Water, Water, Wild Flower

See Wallflowers (File: HHH048d)

Water's Deep, Love, I Canna Wide, The

DESCRIPTION: "Where would I get a tiny boat To carry my love and ?" He buys a tiny boat for five pounds and "that very night the two were married"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: elopement sea floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1359, "The Water's Deep, Love, I Canna Wide" (1 text)
Roud #7237
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (verse)
NOTES: The first verse is the familiar one from "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" suggested by the title. The second verse completes the story. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71359

Waterbound (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer can't go home because of flooding. His girl's father is mad, but the singer doesn't care "as long as I get his daughter": "If he don't give her up, we're gonna run away." He and his friends state that they're going home "before the water rises."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (unissued recording, Grayson County Railsplitters)
KEYWORDS: courting elopement flood father
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Darling-NAS, pp. 252-253, "Waterbound" (1 text)
DT, WATRBOND
RECORDINGS:
Grayson County Railsplitters, "Way Down in North Carolina" (unissued, 1929; on TimesAint05)
Art Thieme, "Waterbound" (on Thieme06)
Wade Ward & Bogtrotters, "Waterbound" (on Holcomb-Ward1)
NOTES: Yes, there's a narrative buried in there -- two of them, really. - PJS
I suspect it may have been stronger, once upon a time, but gotten rather submerged after years of the tune being used primarily as a fiddle/banjo instrumental. As Paul notes, there are two plots -- one about the rising flood and one about courting. - RBW
The Grayson Co. Railsplitters' recording is essentially identical to the canonical version sung in the folk revival, mostly learned from the Wade Ward/Bogtrotters recording. It should be noted that Fields Ward, Wade's brother, was a member of the Railsplitters, along with Sampson Ward, Eck Dunford and Ernest "Pop" Stoneman -- an old-time music all-star show if ever there was one. - PJS
File: DTwatrbo

Waterbound II

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

Watercresses

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a damsel who has "a bunch of watercresses." She agrees to marry but "has some bills to pay" first, so he gives her money. Next day he get a letter that she's already someone's wife. "Sure you must have been greener than watercresses"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4046))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a dairy farmer, goes to town, meets a pretty girl, asks the way to Camberwell and falls in love. He proposes, citing his farm and herds; she accepts, but tells him she will need money for wedding expenses. He gives her a sovereign; they kiss and part. She sends him a letter telling him that next time he proposes, he should be certain his intended is a maiden or a widow, not a wife, and promises to repay the sovereign, someday. Refr.: "She promised she would marry me upon the first of May/And she left me with a bunch of water cresses"
KEYWORDS: courting promise money love marriage rejection beauty humorous lover wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(So) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig #137, p. 1, "The Bunch of Water-cresses" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 300, "The Bunch of Watercresses" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 320-321, "Watercresses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 66, "Water Creases" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 106-108, "Watercresses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 63, "The Dairy Farmer (Water Cresses)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Peac320 (Partial)
Roud #1653
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Bunch of Water Cresses" (on Abbott1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4046), "Water Cresses!," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Park in Portadown" (theme: the married woman pretending to be single)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Watercrest
The Watercress Girl
NOTES: In [O. J. Abbott's version of] the song, the young man says he is from Belvishire. There is no such shire in England. On the other hand, Camberwell is a borough of London. - PJS
The Southwest Missouri State University site Max Hunter Folk Song Collection includes "Watercrest" ["T'was on the first of April When I arrived in town ..."], a version collected in Arkansas. In this one Mrs. Tray writes "But to think that I would marry you Upon the first of May You must think that I'm as green as watercrest's."
I don't consider this to be the same as the following ballad at Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4047), "The Water-Cress Girl" ("While strolling out one evening by a running stream"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(1233), "The Water-Cress Girl"
In this one the singer finds Martha gathering water-cresses, they "often strolled together," marry and live happily ever after. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Peac320

Waterford Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer pays 5 shillings for a room and dry bread and cheese; he fight rats all night. Tavern-keeper would refund 5s for a cure for rats. "Just invite them to supper" and "charge them five shillings and never the rat will again cross your floor."
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging as203820)
KEYWORDS: bargaining emigration Ireland humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 72, "The Waterford Boys" (1 text)
O'Conor, pp. 115-116, "The Waterford Boys" (1 text)
Roud #3107
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as203820, "Waterford Boys," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
SAME TUNE:
The Flaming O'Flannigans (per broadside LOCSinging as203820)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wrestling With Rats
NOTES: According to GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site the tune is "The Humours of Whiskey" and the dates for the author are 1832-1872. [Other sources say 1824-1872 - RBW.]
The "Waterford Boys" title is sensible considering the first lines
Well boys, for diversion, we're all met together:
I'll tell you how from Waterford hither I came
and the last line of the chorus: "Who can compare with the Waterford boys." - RBW
For background on author Harry Clifton, see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as203820: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrMa072

Waterford Girl, The

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

Waterford Strike, The

DESCRIPTION: Waterford staff strikes for pension rights. Union "Meter Maids" cross the line. Police are scabs and a crowd is treated to an ice hockey shutout of the Police by "Fire Boys." Nevertheless, the "cops keep order, and they're taking home the pay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1977 - Four month strike at Waterford Hospital, St John's (Lehr/Best)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 117, "The Waterford Strike" (1 text)
File: LeBe117

Waterloo (I) [Laws J2]

DESCRIPTION: The singer is pressed and forced to leave his sweetheart. The new Redcoat serves in Belfast, then is sent to Waterloo, where he loses an arm and a leg. Now he is at least free of the army and due a pension of thirty pounds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: war Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws J2, "Waterloo I"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 81, "Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1020-1023, "Waterloo" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT 815, WATLOOX
Roud #1921
File: LJ02

Watermelon on the Vine

DESCRIPTION: "You may talk about your apples, your peaches, and your pears... But... The watermelon am de fruit for me." "But gimme, oh, gimme me... That watermelon hanging on the vine." The singer begs for, or makes other plans to acquire, the watermelon
AUTHOR: unknown (credited to Johnny Marvin on the Whitter recording)
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food theft floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 454, "Oh, Dat Watermilion" (2 fragments, possibly other songs mixed with this, but too short to bother classifying separately); 468, "Watermelon Hanging on the Vine" (1 text)
ST Br3454 (Partial)
Roud #11795
RECORDINGS:
Bela Lam and His Green County Singers, "Watermelon Smiling on the Vine" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
The Monroe Brothers, "Watermellon Hangin' on the Vine" (Bluebird 6829)
Ernest Stoneman, "Watermelon Hanging on the Vine" (Edison 51864, 1926) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5191, 1926)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Watermelon Smilin' on the Vine" (Vocalion 15063, 1923)
Henry Whitter, "Watermelon Hanging on the Vine" (OKeh 40296, 1925; rec. 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Was a Watermelon" (theme)
NOTES: Bob Black, who played with the Blue Grass Boys for a couple of years, describes this as Bill Monroe's "theme song" (Come Hither to Go Younder, p. 40), but obviously it preceded him. - RBW
File: Br3454

Waters of Dee, The

DESCRIPTION: The bride waits at home for the bride-groom. She and her maiden look for him but "he'll never win owre the waters o' Dee." At dinner the bridegroom raps at the gate. The bride gets a horse and they elope "And so they were mairriet wi' candle-light"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: elopement marriage home horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 617, "The Waters of Dee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6057
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Night As I Lay On My Bed" (theme)
File: GrD3617

Watkin's Ale

DESCRIPTION: A girl laments "I am afraid to die a maid." A man overhears and offers her "Watkin's Ale." She accepts. After much witty repartee, they part. Nine months later, her child is born. The moral: "It is no jesting with sharp-edged tools."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: mentioned twice in 1592 (Mundy, Chettle)
KEYWORDS: seduction pregnancy sex bawdy bastard
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell/Wooldridge I, p. 265, "Watkin's Ale" (1 tune)
BBI, ZN3278A, "As Watkin walked by the way" (also "There was a maid this other day")
DT, WATKALE*
NOTES: This probably is not a traditional tune; the words are too fiendishly clever and the music too complex to have arisen in oral tradition. The song is rather frequently mentioned, however, particularly for such a bawdy piece. Chances are it was popular enough to include here. And I happen to think it too clever to omit. - RBW
File: ChWI265

Watty and Meg

DESCRIPTION: Watty goes to the local alehouse and complains to Mungo about Meg's nagging. Mungo recommends Watty threaten to leave her. Watty follows the advice, threatening to enlist. Meg begs him to stay and promises never to nag him. He stays.
AUTHOR: Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) in 1792 (source: Ford)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Ford); c.1800 (broadside, NLScotland RB.m.143(002))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Watty goes to the local alehouse and complains to Mungo about Meg's nagging. Mungo recommends Watty threaten to leave her. Meg comes to get him for "bringing wife and weans to ruin, Drinking here wi' sic a crew." The nagging continues on the road and when they reach home. He bids her farewell in the morning. She begs him to stay. He says he has heard that before and this morning he will enlist: "Ower the seas I march this morning." His price for staying is that she "swear to drap your flyting." She solemnly swears "by everything that's gude, Ne'er again your spouse to scal' him" or complain about his drinking. She swears again. Watty is ecstatic. "Syne below the blankets, gloriousa, Held anither Hinney-Moon."
KEYWORDS: shrewishness sex drink dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan3 595, "Watty and Meg" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [first series] (Paisley,1899), pp. 115-124, "Watty and Meg" (omitted from the 1904 single-volume edition)
Roud #5891
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4051), "Watty and Meg" ("Keen the frosty winds were blawing"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910
NLScotland, RB.m.143(002), "Watty and Meg" or "The Wife Reformed," unknown, c.1800; also RB.m.143(160), "Watty and Meg" or "The Wife Reformed"
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 is a fragment; broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(002) is the basis for the description.
Ford: "Not Paisley, as is generally supposed, but Lochwinnoch, I believe, was the scene of this world-known poem.... 'Mungo Blue' was really notorious in the village scandal. His real name was Jamie Orr..... He led a joyous but short life, and went through his 'subject' by drinking and other debaucheries. His changehouse [alehouse] at Lochwinnoch.... In the east end was situated the wretched domicile of Wattie Mathie and his wife, the hero and heroine of the wonderfully graphic poem, which is true in every respect to the character of Watty, and to the flyting and tinkler nature of his wife, Meg Love." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3595

Watty Grimes

DESCRIPTION: Watty Grimes blames Billy McKeever for blackmailing him into leaving his family to join a raid to aid Antrim. They "spent that whole night with a bottle and glass." Watty is deserted in the field, flees, is taken, jailed in Coleraine, tried and executed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Shield's _Songs and Ballads in use in the Province of Ulster...1845_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution manhunt prison trial drink gallows-confessions family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 7, 1798 - "A party of insurgents led by William M'Keiver assembled at Crew Hill, near Maghera, Co. Derry, in order to assist the United Irishmen of Antrim" (source: Moylan)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 81, "Watty Grimes" (2 texts)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(666), "Watty Grimes" ("In the year '98, as you may understand"), The Poet's Box (Belfast), 1846-1852
File: Moyl081

Watty's Wooing

DESCRIPTION: "Watty Wylie was a grieve and served at Whinnyknowe, And he had gien his promise to marry Bessie Lowe," but repeatedly puts off the wedding, pleading poverty. At last she gives up on him and marries another. She is happy, but Watty is mocked
AUTHOR: William "Ryming Willie" Penman ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord); Penman died 1877
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal rejection poverty
FOUND IN: Britain�(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord, pp. 282-283, "Watty's Wooing" (1 text)
Roud #5601
File: Ord282

Waukin' o' the Claes, The

DESCRIPTION: Betsy and Jeannie are waulking one cold night. Betsy taunts Jeannie that she has no lover to keep her warm. Jeannie's lover shows up too late. Betsy becaomes pregnant. Jeannie taunts Betsy "now your laddie's gone ... my laddie's proved constant"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex abandonement pregnancy lover
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #98, p. 2, "The Waukin' o' the Claes" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan7 1492, "The Waukin' o' the Claes" (10 texts plus a single verse on p. 537, 9 tunes)
Roud #6269
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Marrowless Jeannie
Oh Cauld Was the Nicht
NOTES: For a note on waulking see "Oran Na Caillich (Our Auld Wife)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71492

Waukin' o' the Kilne, The

See The Miller's Daughter (The Fleeing Servant) (File: KinBB06)

Wave Over Wave

DESCRIPTION: The singer is a sailor who loves the sea. His wife doesn't understand why he leaves home ten months a year, with children to raise, while he "must sail the salt sea"
AUTHOR: Jim Payne
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: sea children wife sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 118, "Wave Over Wave" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LeBe118

Waves on the Sea

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

Waxies' Dargle, The

DESCRIPTION: "Says my aul' one to your aul' one, Will ye come to the Waxies' Dargle?" The hearer hasn't a farthing to take a trip. Neither can they go to the Galway races. They agree, "When food is scarce, And you see the hearse, You'll know you died of hunger."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book)
KEYWORDS: food travel hardtimes poverty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, WAXDARGL*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (II - lyric) (tune)
cf. "Brighton Camp" (tune)
NOTES: Waxies were candlemakers (or, according to Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads [third edition, Music Ireland, 2004], p.105, people who waxed bootlaces). Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book declares that the Waxies' Dargle was an annual meeting of candlemakers held in Bray in County Wicklow. Gogan, however, declares that the poor waxies could not afford a visit to such a posh place, and so went instead to a beach in Dublin.
The versions I've seen don't make it clear why times are so hard in this song; it doesn't sound like a famine song. I suspect its survival has much to do with being fitted to the much-loved tune "Brighton Camp." - RBW
File: DTWaxDar

Way Bye and Bye

DESCRIPTION: "Way bye and bye (x2), We goin' a have a good time, Way bye and bye." "Way in Beulah land (x2), we goin' a have a good time, way bye and bye." "Meet my mother over there...." "One morning soon...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, pp. 253-254, "Way Bye and Bye" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: CNFM253

Way Down Below

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, a good beef steak and' a mutton chop, Way down below! Make dat nigger's lip go flip flap flop. Way down below (x2), Ole Aunt Kitty am honin' for de sea, Way down below." Verses float (e.g. "My old master promised me"); lines 2 and 4-6 are the chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: slave freedom floatingverses food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 492, "Way Down Below" (1 text)
Roud #11870
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Ole Mistus Promised Me" (floating lyrics) and references there
NOTES: This looks like it might have been built on the broken fragments of a sea shanty, but the verses have clearly come from tradition ashore. - RBW
File: Br492

Way Down by the Green Bushes

See Green Bushes [Laws P2] (File: LP02)

Way Down in Columbus, Georgia

See Columbus Stockade Blues (File: Wa137)

Way Down in Cuba

DESCRIPTION: Fragment of a shanty: "I've got a sister nine feet tall, 'Way down in Cuba, Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet in the hall, 'Way down in Cuba." "I've got a girl friend, name is Jane,
'Way down in Cuba, You can guess where she gives me a pain...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: shanty talltale
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-SeaSongs, p. 95, "'Way Down in Cuba" (1short text)
Roud #8820
NOTES: I suspect this may be a broken-off fragment of a better-known shanty (Shay says it's from the Mississippi River), but with only two verses and no tune, it's hard to tell. - RBW
File: ShSea095

Way Down in Old Virginia

DESCRIPTION: "'Way down in old Virginia Where I was bred and born, On the sunny side of that country I used to hoe the corn." The singer recalls those happy times: "And I couldn't stay away." He recalls his old mistress and master, who were "good and kind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: slave home work food
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 225-226, "'Way Down in Ole Virginia" (1 text)
Dean, p. 111, "I Couldn�t Stay Away" (1 text)
ST ScaNF225 (Partial)
Roud #9578
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (theme)
NOTES: I find it highly unlikely that this is of actual Black composition; I suspect that the woman who sent it to Scarborough was unclear or inaccurate about its source. The fact that Dean (whose repertoire is strongly northern and contains much from the stage) has it may be indicative. - RBW
File: ScaNF225

Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog)

DESCRIPTION: "Somebody stole my old coon dog, I wish they'd bring him back, He drove the big 'uns over the fence An' the little ones through the crack. It's gettin' out the way o' the fiddler O (x3), Way down in Rackensack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Fiddlin' Doc Roberts)
KEYWORDS: animal dog theft
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 350, "Way Down in Rackensack" (1 text)
Roud #7627
RECORDINGS:
Bradley Kincaid, "Old Coon Dog" (Brunswick 485, c. 1930)
George "Shortbuckle" Roark, "My Old Coon Dog"(Columbia 15383-D, 1929; rec. 1928; a melange that also includes bits of, among other songs, "Whoa, Mule," "Possum Up a Gum Stump," and "Shoo Fly")
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts, "My Old Coon Dog" (Gennett 6558, 1928)
File: R350

Way Down in Rockingham

See Jinny Go Round and Around (File: R272)

Way Down in Tennessee

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell you girls of this cold countree," "I can no longer stay with you. " "I left my wife and a baby." Chorus: "Away over the ocean." "Tennessee is a-rolling." Lines are repeated three times, followed by "I'm bound/way-down for Tennessee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith/Hatt, p. 23, "Way Down in Tennessee" (1 text)
Roud #9415
NOTES: Smith/Hatt: Smith's comment is "A favourite with Liverpool [Nova Scotia] sailormen." - BS
File: SmHa023

'Way Down Near Alpena

DESCRIPTION: "Way down near Alpena in a far-distant land, There's a hard-hearted, hard-spoken band." The men go on a spree. The singer describes their fights. Chorus: "Hurray, hurrah! For the fruit you can bet/Let's take of a drink, boys, for our credit's good yet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: logger drink party fight moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck 39, "'Way Back Near Alpena" (1 text)
Rickaby 34-II, (second of three "Fragments of Shanty Songs") (1 text)
ST Be039 (Partial)
Roud #6503
File: Be039

Way Down on the Old Peedee

DESCRIPTION: "Away down south, on the old Peedee, Away down in the cotton and the corn, There lived old Joe, and he lived so long That nobody knows when he was born." The song describes how the old, old slave was buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: slave death burial age
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 421, "Way Down on the Old Peedee" (1 text plus a possibly-related fragment)
Roud #11770
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Uncle Ned" (plot)
NOTES: This song is so like "Uncle Ned" in its ideas, and even its style, that I can't help but think it designed to take advantage of that early Foster work. But I haven't located a source. - RBW
File: Br3421

Way Down the Ohio

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "Way down the Ohio my little boat I steered/In hopes that some pretty girl on the banks will appear/I'll hug her and kiss her till my mind is at ease/And I'll turn my back on her and court who I please"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: courting sex infidelity travel lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SharpAp 198, "Way Down the Ohio" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3616
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Brier Shore (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES: This is very like the chorus of "Green Brier Shore (II)," itself a composite, but it lacks that song's theme of parental disapproval. And in this one, the young man's a cad. - PJS
File: ShAp2198

Way Down the Old Plank Road

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses, some mentioning jail, stitched together with the usual Uncle Dave Macon logic. Chorus: "Won't get drunk no mo' (x3), Way down the old plank road."
AUTHOR: Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: prison drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 94, "Way Down The Old Plank Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 202, "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 252, "Marina Girls" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, OLPLNKRD
Roud #18527
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (Vocalion 5097, 1926; on AAFM3, RoughWays1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (words)
cf. "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)" (words)
cf. "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (floating verse)
NOTES: I put SharpAp 252 ("Marina Girls") here only because because half of it is a floating verse that's also in this song ("Sixteen pounds of meat a week/Whisky for to sell/How can a pretty girl stay at home/The soldiers fare so well" -- note that Uncle Dave reversed the sexes!) Although it was collected in 1918, I'm not assigning it as "Earliest Date" because it's not really "Way Down the Old Plank Road," but I note the fact of the floater. - PJS
Roud makes "Marina Girls" a separate song (his item #3661), but the only known text appears to be Sharp's short fragment from Laura V. Donald; until and unless more distinct text shows up, it's hard to know how to file the thing anyway. - RBW
File: ADR94

Way Down upon the Swanee River

See Old Folks at Home (File: RJ19163)

Way Down Yonder in Pasquotank

See May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder) (File: Br3189)

Way Down Yonder on Cedar Street

See Roll, Jordan, Roll (II) (File: R303)

Way Downtown

See Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown) (File: CSW166)

Way Out in Idaho (I)

DESCRIPTION: A railroad man, enticed by "Kilpatrick's man, Catcher," goes to Idaho to work on the Oregon Short Line. Disillusioned by hard work and bad food, he winds up "happy, down in the harvest camps" and plans to marry a girl and bring her "back to Idaho."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Blaine Stubblefield)
KEYWORDS: railroading work marriage train travel
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 560-566, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text plus a text of "The Arkansaw Navvy"="The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II)" [Laws H1], 1 tune)
Botkin-RailFolklr, p. 440, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OUTIDAHO*
Roud #16409
RECORDINGS:
Blaine Stubblefield, "Way Out in Idaho" (AFS 1634 B1, 1938; on LC61)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier (I)" and references there (tune)
cf. "The Buffalo Skinners" (lyrics, plot)
cf. "The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II)" [Laws H1] (lyrics)
NOTES: The Digital Tradition notes that the tune for its version is a "slight variant on Son of a Gambolier." - RBW
File: BRaF440

Way Out in Idaho (II)

See We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho) (File: R343)

Way Out in Idyho

See We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho) (File: R343)

Way Out There

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a hobo, jumps off a freight train, makes camp, falls asleep, dreaming "the desert sand was a milk and honey land." He awakens to the sound of a returning train; he catches it on the fly. Refrain: "It gets lonesome way out there" or similar
AUTHOR: Bob Nolan
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Sons of the Pioneers)
KEYWORDS: homesickness loneliness rambling train travel dream hobo
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers "'Way Out There" (Bluebird [US, Canada] B-6670, 1936; Montgomery Ward M-7193, 1937)
Callahan Brothers, "Away Out There" (Melotone 7-05-59, 1937)
Hall Brothers, "'Way Out There" (Bluebird B-6843, 1937)
Riley Puckett, "'Way Out There" (Bluebird B-8354, 1940)
Sons of the Pioneers, "Way Out There" (Decca 5013, 1934)
File: RcWOT

Way Out West in Kansas

DESCRIPTION: Complaints about life "Way out west in Kansas": "The sun's so hot the eggs will hatch... It'll pop the corn in a popcorn patch." The people are prone to fighting and often physically peculiar; the lack of amusements makes for a boring life
AUTHOR: Carson Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Billy Murray & Ed. Smalle)
KEYWORDS: home family
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 32, "In Kansas" (2 texts, 1 tune, the "B" text being this piece while the "A" text is "In Kansas")
Roud #4455
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart & Co. "Way Out West in Kansas" (Edison 51459, 1925)
Art Gilliam (The Whispering Pianist), "Way Out West in Kansas" (Columbia 238-D, 1924)
Billy Murray & Ed. Smalle "Way Out West in Kansas" (Victor 19442, 1924)
Anna Underhill, "Away Out West in Kansas" (on FineTimes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Kansas" (theme)
NOTES: There's a Gene Autry recording, "'Way Out West in Texas" (Conqueror 8193, 1933; Conqueror 9513, 1940) which is probably the same song, but as I haven't heard it I'm putting it here as a note instead of adding it to the official recordings list. - PJS
File: FCW032B

Way Over in the Blooming Garden

DESCRIPTION: Playparty/courting game. "Sweet peas and roses, Strawberries on the vine Way over in the blooming garden Where sweet lilies grow." "Choose you a partner and choose him to your side." "Hug him neatly and kiss him so sweetly."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: courting playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 293-294, "Way Over in the Blooming Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15583
File: LxA294

Way Over in the Heavens

DESCRIPTION: "I wish't I had-a heard when ye called me (x3) To sit on the seat by Jesus. Way over in the heavens...." "Sister, my soul's happy...." "I have a mother in the heavens...." "Won't you be glad when he calls you...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FSNA 127, "Way Over in the Heavens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6681
File: LoF127

Way Over in the New Buryin' Groun'

DESCRIPTION: "The hammer keeps ringin' on somebody's coffin (x2), Way over in the new buryin' groun'." "Somebody's dying way over yonder (x2), Way over in the new buryin' groun'." "Hearse keeps a-rollin' -- somebody's dyin'...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death burial
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 614, "The New Buryin' Ground" (3 texts, with common verses though "A" never mentions the burying ground)
Sandburg, p. 473, "Way Over in the New Buryin' Groun'" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11052
SAME TUNE:
Woody Guthrie, "Union Burying Ground" (on Struggle2)
File: San473

Way Over in the Promised Land

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

Way Sing Sally

See Sally Brown (File: Doe074)

Way Stormalong John

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Way to Spell Chicken, De

See C-H-I-C-K-E-N (File: RcCHICKE)

Way to Wallington, The

DESCRIPTION: "O canny man, o! Shew me the way to Wallington: I've got a mare to ride, and she's a trick o' galloping." Sandy tells of his determination to reach the town; he is told he is on the road. He sets off "like the wind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: horse travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 148-149, "Shew Me the Way to Wallington" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR148 (Partial)
Roud #3165
NOTES: This is said to be a pipe tune, with words defective. It looks as if it might be political -- but too little is left, at least in the texts I've seen, to make even an intelligent guess as to what. - RBW
File: StoR148

Way Up in Sofield

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

Way Up on Clinch Mountain

See Rye Whiskey AND Sweet Lulur (File: R405)

Way, Me, Susiana!

