #294
RECORDINGS:
Bob Brader, "Old John Wallis" (on Voice14)
NOTES: John Wallis's part in this song is only to ask John Brown "do you think this mare will die?" The rest of the song has to do with John Brown's misadventures. I list only a few of those in the description. He has others that I don't begin to understand. For example,
Old John Brown he went to plough,
And when he got there he didn't know how.
At every end he gave meows
He said he could plough from light to dark.
and
Old John Brown he had two fools
And he said he would make them lead his winter cows.
And if they didn't get back by noon,
He would eat the treacle and swallow the spoon.
I hope this is not supposed to make sense. - BS
I wonder if it isn't some sort of "song of all nonsense songs," with some garbling as the various elements came together. Roud lumps it with "Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn)." I'm reminded of versions of "The Swapping Boy." Mix in a little of "Little Brown Dog" and a dead horse song, and voila! - RBW
File: RcOlJoWa

Old Johnny Booger


DESCRIPTION: Johnny Booger takes a wife. Doctor tells Johnny to rub her bad leg with gin. He thinks that a sin so he drinks the gin and rubs her leg with the bottle. Johnny falls in the river and there is no one to pull him out. He dies but can't get in heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960s (recording, Jack Elliott)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous wife death river drowning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South))
Roud #1329
RECORDINGS:
Jack Elliott, "Old Johnny Booger" (on Voice14)
NOTES: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 14" - 8.9.02: "When I first came across this song, from a singer in Oxfordshire, the title was 'Old Johnny Bigger', the final word rhyming with the now unacceptable word 'nigger'. I presume that the song comes from the American Minstrel stage of the mid-19th century."
Jack Elliott's chorus on Voice14 is "Singing I do believe; I will believe. That old Johnny Booger was a gay old bugger And a gay old bugger was he."
It is tempting to lump this [Roud #1329] with "Johnny Booker" [Roud #3441] but the verses and tune here have nothing in common with what I've read and heard. Yet another complication is the relationship of this song to "Johnny Boker" (I) [Roud #353]; for tune, text and structure's sake, I would keep it separate as well. - BS
File: RcOlJoBo

Old Johnny Booker Won't Do


See Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R268)

Old Johnston Thought It Rather Hard


DESCRIPTION: "Old Johnston thought it rather hard To ride over Beauregard; Old Johnston proved the deuce of a battle, And it's clear beyond a doubt That he didn't like the rout, And the second time he thought he'd try another." The Great Galena is also mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run/Manasses fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard
April 6-7, 1862 - Battle of Shiloh. The army of U.S. Grant is forced back but, reinforced by Buell, beats off the army of A.S. Johnston. Johnston is killed. Both sides suffer heavy casualties (Shiloh was the first battle to show how bloody the Civil War would be)
May 15, 1862 - Battle of Drewry's Bluff
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 224, "Old Johnston Thought It Rather Hard" (1 fragment)
Roud #6618
NOTES: The editors of Brown conjecture that the first verse of this song, at least, refers to the Battle of Shiloh, at which Albert Sidney Johnston commanded (and died). Given the fragmentary state of the text, this is possible, and A. S. Johnston had suffered much criticism in the aftermath of the loss of Forts Henry and Donelson (McPherson, p. 405) -- but I wonder.
There were two battles in the Civil War in which a southern general named Johnston was in command over Beauregard: At (First) Bull Run/Manasses, where the Johnston involved was Joseph E. Johnston (Boatner, pp. 99-101), and at Shiloh, where the Johnston was A. S. Johnston (Boatner, pp. 752-757)..
To me, the song seems slightly more likely to refer to Bull Run. J. E. Johnston, arriving on the field with reinforcements, could have taken command over Beauregard, but generally deferred to his junior as Beauregard knew the ground. In addition, the Confederates at Bull Run were wavering when Johnston's troops arrived; there was no such rout at Shiloh. (There, it was the Union troops which ran.)
I hasten to add that this is pure conjecture. If true, however, the song may link vaguely with the "Bull Run" song of Cox; there are some metrical similarities.
If the song refers to the eastern campaigns, it would also explain the references to the Galena, a Union ironclad launched in 1862. She operated on the James River during the Peninsular Campaign, and she and the Monitor (either of which, though probably the latter, could be the "Naval Wonder" of the song) tried to ascend the river to attack Richmond after the destruction of the Merrimac/Virginia on May 9. (There were naval vessels involved at Shiloh -- the Lexington and Tyler were on the Tennessee River supporting Grant's troops; McPherson, pp. 410-411 -- but there was nothing unusual about either ship.)
The attack on Drewry's Bluff failed; the Union vessels could not elevate their guns high enough to attack the Confederate works. The Monitor suffered little damage (except that her crew was driven inside by sharpshooters, leaving them breathing foul and very hot air; Holzer/Mulligan, p. 48), but the Galena proved very unsafe. Nelson, p. 89, records an officer writing of her, "She is not shot-proof; ball came through, and many men were killed with fragments of her own iron."
Soley-BL, p. 270., writes that in the battle of Drewry's Bluff, "In this position the Galena remained for three hours and twenty minutes until she had expended all her ammunition. She came out of the action badly shattered, having been struck 28 times and perforated in 18 places." In the end, she was converted to an unarmored gunboat.
Another perspective on Drewry's Bluff, however, comes from John Taylor Wood, who was first a lieutenant in the Confederate Navy and then a Colonel in the army. He declares that Drewry's Bluff had not been fortified until the Virginia was scuttled, and manned only by a few guns, served mostly by the Virginia's former crew. He considers the Galena to have been very skillfully handled, But his summary of the battle (Wood-BL, p. 108) is as follows:
"The Monitor, and others anchored just below, answered our fire deliberately; but, owing to the great elevation of the battery, their fire was in a great measure ineffectual, though two guns were dismounted and several men were killed and wounded. While this was going on, our sharp-shooters were at work on both banks.... Fining they could make no impression on our works, the Galena, after an action of four hours, returned down the riger with her onsorts.
"This was one of the boldest and best-conducted operations of the war.... Had Commander Rogers [of the Union navy] been supported by a few brigades,landed at City Point or above on the south side [of the James River], Richmond would have been evacuated. The Virginia's crew alone barred his way to Richmond...." - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: BrII224

