Row-Dow-Dow


DESCRIPTION: Singer, Clarkie, and two others go out poaching pheasants; keepers arrive, and the singer and Clarkie are captured. They are taken to Wandsworth Gaol. Released on Christmas eve, he has a drink and rejoices, but Clarkie doesn't get out until mid-January
AUTHOR: Words: Possibly Fred Holman
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recorded from George Maynard); tune is older
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, his friend Clarkie and two others go out poaching pheasants; keepers arrive, the two other men leave, and the singer and Clarkie are captured and charged before the magistrate. Convicted, he asks to be fined but is sentenced to six weeks; his friend gets two months. They are taken to Wandsworth Gaol; he sneaks his tobacco in past the guards. He is put to work pumping water and grinding flour. Released on Christmas eve, he has a drink and rejoices, but Clarkie doesn't get out until mid-January
KEYWORDS: captivity fight poaching prison punishment trial freedom hunting drink friend prisoner
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy 354, "Row-Dow-Dow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROWDOWDW
Roud #902
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Shooting Goshen's Cocks Up" (on Maynard1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bow Wow Wow" (tune) and references there
NOTES: According to Kennedy, Goshen was either a local placename or the owner of a game preserve. The tune, variously known as "The Barking Barber" or "Bow Wow Wow," is said to date from the time of George II; Chappell published it in 1858. - PJS
File: K354

Row, Bullies, Row


See The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)

Row, Molly, Row (Molly Was a Good Gal)


DESCRIPTION: "Molly was a good gal and a bad gal, too, Oh, Molly, row, gal." The captain and pilot make brief appearances: "I'll row dis boar and I'll row no more...." "Captain on the biler deck a-heaving of the lead... Calling to the pilot to give "turn ahead...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: river nonballad ship work
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 590, [no title] (1 text)
Courlander-NFM, p. 120, "Molly Was a Good Gal" (1 text)
File: BMRF590A

Row, Row, Row Your Boat


DESCRIPTION: "Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1852 511180)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 412, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 475-476, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1852 511180, "The Old Log Hut" or "Row, Row Your Boat," Firth, Pond and Co. (New York), 1852; also sm1853 710040, sm1853 531440, "Row, Row Your Boat" or "The Old Log Hut" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Row, Row, Row Your Boat (Throw Your Teacher Overboard) (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 93)
Propel, Propel, Propel Your Craft (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 208)
Glub, Glub, Glub Your Boat (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 213)
NOTES: Fuld reports that this text, with a different tune, was published in sheet music form in 1852; this version had music by R. Sinclair, but the words were unattributed (said to be sung by "Master Adams of Kunkels Nightingale Opera Troupe").
Another melody was published in 1854; the common melody was first published in 1881, with a credit (not necessarily of authorship) to E. O. Lyte. - RBW
File: FSWB412C

Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy), The [Laws E20]


DESCRIPTION: An account of the Tolliver-Martin feud, which the legal system is powerless to end. Casualties of the fighting include John Martin, Floyd Tolliver, Sol Bradley (an innocent bystander), and Deputy Sheriff Baumgartner; even this does not end the feud
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: feud death fight injury
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1884 - Date of the Tolliver-Martin shootings
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws E20, "The Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy)"
Thomas-Makin', pp. 5-9, "Rowan County Troubles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 169, "The Rowan County Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus 61, pp. 161-162, "The Tolliver Song" (1 text)
JHCox 39, "A Tolliver-Martin Feud Song" (1 text)
JHCoxIIB, #1A-C, pp. 111-118, "The Rowan County Crew" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 891-892, "Rowan County Troubles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 194-195, "The Rowan County Crew" (1 text)
DT 703, ROWANCRW
Roud #465
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Rowan County Crew" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Ted Chesnut, "The Rowan County Feud" (Champion 15524 [possibly as Cal Turner], 1928; on KMM)
Robert L. Day, "The Rowan County Crew" (AFS, 1938; on KMM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A West Virginia Feud Song" (theme, lyrics, metre)
cf. "Death of Samuel Adams" (lyrics)
NOTES: Jean Thomas, who knew both James W. Day (who had been in the area when the feud started) and Lucy (Mrs. John) Martin, has extensive notes about the arguments which led to this feud.
Interestingly, Thomas attributes this song to James W. Day, not "Jilson Setters," even though she always calls him "Setters" elsewhere. I can't even find a hint in Thomas that the two were the same. - RBW
File: LE20

Rowdy Soul


DESCRIPTION: "I'm a rowdy soul (x2), Don't care whether I work or not." The singer raised no crop last year; he blames the poor soil. He hopes to build a better house, safe from yellowjackets. He describes his partying lifestyle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Janie Scott Kincey)
KEYWORDS: work home hardtimes party floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MWheeler, pp. 93-94, "Rowdy Soul" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10034
RECORDINGS:
Janie Scott Kincey, "Sometimes I Ride an Old Grey Mare (I'm a Rowdy Old Soul)" (AFS CYL-23-3, 1933)
Will Starks, "I'm a Rowdy Soul" (AFS 6653 B3, 1942)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whoa Back, Buck" (floating lyrics)
File: MWhee093

Rownd Yr Horn (Round the Horn)


DESCRIPTION: Welsh shanty. Describes a voyage round the horn. Ch. translates: "Come Welshmen all and listen to my tale, How we sailed our packet round the Horn! Twas the third day of the seek boys, When dawn was just abreakin', we passed the rocky shores of Anglesey!"
AUTHOR: Music: R.J. Tomas ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty ship travel
FOUND IN: Wales
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 563-564, "Rownd Yr Horn" (2 texts-Welsh & English, 1 tune)
NOTES: This is the only sea shanty I've ever heard recorded with harp accompaniment (!) -- by Ar Log on "Ar Log II." According to their liner notes, R. J. Tomas (a Welshman living in America) wrote the tune unde the title "Annie Deg o'r Glen." The words were provided by "Dick Common Sense." - RBW
File: Hugi563

Roxie Ann


DESCRIPTION: "Roxie Ann's a foolin' gal, She fools me all the while, She's been a long time foolin', foolin', She's been a long time foolin' me." "She fools me in the mornin', She fools me in the night..." "I'm goin' to tell my maw on you, I'm goin' to tell my paw..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (JAFL 27)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting trick
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 539, "Roxie Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7647
File: R539

Roy Bean


DESCRIPTION: "Cowboys, come and hear the story of Roy Bean in all his glory. 'The law west of the Pecos' read his sign." Bean runs most of the businesses in his part of the world, and uses them to enhance his power and increase his fortune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy lawyer robbery
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 413-415, "Roy Bean" (1 text)
DT, ROYBEAN
Roud #4629
RECORDINGS:
Marc Williams, "Roy Bean" (Decca 5010, 1934)
File: LxA413

Roy Neal


See Dublin Bay (Roy Neal) (File: R691)

Roy Neil and His Fair Young Bride


See Dublin Bay (Roy Neal) (File: R691)

Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch


DESCRIPTION: "Roy's wife of Aldivalloch (x2), Wat ye how she cheated me As I came owre the Braes o' Balloch?" Singer complains that Roy's wife has cheated him; she has sworn she loves him and will be his, but instead she has robbed him and left him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1791 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: adultery infidelity marriage betrayal bawdy wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan4 748, "Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch" (2 texts plus a single verse on p. 534)
BrownII 125, "Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch" (1 text, with dialect retained; one suspects print influence)
Roud #5137
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl, "Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
SAME TUNE:
Know Ye Not That Lovely River (by Gerald Griffin) (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 422)
NOTES: According to Lomax, this was originally a bawdy song in folk tradition; the words were sanitized by, "Mrs. Grant of Carron" [in the eighteenth century], and the song then drifted back into tradition. - PJS
According to the notes in MacColl, Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland, "John Roy of Aldivalloch was married to Isabel Stewart [on February 21, 1727). Roy was considerably older than his wife [who ran away with] David Gordon of Kirktown. She was pursued by Roy and brought back after a chase over the Braes of Balloch....
"Margaret Roy... said that the song had been made by a shoemaker living in the neighbourhood of Aldivalloch. The tune was first pubished in Walsh's 'Twenty-Four Country Dances' (1724) as Lady Frances Wemy's Reel, but is almost certainly considerably older." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcRWOA

Royal Blackbird, The


See The Blackbird (I -- Jacobite) (File: R116)

Royal Eagle, The


DESCRIPTION: "A royal lady bewail'd her sad fate" near Vienna. "My Eagle, she cried, now lies in St Helena." She recalls how he left her, and his exploits and says she will look for help to rescue him. "If I cannot find him, I'll fly to old Erin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1830 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon love political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1815 - Defeat at the Battle of Waterloo forces Napoleon into exile
1821 - Death of Napoleon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmermann 31, "The Royal Eagle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 203, "The Royal Eagle" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Linnet" (theme: Napoleon)
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The New Bunch of Loughero" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
NOTES: Marie Louise of Austria (1791-1847) is Napoleon's second wife and mother of Napoleon II. She returned to Vienna in 1814 when Napoleon is defeated. (source: "Marie Louise of Austria" at Answres.com site) - BS
This song shares with "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" and "The New Bunch of Loughero" the theme of Marie Louisa's grief for her husband. This is romantic, but false; she refused to go into exile with him to Elba, let alone St. Helena.
In fact, even before Napoleon went to Elba, she is reported to have taken General Adam Adelbert Neipperg as a lover. When he came back during the Hundred Days, she not only refused to join him, she wouldn't even allow him to see his son. By the time Napoleon died, Louisa had borne two children to other fathers. - RBW
File: Zimm031

Royal Fisherman, The


See The Bold Fisherman [Laws O24] (File: LO24)

Royal George, The


See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Royal Oak, The


DESCRIPTION: While sailing on the "Royal Oak", the singer and his fellows spy ten Turkish men-of-war. They sink three, burn three, drive three off, and capture the last, which they drag into Portsmouth harbor. The singer praises their skipper, Capt. Wellfounder.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan1 fragment)
KEYWORDS: fight navy sailor foreigner
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig #64, p. 2, ("Two we sunk, and two we brunt") (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan1 40, "The Marigold" (1 fragment)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 91, "The Royal Oak" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 42, "Turkish Men-o'-War" (1 text)
Leach-Labrador 56, "The Marigold" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROYALOAK*
Roud #951
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Turkish Men of War
NOTES: [Lloyd repeats's Firth's suggestion that] the song is based on "Kempthorne's repulse of the seven Algerine ships, December 29, 1669." - PJS
Just for the record: I know of no instance of Turkish warships getting close enough to England to be hauled to Portsmouth. - RBW
While Leach-Labrador calls this "The Marigold," its ship's name is the Martha Jane, with "Captain White from fair Bristow" - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: VWL091

Royal Rose, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer says "There is a flower in yon garden ... And I wish that flower were mine." The garden "with weeds is all o'ergrown." "He is a Rose, a royal Rose ... And is my choice above all those." If Providence ordains it, the Rose will be hers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan4 762, "The Royal Rose" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 234-235, "The Royal Rose" (1 tune)
Roud #6182
NOTES: The GreigDuncan4 version is two verses which are included in Christie's four. The description follows Christie. - BS
This sounds like a Bonnie Prince Charlie song, although it is of course not specific. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4762

Royal South Down Militia, The


See The South Down Militia (File: OLoc090N)

Rub a Dub, Dub


See Rub-a-dub-dub (File: BGMG133)

Rub-a-dub-a-dub


See The Limejuice Tub (File: MA140)

Rub-a-dub-dub


DESCRIPTION: "Rub-a-dub-dub, Three men in a tub." They are the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. They may have gone to the fair, or "jumped out of a rotten potato."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1797 (cf. Baring-Gould-MotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: worker food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1619, "Rub a Dub, Dub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 460, "Rub-a-dub-dub" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #133, p. 106, "(Rub-a-dub-dub)"
Roud #12983
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rub a Dub Dub
NOTES: According to the Opies, in the earliest version, it was not the butcher and all who were in the tub, but three giirls whom butcher, baker, brewer, candlestick-maker, etc. watched -- presumably at one of the less reputable corners of a fair. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BGMG133

Ruby Were Her Lips


See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

Rude and Rambling Boy, A


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

Rue


See Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) (File: FSWB163)

Rue and the Thyme, The (The Rose and the Thyme)


DESCRIPTION: Told mostly in floating lyrics: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry that my fortune's been so bad, Since I've fa'en in love wi' a young sailor lad." They exchange letters and flowers; she says he may keep his rose and she will keep her thyme.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection virginity floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ord, p. 187, "The Rose and the Thyme" (1 text)
Greig #84, p. 2, "The Rue and the Thyme"; Greig #87, p. 1, "The Rue and the Thyme" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan1 52, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "The Young Sailor Lad" (6 texts, 5 tunes)
GreigDuncan6 1139, "The Rue and the Thyme" (10 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #858
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (lyrics)
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (lyrics)
cf. "Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme)" (theme, symbols, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry
NOTES: GreigDuncan1: "Often heard sung fifty and sixty years ago. Noted 1905."
Greig #87 quoting Mr Jas Mackie: "It is over 70 years since I first picked up snatches of this song, which was very common about that time." [1909] - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord187

Rue and Thyme


See Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) and related songs (File: FSWB163)

Rue the Day


See My Husband's Got No Courage in Him (File: K213)

Rufus Mitchell


See I Picked My Banjo Too (File: Br3594)

Rufus's Mare


DESCRIPTION: Rufus sadly walks to town after his mare is stolen by Tozer. He tells his story: Tozer had given him a lame mare, which he cured, whereupon Tozer requisitioned the animal back. Rufus expects Tozer to end in Hell.
AUTHOR: George Calhoun
EARLIEST DATE: 1971
KEYWORDS: horse poverty injury hardtimes gift theft
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger, pp. 264-265, "Rufus's Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4167
NOTES: According to Doerflinger, this is a true story. Rufus Woodcock had lost his horse and was too poor to buy another. A nearby preacher, Reverend Tozier, had a lame horse that he could not cure. Rather than keep feeding the animal, Tozier gave it to Woodcock. Woodcock cured the horse, whereupon Tozier "borrowed" it back and never returned it. Rufus managed to reclaim the horse, but then Tozier came and again reclaimed it by force.
This song is item dH50 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe264

Rugby Song, The


DESCRIPTION: A formula song in which the singer -- were she of a mind to marry -- asserts that the kind of man she would wed would play a succession of positions on a rugby team.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous marriage sports
FOUND IN: Australia Canada US(MW,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray, pp. 365-368, "The Rugby Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #10142
ALTERNATE TITLES:
If I Were the Marrying Kind
File: EM365

Ruggleton's Daughter of Iero


See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Rule, Britannia


DESCRIPTION: "When Britain first at Heav'n's command Arose from out the azure main... This was the carter of the land: 'Rule, Britannia, Britannia, rule the waves: Britons never, never, never will be slaves."
AUTHOR: Words: David Mallett? James Thompson? / Music: Thomas Augustine Arne?
EARLIEST DATE: 1740 ("Alfred: A Masque")
KEYWORDS: political England navy ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell/Wooldridge II, pp. 191-193, "Rule, Britannia" (1 tune, partial text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 477, "Rule, Britannia"
Roud #10790
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Married to a Mermaid" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Married to a Mermaid (File: Harl174)
NOTES: Not really a traditional song, but obviously a well-known one.
The irony is that, for most of its history, Britain had a weak navy, or no navy at all. (The result of this was a long series of invasions, often successful. In just the eleventh century, there was Swein Forkbeard's invasion of 1014, Canute's invasion of 1016, Harald Hardrada's invasion of 1066, and of course William the Bastard of Normandy's invasion of 1066 -- the one that earned him the name "William the Conqueror.")
It wasn't until the sixteenth century that Britain firmly established its navy -- but, of course, there has not been a successful outside invasion of Britain since.
Various claims have been made for the authorship of this piece. All that can be said with certainty is that the first publication was in "Dr. Arne's" 1740 stage works.
The original text, as noted, read "Britannia, rule the waves"; later, this was altered in some versions to "Britannia RULES the waves" -- a statement which was absolutely true only in the nineteenth century. Might be time to go back to the old form....
Kunitz/Haycraft, pp. 335-336, describe purported author David Mallett (or Malloch) as the son of a Scottish farmer who earned his way through the University of Edinburgh by working as a janitor and tutoring; he did not earn a degree at the time, although he was granted both a B.A. and an M.A. in later years. His first significant work was a play, "Euridice," produced in 1731 when he was about 26. Little of his work was noteworthy, and he is described as a "shameless opportunis[t]," but he and his classmate James Thomson produced a masque called "Alfred," which contained this piece. After Thomson died, Mallett claimed "Rule Britannia" as his own. He managed to snag a rich woman as his second wife, and supported his vanity off her money until he died, around the age of 60, in 1765.
NewCentury, p. 725, notes that the music for "Alfred" was written by Thomas Arne, and that scholars still dispute whether Mallett or Thomson (1700-1748) wrote the words to "Rule, Britannia." It spells his name Mallet, and lists as his major plays "Eurydice," "Mustapha, " and "Elvira," and mentions the poems "William and Margaret," "The Excursion," and "The Hermit."
The figure of Britannia may have derived indirectly from the Greek goddess Athena, according to Cordingly, p. 162. As the British built more warships, more and more were given a figurehead of Athena. She was armed, and then her shield was painted with British emblems -- and so she became Britannia.
"Rule Britannia," for some reason, is item CLVIII in Palgrave's Golden Treasury. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: ChWII191

Rules of Marriage


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his ideal mate. She must be good-natured, clever and handsome, and get up at dawn to make his breakfast. If he comes home drunk she must kiss him and put him to bed. If he runs out of money she must pawn her clothes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage drink food humorous nonballad clothes beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1354, "Rules of Marriage" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7232
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Come All Ye Gay Young Lasses
File: GrD71354

Rules of Masonry, The


DESCRIPTION: "None but an atheist can ever deny But that [masonry] came first from on high." God is "the first Great Master of Masonry." Adam first wore "a fig-leaf [mason's] apron." Solomon's temple conformed "to the just-formed rules of Masonry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #155, pp. 1-2, "Freemason's Song" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 468, "The Rules of Masonry" (1 text)
Roud #5967
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Building of Solomon's Temple" [Laws Q39] (theme: Building the First Temple)
cf. "The Plumb and Level" (theme: Building the First Temple)
NOTES: It is technically true that the Masons had secrets -- rituals, handshakes, and even a so-called secret code of a very simple sort, based on a tic-tac-toe grid and an x, so that, e.g., the letter "o" was "|-|"; the letter "i" was "|-."; and the letter "w" was "\/" (for details, and clearer drawings -- the above are not quite right -- see Fred B. Wrixon, Codes, Ciphers, & Other Cryptic & Clandestine Communications, Barnes & Noble, 1998). But few of these secrets were really very secret.
I do find the idea of masonry coming "from on high" a little funny. The first real building project described in the Bible is the Tower of Babel (in Genesis 11), and look how *that* turned out.
As for Masons building Solomon's temple (a tale also found in "The Building of Solomon's Temple" [Laws Q39]), we find a description in chapters 5-8 of 1 Kings (and 2 Chronicles chapters 2-6 with a foreshadowing in 1 Chron. 28-29). But it clearly was not built by masons; it was probably designed by Phoenicians, and certainly constructed by slaves. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3468

Rules of the Road at Sea (Sailor's Rhymes)


DESCRIPTION: Not a song; a series of rhymes by which sailors would learn how to behave at sea. e.g. "When both side lights you see ahead, port your helm and show your Red. Green to Green or Red to Red, perfect safety, go ahead." Most concern weather prediction.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: sailor nonballad ship
FOUND IN: US Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colcord, pp. 204-207, "Rules of the Road" (various short texts)
NOTES: I wasn't sure whether to include this, since it really isn't a shanty. However, it would seem that these rhymes served a similar purpose to the shanties in that they helped the work along. - SL
And indeed the "rules" vary from the universally familiar ("Red [sky] at night", which is traditional even in my family -- and I don't have many family traditions!) to some which appear to deal with conditions in a particular harbor. We'll just file this as a lumping entry for all sailors' rhymes. - RBW
File: Colc204

Rum By Gum (Temperance Union Song)


DESCRIPTION: "We're coming, we're coming, our brave little band, On the right side of temperance we do take our stand.... Away, away with rum, by gum, The song of the (Salvation Army/Temperance Union)." Various verses on the value of sobriety
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Welch & Moore, Michigan's Favorite College Songs)
KEYWORDS: drink political nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 317, "Temperance Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment without the chorus)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 6-7, "Away With Rum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 233, "Away With Rum" (1 text)
DT, (AWAYRUM*) (AWAYRUM2*) (AWAYRUM3*) (AWAYRUM4*) (AWAYRUM5*)
ADDITIONAL: Roy Dickinson Welch & Earl Vincent Moore, _Michigan's Favorite College Songs_, Sixth Edition, University Music House, 1921 (available on Google Books), p. 224, "Away with Rum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12765
NOTES: Warning: All the Digital Tradition versions are parodies of one sort or another (AWAYRUM5 is 35 verses, almost all silly, almost all modern). Many singers today sing this as a joke. But the roots of this piece are almost certainly serious (compare Randolph's version).
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the Wallace & Moore version. - RBW
File: R317

Rum Saloon Shall Go, The


DESCRIPTION: "A wave is rolling o'er the land With heavy undertow, And voices sounding on the strand, The rum saloon shall go. Shall go, shall go, We know, we know, A cry is sounding o'er the land, The rum saloon shall go." The song promises to lift the curse of drink
AUTHOR: Words: Jno. O. Foster/Music: Jno. R. Sweeney
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (copyright claim)
KEYWORDS: drink political
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 333, "The Rum Saloon Shall Go" (1 text)
Roud #7805
File: R333

Rummy Crocodile, The


See The Wonderful Crocodile (File: MA134)

Rummy Dummy Line, The


See The Dummy Line (File: DTdumyli)

Run Along, You Little Dogies


See Get Along, Little Dogies AND Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R178)

Run Come See


DESCRIPTION: "It was in nineteen hundred and twenty nine, I remember that day pretty well...." The singer describes the great storm that threatened the Ethel, Myrtle, and Praetoria, sinking the last. The Captain, George Brown, calls on the passengers to pray
AUTHOR: claimed by "Blind Blake" Higgs
EARLIEST DATE: 1940s (recording, Blake Higgs)
KEYWORDS: religious ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1929 - The Bahamas are devastated by a hurricane with little or no advance warning. Three boats, the Ethel, Myrtle, and Praetoria, bound for Andros, are caught in the storm; the Praetoria sinks, and thirty-three are lost.
FOUND IN: Bahamas
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 58, "Run Come See" (1 text)
DT, RUNCOME
RECORDINGS:
John Roberts & group, "Pytoria (Run Come See Jerusalem)" (on MuBahamas2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Great Storm Pass Over" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Run Come See Jerusalem
NOTES: John Roberts claims to have composed this song within four days of the ship's sinking, rather than Blake Higgs. On reading his account, I'm inclined to believe him. - PJS
File: FSWB058

Run Come See Jerusalem


See Run Come See (File: FSWB058)

Run Here, Doctor, Run Here Quick


DESCRIPTION: Hammer song or similar: "Run here, doctor (huh), Run here quick (huh), Little Mary (huh) Swallowed a stick."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: doctor work injury
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 246, "Run Here, Doctor, Run Here Quick" (1 short text)
NOTES: The notes in Brown include various references which make it appear that they regard this as a version of "Shortenin' Bread." I don't see it. - RBW
File: Br3246

Run Mollie Run


DESCRIPTION: Verses from different songs. "Miss Liza was a gambler, learned me how to steal"; "I went down to Huntsville, I did not go to stay..."; "Oh, Liza, poor girl...she died on that train"; "Cherry like a rose"; "Run, Mollie, run/Let us have some fun"
AUTHOR: Henry Thomas assembled it, at any rate
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Henry Thomas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Confused verses, mostly narrative, but apparently from different songs. "Miss Liza was a gambler, learned me how to steal"; "I went down to Huntsville, I did not go to stay/Just got there to do a little time, wear that ball and chain"; "Oh, Liza, poor girl...she died on that train"; "Cherry like a rose"; "Run, Mollie, run/Let us have some fun"
KEYWORDS: captivity love beauty prison death gambling cards floatingverses prisoner dancetune
FOUND IN: US(So)
RECORDINGS:
Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas, "Run Mollie Run" (Vocalion 1141, c. 1928 [rec. 1927]; on BefBlues1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (lyrics)
NOTES: This song's a mess -- a composite of several songs, about half of which are ballads, half not. But it seems important to include, if for no other reason than that it *is* a composite. I strongly suspect -- no, I'm certain -- this was a dance tune; the rhythm is certainly right. - PJS
File: RcRunMol

Run Mountain


DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses: "I went up on the mountain to get me a load of pine..."; "Me six miles from my home... Me upstairs with another man's wife..."; Chorus: "Run mountain, chuck a little hill (x3)/There you'll get your fill."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses: "I went up on the mountain to get me a load of pine/I put it on the wagon, I broke down behind"; "Me six miles from my home and the chickens crowing for day/Me upstairs with another man's wife, better be a-getting away"; "I went up on the mountain to give my horn a blow/I thought I heard my true love say, yonder comes my beau"; "If I had a needle and thread as fine as I could sew/I'd sew my true love to my side and down the road I'd go." Chorus: "Run mountain, chuck a little hill (x3)/There you'll get your fill."
KEYWORDS: adultery love work dancing humorous nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 206, "Run Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "Run Mountain" (King 819, 1949)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Run Mountain" (on NLCR04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down the River I Go" (words)
cf. "Whoop 'em Up Cindy" (words)
cf. "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" [Child 81] (words)
cf. "The Hunt is Up" (words)
NOTES: One of dozens of songs in southeastern and Appalachian tradition that reshuffle similar verses with new choruses and tunes. - PJS
File: CSW206

Run Old Jeremiah


DESCRIPTION: "Good Lord, by myself (x3), You know I've got to go, You got to run, I got to run, You got to run By myself (x3)." Song describes traveling, freedom, (God as) the rock, and other themes of the poor and oppressed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Field Recording, J.A./Alan Lomax)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, pp. 197-200, "(Run Old Jeremiah)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15505
NOTES: The Lomax field recording of this song is incomplete at both beginning and end, but it would appear that the complete song would simply have continued the themes found in the extant portion. - RBW
File: CNFM197

