Stage Coach Driver's Lad, The

Stagolee (Stackerlee) [Laws I15]

DESCRIPTION: Stagolee and Billy Lyons are playing cards; Lyons wins the hand and the stakes. An angry Stagolee shoots Lyons, is arrested, sentenced, and hanged. The various versions of the ballad expand on different parts of the story
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903
KEYWORDS: murder gambling prison execution
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws I15, "Stagolee (Stackerlee)"
Leach, pp. 765-766, "Stagolee" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 381, "Stagolee (Stackerlee)" (2 texts)
Cray, pp. 149-154, "Stackolee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 66-68, "Stagolee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 92-93, "Stagolee" (2 texts)
Lomax-FSNA 306, "Stagolee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 93-99, "Stagolee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 54 "Stackalee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 131-133, "Stackalee" (1 text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 51, "Stagolee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 78-79, "(Stagolee)" (assorted fragments)
MWheeler, pp. 100-102, "Stacker Lee #2" (1 text, 1 tune); also perhaps pp. 102-103, "Stacker Lee #3" (1 text, 1 tune, with references to Stacker Lee though the plot elements seem to have disappeared)
Burt, pp. 202-203, "(Stackalee)" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 243-244, "Stackerlee" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 198, "Stagolee" (1 text)
DT 663, STAGLEE STAGLEE2 STAGLEE3*
Roud #4183
RECORDINGS:
Senter Boyd [or Boyd Senter] "Original Stack O'Lee Blues" (OKeh 41115, 1928; Vocalion 03015, 1935)
Cab Calloway & his Orchestra, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Banner 32378, 1932; rec. 1931)
Johnny Dodds, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Decca 1676, 1938)
Cliff Edwards ('Ukulele Ike'), "Stack O' Lee, Part 1/Part2" (Columbia 1551-D, 1928; Columbia 1820-D, 1929; Clarion 5449-C/Harmony 1408-H/Velvet Tone 2509, 1932; Vocalion 03324, 1936)
Tennessee Ernie Ford w. Joe "Fingers" Carr, "Stack-O-Lee" (Capitol 1348 or 1349, c. 1951)
Fruit Jar Guzzlers, "Stack-O-Lee" (Paramount 8199, 1928; on RoughWays1)
Vera Hall, "Stagolee" (AFS 1323 A2, 1937)
Sol Hoopii Novelty Trio, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Columbia 797-D, 1926) (Decca 2241, 1938) [instrumental versions of Cliff Edwards version]
Ivory Joe Hunter, "Stackolee" (AFS CYL-8, 1933)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (OKeh 8654, 1929; rec. 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02)
Frank Hutchison, "Stackalee" (OKeh 45106, 1927; on AAFM1)
King Queen and Jack, "Stack-O-Lee Blues"(Gennett 6633/Champion 15605, 1928; Champion 40014, 1935)
Furry Lewis, "Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee" (Vocalion 1132/Brunswick 80092, 1927)
David Miller, "That Bad Man Stackolee" (Champion 15334/Herwin 75564/Challenge 327 [as Dan Kutter], 1927; on RoughWays2)
Uncle John Patterson & James Patterson, "Stagolee Was a Bully" (on FolkVisions2)
Lloyd Price, "Stagger Lee" (Sparton 679-R, 1958)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Stackerlee" (on NLCR04)
[Gertrude] "Ma" Rainey, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Paramount 12357, 1926 [rec. 1925])
Clive Reed, "Original Stack O Lee Blues" (Black Patti 8030, 1927; on StuffDreams1 [as Long 'Cleve' Reed & Little Harvey Hull])
Pete Seeger, "Stagolee" (on PeteSeeger18)
Will Starks, "Stackerlee" (AFS 6652 B2, 1942)
Art Thieme, "Stackerlee" (on Thieme05)
Evelyn Thompson, "Stack O'Lee Blues' (Vocalion 1083, 1927)
Waring's Pennsylvanians, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Victor 19189, 1923)
Washingtonians, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Harmony 601-H, 1928)
Frank Westphal & his Orchestra, "Stack O'Lee Bllues" Columbia 32-D, 1924; rec. 1923)
Herb Wiedoeft's Cinderella Orchestra, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Brunswick 2660, 1924)
SAME TUNE:
Frank Hutchison, "Stackalee No. 2" (OKeh 45106, 1927)
NOTES: On Dec. 29, 1895, William Lyons (levee hand) and Lee Sheldon (coach driver, nicknamed "Stag" Lee) were drinking together at a tavern in St. Louis, Missouri. A political discussion began; in the heat of the argument Lyons knocked off Sheldon's hat, and Sheldon promptly pulled a pistol and shot him dead. He was arrested and tried; the first trial ended in a hung jury, but he was convicted in a second trial and served time in prison, dying in 1916.
A St. Louis judge who has researched the case suggests that Sheldon had received a spell from a hoodoo woman giving him exceptional sexual potency. The talisman for that spell was his hat, so knocking it from his head was no ordinary insult.
It is noteworthy that the first recordings of this ballad (Waring, Westphal, Wiedoeft) are by popular dance bands, not blues or hillbilly artists. - PJS
Carl Sandburg, incidentally, enjoyed this song so much that he occasionally signed letters "Stackerlee"; see Herbert Mitgang, editor, The Letters of Carl Sandburg, Harcort Brace & World, 1968, p. 230. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LI15

Stampede, The

DESCRIPTION: "When the hot sun smiles on the endless miles..." the cowboys seek water, and find themselves fighting with a "nester" for his well. They spare him only because of his pretty girl. When a storm and stampede start, Texas Red saves the girl.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: cowboy storm rescue recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 392-395, "The Stampede" (1 text)
Roud #12710
NOTES: There is no evidence that this piece (first published in Wild West Weekly) was ever a song, or that it ever entered tradition. - RBW
File: LxA392

Stand Back, Old Man, Get Away

See I Wouldn't Have an Old Man (File: R401)

Stand to Your Glasses

See The Dying Aviator (File: MA142)

Stand, Boys, Stand

DESCRIPTION: "Stan', boys, stan', Dah's now no use a-runnin', Use a-runnin'. Look up on yondah hill An' see ol' massa comin', Massa comin', See 'im comin'." "Bowie knife in one hand An' pistol in de tother." "Oberseer wid his stick... Ruckus bound to happen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work slave
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 232, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: Reportedly a song sung by a Black work gang when they had been caught idling. They reportedly covered by having one of their number feign illness. - RBW
File: ScNF232A

Standin' on de Street Doin' No Harm

See Deep Elem Blues (File: DTdeepel)

Standin' on the Walls of Zion

DESCRIPTION: "Then it's a hooraw, and a hooraw, Through the merry green fields, hooraw! Standin' on the walls of Zion, Zion, See my ship come sailin', sailin', Standin' on the walls of Zion, See my ship come sailing home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg, p. 484, "Standin' on the Walls of Zion" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San484

Standing in the Need of Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "It's me, Oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer." "Not my mother, not my father, but it's me, Oh Lord, sanding in the need of prayer." "Not my brother, not my sister, but its me...." (Others whom it is not may be listed as desired)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (recording, Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 637, "Standing in the Need of Prayer" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Silber-FSWB, p. 350, "It's Me, Oh Lord" (1 text)
Sandburg, pp. 488-492, "Ezekiel, You and Me" (1 heavily composite text, 1 composite tune; this song produces stanza 3)
Roud #11833
RECORDINGS:
Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers, "Standing in the Need of Prayer" (Paramount 12070, 1923)
Hall Johnson Negro Choir, "Standin' in de Need of Prayer" (Victor 36020, 1930)
Southern Four, "Standin' in the Need of Prayer" [medley with "Shout All Over God's Heaven {All God's Children Got Shoes}"] (Edison 51364, 1924)
West Virginia Snakehunters, "Standin' in the Need of Prayers" (Brunswick 119, 1927/Supertone S-2072, 1930)
File: FSWB350A

Standing on the Promises

DESCRIPTION: "Standing on the promises of Christ my King, Through eternal ages let his praises ring, Glory in the highest I will shoul an sing, Standing on the promises of God." The singer declares, in various ways, the power of Biblical promises
AUTHOR: R. Kelso Carter (1849-1926)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (composed, according to Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 202-203, "Standing on the Promises" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18551
NOTES: Though hardly original in idea, this particular hymn has a very simple, easy-to-learn set of parts in the chorus, and seems to be very popular with amateur gospel groups. I'm a bit surprised it isn't more common in tradition. - RBW
File: BdSotPro

Standing Stones, The

DESCRIPTION: Two lovers meet at the Standing Stones and promise to wed. After she leaves, a rival stabs him to death, solely to cause the girl pain. She hears a cry, turns, and sees her beloved. He points to the stars and vanishes; she pines away and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (John Mooney's "Songs of the Norse")
LONG DESCRIPTION: In the Orkneys lives a beautiful young woman who has been loved since childhood by a young man. They meet at the Standing Stones and promise to wed, sealing the promise by joining their hands through a hole in the Lovers' Stone. He kisses her goodbye, watches her leave, then turns to go home, but a rival attacks him and stabs him to death, solely to cause the girl pain. She is arriving home when she hears a cry, turns, and sees her beloved standing near. He points to the stars and vanishes; knowing he is dead, she pines away and dies
KEYWORDS: grief hate jealousy courting love promise violence crime murder beauty death mourning ritual supernatural lover ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy 332, "The Standing Stones" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STANSTON
Roud #2151
RECORDINGS:
John & Ethel Findlater, "The Standing Stones" (on FSB7)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ploughboy's Dream" (tune)
cf. "The Maidenstone" (subject: the sculptured stones)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lovers--A West Mainland Legend
NOTES: The "Standing Stones" are prehistoric stone circles, found throughout Britain, including the Orkneys, where this song was collected. It was the custom in the Orkneys for lovers to plight their troth by joining hands through a hole in the "Odin Stone," then dividing a broken sixpenny piece between them. - PJS
References to Odin may seem odd in Scotland, but the Orkneys were largely settled by the Old Norse. I have not been able to find proof of this, but I believe "Odin stones" are so-called because they have a single hole representing Odin's single eye.
However, the Standing Stones would appear to predate the Norse legends. Magnus Magnusson'sScotland: The Story of a Nation (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000), pp. 6, describes the Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis at Calanais (Callanish); "It was built in stages from about 3000 BC and was certainly completed by 2000 BC. Briefly, it is a circle of thirteen standing stones huddled round a massive central monolith, 4.75 metres high, and a small chambered cairn. A double line or 'avenue' of stones comes from the north, and ragged tongues protruding from the circle create a rough cruciform shape." Magnussen goes on to describe the partial rehabilitation of the site. - RBW
File: K332

Star in the East

See Brightest and Best (File: JRSF150)

Star Light, Star Bright

DESCRIPTION: "Star light, star bright, First star I see tonight, (I) Wish I may, (I) wish I might Have the wish I wish tonight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid), though it probably occurs earlier in Mother Goose collections
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #430, p. 203, "(Star light, star bright)"
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 239, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: Some time in my youth, I learned this with exactly the same words as occur in Henry (not the same as in Baring-Gould). So it has some sort of circulation. But I can't remember where I learned it; I have the strange feeling it was some Disney production or the like. - RBW
File: MHAp239B

Star o Banchory's Land, The

DESCRIPTION: "Banchory's lands are bonnie When spring rolls in the year Wi' lasses sweet and mony But nane saw sweet's my dear." He praises her -- but then sees her at the fair, where she ignores him. He wishes her back or hopes she will at least be true to another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan4 707, "The Star o' Banchory's Lands" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord, pp. 69-71, "The Star o' Banchory's Land" (1 text)
DT BANCHRY1* BANCHRY2*
Roud #5567
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drumdelgie" (tune, per Ord)
File: Ord069

Star of Bannack, The

DESCRIPTION: "Under the lamplight's flick'ring gleam, In the dirt of the dancehall floor, The beautiful star of Bannack lies, Never to shine no more." Having left a lover in the east, she turned heads in the west but at last "A bullet would find her there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: murder dancing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 20, 1864 - Nellie Paget (birth name: Helen Patterson) murdered by a former flame in Bannak, Montana
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt, pp. 53-54, "(The Star of Bannack)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Burt053

Star of Belle Isle

See Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle, The [Laws H29] (File: LH29)

Star of Benbradden, The

See If I Were a Fisher (File: HHH709)

Star of Donegal, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a lad and lass discussing their parting. He is going to America to seek his fortune. She does not wish to part. He says the Irish will return to free Ireland. They decide to marry at once, and sail away together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (OLochlainn)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage emigration gold
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SHenry H555, p. 463, "The Star of Donegal" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 83, "The Star of Donegal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2996
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rich Amerikay" [Laws O19] (plot)
File: HHH555

Star of Glenamoyle, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the muses to preserve the star of sweet Glenamoyle as he praises her. Even the birds and rabbits praise her. He says that Joseph, had he been laboring to win her, would have felt it no toil; he would have sailed across the sea to wed her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H13, p. 232, "The Star of Glenamoyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7985
NOTES: The final verse of the Henry text contains some truly curious lines:
But had young Joseph received this fair one,
Her golden glory would have decayed away;
But had young Joseph received this fair one,
To win his bride would have been no toil.
I can only guess that the first two lines mean that the girl would not thrive outside Ireland. The latter two lines are clearer, though an obvious error. It was Joseph's father Jabob who worked seven years to win the hand of Rachel, and being cheated of Rachel once, worked another seven years to at last be allowed to marry her. And "Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her" (Genesis 29:20). - RBW
File: HHH013

Star of Glengary, The

DESCRIPTION: "The red moon is up o'er the moss-covered mountain." Donald goes to "Logan's bright water" to propose to "Mary, the star of Glengary," knowing his competition is the rich miller. She apparently accepts since she is "a gude wife to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3541))
KEYWORDS: courting wife river money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor, p. 11, "The Star of Glengary" (1 text)
Roud #13901
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3541), "The Star of Glengary", G Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 11(3326), Harding B 11(3645), Harding B 11(3646), Harding B 11(3647), Harding B 17(301b), Johnson Ballads 1097, 2806 c.14(128), "The Star of Glengarry"; Harding B 20(33), Harding B 11(3574), Harding B 18(716), Harding B 26(626), "The Star of Glengary"
LOCSheet, sm1877 08720, "The Star of Glengary", Spear & Dehnhoff (New York), 1877 (tune)
LOCSinging, as113120, "The Star of Glengary", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb40474a, "The Star of Glengary"
Murray, Mu23-y1:075, "The Star of Glengary", James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(299), "The Star of Glengary", unknown, c.1860; also L.C.Fol.70(1a), "The Star of Glengary"
NOTES: LOCSheet, sm1877 08720: "composed by Charles W Pette" may refer to the arranger.
Broadside LOCSinging as113120: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon011

Star of Logy Bay, The

See The Pride of Logy Bay (File: FSC061)

Star of Moville, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sails to Moville to watch the races. Enlivened by whiskey, he meets Mary, "the star of Moville." He courts her, and buys her a drink. The girl, after spending some time, rejects him and goes home. He wishes that someone would bring her to him
AUTHOR: James McCurry
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting racing rejection drink music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H68, pp. 276-277, "The Star of Moville" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7968
NOTES: A long and highly complex mix: Is it a boat-racing song, a courting song, a rejection song, a drinking song, a song of getting delayed along the shore? I'm not sure. - RBW
File: HHH068

Star of Slane, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "was ruminating and meditating And contemplating" when he met a maid that would have captivated Paris, Caesar, and Alexander. Her beauty eclipses all others. "For me to woo her I am too poor, I'm deadly sure she won't be my wife"
AUTHOR: Day (c.1800-1866) (source: Sparling)
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (a Drogheda chap-book, according to Sparling)
KEYWORDS: love beauty humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-More 84, "The Star of Slane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 107-108, "The Star of Slane" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 366-368, 515, "The Star of Slane"
Roud #6530
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(270), "The Star of Slane" ("You brilliant muses, who ne'er refuses"), unknown, n.d.; alsoHarding B 11(3648), "The Star of Slane"
NOTES: This is another song that hides the lover's name: "Her name to mention may cause contention And it's my intention for to breed no strife." See also "Craiganee," "The Pride of Kilkee," "The Flower of Benbrada" and "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)"; in "Drihaureen O Mo Chree (Little Brother of My Heart)" the singer's brother's name is hidden. - BS
File: OLcM084

Star of Sunday's Well, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves "That consort fit for Satan, the Star of Sunday's Well." She weighs 15 stone [210 pounds]: "She's blooming and she's bonny with real estate and money." He is rejected in favor of "a grocer's curate"
AUTHOR: W.B. Guiney
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (_The Cork Examiner,_ according to OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More, pp. 258-259, "The Star of Sunday's Well" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds" [OLochlainn 64] (tune)
NOTES: Sunday's Well is in Cork. - BS
File: OLcM258

Star of the County Down, The

DESCRIPTION: Near Banbridge town, the singer sees a "sweet colleen." He is instantly smitten with the beauty of "the star of the Country Down." He makes plans to pursue her, and dreams of life with her
AUTHOR: unknown (credited to Cathal McGarvey [1866-1927] by Colm O'Lochlainn)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Irish Country Songs)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, STARDOWN*
Roud #4801
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (tune)
cf. "The Banks of Newfoundland (I)" [Laws K25] (tune)
cf. "When a Man's in Love" [Laws O20] (tune)
cf. "The Wreck of the Gwendoline" (tune)
cf. "The Colleen from Coolbaun" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Dives and Lazarus (File: C056)
The Wreck of the Gwendoline (File: OLcM257)
The Banks of Newfoundland (I) [Laws K25] (File: LK25)
When a Man's in Love [Laws O20] (File: LO20)
The Colleen from Coolbaun (File: RcTCofCo)
File: DTstardo