See Susiana (File: Doe083)

Wayerton Driver, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a heart-broken driver, From Wayerton I came, I courted a sweetheart, Mary Dolan by name." Paul buys her a ring but she turns him down. He gets drunk and visits her again. She prefers Melvin Grant. Pretty fair maids, warns Paul, are "slyer than mice"
AUTHOR: probably Paul Kingston
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: courting ring rejection drink
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson 45, "The Wayerton Driver" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi045 (Partial)
Roud #9183
NOTES: Wayerton is far up the Northwest Miramichi River in New Brunswick. - BS
The note on the tune says that this derives from "The Girl I Left Behind Me," and there is in fact a strong resemblance in the shape of the melody. But the first verse, at least, is clearly based on "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)" [Laws C25]. - RBW
File: MaWi045

Wayfaring Pilgrim

See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

Wayfaring Stranger

DESCRIPTION: The singer confesses, "I'm just a poor, wayfaring stranger / A-travelling through this world of woe." The singer plans to cross the Jordan (into heaven), there to meet with family and loved ones and live forever free from trouble and burden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (Kentucky Harmony, as "Judgement")
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,SE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
FSCatskills 77, "Poor and Foreign Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 93, "A Poor Wayfaring Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, p. 208, "I'm Just A-Going Over Jordon" (1 text, clearly this though it lacks the "Wayfaring Stranger" lines)
Lomax-FSUSA 97, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 880-881, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune, plus verses from several parodies)
Arnett, p. 32, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 162-165, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 124-125, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 15, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 352, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #5 (1973), p, 21, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune, the Horton Barker version)
ST FSC077 (Partial)
Roud #3339
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, "Wayfaring Pilgrim" (on WatsonAshley01)
Horton Barker, "Wayfaring Stranger" (on Barker01)
Linzy Hicks, "A Poor Wayfaring Pilgrim" (on USWarnerColl01)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Wayfaring Stranger" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Almeda Riddle, "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (on LomaxCD1701, LomaxCD1704)
Pete Seeger, "The Wayfaring Stranger" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Vaughn's Texas Quartet, "The Wayfaring Pilgrim" (Victor V-40231, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Judgement
Wayfaring Pilgrim
File: FSC077

Wayward Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: The Wayward Boy has sex with a girl, who gives him "pimples thick" upon his penis in exchange for the "two little mutts up her guts."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy rake rambling seduction sex pregnancy disease
FOUND IN: US(SW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray, pp. 86-89, "The Wayward Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, p. 146, "Two Ruby Red Lips" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10408
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me (lyric)" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES: Legman styles the one-stanza fragment in Randolph-Legman I by an alternate title. - EC
Not to be confused with the Charlie Poole song of the same title (Rorrer, p. 87), which does not appear to be a traditional song. - RBW
File: EM086

We Are A' Queen Mary's Men" (1 text, 1 tune)

See Queen Mary's Men (New Year's Eve Carol) (File: MSNR200)

We Are All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

We Are All King George's Men

See Have You Any Bread and Wine (English Soldiers, Roman Soldiers) (File: Lins040)

We Are Anchored By the Roadside, Jim

DESCRIPTION: Singer (a "sacker" in the lumber camps) tells Jim that times were formerly good for drinkers, but that good booze is now hard to find. He says that despite this, cold water (i.e., temperance) is not for either or them, so they will "drink the old jug dry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Pat Ford)
KEYWORDS: drink worker logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, ROADJIM
Roud #5750
RECORDINGS:
Pat Ford, "We're anchored by the roadside, Jim" (AFS 4210 B2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
File: RcWAABTR

We Are Coming , Father Abraam, 300,000 More

See We Are Coming, Father Abraham (File: SCW44)

We Are Coming, Father Abr'am

See We Are Coming, Father Abraham (File: SCW44)

We Are Coming, Father Abraham

DESCRIPTION: "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more... We leave our plows and workshops Our wives and children dear...." The song describes how those left behind are doing the young men's work so they may put down the rebels
AUTHOR: Words: James Sloan Gibbons
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (New York Evening Post)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-CivWar, pp. 44-45, "We Are Coming, Father Abr'am" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saunders/Root-Foster 2, pp. 217-220+436, "We Are Coming , Father Abraam, 300,000 More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-CivWar, pp. 213-214, "We Are Coming, Father Abraham" (1 text)
ST SCW44 (Full)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, rpbaasm 1180 ["words from the New York Evening Post ; music composed and arranged by S.J. Adams"], "We Are Coming Father Abraham 3000,000 More," Henry Tolman & Co. (Boston), c.1862; also rpbaasm 1184 ["set to music by P.S. Gilmore"], "We Are Coming Father Abraam Three Hundred Thousand More"; rpbaasm 1185 ["words by William Cullen Bryant music by G. R. Poulton"], "300,000 more!" (tune)
LOCSinging, sb40573b, "We Are Coming, Father Abraham," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also cw10594a, "Three Hundred Thousand More"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hold On, Abraham"
NOTES: This was originally published as a poem, "Three Hundred Thousand More," in the July 16, 1862 edition of the New York Evening Post.
It was so popular that at least eight musical arrangements were published, including those by L.O. Emerson (this last may have been the most popular; at least, it's the one Silber quotes), Stephen C. Foster (the Foster sheet music doesn't even mention the name of Gibbons!), and P. S. Gilmore. (For the full list, see the notes to Saunders & Root).
I don't know if this can be considered a traditional song, under the circumstances, but it certainly shows up in a lot of anthologies! - RBW
The attribution to William Cullen Bryan is also on LOCSheet Music #577 [cover only] "We Are Coming Father Abra'am 300.000 More," Oliver Ditson & Co. (Boston), 1862: "Poem by Wm Cullen Bryant Music by L.O. Emerson." Broadside LOCSheet rpbaasm 1180 commentary: "From poem first published in the New York Evening Post, July 16, 1862: We are coming, Father Abraham / James Sloan Gibbons. Cf. BAL, v. 1, p. 346. The words sometimes erroneously attributed to Wm. Cullen Bryant, or J. [!] Cullen Bryant."
Broadside LOCSinging sb40573b: 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: SCW44

We Are Four Bums

See The Great American Bum (Three Jolly Bums) (File: FaE192)

We Are Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

We Are Marching On

DESCRIPTION: "We are marching on (x2), To the land of light, To the land of love, We are marching on." "Where the angels wait At the golden gate, To conduct us there To a mansion fair...." "We are marching on, Happy pilgrim band... To the heavenly land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 647, "We Are Marching On" (1 text)
Roud #11940
File: Br3647

We Are the Peckham Boys

DESCRIPTION: The Peckham boys "know our manners," spend our money, are well respected, "winners of the boys." "When you hear a copper shout, 'Put that dirty Woodbine [cigarette brand] out.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1993 (recording, Ray Driscoll)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Ray Driscoll, "We Are the Peckham Boys" (on Voice14)
File: RcWATPB

We Are Three Lovers Come From Spain

See Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews) (File: BGMG633)

We Be Three Poor Mariners

DESCRIPTION: "We be three poor mariners, newly come from the seas, We spend our lives in jeopardy, while others live at east. Shall we do dance the Round, around, around (x2)...." The singer praises merchantmen "that do our states maintain."
AUTHOR: Thomas Ravenscroft?
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 134-135, "We Be Three Poor Mariners" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 120-121, "We Be Three Poor Mariners" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 202-204 (1 text, 1 tune with harmonization)
NOTES: The text of this is pretty definitely not traditional (it looks like Ravenscroft hacked it up as a merchant sailor's equivalent of "We Be Soldiers Three"), but the tune, which Chappell describes as a dance tune "Brangill/Branle of Poictu," may be. - RBW
File: ShaSS120

We Dear Labouring Men

See We Poor Labouring Men (File: McCST103)

We Fought Like the Divil

See Larry O'Gaff (File: E148)

We Go to College

DESCRIPTION: The ladies of this quatrain ballad -- who go to college to major in bed -- recount their various sexual adventures with students, faculty, administration, and staff.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Anecdota Americana)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MA,MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray, pp. 295-301, "We Go to College" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 229-230, "We Go to College" (1 text, 1 tune
Roud #10286
ALTERNATE TITLES:
We Are the Pi Phi's
We Are from Campus Hall
We Are Whoredean
We Are from Rodeen (sic)
File: EM295

We Had to Walk from the Train to the Camp

DESCRIPTION: "We had to walk from the train to the camp. My shoes got dusty. The white dust came up and settled on my shoes. I looked down at them and began to cry. Never before had my shoes been dusty. It was the first time I cried."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: clothes exile war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 14, 1942 - President Roosevelt issues his Alien Registration proclamation, calling for the registration of foreigners. From there, it was only a short step to the detention of aliens. Roosevelt authorized sending Japanese immigrants to concentration camps on February 20
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt, p. 155, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: Burt reports this to be a verse by a nisei boy upon being sent to one of the American detention camps for the Japanese. It's not very good, and it surely was not perpetuated -- but, in context, it surely qualifies as a Folk piece! - RBW
File: Burt155

We Have Fathers Gone to Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "We have fathers gone to heaven, O do tell me if you know, Will those fathers know their children, When to heaven they do go?" Similarly with mothers, brothers, sisters, children ("Will those children know their parents")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad family
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus 318, pp. 191-192, "We Have Fathers Gone to Heaven" (1 text)
Roud #4213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Departed Loved Ones" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bright Morning Stars" (theme, floating lyrics)
NOTES: This may be an expanded repetition of a single verse in "Departed Loved Ones," or that piece may be an elaboration of this. Dependence seems nearly certain -- but since this is just a set of repeated stanzas, and that one has distinct verses, they must be listed separately. - RBW
File: CW191A

We Have Loved Ones Over Yonder

See probably The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

We Have Met and We Have Parted

See The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted) (File: Beld212)

We Have the Navy

DESCRIPTION: A parody of the Federal "On to Richmond"; both begin "Well, we have the navy an' we have the men...." The song catalogs the various Southern generals and troops who fought McClellan in the Peninsula
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (manuscript known to Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle patriotic parody
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 17, 1862 - General George McClellan moves the first troops of the Army of the Potomac to Fort Monroe, inaugurating the "Peninsular Campaign" (the attempt to capture Richmond by proceeding up the "Peninsula" between the York and James Rivers)
May 31-June 1, 1862 - Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines. Confederates under Joseph E. Johnston attack McClellan's army. The battle is roughly a draw (McClellan continued his advance), but Johnston is wounded and Robert E. Lee appointed in his place
June 25-July 1, 1862 - Seven Days' Battle - In a series of battles, Lee induced McClellan to abandon the attack on Richmond
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 212, "We Have the Navy" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 382, "Never MindYour Knapsack" (1 short text)
Scott-BoA, pp. 231-232, "On to Richmond!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7702
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On to Richmond! (I)"
NOTES: Although details about the battle are lacking in this song, the generals mentioned clearly indicate that it refers to the Peninsular Campaign (and the fact that it quotes "On to Richmond" demonstrates that it is a parody).
The generals listed include:
Lee - Robert E. Lee, the Confederate commander. Although his tactical performance was imperfect (the Confederates took nearly 25% casualties in the Seven Days' Battle; the Federals less than 15%), his strategy was brilliant
Jackson - Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who had just fought a brilliant campaign in the Shenandoah Valley but performed poorly when recalled to Richmond
Longstreet - James Longstreet, Lee's second in command and leader of one of his largest divisions. His performance was not inspired, but he went on to serve as one of Lee's best corps commanders
McGruder - John Bankhead Magruder, commander of the Department of the Peninsula His division had done a fine job of slowing McClellan's advance up the Peninsula (mostly through playacting), but his performance in combat was poor; he was soon sent off to Texas.
"Butler was the Cry" - Refers to the brutal Union general Benjamin F. Butler, who commanded occupied New Orleans and came to be called "Beast Butler"
McClellan - George B. McClellan, the Federal commander, who did a fine job of training and inspiring his troops but was too cautious to lead them effectively. - RBW
File: R212

We Hunted and Hollered

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

We Hunted and We Halloed

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

We Leaves Detroit Behind Us

DESCRIPTION: "We leaves Detroit behind us, We set our canvas tight, The tug slows up and casts off, Old Erie heaves in sight. "You'd swear that whiff of D.C. feed Came clear from Buffalo." "There's no such thing as stiddy wind Around Lake Erie here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Buffalo Express, according to Walton/Grimm/Murdock)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, p. 96, "We Leaves Detroit Behind Us" (1 text)
File: WGM096A

We Left the Port of Sydney

DESCRIPTION: The crew leaves Sydney for Argentia with a load of coal and extra men on board. A storm comes up and sinks the ship and the passengers below deck are trapped and drowned. They had gone to Lunenburg to save money since the fishery was bad.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 119, "We Left the Port of Sydney" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: No names are mentioned here. Lunenburg, like Sydney, is in Nova Scotia. Argentia is on the west side of the Avalon Peninsula (about 60 air miles from St John's) - BS
File: LeBe119

We Live on the Banks of the Ohio

DESCRIPTION: "We live on the banks of the O-hi-o, O-hi-o, O-hi-o, Where the mighty waters rapidly flow And the steamboat sweeps along." "Ole Massa to his darkies is good... He gives us our clothers...." Slaves, being so well-treated (!), are encouraged not to "droop"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: slave work river
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 224, "We Live on the Banks of the Ohio" (1 text)
NOTES: While the editors of Brown are probably right in considering this a "plantation melody" -- i.e. minstrel propaganda to keep the slaves in line -- it's worth noting that slaves in the border region *were* generally better treated.
This wasn't because slave owners there were more enlightened. The explanation is simple: With freedom within easy reach, slaves were more likely to bolt if harshly treated. Few slaves ever escaped from the deep south -- but by the time of the Civil War, it was nearly dead in more northerly states *simply because slaves couldn't be kept*. - RBW
File: Br3224

We May and Might Never All Meet Here Again

See A Health to the Company (Come All My Old Comrades) (File: CrSe222)

We Met, 'Twas in a Crowd

DESCRIPTION: "We met, 'twas in a crowd, and I thought he would shun me." The singer meets an old lover; they say little, but both are clearly moved. She, the rich girl, could not marry him because of her mother's opposition; both are now wed to others
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion mother husband wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H638, p. 431, "We Met, 'Twas In a Crowd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7959
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady Mary (The Sad Song)"
NOTES: This reminds me very much of "Lady Mary (The Sad Song)," though the form and the details are very different. There is also something of the feeling of Dickens here; see the ending of Great Expectations.
This is reported by Sam Henry to be quite popular, and is mentioned in John Masefield's "The Bird of Dawning." I will admit to some surprise; the song is distinctly flowery. - RBW
File: HHH638

We Part My Love to Meet Nae Mair

DESCRIPTION: "We part, my love, to meet nae mair, 'Tis cruel fate's decree; And a' the waes o' bleak despair This widowed heart maun dree." The singer recalls his lost love. He hopes to be reunited with her in death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord); Ord claims a date of 1817
KEYWORDS: death separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord, p. 364, "We Part, My Love, To Meet Nae Mair" (1 text)
Roud #4595
File: Ord364

We Poor Labouring Men

DESCRIPTION: "O, some do say the farmer's best, but I do need say no, If it weren't for we poor labouring men what would the farmers do?...There's never a trade in old England like we poor labouring men." The singer toasts laborers; good times will come again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes); the Butterworth/Dawney version is probably from 1909
LONG DESCRIPTION: "O, some do say the farmer(baker, butcher)'s best, but I do need say no, If it weren't for we poor labouring men what would the farmers do? They would beat up all their old odd stuff until some new come in. There's never a trade in old England like we poor labouring men." After several of these verses, the singer offers a toast to labourers, saying that when the hard times pass, good times will come again
KEYWORDS: pride farming work hardtimes nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Butterworth/Dawney, pp. 46-47, "We poor labouring men" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 103, "We Dear Labouring Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WELABOUR
Roud #1394
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "We Poor Labouring Men" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All You Jolly Ploughboys" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES: MacColl/Seeger [write,] "During the years between 1790 and 1816, the English peasant was turned into a wage-labourer. The transformation was not a peaceful one; the intensification of the enclosure system, repressive poor-law legislation, extension of more rigorous application of the game-laws coupled with an unprecendented rise in the cost of living, all combined to produce a new and intense class-consciousness among the labouring poor." - PJS
In fact the process took a good deal longer than this, and it was the pressure of unemployed workers which forced the British government to open the vent by sending convicts to Australia. The Industrial Revolution began to produce unemployment in the early eighteenth century, and the unrest was not entirely eased until the dawn of the twentieth.
This song and "Come All You Jolly Ploughboys" appear to be sisters; I've no idea which came first. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: McCST103

We Shall Not Be Moved

DESCRIPTION: "The Union is behind us, We shall not be moved... Just like a tree That's standing by the water, We shall not be moved." Similarly "We're fighting for our freedom, We shall not be moved"; "We're fighting for our children"; "We'll build a mighty Union."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scott-BoA, pp. 344-345, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 38, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 135, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (on PeteSeeger01) (on PeteSeeger47)
Union Boys, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (on "Songs for Victory", Asch 346, 1944)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Shall Not Be Moved"
SAME TUNE:
We Shall Not Be Moved -- union parodies (Greenway-AFP, p. 17)
NOTES: [Although not printed at that time, the union version of this song goes back at least to] 1941, [since] Woody Guthrie, in Bound for Glory, refers to singing it with Cisco Houston on Dec. 7, 1941, to break up a possible lynching of Japanese-Americans after the attack that day on Pearl Harbor.
The song was adapted from a traditional hymn, "I Shall Not Be Moved," by labor organizers working with southern tenant farmers in the 1930s. It was also adapted into an anthem of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. - PJS
Given the extreme variations in traditional versions of the hymn (one of Brown's informants actually sang the chorus as "I Shall Not Be Blue!"), we originally listed the source and its adaptions here. The civil rights version, in particular, is close to the hymn. Best to check both. - RBW
File: SBoA344

We Shall Overcome

DESCRIPTION: "We shall overcome (x3), Some day, Oh deep in my heart, (I know that) I do believe, We shall overcome some day." Verses about the troubles of life, and how (with help from God/brothers/etc.) they can be overcome/survived. Many modern verses known
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (sung in miner's union meeting in Alabama, as reported in the United Mine Workers' journal)
KEYWORDS: religious discrimination nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Scott-BoA, pp. 352-353, "We Shall Overcome" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 216, "We Shall Overcome" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 296, "We Shall Overcome" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 623-627+, "We Shall Overcome"
DT, OVERCOM*
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi Bracy [pseud. for Ishmon Bracey?] "I'll Overcome Some Day" (Okeh 8904, 1931; rec. 1930)
Pete Seeger, "We Shall Overcome" (on PeteSeeger05) (on PeteSeeger38) (on PeteSeeger48)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Be All Right" (tune, structure, lyrics)
NOTES: The "common version" of this song was created by Zilphia Horton, Frank Hamilton, Guy Carawan, and Pete Seeger. In this form it became an anthem of the civil rights movement. Traces of the old spiritual survive, however, and it is of course very easy to make up new verses to fit a particular situation.
Fuld gives a detailed analysis of the musical and textual sources of the piece. Reading them, though, one cannot help but think that he has completely missed the actual sources of the black spiritual. - RBW
Isn't one of the sources "I'll Be All Right," a traditional spiritual? - PJS
It at least has associated texts, but is not mentioned as a source by Fuld, and is mentioned only tangentially in a footnote. Hence my comment. - RBW
The recent discovery that "We Will Overcome," the earlier form of the song (Pete Seeger changed "will" to "shall" because it was better for singing) was being sung as early as 1908, and in the context of a labor struggle no less, casts some ambiguity on the question of which song was the ancestor and which the descendant. See the entry for "I'll Be All Right." - PJS
File: SBoA352