Run to Jesus


DESCRIPTION: "Run to Jesus, shun the danger, I don't expect to stay much longer." The singer describes the difficulties of the path he must follow, but also the rewards to be found at the end. The refrain "I don't expect to stay much longer" ends each verse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (J. B. T. March, "The Story of the Jubilee Singers")
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-AFP, pp. 89-90, "Run to Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15263
NOTES: Reportedly sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who had it from Frederick Douglass. Douglass remarked that this song prompted him to consider running from slavery. - RBW
File: Grnw089

Run with the Bullgine


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

Run, Let the Bulgine Run


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

Run, Let the Bullgine Run


DESCRIPTION: Shanty or railroading song. Refrain: "Run with/let the bulgine run. Way-yah oh-i-oh, Run with/let the bulgine run." Many verses repeat the "running" theme, i.e. "we'll run all day to Frisco Bay." Used as both a capstan and halyard shanty.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L. A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong sailor nonballad railroading
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colcord, p. 64, "Run With the Bullgine" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 342-344, "Run, Let the Bulgine Run" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 257]
Sharp-EFC, XIII, p. 16, "Let the Bullgine Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Hugi342 (Full)
Roud #4711
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll the Cotton Down" (tune)
NOTES: "Bullgine" was American Negro slang for a railway engine. - SL
(We might add that, in the early days of steamships, it was not unusual for railroad engines to be used in steamships.) - RBW
File: Hugi342

Run, Molly, Run


See Molly and Tenbrooks [Laws H27] (File: LH27)

Run, Nigger, Run


DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Run, nigger, run, The (calaboose/patter-roller) will get you. Run, nigger run...." Various verses on the life of the slave, usually pertaining to punishment and perhaps the run to freedom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Serenader's Song Book)
KEYWORDS: slave freedom escape nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 89, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 457, "Run, Nigger, Run" (4 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 2 more, all short and with hints of mixture but with this chorus)
Randolph 264, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 248, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 225-226, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 264)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 12, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune; it appears that this has mixed with something else, but the version isn't long enough to be sure what); also p. 24, "Run, Nigger, Run" (2 texts, 1 tune, both short); also p. 25, "Most Done Ling'rin Here" (1 text, 1 tune, with a verse from this plus the "If you get there before I do" floating verse and a chorus that might be "Rough, Rocky Road")
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 228-231, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1+ texts, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, p. 906, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3660
RECORDINGS:
Dr. Humphrey Bate & His Possum Hunters, "Run Nigger, Run" (Brunswick 275, 1928)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Run Nigger, Run" (OKeh 40230, 1924)
Sid Harkreader & Grady Moore, "Run Nigger Run" (Paramount 3054, 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Run, Nigger, Run" (Vocalion 15032, 1925)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Run, Nigger, Run" (AFS 196 A1, 1933; on LC04)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Run Nigger Run" (Columbia 15158-D, 1927)
Clint Howard, Gaither Carlton, Fred Price & Doc Watson, "Run, Jimmie, Run" (on WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shortenin' Bread" (tune)
cf. "Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Paddy-Roller
Pateroller Song
Run, Boy, Run
Run, Johnny, Run
Run, Slave, Run
NOTES: In Lomax we find the following explanation (quoted at several hands' remove):
"Just after the Nat Turner Insurrection in 1832 the Negroes were put under special restrictions to home quarters, and patrolmen appointed to keep them in, and if caught without a written pass from owner they were dealt with severely then and there; hence the injunction to 'Run, Nigger, Run, the Patter-roller Git You' to the tune of 'Fire in the Mountain....'" - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: R264

Run, Sallie, My Gal


See Bugle, Oh! (File: Br3197)

Runaway Bride, The


DESCRIPTION: "If you go to the North Countrie... You'll hear how the bride from the blacksmith ran To be a liggar lady." Townfolk gather to the wedding; the bride is missing. The audience laughs at the groom's expense. Men are warned of Hieland lads luring their girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: marriage abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord, pp. 462-463, "The Runaway Bride" (1 text)
Roud #2876
NOTES: Ord reports this to be based on an event which occurred "near the end of the eighteenth century." Given the song's history (analogs appear in Herd and the Scots Musical Museum), that date seems a bit late. - RBW
File: Ord462

Runaway Train, The


See The Little Red Train (File: EM224)

Rural Courtship


See The Monymusk Lads (File: Ord068)

Rurey Bain


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

Russia, Let That Moon Alone


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Russia, let that moon alone, Moon ain't worryin' you! God told you to till the earth, God didn't tell you to till the moon! You can make your sputnickles And your satellites, You can't get God's moon." The moon is for light, not exploration
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Courlander)
KEYWORDS: technology nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, pp. 78-79, (no title) (1 text); p. 260, "Russia, Let That Moon Alone" (1 tune, partial text)
NOTES: It's hard to believe that this silly bit of Luddite-ism can be traditional; on its face, it must have been written between 1959 (when the Soviet Union sent up the first Luna satellites) and Kennedy's announcement that the United States would try to beat the Soviets there.
Courlander's notes imply that it is from a field recording, but I'm not sure how far to trust that.
I hope it goes without saying that the Bible says nothing, positive or negative, about lunar exploration, manned or unmanned. - RBW
File: CNFM078

Russian Bear, The


DESCRIPTION: "The French he cries ye British rise Along with us prepare And go and help the gallant Turk To hunt the Russian bear." "The bear he is a sulky brute, And naething will he eat Unless he gets some Turkish wings, He likes a dainty treat"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: war Russia nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan1 156, "The Russian Bear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5826
NOTES: The description is all of the GreigDuncan1 text. The song refers to the Crimean War. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1156

Russian Girl, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a pretty Russian girl. He asks her for a kiss but the one she gives him has no life. "So we both sat down together on a great big rolling stone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1329, "The Russian Girl" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7217
NOTES: I have no idea where this fragment is going and GreigDuncan7 notes are no help. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71329

Russian Sing for Heaving the Anchor


DESCRIPTION: Tune only, no text. According to Hugill, Russian seaman had few real shanties and apart from the songs quotes by Smith there is nothing in the literature.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad shanty worksong
FOUND IN: Russia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, p. 572, "Russian Sing for Heaving the Anchor" (1 tune only, no text-quoted from Smith)
File: Hugi572

Rustlin' Gambler, The


See (tentatively) The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Rusty Jiggs and Sandy Sam


See Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail [Laws B17] (File: LB17)

Rusty Old Rover


See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Ryans and the Pittmans, The


See We'll Rant and We'll Roar (File: FJ042)

Rye Straw


DESCRIPTION: Dance tune: "Dog shit a ryestraw, dog shit a jackstraw/Dog tore his asshole tryin' to shit a hacksaw." "Dog shit a ryestraw, dog shit a minner/Dog shit a catfish big enough for dinner"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Uncle "Am" Stuart)
KEYWORDS: injury dancetune nonballad animal dog
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #16847
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Rye Straw" (on BLLunsford01)
Clayton McMichen & Riley Puckett, "Rye Straw" (Columbia 15521-D, 1930, rec. 1929)
Doc Roberts, "Rye Straw" (Champion 16026, 1930)
Uncle "Am" Stuart, "Rye Straw" (Vocalion 14843, 1924; Brunswick [Canada] 1003, n.d.)
Unidentified singer, "Grubbing Hoe" (on Unexp1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Joke on the Puppy
The Unfortunate Pup
NOTES: With the exception of the anonymous version on "The Unexpurgated Folk Songs of Men" (Unexp1), none of the recorded versions includes the lyrics, although every American fiddler knows them. On the Skillet Lickers' recording, when the fiddler announces that the tune will be "Ryestraw," someone replies, "All right, but let your conscience be your guide." - PJS
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, in his recording of this song, noted "There are a lot of unprintable and unsingable stanzas to the old song. However, that is not confused with what we boys used to do in the old days, gather around... and possibly some of the boys would repeat maybe some questionable stanzas and follow it with 'Rye straw, rye straw, rye straw.'"
Incidentally, I've seen at least one "clean" mnemonic for this song, though presumably it is not the original. - RBW
File: RcRyStra

Rye Whiskey


DESCRIPTION: A song of intense alcoholism: "Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I cry; If I don't get rye whiskey I surely will die." "If the ocean was whisky and I was a duck, I'd dive to the bottom...." Many verses about how drink has affected the singer's life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: drink rambling floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Belden, pp. 374-377, "The Guerrilla Boy" (4 texts, 1 tune; the first of two texts filed as "C" is this song)
BrownIII 50, "Jack of Diamonds" (4 texts, all short; some may be "Jack of Diamonds (II)")
Hudson 79, pp. 207-208, "Jack of Diamonds" (1 short text); 117, pp. 258-259, "O Lillie, O Lillie," mostly a "Jack of Diamonds" text but with verses which mix it with "The Rebel Soldier"; also 116, p. 258, "I'll Eat When I'm Hungry" (1 fragment, a single stanza based on this song but probably belonging with "The Rebel Soldier": "I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry, If the Yankees don't kill me, I'll live till I die")
Randolph 405, "Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey" (6 texts, 1 tune); also 494, "Tie-Hackin's Too Tiresome" (1 fragment, 1 tune, an extract from a longer version)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 344-345, "Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 405A); pp. 375-376, 'Tie Hackin's Too Tiresome" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 494)
Fuson, p. 157-159, "His Wants," "My Welcome," "I'll Live Till I Die (second, ninth, and tenth of 12 single-stanza "jigs") (3 fragments, all sometimes found with this song though all are floating verses)
Sandburg, p. 307, "Way Up On Clinch Mountain" (2 text, 1 tune, but only the "A" text belongs here; "B" is perhaps "Sweet Lulur")
Lomax-FSUSA 64, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 170-173, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text+minor fragments, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 855-857, "Rye Whisky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 142-143, "Clinch Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 69, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer, p. 92, "If the River Was Whiskey" (1 text, built around W. C. Handey's "Hesitating Blues" but with most of the verses from this song)
Darling-NAS, pp. 286-287, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text, heavily mixed with "Logan County Jail"); pp. 287-288, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text)
MWheeler, pp. 112-113, "Beefsteak When I'm Hongry" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixed fragment I file here on the basis of the first verse; the others are from elsewhere)
Thomas-Makin', p. 121, (no title) (1 text, all floating verses, some of which are, or can be, part of "Rye Whiskey" and all of which are drink-related)
Silber-FSWB, p. 233, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 5, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 211-213, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text; this particular Lomax offering contains elements of "Jack o Diamonds/Rye Whisky," "The Wagoner's Lad," The Rebel Soldier," and others)
DT, RYEWHISK* MOONSHI4* (RYEWHISx)
Roud #941
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Jack O' Diamonds" (Victor 21470, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4464, 1934)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Drunkard's Hiccups" (OKeh 45032, 1926; rec. 1925)
Wilf Carter, "Rye Whiskey" (Bluebird [Canada] 58-0058, 1948)
Yodeling Slim Clark, "Rye Whiskey" (Continental 8012, n.d.)
Homer & Jethro, "Rye Whiskey" (King 571, 1947)
Harry Jackson, "Jack o' Diamonds" (on HJackson1)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "Drunkard's Hiccoughs" (Bluebird B-8400, 1940)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Drunkard's Hiccups" (on NLCR08)
Elmo Newcomer, "Rye Whiskey" CroMart 100, n.d. but prob. late 1940s - early 1950s)
Bill Nicholson w. Zane Shrader, "Jack of Diamonds" (AFS; on LC14)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "If the River Was Whiskey" (with verses from this song though also related to "Hesitation Blues" or Handy's "Hesitating Blues"; Columbia 15545-D, 1930; on CPoole02)
Tex Ritter, "Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey" (Vocalion 5493, c. 1931; Vocalion 04911, 1939) (Edison Bell Winner [U.K.] W-21, 1933); "Rye Whiskey" (Capitol 40084, 1948)
Reaves White County Ramblers, "Drunkard's Hiccups" (Vocalion 5247, 1928)
Hobart Smith, "Drunken Hiccups" (on LomaxCD1706)
Pete Seeger, "Whiskey, Rye Whiskey" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Jilson Setters [pseud. for James W. "Blind Bill" Day], "Way Up On Clinch Mountain" (Victor 21635, 1928; on RoughWays1, KMM)
Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Jack O' Diamonds" (Herwin 75561, c. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Greenback Dollar"
cf. "Sailing Out on the Ocean" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Jack of Diamonds (I)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jack O'Diamonds
Drunken Hiccups
NOTES: This song merges almost continuously with "The Wagoner's Lad" (which itself has offshoots such as "I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler"); see that song also for the full list of variants.
The "Jack of Diamonds" subfamily of this song is well known, and perhaps would be considered by some a separate song, but contains so much mixture with this song that I don't see any way to separate them. - RBW
File: R405

Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey


See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

Ryebuck Shearer, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes how anyone can gain respect if he is a ryebuck shearer. He is told that he will never be that good, but stoutly maintains that he'll get there someday
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (collected by John Meredith fromJac Luscombe)
KEYWORDS: sheep work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, p. 23, "The Ryebuck Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 144-145, "The Ryebuck Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 118-119, "The Ryebuck Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 196-197, "The Ryebuck Shearer" (1 text)
NOTES: A "ryebuck shearer" is an expert shearer (also called a "gun"), usually expected to shear a "century" -- a hundred sheep in a day. The name often referred specifically to the "ringer," or best shearer in the shed. - RBW
File: MA023

Ryner Dyne


See Reynardine [Laws P15] (File: LP15)

'S mise chunnaic an t-longnadh (Mermaid Song) (It Is I Who Saw The Wonder)


DESCRIPTION: In Scots Gaelic: "It is I who saw the wonder/One early morning as I was looking for sheep/A girl with flowing brown hair/Sat on a flat rock of the gulls." The mermaid and her brothers are involved in a mysterious, bloody fight in a rocky cave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Penny Morrison)
KEYWORDS: fight mermaid/man supernatural
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
RECORDINGS:
Penny Morrison, "'S mise chunnaic an t-longnadh [Mermaid Song] (It Is I Who Saw The Wonder)" [fragment] (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
NOTES: Alas, Lomax provides only the introductory verses and a maddeningly brief summary of the song. - PJS
File: RcSMCATL

S-A-V-E-D


DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about the sins of others, spelling each out (e.g. they "d-a-n-c-e" while wearing a new "h-a-t"). The singer, though, need not worry about such things; "It's g-l-o-r-y to know I'm s-a-v-e-d."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sin
FOUND IN: US Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Leach-Labrador 124, "S-A-V-E-D" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 349, "It's G-L-O-R-Y To Know I'm S-A-V-E-D" (1 text)
Roud #9539
RECORDINGS:
The Blue Sky Boys, "I'm S-A-V-E-D" (Bluebird 8401, 1940)
The Georgia Yellow Hammers, "I'm S-A-V-E-D" (Victor 21195, 1928)
Karl & Harty, "I'm S-A-V-E-D" (Perfect 6-10-54, 1936)
Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "S-A-V-E-D" (Columbia 15097-D, 1926)
NOTES: Obviously a composed song, but I've no knowledge of the source. I've heard it enough times that I suspect it belongs in the Index. There is a list of relatively recent recording by revival singers (along with an unattributed text and tune) in Sing Out!, Volume 38, #4 (1994), p. 68. - RBW
File: FSWB349

Sa Up and Rise


DESCRIPTION: "Sa up and rise, my merry lads, For a' maun rise, for a' maun rise"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #163, p. 3, ("Sa up and rise, my merry lads") (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan3 442, "Sa Up and Rise" (1 fragment)
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan3 fragment.
Greig's correspondent, John Milne, has this fragment be the chorus of a song his grandfather sang "telling the joys to be derived from first-class farm-work, workmen, and working-gear" at "Mill of Boyndlie [sic]."
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mill of Boyndie (441) is at coordinate (h6-7,v6) on that map [near Banff, roughly 41 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3442

Sabbath Has No End


DESCRIPTION: Gwine to walk about Zion, I really do believe, Walk about Zion, I really do believe, Walk about....Sabbath has no end. I did view one angel In one angel stand, Let's mark him down with the forehead." "Going to follow King Jesus." "I love God certain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 69. "Sabbath Has No End" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12027
NOTES: There are several references in the Bible to people with special marks on their foreheads. In Ezekiel 9, a man clothed in linen is instructed to mark the foreheads of those who dislike idolatry, so that they may be spared persecution. But most of the mentions are in the Apocalypse.
In 7:3, the servants of God are to receive a mark on the forehead. In 9:4, those who do not have it are to be punished. In 14:1, the name of the Father and the Lamb are written on the heads of saints. Servants of God also have a mark on their foreheads in 22:4.
On the other hand, in 13:16, the servants of the Beast are marked so that they can engage in commerce. In 14;9, it is declared that these will be punished. This mark is also mentioned in 20:4. The Great Whore also has a name on her forehead in 17:5.
I guess this is what happens when you don't have tamper-proof ID cards....
It has become Christan tradition, on Ash Wednesday, to mark the penitents' heads with the burnt palm ashes, but this is not Biblical, Our knowledge of the history of early traditions such as Lent is very sketchy, but it is not based directly on the Bible. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: AWG069

Sable Island Shore


DESCRIPTION: A tribute to the lifeguards at the Sable Island lighthouse who "glide from the beach to the roaring seas The lives of the crews to save ... They risk their lives in their daily work ... On the Sable Island shore"
AUTHOR: Ted Germain
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (NFOBlondahl04)
KEYWORDS: rescue ship shore wreck nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Sable Island Shore" (on NFOBlondahl04)
NOTES: Ted Germain is a Nova Scotia musician. "One of his early compositions, Sable Island Shores, became a local hit and would lead Germain to a recording contract and a series of albums for London Records." (Source: From the East Coast Music Awards Canada site, re 2004 Stompin' Tom Award Recipients)
Sable Island, Nova Scotia, about 23 miles long, is about 110 miles, at its nearest point, from the Nova Scotia coast. According to the Sable Island Preservation Trust site: more than 350 wrecks have been recorded there since 1583; a lifesaving station operated there from 1801 until 1958.
Blondahl04 has no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "Sable Island Shore" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
File: RcSaIsSh

Sable Island Song (I)


DESCRIPTION: "On the stormy western ocean ... Lies a barren little island." The singer signs to be government caretaker, wear government clothes, chase "crazy horses" and "wild cattle," swallow inedible food: "Get off Sable Island Or you'll be crazy in a year"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton - Nova Scotia)
KEYWORDS: work food ordeal animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-NovaScotia 142, "Sable Island Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RcSabIsl (Partial)
Roud #1838
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Sable Island" (on NFOBlondahl03)
NOTES: Creighton-NovaScotia: "The author of this song is said to be one of the sons of the well-to-do in Halifax who was sent to Sable Island ... to be cured of his fondness for the cup."
Sable Island, Nova Scotia, about 23 miles long, is about 110 miles, at its nearest point, from the Nova Scotia coast.
Blondahl03 has no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "Sable Island" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
The song in its current form, based on the information in Creighton, must be dated to 1904 or after, when Gordeau Park was founded. - (RBW, BS)
File: RcSabIsl

Sable Island Song (II)


DESCRIPTION: Hard times for "banned steeves" at Main Station. They steal from other boys "and only call that fun" but the busy-bodies "in the castle... their tongues were never still." The "steeves" nail a postal to their door and refuse to take it down.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: accusation hardtimes food theft
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-NovaScotia 143, "Sable Island Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS143 (Partial)
Roud #1839
NOTES: Creighton-NovaScotia. "In 1926 the wireless men lost some potatoes and accused Main Station men ["banned steeves"] of taking them.... The [people in the castle] are the wireless operator and his wife." I guess "postal" should be read as "post" [I take it to mean 'letter" or "accusation" - RBW]. See other Sable Island songs for confirmation of the hard times there. - BS
The Communal Composition advocates would love this. According to Creighton's notes, the Main Station staff each wrote a verse as a competition to see who could do best. Little surprise, then, that the result is ragged and tells an imperfect story. But as for Creighton's comment that "the song-making instinct is not dormant" -- no, it's not, as anyone who listens to rock music can tell. The instinct to make GOOD songs is another matter.... - RBW
File: CrNS143

Sacramento


See Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento) (File: E125)

Sacramento Gals


DESCRIPTION: Singer praises the beauty and elegance of Sacramento gals, with their bustles, hoops, and powdered, painted faces. Refrains: "Nipping around, around, around"; "As they go nipping around"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: beauty clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SW)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Sacramento Gals" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bobbing Around" (tune)
NOTES: Among the verses cited, "They're here and there, like Santa Anna/They're fresh and mellow like ripe banana" stands out as an exemplar of how tastes in compliments have changed. I believe Walt Kelly parodied that at one point -- "Your eyes are warm as sweet manana/Soft and gooey like fried banana." Not a verse I'm likely to forget - PJS
File: RcSacrGa

Sad and Lonely Comrade


DESCRIPTION: Bobby dies and his father and mother mourn. "Prepare to meet your darling with Christ up in the skies. We all have loved ones sleeping, all in a churchyard bed, And why not try to meet them in a moment we are dead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-Labrador)
KEYWORDS: death religious father mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-Labrador 52, "Sad and Lonely Comrade" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab052 (Partial)
Roud #9987
NOTES: Leach's informant thought this a local song about a Labrador event, though he didn't know details. I suspect he was right, though; the song is unsophisticated and the poetry neither good nor clear. - RBW
File: LLab052

Sad and Lonesome Day


See See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (File: ADR92)

Sad Condition


DESCRIPTION: "A young lady sat down in a sad condition/A-mourning the loss of her own true love/Some folks say that he was taken/In the wars with Germany/Hi-lee, 'tis not so/I'll turn back and be your beau/Turn my elbow to my wrist/I'll turn back in a double twist"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1907 (JAF20)
KEYWORDS: grief love war death mourning dancing playparty lover
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SharpAp 263, "Sad Condition" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #940
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Killy Kranky" (lyrics)
NOTES: This is a weird hybrid of what sounds like a remnant of a tragic lover-lost-in-the-army ballad and a few lines from a playparty, "Killy Kranky." But that has no narrative to speak of, and this one does, sort of, so it gets its own entry. Oh, the version collected by Sharp came from Hindman, KY, where various generations of Ritchies attended the settlement school. - PJS
File: ShAp2263

Sad Courtin', The


See The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)

Sad Song, The


See Lady Mary (The Sad Song) (File: R698)

Saddest Face in the Mining Town, The


DESCRIPTION: A miner takes leave of his girl, noting that tomorrow they will be married, He goes down in the mine, which caves in. The bells, instead of tolling for a wedding, toll for his funeral. Years later, his body is found, and the white-haired bride knows it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: beauty mining death disaster corpse wedding
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon 58, pp. 265-267, "The Saddest Face in the Mining Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10108
NOTES: The deft work of this song is impressive: The contrast between the "fairest face in the mining town" and the "saddest face in the mining town,' and an overall air of understatement, make it especially poignant. Logsdon is reminded of an old ballad, but it strikes me as more parlor poetry (though exceptionally good of its kind). We might note that the idea of the wedding bell that instead rings a funeral note is hardly unique to this song -- A. E. Housman used it, with equal brilliance and images even more spare, in "Bredon Hill." - RBW
File: Logs058

Saddle Tramp (Saddle Bum), The


DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of life as a "saddle bum" or "saddle tramp," riding the grub-line, moving from ranch to ranch, singing for his keep. When things get cool, he "forks his bronc" and moves on. Over winter, he stays with his Neta, and promises to be true to her
AUTHOR: Curley Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Curley Fletcher, "Songs of the Sage")
KEYWORDS: rambling travel music nonballad animal horse lover hobo
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
RECORDINGS:
Harry Jackson, "The Saddle Bum" (on HJackson1)
NOTES: The "grub line" or "chuck line" refers to the practice of offering itinerant cowboys or workers a few days' food and lodging as they passed through. - PJS
File: RcSadTra

Sadie (I)


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

Sadie (II)


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

Sadie Ray


DESCRIPTION: "Near a cool and shady woodland Where the rippling streamlets flow Dwelt a maiden kind and lovely But 'twas in long years ago." He describes their love and plans to marry, "But she's dead, my Sadie Ray." He prepares to meet her in Heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recorded by Ashley & Foster)
KEYWORDS: love death separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 770, "Sadie Ray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4314
RECORDINGS:
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "Sadie Ray" (Vocalion 02900, 1935)
NOTES: Printed in one of the Hamlin's Wizard Oil songbooks, probably in the 1880s. - RBW
File: R770

Sae Will We Yet


See And Sae Will We Yet (File: FVS256)

Safe at Home in the Promised Land


See Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land) (File: San092)

Said Frohock to Fanning


DESCRIPTION: "Said Frohock to Fanning, 'To tell the plain truth, When I came to this country I was but a youth... And then my first study was to cheat for a hoss.'" Fanning and Frohock happily exchange tales of cheating those around them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: political robbery
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 279, "Said Frohock to Fanning" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "From Hillsborough Town the First of May" (subject)
cf. "When Fanning First to Orange Came" (subject)
cf. "Who Would Have Tho't Harmon" (subject)
NOTES: One of four "regulator" songs in Brown. The regulators were a group of protesters against high taxes and fees, found mostly in North Carolina though some also were active in South Carolina. For more on the Regulators, see the notes to "When Fanning First to Orange Came." That song also gives background on Edmund Fanning.
The notes in Brown observe three men named Frohock held station in North Carolina in the Regulators. They suspect Thomas Frohock is meant, but this is beyond proof. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BrII279

Saighdiuir Treigthe, An (The Forsaken Soldier)


DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer wakes and throws away his uniform. He hears gossip about his sweetheart and cuts off his finger. He will die before Easter but would return from the dead if she calls him. He curses his father for driving him to drink and the army.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love nonballad injury soldier death ghost separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 168-169, "An Saighdiuir Treigthe" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 115-116, "An Saighdiur Treigthe" ("The Deserted Soldier") [Gaelic and English]
NOTES: Tunney-StoneFiddle includes both the Gaelic and Paddy Tunney's English translation. However, I used Bell/O Conchubhair for most of the description because it seemed a better match for what little Gaelic I could follow. Tunney has one additional verse. - BS
File: TSF168