Old Jones


See Put the Traffic Down (File: R334)

Old Judas


DESCRIPTION: "Old Judas was a traitor and the worst of his kind. He had a bag of money that he carried all the time." The singer details Judas's betrayal of Jesus, and his death, wonders why Jesus chose such a disciple, and warns others against love of money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Collected by Shellans from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious money lie betrayal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans, pp. 87-88, "Old Judas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7336
NOTES: The statement that Judas had "a money bag" seems to be based on John 13:29. where Judas is said to have what the NRSV calls "the common purse," and also John 12:6. This also refers to Judas having the common treasury, and refers to him as a thief who steals from it. 12;6 is also the verse in which, after the anointing of Jesus's feet, he complains that the money was not given to the poor. (In the version of the story of the anointing in Mark 14:3-9 and parallels, it is not Judas who questions the behavior, but the crowd in general).
There is no evidence that Judas had been a thief prior to his involvement with Jesus, except for songs such as "Judas" [Child 23].
It is not really clear whether Judas betrayed Jesus for a high price or a low. Only Matthew tells the story (Matt. 26:15), and the text says literally "thirty of silver" -- hence thirty silver coins, but it it not clear which sort of silver coins. If, as is likely, we are meant to think of the Greek denarius (which was a silver coin massing 3.8 grams), the price -- while not "lordly" as in the source in Zech. 11:13) -- was not trivial; it represented a month or more of income for a hired worker. And it was allegedly enough to buy a field near Jerusalem, where land prices must have been high (Matt. 27:7).
In Matthew 27:3-4, Judas tries to return the money before his death. The song tries to reconcile the two incompatible versions of his death; Matt. 27:5 says he hanged himself, clearly dying in the process, with no broken ropes involved; his death by violent disease, in a field he himself bought, is told in Acts 1:18-19). - RBW
File: Shel087

Old Judge Duffy


DESCRIPTION: Judge Duffy "knew nothing about rules of the law," but "of judges he was one of the best." When the town's only blacksmith is clearly guilty of murder, Duffy orders a Chinese laborer hanged instead, because the blacksmith is needed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978
KEYWORDS: execution reprieve foreigner lie
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 51-52, "Old Judge Duffy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JDGEDFFY*
Roud #4780
File: MN2051

