Scady Rocks, The


DESCRIPTION: Three men and a girl from Cushendall are in Colonel Caufield's Maid of Youghal in a storm. The boat splits on Scady Rock near the Bridge of Toome over the River Bann. All are drowned. People mourn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: drowning ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
ST RcScaRoc (Full)
Roud #6986
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Scady Rock" (on IRRCinnamond01)
NOTES: The description is based on John Moulden's transcription from IRRCinnamond01 included in the Traditional Ballad Index Supplement.
There seems to be a gap in the text since there is no follow-up to the lines "very soon you all will hear Of the manhood of young Squire Jones." Cushendall and Toome are in Co Antrim. - BS
File: RcScaRoc

Scandalize My Name


DESCRIPTION: "I met my preacher the other day, I gave him my right hand, And just as soon as my back was turned, He scandalized my name. Do you call that religion (x3)...." The singer continues with other examples of those who defame him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (recording, Kitty Cheatham)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad lie accusation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 369, "Scandalize My Name" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Kitty Cheatham, "Scandalize My Name" (Columbia A5224, 1910)
Dizie Jubilee Singers, "Don't You Scandalize My Name" (Cameo 914, 1926)
Golden Crown Quartet, "Scandalize My Name" (OKeh 8739, 1929; on VocalQ2)
Kentucky Juibilee Quartet, "Do You Call That Religion" (OKeh 8509, 1927)
Mitchell Christian Singers, "They Scandalized My Name" (Melotone M-13162/Conqueror 8457, 1934/Banner 33195, 1935)
Monroe Brothers, "Do You Call That Religion?" (Bluebird B-7055, 1937)
Sunset Four Quartette, "Do You Call That Religion" (Paramount 12221, 1924)
NOTES: This is sometimes listed, e.g. in the Folksinger's Wordbook, as a religious song. It has a religious theme (since it catalogs those who do not practice religion as the singer thinks they should), but is not really a religious piece but a complaint. - RBW
File: FSWB369

Scant of Love, Want of Love


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

Scantling Line, The


See Fox River Line, The (The Rock Island Line) [Laws C28] (File: LC28)

Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18]


DESCRIPTION: A Scarborough girl learns that her sailor love has been lost at sea. She asks the waters to bring her love ashore. She finds the body, kisses it, and dies. The two are buried in "Robin Hood's Churchyard."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1956)
KEYWORDS: sea death burial drowning
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England(Lond,North),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws K18, "Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor)"
Warner 151, "Scarborough Sand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-100E 37, "The Drowned Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 105, "Scarboro Sand (Robin Hood Side)" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 39, "In Robin Hood's Churchyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan1 20, "Scarborough Banks" (9 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord, pp. 332-333, "Scarborough's Banks" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 722-725, "Strawberry Tower" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 44, "Arbour Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 561, SCARSAND
Roud #185
RECORDINGS:
Sam Larner, "In Scarboro' Town" (on SLarner01; on Voice02 as "In Scarborough Town"); "The Drowned Lover" (on SLarner02)
Frank Verrill, "Stowborough Town" (on Voice12)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1956, "Stow Brow," John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852; also Harding B 11(3208), "Stow Brow"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Strawbello Strand
Scarberry's Shores
NOTES: The reference to "Robin Hood's Churchyard" is almost certainly a reference to the village of Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire; some versions of the song set the events in that town rather than in Scarborough.
I do not know that the two Larner recordings are in fact different -- these two compilations drew from the same collection of field tapes -- but as the titles are given as different I thought it prudent to separate them. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LK18

Scarborough Fair


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

Scarborough Settler's Lament


DESCRIPTION: "Away wi' Canada's muddy creeks And Canada's fields of pine. Your land of wheat is a goodly land, but ah! it isna mine!" The Scottish settler thinks back with sadness to the home he left behind -- but awakes in Canada, "three thousand miles 'frae hame.'"
AUTHOR: Sandy Clandenning
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: emigration homesickness Canada
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 94-95, "A Scarborough Settler's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 29, "The Scarborough Settler's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SCARSET*
Roud #4521
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spancil Hill" (theme)
cf. "That Dear Old Land" (theme)
cf. "The Glenshesk Waterside" (theme)
cf. "Farewell to Sweet Glenravel" (theme)
cf. "Och, Och, Eire, O!" (theme)
cf. "The Call of Home" (theme)
cf. "A Shamrock from Tiree" (theme)
cf. "Farewell to the Banks of the Roe" (theme)
cf. "Banks of the Roe" (theme)
cf. "The Shamrock Shore (The Maid of Mullaghmore)" (theme)
cf. "Maguire's Brae" (theme)
cf. "Sweet Loughgiel" (theme)
cf. "Juberlane" (theme)
cf. "Glen O'Lee" (theme)
cf. "Sweet Glenbush" (theme)
cf. "The Hills of Donegal" (theme)
cf. "O, Derry, Derry, Dearie Me" (theme)
cf. "Cloughwater/The Shamrock Shore" (theme)
cf. "The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (theme)
cf. "Norah McShane" (theme)
cf. "Bonnie Lyndale" (theme)
cf. "The Song of the Emigrant" (theme(
NOTES: Sandy Clandenning settled in Scarborough (near Toronto) in 1840. He set these words to the first half of the tune "Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw." It has also been sung to "The Irish Emigrant's Lament." - RBW
File: FMB094

Scarborough's Banks


See Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18] (File: LK18)

Scavenger's Brigade, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer joins "The Scavengers' Brigade" sweeping Belfast streets. They parade like soldiers with brooms on their shoulders. His family and sweetheart think he's in some army brigade and expect promotion and glory. He recommends it as an occupation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3); 19C? (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.16(409))
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in Belfast and finally finds work sweeping streets in "The Scavengers' Brigade." "With our brooms across our shoulders, That's our only uniform ... We're always on parade." His father reads his letters to the neighbors "for he thinks that I'm a sojer, with a gun." His mother wonders "if her darling is a kilty or dragoon" and expects he'll soon be a General. His sweetheart writes "that for my sake she's not afraid to leave her native land And risk a soldier's life whenever I get command" He tells everyone to save their pennies, come to Belfast, and "come and gain promotion in the Scavenger Brigade."
KEYWORDS: work humorous family clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan3 490, "The Scavengers' Brigade" (1 fragment)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 72-73, "The Scavenger's Brigade" (1 text)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 45, "The Scavengers' Brigade" (1 text)
Roud #5978
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.16(409), "The Scavenger Brigade" ("It's myself a dacent Irish lad, arrived from Donegal," unknown, n.d. [beginning lines illegible]
File: HayU072

Schaladi


See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Schlof Mayn Kind (Sleep My Child)


DESCRIPTION: Yiddish: The mother urges her little child to sleep. She tells the child that someday it will understand why she weeps. Father has gone to America, seeking to earn the money to let them all emigrate. Till then, baby can only sleep and mother can only wait
AUTHOR: Words: Sholom Aleichem
EARLIEST DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: family lullaby separation emigration foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-BoA, pp. 287-289, "Schlof Mayn Kind (Sleep My Child)" (2 texts (1 English, 1 Yiddish), 1 tune)
NOTES: There seem to be two Yiddish songs by that title: this one (which is more completely titled "Schlof Mayn Kind, Mayn Treyst, Mayn Sheiner") and another that is sometimes called "Shlof Mayn Kind, Shlof Keseyder." [For which see the Folksinger's Wordbook, p. 408. - RBW] In the latter, the mother sings to the child bitterly about the differences between rich and poor; emigration is not mentioned. - PJS
File: SBoA287

Schnooglin'


DESCRIPTION: "Schnooglin'" is the process of keeping warm by necking, the singer asserts, adding the warning not to let a boy an inch above your knee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: bawdy warning
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray, pp. 252-253, "Schnooglin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10289
File: EM252

Schomberg


DESCRIPTION: This is a memorial to "William's true and gallant knight -- Schomberg, the bold and brave!" He'd had a "bright career ... But at the Boyne, for ever famed, He fell beside the wave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle death Ireland memorial patriotic
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:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OrangeLark 10, "Schomberg" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of the Boyne (I)" (subject: The Battle of the Boyne) and references there
NOTES: For background on the Boyne, and on Schomberg, see the notes to "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." It might be noted that, although Schomberg had had an excellent career, his performance in Ireland was not very energetic (he was, after all, in his seventies); it was his failure to win the Irish campaign which forced William of Orange to come himself and fight at the Boyne. Some of Schomberg's problems were not his fault -- but many were; he made a hash of his logistics, resulting in his force suffering many useless casualties. - RBW
File: OrLa010

School Days


DESCRIPTION: "'Tis sweet to go back in memory To days of youth so dear to me When we could find a secluded spot And gather the blue forget-me-not." The singer recalls when "life was smooth as a poet's rhyme." He fondly remembers the old schoolhouse and childhood
AUTHOR: Edgar Hamm?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: nonballad youth
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 251-252, "School Days" (1 text)
NOTES: This sounds so nineteenth-century-parlor-song, it's uncanny. But I don't know of any sheet music version. - RBW
File: ThBa251A

School Days of Long Ago


DESCRIPTION: "Still sits the schoolhouse by the road Close by the old oak tree, Where many a boy has took a dose Of grim old hickory tea." The singer describes the strict methods of the old school, and laments the laziness of the students
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 872, "School Days of Long Ago" (1 text)
Roud #7538
File: R872

School Ma'am on the Flat


DESCRIPTION: "McClellan was a cowboy of the wild and wooly west." He courts and seduces a "school ma'am." The enter into an unhappy marriage. "If John Henry gets to raring up, he will flog him with his hat Before he goes courting another school ma'am on the flat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: cowboy courting sex humorous
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon 6, pp. 53-54, "School Ma'am on the Flat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Logs006 (Partial)
Roud #10087
File: Logs006

Schooner Blizzard, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer warns his comrades "not to sail in those mean packets where they put no food on board." He describes a trip that began with rotten food and no heat and ended with the steward jumping ship to get married
AUTHOR: Henry Burke and a shipmate
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes marriage warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1889 - Reported date of this voyage of the Blizzard
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger, pp. 198-200, "The Schooner Blizzard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9428
File: Doe198

Schooner E. A. Horton


See The E. A. Horton [Laws D28] (File: LD28)

Schooner Fred Dunbar, The [Laws D14]


DESCRIPTION: A sailor speaks of his vessel's travels, all the while advising the girls about the pleasures and advantages of going out with sailors
AUTHOR: Amos Hanson
EARLIEST DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: sea sailor travel
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Laws D14, "The Schooner Fred Dunbar"
DT 832, FREDDUNB*
Roud #2237
File: LD14

Schooner Helson


DESCRIPTION: "The vessel 'Schooner Helson' from Newport sailed away Arriving safe at Georgetown Without mishap that day." A storm on the way home wrecks the schooner. All three of the crew drown and only one body is found, "washed up by the waves"
AUTHOR: Charlie Howlett
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee, p. 46, "Schooner Helson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12470
NOTES: Newport and Georgetown are on the east coast of Kings, Prince Edward Island. Newport is a few miles north of Georgetown. - BS
File: Din046

Schooner Jenkins, The


DESCRIPTION: "Come, shipmates, listen to my story, I'll sing you one both sad and true, How dark one night... Sank John Brown and his crew." The ship sets out in November, and is sunk. The crewmen who died are described in rather conventional terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Oswego Palladium-Times)
KEYWORDS: ship death moniker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 30, 1875 - Sinking of the Isaac G. Jenkins. 8 people die
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 220-221, 'The Schooner Jenkins" (1 text)
File: WGM220

Schooner John Bentely, The


DESCRIPTION: Derived from "The Dreadnaught," but of about a bad boat. The singer gets drunk, then joins the Bentely on the Great Lakes. The sound of the pumps makes him sick. The bedclothes are "junk." The ship is slow. The food is bad. Finally they reach Gravelly Bay
AUTHOR: Jeremiah Cavanaugh?
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected by Walton from Jeremiah Cavanaugh)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 98-100, "The Schooner John Bentely" (1 text)
NOTES: According to Walton/Grimm/Murdock, the Benteley was built in 1873 and had the "lines of a brick." Hence, presumably, this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: WGM098

Schooner Kandahar, The


DESCRIPTION: The Kandahar's trip starts out happily, but then the vessel springs a small leak and runs into a smallpox epidemic. Despite a threat of quarantine, the ship reaches the Indies, then has a quiet trip back to Nova Scotia
AUTHOR: Sepley Collin
EARLIEST DATE: 1931
KEYWORDS: ship sea disease
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1896 - Voyage of the Kandahar
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger, pp. 196-198, "The Schooner Kandahar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4085
NOTES: This song is item dD42 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe196

Schooner Marion Rogers, The


DESCRIPTION: Marion Rogers sails for the North from St John's and is lost near Trinity in a snow storm. The crew of seven is lost in "the most awful shipwreck, the worst one of the year"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 27, 1938 - Marion Rogers stranded (total loss) at Lighthouse Rocks reef in Trinity Harbour (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 72, "The Schooner Marion Rogers" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ravenal" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Ravenal (file: LeBe092)
File: LeBe072

Schooner Mary Ann, The


See Bound Down to Newfoundland [Laws D22] (File: LD22)

Schooner Oriole, The


DESCRIPTION: "Attention give both young and old... While I relate the hardships and the dangers of the sea, I'll tell you of the Illinois and of her reckless crew, How she sank the schooner Oriole...." The ships collide, and twelve on the Oriole die; only one survives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Collected from Ben Peckham by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 8/9, 1862 - Collision of the _Illinois_ and the _Oriole_, resulting in the destruction of the latter
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, p. 216, "The Schooner Oriole" (1 text)
NOTES: According to Julius F. Wolff, Jr., Lake Superior Shipwrecks, Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., Duluth, 1990, pp. 8-9, the schooner Oriole left Marquette, Michigan on August 8 with about 500 tons of iron freight and 13 people aboard, including Captain Daniel McAdams, his wife, and his mother-in-law.
The ship soon ran into a heavy fog, but the captain did not slow down. Around 3:00 a.m., the Illinois rammed the Oriole. It was still foggy, and the Illinois took damage itself, so Captain Ryder headed on to Marquette without pausing to see what had happened.
He had, however, sliced the Oriole in half. Of the 13 people on board, only one survived: Cook Andrew P. Fleming managed to cling to wreckage until he made his way to the Oriole's stern, then still afloat, and lower a boat. He was rescued a day and a half later.
There would not be another accident on Lake Superior with such heavy loss of life until 1875, according to Wolff, p. 23. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: WGM216

Schooner Thomas Hume, The


DESCRIPTION: "The schooner Hume is staunch and strong, She's weathered many a blow... She's bound for Buffalo." She sails on dangerous Lake Michigan. The captain takes her out on the lake. A great storm arises. Ship and crew are lost without trace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Collected from William Nicolas by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 22, 1891 - Foundering of the _Thomas Hume_ off Holland, Michigan (Source: Bruce D. Berman, _Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks_, Mariner's Press, 1972, p. 245)
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 196-197, "The Schooner Thomas Hume" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Ed Vandenberg, "The Schooner Thomas Hume" (1955; on WaltonSailors; this version, with guitar accompaniment, seems to be sung by a revival singer, not an original informant)
NOTES: Walton/Grimm/Murdock note several contradictions between the song and the actual fate of the Thomas Hume -- notably that the boat was not full of wheat (it was in fact almost empty) and it was lost in May, not at the end of the shipping season.
I observe in addition that the name "Hume" is mentioned only twice in Walton's text, and never the "Thomas Hume." I rather suspect this was originally about some other boat, with the name of the Thomas Hume zipped in without the song being fully adapted to the actual circumstances of the sinking. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: WGM196

Scolding Wife (I), The


DESCRIPTION: "I married me a scolding wife Some forty years ago And ever since I've led a life Of misery and woe." The abused husband details the various ways his wife chastises, injures, and neglects him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: husband wife abuse injury shrewishness
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 397, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 214, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 80, "My Scolding Wife" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 179, "A Scolding Wife" (1 short text plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #2132
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "The Scolding Wife" (on MMacArthur01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Scolding Wife (IV)" (subject)
NOTES: The notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann observe that this has the same subject and metrical pattern as "The Scolding Wife (IV)." But there seem to be no common lyrics at all; I (hesitantly) declare them separate. The chorus of this song runs something like
For she worries (or "hurries") me, she flurries me,
It is her heart's delight
To warm me with the fire-shovel
Round the room at night (or "in the middle of the night"). - RBW
File: R397

Scolding Wife (II), The


See The Dumb Wife (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb) [Laws Q5] (File: LQ05)

Scolding Wife (III)


See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6]; also The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: LQ06)

Scolding Wife (III), The


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, you've often heard it asked Why a woman talks so fast Oh, she runs around with every bit of news." The singer claims "a woman's tongue will never take a rest"; she talks while he works. He advises marrying a wife who is "blind, deaf, and dumb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: husband wife
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 201, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #6585
NOTES: I should perhaps assign this song the keyword "humorous," since it was probably intended to be funny. But it isn't; it's just a whine. - RBW
File: BrII201

Scolding Wife (IV)


DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye sprightly sporting youths, wherever you may be, You'll never know your misery till married that you'll be." The singer describes all the ways in which his wife makes his life miserable, and hopes she dies before she kills him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1849 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.20(109))
KEYWORDS: husband wife fight marriage courting abuse
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
SHenry H145, p. 503, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan7 1285, "She's Aye Scaulin' Me" (1 fragment)
Ord, p. 151, "The Bad Wife" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [second series] (Paisley, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 88-91, "The Wicked Wife"
Roud #5556
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.20(109), "The Scolding Wife" ("When first I got married, a happy man to be"), J. Kendrew (York), 1803-1848
LOCSinging, as102540, "The Scolding Wife" ("I married with a scolding wife, full twenty years ago"), L. Deming (Boston), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Scolding Wife (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Sporting Bachelors" (plot)
cf. "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (subject and form)
NOTES: The notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann observe that this has the same subject and metrical pattern as "The Scolding Wife (I)." But there seem to be no common lyrics at all; I (hesitantly) declare them separate. The chorus of the Henry text is
For she's aye, aye scowlin', an' she's aye scowlin' me,
She's for everlasting scowlin' and she canna let me be.
Roud lumps this with "The Sporting Bachelors," and I cannot deny the close similarity in themes. But the two appear somewhat different in both form and emphasis. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH145

Scolding Wife (IV), The


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

Scolding Wife (V), The


DESCRIPTION: A weaver offers his loving but scolding wife to a captain. He tricks her onto the ship. The captain pays him fifty pounds. He bids her farewell on her trip to Virginia although she begs to be taken back "and I never will offend you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness abandonement wife sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #72, p. 2, "The Scolding Wife"; Greig #73, p. 3, ("The honest man, the honest man"); Greig #77, p. 1, "The Scolding Wife"; Greig #84, p. 3, "The Scolding Wife" (4 texts)
GreigDuncan7 1284, "The Scolding Wife" (8 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #2576
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sale of a Wife" (theme)
cf. "In Praise of John Magee" (theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "Danny Sim's Sow" (theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (tune, per GreigDuncan7)
cf. "The Jolly Farmer's Son" (tune, per GreigDuncan7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wiver an' His Wife
NOTES: GreigDuncan 1284A ends with some unspecified man, perhaps the captain, wedding her "and noo they live together Wi' neither sturt nor strife." This happy ending recalls "Sale of a Wife." - BS
For background on wife-selling, see the notes to "Sale of a Wife." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71284

Scornful Dame, The


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

Scornful Lover, The


See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

Scotch Lassie, The


See Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away; also Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament) (File: HHH230A)

Scotch Medley


DESCRIPTION: "Was ne'er in Scotlan' heard or seen Sic dancin an' deray As at Pattie's weddin' on the green Tae bonnie Mary Gray." The remaining seventeen verses string together people and things that are the names of songs: Maggie Lauder, Tullochgorum, ....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing drink music moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 605, "Scotch Medley" (1 text)
Roud #6053
NOTES: For similar works see broadsides Bodleian, Harding B 25(1742), "Scotch Medley" ("As I came in by Calder fair and yout[sic] the Tappard lee, man"), C. Croshaw (York), 1814-1850 and NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(28b), "Scotch Medley" ("Gae bring my guid auld harp ance mair"),unknown, c.1890. There is also a broadside posing as a letter, along the same lines at NLScotland, L.C.1268), "Letter from a Friend on a Journey to the North, to an inhabitant of Auld Reekie; being a curious and entertaining medly[sic] of Scotch Songs,"unknown, 1822. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3605

Scotch Wooing of Willy and Nanny, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears "a young man's lament" that "all the world shall never know the love I bear to Nanny O" He would rather have her than another and 5000 marks. He thinks about going to court her, going to bed with her and going to see her father.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting love sex nonballad father cards
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan4 919, "Some Delights in Cards and Dice" (3 fragments, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #106 pp. 247-248,328, "(As I Came in by Edinburgh Town)" [Not yet indexed as Hecht-Herd 106]
Roud #6242
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson a.57(24c)[many illegible words], "The Scotch Wooing of Willy and Nanny" ("As I went forth one morning fair"), P. Brooksby (London), 1672-1696; also Douce Ballads 2(194a) [many illegible words], "The Scotch Wooing of Willy and Nanny"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nannie O
NOTES: The GreigDuncan4 fragments are all a verse and chorus or less. The differences among the three are primarily the name of the girl: Nannie, Sandy, or Mary. The Nannie version begins "Some delights in cards and dice, And some delights in brandy O, Some delights in a red red rose, The colour o' my Nannie O." Here is the corresponding verse in "Willy and Nanny": "Some takes delight in cards and dice and other some in dancing O, But I take delight in a bonny lass and her name is called Nanny O."
Opie-Game points out that Ramsay "wrote a more sophisticated version" of this fragment: "While some for pleasure pawn their health, 'Twixt Lais and the Bagnio, I'll save myself, and without stealth, Kiss and caress my Nanny - O... I care not though the world know How dearly I love Nanny - O" (source: Allan Ramsay, The Poems of Allan Ramsay (London, 1800 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, 23, pp. 151-152, "Nanny O").
The GreigDuncan4 fragment reminds me of the fragments of "The Golden Vanity" and its parodies: "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice" (see references for "Louisiana Lowlands). A phrase containing "cards" and "dice" is also in "The Rantin' Laddie" (the singer says "Aften hae I playd at the cards and the dice, For the love of a bonie rantin laddie") and "The Sorrowful Maiden" (whose father "was so rash in his Spending ... At Cards and Dice"). Another reference is in the 1703 broadside "The Banishment of Poverty" ("I dought nor dance to pipe or harp, I had no stock for Cards and Dice")(source: NLScotland, APS.4.94.22).
The GreigDuncan4 fragment is also similar to "Some delight in cards and dice, And other some in brandy, O, But my delight's in a bonny lass, Her name is lovely Nannie, O, And aye he said my Nannie, O, My sweet and lovely Nannie, O, Nae friend nor foe shall ever know, The love I bear to Nannie O." The complete text is at James Hogg and William Motherwell, editors, The Works of Robert Burns (Glasgow, 1841 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 94-96, ("As I gaed down thro' Embro [Edinborough] toun"); Motherwell says the text "is taken from oral tradition" by Peter Buchan. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4919

Scotland's Burning


DESCRIPTION: "Scotland's burning, Scotland's burning, Look out, look out, Fire, fire, fire, fire, Pour on water, pour on water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 150, "Scotland's Burning" (1 text)
Linscott, p. 283, "Scotland's Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 412, "Scotland's Burning" (1 text)
Roud #3752
NOTES: No doubt some enterprising folklorist has attributed this to one or another of Scotland's various political crises (e.g. the period between the death of Alexander III and the accession of Robert the Bruce). Me, I think it's just a round. - RBW
File: FSWB412D

Scots Pipers, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer says when he dies "I'll hae nane o' yer mournin' an' weepin'." "Convene me a score o' Scots pipers." When David was young he learned to play [bagpipe] while herding sheep. When Saul was possessed David sent the spirit to hell with his drone.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: death music Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 699, "The Scots Pipers" (1 text)
Roud #6116
NOTES: David's instrument was of course the "harp" (so the King James translation of 1 Samuel 16:16) -- an instrument which probably more closely resembled a lyre (and is so translated in, e.g., the New Revised Standard Version). Although we do not know the exact construction of David's instrument certainly wasn't a wind instrument such as a bagpipe; it had strings.
We should note that there are two versions of the story of David taking service with Saul, squished together in 1 Samuel 16-18; in one (16:14-23), David is hired as a musician to soothe Saul when the latter was possessed by evil spirits (1 Samuel 16:14, 23) and only later kills Goliath. In the other account (found primarily in 1 Samuel 17:12-31, 17:55-18:6, though portions of it may have been mixed with the material in 1 Samuel 17:1-11, 17:32-54), we have clearly a folktale independent of the more official account, in which David chances to be visiting Saul's army at the time of the fight with Goliath, and kills Goliath and only *then* enters Saul's service. Both accounts, to be sure, make David a shepherd (17:15 and 17:34), although in the version in 17:34, he had long since given up being a shepherd.
(If you want proof that the 1 Samuel story is conflate, note that the earliest substantial Greek translation of 1 Samuel, in the Codex Vaticanus, omits the folktale version. Amazingly, both the omitted text and the text Vaticanus includes tell *complete stories of Saul, David, and Goliath* -- extremely unlikely if some editor had simply been cutting out material. The material omitted in Vaticanus has every token of folktale -- e.g. Goliath taunts Saul's army for "forty days," as if the army could stay in place for that long. There is no question in my mind that it is a folktale added to the text of 1 Samuel at some time after the original composition.)
It is worth noting that, although David initially was successful in soothing Saul with his music, eventually Saul tried to kill David even while he was playing (1 Samuel 18:10-11). What this says about music and its effect on spirits I'm not sure. It is notable that we have other instances of prophets requiring music to summon the "spirit" of prophecy -- in particular Elisha in 2 Kings 3:15. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3699