Sail Away Ladies


DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses: "Ever I get my new house done/Sail away, ladies, sail away/Give the old one to my son/Sail away...." "Don't you worry, don't you cry... You'll be angels by and by" Etc. "Chorus: "Don't'ye rock 'em, di-de-o (x3 or x4)".
AUTHOR: Words assembled by Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Bunt Stephens)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses, and some that should be: "Ever I get my new house done/Sail away, ladies, sail away/Give the old one to my son/Sail away, ladies, sail away"; "Children, Don't You Grieve and Cry/You're gonna be angels by and by"; "Come along, girls and go with me/We'll go back to Tennessee". Chorus: "Don't'ye rock 'em, di-de-o (3-4x)". "Sail away, ladies, sail away" is the verse refrain.
KEYWORDS: dancing drink humorous nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 203, "Sail Away Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 251, "Sail Away Ladies" (1 text)
MWheeler, p. 15-16, "Oh, When I Git My New House Done" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment with no chorus but verses similar to this)
Silber-FSWB, p. 42, "Sail Away Ladies" (1 text)
DT, SAILLADI*
RECORDINGS:
Henry L. Bandy, "Sail Away Ladies" (Gennett test pressing GEx14361, 1928; unissued; on KMM)
Logan English, "Old Doc Jones" (on LEnglish01)
Uncle Dave Macon & his Fruit Jar Drinkers, "Sail Away Ladies" (Vocalion 5155, 1927; on TimesAint02)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sail Away, Ladies" (on NLCR05)
Parker & Dodd "Sail Away Lady" (Banner 32817/Melotone 12745/Romeo 5250, 1933)
Uncle Bunt Stephens, "Sail Away Ladies" [instrumental version] (Columbia 15071-D, 1926; on AAFM2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down the River I Go" (words)
cf. "Carve That Possum" (portion of tune)
NOTES: This started out as a fiddle tune, to which Uncle Dave [Macon] added his own unique brand of nonsense--some original, some floating verses. -PJS
Not to be confused with the song sung by W.C. Handy: "Sail away, ladies, sail away; Sail away, ladies, sail away. Never mind what de sisters say, Just shake your Dolly Varden and sail away." - RBW
File: CSW203

Sail, O Believer


DESCRIPTION: "Sail, O believer, sail, Sail over yonder, Sail, O my brother, Sail over yonder." The listener is invited to join in the work and view the promised land. "For Jesus comes... And Jesus locks the doors... And carries the keys away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 24, "Sail, O Believer" (1 fragment plus a short text which they believe to be the same song, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 197-198, "Sail, O Believer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11976
File: SBoA197

Sailing at High Tide


See Sailing in the Boat (File: LoF013)

Sailing in the Boat


DESCRIPTION: "Sailing in the boat when the tide runs high, (x3) Waiting for the pretty girl(s) to come by and by." The rest is floating verses on courting, e.g. "Here she comes so fine and fair, Sky blue eyes and curly hair, Roses in her cheek, dimple in her chin...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: courting ship nonballad playparty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 13, "Sailing in the Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 812-813, "Sailing at High Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LoF013 (Full)
Roud #6665
File: LoF013

Sailing Out on the Ocean


DESCRIPTION: Singer is sailing the ocean; says if he gets shot or drowned there will be no one to weep for him. Despite his mother's usual warning, he gambled and lost his life savings while drunk. The only girl he has loved has turned her back on him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Haskell Wolfenbarger)
KEYWORDS: loneliness warning gambling courting floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Haskell Wolfenbarger, "Sailing Out on the Ocean" (Vocalion 5390, 1930; on RoughWays2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smoky" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rye Whiskey" (floating lyrics)
File: RcSOOtO

Sailing Trade, The


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

Sailing, Sailing


DESCRIPTION: Known mostly for the lines in the middle of the chorus: "Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main, For many a stormy wind shall blow ere Jack comes home again." About the "bold and free" life of the sailor, and his true heart, and his return home
AUTHOR: Godfrey Marks
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: sailor sea ship nonballad home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 89, "Sailing Sailing" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 483, "Sailing"
DT, SLNGSLNG
SAME TUNE:
Sailing the Union Way (Greenway-AFP, p. 235)
File: FSWB089

Sailor (I), The


See John (George) Riley (I) [Laws N36] AND John (George) Riley II [Laws N37] (File: LN37)

Sailor (II), The


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

Sailor and His Bride, The [Laws K10]


DESCRIPTION: The sailor's widow reports that her husband went to sea three years ago, after only three months of marriage. His ship was lost in a storm; she wishes that she could join him in his watery grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Brown); there is a broadside from slightly before this
KEYWORDS: sailor storm wreck death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws K10, "The Sailor and His Bride"
GreigDuncan1 19, "The Sailor and His Love" (1 text)
Randolph 762, "My Lovely Sailor Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Eddy 34, "The Sailor and His Bride" (2 texts, 1 tune)
JHCox 113, "The Sailor and His Bride" (2 texts)
BrownII 112, "The Sailor's Bride" (2 texts)
Chappell-FSRA 31, "Charlie and Mary" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 439-440, "Early Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 558, SAILBRDE
Roud #274
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sailor's Sweetheart
My Soldier Boy
File: LK10

Sailor and His Love, The


DESCRIPTION: A sailor asks his love, bound by iron, to dress as a sailor and follow him. She refuses: her father has heard from the sailor's crew that he is married. He swears he is free. She is convinced and says she'd follow him if he frees her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: elopement lie rescue cross-dressing ship father sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 1011, "The Sailor and His Love" (1 text)
Roud #6724
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (plot)
cf. "The Iron Door" [Laws M15] (plot)
cf. "The Gallant Shoemaker" (plot)
NOTES: The plot reads like an excerpt of "The Iron Door" but the text shares no lines with "Locks and Bolts," "The Iron Door," or "The Gallant Shoemaker." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1011

Sailor and His True Love


See Pleasant and Delightful (File: DTplesde)

Sailor and his True Love (II)


See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Sailor and Nancy, The


See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Sailor and the Ghost, The [Laws P34A/B]


DESCRIPTION: A pregnant girl hangs herself after being abandoned by her lover. The guilty youth goes to sea to escape her ghost, but the spirit follows and finds him. She threatens the captain until he is produced, and then burns the ship with him aboard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(68))
KEYWORDS: pregnancy abandonment ghost disaster suicide
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws P34A, "The Sailor's Tragedy (The Sailor and the Ghost A)"/P34B, "Handsome Harry (The Sailor and the Ghost B)"
Greig #130, pp. 2-3, "The Ghost So Grim" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 341, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "The Ghost So Grim" (7 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownII 68, "Handsome Harry" (1 text, identified by Laws as P34B)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 151-154, "The Dreadful Ghost" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 116-117, "The Dreadful Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 398-403, "The Sea Ghost" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-Labrador 18, "The Sailor's Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 92, "The Sailor's Tragedy" (1 text)
DT 512, DREDGHOS
Roud #568
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(68), "The Sailor and the Ghost," Laurie and Whittle (London), 1805; also 2806 c.8(242), "The Sailor and the Ghost"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B)" [Laws K22]
cf. "On One Thursday Evening" (tune, according to GreigDuncan2))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Murdered Girl
The Spirit Grim
File: LP34

Sailor and the Lady, The


See The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)

Sailor and the Shepherdess, The [Laws O8]


DESCRIPTION: A wandering young sailor, seeing a shepherdess asleep by the sea, goes up to her and kisses her. Surprised into wakefulness, she begins to cry, but the sailor offers marriage, and she accepts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1698))
KEYWORDS: sailor courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws O8, "The Sailor and the Shepherdess"
Greig #117, p. 1, "The Handsome Shepherdess" (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 968, "The Handsome Shepherdess" (2 texts plus a verse from Grieg #117 on p. 599; 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 53, "The Sailor and the Shepherdess" (1 text)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 37, "The Shepherdess" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H104, p. 457, "The Gentle Shepherdess" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 473, SAILSHEP
Roud #959
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1698), "The Sailor's Courtship" ("As a pretty young shepherdess was minding her sheep"), J. Evans (London) , 1780-1812; also Harding B 16(239b), Firth b.25(330), Firth c.13(193), Firth c.13(194), Harding B 11(3262), "[The] Sailor's Courtship"; Harding B 16(238c), "Harding B 11(3374), [The] Sailor and Shepherdess"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Handsome Young Shepherdess
File: LO08

Sailor and the Tailor (II), The


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

Sailor and the Tailor, The [Laws P4]


DESCRIPTION: A girl and a sailor agree to marry after he finishes his voyage. When he returns, he finds that she will soon marry a tailor. He meets them and persuades the girl to change her mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig)
KEYWORDS: sailor wedding infidelity rejection love
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) US(MA) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws P4, "The Sailor and the Tailor"
Greig #101, p. 2, "The Tailor and the Sailor" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 73, "The Watchet Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 167-168, "Jack the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 134-135, "Jack the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 482, "The Sailor and the Tailor" (source notes only)
DT 492, SAILTAIL
Roud #917
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "He Wears a Bonnet for a Hat" ("Maybe I'll Be Mairriet Yet" lines finish the song)
File: LP04

Sailor Bill


DESCRIPTION: "I've sailed to the east and I've sailed to the west, They call me Sailor Bill, I have come to seek my own blood kin That settled in the hills." The sailor tells how, after sailing far, he looks for his family and settles down "with my Preston kin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: sailor home return reunion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', p. 32, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: Thomas's informants thought this the work of William Calvert Preston. This seems possible, since that family gave her the song. - RBW
File: ThBa032

Sailor Bold


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

Sailor Bold (II), The


DESCRIPTION: The sailor "came to his true love to let her know That he once more to sea must go." She saysd "pray stay at home" with her because cannons may injure him. He says "pray stay at home" and she will always be in his mind. She watched him sail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (according to Christie, 1881)
KEYWORDS: request war farewell separation wife sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 244-245, "The Sailor Bold" (1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(104), "The Sailor Bold" ("A sailor bold the best of hearts"), G. Wood (Liverpool), c. 1814
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor Bold (III)" (shares the first verse)
NOTES: The description is based on broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(104)).
The usual warning for Christie about "improved" texts.
Christie: "The Editor in 1850 noted this Air exactly as it was sung by 'Jenny Meesic' to the Ballad here given." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BdSaBol2

Sailor Bold (III), The


DESCRIPTION: A sailor tells his sweetheart he must sail. He promises to be true. Perhaps says, "we shall return victorious men, The joy and pride of Christendom" She recounts the dangers of sailing and war. He leaves. She receives a comforting letter from him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: love war farewell sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan1 62, "The Sailor Bold" (1 text)
Roud #5813
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor Bold (II)" (shares the first verse)
File: GrD1062

Sailor Boy (I), The [Laws K12]


DESCRIPTION: A girl asks her father to build her a boat so that she may search for her lover. She describes the boy to a passing captain, who tells her he is drowned. She gives directions for her burial, then dies of grief or dashes her boat against the rocks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2298))
KEYWORDS: ship death lover drowning loneliness separation sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Queb)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws K12, "The Sailor Boy I"
Belden, pp. 186-191, "The Sailor Boy" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph 68, "The Sailor's Sweetheart" (3 text plus 2 fragments, 4 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 68-70, "The Sailor's Sweetheart" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 68C)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 318-320, "Oh, Captain, Captain, Tell Me True" (1 text; tune on pp. 441-442)
Brewster 54, "Sweet William (The Sailor Boy)" (1 text)
Eddy 33, "Sweet William" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 25, "The Sailor Boy" (1 short text; the first 6 lines are "The Sailor Boy"; the last twelve are perhaps "The Butcher Boy")
Rickaby 18, "The Pinery Boy" (1 text, 1 tune; also a fragment in the notes)
Leach, pp. 736-737, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Leach-Labrador 9, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 43, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 27, "Broken Ring Song fragment" (1 single-stanza fragment, 1 tune); 44, "My Sailor Lad, "Sailor Bold" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Warner 53, "I'll Sit Down and Write a Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 106, "Sweet William" (12 texts, 12 tunes)
Sharp-100E 72, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 35, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 94, "A Sailor's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 110, "Sweet William (The Sailor Boy)" (3 texts plus mention of 6 more)
BrownII 104, "The Sailor Boy" (5 texts, mostly short, plus excerpts from 4 more and mention of 2 more and 1 very short fragment; several texts, notably "C," are mixed with "The Butcher Boy"; "E" is a mix with something unidentifiable as only part of the song is printed; "H" is apparently a mix of floating material, only partly printed; "J" is mostly from some unidentified ballad; "L" appears to mix this with "The Apprentice Boy" [Laws M12])
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 177-178, "The Soldier Boy" (1 text)
Scott-BoA, pp. 39-40, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune, a composite version)
Lomax-FSNA 55, "The Pinery Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 272-273, "A Sailor's Trade Is a Roving Life" (1 text, with the manuscript damaged by water)
Morton-Ulster 7, "My Boy Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 56, "My Boy Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 34, "My Fine Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan6 1245, "The Sailing Trade" (11 texts, 8 tunes)
Greig #64, p. 1, "The Sailor's Life" (1 text)
MacSeegTrav 25, "Sweet William" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Darling-NAS, pp. 97-98, "Sweet Soldier Boy" (1 text)
DT 403, PINERYBY* SAILIFE*
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 95-96, "(The Raftsman's Life)" (Excerpts of a sing that is clearly "The Pinery Boy," presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
Roud #273
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "A Sailor's Trade is a Weary Life" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Dock Boggs, "Papa, Build Me a Boat" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1) (a complex version, with this plot but many floating verses, e.g. from "The Storms Are On the Ocean")
Rufus Crisp, "Fall, Fall, Build Me a Boat" (on Crisp01)
Dan Hornsby Trio, "A Sailor's Sweetheart" (Columbia 15771-D, 1932; rec. 1931)
Liz Jefferies, "Willie, the Bold Sailor Boy" (on Voice03)
Mikeen McCarthy, "Early in the Month of Spring" (on IRTravellers01)
Maggie Murphy, "Willie-O" (on IRHardySons)
Mrs. Otto Rindlisbacher, "The Pinery Boy" [instrumental] (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Phoebe Smith, "Sweet William" (on Voice11)
Art Thieme, "The Pinery Boy" (on Thieme04)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2298), "The Maid's Lament for her Sailor Boy," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.12(226), Harding B 11(3375), Harding B 25(1684), "Sailor Boy" ("Down by a chrystal river side"); Firth c.12(227), "The Sailor Boy and his Faithful Mary"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (lyrics)
cf. "A Soldier's Life" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "The Deep Blue Sea (I)" (plot)
cf. "Taven in the Town" (lyrics)
cf. "The Croppy Boy (I)" [Laws J14]" (tune, per Morton-Ulster 7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pinery Boy
Papa, Papa, Build Me a Boat
A Shantyman's Life
I Have No One to Love Me
Captain Tell Me True
The Sailor Boy and his Faithful Mary
Sailin', Sailin's a Weary Life
The Broken Hearted Lover
NOTES: Paul Stamler suggests that "The Deep Blue Sea" is a worn-down version of this song. He may well be right (see the notes to that song), but I believe that the characteristic of Laws K12 is the girl's request of a boat. Since "Deep Blue Sea" lacks that feature, I tentatively separate the songs.
The "Pinery Boy" versions are heavily localized to Wisconsin and the lumber business, and could almost be considered a separate song -- except that very many of the lyrics from "The Sailor Boy" still endure.
The "Pinery Boy" versions tend to mention Lone Rock and/or the Wisconsin Dells as the site of this tragedy, but the Wisconsin, River, according to Gard/Sorden, p. 95, was a very dangerous stream for raftsmen for much of its length: "[M]any of these danger spots, still bearing the names given them by the raftsmen, are points of interest along the Wisconsin River. Among these names are Sliding Rock, whose sloping sides make it impossible to gain any foothold; Notched Rock; the Devil's Elbow, a right-angle turn making passage very difficult; and the Narrows, where the River is said to be turned on its side, since its width is only fifty-two feet, and its depth is one hundred and fifty feet."
The whole Dells region must have been difficult, since the river goes through a series of rather sharp bends, and the riverbanks and the bed are rough.
The small town of Lone Rock is not properly part of the Dells; it is several dozen miles downstream, in a marshy, heavily wooded area. But it is on the Wisconsin River (and it has a Lone Rock Cemetery, according to Google Maps, so perhaps our hero was buried there). Ironically, the cemetery (off U. S. Highway 14) seems to be one of the few spots in the area which largely lacks trees.
Lone Rock the town, not surprisingly, is named for a rock named Lone Rock, a sandstone formation on the north bank of the Wisconsin that raftsmen used for navigation -- this far below the Dells, the Wisconsin is fairly straight. but there is a spot near the rock called Devil's Bend, and the current is swift. So Lone Rock was important to let the raftsmen know there were near a tricky place.
The Rock is no longer really visible, according to an online history of the area (http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-LoneRock). Much of the rock was taken and used for construction.
Lone Rock the town came into being in 1856. The name "Lone Rock" for the sandstone pillar is older, but it seems unlikely that they would have buried the Pinery Boy there had the town not existed.
Creighton-NovaScotia shows a collector misled by a source. The version is only a single verse, identical to broadside Bodleian, Firth c.12(227), "The Sailor Boy and his Faithful Mary" ("A sailor's life is a merry life"), J.Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866. The singer, in this case, thought this was a returned lover ballad -- from Creighton's title -- of the broken ring type.
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "Early, Early All in the Spring" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)). Like Morton-Ulster 7, Hammond's version shares its tune with "The Croppy Boy (I)." - BS
The Dan Hornsby Trio recording is included by deduction; I have not heard it. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LK12

Sailor Boy (II), The


See The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II) (File: LN18)

Sailor Boy, The


See The Faithful Sailor Boy [Laws K13] (File: LK13)

Sailor Boy's Farewell, The


See The Forfar Sodger (File: FVS163)

Sailor Courted a Farmer's Daughter, A


See The Constant Lovers [Laws O41] (File: LO41)

Sailor Courted, A


See The Constant Lovers [Laws O41] (File: LO41)

Sailor Cut Down in His Prime, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer sees one of his shipmates "wrapped up in flannel yet colder than clay." He dies, and details of the burial are given. His headstone warns sailors, "Never go courting with the girls of the city; Flash girls in the city were the ruin of me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: death disease whore burial funeral
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 201, "The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 117, "The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, YNGMNPRM
Roud #2
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Doughty, "The Streets of Port Arthur" (on Voice12)
Harry Upton, "The Royal Albion" (on Voice02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, plot) and references there
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (tune & meter, plot)
cf. "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26] (tune & meter, plot)
NOTES: One of the large group of ballads ("The Bard of Armagh," "Saint James Hospital," "The Streets of Laredo") ultimately derived from "The Unfortunate Rake." All use the same or similar tunes and meter, and all involve a person dying as a result of a wild life, but the nature of the tragedy varies according to local circumstances.
For the treatment of syphilis prior to the twentieth century, see the notes to "The Unfortunate Rake." - RBW
File: LoF201

Sailor Deceived, The


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

Sailor Fireman, The


See I'll Fire Dis Trip (File: Br3222)

Sailor in the Alehouse, The


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

Sailor in the North Country, A


DESCRIPTION: A sailor and his beautiful wife meet a captain who is smitten with the lady. He summons the sailor and sends him to the West Indies. Within a few days of his leaving the captain makes a pass at the wife, who refuses him and pledges her constancy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: virtue adultery love marriage rejection parting separation wife sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 93, "A Sailor in the North Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1504
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "A Sailor in the North Country" (on Maynard1, Voice12)
File: VWL093

Sailor Laddie, The


DESCRIPTION: "I've been east and I've been wast" to Dundee and Montrose, "And the bonniest lad that ever I saw" "ploughs the raging sea" and "wears the tarry clothes." "So away with my sailor laddie Away with him I'll go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan1 55, "The Sailor Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5808
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dundee
NOTES: There is a version of "The Gypsy Laddie" very similar to this in feeling and to some extent even in lyrics; I suspect this may be a rewrite of a version of that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1055

Sailor Likes His Bottle-O, The


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "So early in the morning the sailor likes his bottle-o! A bottle of rum, a bottle of gin, a bottle of old Jamaica Ho!" Verses carry on about all the things a sailor might love: women, tobacco, fighting, etc...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EFC)
KEYWORDS: shanty drink sailor
FOUND IN: Britain West Indies
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Colcord, p. 75, "Bottle O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 55-57, "So Early in the Morning" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 52-53]
Sharp-EFC, XLVI, p. 51, "The Sailor Loves His Bottle-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SAILBOTL
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Sailor Like the Bottle O!" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sailor Loves
File: Hugi055

Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea (I)


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

Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea (II)


See The Deep Blue Sea (I) (File: R794)

Sailor on the Sea, The


See In London so Fair (File: HHH203)

Sailor's Adieu, The


See The Topsail Shivers in the Wind (File: SWMS059)

Sailor's Alphabet, The


DESCRIPTION: Capstan/pumping shanty; sailors remember the alphabet and tell of their, "merry" lives: "A is the anchor that hangs o'er the bow/And B is the bowsprit that bends like a bow.... So merry, so merry, so merry are we/No mortals on earth like a sailor at sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sea ship work nonballad wordplay worksong sailor worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(MW,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (2 texts, 1 tune)
BrownIII 229, "Alphabet of the Ship" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 885-886, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 98, "Alphabet Song" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "C" text is "The Logger's Alphabet")
Harlow, pp. 52-54, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 456-458, "The Bosun's Alphabet," "Old English Chantey" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 341-342]
Roud #159
RECORDINGS:
Clifford Jenkins et al, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (on LastDays)
Sam Larner, "Alphabet Song" (on SLarner01); "The Sailor's Alphabet" (on Voice12)
Capt. Leighton Robinson, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (on AFS, 1951; on LC26)
Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Sailor's Alphabet" (on AFS 4230 B, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject, form) and references there
NOTES: We've cross-referenced this enough that it deserves its own entry, although it's identical in form to "The Logger's Alphabet." - PJS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: RcTSAlp

Sailor's Bride, The


See The Sailor and His Bride [Laws K10] (File: LK10)

Sailor's Burial at Sea


See The Sailor's Grave (File: Wa155)

Sailor's Come All Ye, The


See Hearts of Gold (File: SWMS068)

Sailor's Consolation


DESCRIPTION: wo sailors, Barney Buntline & Billy Bowline list the reasons they are lucky to be sailors, comparing the dangers of living on shore with the relatively free life they have. Sometimes has chorus of "With a tow row row-right to me addy, wi' a tow row row."
AUTHOR: Charles Dibdin (1745-1814) (also attributed to Pitt and Hood)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1814
KEYWORDS: sailor ship shore
FOUND IN: US Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, p. 460, "Barney Buntline" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hugill gives some references, in particular that the tune for this was taken by a Prof. J. Glyn-Davies and turned into a Welsh sailors' song (also known as a children's song) "Can Huw Puw." Glyn-Davies seemed to believe that the original song was quite old and that the tune was also used in a song, "Miss Tickle Toby" which dates to the 16th century. - SL
For more on probable author Charles Dibdin, see the notes to "Blow High Blow Low." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Hugi460A

Sailor's Grace, The


See The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)

Sailor's Grave, The


DESCRIPTION: "Our bark was far, oh, far from land, When the fairest of our gallant band Grew deadly pale and pined away." Lacking "costly winding sheets," they wrap the dead man in his hammock and a flag and sadly bury him at sea
AUTHOR: Words: Eliza Cook / Music: John C. Baker
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1845 402000)
KEYWORDS: sea sailor death funeral burial
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE) Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
GreigDuncan1 68, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger, pp. 160-162, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 162-163, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 155, "A Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, p. 47, "Sailor's Burial at Sea" (1 text)
DT, SAILGRAV*
Roud #2676
RECORDINGS:
Pat Ford, "The Sailor's Grave" (AFS 4211 B1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3383), "The Sailor's Grave" ("Our bark was far, far from the land"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(27), Harding B 11(4264), Harding B 11(3382), Harding B 11(3383), Harding B 11(3384), Harding B 16(240b), Harding B 26(586), Harding B 11(2745), Firth c.12(445), "The Sailor's Grave"
LOCSheet, sm1845 402000, "The Sailor's Grave" ("Our bark was out far, far from land"), F. D. Benteen (Baltimore), 1845; also sm1845 791150, "The Sailor's Grave" (tune)
NOTES: There is a parody of this ballad as broadside NLScotland, L.C.1269(176.a), "Parody On The Sailor's Grave,"Poet's Box (Glasgow?), 1863 - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Wa155

Sailor's Hornpipe in Caxon Street


See The Shirt and the Apron [Laws K42] (File: LK42)

Sailor's Life, A


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

Sailor's New Leg, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer was a sailor at Trafalgar. With Nelson on the foredeck, he lost a leg to a cannonball. Dr Keg replaced it with one from "fighting Jim." Immediately he returned to the fight "and flew aboard the Frenchman like a rocket O!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: battle navy humorous sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan1 147, "The Sailor's New Leg" (1 text)
Roud #5822
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh My Comrades You Must Know
NOTES: It probably goes without saying that the physician on the Victory was not named "Dr. Keg." John Keegan, The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare, Penguin, 1988, 1990, p. 102, states that the surgeon who was with Nelson in his last hours was Doctor William Beatty. In addition, Nelson at least was not killed by a cannonball but by a musket round. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1147

Sailor's Plea, The (Dear Sweetheart)


DESCRIPTION: "Dear sweetheart, as I write to you, My heart is filled with pain, For if these things... are true, I'll never see you again." The singer says, if she weds another, "My boat will never land." He recalls his work for her. He learns she still loves him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Henry, collected from Mabel Hall)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor abandonment
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 151, "The Sailor's Plea" (1 text)
Roud #17050
File: MHAp151

Sailor's Return, The


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

Sailor's Sweetheart, The


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

Sailor's Trade Is a Roving Life, A


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

Sailor's Tragedy, The (The Sailor and the Ghost A)


See The Sailor and the Ghost [Laws P34A/B] (File: LP34)

Sailor's Way, The


DESCRIPTION: The sailor tells of all the places he's been and seen: "I've sailed among the Yankees, the Spaniards and Chinese.... But I'll go to the dance hall and hear the music play, For around Cape Horn and home again, oh, that is the sailor's way!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936
KEYWORDS: sailor dancing rambling
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doerflinger, p. 109, "The Sailor's Way" (1 short text, reference for tune)
Hugill, pp. 386-388, "The Sailor's Way" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 295-296]
Smith/Hatt, p. 41, "Around the World and Home Again" (1 text)
ST Doe109 (Partial)
Roud #8239
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7] (tune)
File: Doe109

Saint Clair's Defeat


DESCRIPTION: Saint Clair leads an army against the Indians "on the banks of the St. Marie." Hundreds of men are killed. The rest make their way home as best they can
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov. 4, 1791 - The army of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, the first (territorial) governor of Ohio, is attacked by Indians on the banks of the Wabash.
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy 116, "On the Eighth Day of November" (1 text, 1 tune -- though only Eddy's first verse goes with this ballad. Verses 2 and 3 come from "James Ervin" [Laws J15])
ST E116 (Full)
Roud #4028
NOTES: St. Clair's expedition was mounted by President Washington to deal with the refusal of the British to evacuate certain frontier forts. St. Clair was to build a fort on the site of what is now Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The exact magnitude of the defeat is uncertain; although St. Clair set out with a force variously estimated as from 2000 to 3000 men (including the entire U.S. regular army), he may have lost a thousand of those to disease and desertion along the way. His casualties have been variously estimated as 600 to 900 men.
As "On the Eighth Day of November, " this song is item dA30 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: E116