We Shall Rise, Hallelujah

DESCRIPTION: "We shall sing until we die! We will preach and testify! In that Holy Ghost religion we shall rise, Oh hallelujah! Oh we'll sing until we die, We will preach... Till my Savior's precious face again I see... On the resurrection morning we shall meet him"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 634, "We Shall Rise, Hallelujah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4309
RECORDINGS:
Byron Parker & his Mountaineers, "We Shall Rise" (Bluebird B-8551, 1940)
File: R634

We Shall Walk Through the Valley

DESCRIPTION: "We shall walk through the valley of the shadow of death, We shall walk though the valley in peace, And if Jesus himself shall be our leader, We shall walk through the valley in peace." "We will meet our Father over there...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 359, "We Shall Walk Through The Valley" (1 text)
Roud #11691
File: FSWB359A

We Shepherds Are the Best of Men

DESCRIPTION: "We shepherds are the best of men that e'er trod English ground." We spend freely at the ale-house. We pen our sheep safely in spite of hale, rain and snow; then "unto a jovial company good liquor for to taste"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (according to Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: drink storm England nonballad sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
Roud #284
RECORDINGS:
Fred Jordan, "We Shepherds Are the Best of Men" (on Voice20)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2] (stucture and theme:virtue and courage of an occupational group)
NOTES: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 20" - 15.1.04: "Fred learnt this from the song-collector Fred Hamer, who had it from Lucy Broadwood's English County Songs [1893]." Broadwood said it was taken in 1793 in Gloucestershire (source: "The Shepherds' Song" in Song Database at the Folkinfo site).
File: RcWSATBM

We Three Kings (Kings of Orient)

DESCRIPTION: "We three kings of orient are, Bearing gifts we travel afar." The three "kings" come from different lands to visit the Christ Child; they offer their gifts and explain that they have been guided by a star
AUTHOR: John Henry Hopkins, Jr.
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music); probably composed 1857, and there is a published edition with a dedication claiming a date of 1863
KEYWORDS: Jesus Bible Christmas carol religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OBC 195, "Kings of Orient" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 627-628, "We Three Kings"
DT, WE3KING*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #94, "We Three Kings of Orient Are" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
We Three Kings (The Rubber Cigar) (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 115; DT, WE3KING2)
NOTES: The basis for this song is Matthew 2:1-12. The story has been expanded and modified heavily, however. We note the following:
1. There is no reason to believe that there were three visitors. All we know is that they gave three gifts. Their names are completely unknown. They may not even have been from the east (the orient); it was the *star* which was in the east.
2. The visitors were not kings and were not wise men. They were "magi" -- Babylonian mystics and perhaps astrologers. Jews would generally consider magi to be evil sorcerers (the Greek word "magos," apart from the uses in Matt. 2:1, 7, 16, is used only in Acts 13:6, 8 of Simon Magus, a magician who claimed to be "the great power of God"). - RBW
File: OBC195

We Three Kings of Orient Are

See We Three Kings (Kings of Orient) (File: OBC195)

We Will Always Have Our Sealers

DESCRIPTION: "We will always have our sealers While there's a ship to sail, While sturdy crews have fish and brewis, While there is rain and hail." The poet admits that there are many changes, but affirms that there will always be a need for the seal hunt
AUTHOR: Otto Kelland
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Kelland, Anchor Watch: Newfoundland Stories in Verse)
KEYWORDS: hunting technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 155, "We Will Always Have Our Sealers" (1 text)
NOTES: This reportedly was written as Kelland watched the sealing fleet set out in 1945. An old sealer commented that the few ships sailing would be the last (apparently meaning that they would not be replaced when they broke down). Kelland wrote this piece as a counter-argument.
Obviously the truth was somewhere in between. Seal-hunting continued, and continues, but between the over-harvesting that has destroyed the herds, and the general changes in the economy, and environmental protests, it seems likely that the seals of Canada will soon be safe -- such of them as remain. - RBW
File: RySm155

We Will Go To The Wood, Says Robin To Bobbin

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

We Will March Through the Valley

DESCRIPTION: "We will march through the valley in peace (x2). If Jesus himself be our leader, We will march through the valley in peace." "We will march... Behold, I give myself away." "This track I'll see and I'll pursue." "When I'm dead and buried...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death burial floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 73, "We Will March Through the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12033
File: AWG073B

We Will Not Go to White Bay with Casey Any More

DESCRIPTION: "Tom Casey being commander Of the Saint Patrick by name," 28 men sign up to go sealing. They quickly become "jammed in White Bay Until the last of May." After many hard times, the sealers manage to return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung by Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: hunting wreck disaster hardtimes ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 16, "We Will Not Go To White Bay With Casey Any More" (1 text)
ST RySm016 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Davy Lowston" (plot)
NOTES: Although this sounds as if it should refer to an actual event, no one seems to know the time or date. It's not clear that it's traditional, either, though Ryan and Small don't list an author, and claim there is a different version known. - RBW
File: RySm016

We Will Walk Through the Streets of the City

DESCRIPTION: A "Come Though Fount of Every Blessing" text, with distinctive chorus: "We will walk through the city, Where our friends have gone before, We will sit on the banks of the river Where we meet to part no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 562, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (1 short text)
Roud #11885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (text)
File: Br3562

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

DESCRIPTION: "We wish you a merry Christmas (x3) And a happy New Year." "We want some figgy pudding (x3) And a cup of good cheer." "We won't go until we get some (x3), So bring it out here!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: Christmas food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 376, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" (1 text)
DT, MERYXMAS
Roud #230
File: FSWB376C

We Won't Go Home Until Morning

DESCRIPTION: "We're all met here together (x3) To eat and drink good cheer." "(For) we won't go home until morning (x3) Till daylight does appear." "We'll sing, we'll dance and be merry (x3) And kiss the lasses dear." "The girls they love us dearly (x3)..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (arrangement published by William Clifton) (tune dates to 1783 or earlier)
KEYWORDS: drink friend nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 528, "We'll All Go Down to Rowser's" (3 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Cambiaire, pp. 141-143, "The Game of 'Howsers'" (1 text with game instructions, seemingly most closely related to Randolph's version but probably a combination of several game songs)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 226-228, "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 119, pp. 237-238, "We'll All Go Down to Rowser's" (1 text, with "Rowser's" and "Pig in the Parlor" verses)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 231-233, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow -- (Malbrouk -- We Won't Go Home till Morning! -- The Bear Went over the Mountain)"
ST RJ19226 (Full)
Roud #4251
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Malbrouck" (tune)
cf. "The Bear Went over the Mountain" (tune)
cf. "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (tune)
cf. "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem" (tune)"
cf. "Old Tippecanoe" (tune)
cf. "Pig in the Parlor" (floating lyrics, form)
cf. "Chickens They Are Crowing" (floating lyrics in a few texts)
cf. "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More (III)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Bear Went Over the Mountain (File: DTbearmt)
Malbrouck (File: K108)
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow (File: FSWB250)
Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)
Old Tippecanoe (File: Wa073)
The Reformed Drinker (Logan, pp. 231-232)
I'll Never Get Drunk Any More (III) (File: CrPS096)
NOTES: The earliest dated example of this tune ("Malbrouk") comes from 1783, though there are hints that it was in circulation in France for some decades before this (it is reliably reported to have been sung to one of Marie Antoinette's children in 1781, and see the tune cited for BBI, ZN1337, "I sing not the battle (so famed) of Lepanto"). Its origin is unknown, though fanciful stories (e.g. of Spanish or even Arabic origin) are common. (Spaeth compares it with a Chanson of 1563, "Le Convoi de Duc de Guise.")
After 1783 the tune became popular in France, and was used by Beethoven in 1813, but no evidence of English versions is found until the 1840s. The American sheet music of "We Won't Go Home..." dates to 1842; the English is undated but probably dates between 1841 and 1846.
By 1854, the song was popular enough that crowds were using it to heckle Senator Douglas when he spoke in favor of the Kansas/Nebraska Act in Chicago. (Douglas said he would silence the mob if it took all night, and the crowd answered with this song.)
"For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" appears to have been first printed in 1870; "The Bear Went over the Mountain" is not attested until 1920, but is probably older.
All four of Randolph's versions mention "Rowser" or "Rowser's" in the first verse, but the only tune given is this one, three of the four are about drink (the fourth, Randolph's "D" text, could possibly be a separate piece), and the "A" text has the "We won't go home until morning" stanza.
Pound describes her text (also a "Rowser's" version) as a "game song," but offers no further details.
Linscott, in her notes to "A Bear Went Over the Mountain," claims the tune "is said to have been sung by Crusaders under Godefrey de Bouillon in the latter part of the eleventh century." Uh-huh. - RBW
File: RJ19226

We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down

DESCRIPTION: The Irish Parliamentary Party and Gladstone want to condemn Parnell. "Give Parnell the thing he requires, Home Rule and Prosperity ... then he will retire." "He has fought for prosperity unto the last, That is what the people say in Ireland"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann 89, "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(671), "We Won't Hear our Leader Run Down," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bold Tenant Farmer" (subject of Charles Stewart Parnell) and references there
NOTES: "In December 1889, Parnell became involved in a divorce that was to end his political influence and the trauma of this divorce probably hastened his early death.... Parnell managed to split the party that represented many of the people of Ireland at Westminster - the Irish Parliamentary Party. Some sided with Parnell while others did not." He married the divorced woman in June 1891 and died in October. (source: "Charles Stuart Parnell" at History Learning Site) - BS
We should note that almost all sources spell Parnell's name "Charles Stewart Parnell."
In fact the situation was even more complicated than the above can describe. Parnell (1845-1891), who had helped found the Land League and won major rights for Irish tenants (see "The Bold Tenant Farmer"), had for long led the Irish parliamentary faction -- which he had finally welded into a cohesive enough block that it generally held the controlling hand in the British House of Commons.
Since he was in alliance with Prime Minister Gladstone, who wanted Home Rule for Ireland, a Home Rule bill were introduced in 1886. But the political opposition in the Lords, and the overwhelming revulsion caused by the Phoenix Park murders (for which see, e.g., "The Phoenix Park Tragedy"), caused it to go down.
And then there was Parnell's Great Indiscretion. In 1880, before his power had even reached its peak, he had begun an affair with Katherine O'Shea, the wife of Captain William O'Shea, a Home Rule M.P. (Fry/Fry, p. 259). Their first child was born in 1882; although she died, they had two more children in 1883 and 1884.
Some men might have gotten away with this (Bill Clinton, anyone?). It was harder for Parnell. According to O'Connor, p.16, Parnell "was a landlord and an aristocrat who challenged the aristocracy and defied the landowners. He was not witty or eloquent as traditional Irish leaders had been. He was cold and often disdainful." In other words, his power was based on his opinions, not his personality. He didn't charm anyone -- except "Kitty" O'Shea.
Exactly how Parnell and Captain O'Shea felt about each other is not entirely clear (Kee, pp. 85-86, 112-113; also Fry/Fry, p. 259). But by 1886 O'Shea resigned from Parliament, and in 1889, he divorced his wife. Parnell married her in 1891 (Fry/Fry, p. 260). If Parnell had resigned, his platform might have survived. But he didn't, and it didn't; he was voted out of office in 1890 (Wallace, p. 140).
It will tell you what the politics of the time were like that a preacher in the run-up to the election of 1892 said, "Parnellism is simply love of adultery and all those who profess Parnellism profess to love and admire adultery" (Kee, p. 117).
Parnell tried to rebuild his support by a series of lectures and speeches, but collapsed and died not long after (Kee, p. 115, who writes, "He died at Brighton with his wife by his side on 10 October, and his body was brought into Kingston harbour on... 11 October, and buried in Glasnevin cemetary. The chances of Home Rule for the next twenty years were buried with him."
Despite his final failure, Parnell became part of Ireland's folklore. O'Connor, p. 18, writes, "[His] coffin was drawn in silence through Dublin past stricken crowds who stood in the streets in numbers that have never been equalled since.... To an extent it is true that the Irish never got over Parnell's death...." - RBW
Bibliography

Fry/Fry: Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, 1988 (I use the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition)
Kee: Robert Kee, The Bold Fenian Men, being volume II of The Green Flag (covering the period from around 1848 to the Easter Rising), Penguin, 1972
O'Connor: Ulick O'Connor, Michael Collins & the Troubles: The Struggle for Irish Freedon 1912-1922, 1975, 1996; first American edition published as The Troubles (I used the 1996 Norton edition)
Wallace: Martin Wallace, A Short History of Ireland, 1973, 1986 (I use the 1996 Barnes & Noble edition)

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm089

We Work for Hay and Company

DESCRIPTION: "We work for Hay and Company, we do the best we can, I'll tell you what our jobs are, each and every man." The singer proceeds to do so, ending with himself: "I start at five in the morning, and it's six before I'm through...."
AUTHOR: Ron Sisson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-Lumbering #26, "We Work for Hay and Company" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4466
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Holly, Crab, and I" (subject)
cf. "The Wabash Cannonball" (tune) and references there
File: FowL26

We'd Better Bide a Wee

DESCRIPTION: "The poor aul' folks at hame, ye min', are frail an' ailin' sair, An weel I ken they'd miss me, lad, if I came hame nae mair... I canna lea' the aul' folk, lad, we'd better bide a wee." The girl gives reasons why she must stay with her parents for now
AUTHOR: Credited to Claribel in Heart Songs
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart Songs)
KEYWORDS: family mother father loneliness age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H598, pp. 61-62, "Better Bide a Wee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13365
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(26b), "I Canna Leave the Auld Folk," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Castleroe Mill" (theme)
cf. "Betsy of Dramoor" (theme)
NOTES: According to the notes at the NLScotland site, this was quoted by Louisa May Alcott's 1886 novel Jo's Boys. - RBW
File: HHH598

We'll All Go A-Hunting Today

DESCRIPTION: "What a fine hunting day and as balmy as may And the hounds of the village will come... We'll all go a-hunting today." A lame farmer, a judge, a doctor, a parson conducting a marriage -- all leave their work to go hunting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (collected by Kennedy)
KEYWORDS: hunting work clergy marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy 263, "We'll All Go A-Hunting Today" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1172
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hunting Priest (Parson Hogg; Sing Tally Ho!)" (theme)
NOTES: The thene of gentlemen who prefer hunting to church is an ancient complaint in Britain; "The Mourning of the Hare" is the tale of a creature which is pursued by huntsmen who do not wait for mass; it is thought to date to the fifteenth century. - RBW
File: K263

We'll All Go Down to Rowser's

See We Won't Go Home Until Morning (File: RJ19226)

We'll All Go to Boston

See Going to Boston (File: SKE67)

We'll Crown Them with Roses

DESCRIPTION: "We'll take up our stand for the youth of our land And weave them a garland to wear, Though no leaves of the vine in our wreath we'll entwine For we'll crown them with roses so fair." The singers will bring up their children to stay away from alcohol
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink flowers children
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 334, "We'll Crown Them with Roses" (1 text)
Roud #7806
File: R334

We'll Fight for Uncle Abe

DESCRIPTION: "Way down in old Virginny, I suppose you all do know, They have tried to bust the Union, But they find it is no go... We're going down to Washington To fight for Uncle Abe." The song describes the various attacks being made on the rebel cause
AUTHOR: Words: C.E. Pratt / Music: Frederick Buckley
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-CivWar, pp. 34-35, "We'll Fight for Uncle Abe" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The historical references in this song are rather confused. The second stanza refers to Grant and his Vicksburg campaign, which was in full swing in 1863. It also refers to his move to the East to command the armies against Richmond; this took place in 1864.
Finally, it mentions Grant being opposed by "General Johnson." There was no important Confederate general named Johnson. The commander at Vicksburg was Pemberton. General J.E. Johnston (with a t) did command a force in central Mississippi, and Grant had fought general A.S. Johnston at Shiloh.
The third verse refers to events BEFORE Grant made a name for himself, when George McClellan commanded the Army of the Potomac in the Peninsular Campaign. As it happened, McClellan was beaten back in the Peninsula. He fought the Confederates to a bruising draw at Antietam, but hardly "ma[de] the Rebels fly."
The third verse refers to the possibility of England and France recognizing the Confederacy. This might have happened in early 1862; both had use for southern cotton. But Antietam allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which made the war into a crusade against slavery (to a limited extent). England could not recognize a country devoted to the preservation of slavery, and France could not go it alone.
In summary, there is no time of the war which fits all the references in the song. - RBW
File: SCW34

We'll Get There All the Same

DESCRIPTION: The singer promises that the temperance crusaders will "get there [to Prohibition] just the same." As examples of those who overcame equal adversity, the singer cites the oppressed Hebrews, Noah, and the American revolutionaries
AUTHOR: H. S. Taylor and J. B. Hebert?
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph); reportedly composed 1887
KEYWORDS: drink political
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 321, "We'll Get There All the Same" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 271-273, "We'll Get There All the Same" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 321)
Roud #7795
File: R321

We'll Go to Our Bed, Said Sleepyhead

DESCRIPTION: Sleepy head says let's go to bed. Slow would sit a while instead. Greedy gut wants the pot put on: "let's sup before we go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Joseph Ritson, _Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus_, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1638, "We'll Go to Our Bed, Said Sleepyhead" (1 text)
Opie-Oxford2 481, "Come, Let's to Bed" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #88, p. 86, "(Come, let's to bed)"
Roud #13063
NOTES: John Bellenden Kerr, who never met a nursery rhyme he couldn't use to attack the Catholic Church, claimed to believe this was about friars, (canon) lawyers, and priests. While many members of those classes were indeed greedy guts and sleepyheads, I�ve known plenty of non-Catholics who meet that description as well. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81638

We'll Go To Sea No More (I)

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

We'll Go to Sea No More (II)

See The Pittenweem Fisher-Wife's Song (File: GrD81760)

We'll Have a Little Dance Tonight, Boys

See Buffalo Gals (File: R535)

We'll Have Another Drink before the Boat Shoves Off

DESCRIPTION: "We'll have another drink before the boat shoves off (2x), And we'll go to Mother Rackett's and we'll pawn our monkey jackets, And we'll have another...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor drink parting
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger, p. 167, "We'll Have Another Drink before the Boat Shoves Off" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9443
NOTES: According to Doerflinger's informant, Mother Rackett kept a waterfront saloon in Hong Kong around 1875. - RBW
File: Doe167

We'll Pay Paddy Doyle For His Boots

See Paddy Doyle (I) (File: Doe010)

We'll Rant and We'll Roar

DESCRIPTION: Sailor Bob Pittman describes his skills as a sailor, then settles down to describing his wedding plans. Having settled on a suitable wife (after much soul-searching), he makes arrangements for wedded life and bids farewell to all the other girls
AUTHOR: W. H. Le Messurier
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1880
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sea
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 132, "The Ryans and the Pittmans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 42-43, "We'll Rant and We'll Roar (The Ryans and the Pittmans)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 12, "The Ryans and the Pittmans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 10, "We'll Rant and We'll Roar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle2, p. 53, "The Ryans and the Pittmans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 51, "The Ryans and the Pittmans" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RANTROAR*
Roud #687
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "We'll Rant and We'll Roar" (on NFOBlondahl05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Ladies" (plot, tune, lyrics) and references there
NOTES: A Canadian rewrite of "Farewell and Adieu to you Spanish Ladies." The author's title is "The Ryans and the Pittmans," but tradition has paid little attention to that, though scholars often respect it. - RBW
Bruce Fisher's Songs of Newfoundland site points out that the song, in each version, tours a local circuit of ports and outports. - BS
File: FJ042

We'll Ranzo Way

See Huckleberry Hunting (File: Doe032)

We'll Roll the Golden Chariot Along

See We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along (File: Doe049)

We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "And we'll roll the (old/golden/omit) chariot along (x3), and we'll all hang on behind." Sometimes sung as a shanty, with the sailors describing what they would want on shore; alternately, "If the devil's in the way, we will roll it over him..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: shanty religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
BrownIII 650, "We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along" (1 text)
Doerflinger, pp. 49-50, "We'll Roll the Golden Chariot Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 117, "Roll the Old Chariot Along" (1 text)
Sandburg, pp. 196-197, "Roll the Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 151, "Roll the Old Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 122-123]
Thomas-Makin', pp. 215-216, (no title) (1 text)
DT, ROLLCHAR*
Roud #3632
RECORDINGS:
Paul Robeson, "Roll the Chariot Along" (HMV [UK] B-4421, 1933)
SAME TUNE:
Roll the Union On (various authors cited) (Greenway-AFP, p. 223; DT, ROLUNION)
NOTES: This song has seen very diverse use; sailors used it as a "stamp and go" shanty; Sandburg had it from Salvation Army singers, and in another form it was quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in chapter 11 of The Long Winter. I wonder what she would have done if someone told her that sailors often sang, "Oh, a night with a woman wouldn't do me any harm...." - RBW
Not to mention the next verse, "Oh, a trip to the doctor wouldn't do me any harm...." - PJS
Some versions refer to "Nelson's Blood"; since Nelson's body was preserved in a vat of liquor after Trafalgar, alcoholic beverages came to be called "Nelson's Blood."
The Union adaption quoted by Greenway was a deliberate adaption (said to have been made up "in 1937 by a Negro woman in Little Rock"), but this song has so little plot that the versions cannot properly be separated. - RBW
Sorry, but this isn't the same tune as any version of , "Roll the Union On " I've ever heard, although they may be related. "Roll the Union On, " is, I think, derived from another, separate hymn. - PJS
It doesn't fit the tune I know for "Roll the Old Chariot" either, but it's the tune cited by Greenway. - RBW
I think Greenway may be wrong; see the notes to "Roll the Union On". - PJS
File: Doe049

We'll Sail Away to Heaven (Like a Feather in the Wind)