Star-Spangled Banner, The

DESCRIPTION: A description of bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Navy, with hopes for the survival of the United States. Either you already know the song, or you don't care. (Perhaps both.)
AUTHOR: Words: Francis Scott Key/Music: John Stafford Smith (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1814
KEYWORDS: America patriotic battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 13, 1814 - Battle of Fort McHenry. Key allegedly wrote this poem the following morning, when he saw the flag still waving
FOUND IN: US(All)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Krythe 2, pp. 15-39, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 300, "The Star Spangled Banner" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 529-534+, "The Star Spangled Banner"
DT, STARSPAN
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To Anacreon in Heaven" (tune)
cf. "Adams and Liberty" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The National Grass Plot (Greenway-AFP, p. 63)
NOTES: For the history of this tune, see the notes to "To Anacreon in Heaven." The folklore about the poem is too widely known (and too exaggerated) to bear repeating here; Spaeth has a sort of debunking, with some less-known details, on pp. 41-46, and there are a few notes about Francis Scott Key's part in the Battle for Baltimore in the discussion below.
In several senses this is not a folk song (in part because it's so difficult to sing) -- but it is well-enough known that its inclusion is at least understandable....
The War of 1812 showed clearly how much stronger the British Empire was than the then-still-new United States. In 1812 and 1813, the British had been putting all their energy into fighting Napoleon, and given the Americas only the dregs (not only did they send only a bare handful of troops to Canada, they reportedly sent only second-rate generals, using the best and brightest against Napoleon (Mahon, p. 144) -- and they *still* held the Americans to a draw: At the end of 1813, the British still held Canada, and while the Americans had had some success at sea, by 1813 their handful of ships were mostly pinned down in blockaded ports (see Mahon, p. 122, for a list of ships involved).
1814 should have seen the British, now free of Napoleon, settle the American hash -- and they did succeed in permanently occupying some of the coast east of what is now the state of Maine. They set out to do far more, planning three major offensives (at Lake Champlain, Chesapeake Bay, and Louisiana). For the first of these, which was one of the most absurd displays ever put on by the British army, see the notes on "The Siege of Plattsburg."
The Chesapeake Campaign was the best-run of the three British attacks of 1814 -- and, overall, the most successful. The war by this time had turned rather bitter as there had been a series of atrocities along the Canadian border (started, we must note,by the Americans, who destroyed the Canadian settlement of Newark as well as the future Toronto, though the British treatment of American prisoners was bad enough that they had nothing to complain about; the sad thing is that the innocent Canadians suffered for the faults of the English government).
The British had responded to the American war crimes by burning Buffalo, e.g., and had raided Chesapeake Bay in 1813 (the British commander in the area, Admiral Cockburn, did so much damage that the Americans accused him of enjoying looting; see Mahon, p. 115), but this was to be altogether bigger. A large fleet, and an army contingent commanded by Major General Robert Ross (who had served under Wellington) were sent to raid the Bay in the late summer of 1814. Their goal was not conquest; it was to keep the Americans from sending major forces against Prevost's (utterly mishandled) Champlain expedition (Borneman, pp. 219-220).
On August 19, 1814, Ross took his troops ashore at Benedict, Maryland, southeast of Washington, D.C. (Borneman, p. 222).
The American response showed a level of ineptitude that would make George W. Bush's Iraq planning look good. Faced with an army at the gates of the U. S. capitol, President Madison chose a political general who had already demonstrated his military ineptness to command in the vicinity of Washington (apparently he hoped William H. Winder's political connections would allow him to raise more militia; Borneman, p. 223; Hickey, p.196). Winder would show great energy but absolutely no ability to develop plans (Hickey, pp. 196-197).
The weather was dreadfully hot (Borneman, p. 225; Hickey, p. 198), but the Americans made no attempt to harass the overburdened British. On August 24, Ross's troops brushed past the handful of American defenders at Bladensburg, incidentally putting President Madison under fire; he retreated even faster than his soldiers. The battle also saw Secretary of State Monroe giving orders to the soldiers -- something he was not entitled to do, and his orders were in any case bad (Hickey, p. 197). The Americans were so thoroughly routed that the battle was christened the "Bladensburg Races" (Borneman, p. 228). The British promptly entered Washington -- which was so deserted that Ross couldn't even find anyone to offer up a surrender (Hickey, p, 199).
Ross's forces were better behaved than the Americans. They did burn a handful of private buildings -- but, almost without exception, it was because those houses were used for military purposes. Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin's house, for instance, was torched because snipers in the house had slain one British soldier, wounded three others, and killed General Ross's horse under him (Borneman, p. 229). But mostly the invaders concentrated on buildings such as the White House, the Treasury Building, and the Capitol (Borneman, pp. 230-231). Saddest of all was the torching of the Library of Congress, though the invaders were convinced to let the Patent Office stand (Hickey, p. 199).
The British were not there to stay; having done their damage, they headed back to their ships on August 25 (Borneman, p. 232). Even so, Secretary of War John Armstrong was forced to resign (Borneman, p. 234; Hickey, p. 202).
The next day, the British set out for Baltimore, a much more developed port, with a larger population and a more important shipping center -- but defended by Fort McHenry, plus many earthworks and a much more effective force of militia than those around Washington. It was also much more enthusiastic for the war; soon after the conflict began, a newspaper uttered an anti-war statement -- and the city broke out in riots; the paper's equipment was damaged, and a number of Federalists, including even Revolutionary War hero "Light Horse Harry" Lee, were beaten, in some cases to death or permanent injury (see Hickey, pp. 60-67; Mahon, p. 33)
General Ross apparently thought the raid on Baltimore not worth the trouble -- the psychological damage of the attack on Washington could only be dissipated (Borneman, p. 238). He was overruled; on September 11, the British headed north.
The attack on Baltimore was to come from both land and sea, with the navy attacking Fort McHenry while the army came around the other side. Both prongs of the attack came to grief. Ross was killed by a sharpshooter on September 12 (Borneman, pp. 242-243), and his second-in-command wasn't nearly as inspiring.
The naval assault was a matter of sound and fury and not much else. Fort McHenry was dirt over masonry, hard to subdue by cannon -- and the waters around it were very shallow (Borneman, p. 239; Hickey, p. 203). The navy could not get close to the fort. In fact, they had to stand out so far that the fort's short-range guns could not even reach them. So, on the night of September 13, British mortar vessels fired wildly at the fort, and the bomb Terror (of future Franklin Expedition fame; see the notes to "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9]) fired her rockets (Borneman, p. 244). The fort could not answer, but she suffered only four killed and a couple of dozen wounded; she was still perfectly capable of holding off the British army (Borneman, pp. 244-246).
That was pretty much the end of the siege of Baltimore, though it was a month before the last British forces left the vicinity. The naval commander, Admiral Cochrane, headed for Halifax with part of the fleet; the rest, plus the army, retreated to Jamaica, refitted, took on a new commander by the name of Pakenham, and headed toward a place called New Orleans.
It is sometimes stated that Francis Scott Key was a prisoner on the British fleet. He was not. He was in fact a Baltimore lawyer trying to negotiate the release of a doctor-turned-spy named William Beanes. Beanes was not popular with the British, who considered his behavior particularly egregious (and, if the description in Borneman, pp. 240-242, is accurate, it appears they had a point). The British finally agreed to let him go -- but by that time, they were committed to the attack on Baltimore, so Key, his colleague John S. Skinner, and Beanes had to wait beside H.M.S. Tonnant until it was over (Hickey, pp. 203-204).
The bombardment started during the day, but continued well into the night, and with the fort unable to fire on the British ships, the only way to tell it was still resisting was to observe its flag -- hard to do at night. Apparently Beanes was constantly pestering Key, who had a telescope, to find out if the famous oversize flag was still flying (Borneman, pp. 245-246). Hence Key's song, which he scribbled that night, and elaborated later, was first published as "The Defense of Fort McHenry." Since this event, combined with the victory at Plattsburg two days sooner, caused the British to decide for peace, the siege, and the song associated with it, because immensely popular, and came to be seen as a great American victory -- even though the British had suffered no real casualties except Ross and had done the Americans far more damage at Washington than the Americans caused at Baltimore.
The conflict could not have gone on much longer. The American government was flat broke (had there been someone to force it into bankruptcy, it would surely have done so; loans went unsubscribed and Treasury notes were depreciating fast. To raise such money as it could, the govenment ended up having to pay $16 for every $10 raised! -- see Hickey, pp. 165-167. By late 1814, the government was defaulting on its notes -- Hickey, p. 224 -- and its notes were discounted 25-40%. At one point the interest on the debt exceeded the government's entire estimated income -- Hickey, p. 247).The Americans for a time were actually seeing their credit financed by a British bank! (Hickey, pp. 223-224). Hickey�s final estimate is that the government borrowed a total of $80 million, but because of the way the loans were subscribed, picked up only $34 million in specie. The rest was lost to interest, depreciated notes, and peculiarities of the method of borrowing.
The situation was so bad that Federalist New England was making noises about secession and nullification (Borneman, pp. 255-256; Hickey, pp. 270-280, devotes most of a chapter to the "Hartford Convention," which was called to consider withdrawing from the Union; in the end, it did not do so, but it did propose seven constitutional amendments to make it harder to declare war [where was that in 2003?], to end re-election of presidents, to bar consecutive presidents from the same state, to open up trade, and to stop counting slaves toward the totals for congressional representation. The amendments were actually passed by Massachusetts and Connecticut).
Luckily for the Unites States, the British were tired of fighting, too -- due more to Napoleon than to anything the Americans had done, but it was still war-weariness. The British, knowing they had most of the cards, dragged their feet in the negotiations (Borneman, pp. 264-267), but two sides eventually made peace essentially on the basis of the status quo -- no territory handed over by either side, not changes in law, no changes in anything.
Theoretically, that meant the grievances that started the war were still there. But the Americans were ironically successful: They had survived the first two years of the war mostly because Britain was distracted. In 1814, Britain was no longer distracted -- but with Napoleon gone, the British again wanted free trade, and with the navy shrinking, they didn't need to impress sailors, so they didn't have to do any of the things that had offended the Americans. (The Americans would later use this as a justification for dropping their demands on the issue; Hickey, p. 289.) Peace was possible mostly because no one really wanted to continue the war. - RBW
Bibliography

Borneman; Walter R. Borneman, 1812: The War That Forged a Nation, Harper Collins, 2006
Hickey: Donald R. Hickey, The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, University of Illinois Press, 1989, 1995
Mahon: John K. Mahon, The War of 1812, 1972 (I used the undated Da Capo paperback edition)
Spaeth: Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, Random House, 1948

Last updated in version 2.5
File: MKr015

Starlight

DESCRIPTION: "It was the last day of the rodeo, And in one of the stout corrals There stood a big sorrel outlaw horse.... He went by the name of Starlight, a bronc as tough as gristle...." The cowboy who draws the horse is depressed, and sure enough he is thrown
AUTHOR: Noah Henry
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Hoofs and Horns)
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HBT 81, "Starlight" (1 text)
File: Ohr081

Starry Night for a Ramble

See A Starry Night to Ramble (File: MA056)

Starry Night to Ramble, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer lists the pleasures he enjoys. Noteworthy among them is courting with his sweetheart. But "Of all the games I love the best, that fill me with delight, I love to take a ramble upon a starry night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: courting rambling
FOUND IN: US Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 56-57, "A Starry Night to Ramble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 94-95, "Starry Night for a Ramble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 177-178, "A Starry Night for a Ramble" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 52-53, "A Starry Night to Ramble" (1 tune)
Roud #972
NOTES: Gilbert reports that this was popularized by a performer named Dick Gorman, probably in the last years of the nineteenth century -- but offers no details of its authorship (if known), only a catalogue of Gorman's oddities. - RBW
File: MA056

Stars Begin to Fall

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

Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor)

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Frank Taylor, a bach'lor I am, I'm keeping old batch on an elegant plan, You'll find me out west in the county of Lane, A-starvin' to death on a government claim." After much moaning about the bad conditions, the settler gives up and goes home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: pioneer settler hardtimes bachelor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 20, 1862 - President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 186, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 120-122, "The Lane County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 144-146, "The Alberta Homesteader" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 34, "The Alberta Homesteader" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 70, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, p. 434, "Greer County" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 22, "The Lane County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 83, pp. 178-180, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 121, "Starving To Death On A Government Claim" (1 text)
DT, STARVDTH*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 33, #1 (1987), pp, 50-51, "The Bent County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune, learned by Sam Hinton from Jared Benson)
Roud #799
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender, The Happy Cowboy, "Lane County Bachelor" (Varsity 5144, c. 1940)
Edward L. Crain (Cowboy Ed Crane), "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (Conqueror 8013, 1932)
Benjamin Kincaid, "The Lane County Bachelor" (Supertone 2574, c. 1933)
Pete Seeger, "Greer County Bachelor" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a, AmHist1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES: The song clearly dates back to the latter part of the nineteenth century, the period of Homestead Claims. The Homestead Act of 1862 had opened large areas of the western U.S. to settlement, allowing settlers to lay claim to 160 acre sections in return for nominal payments. However, the settlers were required to live on their claims for five years before they could "prove up" and gain title to the property. Many settlers, like the one here, wound up living in impossible conditions because it was the only way to stake the claim. It was not at all rare for the homesteader to give up, sell the reversion on the claim, and head back east.
Fowke's Canadian version, "The Alberta Homesteader," is very much the same song, slightly adapted to the north country and the minor differences in Canada's homesteading laws (created when Canada took over the western part of the continent from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1871, although most migrants did not start out until the 1880s). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: R186

State of Arkansas, The (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1]

DESCRIPTION: A traveler arrives in Arkansas and finds that it fully meets his (lack of) expectations. He "never knowed what misery was till I come to Arkansas." His boss had promised that the state would make him a different man, and he is: He is now badly starved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: poverty humorous hardtimes starvation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws H1, "The Arkansas Traveler"
Belden, pp. 424-426, "Bill Stafford" (2 texts)
Randolph 347, "The State of Arkansas" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 288-290, "The State of Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 347A)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 560-566, "Way Out in Idaho" (2 texts, 1 tune; the main text and tune are "Way Out in Idaho (I)", but a secondary text is a version of this piece)
BrownIII 331, "Arkansas Traveller (II)" (2 texts)
Hudson 80, p. 208, "Tocowa" (1 short text with "Tocowa," not Arkansas, the site of the singer's bad experience)
Brewster 52, "The Arkansaw Traveler" (2 texts)
Dean, pp. 8-9, "The Arkansas Navvy" (1 text)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 171-172, (no title) (1 text)
Friedman, p. 434, "The Arkansaw Traveler" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 71, "The State of Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 167, "The State of Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 53, "An Arkansaw Traveller" (3 texts)
SharpAp 170, "Old Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 44, "My Name Is John Johanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H0, p. 53, "The State of Arkansaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 225-226, "Old Arkansas" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 46, "The State of Arkansas" (1 text)
DT 643, STATEARK* STATARK2*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 46-53, texts of both "The Arkansas Traveler" and "The State of Arkansas," with folktale variants, a reproduction of a painting of the fiddler and traveler, and background information
Roud #257
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "State of Arkansas" (General 5018A, 1941; on Almanac01, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Kelly Harrell, "My Name is John Johanna" (Victor 21520A, 1927; on KHarrell02, AAFM1, HardTimes1)
Pete Seeger, "State of Arkansas" (on PeteSeeger19, AmHist2)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Arkansas Traveller" (on SeegerTerry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (theme)
cf. "Joe Bowers" (tune -- some versions)
cf. "Diamond Joe (I)" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "Way Out in Idaho (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES: This should not be confused with the fiddle tune "Arkansas Traveler," or with the minstrel-show sketch from which it derives. -PJS
Paul Stamler reports that this is "Credited to Sanford Barnes of Buffalo, [Missouri]." Many other authors, however, have been listed, e.g. Belden knows of an attribution to T. W. Shelton and another to Pat Kelly. Carmer credits Ransom C. Cook. Eckstorm traces it back to "Canada I O." I incline to think all the claims false -- though I wouldn't be surprised if the author really was from Missouri.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LH01

State of Arkansaw, The

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

Stately Southerner, The

See Paul Jones the Privateer [Laws A3] (File: LA03)

States and Capitals

DESCRIPTION: A catalog of the capital cities of various states, starting perhaps in the northeast: "Maine, the capital is Augusta...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 878, "States and Capitals" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7543
NOTES: This seems to have been at one time a widespread song to help children learn geography (in which it failed, since neither of Randolph's informants could remember much).
Whether this is actually a single song is perhaps open to question; the texts in Randolph are very different, and this is perhaps a topic that several schoolmarm/songwriters might have tackled.
The information is also sorely out of date. Since the song was sung in the 1880s, of course, it lacks at least half a dozen states. Even for the states that are listed, the data is inaccurate (e.g. the capital of Maryland is Annapolis, not Baltimore, and Rhode Island and Connecticut have only one capital city each, though Randolph's "A" text lists Providence and Newport for Rhode Island, while "B" gives New Haven and Hartford as capital of Connecticut). - RBW
File: R878

Station Cook, The

DESCRIPTION: "The song I'm going to sing about will not detain you long, It is all about a station cook we had at old Pinyong." The singer says that the cook's work "gave us all the stomach ache all through the shearing time." He will blame the cook if he turns sick
AUTHOR: The Australian Star version was either written or submitted by P. J. McGovery
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (The Australian Star)
KEYWORDS: cook disability disease hardtimes warning food
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Manifold-PASB, pp. 90-91, "The Station Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 208-210, "The Shearer's Hardships" (1 text)
NOTES: Fowler's Bay is on the south coast of Australia, roughly 300 miles northwest of Adelaide. I'm guessing that "Pinyong" is Penong on the shores of the bay. - RBW
File: PASB090

Station of Knocklong, The

DESCRIPTION: "The news has spread through Ireland... Sean Hogan he was rescued At the Station of Knocklong." Hogan's guards are overpowered, and two of them killed, by rebels; Hogan is freed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion escape rescue death IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1919 - Irish terrorists Sean Treacy and Sean Hogan capture a load of explosives from the British, killing two policemen in the process. When Hogan is captured, Treacy rescues him, killing two more policemen along the way
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
PGalvin, pp. 60-61, "The Station of Knocklong" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""Sean Treacy" (for the story of Treacy)
cf. "Tipperary Far Away" (for the death of Sean Treacy)
NOTES: For the Soloheadbeg incident, in which a group of Irish irregulars attacked a British explosives truck, see the notes to "Sean Treacy." Among those involved in the raid were Sean Hogan, Treacy, and Dan Breen.
According to Calton Younger, Ireland's Civil War, p. 92, Hogan was captured while visiting friends, though his identity was not realized until later.
It is uncertain whether there was resistance from the British forces at Soloheadbeg, though it seems unlikely. In the case of Knocklong, it seems pretty clear that there wasn't. Robert Kee, in Ourselves Alone, being volume III of The Green Flag, p. 72, cites Breen to the effect that the Irish decided to shoot first to prevent British guards from killing the prisoner.
The casualties at first seemed close to even: Treacy was shot in the throat, Breen through the lung. Both managed to survive.
Ironically, though much would be heard of Treacy and Breen in the coming years, Hogan faded into obscurity. He was part of an attempt to assassinate Viceroy French, but the attempt failed and a casual check of four histories showed no other references to his life after Knocklong. - RBW
File: PGa060

Stavin Chain

DESCRIPTION: "Stavin Chain he's dead and gone, Left me to carry the good work on, Evrybody ought to be like Stavin Chain." The singer complains about river life, misses his woman, and says that everyone should be like Stavin Chain. (His sexual exploits are described.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: river work separation sex animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MWheeler, pp. 16-17, "Stavin Chain" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MWhee016 (Full)
Roud #9994
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "Stavin' Chain" (on Unexp1)
Zuzu Bollin, "Stavin' Chain" (Torch 6912, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Howard" (lyrics)
File: MWhee016

Stay a Little Longer

See cf. Shinbone Alley (Stay a Little Longer, Long Time Ago) (File: Br3422)

Stay on the Farm

DESCRIPTION: "Come, boy, I have something to tell you... You're thinking of leaving the farm, boy; Don't be in a hurry to go." He warns against the city's vices, and points out that the farm is safe and, over time, will offer as much gold as the mines of Nevada
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: family farming money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 865, "Stay on the Farm" (1 text)
Roud #7535
File: R865

Stay, Father, Stay

DESCRIPTION: A child, whose mother is already dead, is dying. (S)he appeals to father to remain by the bedside and not to leave until (s)he is dead: "Stay, father, stay, the night is wild, Oh leave not your dying child, I feel the icy hand of death...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death disease drink orphan father
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 329, "Stay, Father, Stay" (1 text)
Roud #7802
File: R329