Saint George and the Drag-On


DESCRIPTION: "Oh what a dreary place this was when first the Mormons found it; They said no white men here could live...." But Mormon industry has transformed it, and "St. George ere long will be a place that everyone admires."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: home work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 26, "St. George and the Drag-On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8596
NOTES: St. George is in southwestern Utah, just north of the Arizona border and not far from the Nevada boundary. It is not far from the Dixie National Forest (and the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre). It is perhaps a little more habitable than most of Utah -- and, of course, the Mormons, with their centralized, semi-communal society were very efficient at making a living in seemingly-impossible settings. - RBW
File: FCW26

Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)


DESCRIPTION: A lament for Napoleon, "gone from his wars and his fightings." His past splendor is contrasted with his current fate. The sorrow of his wife Louisa is alluded to. His death is attributed to the malice of his enemies.
AUTHOR: James Watt? (source: broadside Bodleian Firth c.16(84))
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Forget-Me-Not Songster)
KEYWORDS: exile lament Napoleon death grief
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1815 - Defeat at the Battle of Waterloo forces Napoleon into exile
1821 - Death of Napoleon
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Moylan 209, "The Isle of Saint Helena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy 96, "Lonely Louisa" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 146-147, "The Isle of St. Helena" (1 text plus reference to 1 more)
Warner 143, "Bony on the Isle of St. Helena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 205-207, "Bonaparte on St. Helena" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 146, "The Isle of St. Helena" (4 texts, mostly defective)
Chappell-FSRA 109, "Napoleon" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 173, "Boney's Defeat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 111-112, "Napoleon Song," "Bonaparte on St. Helena" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 83, "Napoleon the Exile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 102-104, "Napoleon Bonaparte" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BNYSTHEL* BNYSTHE2
ST E096 (Full)
Roud #349
RECORDINGS:
Charles K. "Tink" Tillett, "Bony on the Isle of St. Helena" (on USWarnerColl01) [called simply "Bony" on the CD sleeve; the longer title is in the interior notes]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 205, "The Island of St. Helena," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(1517), Firth c.16(99), Firth b.34(201), Harding B 11(847) [some words illegible], Harding B 11(1810), Harding B 11(1811), "Isle of St. Helena"; Harding B 25(1716), Harding B 11(3955), "The Island of St. Helena"; Harding B 25(245), "Bonapate's Lamentation at the Island of St. Helena"; Firth c.16(84), "Bonaparte's Departure for St. Helena"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell to Mackenzie" (meter)
cf. "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (subject)
cf. "The Royal Eagle" (subject: Marie Louisa's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The New Bunch of Loughero" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The Braes of Balquhither" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.16(84))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Napoleon
Bone Part
NOTES: The grief of Marie Louisa of Austria (Napoleon's second wife) has become the only surviving theme in certain American versions of this ballad. Historically, there is little basis for this; she refused to go into exile with him to Elba, let alone St. Helena.
In fact, even before Napoleon went to Elba, she is reported to have taken General Adam Adelbert Neipperg as a lover. When he came back during the Hundred Days, she not only refused to join him, she wouldn't even allow him to see his son. By the time Napoleon died, Louisa had borne two children to other fathers.
"Mount Diana," referred to in some texts, is properly Diana's Peak, the highest point on Saint Helena (about 825 ft/250 meters above sea level). The link of Diana with the moon clearly reveals that this piece began life as a broadside; someone was using classical analogies.
The "Holy Alliance" is the coalition formed immediately after Napoleon's downfall. Its purpose was to prevent the rise of any Bonapartist pretenders. Ironically for an alliance that called itself "holy," the primary nations involved (Austria, Prussia, Russia; England was not a member) were more regressive than France. In addition, it eventually failed of its purpose, as Napoleon III later took over France.
This song seems to be known mostly from broadsides in Britain; its popularity and firm hold in tradition in the U. S. probably derives from its inclusion in the Forget-Me-Not Songster.
Ben Schwartz brought to my attention the attribution of this song to James Watt found in broadside Bodleian Firth c.16(84). There are two poems on ths broadside (which is rare but not unknown), and this one has an extended prose introduction (which is even more rare). What is more, the two songs do not appear to come from the same printing house: "Bonaparte's Departure for St. Helena" appears to be self-published, while the accompanying item, "Napoleon is the Boy For Kicking up a Row," is from one of the Poet's Box outlets (though the exact one has been scratched out).
Is this the original? It lacks one of the six standard stanzas, and there are many verbal differences from the usual texts. Even more curious is the occasional hints of confornity with Scots dialect. I can only say that there appears to have been recensional activity -- but whether that activity was applied by Watt to create this text, or by the Forget-Me-Not Songster, or by someone else, I cannot tell. I'm not ready to concede authorship on the rather thin basis of one broadside. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Isle of St Helena" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: E096

Saint James Infirmary


DESCRIPTION: Big Joe McKennedy is in the bar, reporting that he "went down to St. James Infirmary, And I saw my baby there, Stretched out on a long white table...." He gambled, and now must pay. He prepares to die, makes requests for his funeral, (blames the woman)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: disease death funeral drink
FOUND IN: US(SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 94, "How Sad Was the Death of my Sweetheart" (1 short text, with few of the familiar words but the correct plot and the "Let her go, let her go" chorus)
Sandburg, pp. 228-231, "Those Gambler's Blues" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife XIII, pp. 148-190 (29-30), "Cow Boy's Lament" (22 texts, 7 tunes, the "N" text being in fact a version of this piece)
Darling-NAS, pp. 9-10, "Gambler's Blues" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 76, "St. James Infirmary" (1 text)
DT 350, STJAME
Roud #2 (!)
RECORDINGS:
Louis Armstrong & his Hot Five, "St. James Infirmary" (OKeh 8657, 1929; rec. 1928)
Rube Bloom & his Bayou Boys, "St. James' Infirmary" (Columbia 2103-D, 1930)
Dock Boggs, "Old Joe's Barroom" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Chick Bullock, "St. James Infirmary" (Velvet Tone 7063-V, 1930/Diva 6037, n.d.)
Martha Copeland, "Dyin' Crap Shooter's Blues" (Columbia 14427-D, 1929; rec. 1927)
Rosa Henderson, "Dyin' Crap Shooter's Blues" (Pathe Actuelle 7535/Perfect 135/TMH 7535, 1927)
Mattie Hite, "St. Joe's Infirmary" (Columbia 15403-D, 1930)
Frankie Marvin, "Those Gambler's Blues" (Crown 3076, 1931)
Viola McCoy, "Dyin' Crap Shooter's Blues" (Romeo 453 [as Fannie Johnson]/Cameo 1225/Lincoln 2690, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "St. James Infirmary" (on PeteSeeger32)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26] (theme)
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (the "let her go" lyrics)
cf. ""Sweet Heaven (II)" (the "let her go" lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Time Gambler's Song
NOTES: Many early jazz & popular recordings attribute authorship (of the popular version) to "Joe Primrose," a pseudonym for Irving Mills. His copyright, though, seems to have been registered in 1929, or after Armstrong's influential recording. Presumably he was registering ownership rather than authorship. - PJS
File: San228

Saint John's Girl


DESCRIPTION: The singer happens to be in St John's and meets a pretty girl who drinks his champagne. He buys her a pair of kid gloves. Given a kiss and thinking to score, the singer looks to pawn his gold watch but finds she had already lifted it and his scarf pin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-Labrador)
KEYWORDS: seduction theft beauty trick drink clergy
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-Labrador 87, "St John's Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab087 (Partial)
Roud #9975
File: LLab087

Saint Louis, Bright City


See Behind These Stone Walls (File: R165)

Saint Patrick of Ireland, My Dear!


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls St Patrick's miracles while the liquor holds out: he arrived mounted on "a paving stone," drank a gallon of liquor from a quart pot, turned mutton to salmon on Friday, and drove out the snakes.
AUTHOR: Dr Maginn (source: Croker-PopularSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (_Blackwoods Magazine_, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: drink food Ireland humorous supernatural
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 28-33, "St Patrick of Ireland, My Dear!" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs discusses the miracles in some detail. Apparently, it was not Patrick himself but a leprous disciple -- refused passage on Patrick's ship by the crew -- who accompanied the ship on Patrick's stone altar thrown into the sea as a float for the purpose. Patrick, at one point, craves meat on Friday but an apparition has Patrick put the meat into water; when the meat turned into fishes Patrick was saved by the miraculous sign from sinning and never ate meat again. Dr Maginn's source for the "facetious" [Croker's term] song is Father Jocelyn who, Croker points out, did not mention the "miracle of the Saint's 'never-emptying can, commonly called St Patrick's pot'." In the last verse the singer wishes that he had such a pot so that he could continue the song. - BS
According to Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, Dr. William Maginn (1793-1842) was the "Prototype of Captain Shandon in Pendennis by Thackeray." The New Century Handbook of English Literature lists him as the co-founder of Fraser's Magazine, and mentions among his works The City of Demons and Bob Burke's Duel with Ensign Bray. His most popular poem was probably "I Give My Soldier Boy a Blade," though I find myself more intrigued by the title "the Rime of the Auncient Waggonere." - RBW
File: CPS028

Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman


DESCRIPTION: "St. Patrick was a gentleman, and came of decent people"; they are named O'Houlihan, O'Shaughnessy... He preached from a high hill and "banished all the varmin!" Vermin's misfortunes are described. He planted turf, brought pigs and brewed good whiskey.
AUTHOR: Henry Bennett and Mr. Toleken (source: Croker-PopularSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1814-1815 (according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous patriotic religious animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 22-27, "St Patrick Was a Gentleman" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 105, "St Patrick Was a Gentleman" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Gulielmus Dubliniensis Humoriensis [Joseph Tully?], Memoir of the Great Original Zozimus (Michael Moran) (Dublin,1976 (reprint of the 1871 edition)), pp. 9-10, "St. Patrick Was a Gintleman"
Roud #13377
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(241c), "St. Patrick Was a Gentleman", T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also 2806 c.18(277), Harding B 11(3395), Harding B 20(151), Harding B 11(2874), "St. Patrick Was a Gentleman"
NOTES: The Croker-PopularSongs and O'Conor texts are very close, with a few place and person names changed and verse order changed. Croker would have considered the names of the Saint's parents on his father's side a significant change. Croker has that "His father was a Gallagher, His mother was a Brady"; both texts agree on his mother's side. Croker explains the pedigree: "St Patrick was an Irish [not French, Scotch, Welsh, ....] gentleman. The Gallaghers were a family of consideration in Donegal; the Bradys were the same in Cavan; the O'Shaughnessy, ditto in Galway; and the O'Gradys 'possessed that part of Clare which is now called the Barony of Bunratty.' This 'respectable' pedigree settles the matter."
Croker-PopularSongs says that two verses "were subsequent additions by other hands [than Bennett and Toleken]" Those are the verses missing from the broadsides. - BS
In this index, Toleken is also responsible for "Judy MacCarthy of Fishamble Lane." - RBW
File: OCon105

Saint Patrick's Arrival


DESCRIPTION: Saint Patrick exhortes the Irish to give up poteen and gives them other stuff to drink. They dump his stuff into a puncheon where it mixes with whisky. He tries to ask about the puncheon but they think he said "punch" and so name the drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Saint Patrick arrives in Bantry Bay "on the back of a whale" and is greeted by bosthoons, spalpeens, and other rustics. He promises to bring them together and rid them of their sins while he entertains them by driving the devil "beyond the Black Sea." Then he exhorts them to give up poteen. He sleeps and, when he wakes, is upset to find them with their cruiskeens and bags filled with whisky. He tries replacing their whisky with "something sweet ... [and] something sour" while they sleep. When they wske they dumped his stuff into a tub [puncheon] where it mixes with whisky. "By the side of this mixture Each man grew a fixture." Patrick is upset at his plan being foiled by this "spawn of Druids" He tries to ask about the puncheon but, in the uproar, only "punch" could be heard. The drinkers assumed that "punch ... is the name of this thing That is drink for a king."
KEYWORDS: drink Ireland humorous religious Devil talltale wordplay
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 16-22, "Saint Patrick's Arrival" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Patrick's Day in the Morning" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: "Explanatory of the Origin of the word 'Punch.'" Puncheon here is taken to be "a large cask of varying capacity" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976; the same source has "punch, as "a hot or cold beverage ....," with a derivation perhaps from the Hindi or Sanskrit word for five, from "the number of ingredients.") - BS
Croker-PopularSongs: "The editor has been told that the author is a gentleman named Wood, an officer of the army; and that, some years since, the song was printed in the Cork Southern Reporter newspaper with the signature 'Lanner de Waltram.'" - BS
File: CrPS016

Saint Patrick's Day


DESCRIPTION: Ask Patrick's protection. He secured Ireland's faith for the Catholic church. We pray for his support for Irish independence. In 1800 Pitt managed parliament's dissolution. Our champions now are Dan O'Connell, Shiel, and tithe opponent Fergus O'Connor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1759-1806 - Life of William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister 1783-1801 and from 1804 until his death
1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
1794-1855 - life of Fergus (Feargus) O'Connor
1798 - United Irish rebellion causes England to decide on Union with Ireland
1800 - Act of Union passed by British and Irish parliaments, causing a parliamentary Union to take effect in 1801
FOUND IN:
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(75), "St. Patrick's Day" ("Ye sons of this lovely but ill fated nation"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES: The form and last line of each verse suggest that the tune is "St Patrick's Day in the Morning."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(75) is the basis for the description.
The reference .".. our noble parliament then was dismembered ... pitt managed ...."[The broadside misses capitalization throughout] is to the 1801 "Act of Union" -- supported by Pitt and Robert Stewart (Lord Castlereagh) -- that formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" and abolished the Dublin Parliament. (sources: Britain and Ireland by Marjie Bloy on the Victorian Web site;Robert Stewart, Lord Castlereagh on the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos site)
The reference to tithe opposition suggests a date for this broadside before the end of "The Tithe War." Daniel O'Connell's Catholic Association was formed in 1823 to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. The "war" was passive for most of the period 1823-1836, though there were violent incidents in 1831 (source: The Irish Tithe War 1831 at the OnWar.com site)
Shiel in this broadside is probably Richard Lalor Sheil, one of O'Connells lieutenants (see Zimmermann, p. 256). - BS
Fergus O'Connor was elected M.P. for Cork in 1832 and 1835 and, in 1832, was involved in passing the Reform Act. (sources: Zimmermann p. 212, "Feargus O'Connor (1794-1855)" at the BBC site) - BS
It should be noted that Saint Patrick did *not* secure Ireland for the Catholic Church -- that, in fact, was done by the English, who suppressed the practices of the Celtic Church; Henry II invaded, with the consent of Pope Adrian IV in the bull Laudabiliter (Fry/Fry, pp. 67-72; Golway, pp. 10-12). Patrick helped bring Christianity to Ireland in the sixth century (OxfordCompanion, p. 434), but distance from Rome had caused the local version to drift far from the Roman standard (something which had, incidentally, happened in England also, though England, being closer to Rome, had regularized things at the Synod of Whitby centuries before).
Despite the fact that, were Patrick around today, he would be labelled at least a schismatic and probably a heretic by the Catholic church, he was venerated from a very early period; the first hymn to him appears to date from the seventh century, i.e. within about a hundred years of when he was active (OxfordCompanion, p. 434). But OxfordCompanion, p. 66, notes that Saint Patrick's Day, although rooted in church custom, came to be primarily political.
For the Irish parliament destroyed by the Act of Union, see especially "Ireland's Glory." For the Act of Union itself, see "The Wheels of the World" and also "The Shan Van Voght (1848)." For Daniel O'Connell, see "Daniel O'Connell (II)" plus the many songs cited under "Daniel O'Connell (I)." For Fergus O'Connor, see "Fergus O'Connor and Independence." - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: BdStPaDy

Saint Patrick's Day in Paris


DESCRIPTION: Let Irishmen and honest men, in Ireland or France, "religiously think 'Tis his duty to drink On St Patrick's day in the morning" War is past. "Can Wellington's glory be ever forgot On the banks of the Seine, or the banks of the Shannon?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: war drink France Ireland humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 33-34, "St Patrick's Day in Paris" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Patrick's Day in the Morning" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: "From a manuscript copy in the autograph of Sir Jonah Barrington, endorsed, 'Sung with great applause at a meeting which assembled in the City of Paris, to celebrate the anniversary of the Saint of Hibernia.' This was, probably, the 17th March, 1816." - BS
File: CPS033

Saint Patrick's Day in the Morning (I)


DESCRIPTION: Saint Patrick drove out the witches and necromancers. "This champion of Christ did their magic expel." "He showed ... the right way to live and the true way to die ... On Saint Patrick's Day in the morning"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic religious magic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 129, "Saint Patrick's Day in the Morning" (1 fragment)
NOTES: The current description is based on the Tunney-StoneFiddle fragment. - BS
File: TSF129

Saint Patrick's Day in the Morning (II)


DESCRIPTION: "On St Patrick's day in the morning" there'll be music, dancing, fine food, and whiskey. St Patrick may not have made the blind to see but "many great things he did for his island." Celebrate the day. "All this to begin, sir, We think it no sin, sir"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(213))
KEYWORDS: dancing drink music Ireland humorous nonballad religious
FOUND IN:
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(213), "St. Patrick's Day in the Morning" ("Ye lads and ye lasses so buxom and clever"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(213) is the basis for the description. - BS
File: BdSPDIM2

Saint Stephen and Herod [Child 22]


DESCRIPTION: Stephen sees the star of Bethlehem, and tells his master King Herod that he can no longer serve him because he must serve the better child in Bedlam. Herod says that the roasted cock will sooner crow. It does crow, and Herod has Stephen stoned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856, from ms of c. 1430 ( (British Museum -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: religious bird execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
4 B.C.E. - Death of Herod the Great
(not before) 30 C.E. - Death of Stephen
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 22, "St Stephen and Herod" (1 text)
Bronson 22, "St Stephen and Herod" (1 version)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 217-218, "St. Stephen and Herod" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1)}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 239-241, "St. Stephen and Herod" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1)}
Leach, pp. 107-108, "St. Stephen and Herod" (1 text)
OBB 98, "St. Stephen and King Herod" (1 text)
PBB 1, "Saint Stephen and Herod" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 295-296+362, "St. Stephen and Herod" (1 text)
DT 22, STPHEROD*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #255, "ACarol for Saint Stephen's Day" (1 text)
Roud #3963
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roasted Cock" (plot)
cf. "The Wife of Usher's Well" (plot)
NOTES: For the stoning of Stephen (c. 30-31 C.E.) see Acts 7:54-8:2 (note that Herod had been dead for more than thirty years when Stephen was killed!).
For the birth of Jesus in the time of Herod (probably 6 B.C.E) see Matt. 1:18-2:23, Luke 1:5f.
For the cruelty of Herod, see also Josephus, Antiquities (the end of Herod's life is the primary theme of Josephus's book XVII, detailing, e.g., the executions of several of Herod's sons and the mass slaughter he planned to follow his death).
For the vexed question of the origin of the legend of the roasted cock, see the notes to "The Carnal and the Crane" [Child 55].
The only recent find of this, and the only version with a tune, is the version Flanders collected from George Edwards; she speculates that his source (his grandfather) may have learned it from print. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C022

Sair Fyel'd, Hinny


DESCRIPTION: "(I/Aw) was young and lusty, I was fair and clear... Mony a lang year." "Sair fyel'd, hinny, sair fyel'd now, Sair fyel'd, hinny, sin' I ken'd thou." The singer looks back on his young days, and admits, at 65, to being both "stiff and cauld."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: youth age
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay, p. 48, "Sair Fyel'd, Hinny" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan3 481, "The Shoemaker at His Last" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ST StoR048 (Full)
Roud #3062
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Says the Old Man to the Oak Tree" (lyrics)
NOTES: At least some versions of this share the lyric "Says t'auld man to th' old tree" ("Says the Old Man to the Oak Tree), also found in Gammer Gurton's Garland, but I don't know if they were initially two which joined or one which split. I very tentatively split them because, well, we're splitters. - RBW
The GreigDuncan3 version is printed with strokes above the notes indicating a hammer stroke during singing. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: StoR048

Sal and the Baby


DESCRIPTION: "I went down town to see my lady. Nobody's home but Sal an' the baby. Sal was drunk, and the baby crazy; All that comes of being so lazy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink baby
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 44, "Sal and the Baby" (1 text)
Roud #7863
File: Br3044

Sal's Got a Meatskin


DESCRIPTION: "Sal's got a meatskin hid away/gonna get a meatskin someday"; "Sal a-sailing on the sea/Sal got a meatskin a-waiting for me"; more verses along that line.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930s (recording, Carlisle Bros.)
KEYWORDS: sex virginity bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 63, "Sal's Got a Meatskin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 156, "Sal Got A Meatskin" (1 text)
Roud #4201
RECORDINGS:
Arthur "Brother-in-Law" Armstrong, "Johnny Got a Meat Skin Laid Away" (AFS 3979 A2, 1940)
Cliff & Bill Carlisle, "Sal Got a Meatskin" (Panacord 25639, 1930s, on TimesAint03)
Cliff Carlisle, "Sal Got a Meat Skin" (Vocalion 02740, 1934, probably a different recording from that by Cliff & Bill Carlisle)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sal Got a Meatskin" (on NLCR03, NLCR11, NLCRCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sal Got A Sugarlip"
cf. "Great Big Taters in Sandy Land" (floating verses)
cf. "Sally Anne" (lyrics)
NOTES: A "meatskin" is fat pork, used to grease a pan and as an anti-inflammatory folk medicine. In this song, however, it refers to a maidenhead. - PJS
File: CSW063

Sal's in the Garden Sifting Sand


See Sally in the Garden (File: CSW067)

Sal'sb'ry Sal


See Speed the Plow (Sal'sb'ry Sal) (File: FlBr026)

Saladin Mutiny (I)


See Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19] (File: LD19)

Saladin Mutiny (II), The


See George Jones [Laws D20] (File: LD20)

Saladin's Crew


DESCRIPTION: Hazelton is waiting to be hanged. He hopes his parents do not hear of his death. He prays that God "can pardon us all ... Even Fielding ... that proved my downfall" He thinks of his youth and the girl "who taught me to love in a far distant land"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: ship mutiny execution farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1844 - the former pirate Fielding convinces part of the crew of the "Saladin" to mutiny against the harsh Captain Mackenzie. The conspirators then turn against Fielding; they are taken and executed after the ship is wrecked off Halifax
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-NovaScotia 111, "Saladin's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS111 (Partial)
Roud #1818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Augustus Anderson" [Laws D19] (subject)
cf. "George Jones" [Laws D20] (subject)
NOTES: This song is item dD45 in Laws's Appendix II.
Another of the Saladin conspirators speaks out (cf. "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19]" and "George Jones [Laws D20]"). Here is John Hazelton. Hazelton -- like Anderson and Jones -- was convicted and hanged. Has William Trevaskiss, the fourth of the hanged mutineers, a ballad as well? (Source: Pirates of Canada by Cindy Vallar on the Pirates and Privateers site for the History of Maritime Piracy) - BS
For details on the Saladin Mutiny, see the notes to "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson" [Laws D19] - RBW
File: CrNS111

Salangadou


DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Salangadou-ou-ou (x3), Salangadou, Cote piti fille la ye, Salangadou, Salangadou?" "Salangadou, where is my little girl gone, Salangadou?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Peterson, "Creole Songs from New Orleans")
KEYWORDS: children separation foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, p. 223, " Salangadou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 339, "Salangadou" (1 text)
DT, SALANGDU*
File: LxA223

Salcombe Seaman's Flaunt to the Proud Pirate, The


See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

Sale of a Wife


DESCRIPTION: A (ship carpenter), hard up for money for drink and tired of quarreling with his wife, puts her up for sale. After a lively auction, a sailor wins her. He takes her home and they live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: abandonment humorous husband wife sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
SHenry H226, pp. 511-512, "The Ship Carpenter's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 253-254, "Cabbage and Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CARPWIFE
Roud #2898
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "The Ship Carpenter's Wife" (on IREButcher01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(119), "The Ship Carpenter's Wife," unknown, c. 1830-1850
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Praise of John Magee" (plot)
cf. "Nebuchadnezzar's Wife" (theme)
cf. "The Scolding Wife (V)" (theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "Danny Sim's Sow" (theme: sale of a wife)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Auction of a Wife
John Hobbs
Wife for Sale
NOTES: The National Library of Scotland site notes that this sort of thing actually did happen, and even includes a broadside (NLScotland, L.C.1268, "Sale of a Wife," W. Boag (?), Newcastle, describing an event of July 16, 1828) allegedly documenting such a sale.
Roy Palmer, The Folklore of Warwickshire, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 97, tells of an announcement in an Annual Register of 1773 of the sale of one Mary Whitehouse in Birmingham for one guinea. Palmer also has tales of a seller leading his wife by a halter and having to pay toll on the turnpikes. He goes on to cite other instances of the phenomenon. One wishes we had more insight into the feelings of the particular parties.
Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford, 2000, p. 390, have an article on wife-selling, stating that the practice was known for at least 300 years. It notes, however, that the transaction was usually agreed to quietly by wife and first and second husbands before the public auction. They note the first recorced instance seems to have been in 1553, and also observe that the custom is used in Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. See their bibliography for additional sources on the ritual. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH226

Salisbury Plain


DESCRIPTION: The singer and a handsome young man adjourn to an inn, eat, drink, and proceed to bed. He promises to support her by highway robbery. The next morning he robs the mail coaches. She laments that he now lies in Newgate Gaol, expecting to be hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
LONG DESCRIPTION: While walking on Salisbury Plain, the singer meets a handsome young man. They adjourn to an inn, eat, drink, and proceed to bed. He asks her to undress; she consents, provided he will "keep all those flash-girls away". He consents in turn promising to support her by highway robbery. The next morning, he robs the mail coaches. In the last verse, she laments the fact that he now lies in Newgate Gaol, expecting to be hanged.
KEYWORDS: courting love sex bargaining execution prison robbery lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 95, "Salisbury Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1487
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Le petit roysin" (tune; 15th cen.)
cf. "The Wild and Wicked Youth" [Laws L12] (theme)
cf. "It's Down in Old Ireland" (theme)
cf. "Gilderoy" (theme)
NOTES: [The Vaughan Williams] version was collected in 1904; however, the singer clearly knew the song in 1893, when an unsuccessful attempt was made to collect it. -PJS
File: VEL095