DESCRIPTION: "We'll sail away to heaven Like a feather in de wind (x3), We'll sail away... We'll sail away to heaven by me by." "O, (sisters/brothers/fathers/mothers), don't be weary, weary, Lord, weary, Oh, (sisters), don't be waey, We'll sail away to heaven...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 651, "We'll Sail Away to Heaven" (1 text)
Roud #11942
File: Br3651

We'll Shoot the Buffalo

See Shoot the Buffalo (File: R523)

We'll Understand It Better By and By

DESCRIPTION: "We are tossed and driven on the restless sea of time.... In that land of perfect day, when the mists have rolled away, We will understand it better by and by." Even if lacking daily needs or faced with trials, hearers are promised eventual explanations
AUTHOR: Charles A. Tindley
EARLIEST DATE: 1984 (Sing Out!)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 30, #3 (1984), pp, 8-9, "We'll Understand It Better By and By" (1 text, 1 tune, plus an article by Bernice Reagon about the author)
Roud #17224
File: SOWUIBBB

We're A' Cuttin'

See We're All Cutting (File: GrD3664)

We're A' Dry wi' the Drinkin' O't

See My Love She's but a Lassie Yet (I) (File: MCB226)

We're A' John Tamson's Bairns

DESCRIPTION: "John Tamson was a merry auld carle, And reign'd proud king o' the Dee... We're all John Tamson's bairns... There ne'er will be peace till the world again Has learned to sing wi' micht and main." The singer describes how he and the company celebrate
AUTHOR: Joseph Roy ?
EARLIEST DATE: 869 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.27(54))
KEYWORDS: drink friend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 199-200, "We're A' John Tamson's Bairns" (1 text)
Roud #6321
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(54), "We're a' John Tamson's Bairns" ("John Tamson was a merry auld carle"), The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1869
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(54) claims the song to be "from the pen of an eminent M.D. author of many poems and ballads which are justly admired. The tune is composed by D. M'Millan, Esq., well known to the musical world." - BS
There is a broadside, NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(11a), "John Tamson's Cart," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890, in which John Tamson nods off as he rides home from the fair. Usually his horse finds its way home on its own, but this time it too drops off. John's wife finds the horse and takes it home, leaving John to desperately try to figure out what happened.
I don't know that it's intended to be the same John Tamson, but there is something of the same feeling about the two. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS199

We're A' Nervous

See The Nervous Family (File: GrD81780)

We're A' Nodding

See We're All Nodding (File: R883)

We're All A-Singing

DESCRIPTION: "O we're all a-singing, a-sing-sing-singing, Oh we're all singing so happy and gay. We open wide our lips with a soft fa-fa, And merrily we skip o'er the tra la la la." Other verses mention weaving, sewing, sawing, dodging....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad music playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 95, "We're All A-Singing" (1 text)
Roud #7887
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dodger" (lyrics, form)
File: Br3095

We're All Away to Sea

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

We're All Bound to Go

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

We're All Cutting

DESCRIPTION: "We're all cutting our passage through the world." "Nature cut out man to cut his way through life." When a boy falls out with one girl, "he cuts her for another." The beau tries "to cut a figure." Ladies try "to cut each other out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Hutchinson)
KEYWORDS: vanity nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan3 664, "We're A' Cuttin'" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: A.B. Hutchinson, The Granite Songster Comprising the Songs of the Hutchinson Family (Boston, 1847 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 35-36, "We're All Cutting"
Roud #6091
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We're A' Noddin'" (tune, per GreigDuncan3)
cf. "The Dodger" (structure, chorus (some words and tune))
NOTES: Hutchinson has more cutting remarks: the coquette cuts "hearts to the core," widows are "for cutting one husband more," some "Cut out pieces, for the sake of ready cash," and so on. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3664

We're All Dodging

See The Dodger (File: R462)

We're All Nodding

DESCRIPTION: "We all are nodding, nid-nid-nodding, And falling off to sleep." "can't keep awake, we did our best, Heavy-like and weary, We have to get our rest." "It sure is late, we can't delay, We'll get our hats and bonnets and we'll all go away."
AUTHOR: Words: Jean Neal?
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1464, "We're A' Noddin'" (3 texts plus a single verse on p. 530, 1 tune)
Randolph 883, "We're All Nodding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 392-393, "We're All Nodding" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 883)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 327-328, "We're A' Noddin"
Roud #3122
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Whigs Are A'Rinnin'" (tune)
cf. "Nid Noddin" (tune, per Chambers)
SAME TUNE:
We're A' Cuttin' (File: GrD3664)
NOTES: Cohen thinks this is the source for "The Dodger," and certainly the form is very similar; this song instantly reminded me of that. But that does not really mean that they are source and offspring. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R883

We're All Surrounded

DESCRIPTION: "Martha wept and Mary cried. We're all surrounded. That good old man he up and died. We're all surrounded."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow, p. 6, "We're All Surrounded" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9164
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marthy Wept (Mary Wept and Marthy Moaned)" (lyrics)
NOTES: Harlow gives this as an example of a Negro cotton stowing song that was adapted as a shanty. - SL
The reference to "Martha wept and Mary cried" is presumably a reference to the sisters of Lazarus who mourned over their brother in John 11. I don't have a good explanation for the "We're all surrounded" chorus (unless it's a mistake); it occurs to me that it might, just possibly, be a reference to Hebrews 12:1, where we are told that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (who might well include Martha and Mary). The problem, is, the King James version uses the verb "compassed about" rather than "surrounded" (the Greek means something like "having an encirclement"). There is, in fact, no instance of the English verb "to surround," in any form, in the King James Bible. - RBW
File: Harl006

We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho)

DESCRIPTION: The singer mentions reports of a fine fountain in Arkansas/Idaho. The family heads out toward this wonderful place of health and wealth: "We're coming, Arkansas/Idaho, We're coming, ---, Our four horse team will soon be seen, Way out in ---"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864
KEYWORDS: emigration
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 343, "Eureka!" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 279-280, "Eureka!" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 343A)
Warner 195, "Away, Idaho (We're Coming, Idaho)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 86-90, "Way Out in Idyho" (1 short text with some unusual lyrics, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 113, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 156, "We're Coming, Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 47, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text)
ST R343 (Partial)
Roud #4760
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wait For the Wagon" (tune)
NOTES: The "Idaho" version was published in 1864 with Frank French listed as its author. Warner speculates that French rewrote an old Arkansas song to deal with the Idaho gold rush, though Cohen thinks French version original.
The only useful thing I can add is that Arkansas versions seem to prevail in Texas and Arkansas and vicinity, while Idaho is mentioned in the versions collected elsewhere. and the latter versions seem to be at least as common, though they come from areas where collection efforts have been spotty. The implication is that the Idaho variant was probably more widely known. Though that doesn't prove much. - RBW
File: R343

We're Coming, Sister Mary

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls a cold night in winter when he was with (his young wife) Mary when a voice came through the window, "We are coming, sister Mary." (The performance is repeated for two nights), and the singer finds Mary dead
AUTHOR: original music: Henry Clay Work (Words by Work and/or Edwin Pearce Christy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death dream supernatural
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
FSCatskills 84, "We're Coming, Sister Mary" (1 text plus the lyrics found in the sheet music, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 483, "We Are Coming, Sister Mary" (source notes only)
ST FSC084 (Partial)
Roud #4861
File: FSC084

We're Gonna Move When the Spirit Says Move

DESCRIPTION: "We're gonna move when the Spirit says move (x2), Cause when the Spirit says move, Then you move with the Spirit; We're gonna move." Similarly, "We're gonna singe when the Spirit says sing." "We're gonna talk" "We're gonna march"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: political religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 305, "We're Gonna Move When The Spirit Says Move" (1 text)
Roud #12302
NOTES: Listed in the Folksinger's Wordbook as a Civil Rights song, though I've met it as a sort of religious playparty. - RBW
File: FSWB305

We're Homeward Bound

See Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down! (File: Wa071)

We're Marchin' 'Round the Levee

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

We're Marching Down to Old Quebec

See Marching Down to Old Quebec (File: R519)

We're Marching On to War

DESCRIPTION: "We're marching on to war, we are, we are, we are, We do not care what people say, nor what they think we are, We're going to work for Jesus who did salvation bring, We're hallelujah children and we're going to see our king!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 632, "We're Marching On to War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7560
File: R632

We're Off to the Wars (Arkansas War Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Come along, boys, we'll off to the wars... Yo ho, yo ho, in Dixie!" The singer promises to fight for "the 'Federate states," intends to talk about the girls, and lists his leaders who will "bring Montgomery and Lane to taw."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Allsopp)
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 224-225
ST FORA224 (Partial)
NOTES: The references in this piece are, at best, confusing. The Confederate officers are clear: McCulloch is Ben McCulloch (1811-1862), who assembled the Arkansas troops which fought at the battle of Wilson's Creek (August 10, 1861); he would later be killed at Pea Ridge. One of the Confederate batteries at that battle was commanded by an officer named Woodruff.
But who are "Montgomery and Lane"? There were two Union generals named Montgomery; neither could have fought McCulloch. Neither was there a suitable Union officer named Lane, though James Henry Lane (1814-1866) was a fiery Kansas politician.
My guess is that there are two errors here. One is an error of hearing: "Lane" is actually "Lyon," i.e. Nathaniel Lyon, the Union captain hastily promoted Brigadier General who ran the Union forces in Missouri. He cleared northern Missouri of Confederate forces, then turned south. Finding himself trapped by superior forces, he tried a spoiling attack at Wilson's Creek and was killed.
"Montgomery" is even trickier. My shot in the dark is that this is a confusion of the two Blair brothers. Montgomery Blair, the older brother, became Lincoln's Postmaster General. Francis P. Blair, based in Missouri, was sort of Lyon's co-conspirator in saving Missouri for the Union: He raised the money and troops which Lyon used. Since Montgomery was the better-known Blair (among other things, he had argued Dred Scott's side in the famous slavery case), the southern poet might have thought it was Montgomery Blair, not Frank, who was operating in Missouri.
In any case, this song sounds very much like something one of McCulloch's volunteers might have sung before Wilson's Creek. Were it of later date, we would presumably hear more of Earl Van Down, McCulloch's superior, and of Union commander Samuel R. Curtis, who won the Battle of Pea Ridge at which McCulloch was killed. - RBW
File: FORA224

We're Stole and Sold from Africa

DESCRIPTION: "We are stole and sold from Africa, Transported to America, Like hogs and sheep we're marched in drove." ""See how they take us from our wives, Small children from their mothers' side." "O Lord, have mercy and look down Upon the plight of the African"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (recording, Addie Graham, according to Sing Out!)
KEYWORDS: slave hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 38, #4 (1994), p, 30, "We're Stole & Sold from Africa (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: According to Sing Out!, Addie Graham, who recorded what seems to be the only recording of this, sang it in an "Anglo-American" (i.e. White) style. And the song seems a little too carefully crafted to be a legitimate lament about slavery (someone who was actually imported from Africa would be neither a Christian nor such a good speaker of English!). The notes in Sing Out! suggest it is an abolitionist song. This strikes me as almost certainly true; the main question to me is how it managed to show up in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: SO38n4A

We've Aye Been Provided For

See And Sae Will We Yet (File: FVS256)

We've Aye Been Provided For and Sae Will We Yet

See And Sae Will We Yet (File: FVS256)

We've Come to Judgment

DESCRIPTION: "We've come to judgment, O yes my Lord, In that great giving up morning; We've come to judgment...." "O where you going, sinner, with your head bowed down?" The sinner is warned of Hell and told to get with it or face judgment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sin
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FSRA 88, "We've Come to Judgment" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16935
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In that Great Gettin' Up Morning" (lyrics)
File: ChFRA088

We've Done Our Hitch in Hell

DESCRIPTION: "I'm sitting here a-thinking Of the things I left behind." The singer complains of digging trenches, cooking, fighting rattlesnakes, and the rest of army life, and claims a front seat in heaven for the Third Wyoming
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: army soldier hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 552-554, "We've Done Our Hitch in Hell" (1 text)
Roud #15545
NOTES: The irony of this song is that it appears the Third Wyoming never went into combat! Observe: There is reference to the digging of trenches. But only two American wars involved digging trenches: The Civil War and World War I. At the time of the Civil War, Wyoming wasn't a state (it joined the Union in 1890), and in World War I there were no rattlesnakes.
In addition, there is no reference to combat. One hates to think what the soldier would have had to say if someone had actually bothered to shoot at him. - RBW
File: LxA552

We've Got Franklin Delano Roosevelt Back Again

See Franklin D. Roosevelt's Back Again (File: CSW230)

Wealthy Farmer, The

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Wealthy London Apprentice, The

See The Valiant London Apprentice [Laws Q38] (File: LQ38)

Wealthy Merchant, The

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

Wearing of the Blue, The

See Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia) (File: HHH162)

Wearing of the Britches, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer marries a girl for money, not love; they struggle over who will "wear the britches." She spends all he makes, even though he beats her black and blue. Eventually she dies; "now at last her tongue lies still/And she must wear the wooden britches."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(157))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer marries a girl for money, not love, and they struggle over who will "wear the britches." Although she's small, and he can beat her in a fight, she swears she'll wear them; he's a tailor but she spends all he makes, even though he beats her black and blue. When he goes drinking she comes after him, "cursing like a dragon"; she's thrown the teapot at him, putting him on crutches. Eventually she dies; "now at last her tongue lies still/And she must wear the wooden britches." He warns young men to marry for love and work for riches
KEYWORDS: marriage warning fight abuse death burial husband wife shrewishness
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy 215, "The Wearing of the Britches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1588
RECORDINGS:
Joe Tunney, "The Tailor by Trade" (on FSB3)
Paddy Tunney, "The Wearing of the Breeches" (on IRPTunney01); "The Wearing of the Britches" (on Voice15)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(157), "The Breeches" ("Come all ye young men wherever you be"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(275), "The Breeches"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Struggle for the Breeches" (subject)
cf. "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] (subject)
cf. "There's Bound to be a Row" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Tailor By His Trade
NOTES: This is so close to "Devilish Mary" I was tempted to lump them. But this song's events are different; in this one she dies, in "Devilish Mary" he leaves her. So I split them, but they're close cousins. - PJS
The temptation to lump is indeed strong. Curiously, Kennedy never mentions "Devilish Mary," and Laws never mentions this. I guess that makes them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: K215

Wearing of the Green (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the dreadful fate of Ireland, the "most distressful country," where "they are hanging men and women for the wearing of the green." The singer bids defiance, and notes that the grass on the martyrs' graves grows green.
AUTHOR: some versions by Dion Boucicault (per O'Conor)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1800 (Zimmermann but see the notes re: Zimmermann and Sparling to accomodate the Boucicault claim); 1865 (copyrights)
KEYWORDS: Ireland freedom death execution hardtimes
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
O'Conor, p. 69, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
PGalvin, pp. 84-85, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Zimmermann 21B, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 33, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text, 1 tune); 35, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 17, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 fragment)
Dean, pp. 97-98, "Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 323, "Wearing Of The Green" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 628-630, "The Wearin' o' the Green"
DT, WEARGREN*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 111, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 300-301, "The Wearin' of the Green" (1 text plus a portion of the Boucicault version)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 515-516, "The Wearing of the Green"
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 257-258, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Roud #3278
RECORDINGS:
John McCormack, "Wearin' o' the "Green" (HMV [UK] DA-322, n.d.)
J. W. Myers, "Wearing of the Green" (Columbia 194, 1901) (Victor 4274, 1905)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(476), "The Wearing of the Green" ("O Paddy dear, and did you hear the news that's going round?"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also 2806 c.16(209), 2806 b.10(215), 2806 c.15(254), "Wearing of the Green" ("O Kitty dear ...")
LOCSinging, as115040, "The Wearing of the Green" ("Oh, Paddy dear, then did you hear"), unknown, 19C; also as114610, "The Wearing of the Green"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rising of the Moon" (tune)
cf. "Benny Havens" (tune)
cf. "Flunky Jim (Gopher Tails)" (tune)
cf. "John McBride's Brigade" (tune)
cf. "Green Upon the Cape"
SAME TUNE:
The Rising of the Moon (File: PGa035)
Benny Havens (File: R232)
The Drought (File: MCB158)
Magilligan (File: HHH052a)
A Knot of Blue and Gray (File: RcAKOBAG)
John McBride's Brigade (File: Zimm092)
The Man Behind (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 86)
Nearly Sae Will We Yet (per broadside Bodleian 2806 c.15(254))
NOTES: Probably originally associated with the 1798 rebellion, although topical versions have emerged on occasion in Irish history. An 1802 printing of "The Green Upon My Cape" is clearly related but not really the same song.
The "Napper Tandy" of some versions is an Irish patriot, James Napper Tandy (c. 1737-1803), one of the few Dublin members of the United Irishmen to escape capture. Tandy is one of those irritatingly complex figures so common in Irish history (as well as a patriot, he has been called a drunk, and after campaigning for reforms in 1784, he fled to the United States in 1793, then to France in 1797, which is how he ended up involved with the whole invasion fiasco).
Tandy apparently wasn't easy to get along with; he and Wolfe Tone had major disagreements while in France, which doubtless hurt their chances to accomplish anything. Still, he eventually managed to convince the French to give him a single ship, the Anacreon, and a force of about 275 soldiers; he was given arms and ammunition for many more -- he had, after all, declared that, if the French would just take him to Ireland, his presence would cause 30,000 men to rally to him.
On September 16, 1798, he landed with a company of Frenchmen in Donegal. He apparently expected to coordinate with General Humbert, but that invasion had ended a week earlier (see "The Men of the West"), and the expected rising in Mayo had fizzled.
Upon confirming the news, Tandy got drunk with some local friends in Rutland, and was carried back to the Anacreon unconcious. The ship went home, and the last French invasion of Ireland was over.
Tandy was arrested (one might well say "hijacked") in neutral Hamburg late in 1798, sentenced to death, but turned over to France in 1802, where he died soon after.
A final French expedition, with Wolfe Tone aboard, was also a failure, never even making it to shore; see the notes on "The Shan Van Vogt."
The charge that the English were "hanging men and women for the wearing of the green" is the sort of half-truth that often is heard during wars. Wearing green was not a crime and wouldn't result in execution by itself -- but green was a recognized revolutionary token; wearing it would certainly get the government's attention. Which could lead to trouble.
And, of course, ordinary soldiers, especially militia, were likely to be that much harder on possible enemies. It seems likely enough that a few people died for wearing green -- but not due to official policy. And anyone who wore green in those times was definitely asking for trouble. - RBW
The note to the Bodleian broadside cited is "Sung by T.H. Glenny, at Niblo's Theatre in the Great Sensation Play of 'Arrah-na-Pogue'"
Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) was an Irish playwright. He wrote and acted in the 1865 hit Arrah-na-Pogue. "This, and his admirable creation of Con in his play The Shaugraun (first produced at Drury Lane in 1875), won him the reputation of being the best stage Irishman of his time". Source: "Dion Boucicalt" quoted from Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition Volume IV on the Theatre History site.
Sparling: [The Wearing of the Green (I)] "was a hash-up by Boucicault of an old variant [Zimmermann 21B], using most of the old words ... [in which] the land of refuge it is written from is France, and not America."
Zimmermann: "Boucicault is said to have written this version at the suggestion of his mother, who remembered some lines of the older version. (Townshend Walsh The Career of Dion Boucicault, p. 144)"
Hoagland: Boucicault's main change was to add a verse about the possibility of emigration to "a country that lies beyond the sea, Where rich and poor stand equal in the light of freedom's day."
There are other songs with the same title, including O'Conor p. 40 ("Farewell, for I must leave thee, my own, my native shore...") and O'Conor p. 130 by H.G. Curran ("One blessing on my native isle! One curse upon her foes..."). [The latter being indexed as "The Wearing of the Green (II)." - RBW]
The "old variant" includes specifically anti-Union sentiment dropped by Boucicault: "I care not for the Thistle [Scotland], and I care not for the Rose [England]."
Moylan 33 is the Zimmermann 21B "old variant"; Moylan 35 is Boucicault's "hash-up."
More from Moylan about Napper Tandy: "Napper Tandy was the secretary of the first Dublin Society of United Irishmen. He made his way to Hamburg after the failure of the rising but was arrested there at the instigation of the British representative, Imprisoned for two years, he was released in 1801 on condition that he left Ireland. He went into exile in France where he died, at Bordeaux, in 1803."
Broadside LOCSinging as114610: "The following is the celebrated song which created such intense excitement throughout Great Britain, and for the incorporation of which in his piece, Mr. Bourcicault' play of 'Arrah na Pogue,' had to be withdrawn."
Tunney-StoneFiddle fragment has the singer start with the Napper Tandy/hanging men and women verse, followed by
So shoulder high your hurleys boys and grasp your rifles tight
The mangy bulldog let him bark; he's got no teeth to bite
When English law can paint the moon and put the Hun to flight
Then we'll shed our rebel coats and put the hurleys out of sight
"'I learned that verse in America', he told me." - BS
Which sounds very much as if it comes from the First World War period, probably before the Easter Rebellion. - RBW
Broadside Harding B 18(476): 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: PGa084

Wearing of the Green (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "One blessing on my native isle! One curse upon her foes!" In exile the singer thinks of Mary left behind and his parents buried in Ireland. The foe "might have let the poor man live." "But watch the hour that yet will come, For the Wearing of the Green"
AUTHOR: Henry Grattan Curran (1800-1876)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: exile separation Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor, p. 130, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Irish Minstrelsy_ by H. Halliday Sparling (London, 1888), pp. 13-14, 497, "The Wearing of the Green"
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(108), "The Wearing of the Green" ("One blessing on my native isle!"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES: For information about the author see The Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site entry for Henry Grattan Curran. - BS
File: OCon130

Wearing of the Green (III), The

See Green Upon the Cape (File: PGa091)

Wearing of the Green (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, for I must leave thee, my own, my native shore." The singer's father is buried in Ireland. His mother weeps but would weep more if he were a traitor, like some others. Exiles love to sing 'The wearing of the green" and think about return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I)
KEYWORDS: exile farewell Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Moylan 34, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 40, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, p. 277, "The Wearing of the Green"
File: Moyl034

Wearing of the Horns, The

See So Selfish Runs the Hare (Horn, Boys, Horn) (File: So38n2b)

Weary Fairmers, The

See The Weary Farmers (File: FVS202)