Old Keg of Rum, The


DESCRIPTION: "My name is old Jack Palmer, I'm a man of olden day, And so I wish to sing a song To you of olden praise. To tell of merry friends of old...." The singer describes his mates who gathered around "the old keg of rum," their work and their drinking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: drink moniker
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 249-253, "The Old Keg of Rum" (1 text)
NOTES: The text Paterson/Fahey/Seal appears likely to be based on "The Days of Forty-Nine," but without a tune, it's impossible to be sure. - RBW.
File: PFS250

Old Kentucky


DESCRIPTION: "You may go east, you may go west And sighs so grand you'll see. But after all, Kentucky is The place you'll wish to be." The singer describes the scenery, the "women always fair," the hospitality, the farming, etc. and hopes to be buried in Kentucky
AUTHOR: Billie Menshouse?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 174-175, "Old Kentucky" (1 text)
File: ThBa174

Old King and His Three Sons, The


See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Old King Buzzard


DESCRIPTION: "Old King Buzzard floating high, 'Sho do wish old cow would die.' Old cow died, old calf cried, 'Oh mourner, you shall be free.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food bird animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 193, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScNF193A

Old King Cole (I)


DESCRIPTION: Cumulative: "Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he. He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl and he called for his --- three." Sundry (soldiers/courtiers) are called in, make suitable remarks, and wait for the next rank
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd); the nursery rhyme form is quoted in William King's "Useful Transactions in Philosophy" (1708/9)
KEYWORDS: cumulative soldier drink humorous bawdy royalty
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Kennedy 302, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 151-153, "Old King Coul" (1 text)
GreigDuncan8 1710, "Old King Cole" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Chappell-FSRA 107, "Old King Jimmy" (1 text, in which the same first stanza is repeated several times: "Old King Jimmy called for his wine And called for his fiddlers three," "Old Farmer Jimmy called for his wine..." "Old Preacher Jimmy..." "Old Sailor Jimmy...")
Randolph-Legman I, p. 158, "Old King Cole" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge II, pp. 171-173, "Old King Cole" (1 tune, which may or may not be related as no text is given)
Creighton-NovaScotia 91, "Old King Coul" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 112, "Old King Cole" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #206, p. 143, "(Old King Cole)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 278, "Old King Cole" (1 text)
DT, KNGCOLE* KNGCOLE2*
Roud #1164
RECORDINGS:
Martin Gorman, "Old King Cole" (on Voice07)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(269), "Old King Cole," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866 ; also Harding B 11(2808), "Old King Cole"
SAME TUNE:
Old King Cotton (Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II, p. 199)
NOTES: Randolph-Legman I has a bawdy version of the drinking song and nursery rhyme. - EC
Various explanations have been offered for "King Cole." Colchester is said to have been named after a third century kinglet named Cole; Geoffrey of Monmouth's history, V.6, describes a "Coel Duke of Kaercolun/Colchester" as living in the time of Constantius the father of Constantine the Great -- but Geoffrey made up most of his history. (He also gave us King Lear and much of the basic story of King Arthur). As the Opies comment, "If the old chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth (1147) could be trusted, which he cannot be, King Cole had a daughter who was well skilled in music." They go on to note that the identity of Cole has been discussed at least since the early eighteenth century.
It might be worth noting that, although Geoffrey's history is almost all fiction, and we have no quality sources for British history in the period precnding Constantius, his work is very popular. So it might possibly have inspired this song even though it is not historical.
Scotland had a King Colin (967-971). Various merchants and minor noblemen have also been suggested. Needless to say, none of these identifications is convincing. - RBW
Parody: Bodleian, Harding B 11(2809), "Old King Cole," J. Sharp (London), c.1845 - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: K302

Old King Cole (II)


DESCRIPTION: "Old King Cole was a jolly old soul And this you may tell by his larnin', He eat corn bread till his head turn red And his old yellow cap needs darnin" Other verses are floaters: "My pretty little pink," "Coffee grows," "I'll take my knapsack on my back"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: nonballad royalty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 42-43, "[Old King Cole]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 81, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1164
NOTES: Roud lumps this with the standard "Old King Cole." But while the theme is similar, the lyrics and the meter are different. It's really more a floating verse collection than anything else; of Ritchie's 20 lines (five stanazas of four lines each), I would consider *at least* fourteen to be from other songs -- and I suspect in fact that the original was a composite song from which the singer forgot a few lines and patched in replacements. - RBW
File: JRSF042

Old King Coul


See Old King Cole (I) (File: K302)

Old King Jimmy


See Old King Cole (I) (File: K302)