Scots Soldiers True


DESCRIPTION: "Scots soldiers true, with bonnets blue ... made the French to run" at Waterloo. Bonaparte had been "haunted" by the Scots Greys in Spain and at Waterloo. Now Napoleon is dead and "Louise-Philippe and Britain's Queen Oft have an interview"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: battle France Spain Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan1 154, "The Battle of Waterloo" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5825
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(284), "Scots Soldiers True" ("Scots soldiers true, with bonnets blue"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Our Brave Scotch Lads" (shares first verse lines)
NOTES: GreigDuncan1 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Firth c.14(284) is the basis for the description. - BS
The reference to the Highlanders and Scots Greys at Waterloo is accurate; David Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon, (Macmillan, 1966), notes that the Scots Greys were in Wellington's army. They were among the forces who opposed the first French attack, launched by d'Erlon's corps.
I find myself wondering what is the purpose of this song, for it cannot have been written in the period immediately after Waterloo. After Napoleon's abdication, France was ruled by the restored Bourbons, first Louis XVIII (1814-1815 and 1815-1824) and then Charles X (1824-1830). Only after Charles X's abdication did Louis-Phillippe of the House of Orleans ascend the throne, reigning 1830-1848, when revolution forced him to abbicate also (clearing the way for Napoleon III). The presumption, then, is that the Queen of the song is Victoria (reigned 1837-1901). So the song in its broadside form must date from the period 1837-1848.
The charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo was long remembered, however. In addition to this poem, there is a famous painting, "Scotland for Ever," about the event. It was painted by Lady Butler in 1881. John Keegan, The Face of Battle Viking Press, 1976 (I use the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition) includes a reproduction after p. 178, and notes that Lady Butler, whose husband was a general, actually convinced her husband to stage a cavalry charge at her so she could paint it accurately -- but Keegan says the painting is inaccurate even so. But, of course, what matters is that Lady Butler still found the event inspiring 66 years after Waterloo. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1154

Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn)


DESCRIPTION: "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed Or to victory!" As the English army of Edward approaches, the Scots are encouraged to "do or dee" to retain their freedom
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Currie)
KEYWORDS: battle Scotland war freedom political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1286 - Death of Alexander III of Scotland
1290 - Death of his granddaughter Margaret "Maid of Norway"
1292 - Edward I of England declares John Balliol king of Scotland
1296 - Edward deposes John Balliol
1297 - William Wallace, the Guardian of Scotland, defeats the English at Stirling Bridge
1298 - Edward defeats Wallace at Falkirk. Wallace forced into hiding
1305 - Capture and execution of Wallace (August 23)
1306 - Robert Bruce declares himself king of Scotland
1307 - Death of Edward I
1314 - Battle of Bannockburn. Robert Bruce defeats Edward II of England and regains Scottish independence
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 299, "Scots Wha Ha'e Wi' Wallace Bled" (1 text)
DT, SCOTWHAE*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #425, pp. 561-562, "Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn" (1 text, from 1793)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.169(138), "Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled," J. Pitts (London), 1820-1845; also L.C.Fol.70(47a), "Scots wha hae," unknown (London)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Day of Waterloo" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Day of Waterloo (Ord, p. 303)
NOTES: Titled, in Currie's publication, "Bruce to his Troops on the eve of the Battle of Bannock-burn."
The "Wallace" of the first line is of course William Wallace, the hero of "Gude Wallace" [Child 157], who had fought for Scottish independence after the British King Edward I had deposed John Balliol, the "Toom Tabard" (Magnusson, pp. 132-134, who however points out that many of the contemporary stories about Wallace are nonsense). Wallace's power was broken after the Battle of Falkirk (Magnusson, pp. 141-145), and Edward I eventually captured him and executed him with extreme torture (Magnusson, pp. 153-157).
Then, far too late, Robert Bruce asserted his claim to the throne -- with John Balliol considered to have abdicated, and his heirs thus disbarred, Bruce was the most logical successor. He finally made his claim in 1306. Edward I stormed north, but died in July 1307, never having caught up with the Bruce (Magnusson, p. 174). It was not until seven years late that his son Edward II took a large force north to try to regain Scotland.
By the time of Bannockburn, the Scots had been struggling against the English for twenty years, with relatively slight success overall. It was not the accession of Robert Bruce that turned the tide, but rather the death of Edward I. (Ashley, p. 3, speculates in fact that Robert Bruce started his rebellion in 1306 because Edward I clearly couldn't last much longer and his son was not in his league.) Edward I's successor, Edward II, was much weaker. When Edward II finally was induced to fight the Scots, he did little more than throw his troops at Bruce's army, leading to a catastrophic and unnecessary defeat.
Although Bannockburn was more Edward's loss than Bruce's victory, it became the defining event in the Scottish story, and hence the inspiration for this poem of Burns's (though there is no reason to think Bruce ever said anything like this, with the single exception noted below).
According to Brander, p. 30, the line, "Now's the time and now's the hour" actually goes back to the battle. As Robert Bruce was trying to decide whether to fight, a Scottish deserter from the English camp came in and gave him that advice. Bruce fought -- and of course won Scottish independence. Obviously this has the strong feeling of folklore -- but certainly it inspired Burns.
To be sure, Burns was writing about more than just Scottish history. Norman Buchan, in the article "Folk and Protest" printed in Cowan, declares, "This was not written about Bruce and Bannockburn at all; it was written precisely and specifically about much more dangerous events, 'struggles,' in Burns'[s] words, 'not quite so ancient.' He was referring... to the trials of the Friends of the People, of Thomas Muir, Palmer, Gerraed, Skirving and Margarot."
The tune of this piece is called "Hey Tuttie Taitie" by Burns, and Brander, p. 33, says that it was "traditionally supposed to have been the tune of Bruce's battle march." - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: FSWB299

Scow Jean La Plante, De


DESCRIPTION: "I'll tol' of wan boat, de scow Jean La Plante, She's sail by Batteece, a Frenchman so quaint...." Her crew is captain, mate, cooke, and dog. They race the Flying Cloud, and win when the latter snags a fishing line. A barrel of powder explodes the boat
AUTHOR: James J. Enright? (supposedly written 1867)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Detroit Free Press)
KEYWORDS: humorous racing cook dog ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 161-162, "De Scow Jean La Plante" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rosie Belle Teeneau" (main character)
NOTES: It is not clear to me that this poem/song is traditional. Walton's version is from print, and there is no mention of having heard even a portion of it from tradition. But the notes imply that the legend of Batteece and the gunpowder is traditional -- indeed, there is another poem about him, ""The Rosie Belle Teeneau," which involves a different boat and a different voyage but has a "Captain Batteece DuChene" and ends with the boat blowing up. This probably isn't folk song. It may be folk tale. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: WGM161

Scow Look 'n' See, De


DESCRIPTION: "A scow kom sailin' down Lac Sainte Claire, Sheengle an' cordwood she's deck load ware." In a storm, the cordwood floats away. The captain worries about losing profit and his boat. He gives impossible orders to control the boat and save the cargo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (collected from Fred M. Delano by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship humorous hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 162-164, "De Scow Look 'n' See" (1 text)
File: WGM162

Scow Nettie Fly, The


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, sailor, come gather and list to my ditty, To picture aright this hero I'll try. He seldom was sober... He's Captain Poulan of the scow Nellie Fly." In a storm, he drinks. He gives orders to the mate; both take a drink. When they arrive, he drinks
AUTHOR: supposedly Ralph Chene and other rivermen in the 1880s
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Ralph Chene by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship drink humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 164-165, "De Scow Nettie Fly" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 40, #2 (1995), p, 93, "The Scow Nettie Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Walton gives no tune for this, but I strongly suspect it's "The Cumberland Crew."
The notes in Sing Out! (which transcribes Lee Murdock's version) do not say where the tune came from; the implication is that it's from the Walton collection, but I assume Murdock supplied it. It is not "The Cumberland Crew." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: WGM164

Scow on Cowden's Shore, The


See The Scow on the Cowden Shore (File: Doe234)

Scow on the Cowden Shore, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer (expressly identified as Larry Gorman) sings of "the scow on the Cowden shore." He describes the international crew of loggers, including several of the more peculiar characters, and speaks of the quest for liquor
AUTHOR: words: Larry Gorman/music & additional words: Willis Norrad
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: logger drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doerflinger, pp. 234-236, "The Scow on the Cowden Shore" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Manny/Wilson 42, "The Scow on Cowden Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 180-182, "The Scow on Cowden's Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe234 (Partial)
Roud #4529
NOTES: During log drives, the boss of the drive, the cook, and other non-participants would usually follow the logs in scows. Since the boat carried their provisions, the logdrivers were often highly alert to its progress. - RBW
"Cowden Shore was part of the Cowden farm, where Scottish immigrants of that name settled in the early nineteenth century.... Cowden Shore was conveniently near the Sou'West Boom, where the logs driven down the [Southwest Miramichi River] were stored, awaiting distribution to their owners." - BS
File: Doe234

Scow Sam Patch, The


See Yim Yonson (File: WGM166)

Scranky Black Farmer, The


DESCRIPTION: "At the top o' the Garioch, in the lands o' Leith-hall, A cranky black farmer in Earlsfield did dwall; Wi' him I engaged a servant to be...." The singer describes the weary work and the bad company; when his time is up, he intends to return to the seaside
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: work farming hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #89, pp. 1-2, "The Scranky Black Farmer" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 357, "The Scranky Black Farmer" (7 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord, pp. 213-214, "The Scranky Black Farmer" (1 text)
Roud #2872
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Gap o' the Garioch
At The Tap o' the Garioch
NOTES: GreigDuncan3: "The farmer is named as William Ironside at Gm 2.23dm and as Daniel Skinner at Gm 1.80c. William Ironside farmed at Earlsfield till 1863 and Daniel Skinner from then until 1882."
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Earlsfield (357) is at coordinate (h3,v5-6) on that map [roughly 28 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord213

Scratch o' a Cat, The


DESCRIPTION: "The reason o' that was the scratch o' a cat, And I canna but lauch when I tell you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1782, "The Scratch o' a Cat" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #12991
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment. - BS
This sounds to me like the ending of a cumulative tall tale (along the lines of "For want of a nail...."), but that's just a feeling. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81782

Screwing In Song


DESCRIPTION: "Before I work for a dollar a day. Down below, wey-hey, hey-hey. Grease my screws and put 'em away, Down below, wey-hey, hey-hey"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith/Hatt, p. 45, "Screwing In Song" (1 text)
Roud #9416
NOTES: Smith/Hatt: "Cargoes were pressed down ... by screws." - BS
File: SmHa045

Scripture in the Nursery


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

Scrubber Murphy


DESCRIPTION: "Srubber Murphy was the captain of a steamer called Mohawk, And Scurbber is the scrubber about whom all sailors talk." In 1905 Murphy took command and set the sailors cleaning. The ship has a collision, but all Murphy cares about is his dog and scrubbing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected by Walton from Malcolm Graham)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes wreck ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 92-95, "Scrubber Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Ivan Watson, "Scrubber Murphy" (fragment, 1938; on WaltonSailors)
NOTES: According to the notes in Walton/Grimm/Murdock, the recording on WaltonSailors came about because Walton was testing his recording equipment. His version seemed to be to the tune of "The Gallant Forty-Twa." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: WGM092

Sea Apprentice, The


DESCRIPTION: "When I first went a sea-apprentice bound, I sailed the salt seas all round and round." The singer falls in love with Anne. The captain calls him foolish; she will take another while he is at sea. But he offers her tokens, and she promises to wait
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig #64, p. 1, "The Apprentice Sailor" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 54, "The Apprentice Sailor" (11 texts, 8 tunes)
SHenry H739, p. 291, "The Sea Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 107, "The Prentice Boy" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 575-578, "A Prentice Boy in Love" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-NovaScotia 139, "Prentice Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 579, PRENTICE
Roud #1671
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Apprentice Sailor" (on IRRCinnamond03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Doffin' Mistress" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Doffin' Mistress (File: K220)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonny Anne
The Apprentice Boy
The Sailor Boy
NOTES: The Digital Tradition version of this song, from Creighton, is listed as Laws M12, but it appears to be this song (Creighton also has a version of Laws M12, which may explain the confusion). - RBW.
Last updated in version 2.4
File: HHH739

Sea Captain (II), The


See The Maid on the Shore (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain) [Laws K27] (File: LK27)

Sea Captain and the Squire, The [Laws Q12]


DESCRIPTION: The captain leaves his new bride to be seduced by a squire. The night the captain returns, all the women of the house give birth. The wife explains her state (the male servants had impregnated the maids); her captain forgives her (!) "for the joke's sake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: seduction pregnancy separation adultery
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws Q12, "The Sea Captain and the Squire"
GreigDuncan7 1502, "The Blanket Curant" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Combs/Wilgus 121, pp. 138-140, "There Was a Sea Captain" (1 text)
DT 734, SEACAPT SEACAPT2
Roud #947
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, APS.4.86.3, "The Sea Captain," unknown, after 1820
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A War Bird's Burlesque" (plot)
NOTES: In the NLScotland broadside the returned Captain explains that on the night of her indiscretion he had a "jovial" time at the corrant [dance] and that, when in the West Indies, "I met with a lady her beauty shone clear, I asked her the question she did not deny it, And for the same favour I gave her a boy." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LQ12

Sea Crab, The


DESCRIPTION: A man stows a crab (lobster) in the chamber pot while his wife is asleep. She gets up to relieve herself; the crab grabs her "by the flue." He seeks to free her; the crab grabs his nose. Caught in this predicament, they send for a doctor to free them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1620 (Percy Folio Manuscripts)
KEYWORDS: animal bawdy humorous husband injury marriage
FOUND IN: Canada (Ont) Britain(England,Scotland) US (Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Cray, pp. 1-4, "The Sea Crab" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 66-73, "The Sea Crab" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp-100E 77, "The Crabfish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 196, "The Crab-Fish" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan7 1277, "The Jolly Minister" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 277-278, "Whiskey Johnny" (2 texts, version "D" of "Whiskey Johnny) [AbEd, p. 206]
Logsdon 52, pp. 245-248, "The Sea Crab" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CRAYPOT, SHECRAB
ST EM001 (Full)
Roud #149
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cod Fish Song"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Crayfish
The Fishy Crab
The Lobster
The Old She-Crab
NOTES: This is one of the oldest of English language traditional ballads. F.J. Child deliberately excluded it from his canonical ESPB, presumably because of its indelicate nature. - EC
Kennedy says of this piece, "...it seems likely to be either French in origin or in imitation of French balladry (at any rate this is a chance to disown it as an English composition)." - RBW
Sharp's version differs from the canonical one in several ways, aside from having been cleaned up. The main theme of the song is that the woman is sick, and craves the crab, so the man goes and buys one. She goes to smell it, and it bites her, then him. Same song, very different emphasis. -PJS
The GregDuncan7 fragment is so brief ("There was a jolly minister, he had a jolly wife, He loved her, he loved her, he loved her as his life, Bawker oodle ....") that I'm not sure it belongs here. It does come close to the beginning of Sharp-100E 77: ("There was a little man and he had a little wife, And he loved her as dear as he loved his life. Mash-a row ..."). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: EM001

Sea Ghost, The


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

Sea Gulls and Crickets


DESCRIPTION: Famine threatens Mormon pioneers in the winter of 1849; spring brings new shoots, but crickets sweep down "like fog on a British coast." The pioneers battle them in vain, but flocks of seagulls arrive and devour the crickets; the harvest is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, L. M. Hilton)
KEYWORDS: rescue farming harvest disaster animal bird bug pioneer settler
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
Roud #10833
RECORDINGS:
L. M. Hilton, "Sea Gulls and Crickets" (on Hilton01)
File: RecSgaC

Sea Song (I've Seen the Sea as Blue as Air)


DESCRIPTION: The singer has seen the sea "as blue as air," "green as grass," "black as pitch," and "white as snow" but "never feared its raving yet From Yarmouth to the Bass" or "heaving yet Let the wind blow high or low"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: sea nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan1 8, "Sea Song" (1 text)
Roud #5800
File: GrD1008

Sea-Longing


See An Iounndrain-Mhara (Sea-Longing) (File: K011)

Sea-Song, A


See Britannia on Our Lee (File: SWMS049)

Sea-Tangle, The


See An Sgeir-Mhara (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman) (File: K003)

Sea, The


DESCRIPTION: "The sea, the sea, the open sea, The blue, the fresh, the ever-free, Without a mark, without a bound..." "I love, oh how I love to ride On the fierce foaming bursting tide...." The old seaman looks back on a tumultuous but happy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal by William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: sailor sea nonballad age
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 63-64, "The Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2019
NOTES: To me this looks like a professional piece which Histed copied down in his journal for some reason. But Huntington's notes left me with just enough doubt to include the song here. - RBW
File: SWMS063

Seaboard Air Line


DESCRIPTION: "Seaboard Air Line Never on time; At half past nine Your headlight shines; In all my dreams Your whistle screams; You are the idol of my heart, Seaboard Air Line."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: train love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 238, "Seaboard Air Line" (1 short text)
Roud #15773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Adeline" (tune)
File: Br3238

Seagull of the Land-Under-Waves, The


See Snow Gull (File: KFrI084)

Sealchie Song, The


See The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry [Child 113] (File: C113)

Sealer Lad, The (The Fisherman's Son to the Ice is Gone)


DESCRIPTION: "The sealer lad from his home is gone, On board his ship you'll find him." The singer recalls the good old days of sealing, noting that now a load of seals "scarce pays Alfred's duty." He hopes the rich man at home will not longer profit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Burke & Oliver)
KEYWORDS: hunting hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 69, "The Sealer Lad" (1 text); compare p. 134, "The Fisherman's Son to the Ice is Gone" (1 text)
NOTES: No tune is indicated for this, but the form strongly implies "The Minstrel Boy."
Since the first publication is in Burke and Oliver's The People's Songster, Buyers' Guide and Gems of Poetry and Prose, there is a good chance it's by John Burke.
The second text cited from Ryan/Small, "The Fisherman's Son to the Ice is Gone," slightly changes the occupation of the hero, and is much shorter -- but the two are clearly adaptions of each other. Either they're traditional, and one song, or, more likely, they aren't traditional, and might as well be lumped. - RBW
File: RySm069

Sealer's Call


DESCRIPTION: "I must go up to the ice again, To the fields of purest white." The singer, though his hair has turned white, still hears the call of the seal, and will return to the work even though the pay is small, the cold terrible, and the comforts few
AUTHOR: Solomon Samson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (A Glimpse of Newfoundlad in Poetry and Pictures)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship travel work nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 14, "The Sealer's Call" (1 text)
NOTES: Not traditional that I can tell, and not a song either. Just one of those things editors inflict upon songbooks.
This seems clearly based on John Masefield's "Sea Fever" ("I must go down to the sea again, To the lonely sea and sky"), which has inspired other localizations as well. - RBW
File: RySm014

Sealer's Love Letter, A


DESCRIPTION: "Dear Miss: -- I know I can't mail this; Forgive me, it's all I can do, Out here at the ice-fields in Winter... For it's Easter good wishes I'm sending." He recalls leaving her to work as a sealer, compares their lives, and sends good wishes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 91, "A Sealer's Love Letter" (1 text)
File: RySm091

Sealer's Reply to His Wife, A


DESCRIPTION: "Now that March month has come, And spring's in the air, The old seals are swimming Up North to their lair... So Maggie my darling I must leave you alone." The old sealer explains to his wife the lure of the seal hunt, and promises to stay home someday
AUTHOR: Solomon Samson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (A Glimpse of Newfoundland in Poetry and Pictures)
KEYWORDS: hunting age
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 153, "A Sealer's Reply to His Wife" (1 text)
NOTES: Explained as a 60-year-old sealer's answer when his wife tried to keep him from going to the ice. - RBW
File: RySm153

Sealer's Song (I)


DESCRIPTION: "The Block House Flag is up today to welcome home the stranger." The sealing fleet is returning. The ships are named, their feats recounted [how they "kill their foe"," i.e. the seals], and they go home to parties and dancing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle)
KEYWORDS: bragging return hunting ship party dancing humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle3, pp. 52-53, "Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 73-74, "The Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small, pp. 33-34, "Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doyl3052 (Partial)
Roud #7307
NOTES: A very widely cited song, though the author is unknown. The list of captains mentioned implies a date in the period between 1865 and 1880. For Captain William Jackman, see "Captain William Jackman, A Newfoundland Hero." Chafe reports that Captain Bowman later became a member of the House of Assembly. - RBW
File: Doyl3052

Sealer's Song (II), The


DESCRIPTION: "The Terra Nova, Captain Kean, With two hundred and three men, Went through the gap this morning To try their luck again." A total of 20 ships and captains set out for the ice. The singer hopes they all return safely and with large loads of seals
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship moniker nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 79, "The Sealer's Song" (1 text\)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full" (ships)
cf. "Arrival of the 'Grand Banks' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips" (ships)
cf. "Arrival of 'Aurora,' Diana,' 'Virginia Lake' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded" (ships)
NOTES: Although this deals with the same subject, and even some of the same ships, as "The Sealer's Song (I)," the two are clearly distinct: This deals with the departure of the ship, that with their return. - RBW
File: RySm079

Sealer's Strike of 1902, The (The Sealers Gained the Strike)


DESCRIPTION: "Attention, all ye fishermen, and read this ballad down, And hear about the sealer's strike the other day in town." The sealers, led by "brave Colloway," unite and present their demands. A. B. Morine secures their demands
AUTHOR: probably Johnny Burke
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung by the Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: ship hunting strike labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 8, 1902 - Beginning of the Sealer's Strike
Mar 12, 1902 - Sealers' demands granted
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 64, "The Sealer's Strike of 1902"; p. 63, "The Sealers Gained the Strike" (2 texts); also p. 66, "The Luck Went With the Sealers Since Brave Colloway Led the Strike" (1 text, a sequel to the above)
NOTES: Although all sources for this are printed and literary, the divergences between the two texts in Ryan and Small may imply oral transmission. Murphy seemingly was unaware of the attribution to Burke. - RBW
File: RySm064

Sealers Gained the Strike, The


See The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike) (File: RySm064)

Sealers of Newfoundland, The


DESCRIPTION: "Ho! We be the Sealers of Newfoundland! We clear from a snowy shore, Out into the gale with our steam and sail...." The singer describes life on a sealing voyage, and tells how tough the sealers are -- and how they rejoice to return home
AUTHOR: George Allan England
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 108, "The Sealers of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RySm108

Sealers of Twillingate and New World Island, The


DESCRIPTION: The poet recalls the hardships faced by the sealers of 1862, then turns to the modern hunt, as SPCA planes fly overhead. He warns against actual interference with the hunt, and declares seal hunting both good commerce and a good source of food
AUTHOR: John C. Loveridge
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Loveridge, Story in Pictures and Poetry of the 1973 Seal Hunt....)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal political nonballad technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, pp. 150-151, "The Sealers of Twillingate and New World Island" (1 text)
NOTES: Despite this song's vicious and inflated rhetoric, seal hunting has of course been restricted in the last 30 years -- in part because of opposition from animal rights' groups, but mostly because the sealers have destroyed the seal populations, and have been forced to cut back to preserve the herds.
Seals were indeed an important food source to the Newfoundland fishermen -- and even more to the Inuit. According to Bob Bartlett (who should know; see his biography under "Captain Bob Bartlett"), "The seal is the one indispensible animal of the Arctic. The flesh is by no means disagreeable, though it has a general flavor of fish, which constitutes the seal's chief food" (see p. 54 of The Last Voyage of the Karluk, as told to Ralph T. Hale; published 1916; now available with a new introduction by Edward E. Leslie as The Karluk's Last Voyage). - RBW- RBW
File: RySm150

Sealers, The [Laws D10]


DESCRIPTION: Four ships set out to seal. After a four day voyage, they arrive at the ice. On their very first day they take nine hundred pelts. Having filled their quota, they head for home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: ship work hunting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Laws D10, "The Sealers"
DT 613, SEALERS
Roud #2234
File: LD10

Sealers' Ball, The


DESCRIPTION: The sealers get their money at the wharf, more at the store, and "a couple of gallons" on Saturday evening. After the dance Jack Burke's girl was with Jim McGee. When their fight was over "they found the lady she'd a-gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting fight hunting shore dancing drink party humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 94-95, "The Sealers' Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small, pp. 123-124, "The Sealer's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea094 (Partial)
Roud #9957
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Be Ye Much of a Hand Aboard a Vessel
File: Pea094

Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier, The


DESCRIPTION: The song chronicles the life of sealers traveling from Twillingate to St. John's then north to the ice fields for seals. Miscellaneous mishaps and achievements are told during the song and many names and factual information mentioned.
AUTHOR: (supposedly the whole crew in question)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: sea travel hunting
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 123, "The Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle2, pp. 14-15, "The Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 76-77, "The Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small, pp. 126-128, "The Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doy14 (Partial)
Roud #7308
NOTES: The cruise in question is reported to have taken place from March 10 to April 25, 1929.
Very formulaic introduction of the "come-all-ye" variety with the singer assuring that he will neither "offend" the listener or run too long. [This even though Doyle's version runs 16 verses! - RBW] This is a very typical humble attitude of singers from Newfoundland as shown in many songs. - SH
File: Doy14

Sealing Fifty Years Ago


DESCRIPTION: "'Four hundred sail of shipping fine Could then be seen at anchor Awaiting time to fall in line And for a sou'west spanker." Fifty years ago, they caught 600,000 seals a year; now, they catch half as much "with hearts not half so gay."
AUTHOR: James Murphy
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (The Duke of York Songster and Christmas Advertiser)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad hardtimes recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 63, "Sealing Fifty Years Ago" (1 text)
File: RySm063

Sealing Fleet, The


DESCRIPTION: "What means this hurrying to and fro -- This busy stirring scene? "This scene laid now before you Is not of war or strife But 'tis a fight of honest men... They go to catch the northern seal...." The sealers are described; the singer wishes them well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (The Newfoundland Express)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad orphan
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 135, "" (1 text, apparently to the tune "Garryowen")
File: RySm135

Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891, The


DESCRIPTION: "All ye who love old Newfoundland And her Sons who plow the sea... I will sing to you A song about the Greenland And her hardy sailing crew." The singer praises Captain Henry Dawe, describes the efficient steamer, and tells of a good seal hunt
AUTHOR: unknown (said to be by "one of her crew")
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Harbour Grace Standard)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, pp. 35-36, "The Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RySm035

Seaman and His Love, A (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29]


DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a girl wailing for her love, gone these seven years at sea. He offers a token from her love, saying he is dead and she should marry whoever carries it. She says she will mourn forever. The stranger reveals himself as her missing love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1620 (Stationer's Register -- apparently)
KEYWORDS: love separation brokentoken
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws N29, "A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor)"
Gardner/Chickering 53, "A Seaman and His Love" (1 text)
SHenry H581, pp. 318-319, "The Love Token" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 530-533, "Jimmy and Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 58, "Down by the Seaside" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 77, "The Valiant Seaman's Happy Return to His Love, After a Long Seven Years' Absence" (1 text, presented as traditional though it includes references to Hero and Leander, "Ulisses" and Penelope, and Dido and Aeneas. Presumably it is a broadside reworking of a traditional text, this being the best candidate for the original)
BBI, ZN2883, "When Sol could cast no light"; ZN2884, "When Sol did cast no light"
DT 763, SEAMLOVE
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #189, ("The Sailors") (1 text)
Roud #604
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(236a), "The Valiant Sea-Mans Happy Return to His Love, After a Long Seven Years Absence," P. Brooksby (London), 1672-1696; also Wood E 25(153), "The Valiant Sea-Mans Happy Return to His Love, After a Long Seven Years Absence"; Douce Ballads 2(237b), "The Valiant Seamans Happy Return to His Love, After a Long Seven Years Absence"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there, especially N34
SAME TUNE:
"I Am So Deep In Love" or "Through the Cool Shady Woods" (per broadsides Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(236a), Bodleian Wood E 25(153), Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(237b))
NOTES: Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(236a) broadside seems to be the version cited above for PBB 77; the theme and some lines match Creighton-Maritime but, as the comment for PBB 77 notes, there are a lot of additional frills.
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 Love Token" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: LN29

Seaman of Plymouth, The


DESCRIPTION: A sailor must go to sea before he can wed Susan. When she refuses to marry a rich man, her parents send her to Holland. The sailor, now rich, accidentally meets her; they return home; she disguises herself from her parents and they are wed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Brown)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A sailor and beautiful Susan are to wed, but she becomes sick; he is forced to sail away. While he is gone, her parents try to wed her to a rich man; when she refuses, they send her to Holland. The sailor returns, having become rich, and is told she is dead. He sails away in grief, is shipwrecked in Holland, meets her, and they return home to wed. The girl arrives in disguise; her parents continue their play-acting. At last she reveals herself, and all ends happily
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor separation betrayal money disguise reunion marriage trick
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Brown, pp. 141-147, "The Seaman of Plymouth" (1 text, 1 tune, very long and quite clumsy; there is probably a broadside version in its very recent ancestry)
ST FlBr141 (Partial)
Roud #2811
File: FlBr141

Seaman's Lament, The


DESCRIPTION: "My seafaring comrades, attend to my lay, For death, that grim reaper, has taken away The fair Emmett Gallagher...." The Clifton leaves shore and encounters a storm. It tears open the Clifton. The singer tells of the sadness of relatives left behind
AUTHOR: Probably Frank McCauley
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (scrapbook of Charles C. Allers, according to Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship disaster death family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 21/22, 1924 - Loss of the _Clifton_
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 180-181, "The Seaman's Lament" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Clifton Tragedy" (subject: The Clifton Wreck) and references and notes there
File: WGM180

Seamen's Union, The


DESCRIPTION: "We are a band of seamen, A jolly, jolly crew, As ever sailed the ocean Or wore the jackets blue." "We are a band of seamen With a password and a sign (sign?)." Their banner shows shamrock, rose, and thistle. The singer offers a toast to sailors and girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (collected from Henry McConnell by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, p. 114, "The Seamen's Union" (1 short text)
File: WGM114

Sean a Duir a'Ghleanna


DESCRIPTION: The first verse describes an unsuccessful fox hunt: "for royalty is banished" Sean meets beautiful Anna who invites him to "take compassion" He takes off his beaver hat and, answering her invitation, introduces himself as "a Galway man by extraction"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(149b))
KEYWORDS: courting beauty hunting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn 81, "Sean a Duir a'Ghleanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(149b), "John Adwire Anglanna," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(4385), "John Adwire Anglanna"; 2806 b.9(41), 2806 b.11(44), Harding B 19(42), "John O'Dwyer-a-Glana"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "After Aughrim's Great Disaster" (form)
NOTES: The name of the song in both OLochlainn and the Bodleain broadsides is from the last line: "I'm a Galway man by extraction, bred in Connamara, And [song title] they call me by name." It's easiest to find versions from the first line which is always close to "One morning I started From the arms of Morpheus."
The ornate descriptions and the ending with an introduction to a beautiful woman remind me of Thomas Moore's "Rich and Rare Were The Gems She Wore." Adding to my suspicion that there is more nationalism coded here than I understand is the OLochlainn note that 'the late Canon Sheehan wrote a fine song "After Aughrim's great disaster" founded on this ballad.'
In this connection see the Mudcat Cafe threads re "After Aughrim's Great Disaster" and "Sean O'Duibhir A Ghleanna." The text of "Sean O Duibhir An Ghleanna" ("Sean O'Dwyer of the Glen") listed there is either the source or derivative of this song and is clearly a song of desperation; the source there is Danny Spooner and Mick Farrell 'In Limbo and Other Songs and Places' Anthology AR003. The text of "After Aughrim's Great Disaster" refers to the battle of July 12, 1691: "Ah, Sean o Duibhir an Ghleanna, we were worsted in the game." - BS
File: OLoc081

Sean Treacy


DESCRIPTION: "We often heard our fathers tell How in the Fenian times The noblest of Tipperary's sons Imprisoned spent their lives." The police pursue Treacy; he kills two before being slain himself. The song reports, "He died for Ireland free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion police death IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 14, 1920 - death of Sean Treacy (Tracey)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
PGalvin, pp. 65-66, "Sean Treacy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tipperary Far Away" (subject: the death of Treacy)
cf. "The Station of Knocklong" (for other activities of Treacy)
NOTES: This English-language song conclude with the ironic words, "In our Gaelic tongue we'll tell our sons How brave Sean Treacy died."
It might be more interesting to start by telling why Treacy was pursued. According to the distinctly pro-Irish historian Calton Younger, p. 85,"Two Irish policement were shot dead at Soloheadbeg, on January 21st, 1919....
"[E]ight men of the south Tipperary Brigade of what was soon to be widely known as the Irish Republican Army... lay in ambush for five days waiting for a cart of gelignite [or 'blasting gelatine' -- nitroglycerine plus collodion, a shapable high explosive created by Alfred Nobel].
"[T]he car was guarded by two unwary constables, MacDonnell and O'Connell.... [Both] were popular enough in the district. With them were two employees of the South Tipperary County Council.... [They] were shot down by Sean Treacy, second-in-command of the South Tipperary Brigade."
Kee, p. 58, says of the reaction to this incident, "The two Irish constables, both Catholics, one a widower with four children, were very popular locally and had never had any connection with political prosecutions. Their deaths aroused widespread indication and horror, and there was a poignant moment at the inquest when one of McDonnell's sons asked if they had been given any time to surrender the explosives or if they had had a dog's chance."
It may be that the two made an attempt at resistance. But there is no question: Treacy was a terrorist. Fighting for an Irish republic, but a terrorist. He certainly aimed high, trying to plan an assassination of the Lord Lieutenant (OxfordCompanion, p. 550). In fact, in Younger's view at least, he was the prototype "freedom fighter"/militant: "[Treacy and Dan Breen] were the first to steel themselves to kill, to acquire the kind of mentality that men must acquire to win freedom" (p. 87).
The popular reaction was less positive. Kee p. 58 adds, "The action was condemned as a crime at the masses throughout Tipperary the following Sunday and the Archbishop of Cashel in Thurles Cathedral proclaimed it an offense against the law of God.... [A]nother cleric, Monsignor Ryan, cried, 'God help poor Ireland if she follows this deed of blood.'
"Nevertheless,in spite of an offer of [a thousand pound reward], the killers were able to vanish without a trace until an even more sensational appearance three months later."
Their bloody work did have some effect. Kee, p. 59, notes, "[t]heir objects were often more successfully served by the British authorities' reaction to Volunteer exploits than by the military results of the exploits themselves." Which, of course, is exactly what happened with the Easter Rebellion, too: The Irish despised the initial rebellious act, but despised the severe British response even more.
After many months on the run for this and other incidents (see also the notes to "The Station of Knocklong" and "Tipperary Far Away"), Treacy finally died in a shoot-out with police. He was 25 years old.
According to Younger, p. 121, "they had caught up with him, bringing an armoured car and two lorry loads of auxiliaries." Treacy opened fire, killing at least two of the attackers; they responded with machine gun fire, killing Treacy and two bystanders.
Younger adds that the woman "who identified his body saw that it had been impeccably laid out, and a soldier on guard gave her a lock of Treacy's hair." But Younger does not cite a single source with regard to the death of Treacy; I wonder if parts of his account, incluing the hair, might not be taken from this song and "Tipperary Far Away" (which mentions the hair business).
Kee, p. 116, adds that he "easily became a hero as legendary as Cuchulain." And yet, of eight histories I consulted, Kee is the only one to mention Treacy in three contexts (Knocklong, Soloheadbeg, and his death). One mentions Soloheadbeg and his death, two mention only Soloheadbeg (one of them mentioning him also in his role as part of the hit squad led by Michael Collins), one tells of Knocklong, and the rest don't mention him at all. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: PGa065

Seanduine Doighte, An


See The Burnt-Out Old Fellow [An Seanduine Doighte] (File: K045)

Search and Rescue, The


DESCRIPTION: On August 14, 1955, Daniel Morris and his wife are cod fishing off Souris. The engine dies. They anchor off Cape Spry's rocks in a heavy wind. They are finally rescued by two Mounties, Leonard MacDonald, and his big engine boat.
AUTHOR: Mrs. Dan Morris
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: rescue fishing sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 27-29, "The Search and Rescue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12476
NOTES: Souris is in the northeast corner of Kings, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: Dib027

Searching for Lambs


DESCRIPTION: A young man meets a girl and asks her where she is going. She is going to feed her father's "tender lambs." He begs her to stay with him. They court for long. (He hopes that) they marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: sheep courting marriage love
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sharp-100E 48, "Searching for Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H548, p. 341, "One Morning Clear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 474, SRCHLAMB
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 43, "Searching for Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LO09A (Partial)
Roud #576
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Branded Lambs" [Laws O9] (theme)
NOTES: For the rather vexed relationship of this song with "Branded Lambs" [Laws O9], see the notes to that song. - RBW
File: LO09A

Searching for Young Lambs


See Searching for Lambs (File: LO09A)

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


DESCRIPTION: "Cheer lads, cheer! the enemy is quaking ... our foes we did defeat, ... Sebastopol is taken." Pellisier and Simpson lead the French and English "their cannons loud did rattle ... and the flags of France and England waved on Sebastopol."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt)
KEYWORDS: army battle war England France Russia shanty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 9, 1855 - Fall of Sevastopol following an 11 month siege
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Smith/Hatt, p. 31, "Old England's Gained the Day" (1 text)
Hugill, pp. 428-429, "Sebastopol" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 322-323]
Hill-CivWar, p. 219, "Cheer, Boys, Cheer" (1 short text, speaking of England rather than the Civil War; I suspect it is a modified version of this song)
ST SmHa041 (Partial)
Roud #8293
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(215) , "Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol" ("Cheer lads, cheer! the enemy is quaking"), A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1855?; Firth b.25(586), "Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Newfoundland and Sebastopol" (subject, theme)
cf. "Cheer, Boys, Cheer!" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian Firth b.26(215) and Bodleian Firth b.25(586))
NOTES: Bodleian, Harding B 26(95), "Cheer, Boys Cheer, for the Fall of Sebastopol" ("Cheer lads cheer, for Brittannia's sons none bolder"), J. Moore (Belfast), 1846-1852 [not possible] is a similar broadside.
Smith/Hatt has this fragment as a capstan shanty. - BS
Hugill also has it as a capstan shanty, and calls it a "broken-down version of the original march, or rather of its chorus. The original march tune was known as the 'Loth-to-depart.'" - [RBW, BS]
There are quite a few other broadsides floating around called "Cheer, Boys, Cheer," celebrating other events. I haven't seen any evidence that they're traditional. Similarly, Charles Mackay wrote "Cheer Boys! Cheer! No More of Idle Sorrow," with music set by Henry Russell, but it never seems to have escaped from the straitjacket of sheet music. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: SmHa041

Section Gang Song


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, captain, captain, I'm goin' away to leave you (x3), By next payday, oh captain, next payday." The singer talks of work on the section gang, complains about not being paid, and declares that he will leave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (T. C. I. Section Crew, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: worksong railroading nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LSRail, p. 647, "Section Gang Song" (1 text)
Roud #17785
RECORDINGS:
T. C. I. Section Crew, "Section Gang Song" (Paramount 12478, 1927)
NOTES: According to Cohen, this is one of only two railroad worksongs released on a commercial 78 (the other being "Track Linin'," which appears to be a version of "Can'cha Line 'Em"). He thinks they may be the earliest worksong recordings of any sort. - RBW
Almost, but not quite; Robert Winslow Gordon was recording sea chanteys in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1920s" - PJS
File: LSRai647

See See Rider


See Easy Rider (File: LxU022)

See That My Grave Is Kept Clean


DESCRIPTION: Singer, dying, asks that his grave be kept clean, that his grave be dug with a silver spade, and that he be lowered with a golden chain.
AUTHOR: probably Blind Lemon Jefferson
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Blind Lemon Jefferson)
KEYWORDS: death dying funeral nonballad religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 92, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 114-115, "Sad and Lonesome Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 139, "(One Kind Favor)" (1 text)
Gilbert, p. 81, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (1 partial text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 300-301, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (1 text)
Roud #7382
RECORDINGS:
[Joe] Evans & [Arthur] McClain, "Two White Horses in a Line" (Oriole 8081/Perfect 182/Romeo 5081, 1931; on BefBlues1)
Blind Lemon Jefferson, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (Paramount 12608B, 1928; on AAFM3; improperly listed as "Two White Horses" on the CD reissue cover though not in the notes; also on Jefferson01, JeffersonCD01)
Mike Seeger, "Sad and Lonesome Day" (on MSeeger01)
Hobart Smith, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (on LomaxCD1704)
Ruby Vass, "Lonesome Day" (on Persis1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Two White Horses In a Line
NOTES: In 1870, Gus Williams composed an item "See that My Grave's Kept Green"; I have no idea whether it affected this song. - RBW
I've seen the sheet music for Williams's piece, and the only thing it has in common with this song is the title phrase. The rest is a sentimentally melancholy bit of Victoriana. - PJS
For those who want to hear the song itself, there are several 78 recordings, one by Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers (OKeh 45126, 1927) and a variety by the Carter Family (as "Sad and Lonesome Day": Victor 23835, 1933; Melotone 7-04-53/Conqueror 8735, 1937; Zonophone [Australia] 4379, n.d.). - RBW, PJS
File: ADR92

See the Waters A-Gliding


See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

See the Woman at the Well


DESCRIPTION: "Jesus going through the land and on his way got thirsty; He stopped at the well in Canaan's land The town was called S(y)myrna." The story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, with chorus, "Oh, there's no one can love you like Jesus."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 208-211, "See the Woman at the Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (subject)
cf. "The Maid and the Palmer" [Child 21] (subject)
cf. "Lift Him Up That's All" (subject)
NOTES: Although this doubtless sounds like a version of "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well," it appears from the lyrics that they are separate.
For the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, see John 4:5-26. This song follows that account fairly closely except for the name of the town. John 4:5 gives the location of Jacob's Well as "Sychar" (well, a few unimportant manuscripts read something else, but none read Smyrna, a town in Asia Minor mentioned in the first two chapters of the Revelation to John). The King James Bible in any case says "Sychar." - RBW
File: ThBa208

See This Pretty Little Girl of Mine


See King William was King James's Son (File: R543)

See-Saw


See See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master (File: GrD81683)

See-saw, Jack a Daw


DESCRIPTION: "See-saw, Jack a daw, Whit is a craw Tae dae wi her? She hasna a stockin Tae pit on her, An the craw hasna ane For tae gie her"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: poverty bird nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 335, "See-saw, Margery Daw" (1 text in footnote, p. 351)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #128, p. 72, ("See-saw, Jack a daw")
Roud #20216
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House" (lyric form)
cf. "See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master" (lyric form)
NOTES: A jackdaw is a kind of crow.
The description is all of the Chambers text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: ChMT128

See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master


DESCRIPTION: "See, saw, Margery Daw, Little Jackey shall have a new master; Little Jacky shall have but a penny a day, Because he can't work any faster"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 335, "See-saw, Margery Daw" (1 text)
GreigDuncan8 1683, "See-Saw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13028
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House" (lyric form)
File: GrD81683

See-Saw, Marjorie Daw (I)


See See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House (File: BGMG578)

See-Saw, Marjorie Daw (II)


See See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master (File: GrD81683)

See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House


DESCRIPTION: "See, saw, Margery Daw, The old hen flew over the malt house, She counted her chickens one by one, Still she missed the little white one, And this is it, this is it, this is it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Halliwell, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: chickens nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 337, "See-saw, Margery Daw" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #578, p. 233, "(See, saw, Margery Daw)"; cf. #622, p. 247, "(See saw, Margery Daw)"; #624, p. 248, ("See Saw, Margery Daw)"
Roud #13028
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "See-saw, Jack a Daw" (lyric form)
cf. "See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master" (lyric form)
NOTES: Opie-Oxford2 has two other entries beginning "See-saw,Margery Daw, Jacky shall have a new master" [Opie-Oxford2 335] and "See-saw, Margery Daw, Sold her bed and lay upon straw" [Opie-Oxford2 336].
In 1873, T. B. Aldrich wrote a story about Marjorie Daw (who did not actually exist). I don't know if the story inspired some of the rhymes, or whether they all predate it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BGMG578

See, See, The Cape's In View


See So It's Pass (File: CrNS056)

Seeds of Love, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer "sowed the seeds of love to bloom all in the spring." She asks the gardener to choose flowers for her; she does not like his offers, but chooses the rose. This in turn brings her to the willow tree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1689 (cited in Sharp; first full text from Campbell, 1816)
KEYWORDS: gardening seduction
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Eddy 28, "Once I Had Plenty of Thyme" (2 texts, 1 tune, both texts being mixed with "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme")
Sharp-100E 33, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #67, p. 2, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text)
GreigDuncan6 1180, "The Seeds of Love" (2 texts)
Kennedy 167, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 162-163, "The Red Rose Top" (1 text, 1 tune, linked by the authors to this tune, although it's so short it might be part of "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme")
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 55, "The Seeds of Love" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune, with some words similar to "The Seeds of Love" though the only surviving verse looks more like a courting song)
MacSeegTrav 54, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (THYMTH2) (RUETHYME*)
Roud #3
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "The Seeds of Love" (on Maynard1, Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1657), "I Sowed the Seeds of Love ("I sowed the seeds of love it was all in the spring"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3855)[many lines illegible; title damaged], "I Sow[ed the] Seeds [of love]"; Firth c.18(98), 2806 c.17(381), "Seeds of Love"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Gowans Are Gay"
cf. "The Wanton Seed" (theme)
NOTES: In flower symbolism, the rose stood for love and the willow for weeping. For a catalog of some of the sundry flower symbols, see the notes to "The Broken-Hearted Gardener." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: K167

Seeing Nellie Home


DESCRIPTION: "In the sky the bright stars glittered; On the bank the pale moon shone. It was from Aunt Dinah's quilting party I was seeing Nellie home." The singer professes his love for Nellie on the way. Evidently they get married, because they are now old together
AUTHOR: Words: F. Kyle / Music: John Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love courting age party
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dean, p. 79, "Seeing Nellie Home" (1 text)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 229-232, "When I Saw Sweet Nellie Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 289, "Seeing Nelly Home" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 254, "Seing Nellie Home (Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party)" (1 text)
DT, NELLHOME
ST RJ19229 (Full)
Roud #5492
RECORDINGS:
Floyd County Ramblers, "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party" (Victor V-40331, 1930; Bluebird B-5107, 1933)
Haydn Quartet, "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party" (Victor 2456, 1903)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Seeing Nellie Home" (Brunswick 199, 1928; rec. 1927)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party
NOTES: The early history of this song is slightly confused. It first appeared in 1856, but evidently in an unauthorized edition perhaps taken from a minstrel troupe performance.
In 1859 the composer, John Fletcher, issued an official edition -- complete with complaints about the previous editions. Yet in this text Nelly was not brought home from "Aunt Dinah's quilting party" but "from an august evening party." Jackson thinks this an error; it strikes me as possible that this was a deliberate change intended to differentiate the editions. Even stranger, the cover of the 1859 edition calls the girl "Nellie," but inside she is "Nelly." One can only suppose that neither she nor her swain could read too well.
Even the name of the author varies; the 1856 edition calls her(?) Frances Kyle; the 1859 edition omits the name; in 1884 the name is given variously as Frances and Francis. - RBW
File: RJ19229

Seeing Nelly Home


See Seeing Nellie Home (File: RJ19229)

Seeing the Elephant (When I Left the States for Gold)


DESCRIPTION: "When I left the states for gold, Everything I had I sold." The singer encounters various troubles (and Mormons) on the way west, and warns, "Leave, you miners leave... Take my advice, kill off your lice...." (To the tune of "De Boatman Dance")
AUTHOR: Words: David Robinson? John A. Stone?/Music: Daniel Decatur Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes gold warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden, p. 347, "When I Left the States for Gold" (1 text)
Roud #7773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "De Boatman Dance" (tune)
NOTES: The history of this is a bit obscure. It was David "Doc" Robinson who founded the "Seeing the Elephant" show in San Francisco in 1850. But this song, to the tune of "De Boatman Dance," appeared in Put's Original California Songster. I can't tell whether Put worked on something Robinson wrote, or just commemorated his performances. - RBW
File: Beld347

Seek Not from Whence Love She Came


DESCRIPTION: The singer loves a colleen who's "happy in old Donegal." "Her figure is proper and tall,' her voice is "sweeter by far than the songbird." Singer says "I know she's an angel, And I'm not going to tell you her name." Soon they will marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: courting Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17897
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Connelly, "Seek Not from Whence Love She Came" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Kilkee" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name) and references there
cf. "Tons of Bright Gold" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name) and references there
File: RcSNWLSC

Seimidh Eoghainin Duibh (Dark-Haired Jimmy Owen)


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the fine clothing she would place on Jimmy Owen. She says how the girls would fight over him. She wishes he had been in battle with O'Donnell. She looks back on the days of a united Ireland, and thinks that Jimmy would have been king
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected by Peter Kennedy)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love clothes beauty royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1598 - The Tyrone/O'Donnell Rebellion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy 46, "Seimidh Eoghainin Duibh (Dark-Haired Jimmy Owen)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Kennedy describes this as "an entirely local song from west Donegal" (though the tune is known in Scotland). He is probably right; I've never seen any other versions. But the band Scartaglen (the group in which Connie Dover got her start) recorded a version, apparently derived from Kennedy, so I thought we should include the song just because people might look it up.
For the background on the rebellion referred to in this song, see the notes to "O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)." - RBW
File: K046