Weary Farmers, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's some that sing o' (Comar) Fair... But the best sang that e'er was sung... It was about the term... When we will a' win free." With their contracts expired, the farm hands set out to enjoy themselves and hope to improve conditions next year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: farming work drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 202-204, "The Weary Farmers" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 391, "The Weary Fairmers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord, pp. 211-212, "The Weary Farmers" (1 text)
Roud #2181
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Term Time
File: FVS202

Weary on the Gill Stoup

See Gill Stoup, The (File: GrD3597)

Weary Pound o' Tow, The

See The Weary Pund o' Tow (File: BdWePuTo)

Weary Pun, The Weary Pun, The

See The Weary Pund o' Tow (File: BdWePuTo)

Weary Pun' o' Tow, The

See The Pound of Tow (File: GrD71301)

Weary Pund o' Tow, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer bought his wife good linen for her to spin but she stalls: "I thought my wife wad end her life Before she span her tow" When he criticized her she broke a stick over his head. At last she left him, and he was happy to see her go
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Thomson's _Select Melodies of Scotland_, according to Chambers)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage violence abandonement husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1867, "The Weary Pun, The Weary Pun" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #360, pp. 494-495, "The weary Pund o' Tow" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, p. 499, "The Weary Pund o' Tow"
Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), p. 580, "The Weary Pund o' Tow"
Roud #435
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (theme: the wife who won't spin) and references there
cf. "The Cogie" (tune, per GreigDuncan8)
NOTES: Whitelaw: "The chorus of this song and the tune are old: the rest was furnished by Burns for the museum."
Roud lumps this with "The Pound of Tow" in GreigDuncan7 but I see no connection except the general theme that women will do anything but spin their pound of tow. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BdWePuTo

Weasel and the Rat, The

See Fox and Hare (They've All Got a Mate But Me) (File: FlBr121)

Weave Room Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Working in a weave-room, fighting for my life, Trying to make a living for my kiddies and my wife, Some are needing clothing... some are needing shoes, But I'm getting nothing but the weave room blues." Singer describes horrid conditions in textile mills
AUTHOR: Dorsey Dixon
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Dixon Brothers)
KEYWORDS: factory technology weaving work worker poverty hardtimes drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 88-89, "Weave Room Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 128-129, "Weave Room Blues" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 125, "Weave Room Blues" (1 text)
DT, WEAVBLUE*
Roud #15150
RECORDINGS:
Dixon Brothers, "Weave Room Blues" (Bluebird B-6441/Montgomery Ward M-7024, 1936)
Fisher Hendley, "Weave Room Blues" (Vocalion 04780, 1939; rec. 1938)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Weave Room Blues" (on NLCR03)
Pete Seeger, "Weave Room Blues" (on PeteSeeger13); "Working in the Weave Room" (on PeteSeeger23)
NOTES: [According to Cohen/Seeger/Wood], many of the mill workers in North Carolina were mountain people who had come out of the hills seeking work in the 1920s. - PJS
To those not from the mills, this song doubtless sounds descriptive and perhaps bitter. But according to 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, pp. 83-84, it is actually mocking and humorous, something which was more evident when Dixon performed it for his fellow mill workers.
Years later, a social history project tried to test the extent to which mill workers actually knew these mill songs. They found that only two were really part of the tradition: "Cotton Mill Colic" and "Weave Room Blues" (deNatale and Hinson, p. 95). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: CSW088

Weaver (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A weaver roves out and meets a pretty maid carrying a loom under her apron. Upon learning the man�s trade, she asks him to weave upon her loom. The remaining verses feature sexual exploits euphemized as various weaving techniques and patterns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: weaving seduction bawdy
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan 61, "The Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THE WEAVR*
Roud #2311
NOTES: According to Fowke, the song would date from the pre-industrial era when handloom weavers traveled from town to town weaving yarn that housewives had spun.
Fowke says the ballad was collected by O.J. Abbott from learned from a Dan Leahy in Marchurst, Ontario in 1890. A ten-stanza version appears in the 19th century Jones-Conklin manuscript of an American sailor. - SL
File: FowM061

Weaver (II), The

See The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3] (File: LO03)

Weaver (III), The

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

Weaver and His Shuttle, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes over a hill [or sets his loom on the banks o' brume] and meets Sarah Kelly [or McKellie].
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: bawdy weaving
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1330, "Sarah Kelly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7218
NOTES: GreigDuncan7 quoting Duncan: "No more words known, but understood to be objectionable."
Roud finds this in Buchan, Secret Songs of Silence, with the name "The Weaver and His Shuttle." Since that is, I'm told, a book of bawdy songs probably more complete than the GreigDuncan7 or Crawfurd, I assigned Roud's title as the name. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71330

Weaver and the Factory Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a hand-weaver, loves a woman who works in a factory. He visits her in her bedroom despite his family's scorn. All the girls have gone to weave with steam; "If you would see them you must rise at dawn/And trudge to the mill in the early morn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: love sex factory weaving family worker technology nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, WVFACTGL WEAVFACT (both transcribed from the recording by Steeleye Span; the former is the better transcription)
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Weaver and the Factory Maid" (on IRRCinnamond01) (fragment; only the first verse)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Weaver and the Factory Maid" (on Lloyd3, IronMuse1)
File: DTwvfact

Weaver and the Tailor, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a couple talking; "it was concerning love." The young man, a weaver, is trying to talk the girl out of her affection for a tailor. He describes all the tailor's faults. She gives in and consents to marry him. (They live happily.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan)
KEYWORDS: love courting dialog marriage apprentice
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Logan, pp. 407-409, "The Weaver and the Tailor" (1 text)
SHenry H199, p. 39, "The Tailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Log407 (Full)
Roud #13355
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rocks of Bawn" (tune)
cf. "The River Roe" (tune)
cf. "Paddle the Road with Me" (tune)
NOTES: Sam Henry discovered this piece with three different tunes in three different districts. It is not clear if it ever enjoyed popularity outside Ireland; Logan's text, while English, is a broadside. - RBW
File: Log407

Weaver is Handsome, The

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Weaver Loons o' Huntly, The

DESCRIPTION: "Neetle reets an' docken reets [nettle and dock roots?] Ti hale the swallin o' their queets [ankles] They are a set o' laithful breets [loathful brutes] The weyver loons o' Huntly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: weaving
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1888, "The Weaver Loons o' Huntly" (1 fragment)
Roud #13565
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment.
GreigDuncan8 quoting Duncan's informant: "There is an old love song about the Weaver Loons o' Huntly of which I have heard a verse." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81888

Weaver's Daughter (II), The

See Doctor Stafford and the Weaver's Daughter (File: MaWi097)

Weaver's Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer is smitten by a weaver's daughter. He proposes. She demurs; her late mother taught her to wed for love not gold, and that her aged, blind father's heart would break. She vows that she and her father will not be separated until he lies in the grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(455))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer meets, and is smitten by, a poor weaver's daughter. He proposes, saying he will make her a rich lady. She demurs, saying her late mother taught her to wed for love, not for gold, and that her aged, blind father's heart would be broken. She vows that she and her father will not be separated until he lies in the grave
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection weaving family father mother money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)
Roud #1277
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "The Weaver's Daughter" (on Maynard1, Voice05)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(455), "The Weaver's Daughter" ("Across the fields one sweet May morn"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2017), "The Weaver's Daughter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Squire and the Gipsy" (theme)
NOTES: This sounds like the first half of the story. - PJS
I agree (and might even suggest "Doctor Stafford and the Weaver's Daughter" as the sequel), though there are several possible further courses for the narrative (she changes her mind, the father dies, the father dies but the suitor has changed his mind, the suitor murders the father, etc.). But there are songs where the story ends here, such as "The Squire and the Gipsy." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcWeaDau

Weaver's Life

DESCRIPTION: Description of hard life in a weaving mill. Follows the pattern of "Life's Railway to Heaven": "Weaver's life is like an engine/Coming 'round a mountain steep." Singer describes showing newcomers "breakouts" to discourage them from working in the mill.
AUTHOR: Probably Dorsey Dixon
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Dixon Brothers)
KEYWORDS: factory weaving work technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 90-91, "Weaver's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 15-16, "(Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (1 text, plus fragments of assorted parodies, of which this is the second)
Silber-FSWB, p. 125, "Weaver's Life" (1 text)
DT, WEAVLIFE*
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "The Weaver's Song" (recorded 1941, unissued at the time; on AlmanacCD1)
Dixon Brothers, "Weaver's Life" (Montgomery Ward M-7170, 1937/Bluebird B-7802, 1938; rec. 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (tune) and references there
File: CSW090

Weaver's Song, The

See Weaver's Life (File: CSW090)

Webster of Brechin's Mare, The

DESCRIPTION: When the webster's (weaver's) old mare declares she can work no more; when the man threatens her, she faints. He skins the horse. Awakening in the night, it comes to the door; a lad kills it fears he has done murder, then discovers it is a horse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (chapbook used by Logan)
KEYWORDS: horse clothes death humorous murder
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Logan, pp. 402-405, "The Webster of Brechin's Mare" (1 text)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 154-156, "The Webster of Brechin's Mare" (1 text)
ST FVS154 (Partial)
Roud #13121
File: FVS154

Wedded Waters, The

DESCRIPTION: Aberdeenshire rivers Gadie and Ury "trysted aye to meet Amang the woods o' Logie. Like bride and bridegroom happy they." The singer wishes the same for himself: "I looket syne, but cou'dna see My sworn love at Logie"
AUTHOR: William Thom (1789-1848)
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Thom (first ed?), according to GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad river
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan6 1189, "The Wedded Waters" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Thom, Rhymes and Recollections of a Hand-Loom Weaver (London, 1845 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), pp. 142-143, "The Wedded Waters"
Roud #6810
File: GrD61189

Wedding (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Hurrah for the wedding." Give an "Hurray" each for the bride and groom and notable attendees as well. Drinking, dancing, eating and fun. Bride and groom "stole off At the dawning of day ... nobody missed them Till P.M. at one." A grand time was had.
AUTHOR: Brian Doherty (cousin of the bride)
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing drink food music party humorous moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 10-11, "The Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12485
File: Dib010

Wedding (II), The

See Patie's Wedding (II) (File: GrD3607)

Wedding at Ballyporeen

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the muses' help to describe the wedding. The guests are listed. After the ceremony, the great feast is devoured. The bride is nervous; her mother tells her to be happy; she'd marry again if she could. A happy if exaggerated occasion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(329b))
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous party mother food
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig 47, pp. 1-2, "The Wedding o' Ballaporeen" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 619, "The Wedding of Ballaporeen" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
SHenry H93, pp. 72-73, "The Wedding at Ballyporeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 140, "The Wedding of Ballyporeen" (1 text)
O'Conor, pp. 63-64, "The Wedding of Ballyporeen" (1 text)
Roud #3277
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(329b), "Wedding of Ballyporeen," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 28(183), Harding B 11(3505), Harding B 11(3506), 2806 b.11(38), Harding B 16(302b), Harding B 11(3964), Harding B 28(183), Harding B 25(2020), "Wedding of Ballyporeen"; Harding B 11(4075), "The Wedding of Ballpoyreen [sic]"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Ballinamona Ora [pr Ballymona Orah] (per broadside Bodleian 2806 b.11(38) and Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ballaporeen
File: HHH093

Wedding at Kouchibouguac, The

DESCRIPTION: The bride is "the primrose of Kishimaguac." The beef was from an ox that had died of old age and the rest of the food, was no better but, like everything else, was what "is common for supper in Kishimaguac" The usual wine, the usual songs, i.e., ho hum.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: wedding music party wine food humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson 46, "The Wedding at Kouchibouguac" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi046 (Partial)
Roud #9182
NOTES: Manny/Wilson: "This is ... said to have been made up by two disgruntled souls ... who had not been invited to the wedding." - BS
Given their behavior, I can see why.
If you're wondering about the two different town names, "Kouchibouguac" is the name in the atlas, "Kishimaguac" the local pronunciation. - RBW
File: MaWi046

Wedding o' Ballaporeen, The

See Wedding at Ballyporeen (File: HHH093)

Wedding of Ballaporeen, The

See Wedding at Ballyporeen (File: HHH093)

Wedding of Lochan McGraw, The

See references under Bluey Brink (File: FaE148)

Wedding of the Frog and Mouse, The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Wedding Song, The

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

Wedhen War An Vre, An (The Tree on the Hill)

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Wedlock

See When Adam Was Created (Wedlock) (File: SKE55)

Wednesbury Cocking, The

DESCRIPTION: Stories of cockfighting at Wednesbury. The competition is fierce, and many are the addicts of the sport and of gambling on it. The song relates many incidents, concluding when "Jack Baker he whacked his own father, and thus ended Wednesbury Cocking"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Graves, English and Scottish Ballads)
KEYWORDS: fight bird gambling sports chickens moniker
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
PBB 85, "The Wednesbury Cocking" (1 text)
Hodgart, p. 191, "The Wednesbury Cocking" (1 text)
ST PBB085 (Partial)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.19(37) view 1, "Wednesbury Cooking" (sic.), unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.17(458), "Wednesbury Cocking"; 2806 c.17(459); Douce 3(109)=Harding B 39(43)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cock-Fight" (theme)
NOTES: The curious comment, "I'll pay thee as Paul paid the Ephesians," is hard to understand in context. Ephesus was one of Paul's favorite cities. The reference may be to Acts 19:23-41, where Paul's preaching in Ephesus caused certain locals to turn away from the cult of Artemis (a major source of income in the city). The result was a riot.
The PBB version of this is metrically strange; it does not appear possible to sing all the verses to the same tune.- RBW
File: PBB085

Wee Article, The

DESCRIPTION: "I 'm a jolly servant lass, my name is Mary Ann, I'm going to sing about a thing that calls itself a man; He wanted me his wife to be, he's only four foot four...." She reviles the short suitor, and details why she wants no part of such a man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H833, p. 257, "The Wee Article" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2739
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wee Daft Article
File: HHH833

Wee Bridelie, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a little wee bridelie, In Pitcarles toun... There was few folk bidden to it, And as few fowk did come." The smallness of the feast is described: No meat but a sheep without a tongue, etc. When the bride goes to bed, the groom refuses to follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kinloch-BBook XXVIII, pp. 84-85, (no title) (1 text)
Roud #5508
NOTES: This strikes me as a sort of answer to songs such as "The Blythesome Bridal" and "The Ball of Kerrimuir." It's not clear whether that makes it traditional. - RBW
File: KinBB28

Wee Cooper of Fife, The

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

Wee Croodin Doo, The

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Wee Croppy Tailor, The

See The Trooper and the Tailor (File: FSC139)

Wee Cup of Tay, The

DESCRIPTION: "As Jack from the market came the other day, His wife she sat drinking her wee cup of tay." Jack complains "I must work hard, not a shirt to my back" while she has finery and her tea. She attacks "what money you spend in whisky and beer." They argue.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness drink humorous husband wife accusation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DullCare, pp. 167-169, 256, "The Wee Cup of Tay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13985
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(026), "John and his Wife on using Tea," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c. 1855; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(054) (same publication data as the preceding, though the title is reset)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tay" (theme)
File: IvDC167

Wee Cutty Pipe, The (The Derry Pipe)

DESCRIPTION: Sam asks Bill if he has tobacco, then gives a long justification based on the use of tobacco by Adam, Pharaoh, Jonah, Noah, Belshazzar, and Jason and the Argonauts. Bill concedes the point, and will continue to bring in tobacco in truckloads
AUTHOR: James O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: drugs Bible
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H465, pp. 49-50, "The Wee Cutty Pipe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13363
NOTES: The alleged Biblical references in this song are, of course, pure nonsense. Tobacco was not known in the Old World until introduced from the New; it is not mentioned in the Bible. - RBW
File: HHH465

Wee Drap o' Whisky, A

DESCRIPTION: "Come fill up a bumper and hand it round here." When weary the singer's pleasure is a kiss and "a drap more" with his lassie. He resolves disputes with "a drap mair" and never complains. After a half pint more he'll go home "till farther occasion"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan3 557, "A Wee Drap o' Whisky" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, WEEDRAP*
Roud #6033
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Glass o' Guid Whisky
NOTES: Bumper: [noun] "a cup or glass filled to the brim or till the liquor runs over esp. in drinking a toast"; [verb] "to fill to the brim (as a wineglass) and empty by drinking,""to toast with a bumper,""to drink bumpers of wine or other alcoholic beverages" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976). - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3557

Wee Drappie O't, A

DESCRIPTION: "O, life is a journey we a' hae to gang, And care is the burden we carry alang, But though grief be our portion... We are happy a' thegither owre a wee drappie o't." The singer notes tragedies of life -- and how they are relieved by fellowship and drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: drink friend nonballad hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 181-183, "A Wee Drappie O't" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #144, p. 12, "A Wee Drappie o't" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 560, "A Wee Drappie o't" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 370-371, "A Wee Drappie O't" (1 text)
Roud #5610
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "And Sae Will We Yet" (tune, per Greig)
NOTES: Several versions of this song have a line something like, "Job in his lamentation says man was made to mourn." This may be a reference to Job 14:22, the only time the King James Bible quotes Job as using the verb "to mourn" in anything like this sense. The overall feeling, however, is more like 14:1 or even the speech of Eliphaz in 5:7. I suspect this is allusion rather than citation. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: FVS181

Wee Duck, The (The Duck from Drummuck)

DESCRIPTION: "I once had a duck when I lived in Drummuck, I was quite in luck when I lived in that land." The duck, said to be related to (Nell) Flaherty's drake, is said to be very productive -- but now has been stolen. The singer will keep better guard hereafter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: animal bird curse thief theft
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H228a, pp. 19-20, "The Duck from Drummuck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5075
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (plot, subject?)
NOTES: If "Nell Flaherty's Drake" is about Robert Emmet, then this song presumably is about some later freedom fighter. The song mentions "the year forty-nine," so presumably 1849 (i.e. the aftermath of the 1848 revolt) -- but the leaders of that revolt, such as John Mitchel (for whom see "John Mitchel"), William Smith O'Brien (for whom see "The Shan Van Voght (1848") and Thomas Meagher (for whom see "The Escape of Meagher") , were transported rather than imprisoned. - RBW
File: HHH228a

Wee Falorie Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am the wee falorie man A rattling roving Irishman. I can do all that ever you can." Sister Mary Ann "washes her face in the frying pan And she goes to hunt for a man." "I am a good old working man Each day I carry a wee tin can" with a bun and ham.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (_Rann Magazine_ Summer 1952, according Roud)
KEYWORDS: work food nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hammond-Belfast, p. 13, "The Wee Falorie Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WEEFALRY*
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #48, "(Sam, Sam, Dirty Old Man)" (3 short texts, one in the body and two in the notes, showing much range but seemingly indicating that there is a floating verse on which several songs of this sort are built)
Roud #5106
NOTES: Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "The Wee Falorie Man" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959))
Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": "The word 'falorie' is not of Gaelic origin, but probably derives from the English word 'forlorn,' which in rural Ulster is pronounced 'fa-loorn' and is associated not only with lonliness, but with mystery. The song is used in a singing game by the children of Belfast." - BS
File: Hamm013

Wee House in the Wood

DESCRIPTION: "There it stood, the Wee-House-in-the-Wood," which inspires visions of folklore: English music, King Arthur, much that is gone, all revealed by a "phantom minstrel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home music nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 266-267, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: There are many pieces in Thomas that I don't really trust -- but there is none I more suspect of being Thomas's own work than this (and "The Singin' Gatherin'," which bears the same traits). It's anonymous, it's about Thomas's own home base, and it rather sounds like her style. - RBW
File: ThBa266

Wee Johnnie, the Hynd o' Rigghead

DESCRIPTION: Johnnie dresses up to court Jean, for he needs a wife to manage his life, and her dowrie. "I'm sure that she canna refuse me." She rejects his offer, which she thinks a joke, and he is chased away by her father and spaniels.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Whitelaw)
KEYWORDS: courting dowry rejection farming humorous father dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan4 767, "Wee Johnnie, the Hynd o' Rigghead" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), pp. 400-401, "Wee Johnnie"
Roud #6126
File: GrD4767

Wee Little Piute

DESCRIPTION: "Wee little piute, hi yi ya, Jolting cayuse. mountain trail, Strapped to the back of your ma ma ma, Gazing away o'er the pony's tail." Images of what the child sees as it travels the trail
AUTHOR: Words: Albert R. Lyman / Music: Casse Lyman Monson
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: baby family Indians(Am.) travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 87, "Wee Little Piute" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11203
File: FCW087

Wee Midgie Meer, The

DESCRIPTION: There is a horse race at Easterkirk "between twa [English] lords and weel mounted" and [Scotsman] Willie on his mare. Willie wins in the mud which "'filed [dirtied] the gentles' face." "Lord Lovat he gaed mad at that Swore he wad ride nae more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: racing England Scotland humorous horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #170, p. 1, "The Wee Midgie Meer" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 325, "The Wee Midgie Meer" (1 text)
Roud #5870
File: GrD2325

Wee One, The

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

Wee Pickle Tow, The

DESCRIPTION: John Grumely brings tow for his wife to spin. A spark from her pipe lights it. She refuses to spin (Eve wore leaves rather than spin), or churn butter. And he can sleep with his back to her. Then, he says, they'll sleep in separate beds.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage dialog husband wife clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan3 476, "The Wife and Her Wee Pickle Tow" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 80-81, "The Wee Pickle Tow" (1 text)
Roud #5506
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (theme: the wife who won't spin, but sets the flax on fire)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Spinnin O'ot
The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow
NOTES: And, he pointed out, that he earns the money [Hayward-Ulster text].
From the liner notes to Margaret MacArthur, "An Almanac of New England Farm Songs," Green Linnet SIF 1039 LP (1982)} "Norman Kennedy, weaver and singer, tells me that the fine long linen fibers are separated from the flax by hackling, leaving the short coarse fibers of tow, guaranteed to give the spinner pricked fingers and short temper." - BS
I can't help but note that John Grunm[e]ly is the husband in some versions of "Father Grumble" [Laws Q1]. This almost sounds like the "prequel" to that. - RBW
GreigDuncan3: "From his mother sixty years ago. Noted 29th April, 1907." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HayU080