Salish Song of Longing, A


DESCRIPTION: "Yah-nay ha-nay hay Yah-nay ha-nay Yah-hay ay hee-nay Ah-ah nay-hay. Ah-nay hay-hee-nay-yeh!..." Translation: "Far far away, Far far away, Oh far far away Oh there my heart doth lay...."
AUTHOR: unknown (English translation by Alan Mills)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am) separation nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 4-5, "A Salish Song of Longing" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Colected by Marius Barbeau from an Indian delegation visiting Ottawa in 1912. its source was the Salish Indians of the Thompson River in British Columbia. (Salish is actually a language group of about twenty languages, used mostly by the natives of the Pacific Coast area.) The tune was used in the film "The Loon's Necklace." - RBW
File: FMB004

Sallie Goodin


See Sally Goodin (File: LoF121)

Sally and Her Lover


See The Lady Leroy [Laws N5] (File: LN05)

Sally and Her True Love


See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9] (File: LP09)

Sally Anne


DESCRIPTION: "Oh where are you going, Sally Anne? (x3) I'm going to the wedding, Sally Anne. Oh shake that little foot, Sally Anne, (x3), You're a pretty good dancer, Sally Anne." "Did you ever see a muskrat, Sally Ann...." Other verses are equally unrelated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad marriage courting animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
SharpAp 240, "Sally Anne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 63, "Sally Anne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 117, "Sally Anne" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 53, "Sally Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 175, "Sally Ann" (1 text)
Roud #3652
RECORDINGS:
Frank Blevins & his Tar Heel Rattlers, "Sally Aim [sic]" (Columbia 15765-D, 1932; rec. 1927; on LostProv1 as "Sally Ann")
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Sally Ann" (OKeh 40419, 1925)
Rufus Crisp, "Blue Goose" (on Crisp01)
The Hillbillies, "Sally Ann" (OKeh 40336, 1925) (Vocalion 5019/Brunswick 105 [as Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters], 1927)
Clint Howard et al, "Sally Ann" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
Doc Roberts, "Sally Ann" (Perfect 15467, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Sally Ann" (on PeteSeeger06, PeteSeegerCD01); Sally Ann" (on PeteSeeger18)
J. C. "Jake" Staggers, "Sally Ann" (on FolkVisions2)
George Stoneman, "Sally Anne" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
Art Thieme, "Sally Ann" (on Thieme01)
Wade Ward, "Sally Ann" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Great Big Taters in Sand Land" (tune)
cf. "Sal's Got a Meatskin" (lyrics)
NOTES: Lomax says that this is the same melody as the fiddle piece "Sandy Land," in turn related to "Sally Goodin." [But Lomax wasn't a fiddler. The tune is related to "Sandy Land" (actually "Great Big Taters in Sandy Land"), but I draw the line at "Sally Goodin." I'm no fiddler, either, but I've backed up a lot of them. - PJS] Certainly the banal and unrelated verses are what one would expect of a fiddle tune with words added. - RBW
The Rufus Crisp recording, "Blue Goose," is a conglomerate. But as we define it, "Sally Anne" is a song with this pattern, a lot of floating verses, and the name, "Sally Anne." What more do we want? - RBW, PJS.
File: SKE63

Sally Around the Corner O


DESCRIPTION: "Sally O, Sally O, Sally around the corner O, All day we'll heave away And it's Sally around the corner O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (NovaScotia1)
KEYWORDS: shanty work nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Hyson, "Sally Around the Corner O" (on NovaScotia1)
NOTES: The current description is all of the NovaScotia1 fragment.
NovaScotia1 Joseph Hyson in the notes: "That was used for heaving up the ship's anchor. There'd be a whole crowd and there'd be a verse, and then we'd join on that chorus. I can't remember the verses."
NovaScotia1 notes: "By both words and tune, Sally Around the Corner O appears to be a different sea chanty from the one known as Round the Corner Sally."
I guess this is not "Round the Corner, Sally." Cf. "Round the Corner, Sally" in Stan Hugill, Shanties from the Seven Seas, pp. 297-298. The chorus there is "'Round the corner an' away we'll go, 'Round the corner Sally! 'Round th' corner where them gals do go, 'Round the corner Sally!" In that shanty Hugill says "The 'corner' indicated in this shanty seems to be Cape Horn." - BS
File: RcSATCO

Sally Brown


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic lines: "Way, hey, roll and go... Spend my money on Sally Brown." The singer describes Sally ("A Creole lady... She had a farm in Jamaica... She had a fine young daughter") and his (unsuccessful) courtship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Robinson)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor courting parting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Australia Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Doerflinger, pp. 74-76, "Sally Brown" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 33-34, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune, though most of the lyrics seem to be from "Shenandoah")
Bone, pp. 97-98, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, p. 82, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 87, 122, "Way Sing Sally," "Sally Brown (Roll and Go)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hugill, pp. 162-166, "Sally Brown," "Tommy's on the Tops'l Yard" (4 texts plus several fragments, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 129-134]; p. 254, "Hilo, Johnny Brown" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 184]
Sharp-EFC, XXVIII, p. 33, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 24-25, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 24, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 94, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 166, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 53, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 31, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 108, "Sally Brown" (2 texts)
Silber-FSWB, p. 92, "Sally Brown" (1 text)
DT, SALBROWN* SALBRWN2* (SALBRWN3)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). Two versions of "Sally Brown" are in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Roud #2628
RECORDINGS:
J. M. (Sailor Dad) Hunt, "Sally Brown" (AFS, 1941; on LC02)
Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Sally Brown" (AFS 4231 A2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll and Go" (verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Roll and Go
Walkalong, You Sally Brown
Stand to Yer Ground
File: Doe074

Sally Buck, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer goes hunting "one cold and winter day." (He tracks "the Sally buck all day.") Sundry adventures follow; the singer reports "of (15 or 20), ten thousand I did kill." The singer ends "If you can tell a bigger lie, I swear you ought to be hung."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: animal nonsense supernatural hunting talltale paradox
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
SharpAp 159, "Sally Buck" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 70, "The Sally Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 107-109, "[I Went Out A-Hunting, Sir]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 4, "A Hunting Tale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3607
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "On a Bright and Summer's Morning" (on BLLunsford01)
NOTES: The variation in this song is immense; of the four versions I've seen, the only common element is the fact that the singer is a hunter and that at some point, "of fifteen or twenty" (or four-and-twenty, or some such), "a thousand (or ten thousand) I did kill."
Along the way the hunter meets various misadventures; these may be borrowed from other songs, and in any case take on local color.
The final stanza, along the line of, "The man who wrote this song, his name was (Benny Young/Bango Bang); If you can tell a bigger lie, I swear you ought (to be hung/to hang)," is characteristic but does not occur in all versions. - RBW
File: SKE70

Sally Come Up


DESCRIPTION: A song in praise of Sally that manages to stress all her bad features: "Sally has got a lubly nose, Flat across her face it grows, It sounds like thunder when it blows.... Sally come up, oh, Sally come down, Oh, Sally, come twist your heels around...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
FSCatskills 148, "Sally Come Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The earliest printed text of this piece credits the words to T. Ramsey and the music to E. W. Mackney, but as early as 1862 other names began to appear. Paskman and Spaeth believe the song to be a spoof of "Sally in Our Alley." - RBW
Having finally read the lyrics to "Sally in Our Alley," I think Paskman & Spaeth are all wet. The only common element is the name "Sally." - PJS
Note that they don't call it a parody; it's just supposed to be based on the same character. Still a stretch, I allow.
There is a parody, though, by a well-known author -- none other than Lewis Carroll! Carroll's diary forJ uly 3, 1862 mentions hearing the Liddell sisters singing this song (obviously implying some amount of oral currency by then), and in the original draft of Alice in Wonderland, known as "Alice's Adventures Underground," he had this Mock Turtle's Song:
Salmon, come up! Salmon, go down!
Salmon, come twist your tail around!
Of all the fishes of the sea
There's none so good as Salmon!
Cazden et al list a number of other early parodies (including the above, though I'm getting my information from Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice, which is more detailed. Gardner's More Annotated Alice gives a verse as well as this chorus. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FSC148

Sally Go Round the Moon


DESCRIPTION: "Sally go round the (sun), Sally go round the (moon), Sally go round the (stars), On a Saturday afternoon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: travel playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #636, pp. 251-252, "(Sally go round the sun)"
File: BGMG636

Sally Gooden


See Sally Goodin (File: LoF121)

Sally Goodin


DESCRIPTION: "Had a piece of pie an' I had a piece of puddin', An' I gave it all away just to see my Sally Goodin." About how much the singer loves Sally, how he courts her -- with perhaps a few sundry comments about food and liquor along the way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (recording, Eck Robertson)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad floatingverses dancetune
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 121, "Sally Goodin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 544, "Sally Goodin" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 403-404, "Sally Goodin" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 544A)
BrownIII 89, "Sally Goodin" (5 fragments, though "D" and "E" might be other songs)
Fuson, p. 158, "Sallie Goodin" (seventh of 12 single-stanza jigs) (1 short text)
Cambiaire, p. 56, "Sally Gooden" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, p. 255, "Sally Goodin" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 33, "Sally Goodin" (1 text)
DT, SALGOODN
Roud #739
RECORDINGS:
Clifford Gross & Muryel Campbell, "Sally Gooden" (Vocalion 03650, 1937)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Sallie Goodman" (OKeh 40095-A, 1924)
James Crase, "Sally Goodin" (on MMOKCD)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Sally Gooden" (Gennett 6733/Champion 15501 [as by Norman Gayle], 1928)
Vester Jones, "Sally Goodin" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Kessinger Brothers, "Sally Goodin" (Brunswick 308, c. 1929)
Neil Morris & Charlie Everidge, "Sally Goodin" [instrumental w. dance calls] (on LomaxCD1707)
John D. Mounce et al, "Sally Gooden" (on MusOzarks01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sally Goodin" (on NLCR02) (NLCR16)
Pickard Family, "Sally Goodin" (Regal 8810, 1929; probably the same as Dad Pickard's recording, Banner 6434, 1929)
Fiddlin' Powers and Family, "Sally Goodin" (Victor, unissued, 1924)
Riley Puckett, "Sally Goodwin" (Columbia 15102-D, 1926)
Eck Robertson, "Sally Goodin" (Victor 18956, 1922)
Ernest V. Stoneman "Sally Goodwin" (Edison, unissued, 1927) (Edison 52350, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5529, 1928) (Edison 0000 [development disk], 1928)
Uncle "Am" Stuart, "Sally Gooden" (Vocalion 14841, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cripple Creek (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Another piece that endures mostly as a fiddle tune. Given the lyrics, it's not hard to see why. - RBW
File: LoF121

Sally Greer


DESCRIPTION: The singer's parents "forced me to Americay, my fortune to pursue." As the ship crosses the ocean, he thinks of his beloved Sally Greer. The ship sinks, with only (13) of 350 surviving. The poor survivor hopes to return to Sally
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: separation love emigration disaster wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 92-93, "Sally Greer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 358-359, "Charming Sally Greer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FMB092 (Partial)
Roud #4084
RECORDINGS:
Martin McManus, "Sally Greer" (on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Glasgow" (theme, plus the girl Sally Greer)
NOTES: This song is item dD39 in Laws's Appendix II. It reminds me of Laws K11, "Sally Munroe," but though there are several points of contact, the plot differs somewhat and there do not appear to be common lyrics.
Peacock notes that the various versions give different internal dates: 1833 and 1843. - RBW
File: FMB092

Sally in the Garden


DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with chorus "Sally in the garden sifting sand/Sally upstairs with a hog-eyed man"; floating verses: "Chicken in the bread pan kicking up dough"; "Sally will your dog bite, no sir, no/Daddy cut his biter off a long time ago"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: sex dancing nonballad animal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 67, "Hog-eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 232, "Sal's in the Garden Sifting Sand" (1 fragment)
SharpAp 250, "The Hog-eyed Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 254-255, "Hogeye" (1 text)
Roud #331
RECORDINGS:
Theophilus Hoskins, "Hog Eyed Man" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Hogeye" (on NLCR03)
Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, "Hog Eye" (Victor 21295, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll the Boat Ashore (Hog-eye I)" (many floating verses)
cf. "The Hog-Eye Man" (words)
cf. "Granny Will Your Dog Bite?" (words, part of tune)
NOTES: This is part of a cluster that includes the bawdy song "The Hog-Eye Man," another Arkansas dance tune "Hogeye" ("Row the boat ashore with a hogeye, hogeye/Row the boat ashore with a hogeye man"), "Granny Will Your Dog Bite" and others. I've used the "Sally in the Garden" title to differentiate the dance tune from the bawdy song, even though they're clearly siblings. - PJS
Paul in fact has strongly suggested merging "Sally in the Garden" and "Roll the Boat Ashore (Hog-eye I)." Roud appears to lump the two. There are verses floating freely between both, which means that fragments often cannot be identified with one or the other. Nonetheless, they appear to me to be different though related songs; the choruses are different, and if all the lyrics float, that is decisive.
Still, one should check the cross-references to be sure to find all the versions. - RBW
File: CSW067

Sally Monroe [Laws K11]


DESCRIPTION: Blacksmith Jim Dixon sends a letter to Sally by a friend. The friend deceitfully hides the letter, but Dixon and Sally later meet and are married. They sail for Quebec, but the ship strikes a rock. Sally is drowned. Dixon lives; he grieves for her parents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(272b))
KEYWORDS: courting trick marriage emigration ship wreck death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws K11, "Sally Monroe"
Doerflinger, pp. 303-304, "Sally Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H571, p. 441, "Sally Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #74, p. 2, "Sally Munro" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 23, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "Sally Munro" (9 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord, pp. 115-116, "Sally Munro" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 57, "Sally Monroe" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 488-489, "Young Sally Monro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 36, "Sally Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 88-89, "Sally Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 142-143,253, "Sally Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 35-36, "Young Sally Munroe" (1 text)
DT 402, SALMUNRO*
Roud #526
RECORDINGS:
Harry Brazil, "Sally Morrow" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(272b), "Sally Monro/Munro," unknown (Glasgow), 1854
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(211), "Sally Munro," unknown, c. 1830-1850; also RB.m.169(128), "Sally Munro"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Young Sally Monroe
File: LK11

Sally My Dear


See Hares on the Mountain (File: ShH63)

Sally to her Bed Chamber


DESCRIPTION: "Now Sally to her bed chamber this night she made great moan, Saying, 'Jimmie, lovely Jimmie, your pillow is quite alone. How can I rest contented and you so far awa'? Sure I thought I'd lived and died with you in sweet Erin go bragh'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 63, "Sally to her Bed Chamber" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2758
NOTES: The current description is all of the Creighton-SNewBrunswick fragment.
Creighton-SNewBrunswick: "This is obviously an Irish song of lament for a husband far away." - BS
File: CrSNB063

Sally Walker


See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Sally Waters


See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Sally Went to Preachin'


DESCRIPTION: 'Sally went to preachin', she shouted and she squalled, She got so full religion she tore her stocking heel." "An a git a long home, nega, nega (x3), I'm bound for Shakletown." "Somebody stole my ol' coon dog...." "I'm gonna get some bricks...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: clothes robbery floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 458, "Sally Went to Preachin'" (1 text)
Roud #11796
NOTES: This reminds me a lot of "Cindy," but it's hard to tell if they are related based on the Brown text. - RBW
File: Br3458

Sally, Let Your Bangs Hang Down


DESCRIPTION: Singer describes former girlfriend Sally; he saw her changing; she caught him peeping. She's run off with Tony. Refr: "Sally, let your bangs hang down"; ch.: "Sally she can land 'em...I'll find out what Sally's got, makes the men think she's so hot"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Bill Cox & Cliff Hobbs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes Sally, who was his girlfriend, as a hot girl; he saw her changing clothes, but she caught him peeping. She has always left him guessing, and has just run off with Tony. Refrain: "Sally, let your bangs hang down"; ch.: "Sally she can land 'em, she loves 'em and she leaves 'em...I'll find out what Sally's got, makes the men think she's so hot..."
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting sex abandonment bawdy lover clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, SALBANGS
RECORDINGS:
Carlisle Bros. "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang" (Decca 5742, 1939)
Bill Cox & Cliff Hobbs, "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down" (Melotone 7-08-70/Conqueror 8883, 1937; rec. 1936)
Maddox Bros. & Rose, "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down" (4-Star, n.d.)
Sweet Violet Boys, "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down" (Vocalion 05229, 1939; Columbia 20351/Columbia 37774, 1947)
NOTES: Barely scrapes by as a ballad, but there *is* a narrative there. - PJS
File: RcSLYBHD

Sally, Molly, Polly


DESCRIPTION: Hog-calling chant: "Sally, Molly, Polly, O -- Come on -- git cawn! Little in the basket, more in the crib, Come on -- git cawn!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 209, "Sally, Molly, Polly" (1 short text)
File: Br3209

Sally's Cove Tragedy, The


DESCRIPTION: A few days after leaving home, "The rain and fog lay thick all around, the winds did howl and mourn." "Without fire, food, or water in that bitter piercing cold," two boys, Russ and Dennis, die leaving Eli Roberts to mourn.
AUTHOR: George Decker
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death fishing sea ship ordeal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 971-972, "The Sally's Cove Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9933
NOTES: I can't find a record of this loss. However, Peacock says Decker claimed to have written this ballad around 1909-1919. An Eli and Susan Roberts were married at Sally's Cove in 1893 [source: Newfoundland & Labrador Gen Web site] so a date of 1909 or 1910 seems reasonable for the incident.
Salley's Cove is on the west coast of Newfoundland in what is now Gros Morne National Park - BS
File: Pea971

Sally's Love for a Young Husband


DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that her parents married her to a rich old man. She would prefer a "young man without a penny." When her old man dies she marries a young man who rolls her from the wall but kills her dog and breaks her china
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(955))
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex money dog wife youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1362, "To Row Me frae the Wa" (2 texts)
Roud #2897
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(955), "The Jaunting Cur" ("I have often heard of an old man"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.20(74)[some words illegible], Harding B 25(954), "The Jaunting Car"; Harding B 25(953), "The Jaunting Carr" or "Sally's Love for a Young Husband"
NOTES: Among the identifying lines you may find in a version are: "It was my cruel parents, that first did me trepan" -- an apparent mangling of .".. as you may understand"; the title line that "I'll buy for you a lap-dog To follow your jaunting car"; and the complaint about an old man that "his pipes are out of order And his chanter ne'er in tune."
[The "trepan/trapan" line may be original -- one of the meanings of "trepan" is a trick. So the parents might have tricked the girl. However, this is a rare usage. - RBW]
The title of the earliest Bodleian broadside, "The Jaunting Cur," appears not to be a misprint. When the old man offers to buy her "a little lap-dog To follow you to the fair," she says "I do not value your lap-dog Nor you, you jaunting cur." The answer in later broadside becomes "To the Devil with your Lapdog, Your jauunting car also." In GreigDuncan7 he buys her the dog and car but her young husband "killed my little wee lap dog and broke my jaunting car."
GreigDuncan7 1362A tells the essential story. The broadsides may end with the singer's complaint about an old man (Bodleian Harding B 25(955) and Firth c.20(74)), or when she takes a young lover (Bodleian Harding B 25(953)), or with her old man's death and her marriage to a young man, or with her dissatisfaction, after all, with the young man she married (Bodleian Harding B 25(954)). The advice in the GreigDuncan7 text is "Far better to be an auld man's pet with servants at my call For you can easily hire a young man to roll you from the wall." This solution to the problem is also in "The Whirley Wha." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71362

Salmon Fishers


DESCRIPTION: "Cam ye by the salmon fishers? Cam ye by the roperee? Saw ye a sailor laddie Sailing on the raging sea?" The girl may describe the sailor she loves, or how they courted, or how they expect to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1607, "Cam' Ye By the Salmon Fishin'"; GreigDuncan8 1608, "I'm Gaun Some Wye"; GreigDuncan8 1609, "Tip for Gold and Tip for Silver"; (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 78, "(Cam you by the salmon fishers)" (1 text)
DT, SALMFISH
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #39, "Cam' Ye By" (1 text)
Roud #12978
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)" (lyrics)
NOTES: This is a difficult song to assess. The first stanza has relatively invariant. What follows is not. Several of the other versions (Montgomerie's, Gomme's II) follow this with stanzas straight out of "Katie Cruel/I Know Where I'm Going." Other texts have none of this -- but don't agree particularly closely, either.
Under the circumstances, any song starting with the "Salmon Fishers/Salmon Fishing" stanza must file here, but it must be accepted that any short "I Know Where I'm Going" might be a defective version of this, or of the "Katie Cruel/Leeboy's Lassie" type. - RBW
GreigDuncan8, Gomme, and McVicar (Ewan McVicar, Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee (Edinburgh, 2007), pp. 317-319) point out the variability of the couplets attached to the first verse. GreigDuncan8 has two fragments -- 1608 and 1609 -- that do not include the Salmon Fishers line but that "occur as accretions to" "Salmon Fishers." GreigDuncan8 1608, Roud #13500, is a "Katie Cruel/Leeboy's Lassie" verse ("I'm gaun some wye, I Ken wha's gaun wi me") that is like lines included in "Salmon Fishers" II by Gomme 2.180; 1609, Roud #21190, is a pair of couplets included in "Salmon Fishers" III by Gomme 2.181. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MSNR078

Salonika


DESCRIPTION: "My husband's in Salonika ... I wonder if he knows he has a kid with a foxy head" (;the slackers "puts us in a family way"). When the war's over slackers will have two legs but soldiers a leg and a half. With all the taxes they still can't beat the Hun.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: war nonballad political injury money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn, pp. 60-61, "Salonika" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10513
NOTES: The reference is to the First World War. On September 12, 1915 British and French troops attacked Salonika [Thessaloniki] in Greek Macedonia. (source: The Irish in Uniform 1915 The Fame of Tipperary Group at Eircom site); Wikipedia just says "a Franco-British force landed at Salonica in Greece to offer assistance and [unsuccessfully] to pressure the Greek government into war against the Central Powers."
A post-war verse: "Now never marry a soldier a sailor or a marine, But keep your eye on the Sinn Fein boy with his yellow white and green" - BS
The Wikipedia citation strikes me as somewhat more accurate than the Eircom description. The Salonika landing was not really a attack on the Central Powers; it was the preparation for an attack -- an attack that never came off. It was one of the most inefficient operations of the whole inefficient war.
According to Keegan, p. 236, the idea of a landing at Salonika was first suggested in late 1914. But there was no particular need for it at the time -- the idea was to reinforce the Serbs, but the Serbs were doing just fine against the Austrians on their own.
That changed in 1915, when the Germans decided to take care of Serbia. Unlike the Austrians, the Germans were highly efficient. In October 1915, the Salonika invasion gained interest as a way to defend the country where the war had started (Liddell Hart, p. 153). No matter that it mean landing in neutral Greece! (Keegan, p. 255). In all, three French and five British divisions were sent there in 1915 -- too late; Serbia had fallen to a combined attack by the Germans and the Bulgarians (Marshall, p. 186). But the Allies had lost far too many battles by then to want to suffer another propaganda blow; rather than risk admitting defeat; the troops stayed in Greece, where they were allowed to rot and suffer malaria. Indeed, over the years, they were actually reinforced.
This even though it would have been almost impossible for them to do anything had they wanted to; Marshall, p. 194, notes that "Salonika was an inadequate Greek port with only a single-track rail line running north into Bulgaria. To the logisticians it was perfectly clear that the locality could not support an advancing field army." He adds that "A few troops on the heights can hold back legions. Withal, the Salonika countryside is terribly unhealthy, malaria-ridden, subject to heavy flooding in winter and intense heat in summer. Why the Allies imagined it a pearly gate to opportunity is one of the war's enduring mysteries."
Worthless as the spot was, the "Army of the Orient" sat there until late 1918. There were no enemies to fight, and the invasion force did not cause the Germans to divert troops; a few Bulgarians sufficed to watch over the whole. Allied casualties to disease were ten times those due to combat, and the Germans are said to have called Salonika "the greatest internment camp in the world."
According to Stokesbury, p. 294, "through most of 1916 and 1917, the Allied commanders [in Salonika] had been more occupied with badgering the Greeks than with fighting the Bulgarians"; in 1917, they even forced the abdication of the Greek king. But they still didn't do anything. It wasn't until September 1918, when the Bulgarian and Austrian armies were collapsing, that the troops in Salonika -- Stokesbury says there were 700,000 of them by this time, including Italians and miscellaneous Slavs -- finally moved. Naturally the Bulgarian army collapsed almost without a fight. Bulgaria signed an armistice on September 29. Theoretically, it was a victory for the Allies; in practice, they had wasted a strong army for two years and subjected it to horrid losses. And, because Salonika was so far from England, communications with home were even worse than in the trenches.
I can't help but think that the Salonika farce was the ultimate proof of the bankruptcy of military command in World War I. There was every reason to think a crisis might arise in Serbia -- it was a country with a violent reputation, hated by Austria and supported by the Russians. Anyone with sense could see that it could entangle the Habsburg and Russian empires -- which, given the nature of the alliance system of the time, could bring in Germany and France also. Yet no one thought about how to reinforce Serbia -- even though it was a land-locked country with no direct connections even to Russia, let alone the sea; the only way to reach it from Britain or France (apart from the routes through Austria) was from the Adriatic through Albania, Greece, or Montenegro -- all very difficult routes due to the mountains. Someone should have made up staff plans, and negotiated with the local states, *before* the war began!
The charge of high taxes during the war is certainly true; the conflict broke the economies of every power involved. The real problem for Britain (and France), though, was the absence of competent generals. Germany had an army that was, man for man, better than that of the Allies (and, initially, much larger), and her generals could at least pull off an attack (as they showed by conquering Serbia and Romania). They didn't entirely understand trench warfare, but the Allies never did cease their tendency to assault trenches. The reference to mutilated soldiers is certainly dead-on; millions of women were left widows, and millions more found their husbands and boyfriends blind or maimed or with lungs damaged by gas. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: OCan060

Salt Creek Girl, The


See Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25] (File: LC25)