Seizure of the E J Horton


See The E. A. Horton [Laws D28] (File: LD28)

Selling the Cow


See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Seno Wreck, The


See The C. & O. Wreck (1913) [Laws G4] (File: LG04)

Sentry, The


See The Gentleman Soldier (File: VWL040)

Sequel to Come Under My Plaidie


DESCRIPTION: Johnnie decides he needs someone to care for him. Merrin slights him but Maclaren accepts and marries him. They live happily. Merrin marries an old rich man and mourns, "For the sake o' his treasure, I hae married a miser ... gweed for naething ava"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: age courting marriage money rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1304, "Come Under My Plaidie" (1 text)
Roud #7200
NOTES: The GreigDuncan7 title makes no sense based on the text since the phrase is not in the song. However, Bell Robertson [says of] this song [that] "The sequel to 'Come under my plaidie' was mother's. Mr Greig has never heard of it." The apparent prequel is "Come Under My Plaidie." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71304

Serafina


DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty. "In Callyo there lives a girl named Serafina" who works very hard drinking, smoking, and robbing sailors of their money and clothes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: shanty bawdy whore warning robbery trick
FOUND IN: West Indies South America
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill, pp. 397-398. "Serafina" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 302-303]
DT, SERAFINA*
NOTES: Hugill says this is a "notorious" shanty from the west coast of South America, but this was the first time it had been printed because it was so hard to clean up. - SL
File: Hugi397A

Sergeant Neill


DESCRIPTION: "If you want your praties sprayed, well you can call on Sergeant Neill. Oh he's the bot that'll do it well, and he'll not destroy your kale." Many of Neill's satisfied customers are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: farming moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-Maguire 12, pp. 29-30,105,160, "Sergeant Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2921
NOTES: Morton-Maguire: In County Fermanagh [ex-police] Sergeant Neill had a spraying machine for bluestone, a potato fungicide. Everyone called on him to do their spraying. "John tells me that it was sometime in the early 1920s that Sergeant Neill began his business enterprise." - BS
For more on bluestone, see the notes to "Mary Anne McGuinan." Given the date, one wonders if Neill wasn't a former member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Must have been quite a change of pace. - RBW
File: MoMa12

Sergeant Small


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I wish I were about fourteen stone And only six foot tall. I'd take the train back north, Just to beat up Sergeant Small."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: train police railroading
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson, p. 209, "Sergeant Small" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Meredith's informant, Muriel Whalan, explained that Sergeant Small made a minor career during the depression of posing as a bagman in order to catch other travellers riding the rods of trains. - RBW
File: MA209

Sergeant Tally-Ho


DESCRIPTION: Singer boasts of his travels; he's courted all over America, England, France and Spain. The colonel's wife, hearing of his prowess, wishes to see "the naked truth", so he pulls out his "lusty pin;" she says, "You shall be my handy man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Warde Ford)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer boasts of his wide travels, saying he's courted all over America, England, France and Spain. The colonel's wife, having heard of his prowess, wishes to see "the naked truth", so he pulls out his "lusty pin" as she leads him to the bedroom, saying, "You shall be my handy man." And, frustratingly, there the only recorded version of the song ends.
KEYWORDS: sex bragging request army travel bawdy
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Sargeant Tally-Ho" (AFS 4100 B1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES: I've not seen this anywhere else, and neither has Ed Cray. The magnificent tune is distinctly British-sounding. - PJS
File: RcSTH

Sergeant, He Is the Worst of All, The


DESCRIPTION: "The sergeant, the sergeant he is the worst of all; He gets us up in the morning before the early call, With squads right, and squads left, and left front into line; Then the slimy son of a gun, he gives us double time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: army soldier
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg, p. 435, "The Sergeant, He Is the Worst of All" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San435

Sergeant's Lamentation, The


DESCRIPTION: The Sergeant of Grouse Hall answers the hackler's song. He rejects its accusations but acknowledges that the song is "the source of all my grief and shame." "This curst Grouse Hall caused my downfall" He would know the song writer before he leaves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn)
KEYWORDS: prison drink Ireland humorous police
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn 39A, "The Sergeant's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3070
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hackler from Grouse Hall" (prequel to this ballad)
cf. "Moses Ritoora-li-ay" (theme)
NOTES: "The hackler was a distiller of high quality Poitin in 19th century Ireland" (source: Hearing before Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, US Patent and Trademark Office, January 6, 2000 in re United Distillers plc "On December 16, 1996 United Distillers plc filed an intent-to-use application to register the mark HACKLER on the Principal Register for 'alcoholic beverages, namely, distilled spirits, except Scotch whisky, and liqueurs.'....)
Apparently the more common definition is "one that hackles [to chop up or chop off roughly]; esp: a worker who hackles hemp, flax, or broomcorn." (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976); its this last definition that OLochlainn follows.
OLochlainn notes to "The Hackler from Grouse Hall" and its answer, "The Sergeant's Lamentation," explain the Sergeant's deeds and the references to people named in both songs and happenings in County Cavan. His source for notes is the singer.
The occurrences appear to be during Arthur Balfour's tour as Chief Secretary of Ireland in the late 1880s [1887-1891; his repressive methods earned him the nickname "Bloody Balfour" - RBW]. See for example the reference to the 1888 imprisonment of Father McFadden of Donegal in Derry Prison "for an agrarian speech" (source: Chapters of Dublin History site, Letters and Leaders of my Day Chapter XXII "Parnellism and Crime" (1887-8), by T.M. Healy). I'd guess, no doubt naively, that the issue here is moonshining to defeat high alcohol taxation. - BS
The other possibility for the date is 1902-1905, when Balfour was prime minister in succession to his uncle Lord Salisbury. Gladstone's proposals for Irish Home Rule had of course failed, but the issue never entirely went away, and the Liberals were increasingly in favor of it in the early twentieth century.
Supporting this dating is the fact that, during the Balfour administration, there was a movement for "tariff reform" -- i.e. lowering of duties within the British Empire, which would have made it easier for the Irish to export to England. Balfour tried to calm the controversy, but succeeded mostly in turning his party purely protectionist, thus making the Liberals even more popular with the Irish, since they were more likely to favor both Home Rule and Free Trade. So the song might well look forward to the 1906 election which shunted the Conservatives from power. - RBW
File: OLoc039A

Sergent, Le


DESCRIPTION: Canadian French: The young boy runs off to America to fight the hated British. He joins the army and is made a sergeant, but is wounded and returns home. His father, who warned him against leaving, says "I told you so!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: soldier injury home Canada foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1775-1776: American attack on Canada. The chief battle of the campaign was fought outside Quebec on December 31, 1775
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 60-61, "Le Sergent" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: During the American Revolution, the Colonials made an abortive attack on Canada, thinking that the French inhabitants would rebel against the British. It didn't happen; the French generally preferred the British (who at least guaranteed their religious liberty) to the unknown quantity that was the Americans. The Colonial assault failed before Quebec.
A few Canadians, however, decided they hated the British enough to return south with the Colonials and fight. As this song shows, those who stayed at home felt these soldiers to be more than a little foolish. - RBW
File: FMB060

Servan' Lasses, The


See The Braw Servant Lasses (File: Ord275)

Servant Man


See The Rejected Lover [Laws P10] (File: LP10)

Servant Man, The


DESCRIPTION: "My father kept a servant man." A gril loves him. Her father determines to send him to sea. She says she will be true even if she must go betting. She "saw his colours come and go." He returns, having risen from apprentice to butler, and marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Butterworth Collection)
KEYWORDS: servant love separation reunion drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Butterworth/Dawney, p. 42, "The Servant Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Sailor Boy" [Laws M22] (plot)
NOTES: This reminds me of many "Ballads of Family Opposition to Lovers," notably "The Bonny Sailor Boy" [Laws M22]. But it is short and peculiar enough that it is not obvious which song of this type it might derive from; the lyrics are often confused. Roud assigns it its own number, and I rather hesitantly do the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BuDa042

Serves Them Fine


DESCRIPTION: Singer tells how back in 1920, "The mills ran good and everyone had plenty;" in 1925, mountain people came to work there. Now it's 1930, and more people are unemployed than working. Singer tells fellow mountaineers to go back home and live as they used to
AUTHOR: Dave McCarn
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, David McCarn)
KEYWORDS: warning factory unemployment hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 234-235, "Serves Them Fine" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
David McCarn, "Serves 'em Fine" (Victor 23577, 1931)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Serves Them Fine" (on NLCR09) (NLCR12)
NOTES: Mountain people moved to industrial towns in the boom of the 1920s, as the agricultural economy was already depressed; many of them were then stranded when the Depression hit industry. - PJS
File: CSW234

Set Down, Servant


DESCRIPTION: "'Set down, servant.' I can't set down... my soul's so happy that I can't set down." The servant describes the various things God promises: A long white robe, a starry crown, a golden waistband, etc. An angel is instructed to supply all these
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FSUSA 105, "Set Down, Servant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 584-585, "Set Down, Servant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 367, "Set Down, Servant" (1 text)
Roud #10076
File: LxU105

Set You Down, My Own True Love


See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Settin' on a Rail


DESCRIPTION: "As I went out by the light of the moon... Thar I spies a fat raccoon A-settin' on a rail." The singer pulls the coon off a rail and fights with it. In at least one version, the singer is a slave who helps his master on toward death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal fight slave
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 177-179, "Settin' on a Rail" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ST ScNF177B (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Davy Crockett" (lyrics)
NOTES: This shares a first line with a few versions of "Davy Crockett," which also involves a bare-hands fight with a coon -- but the overall form and feel is different enough that I think they're separate song which has cross-fertilized a little. - RBW
File: ScNF177B

Settin' Side that Road


DESCRIPTION: "I'm settin' side that road with a ball and chain on my leg (x2), If I had my way I'd catch-a that westbound train." "That judge gave me six months because I didn't want to work (x3)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: work prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-BoA, pp. 314-315, "Settin' Side that Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SBoA314

Settler's Lament, The (The Beautiful Land of Australia)


DESCRIPTION: "Now all intent to emigrate, Come listen to the doleful fate...." The singer sailed for Australia, was wrecked, was spared by cannibals as too thin, and had his sheep die of rot. Coming home, he will sell matches before returning to Australia
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (John Henderson's _Excursions and Adventures in New South Wales_)
KEYWORDS: emigration humorous hardtimes cannibalism return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 101-105, "The Settler's Lament" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (tune)
File: PFS101

Seven Blessings of Mary, The


See The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)

Seven Brethren, The


See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Seven Brothers, The


See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat


DESCRIPTION: The cotton farmer complains about dreadful prices; with "Seven cent cotton and forty cent meat, How in the world can a poor man eat?" With everything he has wearing out, replacements are too expensive. (He sees improvements under Roosevelt)
AUTHOR: Bob Miller & Emma Dermer
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Bob Ferguson)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes food clothes farming political money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 877-878, "Seven-Cent Cotton and Forty-Cent Meat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 117, "Seven Cent Cotton And Forty Cent Meat" (1 text)
DT, SVNCENT*
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Eleven Cent Cotton" (Victor V-40050, 1929; Bluebird B-8406, 1940) (Harmony 821-H [as Mack Allen], 1929; rec. 1928) (Edison N-20001, 1929)
Bob Ferguson, "Eleven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat, pts. 1 & 2" (Columbia 15297-D, 1928)
Bob Miller, "'Leven Cent Cotton And Forty Cent Meat" (Radiex 5044, c. 1929); "Eleven Cent Cotton And Forty Cent Meat" (Okeh 45475, 1930)
Carson Robison, "'Leven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat" (Champion 15746, 1929) (Pathe Actuelle 32438/Cameo 9092 [both as Carson Robison's Trio], 1929)
Pete Seeger, "Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
Hank Smith [pseud. for Al Bernard] "Eleven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat" (Vocalion 5318, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Flies Are On the Tummits" (theme of poor living for farmers)
NOTES: The 1928 recording by Bob Ferguson (recorded in August of that year) might seem to throw doubt on the authorship claim of Bob Miller. But his recording is on Radiex, part of the Grey Gull family of records, and dating those records is notoriously difficult and uncertain. For the moment, though, I've assigned the Earliest Date to the Ferguson recording, as it's the earliest for which we have unambiguous information.
Also, there's some ambiguity about Miller's 1930 OKeh recording; one source lists the title as "Four Cent Tobacco and Forty Cent Meat.
Interesting that most of these recordings appeared in 1928-1929, just *before* the stock market crash that most urbanites see as the beginning of the Great Depression. But times had been hard on the farms for several years before then. - PJS
And, of course, demand for recordings fell dramatically after the crash, so nobody was producing new versions.
Incidentally, low cotton prices were not a new phenomenon, and neither were wild price fluctuations. According to Allan Nevins, The Ordeal of the Union: Fruits of Manifest Destiny 1847-1852 [volume I of The Ordeal of the Union] (Scribners, 1947), p. 242, cotton in 1845 sold in the American south for sixteen cents a pound. By 1848, when the total production was half again as large, the price dropped to a mere four and a half cents a pound.
It is interesting to see this song become so popular in folk circles, because Bob Miller was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter. According to Doug deNatale and Glenn Hinson, "The Southern Textile Song Tradition Reconsidered," published in Archie Green, editor, Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993, p. 81, his other occupation songs were generally not accepted by the fok. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: BAF877

Seven Gypsies in a Row


See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Seven Gypsies on Yon Hill


See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Seven Irishmen, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer warns of what happened to seven Irishmen who sailed to America. They land in New York. They are tricked into the Army. They fight the soldiers who would train them. A "gentleman from Ohio" comes to their aid
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Sing Out!)
KEYWORDS: Ireland soldier emigration fight Civilwar
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #1 (1973), p, 3, "The Seven Irishmen" (1 text, 1 tune, the Joe Heaney version)
Roud #3104
NOTES: The notes in Sing Out! say that "60% of the Union Army was Irish or of Irish descent and 30% of the Confederate Army." It is true that the Civil War army had a lot of Irishmen -- but there weren't enough Irishmen in America to supply 60% of the Union army! (This would call for roughly 1.25 million Irishmen of military age in the North alone. That's out of a total population -- men, women, children, and the elderly -- of 22 million).
I suspect there is more going on here than the Irish singer understood. Many Irishmen, it is true, were recruited "off the docks" as they came to America (see "By the Hush" for an example of this). But the song seems to describe something like taking the King's Shilling (Lincoln's Shilling?). This would not be normal -- bounties flowed freely at the end of the war, but they were cash, not drink.
My guess is that the men were recruited not by army officials but by a substitute broker -- the Union draft allowed a man who was drafted to recruit another man to take his place -- a "substitute." The substitute broker was a man who swept the streets and alleys to find someone to sell to the reluctant conscript. The substitutes so hired were notorious for their lack of suitability -- many were drunks or cripples, and the substitute brokers would bribe doctors or recruiting officers to get them in.
The "gentleman from Ohio" who seeks to get them off is also interesting. I have to think this is Clement L. Vallandigham (1820-1871), a lifelong Ohioan who became a congressman in the late 1850s and argued strenuously for States Rights. He was the foremost "Copperhead" (Democrat who favored letting the South leave the Union) -- his opinions were so strong that he was for a time imprisoned, and at another time exiled to the Confederacy. Many "Peace Democrats" simply didn't think it was proper to fight the South, but Vallandingham, by the end, seemed actively pro-Southern; it would be no surprise to find him doing whatever he could to weaken the Union armies.
Adding it all up, I suspect that, somewhere behind this song, there is a political text. What, I do not know. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: SOv22n1a

Seven Joys of Mary, The


DESCRIPTION: The carol relates the (five, seven, nine) joys that Mary had: bearing Jesus, raising him, seeing his success and miracles, observing his crucifixion and resurrection, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Sandys)
KEYWORDS: carol Jesus religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE) Canada(Mar) Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Flanders/Olney, pp. 211-213, "The Seven Joys of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp.275-278 , "The Joys of Mary"; "The Blessings of Mary" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 172-173, "The Blessings of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBB 105, "The Twelve Good Joys" (1 text)
OBC 70, "Joys Seven" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 135, "The Twelve Joys" (1 text)
BrownII 51, "The Twelve Blessings of Mary" (1 text)
Lomax-FSNA 123, "The Seven Blessings of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 363, "The Seven Blessings of Mary" (1 text)
DT, SEVNJOYS* SEVNJOY2
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 107-110, "Seacht Suailci Na Maighdine Muire" ("The Seven Beatitudes of the Virgin Mary") [Gaelic and English]
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #76, "The First Good Joy that Mary Had" (1 text)
Roud #278
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce adds. 137(19), "The Seven Joys," T. Bloomer (Birmingham), 1817-1827; also Harding B 7(34), Johnson Ballads 2833, Douce adds. 137(61), Harding B 7(28), Harding B 7(7), Harding B 7(66), Firth b.27(211), "The Seven Joys"; Harding B 7(65), Harding B 7(63), Harding B 7(30), "The Joys"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Joys Seven
NOTES: The notion of counting Mary's joys apparently goes back to at least the fourteenth century. In the liturgical poem "Marie Moder, Wel Thee Be!" we find a reference to Mary's "joyes five" (poem known from some fifty texts. For full text see MS. Rawlinson liturgical g.2. or the printing as #46 in Stevick-100MEL).
Although the number of joys in traditional texts runs as high as twelve, and French Books of Hours reportedly standardized on fifteen (see [Tamara Voronova and Andrei Sterligov], Western European Illuminated Manuscripts, 8th to 16th centuries, English version, Sirrocco, 2006, p. 100), I suspect the original had about seven. This is because so many of the joys in the long texts are forced, even unbiblical. We can demonstrate this point by marching down the joys compiled in Brown and Cox:
One -- To think that her son Jesus Was God's eternal son: Luke 1:15
Two -- Could read the Bible through. Luke 2:46-47 shows Jesus, as a boy, discussing scripture, but it doesn't say he read it. It's likely enough that he could read, though; most Jewish children could, and Luke 4:17fff. shows him reading from Isaiah.
Three -- Could make the blind to see. Repeated references to this; the most primitive is perhaps in Mark 8:22-30.
Four -- Could turn the rich to poor. No known Biblical evidence of this. James 5:1 says "Your riches have rotted," and Jesus has warnings for the rich (e.g. the Wise Fool, Luke 12:16-21), but we don't see Jesus doing anything about it, unless it's a reference to cleansing the Temple (Mark 11:15-17, etc.)
Five -- Could make the dead alive. See, e.g., the raising of Lazarus, John 11.
Six: -- Brown (cf. Cox) "Heal the lame and sick." Numerous examples. But we also see "bear the crucifix," which is complicated. John says he bore his own cross (John 19:17), but the other gospels say Simon of Cyrene bore it (Mark 15:21, etc.)
Seven -- Carried the keys of heaven. Not biblical, and of course the issue of who will be saved is a controversial one.
Eight -- Brown: "Make the crooked straight. Cox: "Open the gates of heaven." Obviously an attempt to force an explanation
Nine -- Turn water to wine. The wedding at Cana, John 2.
Ten -- Brown: "Was a friend to sinful men." Compare the sinner washing Jesus's feet, Luke 7:37-50, etc. Cox: "Could write without a pen." Perhaps a reference to John 8:6 (a passage not found in the earliest manuscripts), but singularly inept in any case.
Eleven -- Could open the gates of heaven. Haven't we been here before?
Twelve -- Brown: "Came down to earth to dwell." Basic doctrine. Cox: "Done all things well." Allusion to Mark 7:37 or parallel. - RBW
The Bell/O Conchubhair melody is not the one I know but O Conchubhair's notes make the connection. Here the seven joys are (1) That she bore Him in a lowly byre (2) That she travelled with Him along the road (3) That He'd gone by reading His book (4) When he turned the water into wine (5) When He made the dead to live (6) When He redeemed the world with his blood (7) When He raised her to heaven alive. - BS
File: FO211

Seven Long Years (II)


See My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold (Seven Long Years) (File: R834)

Seven Long Years (III)


See The Prisoner's Song (File: FSC100)

Seven Long Years (IV)


See For Seven Long Years I've Been Married (File: RcFSLYBM)

Seven Long Years I've Been Married


See For Seven Long Years I've Been Married (File: RcFSLYBM)

Seven Long Years in State Prison


See The Prisoner's Song (I) (File: FSC100)

Seven Old Ladies


DESCRIPTION: Seven old ladies, to the tune of "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be," encounter various difficulties in the lavatory.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: humorous scatological age derivative
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MA,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray, pp. 119-122, "Seven Old Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SEVENOLD*
Roud #10227
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be" (tune & meter)
File: EM119

Seven Sailor Boys, The


See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

Seven Sleepers, The


See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Seven Virgins, The (The Leaves of Life)


DESCRIPTION: The singer, (Thomas), meets seven virgins, including the Virgin Mary. They are seeking Jesus, who is being crucified. Mary asks Jesus why he must suffer so; Jesus tells her it is for the sake of humanity. He dies. The singer commends God's charity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847
KEYWORDS: Bible Jesus religious dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Leather, pp. 187-188, "The Seven Virgin, or, Under the Leaves" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
OBB 111, "The Seven Virgins" (1 text)
OBC 43, "The Seven Virgins" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 4, "The Seven Virgins" (1 text)
DT, SVNVIRG SVNVRG2
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #479, "The Seven Virgins" (1 text)
Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 123-124, "The Leaves of Life" (1 text)
Roud #127
RECORDINGS:
May Bradley, "Under the Leaves" (on Voice11)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tam Lin" [Child 39] (tune)
NOTES: The details here are generally from the Gospel of John. Only in John is Mary present at the cross, and John is the only gospel in which Thomas has a speaking role (though he was popular in the Apocryphal Gospels). Jesus's last words ("sweet mother, now I die," or similar) are perhaps closer to the fourth gospel ("it has been finished/completed/perfected," 19:30) than any of the other gospels.
In addition, Jesus's instruction to his mother to take John as her son is found only in the fourth gospel (John 19:26-27, though in fact the disciple involved is not named there; in fact, John is not even mentioned in the fourth gospel, though he is widely believed to be the "beloved disciple" referred to in chapter 19).
One might note that there was a legend that John and his brother James were Mary's nephews and Jesus's first cousins. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: OBB111

Seven Years


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

Seven Years I Loved a Sailor


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

Seven Years in Dublin


DESCRIPTION: "My parents reared me tenderly I being their only heir, I lived with my grandmother, Of me she took great care, Seven years in Dublin I was taught in the academy, My learning might have served a knight Or a lord of high degree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 108, "Seven Years in Dublin" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2781
NOTES: The current description is all of the Creighton-SNewBrunswick fragment. - BS
File: CrSNB108

Seven Years O'er Young


DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in between twa bonnie woods and valleys Where I and my love aye met so rare" that the man asks the singer if she will wed. She says she is "seven years o'er young to wed." But he finally lures her into his arms, then says he has another love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1816-1818 (Alexander Campbell's _Albyn's Anthology_, according to Greig #131)
KEYWORDS: courting sex abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #131, pp. 1-2, "Two Years Owre Young"; Greig #135, p. 2, "Touch Not the Nettle" (4 texts)
GreigDuncan6 1187, "Two Years Owre Young" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 170-171, "Seven Years O'er Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #380
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Little Miss" [Laws P18] (plot)
NOTES: This is a bit of a problem song. Roud lumps it with "Pretty Little Miss" [Laws P18]. I have to wonder if MacColl and Seeger's "Too Young" might not also be this. This song has effectively the same plot as Laws P18, but no similarity in lyrics. Laws, however, admits that P18 is textually unstable.
The only additional point is that Laws does not cite this song with P18 (or anything else, e.g. P19, "Tripping o'er the Lea," which also has some contact with this song). On that basis, I split them -- but it's a very uncertain question, and readers probably need to study the matter carefully. - RBW
Greig: "As regards the age of the original song, it has to be noted that, nearly a hundred years ago, Hogg considered it to be very old." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord170

Seven Yellow Gipsies, The


See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17]


DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a pretty young girl. He gets acquainted by asking questions: "What are you doing?" "Where do you live?" "How old are you?" "May I visit you tonight?" She agrees to the meeting; they have their fun despite her mother's opposition
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (Burns)
KEYWORDS: questions courting nightvisit
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(Lond,North,South),Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Laws O17, "Seventeen Come Sunday"
Eddy 74, "My Pretty Maid" (2 texts)
Warner 52, "Hi Rinky Dum" (1 text, 1 tune, much worn down; there is no nightvisit, and the two mutually decide against marriage)
BrownIII 11, "Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid" (2 texts, both very short)
Lomax-FSNA 106, "How Old Are You, My Pretty Little Miss?" (1 text, 1 tune -- a badly eroded version)
FSCatskills 128, "Where Are You Going, My Pretty Fair Maid?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 164-165, "I'm Scarce Sixteen Come Sunday" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 32, "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 16, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 284-286, "I'll Be Seventeen Come Sunday" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
SharpAp 127, "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Sharp-100E 61, "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 126, "My Pretty Maid" (1 text)
JHCoxIIA, #25, pp. 99-100, "The Modesty Answer" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the girl asks her mother if she may marry, is refused, and decides to run away to North Carolina and eat cream and honey!)
SHenry H152, pp. 266-267, "I'm Seventeen 'gin Sunday"; H793, pp. 267-268, "As I Gaed ower a Whinny Knowe";(2 texts, 2 tunes)
GreigDuncan4 791, "The Soldier Lad" (14 texts, 12 tunes)
MacSeegTrav 44, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 99-102, "My Rolling Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney, p. 6, "As I Roamed Out" (1 text, 1 tune, listed by Dawney as "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" although the surviving text is quite close to the "As I Roved Out" versions of "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17]; Butterworth expurgated several verses which might have clarified the origin)
Darling-NAS, pp. 128-129, "Seventeen Come Sunday"; "When Cockle Shells Make Silver Bells" (1 text plus a fragment)
DT 334, YONHIGH* ROCKYMT (TROOPRM2* -- apparently a cross between this piece and Child 299)
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 45, 'Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #277
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (on HCox01)
Mary Delaney, "New Ross Town" (on IRTravellers01)
Seamus Ennis, "As I Roved Out" (on FSB1)
Bob Hart, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (on Voice10)
Joe Heaney, "Who Are You, My Pretty Fair Maid" (on Voice01)
Ken Peacock, "I'll be Seventeen Come Sunday" (on NFKPeacock)
Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson, "Where Are You Going?" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
Tony Wales, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (on TWales1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(67), "Seventeen Come Sunday," J. Paul and Co. (London), 1838-1845; also Johnson Ballads 547, Firth b.34(264), Firth c.14(204), Harding B 11(690), "Seventeen Come Sunday"; Harding B 11(1732), "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid)"
cf. "The Overgate" (tune, theme)
cf. "Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times)" [Laws H25] (plot)
cf. "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" (floating lyrics, some tunes)
cf. "I Love My Love (I) (As I Cam' Owre Yon High High Hill)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sixteen Come Sunday
Flash Girls and Airy Too
Blink Owre the Burn
NOTES: There are versions of this song which have mixed with "Trooper and Maid" [Child 299]; these generally file under that ballad and are sometimes known as "As I Roved Out." The Sam Henry text "My Darling Blue-Eyed Mary" has lost the key question about the girl's age, but the rest is clearly this song. - RBW
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "As I Roved Out" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LO17

Seventy-Two Today


See I'm Seventy-Two Today" (File: R433)

Sewing Machine, The


DESCRIPTION: A soldier visits "the Heidelberg whore." He has sex with her, that is, he sews on her "sewing machine," and ends up cursing her for giving him "the clap and the blue-balls too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Prob. 1940s (recording by unknown artist) but may be earlier
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease curse soldier
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray, pp. 406-407, "The Sewing Machine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10406
RECORDINGS:
Unknown artist, "The Sewing Machine" (Party Platters 332a, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot I, II, III, IV"
NOTES: The reference to the Heidelberg whore suggests this song or version dates from the post World War II occupation of Germany. [It was] probably inspired by "Charlotte the Harlot." - EC
I'm not sure about placing this song during the occupation of Germany. The [Party Platters] record cited above doesn't mention the Heidelberg Whore, and it *may* be prewar. It'd be good to have a date for it. - PJS
File: EM406

Sexual Life of the Camel, The


DESCRIPTION: A sophisticated exposition of the supposed mating habits of the "Clipper Ship of the Desert" -- added comments about the homosexual proclivities of naval personnel, hedgehogs, Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous animal homosexuality
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray, pp. 243-245, "The Sexual Life of the Camel" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #10122
File: EM243

Sgeir-Mhara, An (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman)


DESCRIPTION: Scots Gaelic. A woman weaves a tangle of gold to bind another by the water. The bound woman awakes to find herself in danger of drowning. She begs for pity, but finds none, for her or her babes; the other will sleep with her man that night
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Kennedy-Fraser)
KEYWORDS: jealousy murder drowning children foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy 3, "A Bhean Iadach (The Jealous Woman)" (1 text+English translation, 1 tune)
Kennedy-Fraser II, pp. 55-63, "The Sea-Tangle, or, The Sisters (An Sgeir-Mhara)" (1 text+English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twa Sisters [Child #10]" (plot)
cf. "The Ghost's Bride" (theme)
NOTES: The Kennedy and Kennedy-Fraser texts between them parallel almost the entire plot of "The Twa Sisters": Kennedy's text is the exchange between the jealous sisters, while Kennedy-Fraser is a tale of the murder attempt. The two have only slight overlap, but it seems clear they are fragments of a longer item.
If the references in Kennedy are to be believed (and they often aren't), this must be one of the most popular songs in the Hebrides; he lists fifteen versions from as far afield as Nova Scotia. - RBW
File: K003

Sh-Ta-Ra-Dah-Dey (Snagging the Klacking)


DESCRIPTION: "Sh-ta-ra-dah-dey, sh-ta-dey, Times is mighty hard. A dollar a day is all they pay For work on the boulevard." Alternately, "Hip-fa-lad-di-dee/Graybacks/Are mighty thick/A dollar a day/Is all they pay/For snaggin'/The Klacking Creek."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: work lullaby hardtimes lumbering nonballad logger worksong
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg, pp. 36-37, "Sh-Ta-Ra-Dah-Dey" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Beck 23, "Snaggin' the Klacking" (1 short text)
Roud #6515 and 8861
NOTES: While Beck gives no information about the circumstances under which the song was sung, it sounds enough like a worksong that I've given it that keyword. - PJS
Whereas Sandburg lists his as a lullaby. I can't prove that these two are the same song -- but they're too similar to separate until fuller versions come along. - RBW
File: San036

Shab-i-da Ru-dy


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

Shack Bully Holler


DESCRIPTION: "Raise up, boys, raise up -- Breakfas' on de table an a coffee's gittin' col'." Bits and pieces of life in a levee camp: Poor food, not enough sleep, hard work, hard-driving White bosses. Much of the piece is recited rather than sung
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work food hardtimes nonballad recitation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 45-46, "Shack Bully Holler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15531
File: LxA045

Shad, The


DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "Bait a hook to catch a shad/The first thing he bit was my old Dad/Pulled her away with all my might/Trying for to get the old man out/Fishpole broke and I got mad/Down to the bottom went old Dad"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: age fishing death drowning animal father
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SharpAp 254, "The Shad" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3663
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lulu (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES: Fragment it may be, but it has a coherent story. Most of the lyrics appear as floaters in "Lulu (II)," but that's a nonballad with a thoroughly different gestalt, and I assume the words floated over there on their own. - PJS
File: ShAp2254

Shades of the Palmetto, The


See The Dying Ranger [Laws A14] (File: LA14)

Shadow of the Pines


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls walking with his love in the shadow of the pines. But "some hasty words were spoken...." and she departed in anger. Now he awakens from his dreams calling her name, and hopes that she will forgive him
AUTHOR: Hattie Loomis & G. O. Lang ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1895
KEYWORDS: love separation loneliness
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 135-136, "Shadow of the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4289
RECORDINGS:
Archibald & Fish, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (CYL: Edison [BA] 2073, n.d.)
Carter Family, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (Decca 5539, 1938; Montgomery Ward M-8003, 1939)
[Byron] Harlan & [Frank] Stanley, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (Columbia 258, 1901)
Kelly Harrell, "In the Shadow of the Pine" (Victor 20657, 1927; on KHarrell02)
Carl Harris, "In the Shadow of the Pine" (Challenge 229, 1927)
Herb Jennings, "In the Shadow of the Pine" (Champion 15209, 1927)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers [or Dixie Clodhoppers], "In the Shadow of the Pine" (OKeh 45192, 1928; rec. 1927)
Buell Kazee, "In the Shadow of The Pines" (Brunswick 216/Vocalion 5221, 1928)
M. O. [Murray?] Keller, "In the Shadow of a Pine" (Brunswick 188, 1927)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (on BLLunsford01)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (Silvertone 5006 [possibly as Dock Roberts, his real name]/Challenge 229 [as Carl Harris]/Champion 15209 [as Billy Jorday]/Gennett 6025, 1927; Supertone 9252, 1928; rec. 1926) (Conqueror 8208, 1933; Conqueror 8566, 1935)
Connie Sides, "In the Shadow of the Pine" (Columbia 15009-D, rec. 1924)
Ernest Stoneman, "In the Shadow of the Pine" (OKeh 45048, 1926) (Pathe 32380/Perfect 12459, 1928)
NOTES: The liner notes to the Kelly Harrell album mention "somebody's happy idea of having Harrell sing the last line of the chorus out of tempo." This seems, however, to be a traditional approach to the song -- Lunsford also breaks the tempo, although in a different way. - RBW
File: MN1135

Shady Grove


DESCRIPTION: The singer talks about courting (in) Shady Grove. There is no particular plot. A typical chorus runs, "Shady Grove my little love, Shady Grove I say, Shady Grove my little love, I'm bound to go away." Shady Grove may be a place or a girl's name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1893 (JAFL6)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 57, "Betty Anne" (1 text, 1 tune -- an odd version which seems to have some foreign elements mixed in, and with the tune moved from minor to Mixolydian)
Lomax-FSNA 120, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 485, "Shady Grove" (2 texts, neither much like the standard version of this song, but even less like anything else); also 97, "Uncle Joe Cut Off His Toe" (3 texts plus mention of 2 more, but "B" is probably "Shady Grove"; "A" is an incredible mix with verses typical of "Raccoon," "If I Had a Scolding Wife," a "Liza Jane" song, a mule song, and "Shady Grove"); also 111, "Wish I Had a Needle and Thread" (7 text, of which only "E" is really substantial; it is certainly the "Italy" version of "Going Across the Sea." The other fragments contain verses typical of "Shady Grove," "Old Joe Clark," and others); also 286, "Fly Around, My Blue-Eyed Girl" (4 texts; "A"-"C" are "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss," but the "D" text is mostly "Shady Grove")
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 46-47, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 37, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 358, "Now I Am a Big Boy" (2 texts, both fragments; the "A" text is associated with this ballad, though -- as only a single verse -- it could go anywhere)
SharpAp 88, "Betty Anne" (1 text, 1 tune, with lyrics from "Shady Grove," "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" and "Going Across the Sea")
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 195, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 152, "Shady Grove" (1 text)
DT, BETTYANN* SHADYGRV*
Roud #4456
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & New River Jack Burchett, "Shady Grove" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Rufus Crisp, "Shady Grove" (on Crisp01)
Goldie Hamilton, "Shady Grove" (AAFS 2787 A2)
Kentucky Thorobreds, "Shady Grove" (Paramount 3080, 1928; Broadway 8184 [as Old Smokey Twins], n.d.; rec. 1927)
J. M. Mullins, "Shady Grove" (AAFS 1566 A)
J. W. Russell, "Shady Grove" (AAFS 3162 B1)
Kilby Snow, "Shady Grove" (on KSnow1)
Pete Steele, "Shady Grove" (on PSteele01)
The Virginia Dandies [alternate name for Walter "Kid" Smith & The Carolina Buddies], "Shady Grove" (Crown, unissued, 1931)
Vernie Westfall, "Shady Grove" (AAFS 4118 B1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Going Across the Sea" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Kansas Cyclone" (tune)
cf. "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (floating phrase)
cf. "Pig at Home in the Pen" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary from Dungloe" (floating verse)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little Betty Ann
File: SKE57

Shady Road to Clane, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer describes an idyllic spot on "the shady road from Bodenstown to Clane." He meets a beautiful maid who asks "is this the shady road to Clane?" He assures her it is. She leaves. He is dejected. He must find "the maid that stole my heart"
AUTHOR: John Dennis (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: love beauty separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 77, "The Shady Road to Clane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9769
File: OLcM077

Shady Valley


See The Jealous Lover (II) (File: E104)

Shady Woods of Trugh, The


DESCRIPTION: Before joining Owen Roe O'Neill to fight the English, M'Kenna rides from "the Shady Woods of Trugh" to bid farewell -- in case he were killed -- to Maureen McMahon at Glaslough castle. After the battle on Benburb's plains they are married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: love marriage battle Ireland patriotic war reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-Ulster 35, "The Shady Woods of Trugh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2911
NOTES: Morton-Ulster: "Trugh was one of the Baronies of Monaghan.... The McMahons and the M'Kennas are two of the leading families in the area.... Major John M'Kenna, perhaps the M'Kenna of our song, lost his life in 1689; his being the first blood of the Williamite campaign."
Owen Roe O'Neill defeated the Ulster Puritan commander Munroe at Benburb in the Spring of 1646 (source: "Owen Roe O'Neill - The Cavan Connection" by Jim Hannon at the Cornafean Online site). I assume that's the battle of this ballad. - BS
I think it must be, since, first, it does not seem to have been a disaster for the Irish, and second, there were no other memorable battles there. For more on Owen Roe O'Neill, see the notes to "General Owen Roe." - RBW
File: MorU035

Shake Hands with Mother Again


DESCRIPTION: "Now, if I would be a-living when Jesus comes, And know the day and the hour, I'd like to be a-standing at mother's tomb...." The singer hopes Jesus will tell him to "shake hands with mother again"; he will tell her that of his life and never again part
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Asher Sizemore & Little Jimmie)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #5741
RECORDINGS:
Happy Valley Family, "Shake Hands With Mother Again" (Perfect 6-03-54, 1936)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Shake Hands With Mother Again" (Bluebird B-6596, 1936)
Frank Proffitt, "Shake Hands with Mother Again" (on FProffitt01)
Asher Sizemore & Little Jimmie, "Shake Hands with Mother Again" (Bluebird B-5568, 1934)
File: RcSHWMAg

Shake It, Mister Gator


See Haming on a Live Oak Log (Mister Gator) (File: JDM240)

Shaker Funeral Hymn


DESCRIPTION: "Our brother's gone, he is no more, He's quit our coast, he's left our shore, He's burst the bonds of mortal clay, The spirit's fled and soars away." All alike are told to be prepared; the righteous will triumph over death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FSNA 38, "Shaker Funeral Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6670
NOTES: The song's final reference to the sting of death and the victory of the grave is a reference to 1 Corinthians 15:55 (itself citing Hosea 13:14 as it occurs in the Greek Old Testament).
The citation exactly matches the King James Version of 1 Corinthians -- which, however, is translated from an inferior Greek text. The earliest Greek manuscripts read "Where, O death, is your victory; where, O death, is your sting"; another important group reads "Where, O death, is your sting, where, O Hades [i.e. "grave"], is your victory"; still a third has "Where, O death, is your sting; where, O death, is your victory."
If anyone actually cares about these things, the reading victory... death... sting is supported by P46 [second or third century], by the great fourth century Vatican manuscript B, by the first hand of the fourth century Sinai manuscript, by C of the fifth century, and by the first hand of the major manuscript 1739, as well as many Latin texts; the so-called "Western" manuscripts D F G, from the sixth century and after, read sting... death.... victory; several interesting manuscripts of the ninth and tenth centuries, with the symbols 0121 0243 33 and the second hand of 1739, read victory... hades... sting; the King James reading sting... hades... victory is read by probably at least 90% of all manuscripts, but the earliest appear to be the seventh century correctors of the Sinai and Alexandrian manuscripts, which are regarded as being of little value.
The Greek of Hosea reads something like Where, O death, is your punishment (Greek dik-e; "victory" is nik-e), Where, O Hades, is your sting. This is not too far from the Hebrew, which is very difficult (several editors emend it) but seems to mean something like Where, O Death, are your plagues, Where, O Sheol, your ravages. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LoF038

Shaker Life


See Come, Life, Shaker Life (File: LoF037)

Shall I Die?


DESCRIPTION: "Believer, O shall I die? O my army, shall I die?" "Jesus die, shall I die? Die upon the cross, shall I die?" "Die, die, die, shall I die? Jesus da coming..." "Run for to meet him... Weep like a weeper..." "Mourn like a mourner... Cry like a crier..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 41, "Shall I Die?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11994
File: AWG041A

Shall I Show You How the Farmer


DESCRIPTION: "Shall I show you how the farmer (x3) Sows his barley and wheat?" "It is so, so, that the farmer... Sows his barley and wheat." "Shall I show you how the farmer... Hoes his barley and wheat?" "Shall I show... Now will dance and be gay?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott)
KEYWORDS: nonballad farming playparty food
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott, pp. 50-51, "Shall I Show You How the Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Lins050 (Partial)
File: Lins050

Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland


DESCRIPTION: "In a dreary British prison where an Irish rebel lay, By his side a priest waits... 'Father, tell me if I die shall my soul pass through Ireland?'" The rebel dies for Irish freedom; the singer asks that his prayer be granted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (NFOBlondahl03)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion death prison
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
PGalvin, p. 67, "Terence McSwiney" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SOULPASS
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland" (on NFOBlondahl03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kevin Barry" (tune)
NOTES: Galvin reports this piece under the name "Terence McSwiney," connecting it with a Lord Mayor of Cork (properly Terence MacSwiney) who resisted British rule (more or less; he was found to be carrying notes for an anti-British speech), was imprisoned in London, and died after a 73-day hunger strike (1920).
It should be added that the British were right about his opposition to British rule: MacSwiney was a senior officer in the Volunteers (second in command in Cork, according to Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins, p. 122), and that he did not win election in Cork as such. Rather, his superior Tomas MacCurtain was elected Mayor in the great Sinn Fein election of January 1920. MacSwiney was appointed his deputy, and succeeded when MacCurtain was shot.
MacSwiney's slow death was part of a movement of hunger strikers, of whom McSwiney was the most notable but perhaps not the one who was making the greatest sacrifice; according to Calton Younger, Ireland's Civil War, p. 116, he also had tuberculosis -- and died in a hospital ward, not a prison, where he was treated with great care.
The British had originally tried force feeding the prisoners (which at the time meant pouring milk and beaten eggs down a tube forcibly inserted into the throat via the mouth or, if the prisoner would not open his mouth, the nostrils). Even in the hands of a good doctor, this inevitably resulted in bruising of the nose, mouth, and throat, and in the hands of an incompetent, the results could be disastrous. Another hunger striker, Thomas Ashe, had died of the effects of force feeding (see Robert Kee, Ourselves Alone, being volume III of The Green Flag, pp. 33-34). This caused a commission to declare force feeding barbaric; as a result, the British stopped using it, and hunger strikers started dying of hunger instead.
It is not impossible that the song is about MacSwiney, but supporting evidence is lacking. See also the notes on "The Boys from County Cork."
This is listed in at least one place as by "AE" (with no space). - RBW
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 "Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
File: PGa067

Shall We Gather at the River


DESCRIPTION: "Shall we gather at the river, Where bright angel feet have trod... Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river... That flows by the throne of God." A description of the happy life after death in the land of God
AUTHOR: Robert Lowry
EARLIEST DATE: 1866
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 26-29, "Beautiful River" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GATHRIVR*
Roud #14037
RECORDINGS:
Alcoa Quartet, "Shall We Gather at the River" (Columbia 15022-D, 1925)
Chuck Wagon Gang, "Shall We Gather at the River" (Columbia 20630, 1949)
Kanawha Singers, "Shall We Gather at the River" (Brunswick 328, 1929)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Shall We Gather at the River" (Vocalion 5162, 1927)
Mr. & Mrs. Douglas Swagerty, "Shall We Gather at the River?" (OKeh 40216, 1924)
NOTES: Reverend Robert Lowry (1826-1899) wrote this piece (which he titled 'Beautiful River") on a hot day in 1864. Although it is perhaps the only memorable thing Lowry ever produced, it is reported that he was not fond of it. - RBW
File: RJ19026

Shallo Brown (Shallow Brown)


DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Shallo, Shallo Brown." The sailor admits that he is leaving, and regrets being parted from his wife and baby. In some versions he may be a slave sold for the "Yankee Dollar"; in others, he is a whaler going about his work.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882
KEYWORDS: shanty separation family slave
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Doerflinger, p. 44, "Shallo Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, p. 61, "Shallo Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 126-127, "Shallow Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 257-260, Shallow Brown (4 texts, 4 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 188-191]
Sharp-EFC, LV, p. 60, "Shallow Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, p. 22, "Shiloh Brown" (1 text)
DT, SHALOBRN SHALBRN2*
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 "Shallow Brown" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Roud #2621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hullabaloo Belay" (character)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Challo Brown
NOTES: According to Hugill, the name "Challo" used in some versions is "a West Indian word of Carib extraction meaning a 'half-caste.'" - RBW
File: Doe044

Shallow Brown (II)


DESCRIPTION: Has the refrain of "Shallo Brown" but the solo text is taken from "Blow, Boys, Blow (I)" and the tune is the same as "Hilo, Boys, Hilo." The meter alternates from 3/4 to 2/4 throughout.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EFC)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill, pp. 257, Shallow Brown (1 text, 1 tune - quoted from Sharp-EFC) [AbEd, p. 187]
Sharp-EFC, XXX, p. 35, "Shallow Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow, Boys, Blow (I)" (text)
cf. "Hilo, Boys, Hilo" (tune)
NOTES: Though it has the same title, this is so drastically different from "Shallo Brown" that I thought it warranted a separate entry. - SL
Entirely agreed. If it matters, this is what The Boarding Party called "Fast Shallow," to distinguish it from the more common "Slow Shallow." - RBW
File: Hugi257

Shallows Field


See The Battle of Vicksburg (File: R225)

Shambles Fight, The


DESCRIPTION: St Patrick's day 3000 Ribbonmen march in Downpatrick with muskets. Their flags are pulled down in the Shambles. They run from Protestant guns. "The Police done their best the poor rebels to save, As the Protestant strength roll'd on like a wave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 17, 1848 - "St Patrick's Day parades at Ballynahinch, Downpatrick and Hilltown ended in riots...." (source: Neil Jarman and Dominic Bryan, _From Riots to Rights; Nationalist Parades in the North of Ireland_ (1997), p. 11)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OrangeLark 12, "The Shambles Fight" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Croppies Lie Down" (tune, according to OrangeLark)
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 19: "In some parts of Ulster, Protestant and Catholic tenants were mingled and contended for the land; the peasantry was thus divided into two camps, each having its oath-bound association. This led to a sort of religious war. At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen." The "Defenders were succeeded by the "Ribbonmen, (song [Zimmermann] 39). In parts of counties Tyrone and Monaghan, according to Carleton [p. 19 fn. 14: W. Carleton's Autobiography, p. 83], the whole Catholic population was affiliated to Ribbonism, and it would have been dangerous to avoid being involved in the system." Zimmermann 34, "Owen Rooney's Lamentation": "My prosecutor swore so stout I was the man he saw, That encouraged all the Ribbonmen that came from Lisbellaw."
OrangeLark: "As their outrages were recognisably sectarian, the name came to be used as a blanket term for those who attacked Protestants."
"Situated at the junction which leads to Downpatrick Head, the Shambles is one of Ballycastle's oldest landmarks... It was erected between 1830's-1840's as a Co-Op for the buying of local farm produce." (source: "The Shambles" at Ballycastle Co. Mayo site) - BS
File: OrLa012

Shamrock Boys from Kill, The


DESCRIPTION: The Boys from Kill "march down by Lavey's Strand ... with O'Connell's likeness on their breasts, for to conquer Orange Bill." None fought at Tara as well as the boys from Kill. Many Protestant girls would have liked to be with a boy from Kill.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-Ulster 36, "The Shamrock Boys from Kill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2912
NOTES: O'Connell is Daniel O'Connell. Orange Bill is William of Orange. This appears not to be about any particular battle in spite of lines like "none could chase ould Luther's race Like the Shamrock boys from Kill."
Morton-Ulster: ."..there is a townland of Kill on the borders of Co. Cavan.... This song seems to me more militant than pure 'O'Connellism' would allow and not militant enough for 'Young Irelanders'. (Remember they bear 'O'Connell's likeness on their breasts'.) It may be that the Shamrock Boys from Kill were a sort of intermediate stage between the fall of O'Connell and the accession of Mitchel and 'Young Ireland'."
"Rebels posted on Tara Hill, County Meath, were routed on May 26 [,1798]." (Zimmermann, p. 155) - BS
I believe the reference to fighting at Tara is to the rally at that place described in "The Meeting of Tara," since that was organized by Daniel O'Connell. - RBW
File: MorU036