Wee Tailor from Tyrone, The

DESCRIPTION: Mollie agrees to marry a tailor. She becomes a lady's waiting maid. The tailor accepts the lady's[?] offer of marriage, money, and gentleman's life. The marriage, in the dark, is a sham. When the light is on he sees "the lady" is Mollie. She rejects him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A tailor courts Mollie and she agrees to marry him. She becomes a lady's waiting maid. The tailor receives a letter, supposedly from the lady, offering her own hand and ten thousand pounds. He'd rather be a gentleman than an apprentice so he agrees. She insists the marriage be held in the dark. The marriage is a sham. When the light is on he sees "the lady" is Mollie. She rejects him: "Ah but you thought you were a gentleman, and now you see you're none"
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity wedding rejection trick humorous money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-Maguire 34, pp. 87-89,120,169, "The Wee Tailor from Tyrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2931
NOTES: An interesting twist on the Eros and Psyche legend, isn't it?
The same trick also occurs in the Bible, in Genesis 29, where Jacob thinks he is marrying Rachel, but her father instead slips in Rachel's older sister Leah. The difference being that the customs of the time allowed polygamy, so Jacob eventually had both of them. For full notes on the idea of the wrong woman in a bed, see the notes to "The Butcher's Daughter." - RBW
File: MoMa034

Wee Toon Clerk, The

See The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)

Wee Totum, The

See Toddlin' But and Toddlin' Ben (The Wee Little Totum) (File: Ord137)

Wee Toun Clerk, The

See The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)

Wee Weaver, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a wee weaver confined to my loom." Willy loves Mary. They roam by Lough Erne and Willy proposes. "So this couple got married and they'll roam no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRTunneyFamily01)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage weaving Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 81, "The Wee Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3378
RECORDINGS:
Brigid Tunney, "The Wee Weaver" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "The Wee Weaver" (on Voice20)
NOTES: Lough Erne is in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. - BS.
File: RcWeeWea

Wee Wee Man, The [Child 38]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a "wee wee man," who, despite his size, proves amazingly strong. He takes the singer on a tour to his home, and shows him the finest ladies he has ever seen -- but then disappears.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: magic home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 38, "The Wee Wee Man" (7 texts)
Bronson 38, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 version)
BrownII 11, "The Wee, Wee Man" (1 text)
Randolph-Legman II, pp. 587-588, "The Wee Wee Man" (2 texts, one of them the Brown version)
Leach, pp. 135-136, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
OBB 11, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
PBB 11, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 293-294+362, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 198, "(The Wee, Wee Man)" (1 text)
DT 38, WEEWEEMN
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp. 40-41, "A New Scotch Song" (1 text plus a print of part of the broadside containing it; also assorted excerpts)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #315, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
Roud #2865
NOTES: Carterhaugh, also mentioned as the site of magic in "Tam Lin," "is a plain at the confluence of the Ettrick and Yarrow in Selkirkshire" (Scott).
Child prints as an appendix to this ballad the poem "Als Y Yod on ay Mounday," found in a single copy in British Museum MS. Cotton Julius A5, dated firmly to the fourteenth century (another part of the document has a reference to the year 1307). This is curious in a number of ways. There is no doubt that the two items go back to the same folkloric roots -- but "Wee Wee Man" seems to be purely Scottish, and "Als Y Yod" is in a very difficult Northumbrian dialect.
E. B. Lyle, in "The Wee Wee Man and Als Y Yod on y Mounday" (reprinted in Lyle, Ballad Studies, 1976), examines the nature of the parallels between the two, but does not reach any clear conclusions. Her suggestion is that both derive from some lost proto-romance does not strike me as compelling, though it is certainly possible.
Lyle revisited the topic in a section in Emily Lyle, Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp. 36-43. This attempts to classify the known versions of "The Wee Wee Man" and group them in families. It also includes, on p. 38, a useful table of parallels between the ballad and "Als Y Yod." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C038

Wee Wifeikie, The

See The Wee Wifikie (File: HHH714)

Wee Wifikie, The

DESCRIPTION: The Wee Wifikie takes too much drink, and lies down to rest. A peddler steals her purse and cuts her hair. She awakens and finds herself changed. She thinks she is not herself. She tells her husband, who asks the minister, who reassures him all is well
AUTHOR: Alexander Watson ? Rev. Alexader Geddes ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: husband wife humorous hair drink dog theft thief disguise
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
SHenry H714, pp. 513-514, "The Wee Wifukie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 49-51, "The Wee Wifiekee" (1 text)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 23-26, "The Wee Wifukie" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan2 287, "The Wee Wifikie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Opie-Oxford2 535, "There was a little woman" (2 texts, the first of which is "The Old Woman Who Went to Market (The Old Woman and the Pedlar)" but the second of which is this)
ST HHH714 (Full)
Roud #5857
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue)"
cf. "The Old Woman Who Went to Market (The Old Woman and the Pedlar)" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wee Wifeikie
There Was a Wee Bit Wiffikie
NOTES: Grieg/Duncan mentions a pamphlet (1921) by William Walker, presenting evidence that this song was written by Alexander Watson in the years around 1775. Ford, however, credits it to one Dr. Alexander Geddes (1737-1802), and is followed in this by the Opies.
The song, if composed, seems to have come somewhat unraveled in tradition; the audience is too often left asking "Why?" (Why, e.g., did the peddler clip the Wifikie's hair? Steal her purse, yes, but why risk being caught cutting her hair?)
The Opies compare this and "The Old Woman Who Went to Market (The Old Woman and the Pedlar)" to the Grimm tale of "Kluge Else" and to a tale in Asbjornsen and Moe. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH714

Wee Wifukie, The

See The Wee Wifikie (File: HHH714)

Wee Willie Winkie Runs Through the Town

DESCRIPTION: "Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town, Upstairs and downstairs in his night gown, Rapping at the window, crying through the lock, Are the children all in bed, for now it's eight o'clock?"
AUTHOR: William Miller (source: _Songs for the Nursery_); "Air by Rev. W. B." (source: _Whistle-Binkie_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (_Whistle-Binkie_, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 529, "Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #813, p. 303, "(Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 132, "(Wee Wilie Winkie)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Songs for the Nursery_ (Glasgow, 1846), p. 1, "Willie Winkie"
_Whistle-Binkie_, (Glasgow, 1878), Vol I, pp. 320-321, "Willie Winkie"; also _Whistle-Binkie_, (Glasgow, 1878), Vol II, pp. 301-302, "Willie Winkie"
Roud #13711
NOTES: Opie-Oxford2: "'Willie Winkie, as may be seen in Jacobite songs, was a nickname for William III (d.1702), and according to Robert L. Ripley the rhyme refers to that king." - BS
The Baring-Goulds also note that "Wee Willie Winkie was the nickname given to William Prince of Orange" (who became William III in 1689). But they doubt its political significance. And, if they are correct in attributing it to William Miller, they are almost surely right in questioning it. Who would be writing concealed verse about William III in the reign of Victoria? - RBW
File: OO2529

Wee Woman in Our Town, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Week After the Fair (I), The (Jock and Meg)

DESCRIPTION: Meg has no pity: John is hung over from drinking for a week at the fair with "dandy Katie" while she was left at home. John says Meg drinks also and carried on at home that week; he got her out of jail. He proposes they don't drink until New Year.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1843 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(295))
KEYWORDS: infidelity drink dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #7, p. 2, "Jock and Meg" (1 text fragment)
GreigDuncan3 585, "Jock and Meg" (10 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #5162
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(295), "Week After the Fair" ("O John! what's this ye've done John?"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also 2806 c.14(34), Johnson Ballads 1678, 2806 c.14(183), Harding B 17(330a), "[The] Week After the Fair"
Murray, Mu23-y1:022, "The Week After The Fair," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(142b), "The Week After the Fair," unknown, c.1845; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(111), "The Week After the Fair"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John and Meg
NOTES: Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(142b): "This ballad is structured as an exchange of recriminations between a husband and wife while both are suffering from hangovers earned at their local agricultural fair. The local fair is a significant symbol of community in Scottish literature, and fairs are often portrayed as bawdy, drunken, knockabout occasions where prevailing notions of morality and respectability are forgotten."
Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(111): "This is the story of a couple who spent all their money and pawned most of their goods so that they could enjoy the Paisley fair to its full extent. Now the event is over, they are left quarrel about their decisions and behaviour but promise to start economising, but only until New Year! Both partners seem to have had romantic affairs during this period also, but they remain unconcerned about this as a couple." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3585

Week After the Fair (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The Fair has brought John and Meg to beggary's door. He reviews her escapades of drink and running around with other men. She says he ran around and pawned everything they owned. They agree to "tak' a drap and speak nae mair o' our faults at the Fair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Murray Mu23-y1:047)
KEYWORDS: poverty infidelity drink dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #5162
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:047, "The Week After The Fair" or "The Discontented Pair," James Lindsay Junr (Glasgow), 19C
NOTES: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(221), "The Week After the Fair" or "The Discontented Pair" ("I'm grieved to think my wife Meg, this day we are so poor"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
File: BdWAtF2

Week Before Easter, The

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

Week's Matrimony, A (A Week's Work)

DESCRIPTION: Monday the singer marries; Tuesday his wife sees a girl frying his "sausage"; Wednesday he finds a man in bed with her; Thursday they fight; Friday they part and she hangs herself in sorrow; Saturday he buries her and finds another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 289)
KEYWORDS: adultery marriage fight suicide drink bawdy wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 322-323, "A Week's Work" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 120, "Days of the Week" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1692
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 289, "A Week's Matrimony"("On Sunday I went out on a spree"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.20(135), Harding B 20(185), Harding B 11(4082), Harding B 11(4083), Harding B 11(4084), 2806 c.16(23)[some words illegible], Firth c.20(136)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(4081), 2806 b.9(271), Firth c.20(134), "[A] Week's Matrimony[!]"
Murray, Mu23-y1:088, "The Week's Matrimony," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Holly Twig" [Laws Q6] (theme)
cf. "In Duckworth Street There Lived a Dame" (imagery)
cf. "Charming Sally Ann" (imagery)
SAME TUNE:
The Devil in Search of a Wife (per broadsides Bodleian Johnson Ballads 289, Bodleian Harding B 11(4084), Bodleian Harding B 11(4081))
NOTES: Peacock makes A Week's Work the same ballad as The Holly Twig although the only similarity is that they both account for the days of the week and both start with a marriage. - BS
File: Pea322

Week's Work Well Done, A

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

Week's Work, A

See A Week's Matrimony (A Week's Work) (File: Pea322)

Weel Aul' Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "On yonder hill and yonder howe" lives a wealthy farmer who wants "a bit wiffie o' his ain." He courts Jean. Her mother speaks out in his favor. Jean says courting her mother will not win her heart. Then he kisses Jean which does win Jean's heart.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting farming mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 814, "The Weel Aul' Man" (1 text)
Roud #6211
File: GrD4814

Weel Like I a Drap o' Drink

DESCRIPTION: The singer likes "a drap o' drink" and "a cup o' tea" but likes "the laddies double weel And they hae proved the ruin o' me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1411, "Weel Like I a Drap o' Drink" (1 fragment)
Roud #7262
NOTES: The current description is based on the GreigDuncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71411

Weel-Faured Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets "a weel-faur'd maid ... comin' thro' the broom." She refuses to tell her name and claims she is too young to have a man. He gets ready to leave but she calls him back. They kiss, marry, and settle happily in Glasgow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding beauty youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 958, "The Weel-Faured Maid" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6765
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Squire's Wooing
Comin' Thro' the Broom
NOTES: This is like "Braes of Strathblane," "The Rejected Lover" and "The Slighted Suitor" (boy meets girl, girl rejects boy, boy prepares to leave, girl changes her mind, boy does what?) with a happy ending. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5958

Weep-Willow Tree, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Weeping Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Are there anybody here like Mary a-weeping? Call to my Jesus and he'll draw nigh. Glory (x5) be to my God on high." "Are there anybody here like Peter a-sinking?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Social Harp)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FSNA 128, "Weeping Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6680
RECORDINGS:
Roswell Sacred Harp Quartet, "Weeping Mary" (Bluebird B-8582, 1940)
NOTES: The reference to "Peter sinking" goes back to Matt. 14:28f. Jesus had been walking on the water, and Peter (in this account; not in the source in Mark) said, "Lord, if it's you, call me to come to you on the water." Jesus did, and Peter walked on the water for a few moments, but then started to doubt -- and sink. Jesus, of course, rescued him.
Lomax claims this is in the Sacred Harp. There *is* a song with the title "Weeping Mary" in the Sacred Harp, but it isn't the same thing. According to Jackson, the song is found in the Social Harp, though. - RBW
File: LoF128

Weeping Sad and Lonely

See When This Cruel War is Over (Weeping Sad and Lonely) (File: SCW42)

Weeping Willer, The

DESCRIPTION: The miller's daughter weeps because William joined the army. She writes a suicide note, plans to hang herself from the willow hanging over the water, and changes her mind. Rather than risk falling in such cold water she'll wait till the weather is hotter
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton (source: GreigDuncan6)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1884 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(184))
KEYWORDS: grief love separation suicide humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan6 1247, "The Miller's Daughter" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(184), "The Weeping Willer" ("Down by the country side, lives old Gray the miller"), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 11(4086), "The Weeping Willer"
NOTES: GreigDuncan6 is incomplete; broadside Bodleian Firth b.25(184) is the basis for the description.
The suicide note illustrates the tone of the song: "Take this to William Phipps, straight to him be tellin' His Susan died through suicide. P.S. - Please excuse bad spellin'." In the end she decides that, if she can't find a more faithful lover, "I'm half inclin'd to marry a man for money." - BS
For background on author Harry Clifton, see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61247

Weeping Willow (I), The

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Weeping Willow (II), The

See Bury Me Beneath the Willow (File: R747)

Weeping Willow Tree

See Bury Me Beneath the Willow (File: R747)

Weeping Willow Tree, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Weevily Wheat

DESCRIPTION: "Charlie, he's a nice young man, Charlie he's a dandy." Stories about Charlie's attempts at courting and his visits to town. The mention of "Weevily wheat" and lines such as "Over the river to feed my sheep" are common
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad playparty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Randolph 520, "Weevily Wheat" (7 texts, some fragmentary or excerpted, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 397-399, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 520A)
BrownIII 67, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text plus a possibly-rewritten fragment)
Fuson, p. 164, "Over the River to Charlie" (1 text)
Cambiaire, p. 140, "Weevily Wheat" (1 short text)
Linscott, pp. 262-263, "Over the Water to Charlie" (1 short text, 1 tune, primarily a version of this although it incorporates a single verse of "Over the Water to Charlie")
SharpAp 167, "Charlie's Sweet" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Sandburg, p. 161, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 286, (no title) (3 fragments)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 290-293, "Weevily Wheat" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 163, "Twistification" (1 text, 1 tune, with a counting chorus and modified verses)
Fowke/MacMillan 44, "Who'll be King but Charlie?" (1 text, 1 tune, with "Weevily Wheat" verses but obviously also some kinship to "Wha'll Be King but Charlie")
Creighton-Maritime, p. 125, "Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 60-61, "[Charlie]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 72, "Over the River Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 96, "Over the water and over the lea" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #144, p. 115, "(Over the Water and over the lea)"
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 161, "Charley, He's a Good Ol' Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 813-814, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 36, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text)
DT, WEEVWHT*
Roud #729
RECORDINGS:
Granville Bowlin, "Charlie's Neat" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Kelly Harrell, "Charley, He's a Good Old Man" (Victor 21069, 1927; on KHarrell02, CrowTold02)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Charley, He's a Good Old Man" (on NLCR10)
Jean Ritchie, "Over the River Charlie" (on RitchieWatsonCD1)
Ritchie Family, "Charlie" (on Ritchie03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll the Tater (Rolly Rolly)" (floating lyrics, meter)
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rosey Apple Lemon and Pear" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Certain authorities (e.g. Andrew Lang, according to the Opies) have conjectured that the "Charlie" of this song is Bonnie Prince Charlie. (Alan Lomax goes so far as to derive it from the Scots "Charlie Over the Water.") It would be hard to prove either way.
Those seeking to find every version of this song should also check "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss," which I think might be another version of this song. But others disagree.... - RBW
Well, I'd say they're at least siblings; at least one version of "Weevily Wheat" has the same tune as "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss." - PJS
Creighton-Maritime matches the Weevily Wheat pattern but includes the lines "cross the water to Charlie" and -- in the chorus -- "There's none like royal Charlie." In this sense at least it's close to Fowke/MacMillan 44. - BS
Consider the song attributed to Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne (1766-1845) at Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #335, pp. 564-565, "Wha'll Be King But Charlie?" (Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne). The Fowke/MacMillan 44 chorus shares lines in its chorus ("Come round the heather, ... You're welcome late and early, Around him fling [Nairne: "cling"] your royal king, For who'll be king but Charlie?" - BS
The latter is usually called "Wha'll Be King But Charlie" (the title used in the Index) or "The News frae Moidart," and it is certainly about Bonnie Prince Charlie. And it does mix with some "Weevily Wheat" versions. (Almost everything does!) But it is definitely an independent song, and the tune I've heard (admittedly from Silly Wizard, hardly an authoritative source) is distinct. Roud lumps a whole raft of "Charlie" songs, but that's more desperation than anything else. - RBW
File: R520

Welcome (to Lyda Messer Caudill)

DESCRIPTION: "The banners of our county bright Are waving in the breeze; Now we are living in the light...." "In accents sweet proclaim the news... We have a worthy leader, Our superintendant dear." The singer hopes the school superintendent will lead well
AUTHOR: Edgar Hamm
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 254-255, "Welcome" (1 text)
NOTES: I can't say with certainty that this is the most trivial thing I've ever seen memorialized in song -- but, other than Edgar Hamm's other school song, "Inspiration (The Rowan County Teachers)," I haven't a better candidate off the top of my head. - RBW
File: ThBa254

Welcome My Bonnie Lad

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "Welcome, my bonny lad, come when ye will" Her mother wants her to marry the rich laird and says "love will fly quickly when want's at the door." "What are his riches and broad lands to me?" If she marries any, she'll marry Donald.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love money nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 997, "Welcome My Bonnie Lad" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6733
File: GrD5997

Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire)

DESCRIPTION: "God's going to set this world on fire... One o' these days." "I'm going to walk and talk with Jesus... "I'm going to climb up Jacob's ladder." "All you sinners gonna turn up missing." "God don't want no coward soldiers... Some of these days."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (recording, Florida Normal Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses rejection death resurrection gods Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
BrownIII 517, "Some of These Days" (2 texts); 536, "Jacob's Ladder" (3 texts, of which the third is apparently this)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 280, "Welcome Table" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 173, "The Welcome Table" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 478-479, "God's Goin' to Set This World on Fire" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 354, "Streets of Glory" (1 text)
DT, STGLORY
Roud #11812
RECORDINGS:
Emmett Brand, "I'm Going to Cross the Rivers of Jordan, Some of These Days" (on MuSouth06)
Carter Family, "River of Jordan" (Victor 21434, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4430, 1934; on Babylon)
Jaybird Coleman, "I'm Gonna Cross the River of Jordan - Some o' These Days" (Silvertone 5172, 1927; on Babylon)
Florida Normal Quartet, "The Welcome Table" (OKeh 40079, 1924; rec. 1922)
West Virginia Night Owls, "I'm Goin' to Walk on the Streets of Glory" (Victor 21533, 1928)
Charles Owens w. Isabel Owens, "The Welcome Table" (on NovaScotia1)
West Virginia Snake Hunters [John & Emery McClung], "Walk the Streets of Glory" (Brunswick 119, 1928, rec. 1927)
Alice Wine, "I'm Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table" (on BeenStorm1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I'm Gone (I)" (floating verses)
cf. "I'm Going to Ride in Pharaoh's Chariot" (form)
SAME TUNE:
"I'm Gonna Sit at the Freedom Table" (civil rights movement song)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'm Gonna Tell God How You Treat Me
NOTES: This song carries several titles; I chose the one by which it's most commonly known among revival singers. While the song seems to have originated in African-American tradition, it has spread to Anglo singers as well. - PJS
Reported by Sandburg to be the favorite verse of the IWW, but evidently not of their composition.
I had originally split this song up under several titles, because the versions don't really relate much (Sandburg's and that in the Digital Tradition, for instance, appear to have no words in common whatsoever). But Paul Stamler thinks they're the same, and certainly there is continuous variation, so here they lump. - RBW
File: San478

Welcome, Royal Charlie (I)

DESCRIPTION: "The man that should our king hae been, He wore the royal red and green." He defeats the Hanoverians at Falkirk and Prestonpans. Since he has left a German rules and we "daurna brew a peck o' maut." Whelps sit on his throne. Charlie! drive them away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg2 71, "Welcome, Royal Charlie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
GreigDuncan1 136, "Welcome Royal Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5817
NOTES: The last verse includes the lines "Though every dog maun hae its day, The right belongs to Charlie." Is this the source for the "every dog will have its day" restatement of Hamlet V.i.273-274?
Hogg2: "There are many editions of this song, which is popular all over the country, both south and north."
For references to Falkirk and Prestonpans see "Tranent Muir" and "The Muir of Culloden." - BS
Many versions of this say something like, "Oh, you've been lang a-coming." This was a great complaint of the Jacobites: James the Old Pretender had briefly made an appearance in 1715 after the Fifteen had pretty well fizzled out, but no member of the Stuart family had appeared in Britain again until Bonnie Prince Charlie showed up in 1745. By then it was almost too late; the Jacobite cause was fading. Not that the Stuarts had much choice; James was more a liability than a help to his cause due to his extreme pessimism, and Charles could hardly lead the rebellion as an infant. Besides, the French and Jacobites needed the War of the Austrian Succession to distract the British government. All in all, it was a tricky situation for the Jacobites. But it did cost them -- George II, while no prize, was certainly more attractive than his father George I, and by 1745, most of those who had opposed the accession of George I were dead. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1136

Welcome, Royal Charlie (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Arouse, arouse, ilk kilted clan! Let Highland hearts lead on the van, Forward wi' her dirk in han', To fight for royal Charlie" Auld Scotia's sons would rally around him. "Welcome to our isle again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (Scots Magazine, according to Hogg2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hogg2 72, "Welcome, Royal Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 45(15) View 3 of 3, "Welcome Charlie O'er the Main" ("Arouse, arouse, each kilted clan!"), J. Smyth (Belfast), 1813-1850; also 2806 d.31(4), "Royal Charlie"
NLScotland, RB.m.168(248), "The Landing of Royal Charlie," T. Birt (London), c.1840