Old Kingston Jail


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the conditions in Kingston Jail. The inmates talk of their desire to leave. Most of the song is devoted to the varied characters found in the prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: nonballad prison moniker
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney, pp. 25-27, "Old Kingston Jail" (1 text)
ST FO025 (Partial)
Roud #4675
File: FO025

Old Kitarden


DESCRIPTION: Singer, a restless logger, leaves "Kitarden" (Katahdin), Maine. Arriving in Michigan, he is set to cooking instead of logging; he reminisces; when he and his friends arrive in Saginaw they will "make the taverns roar" with toasts to Kitarden and the girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a logger, leaves "Kitarden" (Katahdin), Maine, because he is restless. He arrives in Michigan, but his cohorts put him to cooking rather than logging; he reminisces about Maine, and vows that when he and his friends arrive in Saginaw they will "make the taverns roar" with toasts to Kitarden and the "girls that we adore."
KEYWORDS: lumbering emigration logger work home cook
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 44, "Old Kitarden" (1 text)
Roud #8876
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy" (lyrics)
NOTES: Maine, New Brunswick, and Ontario lumberjacks commonly came to Michigan for the season, or sometimes permanently. - PJS
File: Be044

Old Lady Come from Booster


DESCRIPTION: "Old lady came from Booster, She had two hens and a rooster, The rooster died, toe old lady cried, She couldn't get eggs like she used to." "Ranky tanky, button my shoe." "Pain in my head, ranky tanky; Pain in my shoulder... Pain all over me, ranky tanky"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (collected in John's Island by Henrietta Yurchenko)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #2 (1973), p, 27, "Old Lady Come from Booster" (1 text, 1 tune, the Johns Island version)
File: SOv22v2b

Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump


DESCRIPTION: "Old Lady Sally wants to jumpty-jump, Jumpty-jump, jumpty-jump... And Old Lady Sally wants to bow." The singer says to throw in a hook to catch a girl, notes there are "many fishes in the brook," and describes a preacher trying to preach his way to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, children of Lilly's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, pp. 153-154, "(Old Lady Sally Wants to Jumpty-Jump)" (1 text); pp. 275-276, "Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #11003
RECORDINGS:
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
File: CNFM153

Old Lady Sittin' in the Dining Room


DESCRIPTION: A ring-skipping song. "Choose the one the ring go round, Choose the one the morning, Choose the one with the coal black hair, And kiss and call her honey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 705, "Old Lady Sittin' in the Dining Room" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Another "Weevily Wheat" variant? - RBW
File: BSoF705B

Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly


DESCRIPTION: Singer says he knows an old lady who swallowed a fly; "I don't know why she swallowed that fly/Perhaps she'll die." She swallows a succession of animals, each to catch the last. At the end, "I know an old lady who swallowed a horse/She's dead, of course."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: death cumulative humorous animal bird bug horse
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, SWALLFLY*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "I Know an Old Lady (Who Swallowed a Fly)" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" (on SeegerTerry)
SAME TUNE:
Pete Seeger, "Young Woman Who Swallowed a Lie" [feminist parody] (DT, SWALLLIE; on PeteSeeger45; on PeteSeeger47)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
File: RcIKAOLW

Old Lead (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John II)


DESCRIPTION: "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Killed Old Lead and home he run, Old Lead was eat, and John was beat, And Mary ran bawling down the street." How a drifter named John killed a tree dog named "Old Lead" and was punished for it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 76, (no title) (1 fragment)
cf. Baring-Gould-MotherGoose p. 221, note 74 "(Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I)" (lyrics)
File: ScaNF076

Old Leather Bonnet, The


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

Old Leather Breeches, The


DESCRIPTION: "At the sign of the bell, on the road to Clonmel, Paddy Hegarty kept a night shaybeen." When a party arrives demanding food and drink, Paddy supplies liquor, but for food can only cut up his leather breeches. When the trick is discovered, a riot ensues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (OConor); 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as110230)
KEYWORDS: drink clothes party
FOUND IN: Ireland Australia Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 232-233, "The Old Leather Breeches" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 75, "The Old Leather Breeches" (1 text)
OLochlainn 67A, "The Old Leather Breeches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 71-72, "Leather Britches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 37, pp. 123-125,171, "The Old Leather Britches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 22-24, "The Ould Leather Breeches" (1 text)
Roud #923
RECORDINGS:
Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), pp. 14-15, "The Ould Leather Breeches" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2266 recorded Feb 6, 1931)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as110230, "Old Leather Breeches!," unknown, 19C
NOTES: Morton-Maguire: "It is common throughout Ireland and I have heard [it] in the Border's of Scotland."
The date and master id (GB-2648-1/2) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
File: MCB232