Steal Apples for Me

DESCRIPTION: "Steal apples, steal apples, Steal apples for me, And while you steal apples, Steal peaches for me." "Let all of the ladies Go enter the ring...." "And when you're done swinging, Remember my call, Take the next lady And promenade all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: dancing playparty theft food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 584, "Steal Apples for Me" (1 text)
Roud #7672
NOTES: From its metre, this might be one of several dance pieces. But given its brevity and lack of tune, it's hard to tell where to put it. - RBW
File: R584

Steal Away

DESCRIPTION: Recognized by the chorus, "Steal away, steal away to Jesus... I ain't got long to stay here." Verses may have to do with the end of the world; the singer reports that "The trumpet sounds within my soul"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (recording, Standard Quartette)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Courlander-NFM, p. 42, "Steal Away" (partial text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 366, "Steal Away" (1 text)
DT, STEALAWY*
Roud #11965
RECORDINGS:
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "Steal Away to Jesus" (OKeh 8878, 1931)
Dinwiddie Colored Quartet, "Steal Away" (Victor 1716, 1902) (Monarch 1716, 1902)
Emory University Glee Club, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Victor 20594, 1927)
Fisk University Male Quartette, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Columbia A2803, 1919)
Fisk University Jubilee Singers, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Columbia 562-D, 1926)
Red Foley, "Steal Away" (Decca 14505, 1949)
Roland Hayes, "Steal Away" (Vocalion [US & UK] 21003, n.d.; Supertone, 1931)
Rev. H. B. Jackson, "Steal Away" (OKeh 8919, 1931; rec. 1929)
Turner Junior Johnson, "Steal Away" (AFS 6609 A4, 1942; on LC10)
Paramount Jubilee Singers, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Paramount 12072, 1923)
Paul Robeson, "Steal Away" (HMV [UK] B-8103, 1934)
Noble Sissle's Southland Singers, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Pathe 20483, 1921)
Soul Stirrers, "Steal Away" (Aladdin 2001, rec. 1946)
Horace Sprott, "Steal Away to Jesus" (on MuSouth03)
Standard Quartette, "Steal Away to Jesus" (CYL: Columbia, no #, rec. 1894)
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "Steal Away" (Victor 17890, 1916)
Tuskegee Quartet, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Victor 20519, 1927; rec. 1926)
Vaughan Quartet, "Steal Away" (Vaughan 300, n.d.)
Kinsey West, "Steal Away to Jesus" (on BlackAmRel1)
File: CNFM042

Steal, Miss Liza

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a man and you've got none, Little Liza Jane... O Eliza, Little Liza Jane." "You swing mine and I'll swing yours...." "I've got a house in Baltimo', Forty-'leven children on the floor...." "I steal yours and you steal mine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FSNA 263, "Steal, Miss Liza" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LoF263

Stealin', Stealin'

DESCRIPTION: "Stealin', stealin', pretty mama don't you tell on me, I'm stealin' back to my same old used to be." "Now put your arms around me like a circle 'round the sun...." The singer loves a married woman; it's gotten him in trouble. He says this proves his love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Memphis Jug Band)
KEYWORDS: love adultery
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 79, "Stealin', Stealin'" (1 text)
DT, STEALN
RECORDINGS:
Memphis Jug Band, "Stealin' Stealin'" (1928)
NOTES: Hendrick van Kampen points me to sources attributing this to Gus Cannon and Will Shade. Under the circumstances, I have little choice but to list the author as unknown. - RBW
File: FSWB079A

Steam Doctor, The

DESCRIPTION: "Steam Doctor, steam till you're ready to faint; Without ever stoppping to ask your complaint. He gives No. 6 and lobelia so fast That within a few hours you're breathing your last These hard times!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: disease doctor death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden, pp. 442-443, "The Steam Doctor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7832
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (form, lyrics)
NOTES: Belden assumes that this is a satire of the methods of Dr. Samuel Thomson (1769-1843), who according to the Dictionary of American Biography was "originator of the 'Thomsonian system' of treatment by vegetable remedies and the vapor bath."
The song seems to have been built from "The Rigs of the Times," but since Belden's single stanza seems to be all that survives, it's difficult for us to say more. - RBW
File: Beld442

Steam from the Whistle

DESCRIPTION: "Steam from the whistle, Smoke from the stack, Going to the graveyard To bring my baby back, Oh, my li'l baby, Why don't you come back?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading burial separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 242, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScNF242A

Steam Ship

DESCRIPTION: "If a steam ship weighed ten thousand tones And sailed five thousand miles... If the mate was each six feet talls And the captain just the same; Would you multiply or subtract To find the captain's name?" The singer admits "I can't do that sum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: riddle ship technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 151, "Steam Ship" (1 text)
Roud #15886
NOTES: This looks to me like a parody of the "story problems" children are sometimes assigned. The information in the riddle is not sufficient for solution. - RBW
File: Br3151

Steam Tug Olson, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come listen to me one and all, A story I will tell, Of the wreck of a gallant tug one night." The Olson, of Buffalo, steamed out of the harbor seeking something to tow. The boat begins to sink, and the engines fail. Only two men are rescued
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (collected from "Francie" Roddy by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 217-219, "The Steam Tug Olson" (1 text)
NOTES: Walton/Grimm/Murdock observes that, in the early age of steam, tugs had steam power but long-haul vessels generally did not, so tugs did a brisk business hauling sailing ships into harbor. As more of the larger vessels were powered, the tugs found less work -- and sometimes went far from their home ports to seek it. Since tugs are rarely very seaworthy, disasters like this one resulted. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: WGM217

Steamboat Bill

DESCRIPTION: The Whippoorwill, steered by Steamboat Bill, is ordered "to try to beat the record of the Robert E. Lee." Provoked by a gambler, Bill drives the boat so hard that the boiler explodes. Bill's wife says that her next husband will be a railroad man.
AUTHOR: Words: Ren Shields / Music: F. A. Mills
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
LONG DESCRIPTION: The Whippoorwill, steered by Steamboat Bill, is ordered "to try to beat the record of the Robert E. Lee." Provoked by a gambler, Bill drives the boat so hard that the boiler explodes, with Bill betting he will fly higher than the gambler. People all along the river mourn. Bill's wife says that her next husband will be a railroad man.
KEYWORDS: ship technology disaster death gambling
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 100-101, "Steamboat Bill" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 16, "Steamboat Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 206, "Steamboat Bill" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 535-536, "Steamboat Bill"
Roud #11218
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "Steamboat Bill" (Brunswick 178, 1927/Supertone S-2044, 1930)
Smilie Burnett, "Steamboat Bill" (Decca 5685, 1939; rec. 1938)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Steamboat Bill" (OKeh 40306, 1925; rec. 1924)
Arthur Collins, "Steamboat Bill" (Columbia A-1005, 1911) (Victor 16867, 1911)
Dixon's Clod Hoppers, "Steamboat Bill" (Vocalion 15862, 1931; rec. 1930)
Jack Kaufman, "Steamboat Bill" (Columbia A2809, 1919; Diva 2480-G [as Jack Wilson], 1927)
Beatrice Kay, "Steamboat Bill" (Columbia 36941, 1946; rec. 1945)
Kessinger Brothers, "Steamboat Bill" (Brunswick 563, rec. 1930)
Edward Meeker, "Steamboat Bill" (Edison 50886, 1921)
Riley Puckett, "Steamboat Bill" (Columbia 113-D [as George Riley Puckett], 1924)
Bob Roberts, "Steamboat Bill" (Phono-Cut 5112, c. 1914)
Ernest Rogers, "Steamboat Bill" (Victor 20798, 1927)
Paul Tremaine & his Orch. "Steamboat Bill" (Columbia 2229-D, 1930)
Varsity Eight, "Steamboat Bill" (Cameo 1266/Romeo 500, 1927)
Fred Wilson [probably a pseud. for Jack Kaufman, but I don't know for sure], "Steamboat Bill" (Harmony 5118-H, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (tune)
File: FCW016

Steamer Alexander, The

DESCRIPTION: Tuesday, July 30, Alexander leaves Newcastle. Galley, a passenger, falls overboard and drowns. The song wonders who he was, and what his girl will feel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: drowning river ship death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson 1, "The Steamer Alexander" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi001 (Partial)
Roud #9206
NOTES: Manny/Wilson: "The song was made up by 'a man from Neguac.' It tells of a moonlight excursion on the passenger steamer Alexandra, and how Theodore Galley fell overboard and was drowned. These excursions were popular entertainment on the Miramichi River in the 1890's and early 1900's... The composers of these laments like to fix in them the day and date and the time of day of the incident they describe."
Taking that statement for what it's worth, Tuesday, July 30, occurred in 1891, 1896, 1902, 1913 and 1919. - BS
File: MaWi001

Steamer Idaho, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the sixth day of November, On a dark and stormy night... The papers gave a warning Of a fierce and awful storm," but "The captain gave his order." The greedy owners ignore the warnings. Nineteen men die when the Idaho sinks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (Walton collection)
KEYWORDS: ship storm disaster death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 228-229, "The Steamer Idaho" (1 text)
NOTES: Blaming greedy owners is a commonplace in disaster songs, but it seems to have been unusually suitable in this case. According to Mark L. Thompson,Graveyards of the Lakes (Wayne State University Press, 2000), p. 336, the steamer Idaho was built in 1863, and based on the drawing on p. 337, she looked rather like the Lady Elgin.
By 1897, she was clearly obsolete, and indeed had been withdrawn from service in the early 1890s. In 1897, though, freight prices were very high, so her owners hastily put her back in service. Hardly the ship to face the gales of November! And, indeed, it was only about a month later when she faced the storm which sank her. Thompson agrees with the song in saying that 19 sailors died. According to Bruce D. Berman, Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks (Mariner's Press, 1972), p. 247, the sinking took place seven miles from Old Cut Light near Long Point, Ontario.
Walton/Grimm/Murdock say that two men who clung to the mast were saved. All others aboard were lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: WGM229

Steamer Wyoming, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye joky seamen, Now, as it's getting late, And I'll sing you my experiance On a bad package freight." Sailing on the Wyoming "almost proved my ruin": The captain is mean, the mates ruinous, and the rest of the crew unfit for their tasks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (collected from John E. Hayes by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, p. 112, "The Steamer Wyoming" (1 short text)
File: WGM112A

Steamship Deane, The

DESCRIPTION: Deane leaves Harbour Grace for Hawke's Harbour with 50 whalers. "Making full speed she lands upon a rock." All are saved by the Penguin light keeper.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 23, 1935 - Deane wrecked on North Penguin Shoals. (Lehr/Best)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 29, "The Steamship Deane" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Northern Shipwrecks Database lists the cause as "Stranded. Navigation error." - BS
File: LeBe029

Steamship Leinster Lass, The

See The SS Leinster Lass (File: HHH808)

Steel Laying Holler

DESCRIPTION: Foreman's instructions for laying a railroad iron, with variations to fit the particular situation. E.g. "Awright, awright, Ev'rybody get ready. Come on down here. Come on, boys. Bow down. Awright, up high, Awright, throw 'way...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work railroading nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 10-12, "Steel Laying Holler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15100
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roustabout Holler"
cf. "Levee Camp Holler"
File: LxA010

Steel-Driving Man, The

See John Henry [Laws I1] (File: LI01)

Stella Kenney [Laws F37]

DESCRIPTION: Stella Kenney is murdered on her way home after spending ten months with her uncle Rob Frazier. Frazier, married and with three children, is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: murder incest prison trial family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1917 (?) - Murder of Stella Kenney. She was pregnant; presumably her uncle was the father
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Laws F37, "Stella Kenney"
Thomas-Makin', pp. 151-153, (no title; Thomas's informant called the girl "Stell" or "Stellie," not "Stella") (1 text)
ST LF37 (Partial)
Roud #2273
File: LF37

Step It Away

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, step it away, you pretty boys! Step it away your time! God bless your body, When your legs keep time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (recording, Jasper Smith and Levi Smith)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Jasper Smith and Levi Smith, "Step It Away" (on Voice11)
NOTES: The current description is all of the Voice11 fragment. The notes for Voice11 describe it as "a comic jingle" to a dance tune. - BS
File: RcStepIA

Step It Up and Go

DESCRIPTION: Verses about situations that force (someone) to "step it up and go." The singer's woman no longer loves him. The singer flees the gun of a man whose woman he has been courting. In a river, he meets an alligator. And so forth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1935 (recording, Blind Boy Fuller)
KEYWORDS: love animal travel floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 79, "Step It Up and Go" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Boy Fuller, "Step It Up and Go" (Columbia 37230, 1947 -- presumably a reissue)
Maddox Bros. & Rose "New Step It Up and Go" (4-Star 1549, n.d. but at least 1947)
Tommy McClennan, "Shake It Up and Go" (Bluebird 34-0716, 1944)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salty Dog" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bottle Up and Go"
SAME TUNE:
Brownie McGhee, "Step It Up and Go No. 2" (OKeh 06698, 1942)
NOTES: This song and "Bottle Up and Go" look very alike at first glance, but the verses seem to be very different. They might both be "Salty Dog" spinoffs. Until I see an intermediate version, I am (tentatively) classifying them separately. - RBW
File: FSWB079B

Step Stone

See Goodbye to My Stepstone (File: R853)

Stepmother, The

See I Cannot Call Her Mother (The Marriage Rite is Over; The Stepmother) (File: R726)

Sterling Price

DESCRIPTION: "Sterling Price he was a brave man, He will clean out Dixie Land." "Sterling Price he marched to Lexington And there he took old Mulligan." "Sterling Price he wheeled his men about And cut the Dutch into sauerkraut" "Rinktum-polle-rodel-day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 10, 1861 - Battle of Wilson's Creek
Sep 20, 1861 - Capture of James A. Mulligan (1830-1864), then a colonel, and his force at Lexington
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden, p. 355, "Sterling Price" (1 fragmentary text)
Roud #7769
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old General Price" (subject)
cf. "The Jolly Union Boys" and references there (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
NOTES: Sterling Price (1809-1867), a former governor of Missouri and Confederate commander of Missouri troops, was not initially anti-Union, but the behavior of Union partisans caused him to turn Confederate.
Price started raising militia forces, and these formed the larger part, but not all, of the Confederate army at the Battle of Wilson's Creek. After the Confederates won that battle, Price was able to advance and capture the garrison of Lexington (some 3000 men under Mulligan, who could have been saved had any of the other local Union officers obeyed orders), but it didn't change the strategic situation much; Price retreated into Arkansas soon after.
Even allowing for its fragmentary state, this item is rather confused. As noted, Wilson's Creek came before Lexington. At that battle, the Union commander, Nathaniel Lyon, had tried a divergent attack, splitting off Franz Sigel's brigade (which was regarded as "Dutch," i.e. German) for an attack on the Confederate rear while the main body attacked from the other direction.
This strategy failed. Sigel was quickly routed, whereupon the remaining federal forces, outnumbered by something like 5:2, were forced into a slugging match. They were better soldiers than the utterly raw confederates, and so were able to keep the field until their ammunition ran out, but then retired.
The confusion, though, arises from the fact that it was the troops of Ben McCulloch (the other Confederate commander at Wilson's Creek) which routed Sigel. But I know of no other battle in which Price defeated a primarily German force, unless perhaps it was the affair at Carthage (July 5, 1861), where Price induced Franz Sigel to retreat without a real fight.
I have the strange feeling that "Old General Price" and "Sterling Price" are a single piece, one being adapted from the other -- but since we don't have a single complete stanza of either, and only one tune, this is beyond proof. - RBW
File: Beld355A

Stern Old Bachelor

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his life in the "little sod shanty dear to me." He is proud that "I'm a stern old bachelor, from matrimony free." He rejoices that he can live in squalor, snore all he wants, stay out late and never have to explain where he has been
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Chubby Parker)
KEYWORDS: bachelor home
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 481, "A Stern Old Bachelor" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 354-355, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STRNBACH*
Roud #4306
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Stern Old Bachelor" (Decca 5565, 1938)
Harry Conway [pseud. for Jerry White] "I'm a Stern Old Bachelor" (Radiex 4262, 1928; Van Dyke 74262 [possibly as Ben Litchfield], 1929)
Chubby Parker, "I'm a Stern Old Bachelor" (Champion 15247 [as Smilin' Tubby Johnson]/Silvertone 5012, 1927; Supertone 9188, 1928) (Conqueror 7888, 1931)
File: R481

Stewball

See Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)

Stick My Head in a Paper Sack

DESCRIPTION: "Stick my head in a paper sack, Show dem niggers how to Cairo back. Shake dat flat foot. Shake dat flat foot."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 463, "Stick My Head in a Paper Sack" (1 fragment)
Roud #11787
File: Br463

Stick to Your Mother, Tom

See Don't Leave Your Mother When Her Hair Turns Gray (File: R717)

Sticking Out a Mile from Blarney

DESCRIPTION: Rhyming verses with a chorus: "God be with those merry merry days that we spent outside in Blarney." For example, "Blarney Castle stands up straight and the rocks and the rooms are underneath, If you ask for fish they'll give you meat, sticking out ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn, pp. 110-111, "Sticking Out a Mile from Blarney" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OCanainn: "This is one of those songs with many verses; in convivial company the song often calls forth instant composition of new verses.... [The singer] remembers an old woman singing it on the Dublin train and she had a lot of verses about the war, Sean McEntee and De Valera. God knows what words they'll have for it in a few more years." - BS
File: OCan110

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones

DESCRIPTION: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, Say what you please when I'm dead and gone, But I'm gonna drink corn liquor till I die." Singer may admit that he is not respected, or "know you'll talk about me when I'm gone," but will enjoy himself now/hereafter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad death floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 39, "Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones" (1 text)
Roud #7860
NOTES: Presumably related to the common rhyme "Sticks and stones will break my bones, But names will never hurt me" (for which see, e.g. Montgomerie-ScottishNR 152, "(Sticks and Stones)" or Iona & Peter Opie, I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth, #25, "(Sticks and Stones)." This, however, takes a slightly different twist on the ending. - RBW
File: Br3039

Still Growing

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Still I Love Him

See Do You Love an Apple? (File: K203)

Still the Night

See Silent Night (Still the Night, Stille Nacht) (File: FSWB384B)

Stille Nacht

See Silent Night (Still the Night, Stille Nacht) (File: FSWB384B)

Stingo

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

Stinkin' Cow, The

DESCRIPTION: One fine morning, Old McGee sends daughter Molly out with Johnny. They see a bull mating with a cow. Molly asks how the bull knows the cow is willing. Johnny answers, "tis by the smell." She says she stinks like the cow; they emulate the bovines
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected by Logsdon from Lew Pyle
KEYWORDS: sex animal bawdy children
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon 47, pp. 230-231, "The Stinkin' Cow" (1 text)
Roud #10103
File: Logss047