NOTES: Hogg2: "Copied from the Scots Magazine for February 1817, and has the signature 'F.C. Banks of Clyde.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Hogg2072

Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale)

DESCRIPTION: Singer invites girl to hear the nightingale; he offers to carry her pail. She demurs; "I've hands of my own." They agree to marry; now she's not afraid to go out walking or to "hear the fond tale of the sweet nightingale/As she sings in the valley below"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Journal from the _Ann_)
KEYWORDS: courting love sex marriage bird rejection seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 187-188, "A New Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, p. 562, "Sweet Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 89, "An Eos Whek [The Sweet Nightingale]" (1 text + Cornish translation, 1 tune)
DT, NITINGAL
Roud #371
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Nightingale
NOTES: Kennedy's Cornish words are a revivalist translation from the English. The song has been collected from tradition several times, but positively shouts out a composed origin. Kennedy lumps it with "The Valley Below," but as the plots are notably different, I don't. They certainly share a common ancestor, though, possibly in Thomas Arne's opera "Thomas and Sally" (1761). - PJS
I doubt even that much, and the fact that Kennedy lumps them (on no basis at all that I can see) makes me doubt all his other references. The one thing I'll allow is his claim that the song has a very fine melody. I've used a title from JFSS because that's the way I learned the song.
It's very difficult to know what to do with songs of this type. Huntington thinks his text is a survival of the Corydon/Colin-and-Phyllis/Phoebe type. As Paul observes, it sounds more like a minstrel than a folk piece. But Theodore Bikel and Cynthia Gooding recorded something quite similar (under the "Well Met" title), and there are enough broadsides with similar form that I decided I needed to include the song.
The trick now is to decide which of these many pieces actually belong here, and which are orphan broadsides.... - RBW
File: K089

Well of Spring Water, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer met a lass on her way to a well "who at once won my admiration" (more than his mother!). He declares his love. They fall into the well. They can't remember the rest that was said but married soon after. Their daughter Maureen is like her mother.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage children derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 6, "The Well of Spring Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5215
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Well of Spring Water" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Can of Spring Water" (form)
NOTES: There can be no doubt that this song derives from "The Can of Spring Water" but that is a seduction ballad with different details, lines and tone from this. Roud assigns the same number to both. - BS
File: RcWeSpWa

Well Sold the Cow

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

Wellington and Waterloo

See The Plains of Waterloo (V) (File: LJ03)

Wells and Fargo Line, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of "...the men who served their time For robbing mountain stages on the Wells and Fargo Line." Among the criminals who haunted the route were Major Thompson, Jimmy Miner, Old Jim Hughes, and Black Bart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: travel robbery prison
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 18, "The Wells and Fargo Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11083
File: FCW18

Wells o' Wearie, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer leaves Edinborough to spend the afternoon with Mary Grieve at the wells of Wearie. Her mother has given him permission to discuss marriage. Whatever the future holds, "True glory and wealth are mine wi' Mary Grieve" "Gang wi' me"
AUTHOR: Alexander A. Ritchie(1816-1850) (source: Whistle-Binkie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Whistle-Binkie)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan4 904 "The Wells o' Wearie," GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "The Wells o' Wearie" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Fourth Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 6-7, "The Wells o' Wearie"
Roud #5756
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny House o' Airlie" (tune, per Whistle-Binkie)
NOTES: "The 'Wells o' Wearie' used to be at the southern end of Holyrood Park in Edinburgh." (source: "Traditional Scottish Songs - Bonnie Wells o' Wearie" [not the same song] at Rampant Scotland site). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4904

Went Down Town

See Deep Elem Blues (File: DTdeepel)

Went to the River (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I went to the river an' I couldn't get across, I jumped on a (log/alligator/nigger/possum/etc.) an' thought it was a horse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: river floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 258, "Ease that Trouble in the Mind" (1 fragment)
BrownIII 193, "Went to the River and I Couldn't Get Across" (1 fragment)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 184-185, (no title) (3 fragments plus an item entitled "Sister Cyarline" which has a chorus and might perhaps be something else)
Roud #469
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Booker (Mister Booger)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Limber Jim" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary Mack (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Another of those ubiquitous floating verses, filed separately because it so often *appears* separately.
Randolph's version of this has a chorus: "I went to the river an' I couldn't get across, Ease that trouble in the mind, I jumped on a log an' thought it was a horse, Ease that trouble in the mind." But he has only a single four-line stanza, so it's not clear if the verse floated into something else or if there is a complete song. - RBW
Opie-Oxford2 362, "My mother said that I never should" includes an "I came to a river and I couldn't get across" verse: "'I came to a river' has had a long life as a make-weight verse in American play-party and minstrel songs. It is first noted in 'Clare de Kitchen, or Old Virginia Never Tire' (c.1838)." (cf. "Charleston Gals (Clear the Kitchen)")
TakingOpie-Oxford2's lead, the Public Domain Music site has an entry from "Minstrel Songs, Old and New" (1883) pp 152-153 for "'Clare de Kitchen; or, De Kentucky Screamer' (1832) Words and Music by Thomas Dartmouth (Daddy) Rice, 1808-1860" with verse 2 "I went to de creek, I couldn't git across, I'd nobody wid me but an old blind horse; But old Jim Crow came riding by, Says he, 'old feller, your horse will die.'" - BS
File: R258

Went to the River (II)

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Went to the River and I Couldn't Get Across

See Went to the River (I) (File: R258)

Were You Ever in Dumbarton?

DESCRIPTION: "Were you ever in Dumbarton, Where they wear the tartan (x2), little above the knee.... My love she is so neat and small, She won't have me at all (x2), But try to get her full and then she'll marry me... Oh, if I had her, happy I would be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971
KEYWORDS: courting clothes travel love
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger, pp. 307-308, "Were You Ever in Dumbarton?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9421
File: Doe307

Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?

DESCRIPTION: "Were you there when they crucified my Lord (x2), Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble; Were you there when...." "Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?" "...pierced him in the side?" "...the sun refused to shine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Paul Robeson)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 367, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 147, "Were You There?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11409
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord" (Columbia 20550, 1949)
Fisk Jubilee Singers, "Were You There?" (on Fisk01)
Roland Hayes, "Were You There" (Columbia 69812-D, 1939)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Was You There When They Took My Lord Away" (OKeh 45522, 1931; rec. 1930)
Wade Mainer, "Were You There" (Bluebird B-8273, 1939)
File: FSWB367A

West Branch Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come fellowmen and lend an ear A melancholy tale to hear." "About one poor mortal." "He hired out with William Brown To help him drive his lumber down." "He started out to break a jam." He falls into the water far from a boat. McMann pulls out his body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning lumbering
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray, pp. 22-23, "The West Branch Song" (1 text)
File: Gray022

West River Railroad

DESCRIPTION: "We've got a little railroad And it isn't very wide. We put in twenty thousand And quite a lot beside." Few travelers take the train: "A sheriff and a parson, Three ladies... and a little red calf." After humorous incidents, all arrive
AUTHOR: Mr. and Mrs. Julian Johnson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Brown)
KEYWORDS: railroading train humorous money
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Brown, pp. 198-199, "West River Railroad" (1 text)
ST FlBr198 (Partial)
Roud #5454
NOTES: Reportedly written for a home talent play, which somehow survived thirty years to be included in Flanders and Brown. (To be fair, it's much funnier than most such songs).
Apparently the song is about a locally-financed railroad which was, at best, only mildly successful.
No tune is shown, but I suspect "I Hard a Little Nut Tree." - RBW
File: FlBr198

West Virginia Feud Song, A

DESCRIPTION: A story of the "Lincoln County crew." Ale Brumfield is shot, perhaps by Milt Haley, but Brumfield (who survives) blames "McCoy." Later, at George Fries's house, a fight begins and many are killed. The singer blames the fight on drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: feud death drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
JHCox 40, "A West-Virginia Feud Song" (1 text)
Roud #465
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy)" [Laws E20]
NOTES: Cox views this as a reworking of "The Rowan County Crew," and Laws (in the notes to that song) evidently agrees. (Roud lumps them.) The resulting song is rare, and the Cox text is confused; it's not even clear who feuded with whom! The informants believed that the fight took place in 1890, near Hamlin, West Virginia. - RBW
File: LE20A

West-Country Damosel's Complaint, The [Child 292]

DESCRIPTION: The girl begs William to marry her; if he will not, she bids him kill her. He callously tells her to live in the greenwood. She tries, but at last begs her sister for alms. The sister drives her away. Willie finds her dead and mourns his cruelty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1695
KEYWORDS: courting abandonment poverty death sister love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 292, "The West-Country Damosel's Complaint" (1 text)
BBI, ZN2899, "When will you Marry me William"
Roud #3959
NOTES: Child is of the opinion that this is a composite piece, with the first eleven stanzas being popular and the remaining thirteen being literary. As both the tone and the rhyme scheme change in the final stanzas, he is quite possibly correct. - RBW
File: C292

West's Asleep, The

DESCRIPTION: "While every side a vigil keep, The West's asleep, the West's asleep." The singer laments the "slumbering slaves" in a land that demands Freedom and Nationhood. But a voice announces "'the West's awake!' 'Sing, oh hurra! let England quake!'"
AUTHOR: Thomas Davis (1814-1845) (source: Moylan; Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hoagland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland England nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Moylan 115, "The West's Asleep" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WSTASLEP
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 472-473, "The West's Asleep" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brink of the White Rocks" (tune, according to Hoagland)
cf. "The Men of the West" (subject: The landing of General Humbert) and references there
NOTES: The 1798 rebellion was a very patchy thing, due in no small part to the arrests of nearly all the United Irish leaders well before it was supposed to come off. The biggest rising, in Wexford, was largely unplanned, but at least it was a rising. There was a lot of stirring in Ulster, though it accomplished very little. Connaught and Leinster, however, saw nothing of any significance at all. Until the French came. This song apparently refers to General Humber's activity (for which see especially "The Men of the West").
The O'Connors, mentioned in the song, were the hereditary kings of Connaught before the Norman invasion.
For the disastrous Battle of Aughrim, see the notes to "After Aughrim's Great Disaster." - RBW
File: Moyl115

Wester Snow

See Easter Snow (File: HHH066)

Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's)

DESCRIPTION: "Take me back to my Western boat, Let me fish off Cape St Mary's." Singer recounts good times and wants to be buried in "that snug green cove where the seas roll up their thunder"
AUTHOR: Otto P. Kelland
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea lyric nonballad work death
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle3, p. 39, "Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 88-89, "Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CAPSTMAR*
Roud #7301
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's" (on NFOBlondahl01)
NOTES: Cape St Mary's is now a sea-bird sanctuary at the southwest corner of the Avalon Peninsula, about 100 miles from St John's - BS
Although the printed editions seem to call this "Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's," I've assigned the basic title "Western Boat" on the assumption that most people know it from the recording by Gordon Bok. - RBW
File: Doyl3039

Western Home

See Home on the Range (File: R193)

Western Ocean

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

Western Ranger

See Texas Rangers, The [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea, A

See Britannia on Our Lee (File: SWMS049)

Wexford City (I)

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Wexford City (II)

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

Wexford Girl (II), The

See My Name is Edward Gallovan (File: CrSNB092)

Wexford Girl, The (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.) [Laws P35]

DESCRIPTION: The singer invites the girl for a walk. They discuss their wedding. Then he takes up a club and attacks her. She begs him to spare her life. He beats her to death and throws her in the river. He is taken and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.17(216); c.1700 (broadside, Bodleian Antiq. c. E.9(125))
KEYWORDS: wedding river murder trial execution
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland,England) Ireland
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws P35, "The Wexford Girl (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.)" (Laws gives three broadside texts on pp. 104-112 of ABFBB)
Greig #137, pp. 1-2, "The Butcher Boy"; Greig #179, p. 2, ("Mary, my dear Mary") (2 texts)
GreigDuncan2 200, "The Butcher's Boy" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Belden, pp. 133-136, "The Oxford Girl" (2 texts)
Randolph 150, "The Noel Girl" (7 texts plus 3 excerpts and 2 fragments, 5 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 108-111, "The Noel Girl" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 150A)
Eddy 104, "The Murdered Girl" (8 texts, 2 tunes, but Laws assigns the B text to "The Banks of the Ohio" and omits the others. It would appear that Eddy's A and C texts belong here)
Gardner/Chickering 19, "The Knoxville Girl" (2 texts)
BrownII 65, "The Lexington Murder" (3 texts plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 3 more)
Chappell-FSRA 63, "Nell Cropsey, III" (1 text, which despite its title does not mention Cropsey and appears to be simply a version of this song with perhaps some mixture with "Banks of the Ohio")
Hudson 30, pp. 141-143, "The Wexford Girl" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 159-164, "The Wexford Girl; Hanged I Shall Be; The Prentice Boy" (3 texts, which despite the collective title are all called "Knoxville Girl"; 1 tune on p. 402)
Shellans, pp. 68-69, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this but with some curious variants which hint at recomposition)
Brewster 36, "The Wexford Girl (The Cruel Miller)" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 88-90, "Hang-ed I Shall Be" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 71, "The Miller's Apprentice, or The Oxford Tragedy" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 56, "Wexford City" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 634-636, "The Wexford Girl" (2 texts, 2 tunes); pp. 638-640, "The Worcester Tragedy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 115, "Waterford Town" (1 text)
Manny/Wilson 98, "The Wexford Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 785-787, "The Lexington Murder" (2 texts)
Doerflinger, pp. 288-290, "The Wexford Girl" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 225, "The Wexford Girl" (1 text+5 fragments of another text)
Warner 7, "The Waxford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 150-151, "Knoxville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 737, "The Knoxville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 327, "The Oxford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 115-116, "Knoxville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 90, "The Wesford Girl" (2 texts)
MacSeegTrav 75, "The Wexford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 224, "Knoxville Girl" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1624, "Let all pretending Lovers"; ZN3196, "Young men and maidens all, give ear unto what I relate"
DT 353, CRUELMIL* OXFRDTRG* PRETPOL2; (628), WXFRDGRL
Roud #263
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "Story of the Knoxville Girl" (Montgomery Ward 7327, c. 1937)
Cope Brothers, "Knoxville Girl" (King 589, 1947)
Mary Delaney, "Town of Linsborough" (on IRTravellers01)
Foster & James "The Knoxville Girl" (Supertone 9260, 1928) [also issued as by Jim Burke, possibly a pseudonym for Doc Roberts]
Marie Hare, "The Wexford Lass" (on MRMHare01)
Louisiana Lou, "The Export Girl" (Bluebird B-5424, 1934)
Asa Martin & James [Doc] Roberts "Knoxville Girl" (Conqueror 7837, 1931)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "The Knoxville Girl" (Brunswick 110/Vocalion 5121, 1927)
Aulton Ray, "Maxwell Girl" (Gennett 6205/Champion 15332/Challenge 335 [as Charlie Prescott]/Silvertone 5084, 1927; Supertone 9250, 1928; on KMM [as Taylor's Kentucky Boys])
Arthur Tanner, "The Knoxville Girl" (Silvertone 3515, 1926) (Columbia 15145-D, 1927)
Mildred Tuttle, "Expert Town (The Oxford Girl)" (AFS; on LC12)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Antiq. c. E.9(125), "The Berkshire Trgedy [sic]" or "The Wittam Miller" ("Young men and maidens all give ear"), unknown, c.1700; also Firth c.17(216), "The Berkshire Tragedy" or "The Wittam Miller," unknown, 1796; Harding B 6(100), Douce Ballads 3(1b), Harding B 6(101), Harding B 6(102), Firth b.28(40a), "The Berkshire Tragedy" or "The Wittam Miller"; Harding B 6(96), "The Berkshire Trgedy [sic]" or "The Wittam Miller"; Harding B 6(98), "The Wittham-Miller" or "The Berkshire Tragedy"; 2806 c.17(40), Harding B 28(224), "Bloody Miller" ("My parents educated, and good learning gave to me"); Firth c.17(110), Harding B 11(752), Harding B 11(753), Harding B 11(754), Harding B 11(755), "[The] Cruel Miller"; Harding B 15(74a), "Cruel Miller" or "Love and Murder"; Firth c.17(109), "Cruel Miller" or "Love and Murder!"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Ohio" [Laws F5] (plot)
cf. "Camden Town" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Oxford Tragedy
The Expert Girl
Johnny McDowell
The Prentice Boy
The Cruel Miller
The Miller Boy
Never Let the Devil Get the Upper Hand of You (Carter Family version)
NOTES: Ozark folklore links this to the murder of one Lula Noel, whose body was discovered by the Cowskin River in Missouri in 1892. The song, however, is obviously older. Doerflinger traces it to a broadside about a murder committed at Reading, England in 1774. - RBW
Botkin, following Cox (who follows Belden), traces it to a British broadside, "Berkshire Tragedy" or "The Wittam Miller", circa 1700. - NR
Laws also lists this broadside in his catalog (it is, indeed, one of the texts he prints), but adopts his title based on common traditional usage.
Laws, in fact, draws a stemma, starting from the "Berkshire Tragedy," and listing a total of seven "recensions" (p. 119), though he considers the broadside to be merely of eighteenth century date. I have a problem with the whole reconstruction, though: It's too literary. Even if one assumes the original ballad was a broadside (and I think Laws assumes this more often than is justified), it does not follow that its entire history is found in the broadsides. The song is so common that one must suspect the larger share of the broadsides to be derived from tradition, rather than being the source of tradition. - RBW
In Peacock pp. 638-640 version A the girl is pregnant, as in Laws' text of "The Cruel Miller" ( American Ballads from British Broadsides chapter IV, p. 111).
Broadside Bodleian Firth b.28(40a), printed in London between 1800 and 1811, has 22 8-line verses; shelfmark Antiq. c. E.9(125), with the same text as Firth b.28(40a) has an estimated print date of c.1700. These are all clearly recognizable as the same ballad, down to the "bleeding at the nose" line. - BS
The "Love and Murder" broadsides listed here should not be confused with the other numerous broadsides of that title, many of which are versions of The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B]. ["Love and Murder" is a very common title for broadsides, which I suppose proves that cheap journalism is not a modern invention. - RBW] - BS, (RBW)
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LP35

Wexford Insurgent, The

DESCRIPTION: "The heroes of Wexford have burst through their chains." The Shelmaliers lead the attack and trail the retreat. The Sassenach dragoons "have been trampled to death ... O! long in fair England each maiden may mourn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion death England Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 71, "The Wexford Insurgent" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: This anonymous, probably mid-19th-century piece, displays the marks of the drawing-room rather than the tap-room or cottage in its language."
Webster's Third New International Dictionary: sassenach: "a typical Englishman or something considered typical of England -- often used disparagingly by Scots and Irish." [Derived from the same root as "Saxon" -- an ironic description, given that the first invaders of Ireland were almost all Anglo-Norman barons and their French-speaking retainers. - RBW]
The Irish baronies of Shelmalier, East and West, are in County Wexford. - BS
File: Moyl071