Old Leather Britches, The


See The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)

Old Lord by the Northern Sea, The


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

Old Lover's Wedding, An


See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Old Lyda Zip Coon


See Hallelujah (File: R421)

Old MacDonald Had a Farm


DESCRIPTION: (Old MacDonald's) farm features a wide variety of livestock, described cumulatively, e.g. with the pig making an oink here and an oink there, the cow a moo-moo here and there, etc. until the entire farm is sounding off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Tommy's Tunes)
KEYWORDS: animal farming cumulative nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 457, "The Merry Green Fields of the Lowland" (1 text); 458, "Old Missouri" (1 text)
BrownIII 125, "McDonald's Farm" (5 text)
Kennedy 310, "When I Was a Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, p. 83, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 389, "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 120, pp. 238-240, "Sweet Fields of Violo" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 410-412, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm"
Roud #745
RECORDINGS:
Warren Caplinger's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers, "McDonald's Farm" (Brunswick 224, 1928)
Englewood Four, "Old McDonald Had a Farm" (Champion 15451/Challenge 396, 1928 [as Henry County Four]; rec. 1927)
Sam Patterson Trio, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (Edison 51644, 1925)
Dan Russo's Orioles, "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" (Columbia 2647-D, 1932)
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, "Old McDonald Had A Farm" (Columbia 15204-D, 1927)
SAME TUNE:
Golly, Ain't That Queer (Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 171-172)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Farmyard Song
NOTES: Are the pieces listed here really one song? It's not immediately obvious. The British and American versions are often very distinct, but there are intermediate versions, e.g. Randolph's.
Neither of Randolph's texts conforms to the common version of "Old MacDonald," and "The Merry Green Fields of the Lowland," in particular, looks older (It probably derives from the George Christy version "In the Merry Green Fields of Oland," from 1865; compare Sharp's "Merry Green Fields of Ireland" and Pound's "Sweet Fields of Violo"). But the cumulative pattern is the same (indeed, something very like it is quoted in Pills to Purge Melancholy in 1707), so I assume the family is a unity.
Gilbert claims the piece (in which "My Grandfather," rather than "Old MacDonald, is the farmer) comes from a busker of the 1870s called "the Country Fiddler," but gives no details to verify this.
I use the "Old MacDonald" title because it is the best-known, though Fuld reports that this version did not appear until 1917 (and even then, it was "Old MacDougal"). - RBW
File: R457

Old Maid (I), The


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

Old Maid (II), The


See No to be Married Ava (File: FVS308)

Old Maid and the Burglar, The [Laws H23]


DESCRIPTION: The old maid prepares for bed by removing her teeth, wig, and glass eye. She then discovers the burglar hiding under her bed. She threatens to shoot him if he will not marry her. He answers, "Woman, for the Lord's sake, shoot!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1925 (recording, Riley Puckett)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid robbery humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws H23, "The Old Maid and the Burglar"
BrownII 192, "The Burglar Man" (1 text)
Hudson 110, pp. 249-250, "The Old Maid and the Burglar" (1 text)
DT 780, OLMDBURG
Roud #658
RECORDINGS:
Reubin [Reuben?] Burns, "The Burglar Man" (Champion 15376, 1928; rec. 1927)
Bob Carpenter, "The Burglar Man" (on LomaxCD1702)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Burglar and the Old Maid" (OKeh 45259, 1928)
Bill Clifton, "Burglar Man" (Blue Ridge 403, n.d.)
Frank Hutchison, "The Burglar Man" (OKeh 45313, 1929; rec. 1928)
Riley Puckett, "Burglar Man" (Columbia 15015-D, 1925; rec. 1924)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Old Maid and the Burglar" (Edison 52369, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5531, 1928)
Arthur Tanner, "Burglar Man" (Silvertone 3514, 1926)
Henry Whitter, "The Burglar Man" (OKeh 45063, 1926); Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "The Burglar Man" (OKeh, unissued, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Warranty Deed" (theme)
File: LH23

Old Maid of Fifty-Three, The


See Maidens of Sixty-Three (The Old Maid) (File: HHH679)

Old Maid Song (IV)


See I Wonder When I Shall Be Married (File: CoxII16)
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