Stir the Wallaby Stew

DESCRIPTION: Dad's in jail, Mother unfaithful, the sheep are dead, the farm's for sale. Dad gets out, sees this, and goes back to jail. Chorus: "So stir the wallaby stew, Make soup of the kangaroo tail, I tell you things is pretty tough Since Dad got put in jail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: work unemployment poverty hardtimes prison family mother father infidelity humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hodgart, p. 234, "Stir the Wallaby Stew" (1 text)
Roud #8242
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Wallaby Stew" (on JGreenway01)
NOTES: John Greenway writes of this piece, "Australia's Tobacco Roaders (without the sexual propensities of Jeeter Lester's relatives) are the delightful family of Dad and Dave and the other residents of Shingle Hut -- Mother, Mabel, Sal, Dan, Joe, and Cranky Jack.
Originally the creation of the first great Australian humorist, Steele Rudd (Arthur Hoey Davis) in his books On Our Selection and Our New Selection, Dad and Dave were the archetype of the hard-working but hard-luck free selectors... but the characters were taken away from him and became progressively more lazy and stupid....
"Wallaby Stew" is a shameful example of the degeneration of the Rudd family (as the tune is a degeneration of the "Bungaree" melody), but it represents an important area of Australian folklore." - RBW
File: Hodg234

Stockman's Last Bed, The

DESCRIPTION: A song lamenting the death of poor Jack, the stockman, (gored to death by a cow). "And we laid him where wattles their sweet fragrance shed, And the tall gum tree shadows the stockman's last bed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: death Australia lament
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 46, 92, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fahey-Eureka, p. 168, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 84-86, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 233-235, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (1 text)
Roud #9113
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (on JGreenway01)
NOTES: Anderson reports that this is derived from "The Boatswain's Last Whistle" by Charles Dibdin (1865?), but Manifold questions this, observing that the tune does not fit well. - RBW
File: MA046

Stolen Bride, The

DESCRIPTION: "Down by the river, the willows grow tall, Whippoorwill calling, hear their sad call." The girl is in love with a man from a family who is feuding with her own. Her father captures her lover. She begs for his life; refused, she accepts death beside him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: love death hate hardheartedness family execution revenge feud murder
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 20-21, "The Stolen Bride" (1 text)
ST ThBa020 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Valley" (tune)
cf. "Lady Maisry" [Child 65] (plot)
NOTES: Not the best poetry, but a very strong theme; I'm surprised this piece hasn't been collected somewhere outside of Thomas. - RBW
File: ThBa020

Stolen Child, The (The Lindbergh Kidnapping)

DESCRIPTION: Catchall of Lindberg songs. Typical example: The singer will "tell you about the stolen baby." Lindbergh's infant is stolen from his home; the kidnapper demands money; after a great hue and cry, the baby is found, but is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: murder mother father children abduction
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 1, 1932 - Kidnapping of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. (19 months old at the time). The kidnapper demands and receives $150,000, but the child is not returned
May 12, 1932 - The boy's body is found
Apr 3, 1936 - Execution of Bruno Hauptman, linked to the crime primarily by possession of some of the ransom money
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-Makin', p. 147, (no title); pp. 148-150, "The Stolen Baby" (2 texts; the two are different metrically, but share enough phrases that I think it proper to lump them, since neither seems to have had real traditional vogue)
Burt, p. 72, (no title) (1 text); p. 73, (no title) (1 text in elementary German, tune referenced)
Roud #14051
NOTES: The Lindburgh kidnapping, according to Burt, inspired "several" songs, apart from Thomas's sundry items. Since none of them show any real evidence of traditional vogue (as opposed to, say, the equally-numerous Titanic songs), I'm lumping them here.
William Butler Yeats wrote a song, "The Stolen Child." It is not related to any of the items filed here. - RBW
File: ThBa147

Stomach Robber, The

DESCRIPTION: "You may talk about your pleasure trips... But... the Lucy Smith, She surely takes the cake." The cook looks good, but serves poor food from a disgusting galley. "They eat of the swill till their faces turn blue But their stomachs are robbed forthwith."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1953 (collected by Walton from Robert Collen)
KEYWORDS: cook food hardtimes sailor
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 87-89, "The Stomach Robber" (1 text)
File: WGM087

Stone and Lime

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a stranger, falls in love with Molly. They court "at the foot of yon mountain [where] there runs a clear stream." They marry in spite of her angry parents though he insists "it's not for her money it's her I adore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage money floatingverses father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #147, p. 2, ("Thou hast been my ruin"); Greig #149, p. 2, "Thou Hast Been My Ruin" (3 texts)
GreigDuncan6 1216, "Stone and Lime" (11 texts, 8 tunes)
Roud #1081
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gra Geal Mo Chroi" (II -- "Down By the Fair River") (lyrics)
cf. "Stone and Lime" ("change the green and yellow for the orange and blue")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
She Has My Heart Enclosed
Pretty Polly
NOTES: The song is a patchwork of fragments and it's not clear, in spite of my description, that it ends happily. The fragments recall "Gra Geal Mo Chroi (II -- Down By the Fair River), sharing lines "Like a sheet of white paper is her neck and breast" and "At the foot of yon mountain there runs a clear stream," and coming close with "She's a pattern for Venus" instead of "She's a pattern of virtue." The one verse, sometimes chorus, that separates the songs, is "For she's aye been my ruin, my sad, sad downfall: She has got my heart enclosed, like a stone and lime wall."
A final verse recalls "Green Grows the Laurels": "It's at our next meeting Our love we'll renew And we'll change the green and yellow To the orange and blue."
Regarding "we'll change the green and yellow To the orange and blue" line, see my rant at "Green Grows the Laurel" about Willaim Studwell's statement in The American Song Reader. I posted a query to the BALLAD-L list [@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU]: is "she's changed the green and yellow for the orange and blue ... from an Orange political song?" The most conclusive response was from Dr John Moulden, who wrote "I have inspected almost all the songs in Orange song books in the libraries in Belfast and Dublin, and some in Britain (including the Library of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland) and I have no knowledge of any Orange song from which this might derive." [quoted with permission] - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61216

Stone Scow, The

See The Bigler's Crew [Laws D8] (File: LD08)

Stone That Is Rolling, The

See The Rolling Stone [Laws B25] (File: LB25)

Stonecutter Boy

DESCRIPTION: A stonecutter boy sees a young woman. If she'll rest a moment, he'll "tell you of the dream I had last night." They sit under an oak; she soon gives "a little scream." Smoothing her clothes, she invites him to tell the dream again when next they meet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1960 (recording, A. L. Lloyd)
KEYWORDS: sex dream worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, STONEBOY
Roud #971
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "The Stonecutter Boy" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2, Briggs3)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Stone-Cutter Boy" (on Lloyd1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Next Market Day" (plot) and references there
NOTES: According to Lloyd, the song had not appeared in print at the time of its recording. Again, I can't bring myself to assign the keyword "bawdy." - PJS
File: DTstoneb

Stonewall Jackson's Way

DESCRIPTION: The prayers and fighting methods of "Stonewall" Jackson and his troops (the "Stonewall" Brigade) are described. Each exploit is described as "Stonewall Jackson's Way." The poem concludes, "The foe had better ne'er been born That gets in Jackson's way."
AUTHOR: John Williamson Palmer
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Wharton)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1824-1863 - Life of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson
July 21, 1861 - First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas. In a confusing fight, with his brigade falling to pieces, General Bernard Bee sees Jackson's brigade holding steady. He describes the brigade as a "Stone wall," coining the nickname by which Jackson has been identified ever since (though Jackson always maintained that the name was the brigage's, not his)
May/June, 1862 - Jackson's "Valley Campaign." Jackson, with strength never exceeding two divisions, battles the equivalent of three (weak and scattered) Union corps to a standstill by rapid movement and concentration. One of three federal commanders in the area (the Union army had no overall commander) was the inept Nathaniel P. Banks, whose troops suffered severely at Jackson's hands (and would suffer again at Cedar Mountain in August)
Aug 29-30, 1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run/Manasses. Lee and Jackson defeat Pope
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hill-CivWar, pp. 83-84, "Stonewall Jackson's Way" (1 text)
DT, STNWALLJ*
NOTES: I have always heard this as a poem, but the Digital Tradition has a tune, and Wharton's War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy also prints a melody; I suppose it might be traditional. I don't know of any field collections, though.
That this piece was composed by an educated man cannot be doubted (note the use of Latin in one stanza); there is no reason to question Palmer's authorship. Wharton, however (War Songs, p. 47) reports a rumor that "[t]hese verses were found written on a small piece of paper, all stained with blood, in the bosom of a dead soldier of the old Stonewall Brigade, after one of Jackson's battles in the Shenandoah Valley."
The origin of the nickname "Stonewall" is explained in the historical references. The poem also calls Jackson "Old Blue Eyes" -- allegedly given because of the way his eyes glowed in battle.
The description of the Second Battle of Bull Run in the penultimate stanza is completely backward. Lee had separated his army into wings under Longstreet and Jackson. Union General John Pope caught up with Jackson, and tried very hard on August 29 to dislodge him. He almost succeeded. But then Longstreet came up on Pope's flank and completely demolished the Union army.
The "Ashby" referred to in the same stanza is Turner Ashby, who had commanded Jackson's cavalry in the Valley campaign and was killed June 6, 1862.
The descriptions of Jackson's prayer are more reasonable; Jackson was a presbyterian lay preacher (though his students at the VMI described him as very dull), and he attributed all his success to God. Frankly, he was a very obnoxious person -- but, obviously, a great tactician. - RBW
File: HCW083

Storm Along John

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Stormalong

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic lines: "To me way, old Stormalong!... Aye, aye, aye, Captain Stormalong." About the death of Stormalong, who was elaborately buried off Cape Horn. The singer wishes he were Stormy's son so he could treat the sailors better
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor death burial
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Doerflinger, pp. 82-83, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone, pp. 126-127, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 88-89, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 78-84, "Storm Along John," "Stormy," "Old Stormy" (6 texts, 6 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 66-69]
Hugill, pp. 71-77, "Mister Stormalong," "Stormy Along, John," "Way Stormalong John," Stormalong, Lads, Stormy," Way Stormalong John" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp-EFC, XX, XXXIV, & LVII, p. 23, 39 & 62, "Stormalong John," "Old Stormey," "Wo, Stormalong" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 63-65, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, p. 834, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STRMALNG*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Old Stormy!" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #398, ("Stormey's dead, that good old man") (1 text)
Roud #216
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Mister Stormalong" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The 'Cholly' Blues" (floating verses)
cf. "Deep Blue Sea (II)" (floating verses)
cf. "Carry Him To the Burying Ground (General Taylor, Walk Him Along Johnny)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Captain Stormalong
Come-along, Git-along, Stormalong John
Oh, Stormalong
Old Stormalong
Mister Stormalong John
NOTES: Shay reports, "Old Stormalong is the only heroic chracter in the folklor of the sea: he was born, like the great clipper ships, in the imaginations of men."
Shay adds a tall tale of Stormy aboard the clipper Courser, so large that it just barely fit through the English Channel. Stormalong had the ship greased with soap so it could slide through more easily. This is why the sea near Dover is foamy: The cliffs scraped off all the soap. - RBW
File: Doe082

Stormalong, Lads, Stormy

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Stormy

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Stormy Along, John

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Stormy Ol' Weather

See Windy Old Weather (File: CoSB204)

Stormy Scenes of Winter, The

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

Stormy Weather Boys

DESCRIPTION: Adventures of a barge crew on the Thames. The captain arrives half-drunk; the crew gets sozzled, the barge runs aground. They meet a mermaid and a ghost (who takes the wheel); eventually they arrive at Yarmouth and wind up in "The Druid's Arms"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton-Maritime)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Adventures of a barge crew on the Thames. The captain comes aboard half-drunk; the crew gets sozzled and the barge runs aground. They encounter a mermaid ("Up jumped a mermaid covered with muck/We took her down the fo'c'sle and had a good time") and a ghost (who takes the wheel); eventually they arrive at Yarmouth and wind up in "The Druid's Arms." Chorus: "Stormy weather boys, stormy weather boys/When the wind blows our barge will go"
KEYWORDS: sex river work drink storm fo'c'sle humorous sailor worker ghost mermaid/man parody
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 144-145, "Stormy Weather Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STRMYWTH
Roud #1851
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Stormy Weather Boys" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Windy Old Weather" (meter)
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
NOTES: Not having heard this sung, I can't prove it's a parody of "Windy Old Weather" -- but the meter and lyrics both say it is. - RBW
I don't think so, despite the lyrical similarities. "Windy Old Weather" is sung in waltz time, while this is 4/4. - PJS
File: DTstrmyw

Stormy Winds of Winter, The

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

Story of Creation

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Story of George Mann, The

See George Mann (File: E122)

Story of Gustave Ohr

See Gustave Ohr (File: E121)

Story the Crow Told Me, The

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense verses, supposedly told by a crow. "I bought me a suit of union underwear... I couldn't get it off 'cause I lost the combination", "My gal took sick the other day... I bought her a corset... She's in better shape now than she was before"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Carolina Buddies)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonsense animal bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 163, "The Story the Crow Told Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Buddies, "The Story That the Crow Told Me" (Columbia 15641-D, 1931; rec. 1930; on CrowTold01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Story that the Crow Told Me" (on NLCR04, NLCR11)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Going Away in the Morn" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This is almost certainly from minstrel sources. - PJS
File: CSW163

Story, A Story, A

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

Stow'n' Sugar in de Hull Below

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was in Mobile Bay, Rollin' cotton by the day, Stow'n' sugar in de hull below, Below, belo-ow, Stow'n' sugar in de hull below." A steamboat chant, mentioning the Natchez and depicting the engineer and captain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: river nonballad work floatingverses ship
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 592, [no title] (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Belle-a-Lee" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hieland Laddie" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This uses lyrics from "Hieland Laddie," which is far better known, but the form appears different enough that I separate them. - RBW
File: BMRF592B

Stowaway, The

DESCRIPTION: "From Liverpool 'cross the Atlantic Our white sail floated over the deep." A poor stepfather stows his boy aboard to seek better times in Halifax. First mate will kill the stowaway unless he says who among of the crew put him aboard. The mate relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: poverty reprieve ship youth hardtimes ship sailor murder
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 51, "From Liverpool 'cross the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 890-892, "The Stowaway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 46, "Stowaway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6341
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2162), "The Little Hero!," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(2161), "The Little Hero"; Harding B 11(3676), Firth b.27(97), Harding B 11(3675), "[The] Stowaway" or "[The] Little Hero"
File: GrMa051

Strabane Canal, The

See The Calabar (File: HHH502)

Strabane Fleet, The

See The Calabar (File: HHH502)

Strabane Hiring Fair, The

See The Hiring Fair (File: RcHiriFa)

Straight-Out Democrat

DESCRIPTION: "We never took stock in H. Greeley, Though Baltimore took him in tow... The ticket that's honest we'll honor... We would like to have Charlie O'Conor, For O'Conor and Adams we'll go." The song encourages others to vote for the "true" democrats
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872
KEYWORDS: political nonballad derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1872 - Grant/Greeley election
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spaeth-ReadWeep, p. 43, "Straight-Out Democrat" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
NOTES: Ulysses S. Grant was first elected President in 1868, and by the time of the 1872 election it was clear that he could not control corruption in his administration. The Democrats nominated Horace Greeley, but a splinter of the party broke off and nominated Charles O'Conor and the younger John Quincy Adams.
The weakness of the O'Conor bid is shown by the fact that all the minor parties combined picked up only 35,097 votes (less than 1% of the total), and that O'Conor didn't gain a single electoral vote -- even though Greeley died before the electoral tally was taken, and the 68 electoral votes he would have earned were split five ways.
Grant, of course, won the election. - RBW
File: SRW043

Straightened Banks of Erne, The

DESCRIPTION: The romantic "winding banks of Erne" are no more. "'Progress hates meandering' is a maxim all must learn, So the engineers have straightened out the winding banks of Erne" for the new powerhouse at the falls of Assaroe.
AUTHOR: Colm O Lochlainn (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: river technology nonballad parody
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 16A, "The Straightened Banks of Erne" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shannon Scheme" (theme: Ireland's hydro-electrification)
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: "Written by the compiler to celebrate the opening of the Erne hydro-electric scheme and dedicated to the late Dr Laurence Kettle and Professor Tatlow, the engineers responsible for the scheme." By O Lochlainn's description, it is a parody
Notes to IRClare01: "The Shannon Scheme for the Electrification of the Irish Free State, by harnessing the fall in the River Shannon between Killaloe and Limerick, was commenced in 1925 and completed in 1929 and, within six years, was supplying 85% of Ireland's electricity requirements...." - BS
According to John A. Murphy, Ireland in the Twentieth Century(Gill and MacMillan, 1975, 1989), p. 65, "[T]he most far-sighted step in the development of natural resources by the state was the Shannon Scheme -- the beginning of the national supply of electricity -- and the establishment of the Electricity Supply Board in 1927, destined to be perhaps the most successful of those semi-state bodies which in future years became characteristic and indispensible features of the Irish economy."
For a later song about Ireland's electrification, see "The ESB in Coolea." - RBW
File: OLcM016A

Straloch

DESCRIPTION: "All you that are at liberty, I pray you all draw near, And listen to my story, it's what you soon shall hear. It was at the last Martinmas, I went unto the fair, I did engage wi' Straloch, to work the second pair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 382, "Straloch" (1 fragment)
Roud #5919
NOTES: The first two lines of this four-line fragment are shared with one version of "Erin's Lovely Home"; see Bodleian, 2806 c.8(297), "Erin's Lovely Home," unknown, no date: "All you that are at liberty, I pray you all draw near, And listen to my story, it's what you soon shall hear." The next two lines are typical of the beginning of a song about being hired at a feeing fair to work a farm; for example, "I engaged wi Jamie Broon, In the year o' ninety-one Tae ging hame an ca' his second pair, And be his orra man." ["The Guise o' Tough"]
Candlemas [February 2], Whitsunday [May 15], Lammas [August 1] and Martinmas [November 11] were the four "Old Scottish term days" "on which servants were hired, and rents and rates were due." (Source: Wikipedia article Quarter days).
The current description is all of the GreigDuncan3 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3382

Strands of Ballylickey, The

DESCRIPTION: "I oftimes think of home and where I spent my childhood days before I was forced to roam." He recalls playing, fishing, music and dancing "by the strands of Ballilickey on the shores of Bantry Bay." He hopes to return "but fortune seems against me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: home travel return Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn, pp. 108-109, "The Strands of Ballylickey" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OCan108

Strands of Magilligan, The

See The Streams of Lovely Nancy (File: VWL098)

Strange Proposal, A

See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Strange Things Wuz Happening

DESCRIPTION: "Well, they'z strange things wuz happening in the land... The war wuz going on, caused many hearts to moan...." "But Uncle Sam with Germany tried to live in peace, Kept blowin' up his vessels...." Listeners are urged to stand by the United States
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: war ship
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownII 240, "Strange Things Wuz Happening" (1 text)
Roud #6623
NOTES: The immediate cause of American entry into World War I was, of course, Germany's use of unlimited submarine warfare. Early in the war, the Germans had tried sinking ships without warning, and stopped as the U. S. protested.
n 1917, with the war in stalemate, the Germans hoped to starve Britain out of the war before the U. S. could make its weight felt. It didn't work.
I have to think this was intended for popular consumption, but neither the editors of Brown nor I have seen it elsewhere. - RBW
File: BrII240

Strange Visitor, The

DESCRIPTION: "A wife was sitting at her reel ae nicht... and aye she wished for company." A body comes in in pieces: Large feet, small legs and thighs, at last a great head. She asks about each part; the visitor explains its purpose. Which is to take her soul
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: death loneliness
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 196, "(A wife was sitting at her reel ae nicht)" (1 text)
DT, STRANVIS
File: MSNR196