Wexford Lass, The

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

Wexford Massacre, The

DESCRIPTION: "They knelt around the cross divine, the matron and the maid... Three hundred fair and helpless ones... Had battled for their own." The three hundred have fallen at the hands of Cromwell's English. They pray Heaven will avenge the wrong
AUTHOR: M. J. Barry
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I)
KEYWORDS: Ireland battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 23, 1641 - Outbreak of the revolt which eventually becomes "The War of the Three Kingdoms." Catholics in Ulster rebel to earn religious liberty, but commit too many brutalities against Protestants to allow peace. To make matters worse, one of their leaders, Sir Phelim O'Neill, claims authority from Charles I (see P. Berresford Ellis, _A History of the Irish Working Class_, p. 42; C.V. Wedgwood, _The King's War 1641-1647_, p. 26). Charles declares that O'Neill's commission is a forgery, but the forces arrayed against Charles in England refuse to believe this.
Nov. 29, 1641 - Battle of Julianstown. A small force of loyalist troops is scattered by rebels. The "Old English" (English immigrants who arrived before the reign of Elizabeth), afraid of the rebels, feel compelled to join their revolt. The English are forced to raise large forces to suppress the movement. They raise the money for this by selling the rights to land expected to be confiscated from rebels. The English government is now committed to punishing Ireland -- and to blaming Charles for the troubles
Aug 1642 - The English Civil War turns "hot," causing England to concentrate mostly on its internal affairs and leave Ireland to tend its own house
Oct 1642 - "Confederation of Kilkenny." The rebels try (and fail) to form a united governmental and religious front
1643 - Inconclusive fighting. The English Civil War draws off more and more English soldiers. All sides in Ireland alternate between fighting, negotiating, and calling on King Charles. In the coming years, Charles will make various deals (usually of toleration in return for troops), but none amount to anything. The Irish factions are unable to unite in any way. Assorted battles are fought, but none are decisive. The Irish have placed themselves in the worst possible position: Clearly opposed to the English, but without the organization to oppose them. As soon as there is a united English government, the Irish can expect to face its wrath.
1649 - The English execute King Charles and declare a commonwealth. England is at last united and ready to deal with Ireland.
August 1649 - Oliver Cromwell (the future Lord Protector of England) arrives in Ireland to regain control of the island. In theory, he is fighting Irish rebels; in practice, his chief opponents are royalists (as at Drogheda)
Sep 11, 1649 - Cromwell captures Drogheda. He backs this up with a massacre -- at the very least, the garrison and the Catholic clergy are killed. His enemies report that he slaughtered indiscriminately
October 1649 - Cromwell attacks and captures Wexford
May 26, 1650 - Cromwell leaves Ireland. In his absence, the struggle continues until May 1652, but the Irish/Royalist position is already doomed; they can neither agree on a plan nor find an acceptable leader. The closest thing they have to a commander, the Duke of Ormonde (1610-1688, a staunch supporter of the Stuarts who would be Lord Lieutenant under Charles II), flees to the continent in December 1650
1652 - The English parliament passes its Act of Settlement. Cromwell will significantly alter the Act in 1653, but not in a way as to benefit the Irish. The Act is such as to deprive nearly everyone alive in Ireland of at least some property. The English send in settlers to take their places. The poverty which is to afflict Ireland for centuries dates largely from this incident
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
PGalvin, pp. 96-97, "The Wexford Massacre" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 205-206, "The Wexford Massacre"
NOTES: There may never have been an English monarch who made more trouble for himself than Charles I (reigned 1625-1649). He ended up being the only English monarch ever to be executed (as opposed to being killed in battle) without being deposed first.
In the 1630s, as Charles I found himself in more and more trouble in England, he tried to strengthen his Irish position by offering the rights to Catholics known as the "Graces" (Cronin, pp. 70-71). They didn't really make the Irish happy, but at least his lieutenant Wentworth was a good administrator. But he didn't last; due to the troubles in England, he was recalled in 1639, and executed 1641.
The rebellion started in Ulster as the Catholics tried to throw off the Protestants who ran the plantation and made life nearly impossible for Catholics. The rebellion probably could have been quashed easily -- except that Charles I and parliament couldn't agree on what to do, letting things get out of hand. Charles negotiated with all parties, but -- being Charles -- he never took his promises seriously.
The 1641 revolt had resulted in the death of some Protestants (and of course the tales grew with the telling). Once Charles I was out of the way, Oliver Cromwell -- who had no mercy even on the English -- was appointed in 1649 to stamp out royalists and rebels in Ireland.
Cromwell took Drogheda on September 11, 1649, and put the garrison, and the general population, to death. (Ironically, most of the population of Drogheda was English; Fry/Fry, pp. 154-155.) Garrisons which surrendered quickly were allowed to live, but soon after Wexford was subjected to the same treatment as Drogheda; Cromwell killed 2000 people there, including 250 women (Golway, p. 17; cf. Fry/Fry, p. 155).
Cromwell left Ireland in 1650, but later saw to it that any who had not fervently supported him was punished, usually by loss of lands (The Frys compare the residue of Irish land to "an impoverished wilderness, rather like a South African homeland").
Exactly how much damage Cromwell did is hard to tell. The Frys state that "A third of the country's Catholics had been killed" (p. 156; compare Kee, p. 16). Cronin states that the surviving population "numbered no more than half a million"; the Frys also quote a figure of half a million.
Ellis, p, 43, quotes Leyburn's comparison with the Mongol hordes and cites on pp. 43-44 Petty's statistics that, of an Irish population of 1,448,000, "some 616,000 perished by sword, famine, and plague. Of this number 504,000 were native Irish while 112,000 were colonists. A further 40,000 decided to leave Ireland to enlist in European armies... 100,000 Irish... were sold as slaves to the West Indies and other colonies." This of course is more than half the population of Ireland, which is impossible; I've never seen anyone else quote such numbers. But it still surely qualifies as the worst genocide of the era.
And Cromwell then imposed the 1652 Act of Settlement, which pushed the entire native population into Connaught (sending them "to Hell or Connaught" -- Golway, p. 28; Cronin, p. 74); Golway reports that, before the Act of Settlement, Catholics still owned 60% of the land; afterward, only 20%. And from the time the act was passed to the time it finally went into effect was less than three years -- and the initial law had allowed less time than that! (Fry/Fry, p. 157).
Cromwell's mass deportation -- again, something not seen for thousands of years; the last to practice such a thing seems to have been the Romans with Carthage, and before that the Assyrian and Babylonian tyrants -- had the interesting effect of bringing together two long-separate groups: The native Irish and the "Old English" settlers who had arrived in Norman times suddenly found themselves on the same side -- and both opposed to the Protestants (Kee, pp. 15-16).
In his goal of making it impossible for Ireland to support the claim of Charles I's son and heir Charles II, Cromwell was entirely successful. "Even if Prince Rupert's naval skills had enabled Charles to land in Ireland at one of the remaining unoccupied ports, such as Waterford, the King would have found little for his comfort on arrival. Cromwell had reduced the royal forces to a series of pitiful, isolated and beleagured fortresses" (Fraser, p. 80).
Cromwell's other goal was to make the Protestants the dominant population in Ireland. But, of course, it didn't work; there weren't enough Protestants in Britain to occupy the land, so the same old situation prevailed; The Protestants owned the land, but their tenants were Catholic. The only effect was to reduce the tenants' rights to nothing: They could be displaced at whim. This of course assured that the tenants would spend everything they had to try to stay on their land.
Cromwell cannot be considered the sole source of the Irish problems, but he probably contributed more to them than any other man. Indeed, more than any other five or six, including even William of Orange. Little wonder that the Irish claimed that Cromwell carried about pictures of Satan, and that the story was told that he sold his soul to the Devil before the battle of Worcester in 1651 (since it turned out that he died exactly seven years after that victory). One account even tells of the portrait of the devil bowing to Cromwell (O hOgain, p. 133). - RBW
Bibliography

Cronin: Mike Cronin, A History of Ireland, Palgrave, 2001
Ellis: P. Berresford Ellis, A History of the Irish Working Class, 1972 (I use the 1973 Braziller edition)
Fraser: Antonia Fraser, Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration, Delta, 1980 (originally published in Britain in 1979 as King Charles II)
Fry/Fry: Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, 1988 (I use the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition)
Golway: Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, Simon & Schuster, 2000
Kee: Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, being volume I of The Green Flag (covering the period prior to 1848), Penguin, 1972
O hOgain: Daithi O hOgain, The Lore of Ireland, Boydell Press, 2006

Last updated in version 2.5
File: PGa096

Wexford Schooner, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams of Kelly shot on Tara Hill. Then he dreams of "a schooner down from Wexford town cast on Wicklow's coast." Captain Laurence Murphy and the crew, who "have met a watery grave," are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson, p. 61, "The Wexford Schooner" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Wicklow county is north of Wexford. - BS
I have this funny feeling that this refers to the 1798, with Kelly being "Kelly, the Boy from Killane," wounded at the Three Bullet Gate at New Ross. The wrecked ship may be the one by which Bagenal Harvey, the commander at New Ross, tried to flee; according to Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 268, Harvey was captured in a cave, though he doesn't mention a shipwreck. But this is only speculation based on very little information from the song. - RBW
File: Ran061

Wha Saw the Forty-Second

DESCRIPTION: "(Wha saw/Saw ye) the forty-second? Wha saw then gaun away? Wha saw the forty-second Marching to the (Broomielaw)?" The singer describes the equipment (often poor) and the rations assigned to the soldiers of the regiment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1922 (Greig-Duncan collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1628, "Fa Saw the Forty-Second?" (2 texts)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 98, "(Who saw the Forty-Second)" (1 text)
DT, MARCH42*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #102, p.63, "The Forty-Second"
Roud #13073
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Forty-Twa" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch) and references there
NOTES: The Forty-Second is the famous Black Watch, which fought in the '45 Jacobite Rebellion and the Crimea and beyond.
Six companies were raised in the Highlands in 1729 and designated the Black Watch (Brander, p. 203). In 1739 (Hallows, p. 202) or 1740 (Brander, p. 203), it was raised to regimental strength and numbered the 43rd Infantry. In 1751, this number was changed to the 42nd (Hallows, p. 202). In 1758 it was designated the Royal Highlanders (Brander, p. 203).
A second battalion was added in 1780 (Brander, p. 205). This was split off in 1784 and became the 73rd Regiment, though it later rejoined the Black Watch; since 1881, they have been the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) (Hallows).
This recombination and reorganization, part of the Cardwell Reforms of 1881 (a set of changes which standardized the size of units, gave them a regular geographic base, and improved command arrangements; Chandler/Beckett, pp. 188-189), changed the character of the regiment, which until then had been a Highland force. The Black Watch's recruiting area was now designated as Fife, Forfar, and Perth, with Perth as the headquarters. These shires are almost entirely Lowland. So, while the regiment is still designated a Highland regiment, it isn't really (Brander, p. 199).
The companies which comprised the Black Watch had been raised starting around 1725 (Brander, p. 19); the name itself apparently came from the dark tartan they wore when they were amalgamated and given a common uniform.
Their record was quite impressive. Hallows lists their battle honors, which include (but are not limited to) fighting in the Carribean in the Seven Years War; much service in India; ten battles in the Peninsular Wars against Napoleon; Waterloo; battles in South Africa; awards for Alma and Sebastopol in the Crimean War; Egypt; the Sudan; in the First World War, the Marne, all three battles at Ypres, the Somme, and some troops were in Palestine; there are honors for Tobruk, El Alamein, Sicily, and Burma in the second World War, and beyond.
This may explain why the regiment is listed in the song as marching to various places. It certainly got around a lot! And few regiments were more famous.
I can't help but add that this greatest of British regiments, which held together despite service in the Crimea and the Sudan and so many other failures, has in the early twenty-first century been amalgamated into a "Super Scottish Regiment." The reason? People won't join the army because they refuse to go to Iraq. - RBW
Bibliography

Brander: Michael Brander, The Scottish Highlanders and their Regiments, 1971 (I use the 1996 Barnes & Nobel edition)
Chandler/Beckett: David Chandler, general editor; Ian Beckett, associate editor, The Oxford History of the British Army, 1994 (I use the 1996 Oxford paperback edition)
Hallows: Ian S. Hallows, Regiments and Corps of the British Army, 1991 (I use the 1994 New Orchard edition)

Last updated in version 2.5
File: MSNR098

Wha'll Be King but Charlie

DESCRIPTION: "The news frae Moidart came yestreen... For ships of war have just come in And landed royal Charlie." Listeners are called to rally, for "Wha'll be King but Charlie?" Both men and women are roused to come "to arms for royal Charlie"
AUTHOR: Carolina Oliphaunt, Lady Nairne ?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845
KEYWORDS: Jacobites royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 3, 1745 (new style dating) - Bonnie Prince Charlie arrives in Eriskay
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan 44, "Who'll be King but Charlie?" (1 text, 1 tune, linked to this by title but with "Weevily Wheat" verses)
DT, WHAKING*
Roud #729
NOTES: The "News frae Moidart" of the first line is a reference to the arrival of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Scotland in 1745. Properly he landed on Eriskay, but that island had too few people to use as a base, so he quickly transferred to Moidart. And there the Forty-Five Rebellion was born. For this see, e.g., Frank McLynn, Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart, 1988 (I use the 1991 Oxford paperback edition), pp. 128-129.
The statement that "ships of war have just come in and landed royal Charlie" is a bit exaggerated. Charles's original expedition consisted of two ships, the Elizabeth and the Du Teillay or Doutelle. The Elizabeth was a warship (though not a very large one), but the Du Teillay carried primarily cargo. And the Elizabeth was forced to fight the British ship Lion on the way to the Hebrides, and dropped out of the expedition. Thus, though one might argue that Charles had set out with "ships of war," he arrived in Eriskay with one ship which was not intended to fight. (See McLynn, pp. 127-128).
Nor did all the clans "declare to stand or fall for Royal Charlie." He managed to rouse many of the clans, including notablly the Camerons and MacDonalds -- but Clan Campbell stood against him, and a rising without Clan Cambell had little hope. As events proved. As for the Lowlands supporting Charlie -- hah. A few came out; more supported the Hannoverians; most simply sat. - RBW
File: DTwhakin

Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)

DESCRIPTION: "We'll sing you a song of Peace and Love." "'God Bless England.'" When we were savages she raised us up "and sent us to heaven in her own good time." "Irishmen, forget the past." Soon we shall be civilized. "Won't Mother England be surprised."
AUTHOR: Peadar Kearney
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: England Ireland humorous nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-More, pp. 250-251, "Whack Fol the Diddle" (1 text)
DT WHACKFOL*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 686-688, "Whack Fol the Diddle" (1 text)
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 52-53, "Whack Fol the Diddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Whack Fol the Diddle" (on IRClancyMakem03)
NOTES: Most of the charges in this song are, of course, true -- and, in fact, the final stanza has in some ways come true also; in the early twenty-first century, the Irish economy is growing much faster than the English.
I can't help but point out one irony, though: The Anglo-Irish conflicts were caused, more than anything else, by the problems between Catholic and Protestant -- and it was the English who made the Irish firmly Catholic! Celtic Christianity had been largely monastic rather than Episcopal, and had celebrated Easter according to a different calendar. It was England, at the Synod of Whitby, that forced the English Celtic church to follow the Catholic calendar, and the English invasion of Ireland was authorized by Pope Adrian IV to bring the Irish back into proper episcopal practice. The Irish have followed those English practices for over 800 years; it is the English who have abandoned them.
According to Hoagland, p. 784, Peadar Kearney (O'Cearnaigh; 1883-1942) was a member of the IRA and participated in a minor role in the 1916 Easter Rebellion. He also wrote the words to "The Soldier's Song" ("Soldiers are we Whose lives are pledged to Ireland; Some have come From a land beyond the waves"; in Gaelic, "Amhran na bhFiann"; composed 1907), one of the best-known rebel songs and a future national anthem, but a song which does not seem to have entered into tradition. Happily, since such a violent item would be reasonable as a military song but which is, frankly, completely unsuitable to be used as national anthem of a civilized country.
Other Keaney songs in this index include "Down By the Glenside (The Bold Fenian Men)," "Michael Dwyer (II)," "Fish and Chips (Down by the Liffey Side)," and perhaps "Erin Go Braugh! (I)."
According to Hoagland, the British banned the singing of three Kearney songs, "The Soldier's Song," this item, and "The Tri-Colored Ribbon." The effect, of course, was to make them more popular. - RBW
File: OLcM0250

Whale Song, The

See Crazy Song to the Air of "Dixie" (File: San342)

Whale-Catchers, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer and his shipmates sail to Greenland after whales. He describes hardships of their lives, and looks forward to arrival back home, when they will make the alehouses of London roar. When they've spent all their money, they'll go back to Greenland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900
KEYWORDS: ship shore work whale whaler
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 100, "The Whale Catchers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3291
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy"
NOTES: This song is distinct from "The Greenland Whale Fishery." It shares much of its final verse with a song called "Adieu, My Lovely Nancy" [indexed as "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy"] collected from an Irish immigrant in Missouri and sung by the Copper family in Sussex. - PJS
File: VWL100

Whale, The

See The Greenland Whale Fishery [Laws K21] (File: LK21)

Whalefish Song, The

See The Greenland Whale Fishery [Laws K21] (File: LK21)

Whaleman's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the briny ocean On a whaleship I did go; Oft times I thought of distant friends...." The singer relates the voyage around Cape Horn and describes how Captain and officers abuse the crew. He vows to go sailing no more.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Journal from the Catalpa)
KEYWORDS: whaler hardtimes abuse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 15-17, "The Whaleman's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2000
NOTES: Huntington does not indicate what tune he used for this song; perhaps he made it up. (He can hardly have used a tune from other versions of this song, since he doesn't list any.) The metrical form, however, strongly suggests "Jim Jones at Botany Bay." - RBW
File: SWMS015

Whalemen's Wives, The

DESCRIPTION: Cautionary song, warns whalemen of what their wives will do while they're "on the raging deep." Wives spend their husbands' half pay, pawn their belongings & run around with fancy men, only wanting their husbands back when their pockets are well lined.
AUTHOR: Captain R. W. Nye
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: whaler warning wife sailor
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow, pp. 232-234, "The Whalemen's Wives" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9156
File: Harl232

Whalen's Fate

See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

Whaler's Lamentation, The

DESCRIPTION: Each of five whaling companies has a verse headed by their ship names. The verses lament destruction of their pier by storm. The chorus says "Davis Straits adieu this season, Greenland for a year goodbye" but the final verse claims the ships will sail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: sea commerce disaster storm nonballad whaler
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 12, 1815 - The Aberdeen North Pier used by whalers is damaged by storm (source: GregDuncan1)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #86, p. 2, "The Whalers' Lamentation" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 12, "The Whaler's Lamentation" (1 text)
Roud #5803
NOTES: Greig: "From Mr Walker, Aberdeen, I have got a copy of a whaling song which is dated 'Spring, 1815.' It looks like a libretto intended for dramatic rendering [but see the next note re 'The Storm']. The allusions in it had been understood at the time but to us they are just enigmas. It is interesting to note, however, that the four whalers referred to in 'The Diamond Ship,' given a week ago [Greig #85], are all mentioned here." The whaling season was not lost and the ships all sailed in February and March.
This song shares its opening line with broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1842), "The Storm" ("Cease rude Boreus [sic] blustering railer list ye landsmen all to me"), D. Wrighton (Birmingham) , 1812-1830, by George Alexander Stevens; this probably is a parody. In 1808, at Sans Pareil Theatre, London, "Woolf sang the famous "Description of a Storm" by George Alexander Stevens, which became such a familiar favorite at the Adelphi in subsequent years" (source: "The London Stage 1800-1900," Joseph Donohue and James Ellis, General Editors, at Eastern Michigan University site).- BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1012

Whaler's Song (II)

See Greenland (The Whaler's Song, Once More for Greenland We Are Bound) (File: Ord317)

Whalers' Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "There she lies there she lies Like an isle on the ocean's breast...." The crew spots a whale and pursues; they take the animal. They think about returning home to New England, and remind those who use the oil of the dangers whalers face
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Journal from the Lexington)
KEYWORDS: whaler home return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 17-20, "The Whaler's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2001
File: SWMS017

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Ev'rything to God in prayer." The singer describes all the ways in which God can help with life's troubles and burdens
AUTHOR: Words: Joseph Medlicott Scriven (1819-1886) / Music: Charles Crozat Converse (1832-1919)
EARLIEST DATE: Words written 1855, tune 1870 (Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 364, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" (1 text)
DT, FRNDJSUS*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 182-183, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16213
RECORDINGS:
Caravans, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (States S-128, n.d.)
E. R. Nance Singers, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (ARC, unissued, 1930)
Old Southern Sacred Singers, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (Brunswick 172, 1927; Supertone S-2117, 1930)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (Broadway 8136, c. 1931)
SAME TUNE:
Hymn to Cheeses (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 12)
What a Friend We Have in Congress (on PeteSeeger39, PeteSeeger44)
Dump the Bosses Off Your Back (by John Brill; DT, DUMPBOSS)
NOTES: According to Johnson, Scriven had two fiancees die shortly before marriage. He ended up writing this, in 1855, for his mother. - RBW
File: FSWB364A

What a Leman Will Ye Gie Me

DESCRIPTION: What sweetheart will you give me if I give you a bride? I'll give you so-and-so with "gowd about his middle Wi' the siller shakin' frae his heels."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage gold nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1587, "What a Leman Will Ye Gie Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13076
File: GrD81587

What a Trying Time

DESCRIPTION: "O Adam, where are you (x3), O what a trying time." "Lord, I am in the garden." "Adam, you ate that apple." "Lord, Eve, she gave it to me." "Adam, it was forbidden." "Lord said, walk out the garden."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 74, "What a Trying Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12034
NOTES: The notes in Allen/Ware/Garrison call this "a most compendious account of the fall." This does indeed sum up Genesis 3:9-24, with the sole exception that the Forbidden Fruit is nowhere called an apple. The evidence against identifying it with the apple is strong -- apples are rare in that part of the world, and they do not produce good fruit. (Even where the word "apple" is found in the English translations of the Old Testament, there is speculation that it applies to the apricot or the quince.) Most of the speculation I have seen suggests that the Tree of Knowledge was thought to be a quince or a pomegranite -- or, possibly, the Tree of Knowledge was a quince and the Tree of Life a pomegranite, since there are actual renderings of pomegranites of life in ancient art
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG074A

What Ails the Lasses at Me?

DESCRIPTION: The singer, is a "winsome" well-off farmer, with goods and credit, "and few I see gang oot more handsome." Lasses quickly take to wretches and sick men but deny him. He would take any girl, honest and free, if she would just write a note to him.
AUTHOR: Alexander Ross (source: Chambers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1393, "I Am a Young Bachelor" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 604-605, "What Ails the Lasses at Me?"
Roud #7250
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bachelor's Lament
NOTES: GreigDuncan7 from Greig quoting James M Taylor: "The date of this fine old song which I have heard sung on several occasions is probably 1778 as it does not appear in Ross's first edition of his poems in 1768." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71393

What are Little Boys made of?

See What's Little Babies Made Of? (File: SKE79)

What Are Little Girls Made Of?

See What's Little Babies Made Of? (File: SKE79)

What Blood on the Point of Your Knife

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

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Water, Water, Wild Flower

Water's Deep, Love, I Canna Wide, The

Waterbound (I)

Waterbound II

Watercresses

Waterford Boys, The

Waterford Girl, The

Waterford Strike, The

Waterloo (I) [Laws J2]

Waterloo (II)

Waterloo (III)

Waterloo (IV)

Watermellon Hangin' on the Vine

Watermelon on the Vine

Waters of Dee, The

Watkin's Ale

Watty and Meg

Watty Grimes

Watty's Wooing

Waukin' o' the Claes, The

Waukin' o' the Kilne, The

Wave Over Wave

Waves on the Sea

Waxies' Dargle, The

Way Bye and Bye

Way Down Below

Way Down by the Green Bushes

Way Down in Columbus, Georgia

Way Down in Cuba

Way Down in Old Virginia

Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog)

Way Down in Rockingham

Way Down in Tennessee

'Way Down Near Alpena

Way Down on the Old Peedee

Way Down the Ohio

Way Down the Old Plank Road

Way Down upon the Swanee River

Way Down Yonder in Pasquotank

Way Down Yonder on Cedar Street

Way Downtown

Way Out in Idaho (I)

Way Out in Idaho (II)

Way Out in Idyho

Way Out There

Way Out West in Kansas

Way Over in the Blooming Garden

Way Over in the Heavens

Way Over in the New Buryin' Groun'

Way Over in the Promised Land

Way Sing Sally

Way Stormalong John

Way to Spell Chicken, De

Way to Wallington, The

Way Up in Sofield

Way Up on Clinch Mountain

Way, Me, Susiana!

Wayerton Driver, The

Wayfaring Pilgrim

Wayfaring Stranger

Wayward Boy, The

We Are A' Queen Mary's Men" (1 text, 1 tune)

We Are All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough

We Are All King George's Men

We Are Anchored By the Roadside, Jim

We Are Coming , Father Abraam, 300,000 More

We Are Coming, Father Abr'am

We Are Coming, Father Abraham

We Are Four Bums

We Are Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough

We Are Marching On

We Are the Peckham Boys

We Are Three Lovers Come From Spain

We Be Three Poor Mariners

We Dear Labouring Men

We Fought Like the Divil

We Go to College

We Had to Walk from the Train to the Camp

We Have Fathers Gone to Heaven

We Have Loved Ones Over Yonder