Shamrock Cockade, The


DESCRIPTION: "St Patrick he is Ireland's Saint And we're his Volunteers." We are ready to fight the French, if they invade. The Cork Volunteer societies are named: Union, True Blue, Boyne, Aughrim, Enniskillen and Blackpool.
AUTHOR: John Sheares? (see Croker-PopularSongs note)
EARLIEST DATE: 1780 (_The Cork Remembrancer_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: France Ireland nonballad patriotic soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan 3, "The Shamrock Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 42-46, "The Shamrock Cockade" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Cockade" (subject of the 1782 Volunteers)
cf. "The Song of the Volunteers" (subject of the 1782 Volunteers)
cf. "Ally Croker" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Moylan p. 1: "On St Patrick's Day, 1778, the first company of Belfast Volunteers was formed in response to the danger of a possible war between Britain and France. [According to Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, p. 186, the year was 1777, though few other companies formed until 1778.] The movement spread like wildfire and soon there were companies in all parts of Ireland."
Croker-PopularSongs: "Fitzgerald thus chronicles the matter in his 'Cork Remembrancer:'--'1780, March 17. The armed societies of this city paraded on the Mall with shamrock cockades, and fired three volleys in honour of the day."
Croker-PopularSongs has the text "from a manuscript copy in the autograph of Mr John Shears [executed in Dublin for high treason in 1798]" sung at the 1780 dinner. - BS
For more on the Volunteers and their effect on Anglo-Irish relations, see the notes to "The Song of the Volunteers." The reference to Saint Patrick may seem a little strange from a pro-British force, but many of the Volunteers were Catholic though the majority were Protestants. It should be remembered that the Volunteers helped encourage the formation of the independent Irish parliament -- and, since they were granted that parliament, they were relatively pro-British.
For John Sheares (the usual spelling), see the notes to "The Brothers John and Henry Sheares." - RBW
File: Moyl003

Shamrock from Glenore, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his mother's speech as he set out walking on a Saint Patrick's Day: She plucks a shamrock and praises it. But she is old; he must cross the sea. Still he cherishes the token of mother and home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation homesickness mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SHenry H34, p. 213, "The Pretty Three-Leaved Shamrock from Glenore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 2, "The Three-leafed Shamrock from Glenore" (text, music and reference to Decca F-3283 recorded Aug 12, 1932)
Roud #8126
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Four-Leaved Shamrock from Glenore
My Little Four-Leaf Shamrock from Glenore
NOTES: The date and master id (GB-4738-1/2) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
File: HHH034

Shamrock from Tiree, A


DESCRIPTION: The singer, who will "see [Erin] no more," recalls the green fields, the red roses, the birds' songs. He dreams of home and its history -- the feasts in the halls of the O'Cahans, the playing of Rory Dall. All this was called back by receipt of a shamrock
AUTHOR: James O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness flowers bird emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H716, pp. 218-219, "A Shamrock from Tiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH176

Shamrock Shore (I), The


DESCRIPTION: Hard times and high taxes force the singer to leave Ireland for America. He and his friends spend six weeks in the woods, and the other three all die. He warns against coming to America. He hopes to return to Ireland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration hardtimes death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H69, p. 201, "The Happy Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Irishman's Farewell to His Country
NOTES: This is truly a curious song; how did the singer and friends get in trouble so quickly? Unless something has been lost, I have to suspect this was composed by someone who had never been to America, and thought it all a vast wilderness. - RBW
File: HHH069

Shamrock Shore (II), The


See Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore (File: HHH192)

Shamrock Shore (IV), The


See The Irishman's Farewell to his Country (The Shamrock Shore IV) (File: OLcM088)

Shamrock Shore, The (The Maid of Mullaghmore)


DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the muses to help him express his grief over leaving home. Having left Ireland for (Scotland), he says that (Glasgow) girls are pretty but they aren't the girl he left behind. He warns others against leaving their loves behind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(494))
KEYWORDS: love separation homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
SHenry H20a, p. 216, "The Maid of Mullaghmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 74, "The Shamrock Shore" (1 text)
OLochlainn-More 88A, "The Shamrock Shore" (1 text)
Roud #2287
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Shamrock Shore" (on IRPTunney01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(494), "The Shamrock Shore" ("In a musing mind with me combine"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 b.9(258), 2806 b.11(168)[Misprint in title--The Shamrore.coShk--and text], Harding B 26(598), "The Shamrock Shore" ("You muses nine, with me combine"); 2806 c.8(285), "The Shomrock Shore," printed at Cork between 1800 and 1899, shelfmark Harding B.26(598).
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
cf. "Girls of the Shamrock Shore" (theme of separation -- not transportation -- and one verse)
NOTES: O'Conor includes "In the blooming spring, when the small birds sing, and the lambs did sport and play, My way I took, and friends forsook, till I came to Dublin Quay." - BS
Paddy Tunney's version on IRPTunney01 has the singer going to New York rather than to Glasgow. - BS
File: HHH20a

Shamrock Sod No More, The


See The Irish Emigrant's Lament (File: HHH235)

Shamus O'Brien


DESCRIPTION: "Oh Shamus O'Brien, I'm loving you yet, And my heart is still trusting and kind... Oh why did I let you get out of my arms Like a bird that was caged and is free." The singer promises extreme devotion and asks Shamus to return to her
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love separation betrayal request
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 758, "Shamus O'Brien" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 69-70, "Shamus O'Brien" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 160, "Shamus O'Brien" (1 text)
Roud #4975
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nora O'Neal"
NOTES: Randolph reports that this is the answer to an earlier Will S. Hays song, "Nora O'Neal." - RBW
There is a Missouri fiddle tune called "Shamus O'Brien's Waltz"; it's somewhat different from the tune to this song, but is perhaps a descendant. - PJS
Grove's Dictionary of Music also reports a "romantic comic opera in two acts" with the title "Shamus O'Brien"; the book is by J. H. Jessop and the music by "Stanford." But it didn't premiere until March 2, 1896. - RBW
File: R758

Shan Van Voch, The


See The Shan Van Voght (File: PGa027)

Shan Van Vocht, The


See The Shan Van Voght (File: PGa027)

Shan Van Voght (1828), The


DESCRIPTION: "O'Connell gained the day," "Catholic victory is shouted." Vesey Fitgerald and parson Fleury are vexed. "The Bible saints are routed" "Lord Tyrone, we will crack his collar bone, The County Clare will be our own, says the Shan Van Vught"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: pride Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1828 - Daniel O'Connell defeats Vessey Fitzgerald as Westminster MP from County Clare.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann 7B, "A New Song Called the Shan Van Vught" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1848) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject.
cf. "The Battle of Ballycohy" (1828) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject.
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" and references there, including Shan Van Voght broadsides on other subjects.
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES: "In a symbolic protest against the anti-Catholic oath MPs had to take on entering parliament, O'Connell stands for election in Co. Clare and defeats the liberal protestant incumbent, Vessey Fitzgerald" (source: The McClintock Bunbury Family History and other stories 1800 to 1899 on the Lisnavagh site). - BS
For the career of Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), see e.g. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" and "Daniel O'Connell (II)"; also, for some context on the period, "Fergus O'Connor and Independence." - RBW
File: Zimm007B

Shan Van Voght (1848), The


DESCRIPTION: We'll defeat the Tories in this year of 1848. Pitt and Castlereagh "stole our Parliament away." The French drove out the royalists. Smith O'Brien and John O'Connell will do that here. The French are on the sea "to be here the 10th of May"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: rebellion France Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1848 - The Young Ireland uprising fails
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann 7C, "A New Song Called the Shan Van Vocht" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Mitchel" and references there for the 1848 Irish uprising
cf. "Lament of John O Mahony" and references there for the 1848 Irish uprising
cf. "Skibbereen" and references there for the 1848 Irish uprising
cf. "The Wee Duck" and references there for the 1848 Irish uprising
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1828) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject.
cf. "The Battle of Ballycohy" (1828) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject.
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" and references there, including Shan Van Voght broadsides on other subjects.
cf. "The Game of Cards" (II) for references to the "stealing" of Grattan's Parliament
cf. "The Wheels of the World" for Pitt and Castlereigh
NOTES: Among the European revolutions of 1848 was the French revolt driving Louis Philippe from Paris in February. Once again the United Irishmen looked to France as their model. The Irish famine persisted. When the government suspended Habeus Corpus in July the leaders of Young Ireland -- William Smith O'Brien, John Blake Dillon and Francis Meagher -- planned an uprising that failed. (source: The 1848 Uprising by Donagh MacDonagh at the Waterford City History site, copyright Waterford City History).
The reference "Billy Pitt and Castlereagh ... They stole our Parliament away ... The people's curse, I give my oath, caused Castelreagh to cut his throat" 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. [For the brief life of Grattan's Parliament, see the notes to "Ireland's Glory." Pitt and Castlereigh are explicitly linked in "The Wheels of the World" also. - RBW]
Castlereagh [1769-1822] committed suicide in 1822 by cutting his throat. (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 fault may have been genetic; his nephew Robert Fitzroy, one-time captain of the Beagle who would oppose evolution tooth and nail, would commit suicide in 1845; Herman, p. 437. - RBW]
John O'Connell is Daniel O'Connell's son and led the Repeal Association which differed in tactics but not objective from William Smith O'Brien's Young Ireland but both groups supported Irish independence. "Smith O'Brien led a delegation to Paris. Though rebuffed by Lamartine's new government, the delegates were intoxicated by the revolutionary atmosphere in France. On their return caution was thrown to the winds." O'Brien was one of the organizers of the 1848 uprising. (source:Young Ireland by Richard Davis on the Ohio University site) - BS
As so often, of course, when Ireland looked to other nations for help, they found none. 1848 -- "The Year of Revolution" -- did overthrow kings, but not nations. The Habsburg monarchy replaced the feeble-minded Ferdinand I (reigned 1835-1848) with the less addled by hardly more effective Franz Joseph. France got rid of Louis Philippe and eventually replaced him with Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) -- a man who liked independence movements but didn't like democracy at all. And so it went.
The revolution in France (February 24, 1848) did inspire the Young Ireland leaders, but they could do very little. Young Ireland leaders such as Thomas Francis Meagher (for whom see "The Escape of Meagher") and John Mitchel (for whom see the song by that name) urged revolt, and eventually brought in the more peaceful William Smith O'Brien (1803-1864). (Golway, pp. 115-116).
According to Kee, p. 276, even the beginning of the rebellion was an accident. On July 23, 1848, Smith O'Brien was visiting a friend in Wexford, when Meagher and John Blake Dillon arrived with word that habeas corpus had been suspended; there may also have been a warrant for Smith O'Brien's arrest. He had little choice but to scrape up what strength he could and fight to survive. But there was no organization and no plan; truly Smith O'Brien had been forced into violence. The "rebellion" followed.
Or, rather, collapsed. There was no help from France (presumably the reference is a hangover from one of the earlier Shan Van Voght songs). A few half-armed bands wandered around Ireland, and a few leaders tried to scrape up troops, but no one actually set out to fight the British. Smith O'Brien gave a lot of speeches, but was so cautious that he ended up visiting the same places several times rather than seek new recruits (Kee, p. 280). As Fry/Fry, p. 238 put it, "in July 1848 the 'revolt' collapsed in an inglorious scuffle in a widow's back garden patch at Ballingarry. O'Brien, Meagher and others surrendered, and mercifully were not put to death but transported to join Mitchel in Australia."
According to Golway, p. 121, "The Battle of Widow McCormack's Cabbage Patch" resulted in two people being killed, though they may not have been rebels." And that was it for armed conflict.
Laxton, p. 85, says that "On the last Saturday of July the remnants of O'Brien's force gathered in a field at Ballingarry, in Country Tipperary; there were not more than 40 men, only half with firearms. The rest were armed with home-made pikes or farmers' pitchforks, while others, possibly 80, were prepared to throw stones." Against such a rabble, the available police should have been more than adequate, but they decided to take shelter in the Widow McCormack's home (the widow herself was out, but her six children, from ages ten on down, were there). The rebels apparently prepared to burn the place down -- but, to read Laxton's account, the widow herself told them off upon returning from her shopping expedition, and the rebellion ended with just a few shots fired (Laxton, p. 86).
To give you an idea of how trivial the whole rising was, Foster mentions the Battle of Ballingary -- the site of the siege on Widow McCormackÕs house -- only in its chronology (p. 607), not in its text. Even its leader Smith O'Brien said that it was an "escapade" and that it "does not deserve the name of insurrection" (Kee, p. 286). OxfordCompanion doesn't even give it an entry, or mention it in its article on Smith O'Brien, though it does include a brief description in the article regarding the Revolution of 1848. Still, it's clear that the whole thing is remembered mostly because Young Ireland was first and foremost a literary movement. Odds are there were more Irishmen writing about the revolt in 1848 than actually participated.
Smith O'Brien's erratic behavior continued at his trial. He was, naturally, found guilty of rebellion, which meant that he was subject to the death penalty. The jury strongly urged mercy -- but Smith O'Brien refused to petition for clemency; it took a special act of parliament to allow him to be transported (Kee, p. 287). Even in Tasmania, he long refused to apply for a ticket-of-leave (parole). He was fully pardoned in 1854, and returned to Ireland in 1856. He generally stayed out of politics after that; people seemed to understand that he was a gifted speaker who somehow couldn't come up with much to say. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm07C

Shan Van Voght, The


DESCRIPTION: The Shan Van Vogt declares that the French are at hand, and will rescue Ireland. The troops are called together; they will wear green; they will free Ireland and proclaim liberty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: Ireland freedom rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1796 - A French fleet (carrying, among others, Wolfe Tone) sets out for Ireland. At Christmas, one of the ships is in Bantry Bay. Bad weather and incompetent French seamanship, however, keeps the fleet at sea, and the French (distracted by their ongoing revolution) do not pursue the matter
1798 - main Irish rebellion. Wolfe Tone tries again
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
O'Conor, p. 32, "Shan Van Vogh" (1 text)
PGalvin, p. 27, "The Shan Van Vocht" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-More 60, "The Shan Van Vocht" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmermann 7A, "The Shan Van Vocht" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Moylan 28, "The Shan Van Vocht" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 23, "Sean-Bhean Bhocht" (1 fragment)
Silber-FSWB, p. 322, "Shan Van Voght" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 18-20, 514, "The Shan Van Vocht"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 297-299, "The Shan Van Vocht" (1 text plus a portion of a parody about Home Rule by Susan Mitchell)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 256-257, "The Shan Van Vocht" (1 text)
Roud #6529
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Escape of James Stephens" (tune)
cf. "Lord Wathe'ford" (tune and repeated lines)
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1828) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1848) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject
cf. "General Wonder" (subject of Hoche's expedition)
cf. "Poor Old Man (II)" (tune, theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Bird Is Left His Nest (Healy-OISBv2, pp.122-124)
Up for the Land (Healy-OISBv2, pp. 151-152, apparently to this tune)
The Escape of James Stephens (File: OLcM003A)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Shan Van Voch
NOTES: Sparling dates his text 1797 and says it is "the first song I can find with this refrain."
Zimmermann p.56: "The name Shan Van Vocht (Seanbhean Bhocht: Poor Old Woman), Gaelic as it sounds, seems to have had a political meaning almost exclusively in songs written in English, and constantly adapted to new events. [Cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1828), "The Shan Van Voght" (1848), "The Battle of Ballycohy"]
The most famous variant is said to date from 1797, though no text was printed before the 1840s. According to Donal O'Sullivan this name was borrowed from a non-political song; prior to the 1790's, 'there is no trace in Irish or Anglo-Irish literature of any such allegorical conceptions'. [D. Osullivan Songs of the Irish pp. 130-131]."
Moylan notes "Bunting collected a (non-political) song called "An tSeanbhean Bhocht" in 1792. By the end of the 18th century the air had become the bearer of political verses, this one the most famous. It did not see print, however, until the mid-19th century, when it was published in The Nation."
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, "Shan Van Vocht" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
Although the Irish often looked to the French for help (as in the case of the United Irish rebellion of 1798), the French supplied it for their own reasons. In this case, it was to distract Britain (as a result of the French Revolution, France was at war with most of Europe) and found a base at their back.
When the 1796 expedition under Hoche failed (due mostly to incompetent seamanship; France had purged most of its experienced naval officers), the French simply gave it up and went on to other things.
It was one of those things that had people talking about a "Protestant Wind," as in 1688. Hoche was one of the best, if not the best, young French general. But the wind that let the French fleet get out of Brest also scattered it. (David Davies, A Brief History of Fighting Ships: Ships of the Line and Napoleonic sea battle 1793-1815, Carroll & Graf, 1996, 2002, pp. 76-77, attributes much of this to the action of Sir Edward Pellew in the frigate Indefatigable, which during the night flitted in and out of the French fleet spreading confusion with spurious signals, but bad French seamanship and confused instructions from the admiral are generally considered more important).
Most of the fleet made it to Bantry Bay, but the ship with Hoche aboard was blown off-course. The fleet waited a day, hoping for its general -- and its admiral, who might have a better idea how to land on the rough coasts of the bay. Then the winds came and scattered the fleet. End of landing. Later French expeditions would be made with small raiding forces rather than true armies of invasion.
"Shan Van Voght" is the anglicized form of "Sean Bhean Bhocht," "poor old woman," a title for the oppressed Irish people. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a Belfast literary journal would arise with the title Shan Van Vocht devoted to promoting an independent Irish culture.
Theobald Wolfe Tone was, interestingly, a Protestant (the whole 1798 rebellion was basically a Protestant idea), but wanted a free Ireland with equal rights for both religions. After a (much too brief) period of resistance with the pen, he turned to the sword.
After the fiasco of Bantry Bay, Tone would make two more attempts to invade Ireland. The first, in a Dutch fleet, was destroyed by the British at the Battle of Camperdown (October 11, 1797) -- by which time Tone had given up anyway; the army he and the Hoche had assembled had to be disbanded. Hoche died soon after, and he was the one committed Frenchman.
Tone had, by then, already set off to appeal to Napoleon. But Napoleon turned him down; an Irish expedition, even if it succeeded, would not be practical (read: cost-effective; there was no treasure to be collected in impoverished Ireland). Napoleon went to Egypt instead, and did not send a force to Ireland until after the 1798 rebellion had been crushed.
Still, three small French forces sailed in 1798: Three ships under General Humbert (see "The Men of the West"), one ship with Napper Tandy aboard (see "The Wearing of the Green"), and a large force -- ten ships and nearly 3000 men -- with Tone aboard.
Tone's force was caught by a superior British fleet off Donegal on October 12, 1798. Tone himself was taken and condemned to death by hanging (as a traitor). He requested that he instead be shot as a soldier. When this was denied, he cut his own throat. He was 35.
The sad irony is that the British government in Ireland, under Lord Grattan, was sincerely trying to improve conditions in Ireland at the time of the 1798 rising. As recently as 1782, Ireland had received the right to an independent parliament. (Prior to that, it had had a parliament, but it was under the thumb of the British parliament. For details on this, see the notes to "Ireland's Glory.")
But, of course, this was the era of George III, with all the Crown high-handedness that implied; a few local officials could hardly make up for the stupidity at the top. And the military under General Lake made things worse with a policy of pure brutality.
The rebellion generally put an end to that. (Nor was this the only time a rebellion slowed liberalization.) Indeed, the British decided that the problems had gone on long enough, and for the first time united Ireland with Britain.
The "Lord Edward" of some texts is Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798), one of the leaders of the United Irishmen and the last one to retain his liberty after the government cracked down (March 12). He doesn't seem to have been particularly smart, and was eventually wounded and captured (May 19); he died in prison of the effects of his wound. For more about him, see the notes to "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)." - RBW
Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue does not have broadsides for this song but has a number of songs modelled on it. For example,
Bodleian, Harding B 18(151), "The Escape of Stephens, the Fenian Chief," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
Bodleian, Harding B 19(87), "The Shan Van Vouch" ("Oh, the time is coming on ... News of battles won and lost ... The tax that's still to come..."), unknown, n.d.
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(54), "The Shan Van Vought ("I am sure you heard of Warner, says the Shan Van Vought"), unknown, handwritten: "A Fenian Ballad 1866"
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3483), "The Shan Van Vought on Garibaldi" ("I've a story to relate, says the Shan Van Vought"), T. Pearson (Manchester) , 1850-1899
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(49), "Shan Van Vought's Farewell to Ireland" ("My sons are going away says the shan van vought"), unknown, n.d.
Another Bodleian broadside version to "remember '98": 2806 b.9(68),"A new song call'd the Gay Old Hag" ("Will you come a boating my gay old hag"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also Johnson Ballads 2191c, "A new song call'd the Gay Old Hag"
Broadside Harding B 18(151): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: PGa027

Shanadar (I)


DESCRIPTION: Fragment only. "Shanadar is a rolling river, E-O... I-O... E-O... I-O..." May be a variant of "Shenandoah" but the meter is quite different, alternating between 2/2 and 3/2.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EFC)
KEYWORDS: shanty river derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill, p. 178, "Shanadar" (1 text, 1 tune - quoted from Sharp-EFC)
Sharp-EFC, LIII, p. 58, "Shanadar (Second version)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #324
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shenandoah" (text)
NOTES: Not too surprisingly, Roud lumps this with "Shenandoah," and I don't think there is much doubt that the two are related. But this does appear distinct enough (barely) to deserve its own listing. Note that there are "Shenandoah" texts with a "Shanadar" refrain -- but they're from Cecil Sharp, who may well have put "Shenandoah" verses to this chorus. - RBW
File: Hugi178

Shanadar (II)


See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

Shandrum Boggoon


DESCRIPTION: There are no songs about Shandrum boggoon. "The reason is plain -- no praise did it need." The singer would trade Midas's touch for a touch for Shandrum boggoon. If the Devil tastes it a host of clergy will be needed to banish him.
AUTHOR: Edward Quin (source: Croker-PopularSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: food humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 287-289, "Shandrum Boggoon" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Black Joke" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: "Boggoon is the Irish for bacon.... Shandrum ... in the county of Cork ... [remarkable] for the excellence of the bacon produced there." - BS
File: CrPS287

Shane Crossagh


DESCRIPTION: Squire Staples sets out to take Shane Crossagh, once a plowboy but now an outlaw "for the wearin' o' the green." Crossagh -- helped by his hound, who destroys the pursuing dogs -- escapes across the Roe. (Shane later is able to take revenge on Staples.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: outlaw manhunt escape dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H97, pp. 130-131, "Shane Crossagh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13373
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Is My Darling" (floating lyrics)
File: HHH097

Shanghai Rooster (Shanghai Chicken)


DESCRIPTION: "Shanghai chicken an' he grow so tall, Hooday! Hooday! Take dat egg a month to fall, Hooday! Hooday!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: chickens
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 195, "Shanghai Chicken" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5247
NOTES: Roud includes several items under this number that I'm not convinced are related, but it does appear that this is a rather disjointed song. - RBW
File: ScaNF195

Shankill Boozers, The


DESCRIPTION: "If you feel like getting full boys, the Shankill is your bet, Have a pint in ev'ry pub and see how far you get" "We'll start us off in North Street at the Elephant Bar ... [until] the Woodvale Arms, all things to an end must come."
AUTHOR: Bernard Keenan (source: Hammond-Belfast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Hammond-Belfast)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hammond-Belfast, pp. 48-49, "The Shankill Boozers" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hammond-Belfast: Written in 1966: "an accurate account of an alcoholic odyssey from North Street to Woodvale [Belfast]." - BS
File: Hamm048

Shannelly's Mill


See John Whipple's Mill (File: FSC171)

Shannon and the Chesapeake, The


See The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I) [Laws J20] (File: LJ20)

Shannon Scheme, The


DESCRIPTION: The Shannon Scheme will "light our houses," "stitch our blouses," "milk our cows," "churn the cream," "reap and mow," "spin and sew," provide "more employment and more enjoyment and happier homes." A toast to the scheme and its promoters
AUTHOR: Sylvester Boland (source: notes to IRClare01)
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: river technology humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18468
RECORDINGS:
Nonie Lynch, "The Shannon Scheme" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Straightened Banks of Erne" (theme: Ireland's hydro-electrification)
NOTES: Notes to IRClare01: "The Shannon Scheme for the Electrification of the Irish Free State, by harnessing the fall in the River Shannon between Killaloe and Limerick, was commenced in 1925 and completed in 1929 and, within six years, was supplying 85% of Ireland's electricity requirements. The song was written in 1927...." - BS
According to John A. Murphy, Ireland in the Twentieth Century(Gill and MacMillan, 1975, 1989), p. 65, "[T]he most far-sighted step in the development of natural resources by the state was the Shannon Scheme -- the beginning of the national supply of electricity -- and the establishment of the Electricity Supply Board in 1927, destined to be perhaps the most successful of those semi-state bodies which in future years became characteristic and indispensible features of the Irish economy."
For a later song about Ireland's electrification, see "The ESB in Coolea." - RBW
File: RcShaSch

Shannon Side, The


DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the month of April... I met a comely damsel Upon the Shannon side." He tries to seduce her, and fails; he throws her down against her will. He departs; six months later, pregnant, she begs him to marry; he says he is pledged to another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting sex rape pregnancy betrayal rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1409, "Shannon Side" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord, pp. 200-202, "The Shannon Side" (1 text)
Roud #1453
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "Peter Thunderbolt" (on IRTravellers01)
Phoebe Smith, "Captain Thunderball" (on Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:028, "Shannon Side," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reynardine" [Laws P15] (plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Captain Thunderbolt
NOTES: This not only shares much of the plot of "Reynardine," the lyrics also overlap to a degree. I have to think there has been some sort of cross-fertilization. Still, they are clearly distinct songs. - RBW
In Broadside Murray Mu23-y4:028, [the Mary Delaney recording,] and Phoebe Smith's version on Voice10... the man gives his name as Captain, or Peter, Thunderbolt... "that's when my baby is born as that may be the same." I assume it is an integral part of the ballad when the text is well enough remembered. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord202