Stranger Far From Home, A

See Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone) (File: R059)

Stratton Mountain Tragedy [Laws G18]

DESCRIPTION: A young woman and her baby are trapped in a cold blizzard. When they are found, the mother is dead but the baby alive; the mother had wrapped it in her cloak
AUTHOR: Seba Smith (? -1843)
EARLIEST DATE: broadside (1843)
KEYWORDS: mother baby death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1821- Death of Lucy Blake and her daughter Rebecca, whose fate is believed to have inspired this ballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws G18, "Stratton Mountain Tragedy"
Flanders/Brown, pp. 27-28, "Stratton Mountain Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 638, STRATMTN*
Roud #5442
File: LG18

Straw Man, The

See Mrs Greig of Sandlaw (File: Ord247)

Strawberry Lane

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

Strawberry Roan, The [Laws B18]

DESCRIPTION: An unemployed cowboy is offered the chance of a job if he can ride the strawberry roan. Confident of his skill, he mounts the horse -- to be thrown within seconds. He concludes the horse is unridable.
AUTHOR: Words: almost certainly Curley Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (published by Fletcher in the Globe, AZ Record as "The Outlaw Broncho")
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy injury unemployment
FOUND IN: US(So,SW) Canada
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws B18, "The Strawberry Roan"
Randolph 202, "Strawberry Roan" (1 text)
Randolph-Legman II, 652-655, "The Strawberry Roan" (2 texts)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 98-100, "The Strawberry Roan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 68, "The Strawberry Roan" (2 texts, 1 tune, the second text being the parody "Bad Brahma Bull")
Ohrlin-HBT 28, "The Strawberry Roan" (1 text, 1 tune); also two sequels by Wilf Carter: 29, "He Rode the Strawberry Roan" (1 text); 30, "The Fate of Old Strawberry Roan" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 111, "Strawberry Roan" (1 text)
DT 385, STRWROAN*
ADDITIONAL: Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 57-59, "The Strawberry Roan" (1 text)
Roud #3239
RECORDINGS:
Arizona Wranglers, "Strawberry Roan" (Merry Xmas L949, 1929; on BackSaddle)
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "Strawberry Roan" (Bluebird B-5667, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4778, 1935)
Beverly Hillbillies, "The Strawberry Roan" (Brunswick 514/Supertone S-2263, 1931)
W. C. Childers "Strawberry Roan, Part 1/Part2" (Victor V-40103; 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4951, 1936) (Champion 16467, 1932)
Bob Ferguson [pseud. for Bob Miller], "Strawberry Roan" (Columbia 15677-D, 1931)
Paul Hamblin, "The Strawberry Roan" (Victor V-40260, 1930; on WhenIWas2)
Harry Jackson, "Strawberry Roan" (on HJackson1, CowFolkCD1)
Bob Kackley & Bob Ferguson, "Strawberry Roan" (OKeh 45531, 1931)
Bud Kelly, "Strawberry Roan" (Broadway 8331, rec. 1932)
[Frank] Luther & [Carson] Robison "The Strawberry Roan" (Melotone M-12350, 1932)
Ranch Boys, "The Strawberry Roan" (Decca 5074, 1935)
Bob Sherman, "The Strawberry Roan" (Clarion 5336C, c. 1929)
Wesley Tuttle, "Strawberry Roan" (Coral 64051, 1950)
John White, "The Strawberry Roan" (Banner 32179/Romeo 1629/Perfect 12712/Conqueror 7753, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "While Hanging Around Town" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Wild Buckaroo" (tune & meter)
cf. "No Balls at All" (tune, in some versions)
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (tune, in some versions)
cf. "The Castration of the Strawberry Roan" (tune, character of the Roan)
SAME TUNE:
Castration of the Strawberry Roan (File: Logs013)
He Rode the Strawberry Roan (Ohrlin-HBT 29; Wilf Carter, "He Rode the Strawberry Roan" (Bluebird [Canada] B-4974, c. 1933/Regal Zonophone [Australia] G23152, n.d.))
The Fate of Old Strawberry Roan (Ohrlin-HBT 30; Wilf Carter, "The Fate of Old Strawberry Roan" (Montgomery Ward M-7186, 1937; Bluebird [Canada] B-4602, c. 1938))
Ridge Runnin' Roan (Tex Fletcher, "Ridge Runnin' Roan" (Decca 5302, 1936))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Outlaw Broncho
NOTES: Powder River Jack Lee claimed that Frank R. Chamberlain wrote the words to this song in 1894. No other evidence of this has been offered, however, and every known version seems to go back to Fletcher.
A number of "sequels" to "Strawberry Roan" have been written, including the two by Wilf Carter cited by Ohrlin. Austin E. Fife published an article on the subject, "The Strawberry Roan and His Progeny," in the John Edwards Memorial Quarterly.
For more on the offspring of this song, see the notes to "The Castration of the Strawberry Roan." - RBW
I think it's been fairly well established, despite Powder River Jack, that Fletcher wrote the words, probably in 1914. To quote Logsdon, "It was being sung by many people and Fletcher got no credit or money. So he collaborated with two Hollywood song writers, Nat Vincent and Fred Howard, to publish it as sheet music. When it came off the press they had made changes and added a chorus. Fletcher was furious and demanded that they print his original poem on the inside back cover for those who wanted to sing it the right way (and he wrote a bawdy version.)" The chorus they wrote, "Oh, that strawberry roan," has become part of most versions collected from tradition. - PJS
File: LB18

Strawberry Tower

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

Strayed Lambs

See Branded Lambs [Laws O9] (File: LO09)

Streams of Bunclody, The

DESCRIPTION: "Was I at the moss-house where the birds do increase" he'd have a kiss from his sweetheart. "The cuckoo is a pretty bird ..." Various if ... then verses. She shuns him. She is rich. He is poor. He is "going to America, my fortune to try."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(206))
KEYWORDS: love emigration separation America floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn 76, "The Maid of Bunclody, and the Lad She Loves So Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3000
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(206), "The Maid of Bonclody," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867 ; also 2806 b.9(232) [almost entirely illegible], "The Maid of Bon Clody, and the Lad She Loves Dear"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cuckoo" (floating verses)
NOTES: See H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy, 1888, pp. 224-225, 515. The description follows Sparling who notes, "From a Dublin ballad-slip of very uncertain date, but certainly before 1850." Floating verses include "The cuckoo is a pretty bird ...."; "If I was a clerk and could write a good hand ...."; "If I was a lark and had wings, I then could fly ... where my love does lie." The cuckoo verse seems uncorrupted:
The cuckoo is a pretty bird, it sings as it flies,
It brings us good tidings and tells us no lies,
It sucks the young bird's eggs to make its voice clear,
And it never cries cuckoo till the summer is near.
In spite of its title -- "The Maid of Bon Clody, and the Lad She Loves Dear" -- broadside Bodleian 2806 b.9(232) seems to follow Sparling exactly. The words I can make out in each verse are the same words that are in Sparling. But then, the same is true of OLochlainn 76: same title and same text.
Steve Gardham points out that the text of Richard Hayward's "Down in Glasloch" (78 Recording: Richard Hayward with Roy Robertson Orchestra, "Down in Glasloch" (Rex 15016B/matrix DR 11826-1, 1947)) is very similar to "The Streams of Bunclody"; the verses here seem minor modifications of the non-floating verses there and include the floating verses that do not refer to the cuckoo. The main difference is in the first verse:
From Sparling's "The Streams of Bunclody"
O was I at the moss-house where the birds do increase,
At the foot of Mount Leinster or some silent place
Near the streams of Bunclody, where all pleasures do meet,
And all I'd require is one kiss from you sweet.
For "Down in Glasloch"
Oh, were I down in Glasloch where the birds sing so blithely
I would walk there with my true love and she by my side
And in all things she might ask me I would gladly do her favor
For there's no love like my true love in all Monaghan wide.
The following comment is from John Moulden: "I rather distrust his [Hayward's] versions and suspect that the text you quote has been tinkered. In a later (10 inch LP "Words and Music of Ireland" Decca EBL522) recording of the tune alone played by Hayward on an organ, he states that he collected the song in Monaghan 'close to Sir Shane Leslie's home' wherever that may have been." John Moulden is researcher at the "Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change" at National University of Ireland, Galway whose subject is 'the printed ballad in Ireland'"
The date of 1947 for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. He also has a 1938 date for an earlier Hayward recording as "Down in Glaslough".
Help provided by Steve Gardham, John Moulden and Bill Dean-Myatt is cited here with their permission.
Glaslough is a village in Count Monaghan, Ireland, just south of Northern Ireland. Mount Leinster and the River Clody are near Bunclody, County Wexford. - BS
File: BroaTSoB

Streams of Lovely Nancy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer (a sailor?) describes the "streams of lovely Nancy", a mountain with a castle, his beloved (who lives in the castle), a river, and a ship. He ends by addressing all "streamers"; he will write to his love, "For her rosy lips entice me..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(29))
LONG DESCRIPTION: In this extremely confused song, the singer (probably a sailor) describes the "streams of lovely Nancy", a mountain with a castle, his beloved (who lives in the castle), a river, and a ship from the Indies. He ends by addressing all "streamers" (tin-miners washing ore?), saying he will write to his love, "For her rosy lips entice me, with her tongue she tells me 'No'/And a angel might direct us right, and where shall we go?"
KEYWORDS: love rejection lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West,South)) Ireland US(MW,SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 98, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 294-295, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 149, "The Streams of lovely Nancy" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 26, "Green Mountain" (1 text)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 64, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
SHenry H520, p. 259, "The Strands of Magilligan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FSRA 29, "The Shipwreck" (1 text, probably this piece although there is no mention of Nancy; there is one brief mention of Polly, and no shipwreck!)
DT, LOVNANCY* (erroneously titled "The Steams of Lovely Nancy")
Roud #688
RECORDINGS:
Turp Brown, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(29), "The Streams of Lovely Nancy," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(3678), Firth b.34(282), Harding B 11(3677), Harding B 11(3678A), Harding B 11(825), Firth c.13(24), Harding B 11(3679)[some words illegible], 2806 c.17(410), 2806 c.17(409)[some words illegible], Harding B 15(320a), Harding B 11(1519), Firth b.26(542)[some words illegible], "[The] Streams of Lovely Nancy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cursor Mundi" (14th century religious poem, sharing images)
cf. "The Ploughboy (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating verses)
cf. "Farewell, Sweet Mary" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Nellie (I)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Streams of Nantsian
Faithful Emma
The Dreams of Lovely Nancy
NOTES: All versions of this song seem to be equally mysterious. Lloyd quotes A.G. Gilchrist as speculating, with evidence, that this song is actually a relic of a hymn to Mary. -PJS
Margaret Dean-Smith offers the speculation that "streams/streamers" refer not to flowing waters but to "streamers," who worked in tin mines. If that helps. - RBW
File: VWL098

Streets of Forbes, The

DESCRIPTION: Ben Hall is "hunted from his station" and "like a dog shot down." A bushranger for three years, he is planning to "cross the briny sea" when found and "riddled like a sieve." The authorities parade his body through the streets of Forbes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Manifold)
KEYWORDS: outlaw police Australia death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5, 1865 - Ben Hall is ambushed and killed by police near Forbes, Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Manifold-PASB, pp. 60-61, "The Streets of Forbes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 79-81, "The Streets of Forbes" (1 text)
DT, STRFORBE*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Hall" (plot)
cf. "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (plot)
cf. "The Death of Ben Hall" (plot)
cf. "My Name is Ben Hall" (subject)
NOTES: For the background of Ben Hall, see the other songs listed in the cross-references, especially "Ben Hall."
To tell this from the other Ben Hall songs, consider this first verse:
Come all of you Lachlan men, and a sorrowful tale I'll tell
Concerning of a hero bold who through misfortune fell.
His name it was Ben Hall, a man of good renown
Who was hunted from his station, and like a dog shot down.
According to Patterson/Fahey/Seal, this is based on a poem by Ben Hall's brother-in-law John McGuire. - RBW
File: PASB060

Streets of Glory

See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

Streets of Laredo, The [Laws B1]

DESCRIPTION: (The singer meets a young cowboy "all dressed in white linen and cold as the clay.") The cowboy has been shot (or given a venereal disease?) and is dying. He regrets his carousing, gives instructions for his burial, and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886
KEYWORDS: cowboy death lament burial dying funeral disease violence murder
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE, Ro,So,SE,SW) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Laws B1, "The Cowboy's Lament (The Dying Cowboy)"
Belden, pp. 392-397, "The Unfortunate Rake" (3 texts plus a fragment and references to 4 more versions; 1 tune, all of which are this song despite the title)
Randolph 182, "The Cowboy's Lament" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Eddy 124, "The Dying Cowboy" (3 texts, none of which refer to "The Streets of Laredo" and which might be mixed with other versions of this song)
Gardner/Chickering 100, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 short text plus mention of 1 more)
BrownII 263, "The Unfortunate Rake" (1 text plus 9 excerpts and mention of two others, called "The Unfortunate Rake" but apparently all this song)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 353-359, "The Dying Cowboy" (6 texts; 3 tunes on pp. 452-453)
Friedman, p. 424, "The Cowboy's Lament (The Streets of Laredo)" (2 texts, the second being a lumberjack text that might derive from one of the other versions)
PBB 111, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 59, "The Streets of Laredo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 263, "As I Walked Out in the Streets of Laredo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife XIII, pp. 148-190 (29-30), "Cow Boy's Lament" (22 texts, 7 tunes, though not all are really part of this piece -- the "H" text, from Minnesota, is in a Scandinavian tongue; "K" looks like it comes from the "Tarpaulin Jacket" family; "L" is "The Wild and Wicked Youth"; "M" is "Jack Combs"; "N" is "St. James Infirmary"; many of the other texts are parodys)
Fife-Cowboy/West 119, "The Streets of Laredo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 30-31, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, with four verses that are clearly "Streets of Laredo" but an opening that is "My Home's in Montana")
SharpAp 131, "St. James's Hospital, or The Sailor Cut Down in his Prime" (2 texts, 2 tunes, but the "A" text really belongs with "The Unfortunate Rake")
Lomax-FSNA 200, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 120, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 859-860, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 242, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
JHCox 53, "The Dying Cowboy" (5 texts)
JHCoxIIB, #8A-B, pp. 139-142, "The Dying Cowboy" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 41, "The Streets Of Laredo" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H680, p. 141, "The Cowboy of Loreto" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 77, pp. 170-171, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 8-9, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 115, "The Streets Of Laredo" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 192-193, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text)
DT 350, LAREDST*
Roud #2
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "The Cowboy's Lament" (Victor V-40178, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4099, 1933)
Captain Appleblossom, "The Cowboy's Lament" (OKeh 45373, 1929)
Bentley Ball, "The Dying Cowboy" (Columbia A3085, 1920)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Dying Cowboy" (Brunswick 137/Perfect 12361 [as "The Cowboy's Lament", 1927; Supertone S-2009, 1930; Conqueror 7724 [as "The Cowboy's Lament"], 1931)
Dick Devall, "Tom Sherman's Barroom" (Timely Tunes [Victor subsidiary] C-1563, 1931; on BefBlues1, WhenIWas2)
Newton Gaines, "A-Walkin' the Streets of Laredo" (Victor V-40253, 1930)
Ewen Hail, "Cowboy's Lament" (Brunswick 141, 1927; Brunswick 433/Supertone S-2043. 1930)
Harry Jackson, "Streets of Loredo" (on HJackson1)
Bradley Kincaid, "In the Streets of Laredo" (Supertone 9404, 1929)
Ken Maynard ,"The Cowboy's Lament" (Columbia 2310-D, 1930; on WhenIWas1)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Cowboy's Lament" (Victor 21761, 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Tom Sherman's Barroom" (on NLCR06, NLCR11)
H[olland] Puckett, "The Dying Cowboy" (Champion 15428 [as Harvey Watson]/Gennett 6271/Herwin 75557 [as Robert Howell]/Silvertone 5065/Silvertone 8152 [as Si Puckett]/Silvertone 25065/Suptertone 9253 [as Harvey Watson], 1928; rec. 1927)
Johnny Prude, "The Streets of Laredo" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28, BackSaddle)
Ranch Boys, "Cowboy's Lament" (Decca 5061, 1935)
Pete Seeger, "Streets of Laredo" (on PeteSeeger12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (tune & meter, plot)
cf. "Jack Combs" (tune & meter, lyrics)
cf. "The Dying Outlaw" (tune & meter)
cf. "My Home's in Montana" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "My Friends and Relations" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "The Mowing Machine" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Bard of Armagh" (tune & meter)
cf. "Trooper Cut Down in His Prime" (tune & meter)
SAME TUNE:
A Sun Valley Song (Darling-NAS, p. 11)
The Lineman's Hymn (Darling-NAS, pp. 11-12)
The Streets of Hamtramck (Darling-NAS, p. 12)
The Ballad of Sherman Wu (Darling-NAS, p. 13)
A Golfing Song (Darling-NAS, pp. 13-14)
The Professor's Lament (Darling-NAS, pp. 14-15)
Ballad of Sherman Wu (on PeteSeeger19, AmHist2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Home's in Montana
The Young Cowboy
Tom Sherman's Barroom
Tom Sherwin's Barroom
NOTES: One of the large group of ballads ("The Bard of Armagh," "Saint James Hospital," "The Streets of Laredo") ultimately derived from "The Unfortunate Rake." All use the same tune and metre, and all involve a person dying as a result of a wild life, but the nature of the tragedy varies according to local circumstances.
Thorp/Fife studied 150 versions of this text, and determined that 39 were set in "The Streets of Laredo" or similar; 37 took place at Tom Sherman's Barroom or similar, 25 used other words starting with LA (Lafferty, London, Laden, etc.), 31 (not all of them variants of this exact song) used miscellaneous places, and 18 were not localized.
Logsdon, pp. 289-290, reports that "Tom Sherman's barroom was a popular cowboy dance hall and bar in Dodge City, Kansas." He cites a claim that this song was written by Francis Henry Maynard in 1876, and claims that Tom Sherman's was the location in this original text. Based on the dates at which the song was collected, this is possible, but I haven't listed Maynard as the author because the evidence is so thin. Logsdon quoted an article in which Maynard allegedly described the circumstances of the composition.
For the treatment of syphilis prior to the twentieth century, see the notes to "The Unfortunate Rake." - RBW
File: LB01

Strew, Strew with Roses

See Time Is On the Wing (File: GrD5391)

Strike for Better Wages

DESCRIPTION: "At the docks there is a strike that the company don't like...." "Strike, boys, strike for better wages... Go on fighting at the docks... Go on fighting till the bosses they give way." The singer pities the jobless seeking work. The strikes won't give in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (collected by Ewan MacColl); supposedly dates to 1890
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Norman Buchan, "Folk and Protest," in Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), pp. 165-166, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #3465
NOTES: Buchan dates this to 1890 and the Dockers' Tanner strike. This seems likely enough, given the slight air of unreality about it -- there are people desperate for jobs on the docks, so the workers who are already there deserve a pay raise? Strange economics....
I have to admit that I'm rather doubtful as to whether the song is traditional. There is only one collection known to Roud, and Ewan MacColl is credited with collecting it. We will probably never entirely resolve the issue of how much MacColl genuinely collected, and how much he rewrote. I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt -- but less so on labor songs than ordinary folk songs. This feels like a plant to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcSfBeWa

Stringybark

DESCRIPTION: "There are white-box and pine on the ridges afar, Where the ironbark, bluegum, and peppermint are, But the one I know best and the dearest to me And the king of them all is the stringybark tree." Why is it so dear? The singer's birth-hut was made of it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson, p. 264, "Stringybark" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stringybark and Greenhide" (subject)
NOTES: Andrew and Nancy Learmonth Encyclopedia of Australia2nd edition, Warne & Co, 1973, describes stringybark as an informal name for several species of eucalyptus, the name being given because the bark "peels off in long fibrous strips."
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, p.281, notes that stringybark grew on poor land, but it isn't absolutely clear whether this means low soil fertility or unusually dry. I would guess the former, though, because eucalyptus leaves reportedly are very low in nutrition value even by leaf standards. - RBW
File: MA264

Stringybark and Greenhide

DESCRIPTION: "I sing of a commodity, it's one that will not fail yer,.. the mainstay of Australia... Stringybark and greenhide can beat [gold] all to pieces." Greenhide can hold carts together; stringybark strengthens homes; the singer praises these useful products
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: probably before 1870 (Sydney Songster)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 157-159, "Stringybark and Greenhide" (1 text plus a fragment)
Roud #8400
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. 'Stringybark" (subject)
NOTES: Andrew and Nancy Learmonth Encyclopedia of Australia2nd edition, Warne & Co, 1973, describes stringybark as an informal name for several species of eucalyptus, the name being given because the bark "peels off in long fibrous strips."
Allthough the song presents itself as a praise of stringybark and greenhide, Patterson/Fahey/Seal see it more as a toast to the abilities of Australians to improvise, and I incline to agree. - RBW
File: PFS157

Stringybark Cockatoo, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a broke alluvial miiner who's been using his cup to drain." With no other means of support, the miner goes to work for a "stringybark cockatoo." The work is dull and the master poor, cheap, and hard to work with
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: unemployment work farming Australia mining
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Manifold-PASB, pp. 100-102, "The Stringybark Cockatoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 281-283, "The Stringybark Cockatoo" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cockies of Bungaree" (plot, lyrics)
NOTES: A "Cockatoo," or "Cockie," is a farmer whose land is so poor that it can raise little but cockatoos. Stringybark (for which see "Stringybark") was also considered a sign of very poor land.
This song has so many similarities to "The Cockies of Bungaree" that I have to suspect literary dependence. The "Bungaree" text is the more popular, and hence perhaps more likely to be original, but I can offer no absolute proof of this. - RBW
File: PASB100

Stringybark Creek

DESCRIPTION: "A sergeant and three constables rode out from Mansfield Town" to seek the Kelly gang. When they separate, Kelly overwhelms two, then catches the other two as they return. One man, MacIntyre, escapes to bring the news to Mansfield
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: outlaw death trick horse
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manifold-PASB, pp. 70-72, "Stringybark Creek" (1 text, 2 tunes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Ye Sons of Australia" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject)
cf. "Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "My Name is Edward Kelly" (subject)
cf. "The Kelly Gang Were Strong" (subject)
NOTES: Manifold reports that there is also a fiddle tune named "Stringybark Creek," which is sometimes used for this song. Said tune sounds vaguely familiar; I think I've heard it under another name. But it's not one of the common fiddle tunes. - RBW
File: PASB070

Stripling, The

DESCRIPTION: A young man of 18 loves a 29 year old woman. He gathers flowers, lies with them at his head and feet, and claims to be dying for her love. She says when he is in his prime he'll slight her for being old. She goes with him anyway.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: age love
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 987, "The Stripling" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6270
File: GrD5987

Struggle for the Breeches, The

DESCRIPTION: Husband: "You are inclin'd I now do find the breeches for to wear." Wife: "No, dear, not I, but I will die or I will have my share" They trade ("comic"?) insults without resolution.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Poet's Box broadside "Struggle For The Breeches," according to GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness accusation bragging dialog humorous nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1286, "The Struggle for the Breeches" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #1316
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.20(157), "The Struggle for the Breeches" ("About my wife I mean to sing a very comic song"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 16(262a), Firth c.26(237)[some illegible lines], "[The] Struggle for the Breeches"
Murray, Mu23-y4:026, "Struggle For The Breeches," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(45a), "Struggle for the Breeches," unknown, c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Britches" (theme) and references there
NOTES: GreigDuncan7 quoting Bell Robertson [1841-1922]: "That was a song that was thought funny when I was a girl." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71286

Study War No More

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

Stump, The

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Stumpie the Lawyer

DESCRIPTION: Stumpie tells Meg it is safe when "ye needna dread ill when ye hae a Pitfour" now that the election is over. But "a mob wi' tar-barrel cam doon to the door" and played her "Lochaber no more" [used as a funeral dirge]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Walker, _The Bards of Bon-Accord 1375-1860_, according to GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad political
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan2 242, "Stumpie the Lawyer" (1 text)
Roud #5846
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Logie o' Buchan" (tune, according to GreigDuncan2)
NOTES: GreigDuncan2: "Part of a song current in Aberdeen about 1805. Election row -- Pitfour one of the contestants. Rabble took a tar-barrel down to a 'howl' in Netherkirkgate kept by 'Salmon Meg' (woman's husband being a salmon fisher) -- a house frequented by Pitfour -- and set fire to it. Kennedy the advocate and 'Annalist' is the 'Stumpie' of the song; he was a cripple." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2242

Subhail a Gradh

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Substitute, The

DESCRIPTION: Recitation; Tom Burke befriends young Tim Cory. Tim is crushed by a falling tree and asks Tom to take care of his children. He finds Tim's children are now orphans. The speaker later learns Tom has married Tim's oldest daughter
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation; Tom Burke, a saw-filer in the lumber camp, befriends a young man, Tim Cory. Tim is crushed by a falling tree, but before dying, he asks Tom to take care of his children. Tom takes the body to Tim's house. He finds Tim's children are now orphans, their mother having been dead for two years; he takes up a collection among the crew. The speaker loses track of Tom, but one day he chances on a small farm, and he finds Tom has married Tim's oldest daughter, and they've made a good and happy home.
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger marriage farming recitation orphan family friend
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 104, "The Substitute" (1 text)
Roud #8884
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb)" [Laws C14]
cf. "Chance McGear" (plot)
cf. "Boy Killed by a Falling Tree in Hartford" (plot)
NOTES: Put baldly, as in the description, this sounds like sentimental treacle, but to my ear it's a poem with some guts to it. Like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, it does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Be104

Success to Every Man

DESCRIPTION: "De time is drawin' near, me b'ys, De narthern floe to face, So we must get out 'aulin' rope, De whitecoats fer to lace!" Various sealing ships are listed. The singer wishes success and prosperity to the sealers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 109, "Success to Every Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RySm109

Success to the Hardy Sealers

DESCRIPTION: "The twelfth of March is drawing near And we must all prepare Our pipers and our pannicans The sealer's life to share." Ships preparing to go to the ice are listed. The singer hopes they return safely
AUTHOR: apparently Johnny Burke
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: ship travel hunting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 81, "Success to the Hardy Sealers" (1 text)
File: RySm081

Success Unto the Coal Trade

DESCRIPTION: "Good people, listen while I sing The source from where your comforts spring; And may each wind that blows still bring Success unto the coal trade." The singer points out how coal supports the nation and feeds the people of the north
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: mining nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 140-141, "Success Unto the Coal Trade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3163
File: StoR140

Sucking Cider through a Straw

DESCRIPTION: "The prettiest girl that I ever saw Was sucking cider through a straw." "I told that gal I didn't see how She sucked the cider through a straw." "And now I've got me a mother-in-law From sucking cider through a straw."
AUTHOR: credited in the 1919 publication to Carey Morgan and Lee David
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: courting drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
BrownIII 47, "Sucking Cider through a Straw" (1 fragment)
Sandburg, p. 329, "Sucking Cider Through a Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 239, "Sipping Cider Through A Straw" (1 text)
DT, SIPCIDER*
Roud #7867
RECORDINGS:
[Arthur] Collins & [Byron] Harlan, "Sipping Cider Through a Straw" (Pathe 22157, 1919) (Edison 50627, 1920) (CYL: Edison [BA] 3846, n.d.)
Vernon Dalhart, "Sippin' Cider" (Columbia 1712-D, 1929)
SAME TUNE:
The Other Day I Met a Bear (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 44; DT, IMETBEAR)
NOTES: The 1919 publication gives the name as "Sipping Cider thru' a Straw." Curiously, Sandburg, writing no later than 1927, did not seem to know of this -- implying that this was originally "folk" rather than pop. - RBW
File: San329

Sucking Pig, The

DESCRIPTION: Of a giant pig, which takes 7000 men to butcher, and seven years to remove a trotter; its bones yield 7000 bags of flour. Cho: "O, perhaps you may think that/O, it's not all true/But I don't care a fig/What I say, I know it's true/About this suckling pig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Jack Elliott of Birtley)
KEYWORDS: lie corpse death work food talltale animal worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #8083
RECORDINGS:
Jack Elliott, "The Sucking Pig" (on Elliotts01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Derby Ram" (subject, plot)
cf. "The Grey Goose" (subject, plot)
cf. "The Killing of the Big Pig (Iso Sika)" (subject, plot)
NOTES: The collectors, MacColl & Seeger, considered this song a barrack-room rewrite of "The Derby Ram," and obviously the parallels are very strong. But as the actual words, except for the chorus, seem to be somewhat independent, I split them. Still, cognate stories of big animals that are hard to kill and cook are common, so do look at the cross-references. - PJS
File: RcTSuPig

Suffolk Miracle, The [Child 272]

DESCRIPTION: A squire's daughter loves a lowborn man. The squire sends her away. In time her love comes to bear her home. His head hurts; she binds it with her kerchief. She arrives home. Her father says her love is dead. She finds his dead body wearing her kerchief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1689? (broadside, dated to that year by Wood)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation death father lover ghost supernatural corpse travel horse grief
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Child 272, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Bronson 272, The Suffolk Miracle" (13 versions)
Butterworth/Dawney, pp. 22-23, "Its of a farmer all in this town (The Suffolk Miracle)" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 37, "The Suffolk Miracle" (4 texts plus 1 fragment ("C") that might be almost anything, 5 tunes) {Bronson's #4, #2, #3, #1a, #8}
BarryEckstormSmyth p. 314, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 fragment)
Randolph 32, "Lady Fair" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 145-147, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Flanders-Ancient4, pp. 50-62, "The Suffolk Miracle" (3 texts, 2 tune, all weeming somewhat mixed -- e.g. "A" has the rose-and-briar ending) {Bronson's A=Bronson's #10, B=#7}
JHCox 27, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
BrownII 41, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Davis-Ballads 42, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts plus a scrap which could be anything, 2 tunes, one of them for the unidentifiable fragment) {Bronson's #8, #5}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 88-90, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Peacock, pp. 407-408, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 645-649, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts)
OBB 175, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Niles 56, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
SHenry H217, pp. 432-433, "The Lover's Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 40, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 12, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN2961, "A wonder stranger ne'r was known"
DT 272, SUFFMRCL* SUFFMRC2 SUFFMRC3*
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 136, "The Suffolk Miracle" (reproduction of a broadsheet by John White, closely related to but not the same as Child's a)
Roud #246
RECORDINGS:
Packie Manus Byrne, "The Holland Handkerchief" (on Voice03)
Dol [Adolphus G.] Small, "There Was an Old and Wealthy Man" (AFS, 1950; on LC58) {Bronson's #1b}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(207b), "The Suffolk Miracle" or "A Relation of a Young Man Who a Month After His Death Appeared to his Sweetheart," F. Coles (London), 1678-1680; also Wood E 25(83) [some lines illegible; "MS annotation following imprint: 1689"], Douce Ballads 3(88a)[many illegible lines], "The Suffolk Miracle" or "A Relation of a Young Man Who a Month After His Death Appeared to his Sweet[-]heart,"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
My Bleeding Heart (per broadsides Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(207b), Wood E 25(83) and Douce Ballads 3(88a))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sad Courtin'
The Richest Girl in Our Town
Lucy Bouns
NOTES: Child complains of this song, "This piece should not be admitted here on its own merits.... It is not even a good specimen of its kind. Ghosts should have a fair reason for walking, and a quite particular reason for riding...." Child prints the song for the sake of its foreign analogs.
All I can say is, the plot may be somewhat defective, but the full forms of the ballad itself are quite beautiful and pathetic. It does corrupt easily, though, as the Flanders texts show.
More interesting is the way the story is expressed. Legends of ghosts are of course common, and legends of the fate of spirit and body affecting each other not rare (e.g. if a living person slashes at a ghost, the ghost may appear to be intact but the corpse will bear a scar, perhaps healed). In this song, the ghost actually comes to bear an artifact. That is not often encountered.
The "Holland Handkerchief" of certain versions is not a cloth woven in the Netherlands; rather, the adjective refers to the pattern of the weave. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C272

Sugar and Tea

DESCRIPTION: "Lead her up to sugar and tea, Lead her up to candy. You swing 'round that sugar and tea While I swing 'round that dandy." "Hi oh that sugar and tea, Hi oh that candy, You swing 'round that sugar and tea While I swing 'round that dandy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Talley)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 531, "Sugar and Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R531 (Partial)
Roud #7643
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dog in the Wood" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sugar Loaf Tea
He Loves Sugar and Tea
NOTES: This shares a chorus with the song I've indexed as "Dog in the Wood," but the verses are so distinct (that is a hunting song, this a courting song) that I've tentatively split them. - RBW
File: R531

Sugar Babe (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Shoot your dice and have your fun, sugar babe... Run like the devil when the police come." The singer describes various results of getting drunk. Sundry other floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: drink gambling nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 153-154, "Sugar Babe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3655
File: LxA153

Sugar Babe (II)

See Crawdad (File: R443)

Sugar Babe (III)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses with internal chorus "this-u morning" and final chorus "My honey babe, my little babe, so sweet." Verses: "Kill me a chicken and bring be the wing." "I got a mule and the mule won't gee." "I took my girl to the crawfish stand...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting abandonment food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 482, "Sugar Babe" (1 text)
NOTES: The notes in Brown state, "It seems best to retain this title [which came from the informant] for the present medley, because it is the refrain that gives it such coherence as it has." I'm not sure I agree -- but certainly there is no other single place the song can file, as the verses all appear elsewhere. I suspect they were fitted into an existing blues framework. - RBW
File: Br3482

Sugar Babe (IV)

See Sweet Thing (I) (File: R443A)

Sugar Baby (Red Rocking Chair; Red Apple Juice)

DESCRIPTION: "Got no sugar baby now...got no use for your red rocking chair...who'll rock the cradle, who'll sing the song...all I can do, fuss, eat, sleep with you/send you to your mama next payday" -- floating verses all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Dock Boggs)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 82 "Sugar Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 34, "Red Rocking Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 175, "Red Apple Juice" (1 text)
Roud #7695
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, Clint Howard et al, "Honey Babe Blues" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
Dock Boggs, "Sugar Baby" (Brunswick 118B, 1927; on Boggs2, BoggsCD1, AAFM3)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Got No Honey Baby Now (Honey Babe Blues)" (on Holcomb2)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Little Turtle Dove" (1928; on BLLunsford01; a composite of all sorts of floating verses, a few of which may be from here)
Charlie Monroe & his Kentucky Pardners, "Red Rocking Chair" (RCA Victor 21-0145, 1949)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Red Rocking Chair" (on NLCR03)
Frank Proffitt, "Got No Sugar Baby Now" (on FProffitt01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pay Day" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rain and Snow" (floating lyrics)
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)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This is a white blues, but it powerfully resembles an improvised African-American blues lyric, composed mostly of floating verses. -PJS
File: ADR82

Sugar Hill

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune; "If you want to get your eye knocked out/If you want to get your fill/If you want to get your head blowed off/Go up on Sugar Hill". Other floating verses; "Possum up a 'simmon tree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Crockett Ward & his Boys)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink floatingverses dancetune
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 193, "Sugar Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Sugar Hill" (on FBode1)
Dad Crockett, "Sugar Hill" (Brunwick 372, 1929; on KMM [as Crockett Family Mountaineers])
Virginia Mountain Boomers [Ernest V. Stoneman, Willie Stoneman, an the Sweet Brothers], "Sugar Hill" (Gennett 6687, 1929; rec. 1928)
Crockett Ward & his Boys "Sugar Hill" (OKeh 45179, 1928; rec. 1927)
NOTES: "Sugar Hill" is the wild part of town. - PJS
File: CSW193

Sugar in My Coffee

DESCRIPTION: Complaints about life laced with the refrain, "(How in the world do the old folks know) That I like sugar in my coffee-o." The singer may describe how he likes to drink, or wishes he were/were not living the life of a white man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 565, "Sugar in my Coffee" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
BrownIII 92, "I Do Love Sugar in My Coffee O" (2 short texts)
Roud #7659
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What'll I Do with the Baby-O" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: The Randolph fragment is so short that it could just be a piece of "What'll I Do with the Baby-O," and Brown's texts are also distinct. The mention of "sugar in my coffee" may just be a floating line. But it's going to be very hard to identify any of these scraps with a "real" song.
Randolph suggests that the origin of this may be in the fiddle tune "Sugar in My Toddy-o." Certainly possible. In which case it may be related to "Jingle at the Window (Tideo)." - RBW
File: R565A

Sugar Loaf Tea

See Sugar and Tea (File: R531)

Sugar Lump

See Turn that Cinnamon (File: R583)

Suit of Green, The

DESCRIPTION: A girl mourns the loss of her love taken by guards "for wearing of the suit of green." Her master buys her a suit of green to wear to Dublin where she pleads with the Colonel for her lover's life. The Colonel spares them both; they will marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.14(134)); first half 19C (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: love marriage request rebellion trial pardon clothes colors Ireland patriotic prisoner
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn 24, "The Suit of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmermann 22, "The Suit of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle 23, "Suit of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-OISBv2, pp. 42-43, "(A Much-Admired New Song Called) The Suit of Green" (1 text)
ST OLoc024 (Partial)
Roud #3023
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(134), "Suit of Green," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also 2806 b.9(226), 2806 c.15(123), 2806 b.9(277), 2806 b.10(208), 2806 b.10(208), Firth c.26(264), Johnson Ballads fol. 363, "[The] Suit of Green"
NOTES: Although wearing green was never an actual crime in Ireland, it was often associated with rebels (see "The Wearing of the Green" and the like). In times of trouble, it was likely to invite, shall we say, official attention. - RBW
File: OLoc024

Sukey Sudds

DESCRIPTION: "Sukey Sudds was a-standing in front of her tubs, A-washing her clothes so nice.... Sukey Sudds picked up her three-legged stool And she throwed it right into the fire, fire, fire, And she throwed it right into the fire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 438, "Sukey Sudds" (1 text)
Roud #7608
File: R438