Salt Horse Song, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer conducts a dialog with an old horse, which has been salted and sent aboard ship. He is not too thrilled about such a diet, but there is little he can do. He proves that it is horsemeat by showing a horseshoe in the meat barrel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Journal of John Gorman of the transport ship Minden)
KEYWORDS: dialog horse ship
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Flanders/Olney, p. 226, "The Salt Horse Song"; pp. 226-227, "Old Hoss, Old Hoss" (2 texts, 1 tune)
BrownIII 227, "Old Horse, Old Horse" (1 short text)
Linscott, pp. 142-144, "Old Horse" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger, pp. 21-22, "Blow the Man Down (V)" (this last text combines the words of "The Salt Horse Song" with the tune & metre of "Blow the Man Down"); p. 160, "The Sailor's Grace" (2 texts, tune referenced)
Hugill, pp. 556-557, "The Sailor's Grace" (3 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 393-394]
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 279-281, "Old Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, p. 44, "Old Hoss" (1 text)
Roud #3724
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)"
cf. "Blow the Man Down" (lyrics)
NOTES: Sailors referred to pickled beef as "salt horse," probably partly because it tasted so bad and partly because they suspected contractors of mixing in the occasional bit of horsemeat. From there it wasn't much of a stretch to this song. - RBW
File: FO226

Saltpetre Shanty (Slav Ho)


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "To ol' Callyo we're bound away, (Slav ho!/Oh Roll!) (repeat) We're bound away from Liverpool bay, them puntas o' Chili will grab our pay. Ch: Oh rooooll, Rock yer bars! Heave 'er high-o, rock 'er, oh, rooooll!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: shanty ship travel
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colcord, p. 97, "Slav Ho!" (1 short text, 1 tune-quoting Robinson)
Hugill, p. 518, "Saltpetre Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 377]
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "To the Spanish Main--Slav Ho!" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917
Roud #4692
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drei Reiter Am Thor" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Drei Reiter Am Thor (File: Colc096)
NOTES: See also notes to "Drei ritten am Thor." Robinson gives an alternate refrain with imitative Spanish words "Slav Ho! Slavita, vraimentigo slee-ga, Slav Ho!" which Colcord quoted and used to launch her explanation of how one song ends up being a new one. Her supposition being as follows:
Two ships, say, German and British, are moored near each other. The English shantyman hears the German sailors singing an old folk song. He doesn't understand the words, but likes the tune and starts humming or playing it to himself. Then (quoting from Colcord) "he let it lie fallow till some words occurred to him would fit it. Naturally, they concerned the part of the world in which he found himself, and it mattered not at all to him that literary landsfolk reserve the term 'Spanish Main' for an different part of the world altogether. When it came to the chorus, he wanted some good rousing nonsense-syllables, and again he borrowed-this time from the Spanish tongue that he heard daily. The sailor was always immensely tickled by the sound of a foreign, particularly a Latin, language, and was given to clumsy paraphrases of it." - SL
For more on saltpeter, and how it made ports like Callao and Ilo very important, see the notes to "Chamber Lye" and "Tommy's Gone to Hilo." - RBW
File: Colc097

Salty Dog


DESCRIPTION: Floating verses linked by the words "Honey, let me be your salty dog," e.g. "Pulled the trigger and the gun said go/Shot rung over in Mexico"; "Two old maids lyin' in the bed/One turned over to the other and said/You ain't nothin' but my salty dog."
AUTHOR: Probably Charlie Jackson
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Papa Charlie Jackson)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 184-185, "Salty Dog Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 79, "Salty Dog" (1 text)
DT, SALTDOG
Roud #11661
RECORDINGS:
Allen Bros., "A New Salty Dog" (Victor 23514, 1931; Bluebird B-5403, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4750, c. 1945; RCA Victor 20-2132, 1947; on RCA Victor LPV-552 (LP), GoingDown); "Salty Dog, Hey Hey Hey" (Vocalion 02818, 1934); probably also "Salty Dog Blues" (Columbia 15175-D, 1927)
Bo Carter [pseud. for Bo Chatmon] "Be My Salty Dog" (Bluebird B-7968, 1938)
Jimmie Davis, "Davis' Salty Dog" (Victor 23674, 1932)
Papa Charlie Jackson, "Salty Dog Blues" (Paramount 12236, 1924; Broadway 5001 [as Casey Harris], c. 1930)
McGee Brothers, "Salty Dog Blues" (Vocalion 5150, 1927)
Morris Brothers, "Let Me Be Your Salty Dog" (Bluebird B-7967, c. 1938) "Salty Dog Blues" (RCA Victor 20-1783, 1945)
Paramount Pickers, "Salty Dog" (Paramount 12779/Broadway 5069 [as Broadway Pickers], 1929)
Jimmy Revard Oklahoma Cowboys, "Dirty Dog" (Bluebird B-6992, 1937; rec. 1936)
Clara Smith, "Salty Dog" (Columbia 14143-D, 1926)
Stripling Brothers, "Salty Dog" (Decca 5049, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rigby Johnson Chandler" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bottle Up and Go" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Step It Up and Go"
cf. "Take Your Fingers Off It"
cf. "Johnny and Jane" (tune)
cf. "Candy Man" (assorted references)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A New Salty Dog
NOTES: A "salty dog" was a sexual partner. - PJS
In bluegrass circles, this is credited to the Morris Brothers, but the Jackson recording seems to eliminate this possibility. - RBW
Several labels independently credit Jackson as the author. - PJS
File: CSW184

Salutation, The


DESCRIPTION: "Aroun' Pat Murphy's hearth there was music, song, and mirch" when the traveler comes to the door. She announces the news: "The fairy queen intends for to occupy the Glens" and restore prosperity to Ireland. The Irish will always remember home
AUTHOR: Jaes O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home Ireland nonballad gods
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H756, p. 60, "The Salutation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13366
File: HHH756

Sam Bass [Laws E4]


DESCRIPTION: Sam Bass, a cowpuncher and at first a kind-hearted fellow, turns to train robbery. Betrayed by an acquaintance named Jim Murphy, he is killed by a Texas Ranger
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Thorp)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1878 - Death of Sam Bass near Round Rock, Texas
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws E4, "Sam Bass"
Belden, pp. 399-400, "Sam Bass" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Randolph 142, "Young Sam Bass" (1 text plus a long excerpt, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 375, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Sandburg, pp. 422-424, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife X, pp. 112-120 (24-26), "Sam Bass" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 95, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 158-161, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 81, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 126-128, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 66, pp. 149-152, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Burt, pp. 199-200, "Sam Bass" (1 short text)
JHJohnson, pp. 96-98, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 190-191, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 196, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyP, p. 204-205, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
DT 621, SAMBASS*
Roud #2244
RECORDINGS:
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Sam Bass" (Victor 21420, 1928; on AuthCowboys, WhenIWas1)
Marc Williams, "Sam Bass" (Brunswick 304, 1929; rec. 1928)
NOTES: Report has it that Bass had his shootout with the police on July 20, 1878; he was captured the next day and died the day after. That July 22 is said to have been his 27th birthday.
This song has been attributed (e.g. by Thorpe) to a John Denton of Gainesville, Texas, and supposedly written in 1879, but most scholars think that multiple hands have been involved. - RBW
File: LE04

Sam Cooper


DESCRIPTION: Sam Cooper is "up for a crime," "handcuffed and caught on the house on the hill," tried in Timmum, then Wexford, then Enniscorthy and "they couldn't find me guilty on every degree." He sings, "I'll make this Lar' now repent now for all he has done"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: crime manhunt trial
FOUND IN:
Roud #16726
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cassidy, "Sam Cooper" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "It appears to have been exclusive to travellers. We recorded it from three different singers and in each case they told us that Sam Cooper was arrested for stealing oats, though this is not mentioned in any of the versions. They also said he was guilty as charged."
Timmum [Taghmon], Wexford and Enniscorthy are all in Co. Wexford. - BS
File: RcSamCoo

Sam Griffith


DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams of seeing "Sam Griffith with a darky for a mate." Sam begs for a drink, claiming the squatters don't like a union man. The singer abuses him for his hypocrisy. Sam leaps to the attack; the singer wakes up
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: work fight dream discrimination
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 25-27, "Sam Griffith" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA025

Sam Hall (Jack Hall) [Laws L5]


DESCRIPTION: (Sam Hall), about to be hanged, bitterly tells his tale, spitting curses all the while -- directing them at the parson, the sheriff, his girlfriend, and the spectators. He is guilty of killing a man, and goes to the gallows still blazing away
AUTHOR: C. W. Ross
EARLIEST DATE: 1719
KEYWORDS: curse execution gallows-confession prisoner punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1701 - Execution of Jack Hall, a young London chimney sweep, on a charge of burglary. His "last goodnight" hawked about as a broadside eventually became the blasphemous "Sam Hall."
FOUND IN: Australia US(Ap,NE,SE,SW) Britain(England(All)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws L5, "Sam Hall"
Friedman, p. 223, "Sam Hall" (1 text+1 fragment, 1 tune)
Cray, pp. 43-48, "Sam Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 117, "Sam Hall" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 81, "Jack Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 96-97, "Jack Hall" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 133-134, "Sam Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 322, "Jack Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 102-103, "Jack Hall"; "Sam Hall" (1 text plus a fragment)
Silber-FSWB, p. 69, "Sam Hall"; p. 200, "Ballad Of Sam Hall" (2 texts)
DT 420, SAMHALL (TALLOCAN)
Roud #369
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Ethan Lang" (c. 1930; on RoughWays2)
Walter Pardon, "Jack Hall" (on Voice17)
Tex Ritter, "Sam Hall" (Decca 5076, 1935)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1849), "Jack the Chimney Sweep" ("My name it is Jack All chimney sweep chimney sweep"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2840), Harding B 11(2841), "Jack the Chimney Sweep"; Harding B 15(145a), "Jack Hall"; Harding B 20(27), "Sam Hall Chimney Sweep"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sam MacColl's Song" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Samuel Hall
NOTES: Pills to Purge Melancholy includes new words set to the tune of "Chimney-Sweep," recognizably "Jack Hall." Therefore the song must have already been in circulation by that time, 1719. -PJS
There is also a book, Memoirs of the Right Villanous Jack Hall, a tale of a highwayman, published 1708. I know nothing of the book except its title and that it devotes some time to describing Newgate Prison. - RBW
File: LL05

Sam Holt


DESCRIPTION: The singer reminds Sam Holt of the various events of his life: "Oh, don't you remember Black Alice, Sam Holt... [with] teeth like a Moreton Bay shark...." Stories about Sam's courtship amid ants, his cheating and cards, his mining fortune, and his travels
AUTHOR: "Ironbar" Gibson
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: rambling cards courting Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 98-99, "Sam Holt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 138-141, "Sam Holt" (1 text)
Roud #9097
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Bolt" (tune & meter)
NOTES: Patterson/Fahey/Seal credits this to "Ironbar" Gibson, but does not document the source of this claim. Whoever wrote it clearly based it on "Ben Bolt." - RBW
File: FaE098

Sam MacColl's Song


DESCRIPTION: MacColl, whose penis is so large there is no room for a scrotum, boasts he services the girls until they weary, then tires horses, cows and sheep.
AUTHOR: Attributed to Jim Tully
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 ("Immortalia")
KEYWORDS: bawdy bragging humorous lie
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray, pp. 48-49, "Sam MacColl's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10177
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sam Hall (Jack Hall)" [Laws L5] (tune)
File: EM048

Sam, Sam, Dirty Old Man


See The Wee Falorie Man (File: Hamm013)

Sam's "Waiting for a Train"


See Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2] (File: LH02)

Samaritan Woman, The


See The Maid and the Palmer [Child 21] (File: C021)

Same House As Me, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer claims that "Many a man... would hang [himself] up... If [he] had half as much trouble as me." He and his wife have a young girl as a lodger; one night, coming home drunk from a concert, the singer goes to sleep in her bed. Mayhem follows.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: husband wife drink adultery humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 269-270, "The Same House As Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MCB269

Same Train


See This Train (File: LoF255)

Sampanmadchen, Das (The Sampan Maiden)


DESCRIPTION: German or Swedish shanty. Pidgin English (or in this case, pidgin German), nonsense verses - "I no likie you-hou, you no-ho likie me-hie". Versions of this were to be found in several languages. Chorus of even more nonsensical syllables.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Baltzer, _Knurrhahn_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty nonsense China
FOUND IN: Germany Sweden
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 569-570, "Das Sampanmadchen," "En Sjomansvisa Fran Kinakusten" (4 texts-German, Swedish, and English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chinee Bumboatman" (some similar verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
En Sjomansvisa Fran Kinakusten" (A Sailor's Song from the China Coast)
File: Hugi569

Samson


See Samson and Delilah (File: LoF251)

Samson and Delilah


DESCRIPTION: "Delilah was a woman, fine and fair, Very pleasant looks and coal black hair... If I had my way I'd tear the building down." Delilah tricks Samson out of the secret of his strength; he is captured, but manages to tear the building down.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Rev. T. E. Weems)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious death hair trick lie
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 251, "Samson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 49-50, "(If I Had My Way)" (1 text)
Roud #6700
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie Johnson, "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down" (Columbia 14343-D, 1928; Vocalion 03021, 1935; rec. 1927)
Celina Lewis, "Session with Celina Lewis" (on NFMAla6)
Rev. T. E. Weems, "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down" (Columbia 14254-D, 1927)
NOTES: Most of this story is Biblically accurate. The story of Samson occupies chapters 13-16 of Judges. We may categorize:
* Delilah's beauty (not mentioned; we are only told that Samson loved her; see 16:4)
* Samson's birth: A miraculous event described in chapter 13
* "Strongest man that ever lived on earth": not explicit, but tales of his strength fill most of chapters 14-16
* "He killed three thousand Philistines": No such number is given. We read in 14:19 that he killed 30, in 15:15 of another thousand, etc., and in 16:30 that he killed more by knocking down the building than he had in life.
* The dead lion and the bees: 14:6, 8f.
* "They bound him with a rope" (first occurrence): 15:13
* The old jawbone, etc.: 15:15f.
* Samson told her, "Shave off my hair": 16:17
* "His strength became like a natural man": 16:19
* The final incident, where the blinded Samson is displayed before the Philistines, but has his revenge by pulling the building down on them, is told in 16:23-30. - RBW
File: LoF251

Samuel Allen [Laws C10]


DESCRIPTION: Samuel Allen is examining a rolling dam on the Rocky Brook. The dam falls apart, and Allen is drowned
AUTHOR: John Calhoun of Bouestown (1848-1939) (per Ives-NewBrunswickm Manny/Wilson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws C10, "Samuel Allen"
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 49-53, "Rocky Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 40, "Rocky Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 716, SAMALLEN
Roud #1944
File: LC10

Samuel Hall


See Captain Kidd [Laws K35] (File: LK35)

Samuel Young


DESCRIPTION: Samuel Young, of Kentucky, is courting a girl against the wishes of her father; he arranges to have him sent to the Mexican War. He gets as far as Monterey when he takes sick and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: disease grief courting army war parting separation father lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SharpAp 192, "Samuel Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SAMYOUNG*
NOTES: The theme of the father having his daughter's unwelcome suitor sent away, pressed into the army, etc., is of course common, but this is one of the few songs in which she doesn't follow him, and he does not return to claim the daughter/fight the father. It doesn't seem to overlap other songs, and I'd guess it was composed by a friend or relative of the fallen soldier. The part of North Carolina where the song was collected is not far from Kentucky. - PJS
The song is definitely curious, since the Mexican War did not involve a military draft. Perhaps the father demanded that the young man join the army as a condition for marrying his daughter?
Given the appalling sanitary conditions in armies of this period, it's no surprise that he died of disease.
I strongly suspect the song is modeled on something else. The words make me think of "The Suffolk Miracle," though the tune is close to "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie."
The song is item dA34 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: ShAp2192

Sandgate Lass on the Ropery Banks, The


DESCRIPTION: "On the Ropery Banks Jenny was sittin'... And hearty I heard this lass singin' -- My bonny keel lad shall be mine." She is knitting the stockings she promised him. She recalls meeting him, and looks forward to bearing his children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: love courting children clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 184-185, "The Sandgate Lass on the Ropery Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR184 (Partial)
Roud #3178
NOTES: For some reason, this reminds me very strongly of "Bring Back My Johnny to Me." But I can't point to common elements. - RBW
File: StoR184

Sandgate Lass's Lament, The


DESCRIPTION: "I was a young maiden truly, And liv'd in Sandgate Street; I thought to marry a good man... But last I married a keelman, And my good days are done." The girl lists all the men she thought of marrying, and then contrasts her ill-formed, evil keelman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: marriage abuse lament work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 162-163, "The Sandgate Lass's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR162 (Full)
Roud #3170
NOTES: A keelman is not one who is involved in shipbuilding but, I believe, one who keels cloth -- marks it for cutting. It is interesting to note that "to keel" also has been used to mean "to mark down as worthy of contempt." So this may be a pun, or it might be simply that the singer has a truly low opinion of her husband. - RBW
File: StoR162

Sandy and Donald


See Crafty Wee Bony (File: GrD1151)

Sandy and Nap


DESCRIPTION: Napoleon and the Tsar quarrel. When Bony had raised his army Sandy warns Bony against attacking. Bony rejects the warning. At Moscow Bony told his starving men biscuits and brandy were near but saw them burnt. Bony escapes the Cossacks and frost.
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: Greig)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (William Walker, _Bards of Bon-Accord 1375-1860_, according to GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: war fire Russia humorous Napoleon soldier food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #53, pp. 1-2, "'The Twa Emperors' or 'Sandy and Nap'" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 149, "Sandy and Nap" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #2874
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Twa Emperors
The Siege of Moscow
NOTES: Greig: "This piece refers of course to Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812 -- his invasion of that country, the burning of Moscow by the Russians themselves, and the disastrous retreat of the French army."
Greig, writing in 1908: "The first appearance of the song in print was in the columns of a contemporary between forty and fifty years ago, when it was given as the composition of 'the late William Lillie, Inverugie." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1149

Sandy Boy, De


DESCRIPTION: Shanty, negro origin. Singer is going down a river when a shark eats his boat. He travels from place to place looking for more boats, but the shark keeps showing up. Other verses have rhymes about girls.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty, negro origin. Singer is going down a river when a shark eats his boat. He travels from place to place looking for more boats, but the shark keeps showing up. Other verses have rhymes about girls. Typical verses would be: "When I went down to New Orleans to see de boatman row, I set myself down on a rock an' played the old banjo." "Then I went to Alo, to buy a little goat, The ole shark came behind us a swallowed down the boat." Chorus: "Do come along, my Sandy boy, Do come along, oh, do! What will Uncle Gabriel say? Oh, Sally, can't you too?"
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor river ship
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, p. 458-460, "De Sandy Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
File: Hugi458

Sandy Grant


DESCRIPTION: "Sandy Grant and (his/her) cousin's son" and some others "had some fun" but it turned out badly. They stay up late drinking and singing, rouse the ire of the townfolk; in the end they are referred to the police
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(219)
KEYWORDS: drink music police
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1770, "Sandy Grant" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13003
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.11(219), "Sandy Grant" ("Her nainsel' cam' frae the Hielan' hill"), Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1872
File: GrD81770

Sandy Lan'


See Great Big Taters in Sandy Land (File: LxA236)

Sandy McFarlane


DESCRIPTION: Sandy McFarlane courts Jeannie Niel. His parents "ca'd her a wilfu' young jaud." "In spite o' the auld couple's girnin' and snarlin', Jeannie's persisted and stuck tae her darlin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love money father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 1001, "Sandy McFarlane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6728
File: GrD1001

Sandy Stream Song


DESCRIPTION: "Come all you river drivers... listen unto me... Of the hardships that we underwent... to drive on Sandy Stream." Setting out, the loggers have a fight with an innkeeper. Fire destroys the camp; the loggers, guided by the owner, struggle home through snow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Lewiston Journal, according to Gray)
KEYWORDS: logging disaster fire hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray, pp. 31-36, "Sandy Stream Song" (1 text)
NOTES: Gray's notes give a detailed description, supported by a newspaper account and map, of the events of this song. Strangely, however, he was unable to determine the exact date (he thinks the disaster of the Reed family's Sandy Stream operation began in 1874 and lasted three years). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gray031

Sandy Toy


See There Was a Man of Double Deed (File: OO20322)

Sandy's a Sailor


DESCRIPTION: Sandy is a sailor. He is paid Saturday and spends it on drink. Sunday at church "he takes the button off his shirt and he puts it on the plate." You'll not find him at his ship but in the bar drinking gin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (recording, Lizzie Higgins)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #12924
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "Sandy's a Sailor" (on Voice02)
File: RcSanASa

Sandy's Mill


DESCRIPTION: "Sandy had a nice little mill." "Sandy, quo he, Lend me your mill!" "Sandy lent the man his mill, And the man got a loan of Sandy's mill, And the mill that was lent was Sandy's mill, An the mill belonged to Sandy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS:
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 177, "('Sandy,' quo he, lend me your mill!')" (1 short text)
Roud #2875
File: MSNR177

Sandy's the Laddie That I'm Gaun Wi'


DESCRIPTION: "He's coming doun the Donside ... Wi' a feather in his bonnet and a ribbond round's knee, And Sandy's the laddie that I'm ga'en wi." The singer has no use for "Willie at the cauld wallie" or Johnnie "at the back door" or any other boy waiting.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #115, p. 3, ("Oot spak' the auld guidwife"); Greig #157, pp. 2-3, "Sandy's the Laddie" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan4 749, "Sandy's the Laddie That I'm Gaun Wi'" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6173
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Win' Blew the Bonnie Lassie's Plaidie Awa'" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "Fat'll Mak a Bonny Lassie Blythe an' Glad?" (tune, per GreigDuncan5) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
He's a Bonny Bonny Laddie That I'm Gaun Wi'
Sandy's at the Cauld Well
NOTES: In another version Sandy is "sailin on the Jean" and "comin' doon the dykeside ... Wi' a ribbon at his bonnet and a buckle at his knee." The line "a feather in his bonnet and a ribbon at his knee" is also in "There Grows a Bonnie Brier Bush" (see Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), pp. 377-378)
In other versions, Sandy's left waiting with Jamie and Johnnie in favor of Willie, or with Willie in favor of Jamie. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4749

Sandy's Wooing


DESCRIPTION: Sandy asks Jenny to marry him. She hesitates, pointing out examples of girls who have been betrayed and abandoned by men, perhaps for money. He says that he doesn't need riches; she agrees to marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H239, p. 469, "Sandy's Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9455
File: HHH239

Sanny Coutts' Little Doggies


DESCRIPTION: Sanny Coutts' little doggies licked his mouth. Sandy ran away with "the doggies at's back" barking.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #154, p. 2, ("Sanny Coutts' little doggies") (1 text)
GreigDuncan8 1662, "Sanny Coutts' Little Doggies" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #32, p.28, "Wee Doggies" ("Sanny Coutts' wee doggies")
Roud #13040
File: GrD81662

Sans Day Carol


See The Holly Bears a Berry (File: K091)

Santa Ana


See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santa Anna


See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santa Barbara Earthquake, The


DESCRIPTION: "Way out in California, among the hills so tall, Stands the town of Santa Barbara." Around daybreak, "the hills began to sway." Women and children scream; the people pray. The conclusion: "It's just another warning, From God up in the sky."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, collected from Mary E. King)
KEYWORDS: disaster warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1925 - the Santa Barbara Earthquake
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 86-87, "The Santa Barbara Earthquake" (1 text)
Roud #4752
NOTES: There are several earthquakes on record affecting Santa Barbara, California, the earliest being in 1806, when it was little more than a mission in what was then Mexico.
It seems clear, however, that this song refers to the earthquake of June 1925, which was quite recent at the time this song was first collected. (I would bet a lot that there was a 78 recording of this song, though I haven't located it. According to the Old-Time Herald, Volume 11, #10, April-May 2009, p. 28, Bascom Lamar Lunsford on August 27, 1925 recorded "The Fate of Santa Barbara," but I don't know if that is this song.)
The earthquake has been estimated at 6.3 on the Richter scale. As the song says, it happened around dawn, before the workday started -- which was very fortunate, since damage in the large buildings of the commercial district was severe, but most of the houses suffered relatively slight damage. Casualties, as a result, were slight -- only thirteen people killed. They probably would have been worse had workers been crowded into the (large, hard-to-escape) commercial buildings.
The garbage at the end makes me wonder if the song isn't by Andrew Jenkins; it has something of his style, and the earthquake happened in the period when he was writing a lot of topical songs, sometimes by invitation of record executives. The author declares that the earthquake was a warning. A warning of what? Lousy songwriters? - RBW
File: MHAp087

Santa Fe Trail, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer asks, "Say, pard, have you sighted a schooner Way out on the Santa Fe Trail?" In the company is "A little tow-headed gal on a pinto" whom he very much wishes to see. He describes her, though he will not give her name
AUTHOR: Words: James Grafton Rogers/Music: J. H. Gower
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HBT 85, "'Longside of the Santa Fe Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5096
RECORDINGS:
Jules [Verne] Allen, "Longside The Santa Fe Trail" Victor V-40118, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4344, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4780, 1935; on WhenIWas1)
Glenn Ohrlin, "Santa Fe Trail" (on Ohrlin01)
Art Thieme, "The Santa Fe Trail" (on Thieme03)
The Westerners [Massey Family], "Santa Fe Trail" (Perfect 6-03-58/Melotone 6-03-58, 1936)
NOTES: Although the sheet music of this piece was published in 1911, it seems that almost every version in tradition (even pop tradition) derives from Jules Verne Allen's 1929 recording. - RBW
File: Ohr085