Shannon's Flowery Banks


DESCRIPTION: Teddy and Patty, the singer, exchange vows of "eternal truth." He is impressed "just when we named next morning fair To be our wedding day." At war's end he does not return: "my Teddy's false and I forlorn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: infidelity promise war separation pressgang
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 289-292, "Shannon's Flowery Banks" (1 text)
Roud #17000
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(361), "The Banks of Shannon" ("In summer when the leaves were green"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also 2806 c.18(13), Harding B 28(163), Harding B 28(62), Harding B 25(106)[some illegible words], "[The] Banks of Shannon"
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: "The music of this song was by Mr Carter, a member ofthe choir of Cloyne, who also composed the beautiful and well-known melody of 'O, Nannie, wilt thou gang with me?'" - BS
File: CrPS289

Shanty Boy


See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Shanty Boy and the Farmer's Son, The


See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Shanty Boy on the Big Eau Claire, The [Laws C11]


DESCRIPTION: A girl loves a shanty boy. Her (father/mother) sends her away to keep them apart. She dies of disease and grief; her lover kills himself. They haunt her (father), whose business goes bankrupt. The moral: Don't fall in love with a shanty boy (?!)
AUTHOR: William T. Allen (Shan T. Boy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: separation suicide ghost love father mother family humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws C11, "The Shanty Boy on the Big Eau Claire"
Rickaby 11, "The Shanty-boy on the Big Eau Claire" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
DT 819, EAUCLAIR
Roud #2219
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Shanty Boy on the Big Eau Claire" (on Thieme02) (on Thieme05)
NOTES: Like many of Allen's songs, this has a "serious" plot but is couched in humorous language, with lines such as:
Every girl has her troubles; each man likewise has his.
But few can match the agony of the following story, viz.
It relates about the affection of a damsel young and fair
Who dearly loved a shanty boy on the Big Eau Claire.
Allen reported writing this around 1875, but by the time Rickaby met him some forty years later, he had forgotten the tune he used. - RBW
File: LC11

Shanty Boy, Farmer Boy


See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Shanty Boy's Reveille


DESCRIPTION: "Beans are on the table/Daylight's in the swamp/You lazy lumberjack/Ain't you ever gettin' up?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 17, "Shanty Boy's Reveille" (1 text)
Roud #8864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wake Up Jacob" (theme)
File: Be017

Shanty Boys in the Pine, The


See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Shanty Boys, The


See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Shanty Man, The


See The Shantyman's Life (I) (File: Doe211)

Shanty Man's Life, The


See The Shantyman's Life (I) (File: Doe211)

Shanty Teamster's Marseillaise


DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye gay teamsters, attention I pray, I'll sing you a ditty composed, by the way." The listeners are urged to cheer up in "this wretched country, the Opeongo." The new-hired crew, oppressed by the boss and Jerry Welch, walk out of their jobs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: work logger hardtimes boss Indians(Am.) strike recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rickaby 28, "Shanty Teamster's Marseillaise" (1 text)
Roud #5091
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Canaday-I-O, Michigan-I-O, Colley's Run I-O" [Laws C17] (theme)
cf. "The Buffalo Skinners" (Laws B10a) (plot)
cf. "Boggy Creek or The Hills of Mexico" [Laws B10b]
NOTES: This is item cC31 in Laws's Appendix II. Laws does not so identify it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it derives from the Canaday-I-O or Buffalo Skinners family of songs. - RBW
File: Rick113

Shanty-Man's Life, The


See The Shantyman's Life (I) (File: Doe211)

Shanty-man's Song, The


See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Shantyboy's Alphabet, The


See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Shantyboy's Song, The


See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Shantyman's Life (I), The


DESCRIPTION: "The shantyman's life is a wearisome one, Though some say it's free from care; It's the ringing of the axe from morning until night in the middle of the forest drear." The singer lists the hazards of his life; he plans to go home, marry, and settle down
AUTHOR: George W. Stace?
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: logger nonballad lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(MA,MW,NE,NW,Ro) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Dean, pp. 87-88, "The Shanty Man's Life" (1 text)
Rickaby 9, "The Shanty-man's Life" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 103, "The Shantyman's Life" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Gray, pp. 53-57, "The Lumberman's Life" (2 texts)
Doerflinger, pp. 211-213, "A Shantyman's Life" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 66-67, "The Shantyman's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 274, "Shantyman's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 150, "The Lumberman's Life" (1 text)
FSCatskills 1, "A Shantyman's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 34, "The Shanty Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 390-391, "The Shanty-Man's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 567-568, "The Lumberman's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 6, "A Shantyman's Life" (1 text)
DT, SHNTLIFE*
Roud #838
RECORDINGS:
Pierre La Dieu, "The Shanty Man's Life" (Columbia 15278-D, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "The Shantyman's Life" (on PeteSeeger29)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Barbara Allen" (tune) (the usual tune for this piece is what Charles Seeger called the "type 1" Barbara Allen tune and Bronson labelled the "Group D" tune)
cf. "A Cowboy's Life" (tune & meter; lyrics)
NOTES: Some versions of this song refer to a lack of liquor; Doerflinger reports that strong drink was banned in most logging camps in the years after 1860. The only recourse was a "visit to the dentist" or the like -- an excuse that obviously could only be tried so many times.
The broadside version of this is credited to George W. Stace of "La Crosse Valley, Wis[consin]." For what it's worth, La Crosse is in the heart of what used to be the Big Woods country. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Doe211

Shantyman's Life (II), A


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

Shantyman's Life (III)


See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Share 'Em


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I din' ka' how you share (shear?) 'em So you share 'em eben; Share yo' sheep and blankets -- Share 'em, share 'em, share 'em! If you want er see dem pretty gals, Look on Mon'lyn's Baniel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: sheep
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 510, "Share 'Em" (1 text)
Roud #11811
File: Br3510

Shaver, The


DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. Tells of going to sea "when I was just a hairless boy," getting kicked around, enduring bad weather, and jumping ship at the first chance. Cho: "When I was just a shaver, a shaver. Oh, I was fed up with sea, when I was just a shaver."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor homosexuality youth desertion abuse sex
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 338-339, "The Shaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9534
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy Works on the Railway" (Hugill's tune for "Poor Paddy")
NOTES: Hugill says he left out several unprintable verses dealing with homosexual themes which, however common in practice, were rarely sung about. - SL
It sounds, based on Hugill's notes, as if the original did not use the word "shaver," but rather an obscenity, presumably referring to a catamite. I have added keywords on that basis. - RBW
File: Hugi338

Shawneetown Is Burnin' Down


DESCRIPTION: "Shawneetown is burnin' down, Who tole you so? (x2)." "Cythie, my darlin' gal...." "How the hell d'ye expect me to hold her, Way down below, I've got no skin on either shoulder...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 590, [no title] (1 text)
NOTES: I suspect this is a variant of a song I learned as "Down by the River" (not to be confused with "Down by the Riverside"). But this version appears to have been bowdlerized, and lacks a tune, so I cannot tell this with certainty.
File: BMRF590B

She Came Rollin' Down the Mountain


DESCRIPTION: A young woman takes a succession of men up the hills of West Virginny to engage in an act of prostitution, after which she comes rollin' down the mountain.
AUTHOR: Buddy DeSylva, Brown and Henderson
EARLIEST DATE: 1932
KEYWORDS: sex whore bawdy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph-Legman II, p. 604, "She Came Rollin' Down the Mountain" (1 partial text)
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Girls, "She Came Rollin' Down the Mountain" (Champion 16743, 1934)
NOTES: There is an allusion to the onset of the Depression, dating the song to approximately 1930. This formerly popular song is of questionable oral currency. - EC
There's a commercial version, presumably cleaned-up (or the original from which the bawdy version is derived). See the Blue Ridge Mountain Girls' recording. - PJS
File: RL604

She Died on the Train


See Liza Jane (File: San132)

She Done Got Ugly


DESCRIPTION: "Says huh Julie, Hullo gal. Says early in the mornin' baby... I come to your window baby.... Says get away from my window baby... Says got another man baby, don't want you no more... You done got ugly... Hey rock that baby...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Archie Lee Hill)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, pp. 107-108, (no title) (1 text); pp. 263-264, "She Done Got Ugly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10991
RECORDINGS:
Archie Lee Hill, "She Done Got Ugly" (on NFMAla1)
File: CNFM107B

She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car)


DESCRIPTION: "The white gal smells like Castile soap, The yeller gal try to do the same, The poor black gal smell like little billy goat, But she gets there just the same." Verses comparing the methods and results of several groups
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: discrimination train clothes travel drink food money
FOUND IN: US(SE,Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 477, "White Cal, Yaller Gal, Black Gal" (5 texts plus 3 fragments; 3 of the texts have the chorus of "Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)"); also 483, "Rich Man Ride on a Pullman Car" (1 fragment)
Darling-NAS, p. 355, "[no title]" (1 text)
Roud #7052
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: I've heard this sung by Sixties folk groups in a form which contrasts city and country girls. This may be the original form -- but I suspect it's a clean-up.
The version in Darling is only a fragment, but describes the fate of Blacks forced to ride "Jim Crow cars" on trains (poor-quality cars, often used to ship animals and, quite possibly, not cleaned out after being used for such a purpose).
Brown's verses are much more diverse: The White women ride cars, yellow women ride trains; Blacks are stuck in carts. Whites use cold cream, Blacks lard. Clothing, beds, alcoholic beverages -- in all cases, the Blacks have it worst, but they look good, sleep, get drunk just the same.
What appears to be a rewrite by Decie Smith appears on pp. 94-95 of Doug deNatale and Glenn Hinson, in their article, "The Southern Textile Song Tradition Reconsidered," published in Archie Green, editor, Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993. It is a piece written in commemoration of Smith's half century in the mills, and is an ironic praise of the boss. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: DarNS355

She Had a Dark and a Rovin' Eye


See The Fire Ship (File: EM068)

She Hirpled But, She Hirpled Ben


DESCRIPTION: The lazy "bride o' Toddlichlie" limps around and will not rise. Someone (her mother?) tells her "mak' yer claes clean For the morn is yer marriage-day And we'll be quit o' ane"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: wedding nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1371, "She Hirpled But, She Hirpled Ben" (1 text)
Roud #7242
File: GrD71371

She is Far From the Land


DESCRIPTION: "She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps." She rejects other lovers. She sings wild songs he loved about home. "He had lived for his country, for his country he died." She will join him soon.
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (_Irish Melodies_ by Thomas Moore, according to Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: grief love death nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Moylan 157, "She Is Far From the Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 332-333, "She Is Far From the Land"
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 267-268, (no title) (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(142), "She Is Far From the Land" ("She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.26(319), "She Is Far From the Land"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "When He Who Adores Thee" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "The Man from God-Knows-Where" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 77 fn. 11 uses "She is far from the land" as an example of "songs [that] evoke prudently Robert Emmet's fate." - BS
If so, that gives an interesting possible dual meaning to this one. One part would refer to the many Irish exiles around the world. The other might refer to Sarah Curran, Emmet's sweetheart, who was disowned by her father for her closeness to the condemnned rebel. No one seems to know her final fate, though.
Moore, we should add, knew Emmet; according to Robert Kee, Moore was "Emmet's old friend and fellow student at Trinity" (see The Most Distressful Country, being volumeI of The Green Flag, p. 168). Kee regards Moore as having "set the tone" for Emmet's legend. - RBW
Moylan: "The subject of this song is Sarah Curran, Emmet's fiancee and daughter of John Philpot Curran, the lawyer who had defended Wolfe Tone." Hayes's notes are along the same line, but with more details. - BS
File: BrdSHFfL

She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured


DESCRIPTION: A pack of boys jeer at "a girl who had fallen to shame." An old woman declares "She is more to be pitied than censured," and points out that "a man was the cause of it all." A clergyman, too, hopes she will find God's pity
AUTHOR: William B. Gray
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Richard Brooks & Reuben Puckett)
KEYWORDS: infidelity help
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 190-191, "She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 267, "She Is More To Be Pitied Than Censured" (1 text)
DT, PITYCENS*
Roud #15477
RECORDINGS:
Richard Brooks & Reuben [or Riley] Puckett, "She's More To Be Pitied" (Brunswick 281, 1928; Supertone S-2075, 1930)
Four Aces, "She's More to be Pitied" (Bluebird B-7765/Montgomery Ward M-7724, 1938)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "She's More to be Pitied than Censured" (Melotone 12241 [may have been issued as by Bob Lester & Bud Green], 1931; Conqueror 8004 [as Mac and Bob], 1932; rec. 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Old Nellie Stay" (theme)
File: SRW190

She Just Kept Kissing On


See Kissing Song (II -- She Just Kept Kissing On) (File: Br3313)

She Leaves Memphis


See Captain Jim Rees and the Katie (File: MWhee010)

She Lives With Her Own Granny Dear (She Lives With Her Own Grenadier)


DESCRIPTION: William returns from sea and asks if Annette is true. He is told she lives with "her own grannie dear." He hears that as "her own grenadier" When Annette greets him he confronts her. She admits that "my granny is old, So I live with my own granny dear"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(282b))
KEYWORDS: courting accusation humorous wordplay family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1511, "Grannie Dear" (1 text)
Roud #7172
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(282b), "She Lives With Her Own Granny Dear" ("Cri'd william, when just come from sea"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(4290), Johnson Ballads 1834, Johnson Ballads 273, Harding B 15(283a), Harding B 15(283b), Harding B 15(284a), Harding B 15(284b), Harding B 40(26a), Harding B 40(26a), Harding B 11(1393), Firth b.26(332), Harding B 16(248a), Firth b.25(227), Harding B 11(3491), "She Lives With her Own Granny[,] Dear"; Firth b.25(303), Harding B 11(2579), "My Own Granny Dear"; Harding B 15(129b), "Her Own Granny Dear"
NOTES: There are two (e.g., Firth b.26(332)) and three (e.g., Harding B 15(282b)) stanza broadside versions. Though it is missing some lines, GreigDuncan7 follows the three stanza version. Some, e.g., Harding B 11(2579), have a chorus: "Grenadier! did you say? did you say Grenadier, Yes, yes, the old gossip replied, She lives with her old Granny Dear."
If it isn't clear from the description, the misunderstanding is not resolved. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71511

She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea


DESCRIPTION: "I love coffee, I love tea, I love the boys and the boys love me, Wish my mama would hold her tongue, She loved the boys when she was young." "I wish my papa would do the same, For he caused a girl to change her name."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 91, "She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea" (2 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 2 more)
Roud #740
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grandma's Advice" (theme)
NOTES: This looks like it might be a fragment of "Grandma's Advice" or something similar. Since, however, the Brown texts all seem to survive in similar form, I've given it a separate listing. - RBW
I concede that it is a stretch to make a connection with Opie-Oxford2 386, "One, two, three": "One, two, three, I love coffee, And Billy loves tea, How good you be, One, two, three, I love coffee, And Billy loves tea" (earliest date in Opie-Oxford2 is 1842). - BS
Whatever the origin of the Opie item, it is also found in Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #629, p. 249-250. - RBW
File: Br3091

She May Have Seen Better Days


DESCRIPTION: "While strolling along Õmidst the cityÕs vast throng, On a night that was bitterly cold," the singer sees a crowd teasing a woman in tears. She has clearly fallen on hard times, but someone notes "she might have seen better days." The crowd is silenced
AUTHOR: James Thornton
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: drink poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, pp. 123-124, "She May Have Seen Better Days" (1 text)
Roud #9582
NOTES: According to Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, pp. 255-256, James Thornton was a very popular songwriter from about 1892 to 1898, producing such songs as "My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon," "Don't Give Up the Old Love for the New," "Going for a Pardon," and (especially) "When You Were Sweet Sixteen." Spaeth, p. 256, notes that this song is "usually paired with William B. Gray's She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" as the acme of the maudlin." - RBW
File: Dean123

She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day)


DESCRIPTION: Singer meets his love, who tells him it will not be long until their wedding day, then leaves and "moves through the fair." (Later, her ghost repeats that it will not be long until their wedding. Alternately, she deserts him and he enlists in the army)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Hughes)/1926 (Sam Henry)
KEYWORDS: love wedding death ghost nightvisit supernatural abandonment army
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy 165, "Our Wedding Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H141, pp. 395-396, "Out of the Window" (1 text, 1 tune); H534, p. 454, "Our Wedding Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 153-154, "My Young Love Said to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MOVEFAIR
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), p. 322, "She Moved Through the Fair" (1 text, the Colum recension)
Roud #861
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "She Moved Through the Fair" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742, Voice10); "She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day)"and "She Moved Through the Fair" [long version] (both on IRMBarry-Fairs; one of these is the same as the preceding); "She Moves Through the Fair" (on Pubs1)
Robert Cinnamond, "She Moves Through the Fair" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Francis McPeake, "Our Wedding Day" (on FSB1)
Pete Seeger, "She Moved Through the Fair" (on PeteSeeger14)
Paddy Tunney, "Our Wedding Day" (on IRPTunney01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Once Had a True Love" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: [The well-known version "She Moved Through the Fair" is credited to Padraic Colum (lyrics) and Herbert Hughes (arrangement of traditional tune). This was published in 1909 in volume I of Hughes's Irish Country Songs. - RBW]
Colum and Hughes apparently pieced this together from traditional fragments. The Margaret Barry version has become canonical in the folk revival -- but she learned it from a John McCormack 78! - PJS
Proving exactly what happened here is a difficult task, because the first actual publication of the song was of the Colum/Hughes text in 1909. But it's noteworthy that traditional versions, such as Kennedy's and the Sam Henry "Out of the Window," are much longer than the Colum/Hughes text.
It would appear that Colum and Hughes did more cutting-down than actual reworking. If we compare the "standard" text of "She Moved Through the Fair" with, say, the Kennedy text, we find that Colum's first two stanzas are straight out of tradition. The final stanza, about the dead love, is largely from traditional sources -- but doesn't mention the dead love! And we see parallels to that verse in one of the Sam Henry texts (H534), though the latter may have been inspired by the published text.
Margaret Barry's version omits the third stanza of the Colum text. I observe that this verse doesn't scan very well to the tune; you can make it fit, but it sounds a bit unnatural.
Kennedy actually refers *five* texts in the Henry collection to this piece, but only the two above are properly this song; the others are of the "If I Were A Blackbird/Courting Too Slow" type (and filed on that basis); they may have influenced Colum's final verse (since there are lyric similarities), but they are assuredly not the same song.
I thought about listing "She Moved Through the Fair" and "Our Wedding Day" as two separate songs, but this would obscure the clear relationship between the two. I decided on the title "She Moved Through the Fair," even though it's not properly traditional, because it is so much more familiar. - RBW
Tunney-StoneFiddle: The first verse is identical to Padraic Collum's "She Moved Through the Fair." Tunney refers also to a Sam Henry version "but my mother's tune and indeed some of the words are quite different." The reference seems to be to H534, p. 454, "Our Wedding Day." - BS
File: K165

She Moves Through the Fair


See She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day) (File: K165)

She Perished in the Snow


See Three Perished in the Snow [Laws G32] (File: LG32)

She Promised She'd Meet Me


See Hungry Hash House (File: San207)

She Put Her Hand into Her Bosom


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

She Said She Was Only Flirting


DESCRIPTION: "They stood on the beach at evening, Under the sunset so fair." He tells of his love for her; she tells him, "Oh sir, I was only flirting...." She says she is engaged to another, and goes her way. We are told he is "Too soon grown worn and old."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting lie betrayal parting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 764, "She Said She Was Only Flirting" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Roud #7359
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie Down by the Pond (Sinful to Flirt)" [Laws G19]
cf. "Juanita" (theme)
NOTES: The middle stanzas of this piece are almost identical in meaning (except with genders reversed) to "Juanita," though the wording is somewhat different. The endings, however, are completely different. - RBW
File: R764

She Said the Same to Me


See Twas in the Month of August In the Middle of July (She Said the Same to Me) (File: San038)

She Sat on Her Hammock


See Oh, How He Lied (File: FSWB031B)

She Tickled Me


DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Molly in Kent. Seeing her home they stop under a tree to avoid the rain. "She tickled me and I tickled her." After twelve months they marry. After dinner "we had a few games of card dice and chess and we both toddled off into bed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride 63, "She Tickled Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Tickled Nancy" (floating lyrics)
File: McB1063

She Was a Rum One


DESCRIPTION: Singer falls in with a girl and asks why she walks in such an inhibited way. He says he can solve her problem; she says the problem lies between her thighs. He lays her down and provides a plaster, and says she's given him "a stable for my stallion"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan7)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, in the moonlight, falls in with a young girl walking and asks why she walks in such an inhibited way; she tells him to go away. He says he can solve her problem; she says the problem lies between her thighs, and its tickling keeps her from her striding. He lays her down and provides a plaster, whereby she can walk freely again. He says she's given him his winter's beef and fuel, but, better than that, "a stable for my stallion." Chorus: "She was a rum one, fol-the-diddle-di-do-day/But a bonny one, fol-the-diddle-di-do"
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1445, "She Was a Rum One" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 190, "She Was a Rum One" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RUMONE*
Roud #2128
RECORDINGS:
Jeannie Robertson, "She is a Rum One" (on FSB2CD)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" (general situation)
File: K190

She Was Happy Till She Met You


DESCRIPTION: A young wife leaves her abusive husband and goes home to her mother. Eventually he shows up at the mother's door, asking her forgiveness. The mother sends him away, saying, "She was happy till she met you, and the fault is all your own...."
AUTHOR: Charles Graham and Monroe H. Rosenfeld
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: separation abuse abandonment husband wife
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 827, "She Was Happy Till She Met You" (2 texts)
BrownII 164, "She Was Happy till She Met You" (1 text)
Roud #6565
File: R827

She Was Poor But She Was Honest (I)


DESCRIPTION: A mock lament in which the village maid seduced goes to London to become a prostitute. While her customers prosper, she becomes a pox-ridden streetwalker burdened with piles. The moral: the rich takes their pleasures while the poor get the blame.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cray, pp. 128-132, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest I" (3 texts, 1 tune)
PBB 108, "She Was Poor, But She Was Honest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 200-201, "It's The Syme the Whole World Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHJohnson, pp. 15-16, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 27, "It's The Syme The Whole World Over" (1 text)
DT, SYMEOVR5*
Roud #9621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Was Poor But She Was Honest (II)" (tune & meter)
NOTES: The Sandburg text is described as "fortified in part by H.L Mencken and a contributor to The American Mercury." - RBW
File: EM128

She Was Poor But She Was Honest (II)


DESCRIPTION: An adaptation of the English original, this is a lampoon of a former governor of Alabama, "Kissing Jim" Folsom, who sired a child out of wedlock.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous political seduction
FOUND IN: US(SW,So,Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray, pp. 132-133, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest II" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 286-288, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SYMEOVER* SYMEOVR4
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "Big Jim Folsom" (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Was Poor But She Was Honest (I)" (tune & meter)
File: EM132

She Won't Get Up


See Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up) (File: R396)

She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain


DESCRIPTION: "She'll coming round the mountain when she comes." The unidentified "she" arrives with great pomp and ceremony, and is greeted with celebration (e.g. the killing and cooking of the old red rooster). The song often is supplemented by summer camp nonsense
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Henry Whitter)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
BrownIII 460, "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" (1 text)
Sandburg, pp. 372-373, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune plus a spiritual Sandburg describes as the source of the song)
Lomax-FSNA 214 "She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 276, "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 496-497, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain"
DT, COMRND2*
Roud #4204
RECORDINGS:
H. M. Barnes & his Blue Ridge Ramblers, "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain When She Comes" (Brunswick 310, 1929/Supertone S-2052, 1930)
Vernon Dalhart, "She's Comin' Round the Mountain" (Montgomery Ward M-8148, 1939)
Vernon Dalhart & Co., "She's Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (Edison 51608, 1925)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (Brunswick 181/Vocalion 5240 [as the Hill Billies], 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon & John McGhee, "Comin' Round the Mountain" (Brunswick 263, 1928; Brunswick 425, 1930)
John D. Mounce et al, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (on MusOzarks01)
Elmo Newcomer, "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" CroMart 100, n.d. but prob. late 1940s - early 1950s)
Parman and Snyder, "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain" (OKeh 45302, 1929; rec. 1928)
Pickard Family, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (Oriole 1502/Conqueror 7251/Microphone [Canada] 22388, 1929; Challenge 992, n.d.; Broadway 8148 [as Pleasant Family], n.d.)
Red River Dave, "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (Musicraft 287, 1944)
Rhythm Wreckers, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (Vocalion 3341, 1936)
Carson Robison [Trio], "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (Crown 3027, c. 1930)
Roe Bros. & Morrell, "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (Columbia 15156-D, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (on PeteSeeger03, PeteSeegerCD03) (on PeteSeeger21)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (Columbia 15200-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
Henry Whitter, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (OKeh 40063, 1924)
Jimmie Wilson & his Catfish String Band, "She's Comin' Round the Mountain" (Victor V-40163, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Ship of Zion (I)" (form, tune, lyrics)
cf. "I Am Growing Old and Gray" (tune)
cf. "Drive It On" (tune)
cf. "Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny" (tune)
cf. "Ding Dong Dollar" (tune)
cf. "Ballymurphy" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
I'm Going to Ship on the Mike Davis (Wheeler, p. 115)
Bill Cox, "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain - No. 2" (Supertone 9556, 1929) [Also apparently issued as by Charley Blake, same record number]
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The New 'Comin' Round the Mountain'" (Bluebird B-5401, 1934)
Mickey Katz, "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Katzkills" (Capitol 1718, 1951)
Anonymous singer, "There's a 'Skeeter" (on Unexp1)
NOTES: Fuld reports that "substantially this melody" was in print in 1899 in "Old Plantation Hymns," but the text was "When the Chariot Comes." Fuld assumes the "Round the Mountain" lyrics are more recent (he knows of no printing before Sandburg).
The notes in Brown list it as a "parody or secularization of 'The Old Ship of Zion'" (included in the index as "The Old Ship of Zion (I), but note that the phrase is not found in Sandburg's spiritual version); Roud goes so far as to lump them. The Brown text does mention Mary, though it's not clear that this is the mother of Jesus. - RBW
The anonymous singer on Unexp1 sings "There's a 'skeeter on my peter, sweet Marie." Folk process. - PJS
File: San372