Sumer Is I-cumen In

DESCRIPTION: "Sumer is i-cumen in, lhude [loud] sing cuccu!" A round celebrating the beginning of summer and the appearance of various symbols of fertility
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: fourteenth century or earlier (MS. Harley 978, generally dated c. 1225-1250)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Sumer is i-cumen in, Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed [seed] and bloweth [blooms] meed
And spring[e]th w[oo]de nu [now].
Sing cuccu!
Awe [ewe] bleteth after lomb [lamb],
Lhouth [lows] after calve cu [cow]
Bulluc stereth [stirs], bukke [buck] verteth [frequents the fields]
Myrie [merry] sin cuccu....
KEYWORDS: farming lyric nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Stevick-100MEL 3, "(Sumer Is I-cumen In)" (1 text)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 10-13, "Sumer Is Icumen In" (1 text, 1 tune; the frontispiece shows a facsimile of the neumed manuscript)
Silber-FSWB, p. 260 "Summer Is A-Coming In" (1 text, modernized and otherwise fouled up)
ADDITIONAL: Brown/Robbins, _Index of Middle English Verse_, #3223
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974 p. 4, #3 (another text with facsimile)
Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 35-41 (1 text plus modern arrangement)
DT, ICUMSUM
NOTES: Possibly the oldest pop song in the English language; it's a wide-open question whether the manuscript was a transcription of a piece from oral tradition, or the source. - PJS
Wooldridge observes that this song "contains the earliest canon, and the earliest persistently repeated bass, as yet discovered," and speculates (based on the several erasures clearly visible in the manuscript) that the scribe, probably John Fornsete of Reading, was personally responsible for the arrangement.
On the other hand, Bennett/Gray, p. 395, argue that the text was composed to fit the tune.
Personally, I'd be inclined to consider this a proto-classical piece (all the more so as it occurs only in the one manuscript), but I'm not going to be dogmatic about it. Chambers, p. 77, splits the difference, noting that the piece "has a refrain, and uses a seasonal theme, but in the form which has come to us it is a part-song for learned musicians." Davies, p. 310, notes that the instructions for singing are in Latin.
Most scholars date the manuscript to the thirteenth century (e.g. Chambers, p. 77, dates it c. 1240; Stevick, p. 4, dates text and music separately but puts one at 1230-1240 and the other c. 1225; Davies, p. 52, says "earlier thirteenth century"). Manfred Bukofzer, however, prefers the fourteenth, and a number of scholars have argued that the elaborate musical form implies a later date (cited by Davies, p. 310). Luria/Hoffman, p. 5, say that it is usually dated around 1240 but musicologists prefer a date around 1310.
Luria/Hoffman, pp. 311-313, reprint a short article by A. K. Moore on this poem, referred to as the "Reading Rota" after the town with which it is associated. Moore seems to prefer the late date and thinks the piece an imitatin of Welsh folk song.
Looking at the best of my available facsimiles (the full-color copy on p. 50 of BarkerEtAl) and comparing it with the letterforms shown on pp. 27-29 of Moorman, I wonder if those who argue for a later date don't have a point. I'm not a paleographer, and there wasn't that much difference between thirteenth and fourteenth century insular hands anyway -- but the manuscript does have several forms (notably spelling out the word "and," rather than using the upside-down L used as an ampersand at the time) more characteristic of late than early manuscripts. On the other hand, the open rather than the closed "c", and the "a" without an ascender, are late. Of course, if the manuscript is a copy rather than the autograph, that doesn't mean much.
We should perhaps note that Harley 978 is not to be confused with another famous Harleian manuscript, Harley 2253, which contains "King Horn" among many other famous poems. "Sumer Is I-cumen In" appears to be the only significant song in Harley 978 (Bennett/Gray, p. 395, note that the other pieces in the same book are in French and Latin. Indeed, there is a Latin parallel text, but as Davies notes on p. 310, it doesn't really fit the music). - RBW
Bibliography

BarkerEtAl: Nicolas Barker and others, Treasures of the British Library, Harry N, Abrams, 1988
Bennett/Gray: J. A. W. Bennett, Middle Englich Literature, edited and completed by Douglas Gray and being a volume of the Oxford History of English Literature, 1986 (I use the 1990 Clarendon paperback)
Chambers: E. K. Chambers, English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1945, 1947
Davies: R. T. Davies, editor, Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology, 1963
Luria/Hoffman: Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, Middle English Lyrics, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974
Moorman: Charles Moorman, Editing the Middle English Manuscript, University of Mississippi Press, 1975

Last updated in version 2.5
File: FSWB260B

Summer Hill

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how he used to ramble, until he spies Cupid and is pierced by his dart. Now "I'm a wounded lover on Summer Hill." He describes the girl's beauty, and hopes to win her. He refuses to reveal his name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H20b, p. 245, "Summer Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9482
File: HHH020b

Summer Lane

DESCRIPTION: "The Mason-Dixie Line has given us all the pip, Your songs from the Yankee land have been done brown." The singer suggests instead the Saturday jubilation, because "It is always summer in Summer Lane." Many amusements of the town are listed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: music party nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, pp. 150-152, "(Summer Lane) (1 text [on p. 152], 1 tune [on pp. 150-151])
File: RPFW150B

Summer Morning, The (The White/Blue/Green Cockade)

DESCRIPTION: "It was one summer morning, as I went o'er the moss, I had no thought of 'listing till the soldiers did me cross." But her love is in the army. She both laments and curses him. They meet; he dries her tears and says he will return; she vows to ramble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: soldier love separation recruiting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 68-69, "It Was One Summer Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COCKADE1*
Roud #191
File: StoR068

Sun Being Set, The

See Ground for the Floor (File: RcGftF)

Sun Down Below

DESCRIPTION: "Six o'clock I hear 'em say. Sun down, Sun down below. Time to quit and go away. Sun down, Sun down below." Hauling shanty or cargo loading song, likely of Negro origin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow, p. 85, "Sun Down Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Harl085

Sun Frae the Eastward was Peepin', The

See The Humours of Glasgow Fair (File: GrD4887)

Sun Will Never Go Down, The

See Where the Sun Don't Never Go Down (File: Wa088)

Suncook Town Tragedy (Josie Langmaid) [Laws F21]

DESCRIPTION: Josie Langmaid is on her way to school when she is accosted by (Joseph) LePage. He abuses and kills her. Her family searches for and finds her body. The killer is condemned to hang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown)
KEYWORDS: murder family execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 4, 1875 - Murder of Josie Langmaid, reportedly by Joseph LePage
Mar 15, 1878 - Execution of Le Page
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws F21, "Suncook Town Tragedy (Josie Langmaid)"
Flanders/Brown, pp. 72-73, "Suncook Town Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt, p. 57, "(no title)" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT 684, SUNCKTWN
Roud #2259
NOTES: Although Laws shows no signs of doubt about Le Page's guilt, the account in Burt makes it seem that the case was at least somewhat uncertain. Langmaid had been abused and then decapitated, but the only evidence Burt lists to tie the crime to Le Page is the fact that he had courted young girls (and Langmaid wasn't *that* young; Burt lists her age as 17). Le Page even had a partial alibi, but was convicted anyway. - RBW
File: LF21

Sunday School Song, The

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Sundown

DESCRIPTION: Courting song, with the chorus "It's nearly sundown, sundown/Sun is almost down/Bound away to leave you, 'fore the sun goes down..." Verses begin with "Hi, my little darling"; singer promises to bring his girl back a ribbon to tie around her waist
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (recording, Art Thieme)
KEYWORDS: courting parting nonballad playparty lover
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Sundown" (onGetFolked) (on Thieme04)
NOTES: I suspect this is related to the song "Hurry Sundown," and I'm guessing that it's a playparty. - PJS
File: RcSundow

Sunny Bank

See I Saw Three Ships (File: OBB104)

Sunny South (I), The

See The Sweet Sunny South (I) [Laws A23] (File: LA23)

Sunny South (II), The

See Sweet Sunny South (II) (File: DTsunsou)

Sunshine After Rain

DESCRIPTION: "I left my love in Engand In poverty and pain"; they weep as he sets out across the sea. He works hard, saves his money, goes home, finds the girl. They live happily and are well-off: "The morn has 'dorned the darkest night And sunshine followed rain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration reunion farming
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FSRA 55, "Sunshine Followed Rain" (1 text)
Roud #13821
File: ChFRA055

Sunshine Followed Rain

See Sunshine After Rain (File: ChFRA055)

Sunshine Railway Disaster, The

DESCRIPTION: Two trains approach Sunshine at the same time. 44 die in the crash. "If those trains had only run As they should, their proper time, There wouldn't have been a disaster At a place they call Sunshine. If those brakes had only held...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974
KEYWORDS: train wreck disaster death Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 20, 1908 - The Bendigo train crashes into the rear of the Ballarat train at Sunshine near Melbourne. 44 passengers (all in the Ballarat train) were killed; over 400 (from both trains) were injured
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 210-211, "The Sunshine Railway Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE210

Sup of Good Whisky, A

DESCRIPTION: A mouthful "of good whisky will make you glad"; too much will make you mad; none is bad. Preachers, doctors, lawyers, Turks, and Quakers are against it but drink "in their turn" Germans, French, and Italians boast of their drinking; Hibernia's is best.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 83-86, "A Sup of Good Whisky" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(569/570/571/572) View 4 of 5, "A Sup of Good Whisky" ("A sup of good whisky will make you glad"), W. Macnie (Stirling), 1825; also Johnson Ballads 3185, Harding B 25(1853), Harding B 11(3699), "A Sup of Good Whisky"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chapter of Kings" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian Harding B 25(1853), Harding B 11(3699))
File: CfPS083

Supen Ut, En Dram Pa Man

DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty/drinking song. Chorus translates to: "Oh listen, listen here us now, Out of deep throats we're calling you, A tot which goes from man to man, A tot for us Johnnies." Verses mention more drinking and sailing themes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty drink
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 282-283, "Supen Ut, En Dram Pa Man" (2 texts-English & Swedish, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whiskey Johnny" (similar theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Kom Hor, Kom Hor
File: Hugi282

Sur le Pont d'Avignon

DESCRIPTION: French round: "Sur le pont d'Avignon, L'on y danse, l'on y danse." "On the bridge at Avignon, see them dance, see them dance." The song tells how men, women, and soldiers bow and dance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Du Mersan, "Chansons et Rondes Enfantines")
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 390, "Sur Le Pont D'Avignon (On The Bridge At Avignon)" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 539-540, "Sur le Pont d'Avignon"
NOTES: One of the best-known songs in all of France. The great bridge on the Rhone was finished in 1185. The need to carry larger ships has resulted in much of the span being torn down, but a portion still stands (sticking out into the middle of nowhere), mostly as a tourist attraction. - RBW
File: FSWB390A

Sure Makes a Man Feel Bad

See It Makes a Long-Time Man Feel Bad (File: LoF291)

Susan Brown (I)

DESCRIPTION: Beautiful Susan, the singer, has many wooers; she flirts with all even though she loves a rich farmer's son. The lad proposes to a different girl. Susan poisons him, then flees. Unable to find work, she is imprisoned and now is dying of consumption
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal murder poison prison death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H771, pp. 415-416, "Susan Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7963
File: HHH771

Susan Carr

DESCRIPTION: Billy Green and Susan Carr had courted, but she turns to Thompson instead. Green challenges Thompson for the right to her hand. Green kills Thompson and drowns himself. Susan dies soon after. All three are buried together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment murder death burial drowning suicide
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H,690 p. 416, "Susan Carr" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7964
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Newry Town" (plot)
NOTES: The notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann speculate that this may be related to Laws P33, "Susannah Clargy" (one of the most obscure of the Laws ballads). I strongly doubt there is any link. There are common elements -- a girl with two lovers, and a death, as well as the similar names of the heroines -- but many different elements as well. "Susan Carr" sees the two suitors do battle, while "Susannah Clargy" is a song of suicide with the lover's ghost coming back to take her away. - RBW
File: HHH690

Susan on the Beach

See Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach [Laws K19] (File: LK19)

Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach [Laws K19]

DESCRIPTION: Noble Susan loves Willy, a sailor, and will not accept a husband of high degree. As she walks along the beach, worrying about him, she sees a body which proves to be his. She dies for love; the two are buried together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: love death burial drowning sailor shore
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws K19, "Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 103, "Susan Strayed the Briny Beach" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 646-647, "As Susan Strayed the Briny Beach" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 21, "Susan Strayed the Briny Beach" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H774, pp. 150-151, "Susan on the Beach" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson, pp. 70-71, "The Sligo Shore" (1 text)
DT 695, SUSTRAY
Roud #1896
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (plot)
cf. "Down by the Seaside" (plot)
File: LK19

Susan Van Dusan

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Susan Van Dusan, The gal of my choosin', She sticks to my bosom like glue." "Oh, Susan Van Dusan, Oh, I will quit usin' Tobacco and boozin' for you." ""Oh, Susan Van Dusan, What gum are you usin' That sticks to my bosom like you?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 409-410, "Susan Van Dusan" (1 text)
Roud #15537
File: LxA409

Susan, The

DESCRIPTION: The Susan, returning to Bonaventure from successful fishing on the Labrador, sinks in a storm at Cutthroat and the crew of four is lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: death fishing sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 103, "The Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Cut Throat Island is up the Labrador Coast near the mouth of Groswater Bay about 140 air miles northeast of Happey Valley-Goose Bay. Bonaventure, Trinity Bay, is just north of the Avalon Peninsula. - BS
File: LeBe103

Susanna

See Oh! Susanna (File: RJ19152)

Susannah Clargy [Laws P33]

DESCRIPTION: Susannah vows to be true to the widow's son; they break a ring as a token. Some months later she agrees to marry another man; she scorns the widow's son. He kills himself; that night his ghost comes to claim Susannah
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: ghost brokentoken courting marriage suicide
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws P33, "Susannah Clargy"
SharpAp 185, "Susannah Clargy" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN3179, "Young lovers most discrete and wise"
DT 511, SUSCLRGY
Roud #998
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Gentleman of Exeter (The Perjured Maid)" [Laws P32] (plot)
cf. "The Ghost's Bride" (plot)
cf. "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene" (plot)
cf. "Skon Jungfrun Hon Gangar Sig Till Sogsta Berg (The Pretty Maid Climbs the Highest Mountain)" (plot)
File: LP33

Susiana

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Hooray, oh, Susiana! Away right over the mountain." (The fragment in Doerflinger is too short to determine the plot -- if there is one.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Doerflinger)
KEYWORDS: shanty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger, p. 83, "Susiana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, p. 378, "Way, Me, Susiana!" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 286]
Roud #9436
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Lucy Anna" (similar wording in some verses)
File: Doe083

Susie Brown

See Cuckoo Waltz (File: San160)

Sussex Toast, The

See I'll Drink One (To Be a Good Companion, The Sussex Toast) (File: K285)

Susy Gal

DESCRIPTION: "Susy licked the ladle An' 'er dolly rocked the cradle. Goodbye, Susie gal, I'm gone again. I fell into the gutter And my heart began to flutter. Goodbye, Susie gal, I'm gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 320, "Susy Gal" (1 short text)
NOTES: The editors of Brown speculate that this might be a playparty. Certainly it looks like a singing game. - RBW
File: Br3320

Suvla Bay

DESCRIPTION: "In an old Australian homestead With roses 'round the door, A girl received a letter 'Twas a message from the war... He played his part that April day, And now he lies in Suvla Bay." The grieving girl turns away suitors and joins the Red Cross
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: Australia battle death mourning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1915 - The Dardanelles campaign. British forces attack Gallipoli; the Australians and New Zealanders form the spearhead of the second phase of the attack, at Suvla Bay. All the attacks are bloody failures
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 206-207, "Suvla Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5350
NOTES: It has been said that the Australian participation in the Dardanelles campaign is what made Australia a nation. Certainly it etched itself deeply in the Australian consciousness. It would be amazing if there were no traditional songs about it. This song (like the later "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda") seems not to be of actual folk origin, but it seems to have become part of Australian tradition.
The tragedy of Suvla Bay was not so much its failure (World War I was, after all, a war consisting of very little except failure) as its *needless* failure. When the troops went ashore in 1915, they encountered no resistance -- but their commander sat there and did nothing until the Turks could build a defensive position. From then on, it was a case of the ANZACs being slaughtered for nothing. - RBW
File: MCB206

Suzanne Was a Lady

See Teasing Songs (File: EM256)

Svede from Nort Dakota, The

See The Swede from North Dakota (File: Ohr008)

Swaggers

DESCRIPTION: The listeners are warned against hiring with Swaggers at Porter Fair. The singer lists all the various indignities suffered by those who work there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig #4, p. 2, "Swaggers" (1 text fragment)
GreigDuncan3 386, "Swaggers" (9 texts, 3 tunes)
DBuchan 68, "Swaggers" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
Ord, pp. 219-221, "Swaggers" (1 text)
Roud #4589
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Parks o' Keltie" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "Nethermill" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Swaggers in Porter Fair
NOTES: Greig #124, p. 3: ." .. there is a good deal of material common to these ploughman ditties" ["Sleepytoon" and "Swaggers"].
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Auchterless (386) is at coordinate (h4-5,v6) on that map [roughly 28 miles NW of Aberdeen]; Turriff (347,386,682) is at coordinate (h5,v7) on that map [roughly 31 miles NNW of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: DBuch68

Swallow, The

DESCRIPTION: The clipper Swallow goes down New Brunswick's coast fighting a storm to Tormentine and waits out the storm "lying in the government dock.... for Georgetown we are bound ... our voyage is not o'er If the Swallow returns I'll sing you some more"
AUTHOR: Willard van Ember, Northport N.S.
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: commerce sea ship shore storm sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 186-187, "The Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2714
NOTES: The places named in New Brunswick are Newcastle, Escuminac, Buctouche, and Tormentine. Georgetown is on Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: CrMa186

Swalwell Hopping

DESCRIPTION: "Lads! myek a ring An' hear huz sing The sport we had at Swalwell, O." The singer tells of a wild day at the market. He lists the various people they saw along the way. After a day of revelry, "We staggered ahint se merry, O."
AUTHOR: Words: John Selkirk
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: party food drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 27-29, "Swallwell Hopping" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR027 (Partial)
Roud #3054
NOTES: Swallwell Hoppin' was apparently a large and successful market in the time of author Selkirk (1783-1843), but by the late nineteenth century, according to Stokoe, it had nearly dwindled away. - RBW
File: StoR027

Swan (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Returning from Wexford the singer sees a girl "like a swan that floats o'er the ocean" who "often grieved my poor heart." She rejects his marriage proposal because "I've been promised ten years or more" to Reilly "in a foreign country"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-Maritime, p. 75, "The Swan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2709
NOTES: Is this just a shortened version of "John (George) Riley" (II) [Laws N37], or some similar ballad? Or is this a mangled ballad of a swan-maiden? - BS
File: CrMa075

Swan Swims Bonnie, The

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

Swan, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the lovely banks of the Bann as we watched the gliding swan," the singer tells Mary of his plans to go oversea. She says that she would rather be poor in Ireland than live better elsewhere. He agrees to stay in Ireland and be married there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home Ireland marriage separation emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H475, p. 455, "The Swan" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: This is one of those songs which probably could exist only in Ireland. - RBW
File: HHH475

Swanee River

See Old Folks at Home (File: RJ19163)