Santiana


See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santianna


See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santy Ana


See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santy Anna


See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santy Anno


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic lines: "Heave Away/Hooray, Santy Anno/Anna... All on the plains of Mexico." The body of the song devotes itself to the Mexican War and/or the California Gold Rush and the sailor's desire to get married and participate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906
KEYWORDS: shanty battle Mexico gold
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 24, 1846 - skirmish between U.S. and Mexican forces in an area of Texas generally regarded as belonging to Mexico. On April 26, General Zachary Taylor reports to President James K. Polk that "hostilities may now be considered as commenced."
May 3 - Mexicans attack Taylor's position at Fort Texas. Taylor moves to the rescue
May 8 - Taylor wins a minor battle at Palo Alto against a superior Mexican force
May 9 - Taylor defeats the retreating Mexicans at Resaca de la Palma
May 13 - War declared with Mexico
May 18 - Taylor crosses the Rio Grande and occupies Matamoros
June 14 - American settlers in California declare independence from Mexico. American forces under John C. Fremont and John Sloat arrive to support them. Stephen Kearney moves to take over the lands between California and Texas
Aug 17 - David Stockton formally annexes California for the United States and assumes the role of governor
Sept 14 - Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who as president of Mexico had lost Texas, takes command of the Mexican army
Sept 20-24 - Taylor captures Monterrey, Mexico after a bloody battle
Nov 16 - Taylor captures Saltillo
Nov 25 - Kearney, now governor of California, begins a campaign to drive the Mexicans under Flores out of southern California. He secures the entire state by Jan 10, 1847
Jan 3, 1847 - General Winfield Scott assumes command in Mexico, superseding Taylor
Feb 5 - Taylor, at odds with the administration and Scott, moves west
Feb 22-23 - Santa Anna confronts Taylor's 5000 men with 15000 and demands surrender. Taylor refuses, then beats Santa Anna at the battle of Buena Vista
Mar 9 - Scott lands at Vera Cruz to begin a campaign against Mexico CIty
April 18 - Scott defeats Santa Anna at Cerro Gordo
Sept 14 - After many minor battles, Scott captures Mexico City
Feb 2, 1848 - Treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo ends the war between the U.S. and Mexico, with the U.S. gaining most of what is now Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah (the remainder is acquired via the Gadsden Purchase of 1853), plus portions of other states
Nov 7 - Zachary Taylor elected President as a Whig
July 9, 1850 - After a disappointing fifteen months in office, Taylor dies and is succeeded by Millard Fillmore
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Doerflinger, pp. 78-80, "Santy Anna" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 40-41, "Santa Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone, pp. 129-130, "Santy Ana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 84-85, "Santy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 40-41, "Santa Ana (On the Plains of Mexico)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 82-87, "Santiana," "The Plains of Mexico," "Round the Bay of Mexico" (5 texts, some short and very mixed, 4 tunes) [AbEd, pp.76-80]
Robinson/Bellman, Pt.3, 7/28/1917, "Santa Anna" (1 text-fragment only, 1 tune)
Sharp-EFC, I, p.2, "Santy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, p. 79, "Santa Anna or The Plains of Mexico" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 186-187, "Santy Anno" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 40, "Santy Anno" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 26, "Santy Anno" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, p. 835, "Santy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H496, pp. 96-97, "Santy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, p. 27, "On the Plains of Mexico" (1 text)
Mackenzie 99, "Santy Anna" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, p. 314, "Santa Anna" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 95, "Santy Anno" (1 text)
DT, SNTYANNA* SNTYANN2
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment of "Santa Anna" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Roud #207
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Carry Him To the Burying Ground (General Taylor, Walk Him Along Johnny)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Santiana
The Plains of Mexico
Old Santy Ana
NOTES: According to Wheelan, p. 41, "The amazing career of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is so entwined with the early years of Texas and Mexico that it is impossible to tell their history without telling his. Born in 1794 in upland Jalapa into a venerable Spanish Castillian family, Antonio was a quarrelsome boy who matured into a fractious, luxury-loving man. Unquestionably courageous, he was also elegant and charming. His favorite amusements were... gambling, cockfighting, and dancing. He was ambitious, opportunistic, crafty, and egotistical."
Or how about this description from DeVoto, pp. 68-69, "Santa Anna is the set piece of Mexican history, complete with rockets, pinwheels, Greek fire, and aerial bombs. He had been president of Mexico, dictator, commander in chief, much too often and too variously for specification here. He had contrived to persuade a good many different factions that he was their soul, and never betrayed any of them till he had got their funds.... He had the national genius for oratory and manifesto, and a genius of his own for courage, cowardice, inspiration, and magnificent graft. [Since the Texas War for Independence,] he had procured further revolutions at home, had lost a leg defending his country against a French invasion, had established a new dictatorship, and had been overthrown by the uprising that put Herrera in power. His impeachment for treason and his banishment had followed."
Rippy, p. 205, has this account of Santa Anna and of Mexico at the time:
"The national government became a sort of flying trapeze -- which, however, some of the generals and occasionally a civilian ventured to ride repeatedly. Three white aristocrats... tried it twice each. The ardent anticlerical reformer Valentin Gomez Farias mounted it fife times, and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the shrewd militarist and deft pronunciamiento artist, displayed his skill on eleven different occasions and managed to hang on for as many years. A creole... Santa Ana was the worst of the group. Having neither principles nor a sense of direction, he fought on both sides of every issue that arose. He was a royalist before he was a patriot. He supported Iturbide and then helped depose him. He championed both federalism and centralism. He slyly permitted Valentin Gomez Farias to make the first serious attack on the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico in 1833 and then allied himself with the clergy and posed as the savior of Caholicism."
Looking at his portrait in Wheelan, I can't help but think how much he looks like Adolf Hitler minus the mustache. And, indeed, he had a lot of the same traits, including clawing his way to power and then biting off more than he could chew.
Plus being utterly brutal. It showed in his treatment of Texas. Mexico had allowed American colonists into the area on conditions: They needed to be Catholic and not hold slaves (Wheelan, p. 43). Unfortunately, the Mexicans winked their eyes at slavery while trying to genuinely exclude Protestants. Eventually, when the Mexican government became strict about imposing its rule, the Americans decided they wanted out.
The result was the successful Texas rebellion. In which Santa Anna was the chief Mexican general. He had an army of five thousand "conscripts and prison inmates" (Wheelan, p. 46), with which he took the Alamo, and slaughtered the defenders, then captured and slaughtered the garrison of Goliad (Wheelan, p. 47). Then, on April 21, 1836, Sam Houston's Texans routed the Mexican army at San Jacinto, capturing the general the next day (Wheelan, p. 48). Santa Anna saved his skin by giving the Texans independence, but of course his government could not withstand the blow.
The Mexican government never did really accept that Texas was independent. DeVoto, pp. 12-13, writes, "[I]t is a fundamental mistake to think of Mexico, in this period, or for many years before, as a republic or even a government. It must be understood as a late stage in the breakdown of the Spanish Empire. Throughout that time it was never able to establish a stability, whether social or political.... [N]o governing class arose, or even a political party, but only some gangs. Sometimes the gangs were captained by intelligent and capable men, sometimes for a while they stood for the merchants, the clergy, the landowners, or various programs of reform, but they all came down in the end to simple plunder."
Given that situation, border raiding was constant. In one of those border raids, Santa Anna captured a large force of Texas raiders -- and ordered every eleventh man shot, choosing the victims at random by having them pull white and black beans from a jar (Wheelan, p. 51).
Eventually the Mexicans got rid of Santa Anna, but the squabbles over Texas never ended. (This was to prove most unfortunate. Had Mexico recognized Texas independence, Britain and France would probably have guaranteed it, the United States would not have annexed Texas, and Mexico presumably would have kept California. Morison, p. 554, writes, "More sense of reality and less of prestige at Mexico City in 1844 might have changed the entire course of American expansion." But Mexico City had neither.)
DeVoto, p. 11, makes an interesting comparison to the Sudetenland. The parallels are there: Just as the Sudetenland had never been part of Germany proper (before the independence of Czechoslovakia, it was part of the Habsburg Empire), so Texas had never been part of the United States. But just as the Sudetenland was full of Germans who wanted to join Germany, so Texas was full of Americans at least open to joining the United States.
For, while Texas was independent, it was also sparsely populated and bankrupt. Various solutions were proposed -- there was actually a British idea of guaranteeing Texas independence if it would free its slaves (Morison, p. 554; Wheelan, p. 58). But the obvious answer was for Texas to join the United States.
This was more complicated than it sounded; President John Tyler tried get a treaty (actually, two different treaties) annexing Texas through the Senate, but could not command a two-thirds majority. He managed to pull it off at the very end of his term (after the 1844 election) by joint resolution of Congress (which required only a simple majority; Morison, p. 556).
The always-shaky Mexican government couldn't face this. It did not dare to admit that it had lost Texas, so naturally it could not admit that Texas had joined the United States. Their bluster might have worked against one of the weak American presidents of the 1850s. Unfortunately for Mexico, the new President was James K. Polk.
Polk was one of the most complex Presidents in American history -- literally; historians can't even agree on his legacy. I can't cite a source, because it was so long ago, but some time around the Reagan administration, a poll was taken among historians to determine the ten best and worst American presidents. Polk was the only president to make *both* lists.
He was a driven man. A sickly youngster, he was diagnosed at age 17 with urinary stones, and was subjected to an emergency operation without anesthetic to remove them; the operation in all likelihood left him sterile (Seigenthaler, p. 19). He had only the sketchiest of education in his early years, and grew up in a situation of religious controversy (Seigenthaler, pp. 12-13). The family came to be obsessed with obtaining as much property as possible (Seigenthaler, p. 17). It was a trait Polk would carry to an extreme; no other President except Thomas Jefferson acquired so much land for the United States, and there were no others who acquired so much by such vigorous means.
His methods were hardly the most honest; his enemies labelled him "Polk the Mendacious" (Wheelan, p. 54). And Seigenthaler, despite seeming to admire Polk overall, points up evidence of his deceptions, admitting that, to Polk, the end justified the means (pp. 100-101).
DeVoto, pp. 7-8, sums him up this way: "Polk's mind was rigid, narrow, obstinate, far from first-rate. He sincerely believed that only Democrats were truly American.... He was pompous, suspicious, and secretive; he had no humor; he could be vindictive; and he saw spooks and villains.... But if his mind was narrow it was also powerful and he had guts. If he was orthodox, his integrity was absolute and he could not be scared, manipulated, or brought to heel. No one bluffed him, no one moved him with direct or oblique pressure. Furthermore, he know how to get things one. He came into office with clear ideas and a fixed determination and he was to stand by them...."
On p. 201, in explaining why the American troops in the Mexican war were treated so badly, DeVoto adds, "He had no understanding of war, its needs, its patterns, or its results. The truth is that he did not understand any results except immediate ones." But he was very good at getting immediate results.
Polk made a career mostly as an ally of Andrew Jackson, who created his own controversies and was, if anything, even more prejudiced than Polk. (It is a bit ironic, in the face of current American politics, that Polk -- probably the most conservative America-is-always-right man of his generation -- was a near-agnostic who was not baptized until he was dying. The man who brought the conservative state of Texas into the Union could not possibly be supported by a Texas delegation today. Nor was he much of a glad-handler in the modern sense; he disliked social engagements and, once in office, rarely left the White House; Seigenthaler, p. 103; Wheelan, p. 54. He would very nearly work himself to death as President. Seigenthaler, p. 119, in summing up the notes he kept as President, calls him "brooding and humorless.... Sometimes he presents himself as demanding to the point of unreasonableness, determined to the point of stubbornness, self-righteous to the point of paranoia.... More than anything else, he comes across as intensely partisan, at times blindly so.")
As Speaker of the House, Polk had run that organization like clockwork. He had then gone on to serve as Tennessee governor 1839-1841, but was defeated in his attempts to run for re-election (DeGregorio, pp. 166-167).
Polk's path to becoming leader of his country was more legal than Santa Anna's, but only slightly less peculiar. Martin Van Buren had been voted out of office in 1840, just as Polk had been ousted from the Tennessee governorship, but was expected to run again in 1844. Polk had presidential ambitions, but for the moment, he just wanted to be Van Buren's vice president.
But several funny things happened on the way to the convention. For starters, Van Buren and the likely Whig nominee, Henry Clay, had published on the very same day similar announcements saying they did not stand for annexation of Texas (Seigenthaler, p. 76). To this day, it is not certain if they had agreed on this, or if they did it independently -- but it was widely thought that they had made an agreement. And the American people, firm believers in Manifest Destiny, wanted Texas.
Despite the concern about a possible deal, Clay still managed to become the Whig nominee. But it cost Van Buren. There were two main candidates going into the 1844 convention: Van Buren and Lewis Cass. Van Buren had a majority of delegates on the first ballot, but the convention had adopted a two-thirds rule, and Van Buren never came close to that (Seigenthaler, p. 83). Polk didn't start getting votes until the eighth ballot, but once he had started, Polk's operators carefully manipulated the convention, and it became a bandwagon; he was nominated on the very next ballot. Polk, as a result, became the first "dark horse" presidential candidate -- though we should note that he was far better known nationally than such recent nominees as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
The campaign which followed was pretty ugly -- e.g., though both candidates were slaveowners, Polk was accused (falsely) of branding his slaves (Seigenthaler, p. 96). And Clay made rather a hash of things, being very inconsistent in his utterances on topics such as Texas.
Unknown or not, slaveowner or not, Polk won -- if just barely; his margin in the popular vote was some 38,000 out of two and a half million ballots cast. As usual, the margin in the electoral college was much more decisive (Seigenthaler, pp. 98-99). And "probably no other President entered office with so clearly defined a program and accomplished so much of it as Polk (Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 364)
This was the man against whom the fragile Mexican government tried to negotiate. Or, rather, tried not to negotiate. It rejected Polk's attempts to buy California. Polk can't have been too unhappy; he was actually sending different teams with different instructions to various places to muddy the waters (Wheelan, p. 55).
Then, at the end of 1845, the Mexican government of President Herrera was overthrown by General Paredes (Morison, p. 560). The new government was no more willing to recognize the annexation of Texas than the old was willing to recognize its independence.
To make the whole situation worse, Polk wanted to annex not just the portion of Texas east of the Nueces (the part that was unquestionably independent) but greater Texas (all the way to the Rio Grande) and California (which not even the most arrogant Texan had claimed. Polk in fact made the absurd claim that Texas has always been a proper part of the United States! (Here again we see the analogy to the Sudetenland -- Texas was, in effect, the entering wedge.)
So Polk, in order to "ensure that Mexico [would] not" go to war, sent 3000 men under Zachary Taylor to Texas (Wheelan, p. 60). And Polk ordered General Taylor to cross the Nueces (the recognized border between Texas and Mexico, insofar as there was one). Initially he based himself at Corpus Christi, at the mouth of the Nueces, putting him just south of the border (DeVoto, p. 28). Then Polk pushed harder, ordering Taylor to head for the Rio Grande (Wheelan, p. 63).
So disorganized was Taylor's force that it took him a month to get moving (DeVoto, p. 105), and there was much squabbling among the Americans along the way; amazingly, in all their time in camp, they had not practiced maneuvering together (DeVoto, p. 107). But they finally arrived. Faced with that provocation, the Mexicans decided to fight.
There was no single incident which could be called "the first shot"; there had been some small skirmishing starting almost from the moment Taylor reached the Rio Grande. But on April 25, Taylor sent out a small force of horsemen on a reconaissance. This force managed to blunder its way into a fight and was overwhelmed (DeVoto, pp. 130-131), and from then on it was a full-blown shooting war.
This was rather fortunate for Polk; he had been preparing to declare war on Mexico without an incident, and it looked as if Congress might not consent. But he quickly gained a declaration of war after the shooting started (DeVoto, p. 184ff.) -- even though he had to undercut Secretary of State Buchanan, who wanted to avoid making any territorial claims (DeVoto, p. 187, who thinks this was one of Buchanan's periodic attempts to ensure his presidential nomination. Which failed, of course).
Most versions of this song credit Santa Anna with defeating Zachary Taylor, but -- as the historical record shows -- Taylor consistently beat the Mexicans, though some of the victories were expensive.
Although Taylor fought many battles in the Mexican campaign, few were against Santa Anna. Mexico at this time was anything but a stable nation. Santa Anna had been President of Mexico in 1836, when Texas rebelled, but had then been thrown out after the Texans won their battle for independence.
Most modern historians seem less than impressed with Taylor as a general, but, at age 61, he had been in the army for 37 years, having been commissioned in 1808 (Wheelan, p. 61). Despite a limited education (Wheelan, p. 62), he had fought bravely and risen steadily in the ranks while displaying a real concern for his men. Against a strong general, he might have been in trouble -- after all, his logistics were so bad that some of his soldiers actually suffered from scurvy! (DeVoto, p. 15) -- but against the rabble that formed the Mexican army, his steadiness was a great advantage.
(As DeVoto says on p. 189, Taylor "had no patience with textbook soldiers.... Well, what did he have? A sound priniple: attack. A less valuable one which would serve him just as well in this war: never retreat. Total ignorance of the art of war. And an instinct, if not for command, at least for leadership.")
The first battle of the war was at Resaca de la Palma. The Mexican general Arista had planned a maneuver to put him on Taylor's line of communication, but when it came to battle, he found that his ill-equiped conscripts just couldn't fight. Taylor's men fought in place, and eventually the Mexicans retreated (DeVoto, pp. 188-191). The next day, the armies met again, and after a hard slog in which neither general exercised much control, the ill-fed Mexicans broke (DeVoto, p. 192, who notes that in some ways the most important thing about this battle was the number of future Civil War generals who saw combat for the first time. One of them was U. S. Grant).
It wasn't quite what Polk wanted; he still hoped to take California by purchase or local revolution; DeVoto, p. 197, comments that "Mr. Polk had lighted a firecracker and had a bomb explode in his face." But at least he was able to adapt. He started to build up the United States army (though he did nothing to produce a genuinely professional force; DeVoto, pp. 198-199, notes how every officer in one regiment was a political appointee and confesses that at this time "out military system was the worst possible" and could not have succeeded against a stronger enemy than Mexico).
Given limited reinforcements, Taylor would win several more minor victories on the scale of Resaca de la Palma. He became very popular as a result, leaving Polk worried about his political influence (quite correctly, since Taylor, a Whig, would follow the Democrat Polk as President). Polk put Winfield Scott in charge of a second Mexican expedition (Morison, p. 563), and it was Scott who eventually took Mexico City (as DeVoto writes, p. 200, Scott's "egotism was colossal, his vanity was monstrous.... But he was a great soldier. The campaign he was permitted to make was brilliant and victorious. He won the war").
In any case, Polk had had another string for his bow. He also overthrew the Mexican government, helping Santa Anna return to Mexico in September 1846 (an agent for Santa Anna had promised to bring stability to Mexico for a price; Polk accepted the deal even though he distrusted the messenger; see DeVoto, p. 69). The former Mexican president promptly resumed power (as Morison tartly comments on p. 560, revolutions in Mexico at this time were just about certain to succeed).
To make Scott's expedition strong enough to make its amphibious assault, Polk had cut back Taylor's force, ordering it onto the defensive (see Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 375). Santa Anna, seeing an opportunity (and needing a victory to strengthen his government), tried to improve his reputation by attacking Taylor at Buena Vista. It was a close thing, but Santa Anna failed to destroy Taylor. He had little choice but to turn back to try to stop Scott; he failed again, and Santa Anna again gave up power. Eventually a government was formed which reluctantly gave up Texas, New Mexico, and California (Morison, p. 565).
It will tell you something about the organization of the United States Army that total deaths in the war were about 13,000 -- 1700 killed in combat and 11,000 killed by disease and other non-combat causes (Siegenthaler, p. 145).
The war had a rather ridiculous end: Polk sent a negotiator named Nicholas Trist, who sat down with Santa Anna to work out a deal. Polk then fired Trist, but he kept negotiating anyway and worked out a deal (Siegenthaler, p. 151). Polk wasn't entirely happy with the treaty, but he sent it to the Senate -- and, lo and behold, they approved it.
The choice of Taylor to be the Whig presidential nominee to suceed Polk was ironic; according to Nevins1847, p. 195, a Whig operative talked to Taylor's brother, and was told that Taylor had no political convictions and rarely voted. But a man with no record was precisely what was wanted, and so Taylor was nominated -- and easily elected. According to Hammond-Atlas, p. U-49, Taylor earned 47% of the popular vote, Democrat Lewis Cass 42%, and Free Soiler Martin Van Buren 10%; in the electoral college, Taylor had 163 votes, Cass 127. Call it another victory for Taylor over Santa Anna, since Taylor was now the American president and Santa Anna was nothing.
Santa Anna did get the last laugh in a few things: Taylor died in 1850, and Santa Anna survived until 1876. And Santa Anna would come back in Mexico yet again; in 1853, he sold the United States the area known as the Gasden Purchase (Nevins1852, pp. 61-62).
"Corrupt, ruthless, and cruel, Santa Anna was also eloquent, dramatic, and clever. A soldier of fortune, he did nothing for his country but exploit it and disturb its peace. When he first became president in 1833, Mexico, in spite of the secession of Central America a decade before, ahd an area of well over 1,500,000 square miles. When he was finally deposed twenty-two years later, the national domain had shrunk to around 760,000. More than any other Mexican, Santa Anna had been responsible for this tragic loss of territory, which might have been avoided entirely (or possibly with the exception of Texas) if it had not been for the machinations, tyranny, and demagoguery of this unprincipled charlatan" (Rippy, p. 206).
Although that land proved a poisoned pill for the Americans. The last word probably should belong to former president John Quincy Adams: "I have opposed [annexing Texas] for ten long years, firmly believing it tainted with two great crimes: one, the leprous contamination of slavery; and two, robbery of Mexico.... 'They have sown the wind...'" (Wheelan, p. 60). And the Democrats did indeed reap the whirlwind. Polk was dead by 1850, when the Compromise of 1850 temporarily patched up the wounds caused by the Mexican War. But eleven years later, with the wounds of the battle over slavery still fresh, a slave state which no longer considered itself part of the Union fired on Fort Sumter....
Bone calls this "the most peculiar of all Chanties," and speculates, "I wonder if it was not at one time a seaman's prayer to Saint Anne, a bountiful Patron to Breton sailors? It is not easy to connect that supposition with the words as sung in later days for, in them, a negro influence is plain."- RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: Doe078

Saoirse (Liberty)


DESCRIPTION: Gaelic and English. "My name is Freedom." Our first advance was in France. "When the orange tree drops its head Then liberty's sure to flourish." We'll drive out those who oppose us.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (O Muirgheasa's _Dha Chead de Cheoltaibh Uladh_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage France Ireland nonballad political freedom
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 27, "Saoirse" (1 text)
NOTES: Moylan: This is a macoronic song "collected in Donegal in the early part of the twentieth century... It was probably made prior to 1798." The verses alternate Irish and English "translation." - BS
File: Moyl027

Sara Jane


DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his girlfriend/wife in unflattering ways; she hits him, she's the "terror of New York"; in short, ""My poor, silly Jane...She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Sara Jane"
AUTHOR: Lyrics: unknown; tune: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Cramer Bros.)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his girlfriend/wife in increasingly uncomplimentary ways; she hits him, she's the "terror of New York"; she eats cake, eats a fly, and vomits; she's crosseyed and lame, her breath smells like onions, etc. In short, ""My poor, silly Jane...She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Sara Jane"
KEYWORDS: madness shrewishness abuse humorous parody
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 178-179 , "My Freckle-Faced Consumptive Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune -- the final verse and chorus of this song, which could circulate independently)
RECORDINGS:
Cramer Brothers, "Sara Jane" (Broadway 7578 c. 1927; Broadway 8059, c. 1932; rec. 1927)
J. D. Foster, "My Sarah Jane" (Gennett 6791/Supertone 9372 [as Sam Bunch], 1929)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Sara Jane" (Vocalion 5122, 1927; rec. 1926)
Smoky Mountain Twins, "Sarah Jane" (Conqueror 7065, 1928) [note: this record number was also used for "I Was Born 4000 Years Ago), but that may have been the same recording, as the songs can share a floating verse]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hungry Hash House" (floating verse, tune)
cf. "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)" (Charlie Poole version - floating verse)
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune)
NOTES: Not to be confused with Uncle Dave Macon's "Rock About My Saro Jane." Since it shares the "freckle-faced consumptive etc." verse with Charlie Poole's 1925 recording "I'm the Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World" and several recordings of "Hungry Hash House," one suspects it was composed as an extension of those appearances. Or does the whole song appear elsewhere, earlier?- PJS
I've no good answer to that question; we are, for the moment, filing loose verses about the freckle-faced girl here, but it's by no means clear where they actually originated. See, however, "Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann."
Not to be confused with "Sarah Jane," also a humorous song between lovers, but based on "Pop Goes the Weasel" and ending with him ead and her courting another. - RBW
File: RcSarJan

Sarah Barnwell


DESCRIPTION: Sarah's brother disapproves of her love for Samuel. Samuel decides to face her brother "upon the mountains high" and disarms him; for Sarah's sake Samuel spares her brother's life. The brother approves the marriage and gives the couple half his lands.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(2130))
KEYWORDS: courting fight brother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan2 218, "Sarah Barnwell" (1 text)
Roud #955
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(2130)[final lines illegible], "Young Barnwell" ("Abroad as I was walking, I heard two lovers talking"), A. Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Two Constant Lovers" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Upon the Mountains High
NOTES: The description follows Karpeles, ed.,Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs (London, 1974), Vol. I, #73, pp. 318-319, "Young Barnswell" (1906, Somerset) and broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(2130). - BS
"The Two Constant Lovers" is an earlier ballad sharing the plot, cast of characters, and a few phrases. Since little of the text is shared with "Young Barnwell" I consider these separate songs. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2218

Sarah H. Furber


DESCRIPTION: "A maid of twenty summers Went forth with joy and mirth... Amidst the din of earth." "A manly face and favor Attracted her free hears." She goes astray (pregnant?), but gains no aid from "men of art and science." She dies alone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt, pp. 38-39, "Lines Composed on the Abduction and Cruel Murder of MISS SARAH H. FURBER" (1 text)
NOTES: Despite the title, the text of this piece never describes a murder; frankly, it sounds as if the girl died of venereal disease, or perhaps pure poverty.
The item is a broadside, "price two cents." Burt's comment is, "And not worth more, I should say." That was in 1958 dollars. It's still true in today's dollars, I should say. - RBW
File: Burt038

Sarah Jane


DESCRIPTION: (After an unrelated opening stanza), we find Sarah Jane and Samuel courting on the D & H canal. He, however "succumbed to hard times" and is buried. As for Sarah, within a week "She started keeping comp'ny with a junk dealer... in Rondout."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958
KEYWORDS: courting hardtimes death burial infidelity humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
FSCatskills 173, "Sarah Jane" (1 text plus appendix; tune referenced)
DT, SARAJANE*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pop Goes the Weasel" (tune) and references there
cf. "The D & H Canal" (tune, floating lyrics)
NOTES: Not to be confused with the song we index as "Sara Jane," which is a humorous song of conflict between lovers. - RBW
File: FSC173

Sarah Mariah Cornell


DESCRIPTION: Reverend Avery seduces and then murders Sarah. He flees from justice, but is recaptured. Sarah's ghost (?) pleads for justice, warns girls not to be decieved by men, and asks for the listeners' prayers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Journal from the Sharon)
KEYWORDS: murder clergy seduction betrayal trial escape
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 156-158, "Sarah Mariah Cornell" (1 text)
Roud #2044
NOTES: Huntington can find no other versions of this song, which I usually take to indicate that it is not traditional. But I feel sure I've seen it somewhere else. - RBW
File: SWMS156