She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama


DESCRIPTION: "It was one evening long ago" when the singer went to ask the hand of the girl. Her mother gladly consents. He looks back happily. Chorus: "She's a flower from the fields of Alabam, Take her for she loves you, yes I know...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Emry Arthur)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, FLWRALBM
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama" (Vocalion 5234, 1928)
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama" (Gennett 6688/Challenge 420 [as Bunch & Jennings], 1929; rec. 1928; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Sue & Rawhide, "She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama" (OKeh 45577, 1934)
NOTES: Given the near-lack of plot, I have to suspect that this is a nineteenth century parlour piece. But I can't trace it back past the Burnett & Rutherford recording (made at their last dated recording session in 1928). - RBW
I've traced it back a little farther; the Emry Arthur recording was made sometime in January, 1928, while the Burnett & Rutherford was made on October 29 of that year. - PJS
File: DTflweral

She's Aye Scaulin' Me


See Scolding Wife (IV) (File: HHH145)

She's Aye Tease, Teasin'


DESCRIPTION: "I bocht my wife a steen [stone] o' lint [flax] As good e'er did grow, She carded it ... And let it in lowe [set it on fire]. She's aye tease, teasin', She's aye teasin me; This wicked wife she'll en' my life She winna lat me be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness fire husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1338, "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (1 fragment)
Roud #7221
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Spinnin o't" (theme: the wife who won't spin, but sets the flax on fire)
cf. "The Wee Pickle Tow" (theme: the wife who won't spin, but sets the flax on fire)
cf. "The Pound of Tow" (theme: the wife who won't spin)
cf. "The Weary Pound o' Tow" (theme: the wife who won't spin)
cf. "Scolding Wife" (IV) (structure and subject)
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan7 fragment; the [glosses are] from GreigDuncan7.
Though the GreigDuncan7 fragment shares a narrow theme with the listed cross-references neither its structure nor words are close enough that I can lump it with any of those songs. The closest is the Burns and Chambers text of "The Weary Pund o' Tow" that shares the first two lines of the GreigDuncan7 text.
The structure of the GreigDuncan7 text fits "Scolding Wife" (IV). If I could find a hint of the "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" verse in any "Scolding Wife" texts I would consider them the same song. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71338

She's Gone to be a Mormonite


DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you what I'm going to do And that without delay, I'll pack my trunk and I'll be off, I'll go this very day." The singer tells of a girl who's "Gone to be a Mormonite In the new Jerusalem." (He?) knows not where she is, except that she's Mormon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: separation travel marriage religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 501, "She's Gone to be a Mormonite" (1 text)
Roud #7640
NOTES: Although I have no direct evidence of it, I suspect -- both for psychological reasons (why would a *girl* want to be a Mormon?) and the strange constructions in Randolph's text of the song -- that it was a man who was originally referred to here. (So, apparently, in Hubbard's version.) How it came to refer to a woman I do not know.
To be fair, there was a legend that said that Mormon men were particularly sexually proficient (see the notes to "The Mormon Cowboy" in Logdson's The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing), and Fawn M. Brodie's biography of Joseph Smith, No Man Knows My History (1945, 1971; I use the 1995 Vintage Books edition), p. xii, notes that Smith had some fifty wives in his life, most of them voluntary -- and that over 200 wives "married" him after his death. (Of course, they were safe from him when dead.) - RBW
File: R501

She's Got the Money Too


See He's Got the Money Too (File: R299)

She's Like the Swallow


DESCRIPTION: "She's like a swallow that flies so high, She's like a river that never runs dry, She's like the sunshine on the lee shore, I love my love and love is no more." A lament for a lost girl: "She laid her down, no word she spoke, until [her] heart was broke"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Karpeles-Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: death separation loneliness
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Peacock, pp. 711-714, "She's Like the Swallow" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 140-141, "She's Like the Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 63, "She's Like the Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 83, "She's Like the Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 120, "She's Like the Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 150, "She's Like The Swallow" (1 text)
DT, SWLLOW*
Roud #2306
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "She's Like the Swallow" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Omar Blondahl, "She's Like the Swallow" (on NFOBlondahl05)
NOTES: Fowke observes, "The lines suggest an English origin, and probably they formed part of a longer song [perhaps similar to "The Butcher Boy"?], but the years have polished the fragment that survives until it approaches perfection." - RBW
File: FJ140

Shearer and the Swaggie, The


DESCRIPTION: A gun shearer finishes his work, collects his pay, and takes to the road. He meets a swaggie; they camp. In the night, afraid for his pay, he flees at a noise. The swaggie also runs, afraid of the shearer. They meet again and wonder why they are running
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: money rambling hobo sheep
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 147-149, "The Shearer and the Swaggie" (1 tune)
File: MCB147

Shearer's Dream


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I dreamt I shore in a shearin'-shed, and it was a dream of joy, For every one of the rouseabouts was a girl dressed up as a boy." He dreams of clean sheep, of a cool, comfortable shed, of happy dances with the girls... and wakes to find it a dream
AUTHOR: attributed to Henry Lawson
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Lawson's _Children of the Bush_)
KEYWORDS: dream work sheep Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 116-117, "The Shearer's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 164-165, "The Shearer's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 202-204, "The Shearer's Dream" (1 text)
NOTES: Henry Lawson published this, but it is not clear from the extant records whether he actually wrote it or just touched it up. Paterson/Fahey/Seal, note an informant who claim to have learned it in 1884. It is worth noting that two different tunes are known. - RBW
File: MA116

Shearer's Hardships, The


See The Station Cook (File: PASB090)

NOTES: Fowler's Bay is on the south coast of Australia, roughly 300 miles northwest of Adelaide. I'm guessing that "Pinyong" is Penong on the shores of the bay. - RBW
File: PASB090

Shearer's Song, The


See Four Little Johnny Cakes (File: PFS276)

Shearin's Nae for You, The


DESCRIPTION: The girl is urged to "tak the ribbons fae yer hair" or the "flounces frae yer gown," because her "belly's roarin' fu'." She blames the young man (soldier?) for seducing her. He urges her to mind her baby. Other mutual accusations may follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Grieg collection)
KEYWORDS: sex seduction childbirth soldier dialog accusation abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1486, "The Shearin's Nae for You" (3 texts, 1 tune)
DT, SHEARNAE* SHEARNA2*
Roud #4845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alford Vale" (tune)
cf. "Kelvingrove" (tune)
cf. "O Tell Me Will Ye Go" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Lassie O
NOTES: This song supplies the melody for a poem by Thomas Lyle, "Kelvingrove" or "Kelvin Grove," which apparently is sung in the Scottish schools despite being utterly disdained by folksingers.
Lest we be too nasty about Kelvin Grove, we note that the Kelvin Stream (a small river near Glasgow) gave its name to William Thomson, who would in time become Baron Kelvin of Largs (commonly called Lord Kelvin). The Kelvin temperature scale of course is named after him.
And well deserved, because -- while Kelvin did not invent thermodynamics (depending on how you look at things, either Sadi Carnot or James Joule did that), he expanded on Joule's work and made it a part of the standard physics. Which is extremely important, since thermodynamics is pretty much the basis of all of physics (e.g. the inverse square law governing gravity and electromagnetism follows from the first law of thermodynamics -- think of a source giving off a pulse of gravity waves, which expand along the surface of the sphere. Since the total energy must be constant, and the surface area of a sphere increases according to the square of the radius, the potential must decrease with the square of the radius.)
So, anyway, though Kelvingrove the poem is unmemorable, Kelvin the place has a noble niche in the history of science. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcShNaYo

Shearing at the Castlereigh


DESCRIPTION: "The bells are set a-ringing and the engine gives a toot, There are five-and-thirty shearers here a-shearing for the loot." The shearers are reminded that London depends on Castlereigh wool. The boss complains that the shearers were "born to swing a pick"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: work boss sheep Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson, p. 275, "Shearing at the Castlereigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA275

Sheath and Knife [Child 16]


DESCRIPTION: The princess (Jeannie) is pregnant by her brother. Rather than reveal the truth, the two leave for the greenwood, where he shoots her and buries her "with their bairn at her feet." He returns home, but even the joys of royalty cannot console him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: murder incest pregnancy burial mourning royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 16, "Sheath and Knife" (6 texts)
Bronson 16, "Sheath and Knife" (2 versions)
DT 16, SHEATHKF* SHTHKNF2 SHTHKNF3
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #64, "Sheath and Knife" (1 text)
Roud #3960
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Leesome Brand" [Child 15] (lyrics about the "sheathe and knife)
cf. "The Bonnie Hind" [Child 50] (plot, lyrics)
NOTES: On the scientific evidence that brothers and sisters raised apart are particularly likely to fall in love, and some further speculation as to why, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]."
Child in his notes to "Robin Hood's Death" [Child 120] suggests that the penultimate scene here once followed the same course as in that ballad -- that is, presumably, instead of the girl choosing a spot and asking her brother to shoot and bury her there, that she once shot the arrow herself to choose her grave site. This is perhaps possible -- in each case, she chooses where she is buried -- but I doubt it. The effect is the same, but the symbolism is different. In "Robin Hood's Death," the bow itself is called upon to choose the burial place -- a strong symbol of Robin's career with the bow. In "Sheathe and Knife," the girl chooses the exact spot -- and then the boy shoots a silver arrow as the last gift, or tribute, he can give her. The emphasis is very different. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C016

Sheelicks


DESCRIPTION: About a riotous wedding, attended by all whether invited or not, at McGinty's. A tailor with a wooden leg loses it in mid-dance; a cyclist is carried home in a wheelbarrow; a man comes with a hundred pounds, goes home with nothing. Plus the food is bad.
AUTHOR: George Bruce Thomson
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan3)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of a riotous wedding, attended by all whether invited or not, at McGinty's Meal and Ale. Mrs. McGinty trips over a pig; a tailor with a wooden leg loses it in mid-dance; a bicyclist is carried home in a wheelbarrow; another man comes with a hundred pounds, goes home with nothing. The food is bad, besides. Chorus: "Hi, hi, went the drum! Diddle, diddle, went the fiddle/.../And the jing-a-ring went roond aboot like sheelicks in a riddle"
KEYWORDS: disability wedding dancing drink food party humorous animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig 134, pp. 2-3, "Sheelicks" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 614, "Sheelicks" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 109, "Sheelicks" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MEALNAL2*
Roud #2518
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Deil Amon' the Tailors" (tune, per Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
McGinty's Wedding
NOTES: [MacColl & Seeger's] informant, Maggie McPhee, has evidently transplanted bits of another Thompson piece, "McGinty's Meal and Ale", into "Sheelicks." His compositions evidently entered tradition around the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, as Greig collected them from informants over a wide area. "Sheelicks", by the way, are husked grain; a riddle is a sieve. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: McCST109

Sheep Shell Corn by the Rattle of His Horn


DESCRIPTION: "Sheep shell corn by the rattle of his horn, blow, horn, blow, Send to the mill by the whippoorwill." "O! blow your horn, blow, horn, blow" (x2) Verses about life at corn-shucking time and a desire to have done for the day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work food animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 196, "Sheep Shell Corn by the Rattle of His Horn" (1 text plus 1 fragment and a mention of 1 more)
File: Br3196

Sheep Stealer, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out in "the night when the moon do shine bright, There's a number of work to be done ... on another man's ground." He steals sheep and takes them home to be butchered by his children while he stands guard against the constable.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (ENMacCollSeeger02)
KEYWORDS: sheep children thief theft
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, SHPSTEAL
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Sheep Stealer" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
NOTES: From ENMacCollSeeger02 album cover notes: "H.E.D. Hammond recorded two Dorset sets of this curious song in 1905 and 1906." - BS
File: RcTShSte

Sheep-Shearing, The


DESCRIPTION: Singer praises sheep and shearing. The singer laments that the sheep must be sheared in the June heat. In some versions, the singer tells of the master's demands for more wool. The song ends "when all our work is done" and the crew goes celebrating
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1760
KEYWORDS: work nonballad sheep drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sharp-100E 95, "The Sheep Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 267, "The Black Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHEEPSHR SHEEPSH2*
Roud #879
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sweet Nightingale" (tune)
NOTES: "The Sweet Nightingale", with which this song shares a tune, is not to be confused with "One Morning in May". -PJS
File: ShH95

Sheepcrook and Black Dog


DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the girl to marry him. She says she is too young; she will work for a fine lady for a time. Later she writes to him to say that she is happy where she is and does not wish to wed a shepherd. He abandons his work and its tools
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1775 (broadside, "The Constant Shepherd and the Unconstant Shepherdess")
KEYWORDS: love betrayal work servant shepherd youth
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England), Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
SHenry H30a, p. 390, "My Flora and I" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 70, "Sheep-Crook and Black Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 480-481, "My Flora and Me" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 58, "Floro" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 82, "The Young Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #948
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Sheepcrook and Black Dog" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fine Laurel
The Unkind Shepherdess
File: HHH030a

Sheepfold, The


DESCRIPTION: "Whilst tyrants grasp with greedy aim ... As Friends of Freedom we aspire The Rights of Man for to require." Holy scripture tells "that all men shall be one sheepfold and under one great master." That time is coming and "we will strive to haste it faster"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (_Paddy's Resource_(New York), according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 16, "The Sheepfold" (1 text)
NOTES: The discussion of Jesus as Shepherd occupies most of John 10, with the reference to one flock and one shepherd in John 10:16. - RBW
File: Moyl016

Sheepskin and Beeswax


See Aunt Jemimah's Plaster (File: R414)

Sheepwasher, The


DESCRIPTION: "When first I took the Western track, 'twas many years ago, No master then stood up so high, no servant stood so low." The singer recalls how he used to have a much better life. He urges ordinary Queenslanders to unite against tyranny
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: Australia hardtimes poverty work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manifold-PASB, p. 138, "The Sheepwasher" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PASB138

Sheepwasher's Lament, The


DESCRIPTION: "Come now, ye sighing washers all, Join in my doleful lay, Mourn for the times none can recall." The singer remembers good days: "The master was a worker then, The servant was a man." But since the sixties, conditions have grown much worse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes sheep work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 204-207, "The Sheepwasher's Lament" (1 text)
File: PFS204

Sheet Mill Man


DESCRIPTION: "Go away, go away, you sheet mill man, There's a better job in a distant land." The singer plans to head for Knoxville, but arrives home "condemned to die." People cheat him of his pay. He asks to be buried with with "an old flat sheet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: technology death burial hardtimes drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 12-13, "Sheet Mill Man" (1 text)
NOTES: Nowhere in Henry's (seemingly unique) text does it explain why the sheet mill worker is condemned to die; he goes away to marry a wife in Knoxville, but he comes home sounding like a condemned prisoner. Is it that he cannot find a job elsewhere and so simply has to return to the old grind? Or is it perhaps an industrial accident? The informant learned it at an aluminum plant in Alcoa, Tennessee -- but, at the time this song was composed, there does not seem to have been any reason to think aluminum dangerous. John Emsley, Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, Oxford, 2001, 2003, p. 22. reports that high blood levels of aluminum can cause "dialysis dementia," but this was not known until the 1970s. - RBW
File: MH012

Sheffield 'Prentice Boy, The


See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Sheffield Apprentice, The [Laws O39]


DESCRIPTION: The singer abandons his work in London to go to Holland. His new mistress proposes marriage. He refuses her; he is already engaged. His mistress plants evidence on him and has him condemned as a thief. He bids his Polly farewell and is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1804
KEYWORDS: travel courting farewell trick lie execution apprentice
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws O39, "The Sheffield Apprentice"
Belden, pp. 131-132, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text)
Gray, pp. 90-93, "The Prentice Boy's Love for Mary" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 94-96, "In the Town of Oxford" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 55, "The Holland Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 80, "Way Up in Sofield (or, The Sheffield Apprentice)"; 152, "The Sheffield 'Prentice" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
JHCox 83, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text)
BrownII 120, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more)
Chappell-FSRA 80, "The Sheffield Prentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster 57, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 80-81, "Farewell, Lovely Polly" (1 text)
Dean, pp. 18-19. "The Apprentice Boy" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 16, "The Sherfield (sic.) Apprentice" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
SharpAp 97, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
SHenry H31, p. 411, "The 'Prentice Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 192-194, "The Sheffield 'Prentice Boy" ( text)
GreigDuncan5 998, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (18 texts, 12 tunes)
Ord, pp. 421-422, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 203-206, "The Sheffield Prentice" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 17, "The Sheffield Prentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 709-710, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 132, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT 489, SHEFFAPP*
Roud #399
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(23), "Sheffield Apprentice," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth b.26(316), Firth b.34(270), Firth b.26(499), Harding B 11(624), Harding B 15(281a), "Sheffield Apprentice"; 2806 c.16(20), Harding B 11(3489), Firth b.34(269), Harding B 25(1763), Harding B 17(282a), Harding B 28(235), Harding B 28(249), Harding B 11(4098), Harding B 11(3490)[a few illegible words], Harding B 15(282a), Harding B 20(127), "[The] Sheffield 'Prentice"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Child Owlet" [Child 291]
cf. "Nairn's River Banks" (tune, per GreigDuncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Was Brought Up in Cornwall
The Apprentice Boy
Farewell My Dearest Polly
NOTES: Compare this story to the biblical tale of Joseph and Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:1-20) - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LO39

Sheffield Prentice, The


See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Sheila Nee Iyer


DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Sheila Nee Iyer. She tells him to leave off flattering and go away. He claims he would never prove false. "O had I the wealth of the Orient ... I would robe you in splendour"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 117, "Sheila Nee Iyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3108
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eileen McMahon" (aisling format)
cf. "Granuaile" (aisling format) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sheela na Guira
Sile Ni Ghadhra
NOTES: As in "Lough Erne Shore" and "The Colleen Rue," there is no resolution for the Tunney-StoneFiddle version.
"Sheila Nee Iyer, is surely a brilliant parody of the hedge schoolmaster aisling." (source: For Want of Education:The origins of the Hedge Schoolmaster songs by Julie Henigan - 19.8.99 originally published in Ulster Folklife No 40 (1994): pp 27-38, reproduced at the Musical Traditions site).
Tunney-StoneFiddle, in a chapter titled "Gael meets Greek," writes "In the whole corpus of traditional song couched in the borrowed Bearla [English], there are none to compare with the high-minded effusions of our hedge-school-master poets. These songs are readily recognisable by the plenitude of classical allusions they contain and by the adaptation of the Gaelic assonantal rhyme, used extensively by the Gaelic Aisling poets of the eighteenth century." The songs in that chapter, illustrating his point, are "Lough Erne Shore," "Sheila Nee Iyer," "Colleen Rue" and "The Flower of Gortade"; the most extreme example among those is "Sheila Nee Iyer." - BS
For discussion of aislings, see the notes to "Eileen McMahon" and "Granuaile." For a list of songs in the Index meeting the definition of the Aisling, see "Granuaile."
File: TSF117

Shells of the Ocean


See I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)

Shenandoah


DESCRIPTION: Usually has chorus "Away, you rolling river... Away, we're bound away, across the wide Missouri (world of Misery, etc.)" The basic text seems to have told of the white man who "loved the Indian maiden" but came from a different world and now is returning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1903 (recording, Minster Singers)
KEYWORDS: shanty courting separation Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Doerflinger, p. 77, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 36-37, "Shenandore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone, pp. 104-105, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, p. 83, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 112-114, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 173-178, "Shenandoah" (4 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 140-143]
Sharp-EFC, XI, p. 13, "Shanadar (First version)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 148-149, "Shenandoah or The Wide Missouri" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 66-67, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, p. 24, "Shanadore" (1 text)
Mackenzie 105, "Rolling River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 408, "The Wide Mizzoura" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 41, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 25, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 543-546, "The Wild Miz-zou-rye" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 546, "Shenandoah" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 1, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 314-315, "Shenandoah" (1 text)
Arnett, p. 44, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 17, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 85, "Shenandoah" (1 text)
DT, SHENDOAH*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Shenandoah!" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 48, "Shanadar" (1 text, 1 tune, from Sharp; I suspect it may be composite; see the notes to "Shanadar (I)")
ST Doe077 (Full)
Roud #324
RECORDINGS:
[Al] Campbell & [Henry] Burr, "Shenandoah" (Columbia A-2300, 1917) (Victor 18327, 1917)
Minster Singers, "Shenandoah" (Victor 61147, n.d., prob. c. 1903)
Paul Robeson, "Shenandoah" (Victor 27430, 1941)
Pete Seeger, "Shenandoah" (on PeteSeeger18)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shanadar" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
World of Misery
Across the Wide Missouri
The Rolling River
NOTES: Bone reports, "I have never heard this song sung at other duty than weighing anchor.... The very beauty of the air has even curbed the license of wild singers in the text. No bawdy lines, no plaint of mistreatment, no blasphemous exhortations were ranted in the singing of it." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Doe077

Shenandoah (II)


DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "Oh, Shenandoh, my bully boy, I long to hear you holler, Way-ay, ay ay ay, Shenandoh. I lub ter bring er tot er tum en see ye make a swoller, Way-ay..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (F.T. Bullen & W.F. Arnold, _Songs of Sea Labor_)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: South America
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, p. 177, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune-quoted from Bullen) [AbEd, p. 144]
Roud #324
NOTES: According to Hugill, this was a Negro shanty, but not used so much as sea as when heaving at the winches when working cargo. Bullen collected it in Georgetown, Demerara, South Africa. - SL
File: Hugi177

Shenandoah, The


See The Gals O' Dublin Town (File: Hugi140)

Shenandore


See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

Shepherd Boy, The (David and Goliath)


DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams and sees a shepherd boy. The boy, David, is leaving his flock to go to the camp of Israel as they fight the Philistines. David kills Goliath with his sling. The singer drinks the health of the shepherd boy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham)
KEYWORDS: Bible fight soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SHenry H803, p. 79, "The Shepherd Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham, p. 6, "The Shepherd's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5667
NOTES: The story of David and Goliath (actually *two* stories, carefully blended together, in one of which David is Saul's aide/court musician and in another he is a shepherd visiting the battle) is found in 1 Samuel 17.
This is reported to have originated as a Masonic song, but Moulden reports it is now sung by Orangemen, doubtless because of its theme of the small holding off the big and powerful. - RBW
File: HHH803

Shepherd Lad o' Rhynie, The


DESCRIPTION: "Come ye, oh come, my bonnie lass, We'll both join hands and marry." The girl wishes she could, but her father "keeps me under guard." Unable to win the girl, he jumps off a cliff in Rhynie. She dies for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: love courting suicide death father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan6 1194, "The Shepherd Lad o' Rhynie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Greig #61, p. 1, "The Shepherd Lad of Rhynie" (1 text)
Ord, pp. 466-467, "The Shepherd Lad o' Rhynie" (1 text)
Roud #5152
File: Ord466

Shepherd Laddie, The


See The Crook and Plaid (File: HHH617)

Shepherd on the Hill, The


DESCRIPTION: "Whaur Gairn's bonnie mountain strea Fa's into winding Dee, Aft 'mang the shady birks we've met, My shepherd lad and me." He sets out to meet her on a cold winter's night, but never appears. At last his frozen body is found.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 293-294, "The Shepherd on the Hill" (1 text)
Greig #61, p. 1, "The Shepherd on the Hill" (1 text)
GreigDuncan6 1258, "The Shepherd on the Hill" (7 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5646
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte)" [Laws G17] (theme)
File: FVS293

Shepherd, O Shepherd


See O Shepherd, O Shepherd (File: VWL074)

Shepherd, The


See The Young Shepherd (I) (File: CrMa108)

Shepherd's Boy, The


See The Shepherd Boy (David and Goliath) (File: HHH803)

Shepherd's Daughter and the King


See The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter [Child 110] (File: C110)

Shepherd's Daughter, The


See The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter [Child 112] (File: C110)
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