Sarah Scott


DESCRIPTION: Sarah dreams William, her shepherd lover, is untrue. She wakes and meets him. He says it is his wedding day: "for wealth I changed my love." She reminds him of the ring he gave her when he proposed. She goes home and dies of a broken heart.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: grief courting wedding infidelity death money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan6 1164, "Sarah Scott" (1 text)
Roud #6818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Deluded Lover" (theme: girl deserted by man who marries for money or land)
NOTES: GreigDuncan6 quoting Greig: "From Miss Ritchie, and her grandmother tells me she learned it when she was at the Barons in Auchnagatt some fifty years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61164

Sarah's Young Man


DESCRIPTION: The singer falls in love with Sarah, a domestic who "lives in a mansion near Manchester Square." One night he discovers her cozying with a soldier. The master comes home, the soldier and Sarah lose their position, and Sarah loses her suitor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian LOCSinging sb40501a)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity servant soldier humorous unemployment
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 130-133, "Sarah's Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1957
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(432), "Sarah's Young Man," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Firth b.34(198), "Sarah's Young Man"
LOCSinging, sb40501a, "Sarah's Young Man," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as112240, "Sarah's Young Man"
NOTES: Broadsides LOCSinging sb40501a and Bodleian, Harding B 18(432): 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.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb40501a and Bodleian, Harding B 18(432) are duplicates. - BS
File: IvNB130

Sarie


DESCRIPTION: Singer loves Sarie, a fat co-worker on the farm. She has humorous and suggestive escapades. When they marry, the two will be one -- but there's enough of her to make two or three. Cho: "For she's proud and she's beautiful, she's fat and she's fair...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (recording, Tony Wales)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer loves Sarie, a fat co-worker on the farm; she has accepted his proposal. While milking a cow, she falls over and says she has hurt her arm, but that's not where she fell. She falls in the river; he pulls her out; she berates him for the places he grabbed her. When they marry, the two will be one -- but there's enough of her to make two or three. Ch.: "For she's proud and she's beautiful, she's fat and she's fair...."
KEYWORDS: love marriage humorous lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
RECORDINGS:
Tony Wales, "Sarie" (on TWales1)
NOTES: Wales notes that several Sussex people knew fragments of the song, but most couldn't remember it in full. I'd guess at a music-hall origin. - PJS
File: RcSarie

Saro Jane


See Liza Jane (File: San132)

Sash My Father Wore (I), The


DESCRIPTION: An Ulster Orangeman, tells his "British brethren" that his forefathers fought that he might wear the sash. "It is old but it is beautiful," was worn in 1690, his father wore it and he wears it July 12. If needed, we will fight again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (The Orange Lark)
KEYWORDS: clothes battle Ireland nonballad patriotic father
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1 or 12, 1690 (Old Style or New Style dates) - Battle of the Boyne. William III defeats the forces of James II to firmly establish his control of Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OrangeLark 4, "The Sash My Father Wore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SASHFTHR*
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "The Sash My Father Wore" (on IRLClancy01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hat My Father Wore" (form)
cf. "The Sash My Father Wore (II)" (subject, chorus and tune)
NOTES: IRLClancy01 includes only the chorus, used as an introduction to "The Scottish Breakaway." The source for the description is OrangeLark 4, "The Sash My Father Wore" [The Orange Lark (1987)].
Apparently the orange sash was worn by King William at the Battle of the Boyne. July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690. [I would assign less significance to this than to the various ribbons and sashes worn by the Ribbonmen, the Orange Order, etc. - RBW]
Zimmermann: "It has been noted that 'much of the pugnacity has gone from the music played on the 12th day of July' [S.H. Bell Erin's Orange Lily, p. 14]; there is a tendency to replace the most violent ballads by innocuous songs such as 'The Ould Orange Flute' or 'The Sash my Father Wore'. 'The Ould Orange Flute' appeared on nineteenth century broadsides. The other song ['The Sash my Father Wore'] is more recent; it was probably the paraphrase of a non-political song, 'The Hat my Father Wore'. A nationalist version, quite different in character but singable to the same tune, appeared in The Shan Van Vocht, August 1896." It is clear that "The Sash" is an adaptation of "The Hat," or vice versa.
Re Zimmermann's note: "Innocuous" depends on point of view. The tune only of "The Sash" is played as a march on Voice16; in that connection Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 16" - 13.9.02: "Once upon a time, folklorists drew out their blue pencils to excise any reference to sex in folksongs, while, at the same time, printing any number of songs concerning rape, murder and wartime pillage. Nowadays things have changed .... Personally, I'm amazed that Reg Hall could include ... 'The Sash My Father Wore,' which has come to symbolize Protestant bigotry in many parts of Ireland."
Searching the web for an "accepted" text I found both versions I and II. - BS
File: RecSMFW

Sash My Father Wore (II), The


DESCRIPTION: The singer is "a loyal Orangeman, just come across the sea." He loves to sing and dance and -- on the Twelfth -- wear his father's sash. He is returning to Dromore but he hopes to come back again to be welcomed by his brethren.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham)
KEYWORDS: clothes Ireland derivative nonballad patriotic father
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham, p. 21, "The Sash My Father Wore" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sash My Father Wore (I)" (subject, chorus and tune) and references there
cf. "The Hat My Father Wore" (many lines)
NOTES: Searching the web for an "accepted" text I found both versions I and II. The text of this version is very close to that of "The Hat My Father Wore," sharing many lines in each verse and substituting Orange references for Green. - BS
File: Grah021

Saskatchewan


DESCRIPTION: "Saskatchewan, the land of snow, Where winds are always on the blow... And why we stay here no one knows. Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, There's no place like Saskatchewan...." The singer tells of the hard life during Depression and drought
AUTHOR: Words: William W. Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: farming poverty hardtimes Canada
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 208-211, "Saskatchewan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HBT 10, "Saskatchewan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SASKATCH*
Roud #4525
RECORDINGS:
Jim Young, "Saskatchewan" (on Saskatch01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune)
cf. "Dakota Land" (tune, theme)
NOTES: Saskatchewan, always dry and never rich, became Canada's dust bowl during the 1930s. Drought there was hardly unexpected, but drought, damaged topsoil, and a bad economy made times especially bad. William W. Smith's humorous lament fit right in with the feelings of the locals -- and even with their hopes, as the last verse shows:
But still we love Saskatchewan,
We're proud to say we're native ones,
So count your blessings drop by drop;
Next year we'll have a bumper crop." - RBW
File: FMB209

Saskatchewan Girl's Lament, The


See Poor Little Girls of Ontario (File: FMB147)

Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down


DESCRIPTION: "Well, well, well, well, well, Now, God's got a kingdom (x3), But Satan's got a kingdom too." "I'm gonna pray till I tear that kingdom down, For I heard the voice of Jesus say, 'Satan, your kingdom must come down.'" "I'm gonna shout/sing till I tear..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Blind Joe Taggart)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #5737
RECORDINGS:
Frank Proffitt, "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" (on FProffitt01)
Blind Joe Taggart, "Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down" (Paramount 13081, 1931)
File: RcSYKMCD

Satan's a Liar (Ain't Gonna Worry My Lord No More)


DESCRIPTION: "Satan's a liah, and a conjuh too, if you don't watch out he'll conjuh you (x2), Ain't gonna worry my Lawd no mo' (x2)." "Goin' to heaven on an angel's wing; When I get there you'll hear me sing." "When I get to heaven I'm gonna sit yah down...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg, pp. 250-251, "Satan's a Liah" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let That Liar Alone" (theme)
File: San250

Satan's Camp A-Fire


DESCRIPTION: "Fire, my Savior, fire, Satan's camp afire, Fire, believer, fire, Satan's camp afire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen, Ware, Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious Devil nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 27, "Satan's Camp A-Fire" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11980
File: AWG027A

Satan's Kingdom


DESCRIPTION: "This night my soul has caught new fire, Halle-hallelujah. I feel that heav'n is drawing nigh'r... Shout, shout, we are gaining ground, Satan's kingdom is tumbling down." Evidence is offered that heaven will triumph
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Bible
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FSNA 36, "Satan's Kingdom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6668
NOTES: Among the scriptural references in this piece are the following:
* Samson putting the Philistines to flight: see Judges 13-16
* "When Israel came to Jericho": see Joshua 6
* "Saint Paul and Silas bound in jail": Acts 16:19f.; see also 2 Cor. 11:13, where Paul mentions multiple imprisonments - RBW
File: LoF036

Satisfied


DESCRIPTION: Call-and-answer, with the refrain, "Satisfied." The text is at the leader's discretion, e.g., "I'm going up north, SATISFIED, I'm going down south, SATISFIED, Mama cooked a cow, SATISFIED, Gonna give all the girls, SATISFIED, Their bellies full..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recordings, children of East York School and Lilly's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: playparty work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, pp. 150-152, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune); cf. pp. 152-153 (apparently a combination of this song with "Easy Rider") (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Children of East York School, "I'm Goin' Up North" (on NFMAla1)
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "See See Rider" (on NFMAla1) -- not the popular blues song, but another version of the "Satisfied" chant)
File: CNFM150

Saturday Night


DESCRIPTION: "Saturday night and Sunday too, Pretty gals on my mind. Monday mornin' break of day, Old Massa's got me goin'." The slave works through the week while looking forward to spending the weekend with the girls. Also has sundry floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting work slave animal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 459, "Saturday Night and Sunday Too" (1 fragment)
Lomax-FSNA 261, "Saturday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 228, (no title) (1 short text, which also includes the "Little bees suck de blossoms" verse)
Roud #6704
File: LoF261

Saturday Night at Sea


DESCRIPTION: "A sailor loves a gallant ship And messmates bold and free And ever welcomes with delight Saturday night at sea." The sailor recalls the time when, if the weather is good, the crew is able to relax and enjoy themselves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Journal from the Florida)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 65-66, "Saturday Night at Sea" (1 text plus a supplementary stanza, 1 tune)
DT, SATSEA
Roud #2020
NOTES: According to John Malcolm Brinnin, The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic, pp. 73-75, a poem called "Saturday Night at Sea" was written in 1838 by Judge Joseph Howe aboard the brig Tyrian as she made a transatlantic voyage.
Brinnin quotes four verses. Apart from the words "Saturday Night at Sea," they have nothing in common with the poem in Huntington. Yet the theme is so similar that I have to think they are related. Given that the Florida version dates from 1843. my guess is that Howe heard the piece aboard ship, thought it unacceptable for some reason (perhaps it had bawdy lyrics?), and rewrote it. - RBW
File: SWMS065

Sauchen Tree, The


DESCRIPTION: He asks her to remember their good times and go again with him "to yon saughen tree." She won't: her mother flytes [argues] against it and her father frowns. He proposes. She accepts. They marry and "jog on through life and think o' lang syne"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #29, pp. 1-2, "The Saughen Tree" (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 984, "The Sauchen Tree" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5636
NOTES: The "sauch" or "saugh" seems likely to be "sallow" or willow, as I understand Webster's Third New International Dictionary. - BS
This is also the meaning supplied by Alexander Warrack, The Scots Dialext Dictionary, Waverly Books, 2000, p. 469 -- although "sauchen-toup" means a fool or one who is easy to trick (analogous to "blockhead," perhaps?), and there are secondary senses of "flexible" (like a willow wand) and a murmuring sound.
Douglas Kynoch, Scottish [Doric]-English/English-Scottish [Doric] Concise Dictionary, 1996 (I use the 1998 Hippocrene paperback), p. 77, gives "unsociable" as the only meaning for "sauchen," but allows that "saugh" (which presumably would be pronounced "sauch") means a willow. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5984

Saucy Arabella, The


See A-Rolling Down the River (The Saucy Arabella) (File: Hug178)

Saucy Dolphin, The


See The Dolphin (File: ChFRS066)

Saucy Jack Tar, The


See The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38] (File: LK38)

Saucy Sailor, The (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38]


DESCRIPTION: Jack the sailor admits his poverty to a girl, who scorns him and refuses his offer of marriage. He pulls out a handful of money and offers it to her; she instantly changes her mind. But Jack turns the tables; he has no need for a poor country girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1781 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting money
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws K38, "Saucy Sailor, The (Jack and Jolly Tar II)"
Doerflinger, pp. 294-295, "Jack Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 461-462, "The Saucy Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 343-344]
SharpAp 168, "The Saucy Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-100E 45, "The Saucy Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan1 49, "The Saucy Sailor" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
JHCox 123, "The Jack of Tar" ( text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 151-152, "The Tar-ry Sailor" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 202-203, "Saucy Sailor" (2 texts plus 1 excerpt, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 316-317, "Tarry Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 62, "The Saucy Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 415, SAUCYSLR* TARSAIL2*
Roud #531
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Doughty, "Come My Own One, Come My Fond One" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(333), "Saucy Sailor Boy," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 11(3429), Firth c.13(252), Firth c.13(253), Firth c.12(331), Harding B 16(244a), Firth b.26(245), Firth c.13(197), "Saucy Sailor Boy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor?" [Laws K37] (plot)
cf. "Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36]" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Saucy Jack Tar
Jack Tar
I'm to Cross
NOTES: Both GreigDuncan1 fragments are too short to be clearly identified as Laws K38 but the ideas in each brief text are consistent with K38 texts I have seen even if the lines are not in any of those texts. However, they as easily fit (?) "Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor?" [Laws K37] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LK38

Saucy Ward


See Captain Ward and the Rainbow [Child 287] (File: C287)

Sauer Kraut


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, sauer kraut is hunky, boys, And sauer kraut is fine; I tinks I ought to know it 'Cause I eats it all der time." Aboard the Bella Young the crew fishes in summer, carries kelp in winter, and sells saurkraut by the barrel for Johnson or Zwicker.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt)
KEYWORDS: ship work food humorous nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Smith/Hatt, p. 12, "Sauer Kraut" (1 text)
DT, SRKRAUT*
Roud #8890
File: SmHa12

Saughen Tree, The


See The Sauchen Tree (File: GrD5984)

Sault Ste. Marie Jail, The (The Albany Jail)


DESCRIPTION: The singer laments his time in prison. After getting drunk, he had to be forcibly taken into custody, and the bail was more than he could raise. Now he suffers prison food and confinement (as well as a preacher who keeps on "until my ears got sore")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes drink
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
FSCatskills 168, "The Albany Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SOODTMRY*
Roud #2324
NOTES: This song is item dE51 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: FSC168

Sausage Meat Machine, The


See Dunderbeck (File: R488)

Sauvagesse, La


DESCRIPTION: "Je suis du bord de l'Ohio, J'ai le courage pour noblesse...." A voyageur Come-All-Ye. La Sauvagesse tells of herself, her love of the canoe, her parentage (a Frenchman and a witch) and so on.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage river fishing family witch
FOUND IN: Canada(Queb)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 581, "La Sauvagesse (The Girl of the Wilds)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BMRF581

Save My Father's Picture from the Sale


DESCRIPTION: "It was many years ago, in the time of frost and snow, My poor old father fell sick and died." The orphan is forced to watch as all (his/her) memories are sold. Finally he begs, "Save my father's picture from the sale!" and a pretty girl buys it for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death orphan commerce help
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 854, "Save My Father's Picture from the Sale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 478-481, "Save My Father's Picture from the Sale" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 854)
Roud #4459
NOTES: Cohen notes that several songs from the 1880s -- "Save My Father's Picture from the Sale," "Don't Sell My Mother's Picture," and the parody "Save My Brother's Whiskers from the Pail" -- seem built around the elements of this song. Whether these ancestral to or derived from the song given to Randolph is unclear; his informant thought the song older than the copyrights. - RBW
File: R854

Save Our Swilers


DESCRIPTION: "Come all you Newfoundlanders and listen to my song About St. Anthony's visitors from 'away' and 'upalong.'" "They are out to ban the seal hunt." "We're the endangered species." Listeners are urged to vote for those who support the seal hunt
AUTHOR: A. R. Scammell
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Decks Awash 6:4)
KEYWORDS: hunting political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, pp. 156-157, "Save Our Swilers" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Polina" (tune)
File: RySm156

Save Your Money When You're Young


DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his wasteful youth as a lumberjack and impoverished old age, advising listeners to "Save your money when you're young, you'll need it when you're old." He advises married men to stay home, away from grogshops, and single men to marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: age poverty drink warning money logger
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Rickaby 7, "Save Your Money When You're Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 40, "Save Your Money When You're Young" (1 text)
Fowke-Lumbering #61, "Save Your Money While You're Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SAVEMONY
Roud #2325
RECORDINGS:
Jim Doherty, "Save Your Money While You're Young" (on Lumber01)
File: Be040

Save Your Money While You're Young


See Save Your Money When You're Young (File: Be040)

Saville the Brave Man


DESCRIPTION: "Saville the brave man, while other men trembled, Defied the fierce wind and the wild raging sea." In spite of storm warnings he and MacKenzie take Alma to fish the banks. Watchers from Cape Spry thought Alma could not be saved but Saville brings her in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee, p. 51, "Saville the Brave Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 174-177,254, "Saville the Brave Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12468
NOTES: Cape Spry is on the east coast of Kings, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: Dib051

Savourneen Deelish


DESCRIPTION: "Oh the moment was sad when my love and I parted." The singer is called to fight across the ocean. The singer fights but saves his money and booty. When peace is declared he returns home to find she had died.
AUTHOR: George Coleman (1762-1836) (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1791 (Coleman's play _The Surrender of Calais_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: love war separation death soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan 173, "Savourneen Deelish" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 13, "Savourneen Deelish" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1851 680750, "Savourneen Deelish Aileen Oh," William Hall and Son (New York), 1851; also sm1851 491570, "Savourneen Deelish" (tune)
LOCSinging, as203250, "Savourneen Deelish Eileen Oge," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
Bodleian, Harding B 18(433), "Savourneen Deelish Eileen Oge," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also Harding B 11(3432), "Savourna Deelish" or "The Moment was Sad"; Harding B 11(2993), Firth c.14(215), "Eileen Oge!" or "Savourneen Deelish"
NOTES: Moylan: "The song was immensely popular during the 19th century.... 'Savourneen Deelish' is an anglicization of ''s a mhuirnin dilis', literally 'and my own true love', the first phrase of the chorus of several Irish language songs."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(433) and LOCSinging as203250: 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 popularity of the song may well be explained by its familiar theme. In Ireland there were few jobs available, especially to Catholics, except working on their parents' farm. And a young man without property, having no prospects, could not marry. So he either waited until his father died and he inherited some land, or he could join the army. And, in those days, joining the military usually meant a long stay far in a foreign land, with no communications with home; even if both he and his love were literate (unlikely), the mail was expensive and unreliable. - RBW
File: Moyl173

Saw Ye My Maggie?


See Sawna Ye My Peggy? (File: GrD71415)

Saw Ye My Peggy?


See Sawna Ye My Peggy? (File: GrD71415)

Saw Ye My Savior?


DESCRIPTION: An account of the death of Jesus. The opening verse states "He died on Calvary, to atone for you and me." The song goes on to mention the darkness on the cross, the earthquake, the pain, and his forgiveness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: dying Jesus religious Easter
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney, pp. 122-123, "Saw You My Saviour" (sic.) (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FO122 (Partial)
Roud #4679
NOTES: "Calvary" -- this name is not used in modern English versions of the New Testament. The King James version used it in Luke 23:33 (from Latin Caluaria)
"Darkness" -- "From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon" (Matt. 27:45 NRSV; cf.Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44)
"The solid rocks were rent" -- "At that moment [when Jesus died]... the earth shook, and the rocks were split" (Matt. 27:51)
"Thus behold my hands and side" -- [Jesus] said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side'" (John 20:27)
"I will forgive them" -- "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34 -- however, most of the oldest and best manuscripts omit this phrase) - RBW
File: FO122

Sawmill Song, The


DESCRIPTION: "Mel Clark gets the cream of the berries, Tom Melanson don't think it no fun, Little Joe Dyer, in the pit a-hollerin', Wonders why the damn' thing don't run." The singer describes the work done (perhaps not very efficiently) in the sawmill
AUTHOR: Dana Cate ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott); informant claims to have written it c. 1909
KEYWORDS: work nonballad technology
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott, pp. 280-283, "The Sawmill Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3741
File: Lins280

Sawna Ye My Peggy?


DESCRIPTION: Have you seen Peggy? The singer saw a woman "wi' her petticoats above her knee." They say she's pregnant but "I'm sure it nae to me" He slept with her three nights but "aye my back was tull her" until daybreak. She asked him to turn to her about daybreak.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd, according to Whitelaw)
KEYWORDS: sex pregnancy dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1415, "Sawna Ye My Peggy?" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 492-493, "Saw Ye My Peggy," Vol II, p. 493, ("Saw ye my Maggie")
Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), pp. 158-159, ("Saw ye my Maggie")
Roud #7156
NOTES: Whitelaw: "This song, though old, was not inserted in any regular collection of Scottish songs till that of David Herd in 1769."
Whitelaw's and Chambers's ("Saw ye my Maggie") are in notes to "Saw Ye My Peggy" quoting Burns in Johnson's Musical Museum, vol. I., 1787. Johnson cites ("Saw ye my Maggie") as the original source of "Saw Ye My Peggy" (which is different enough from ("Saw ye my Maggie") that I would consider them separate songs). To be clear, I lump ("Saw ye my Maggie"), which Burns says is "a song familiar from the cradle to every Scottish ear," with GreigDuncan7 1415. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71415

Sawney Kail Cunnie


DESCRIPTION: "Sawney Kail Cunnie, the Laird o' Kail Caup' eat his brose [oatmeal] and drank his cup and spoon. He asked for more "kail-brose" when that was done.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1692, "Sawney Kail Cunnie" (1 text)
Roud #13036
File: GrD81692

Sawney Ogilvie's Duel with His Wife


DESCRIPTION: "Good people, give ear to the fatalest duel That Morpeth e'er saw since it was a town... Poor Sawney... Miscarried and married a Scottish tarpawlin." Sawney ruins his prospects with his marriage; his wife regularly abuses him
AUTHOR: Thomas Whittle
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay); Whittle reportedly died 1736
KEYWORDS: marriage hardtimes abuse humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 124-125, "Sawney Ogilvie's Duel With His Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3156
File: StoR124

Saxon Shilling, The


DESCRIPTION: The martial parades "dazzled village youths to-day Will crowd to take the Saxon Shilling." Fools sell themselves "to shame and death," "crush the just and brave." "Irish hearts! why should you bleed, To swell the tide of British glory"?
AUTHOR: Kevin T. Buggy (Source: Zimmermann)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 ("The song was first printed in the _Belfast Vindicator_ in 1842," according to Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: army recruiting Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann 49, "The Saxon Shilling" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(68), "The Saxion Shilling" [only misspelled in the title], unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.15(39), "The Saxion Shilling" [only misspelled in the title]
NOTES: Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 19(68) and Bodleian 2806 c.15(39) are duplicates. The last two lines are identically mangled.
Zimmermann: "The man who enlisted as a soldier was given the 'King's shilling' by a recruiting officer."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Saxon's Shilling" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
One suspects that author Buggy never missed any meals, which was the main reason Irish youth enlisted in the army. Though his source of income certainly wasn't his writing; I have been unable to find anything else he wrote, and he is not mentioned in Patrick C. Power's A Literary History of Ireland.
For the typical British recruiting method of The King's Shilling and getting potential soldiers drunk, see the notes to "The Recruited Collier." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm049

Saxpence Lace


DESCRIPTION: She put "saxpence lace" around her "goon sae gran" and went to the castle looking for a man. She puts on an apron ....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #168, p. 2, ("Wi' the saxpence lace") (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan7 1418, "Saxpence Lace" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #7158
NOTES: The current description is based on the GreigDuncan7 fragments.
Greig: .".. a verse or two of what looks like a fisher song." I wonder what he means by that since the fragment has no element to suggest it to me. Greig #153, commenting on "The Bonnie Fisher Lass" says, "There are not many traditional songs dealing with the fisher folk." This looks to me to be a common leadup to a seduction. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71418

Say, Darling, Say


DESCRIPTION: Song starts out with two verses of "Hush, Little Baby," but veers off: "All I've got is you in mind/Wouldn't do nothing but starch and iron"; "Starch and iron will be your trade/And I can get drunk and lay in the shade" Chorus: "Say, darling, say"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Ernest V. Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: work drink dancetune nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #470
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Say, Darling, Day" (on Stonemans01); Ernest V. Stoneman, Willie Stoneman, and the Sweet Brothers, "Say Darling Say" (Gennett 6733 [as by Justin Winfield]/Supertone 9400 [as by Uncle Ben Hawkins], 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hush, Little Baby" (lyrics, tune)
NOTES: Roud, unsurprisingly, lumps this with "Hush Little Baby," since it has common lyrics and the tunes are close (though this is usually done much faster than "Hush Little Baby"). But the different ending, and the chorus, is enough to separate them in my book and in Paul Stamler's. - RBW
File: RcSyDaSa

Saying Nothing at All


DESCRIPTION: Pat would apparently go to Scotland to make his fortune. Moral for those who would do the same: "If you don't find it there you may just lose the bake [GreigDuncan8: biscuit] And to Ireland return saying nothing at all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: travel Ireland Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1753, "Saying Nothing at All" (1 fragment)
Roud #13009
NOTES: Does Pat go looking for a job for six months [see notes to "Hie Bonnie Lassie for feeing]? Does he get married [as in "To Reap and Mow the Hay"]? Or not [as in "Willie Rambler" and "Peggy Bawn"]? Does he have a strange adventure [as in "The Glasgow Barber" and "That Dang Boat that First Took Me Over"]? And why "saying nothing at all" [as in "Nothing At All"]? - BS
I would suspect he is embarrassed and doesn't want to tell of his adventure. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81753

Says T'auld Man tit Oak Tree


See Says the Old Man to the Oak Tree (File: BGMG071)

Says the Old Man to the Oak Tree


DESCRIPTION: "Says t'auld man t' the (old/oak) tree, Young and lusty was I when I kenn'd thee; I was young and lusty, I was fair and clear, Young and lusty was I mony a lang year, But sair fail'd am I, sair fail'd now, Sair fail'd am I sen I kenn'd thou."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1785 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: age
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #71, p. 80, "(Says t'auld man tit oak tree)"
DT, MANOAK
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sair Fyel'd, Hinny"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Man and the Oak. A North Country Son (Ritson's title)
NOTES: Several versions of "Sair Fyel'd, Hinny" include this lyric essentially intact -- and in Northumbrian dialect. But I don't know if this split off and became a Mother Goose rhyme on its own, or if that song swallowed it. My decision to split them was very tentative. - RBW
File: BGMG071
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