Swannanoa Tunnel

DESCRIPTION: "Asheville Junction, Swannanoa Tunnel, all caved in, baby, all caved in." About the life of a steel driver: "This old hammer Killed John Henry, Couldn't kill me." The singer hopes for relief from the hard work and a chance to see his woman.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1913 (JAFL26)
KEYWORDS: railroading work separation death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
BrownII 280, "John Henry" (2 texts plus 5 fragments, 1 excerpt, and mention of 1 more, but the "H" text and "I" excerpt are this piece and most of the rest, except the "A" text, are "Take This Hammer")
Combs/Wilgus 256, p. 166, "The Yew-Pine Mountains" (1 text, which omits the "Swannanoa Tunnel" lyrics but is otherwise so similar I have to believe it the same. It may well be a fake; it was supplied by Carey Woofter, suspected or faking materials he gave to Combs and Cox)
SharpAp 91, "Swannanoa Town" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 749, "Swannanoa Tunnel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 45, "Swannanoa Tunnel" (1 text)
DT, SWANNOA*
Roud #3602
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Swannanoa Tunnel" (on BLLunsford01) (on BLLunsford02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drivin' Steel" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Take This Hammer" (floating lyrics)
cf. "If You Meet a Woman in the Morning" (form, lyrics)
NOTES: The connection between this song and "Take This Hammer" (Nine Pound Hammer) is very strong; there are so many intermediate versions that we can hardly draw a clear distinction. But the extreme versions are sufficiently different that I have listed them
separately. - RBW
Sharp's versions mention neither the tunnel nor a cave-in, but I put them here for simplicity's sake, using the mention of Swannanoa as the dividing line from "Take This Hammer." You should check out that entry too, though. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: CW166

Swannanoah Town

See Swannanoah Tunnel (File: CW166)

Swansea Town (The Holy Ground)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving (home and/or sweetheart). He describes the various troubles the ship faces on her voyage (around the Horn), including bad weather. (He writes to his girl when the ship stops in port.) At last he arrives home with great rejoicing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor ship storm parting reunion
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Doerflinger, pp. 152-154, "Swansea Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, p. 431-436, "Old Swansea Town Once More," "In Cameltoon Once More," "The Holy Ground Once More" (4 texts, 4 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 323-328]
OLochlainn-More 97, "The Holy Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOLYGRND*
Roud #929
NOTES: Normally known in Ireland as "The Holy Ground" (there is even a spot in Cork called "The Holy Ground") and "Swansea Town" in the wider world. Doerflinger's text opens with a stanza not found in the Irish versions but with connections to several Appalachian songs:
Now the Lord made the bee and the bee did make honey,
Oh, the Devil sends the girls for to spend the sailors' money."
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 152 notes that the title "The Holy Ground" normally refers to the east side of Cobh near Cork -- but admits a rumour that it once referred to a brothel in the town. He can find no confirmation of this. I would presume, in any case, that that would be "The Holey Ground." - RBW
File: Doe152

Swapping Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: The Swapping Boy (sets out for London to get a wife. He swaps wife, or the wheelbarrow he took her home in, for a) horse, which he swaps for a cow, and so forth, for a cheaper animal each time, until he ends with a mole which "went straight to its hole"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (_Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus_, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous commerce
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Eddy 93, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 256, "Went to the River" (1 text, 1 tune, a much degraded form with a different chorus and some floating verses)
BrownII 196, "Swapping Songs" (4 text plus 2 excerpts, but "E" and "F" are "Hush Little Baby"; the "C" excerpt is unidentifiable from the description)
BrownIII 131, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text plus mention of 2 more, with only the first verses about fetching the wife from London)
JHCoxIIB, #19A-B, pp. 166-169, "The Foolish Boy," "Johnny Bobeens" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy 312, "Wim-Wam-Waddles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 10, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire, pp. 78-79, "The Swapping Song" (1 text)
SharpAp 217, "The Foolish Boy" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 72, "The Swapping Song (The Foolish Boy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 1, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 243, "Down by the Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 174-175, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 44-45, "Wing Wang Waddle" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 70-71, "Foolish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H732, p. 57, "My Grandfather Died" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan8 1696, "I Sell't the Horse an' I Bocht a Coo" (2 texts)
Opie-Oxford2 156, "My Father He Died, But I Can't Tell You How" (1 text)
Opie-Oxford2 71, "When I was a little boy I lived by myself" (2 texts); 156, "My father he died, but I can't tell you how" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #7, pp. 29-30, "(When I was a little boy)"; #115, p. 96, "(My father he died, but I can't tell you how)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 23, "(His father died)" (1 short text); 163, "O, when I was a wee thing" (1 short text, with only the verses about "When I was a wee thing" and the fetching home of a wife in a wheelbarrow)
ST E093 (Full)
Roud #469
RECORDINGS:
Anne, Judy & Zeke Canova, "The Poor Little Thing Cried Mammy" (Oriole 8044/Perfect 12685/Regal 10299, 1931); as the "Three Georgia Crackers," "Poor Little Thing Cried Mammy" (Columbia 15653-D, 1931; rec. 1930; on CrowTold01)
Harry Greening & chorus of Dorsetshire Mummers, "The Foolish Boy" (on FSB10)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Swapping Song" (Champion 15466 [as Dan Hughey]/Silvertone 5188/Supertone 9209, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Brown Dog"
cf. "Mary Mack (I)" (plot)
cf. "Old John Wallis" (lyrics)
cf. "Pirn-Taed Jockie" (theme: bad bargains)
NOTES: Eddy writes of this song, "Most texts are like the above in blending two separate songs, 'When I Was a Little Boy' and 'Swapping Song.' The first story, based, in all likelihood, upon Wat Tyler's Rebellion of 1381 in England, continues through four stanzas."
That two songs are combined here is very likely; Kennedy's version and others (including versions back to Gammer Gurton's Garland) omit the trip to London to fetch a wife, while we find a youth setting out for London to find a wife as a separate item in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, Volume II, of c. 1744. But whether this should be tied to the Kentish rebellion of 1381 can be questioned. The Opies, while quoting the first half, make no mention of Wat Tyler, and say it uses the tune of "John Anderson my Jo," which could hardly go back to an English event of 1381. - RBW
Perhaps "The Swapping Boy" should be split between the Opie-Oxford2 71/Eddy/BrownIII 131 ("When I was a little boy I lived by myself") songs and the Opie-Oxford2 156/Henry H732("My father he died, but I can't tell you how") songs. The description for "My Father Died" might be: Singer inherits his grandfather's horses. He sells the horses to buy a cow and sells and buys the cow, a calf, a pig, a dog, and a cat that runs off after a rat. "My grandfather left me all he did own, And I don't know how it is, but I'm here by my lone." The end of Opie-Oxford2 156 is more disastrous: "I sold my cat and bought me a mouse, But she fired her tail and burnt down my house." - BS
In the light of the above, I suppose I should separate these two songs -- but the result would be an even worse mess than lumping them, because the combination clearly exists as a song in its own right. Since it is possible that it's one song that split, and not two that coalesced, I'm keeping them together until we can find some clearer evidence of the history. With full acknowledgment that there are two highly independent parts.
We should also note that there is a fairly precise parallel to the swapping story in German. The Grimm tale of "Lucky Hans" [#83, "Hans im Gluck," from 1818] tells of a young man who, after completing an apprenticeship, is given a nugget of gold by his master. It is heavy enough that he trades it for a horse. The horse throws him, so he trades it for a cow. The cow gives no milk, so he trades it for a pig. The pig is said to be stolen, so he trades it for a goose. He trades that for a slightly used grindstone/whetstone, hoping thereby to gain wealth -- then drops the stone in the well and gives up and goes home.
Hans Christian Anderson also had something similar, but I know of no reason to think that it is traditional. The tale is usually translated under a title such as "What the Old Man Does Is Always Right." The gimmick is the same -- the old man goes out to sell his horse, and makes a series of trades. But, except that in the first trade, the man exchanges his horse for a cow, there is little other similarity; he ends up with a collection of withered apples. And the emphasis of the tale is not on the trading but on the psychology of the man and his wife.
There is also at least one other English swapping rhyme, found in Peter and Iona Opie, I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth, #58, beginning, "I went downtown To meet Mrs. Brown, She gave me a nickel to buy a pickle. The pickle was sour; I bought me a flower." And so forth. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: E093

Swapping Song, The

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Swede from North Dakota, The

DESCRIPTION: Having spent a year working, the Svede decides to visit Minnesota's State Fair. He meets a Salvation Army group (refusing to work for Jesus when he learns "Yesus don't pay nothing"), winds up drunk, and returns home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (book by "Yumpin' Yiminy")
KEYWORDS: farming travel party drink clergy humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ohrlin-HBT 8, "The Swede from North Dakota" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary and Richard March, "Farm, Forest, and Factory: Songs of Midwestern Labor," published in Archie Green, editor, _Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss_, Indiana University, 1993, pp. 261-262, "Ay Ban a Svede from Nort' Dakota" (1 text, 1 tune)
James Taylor Dunn, _The St. Croix: Midwest Border River_, reprint edition with new introduction published 1979 by the Minnesota Historical Society press, p. 258, ["Swede from North Dakota"] (1 text, from a manuscript apparently copied by Ludwig Rydquist)
Roud #9845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben and Rachel" (tune) and references there
cf. "Ole from Norway" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Svede from Nort Dakota
I'm a Swede from Minnesota
NOTES: It can at least be said that this song is well supplied with local color. The Minnesota State Fair claims (I'm not sure on what basis) to be the largest in America. (If nothing else, it produces huge traffic jams.)
Both Minneapolis and Saint Paul have areas known as "Seven Corners" (though changes in traffic patterns have reduced the number of streets and intersections); it's likely but not certain that the Minneapolis site is referred to.
The Minneapolis site, probably better known, is near Washington Avenue (which runs from the University of Minnesota to the north side of downtown Minneapolis, and is mentioned in the song). It's not the best area; bars and nightclubs are not hard to find.
Saint Paul's Seven Corners, on the west side of downtown (and so called because two street grids overlapped there, producing some very strange intersections in the 1880s), is on the same side of the Mississippi river as the State Fair, and is near a Salvation Army mission (though I've never seen a band play there). It's also an old area, but perhaps in somewhat better shape. Though some of that is the result of urban renewal; it's said to have been a pretty rough area in the 1920s
Leary and March, p. 261, think it is the Seven Corners area of Minneapolis, which was heavily Swedish, but I'm not sure they were aware that Saint Paul also has a Seven Corners. The version they print has the Swede leaving Saint Paul to visit Seven Corners, but this is not universal.
Although he knows of no version earlier than the 1932 Yumpin' Yiminy printing (which he pointed out to me), Paul Anderson believes the song dates to around 1900, since some versions to "Yim Hill's little red vagon" (a reference to railroad tycoon James J. Hill). This is not absolutely decisive (Hill is still a frequently-mentioned icon in Saint Paul, with his home and his library being preserved), but I agree that it is a strong indication. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ohr008

Sweep Your Own Door Clean

DESCRIPTION: "I hate to hear folk talk about other folks affairs ... The man that keeps his own door clean has got enough to do." "Don't judge a man by what he wears ... Although he [sic] brought to poverty he's not been brought to shame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: virtue nonballad clothes hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 665, "Sweep Your Own Door Clean" (1 text)
Roud #6090
File: GrD3665

Sweep, Chim-nie Sweep

See Sweep, Chimney Sweep (File: K240)

Sweep, Chimney Sweep

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells what cleanly work he makes as a chimney sweep. He tells the girls to arise and fetch him ale, then boasts about how he can climb to a rooftop without ladder or rope, and there you can hear him halloa. He says he will work for none but gentry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (first verse found in "Cries of London")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells what cleanly work he makes as a chimney sweep. Girls come to his door; although he's black as a Moor, he's capable. He tells the girls to arise and fetch him some ale, then boasts about how he can climb to a rooftop without ladder or rope, and there you can hear him halloa. He says he will work for none but gentry. "Sweep, chim-nie sweep is the common cry I keep/If you can but rightly understand me"
KEYWORDS: pride courting bragging work nonballad worksong worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy 240, "Sweep, Chim-nie Sweep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1217
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "Sweep, Chimney Sweep" (on FSB3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
The Chimney Sweep
File: K240

Sweet Ann O'Neill

See Gallows [Laws L11] (File: LL11)

Sweet Annie of Roch Royal

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Sweet as the Flowers in May Time

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet as the flowers in May/springtime, Sweet as the honey dew, Sweet as the roses in the bowers, I'm thinking tonight of you. Sweet as the rose in the garden, Sweet as the dew on the rose, I'd rather be somebody's darling Than a poor boy nobody knows."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: love flowers
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 832, "Sweet as the Flowers in May Time" (2 fragments)
Roud #7442
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Sweet as the Flowers in Maytime" (Victor V-23761, 1932)
NOTES: The two fragments in Randolph both have the same chorus as the Carter Family recording, but the Carter text appears to be a rewrite with some elements of "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" or something similar. - RBW
File: R832

Sweet Avondu

DESCRIPTION: The singer "never more shall view Those scenes I loved by Avondu." He recalls the scenes from the mountains to the sea. He bids farewell to Clara: "No more we meet by Avondu"
AUTHOR: James Joseph Callanan (1795-1829) (source: Croker-PopularSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (_The Recluse of Inchidony_, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: home separation Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 127-133, "Sweet Avondu" (1 text)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: "'Avondu,' says the author, means 'the Blackwater (Avunduff of Spenser).... It rises in a boggy mountain called Meenganine in [County Kerry] and discharges itself into the sea at Youghall." - BS
There is a certain amount of confusion about this author. Most sources list his name as James Joseph Callanan, but he is also sometimes listed under the name "Jeremiah" (and, yes, it is known that it is the same guy). Most sources agree that he was born in 1795, but his death date seemingly varies; Hoagland and MacDonagh/Robinson give 1829. He wrote some poetry of his own, but is probably best known for his translations from Gaelic. Works of his found in this index include "The Convict of Clonmel," "The Outlaw of Loch Lene," "Sweet Avondu," "The Virgin Mary's Bank," "Gougane Barra," and a translation of "Drimindown." - RBW
File: CrPS127

Sweet Bann Water, The

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Sweet Betsy from Pike [Laws B9]

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet" Betsy and "her lover" Ike set out from Pike County, Missouri for California. On the way they lose much of their livestock and property, but also have some amazing adventures. (They marry, then divorce.)
AUTHOR: claimed by John A Stone (Old Put)
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster, second edition)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes settler
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws B9, "Sweet Betsy from Pike"
Belden, pp. 343-345, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Randolph 192, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 (atypical) tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 193-196, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 192A)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 300-301, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (4 fragments, 1 tune)
Logsdon 41, pp. 215-218, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 750-751, "Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 432, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 112, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Sandburg, pp. 108-109, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 53, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 424-426, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 173, "Sweet Betsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 19, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 861-863, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 239, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 167-168, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Arnett, p. 57, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 190, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 603-604, "Vilikens and His Dinah -- (Sweet Betsey from Pike)"
DT 376, SWEETBET*
Roud #3234
RECORDINGS:
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Crown 3121, 1931)
Logan English, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (on LEnglish02)
Bradley Kincaid, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" (Bluebird B-5321/Montgomery Ward M-4421, 1934)
Ken Maynard, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (unissued; on StuffDreams1)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Victor 23704, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-4324, 1933) [may have been released under the pseudonym 'Radio Mac']
Pete Seeger, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (on PeteSeeger31)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
File: LB09

Sweet Birds

DESCRIPTION: "The birds are returning their sweet notes of spring... As I sit in the dream... For my darling far over the sea... Oh, say, does he truly love me?" "Sweet birds (x2), Oh, say that my lover is true." She recalls the day he left and promised to be true
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird love separation questions
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 295, "Sweet Birds" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more)
Roud #3766
RECORDINGS:
Richard Harold, "Sweet Bird" (Columbia 15426-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
File: Br3295

Sweet Blooming Lavender

DESCRIPTION: Street cry: "Won't you buy my sweet blooming lavender? There are sixteen blue branches a penny, all in full bloom." The singer tells how the plant is fresh, and how it will benefit the wearer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy 356, "Sweet Blooming Lavender" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #153, ("Or the Streete cryes all about") (1 fragment of this, plus an assortment of other street cries)
Roud #854
RECORDINGS:
Bill Ellson, "Will You Buy My Sweet Blooming Lavender?" (on Voice11)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lavender Girl" (theme)
NOTES: Kennedy notes that his informant, Florrie Penfold, knew several street cries but preferred this because it is "more of a song." Which indeed it is, and so is included.
Kennedy lists a number of collected versions of this piece. I doubt that all are actually the same song, but they are doubtless all lavender street calls. - RBW
File: K356

Sweet By and By

DESCRIPTION: "There's a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar.... In the sweet by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore." The singer describes the blessings and beauties that the faithful will enjoy in heaven
AUTHOR: Words: Sanford Fillmore Bennett (1836-1898) / Music: Joseph. Philbrick Webster (1819-1875)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 198-201, "Sweet By and By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 355, "In The Sweet Bye And Bye" (1 text)
DT, SWTBYBY*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 206-207, "Sweet By and By" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RJ19198 (Full)
Roud #7651
RECORDINGS:
Harkins & Moran [pseuds. for Sid Harkreader w. Grady Moore], "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (Broadway 8117, c. 1930)
Haydn Quartet, "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (Victor 1316, 1902)
Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers, "Sweet Bye and Bye" (OKeh 45177, 1928; rec. 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (Vocalion 5162, 1927)
Margarethe Matzenauer, "In he Sweet Bye and Bye" (Pathe Actuelle 027519, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Preacher and the Slave" (tune)
cf. "The Cowboy's Dream" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Preacher and the Slave (File: San221)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
In the Sweet By and By
NOTES: Jackson writes, "It may be that the venerable old Gospel number 'Sweet By and By' is the only famous song written in a drugstore; it is CERTAINLY the only famous song written in a drugstore in Elkhorn, Wisconsin."
Johnson quotes from Bennet's papers, describing how it happened: one day in 1867, J. P. Webster (who also wrote the music for "Lorena") strolled into the Elkhorn drugstore in a grim mood. Asked what was wrong, he declared that it wasn't important; "It will be all right by and by." Sanford Fillmore Bennett, who owned the drugstore, heard the line scribbled these verses -- with the intent to write as song, according to what he said; Jackson claims it was to comfort Webster.
Personally, I probably would have gotten even more grim after reading such saccharine lyrics, but Webster at once cheered up and started to set them to music, and the music at least did well.
Since we're talking about useless Wisconsin lore, we might add that this is said to have been the favorite hymn of Charles Ingalls, the "Pa" of Laura Ingalls Wilder (it was written the year Laura was born, note, though Elkhorn is in the eastern part of the state, far from the Pepin country), and was reportedly played at his funeral in 1902 (see Donald Zochert, Laura, pp. 140-141). - RBW
File: RJ19198

Sweet Calder Burn

See Bonnie Woodha' (File: HHH476)

Sweet Carnloch Bay

See The Road to Dundee (File: Ord152)

Sweet Charming Ann

See Lovely Ann (File: Leyd034)

Sweet Cider

DESCRIPTION: "Where's the mule and where's the rider? Where's the gal that drinks sweet cider? Sallie, won't you have some (x2), Sally, won't you have some of my hard cider?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 45, "Sweet Cider" (1 text)
Roud #7864
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett & Clayton McMichen, "Paddy Won't You Drink Some Cider" (Columbia 15358-D, 1929)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Little Black-Eyed Susan
File: Br3045

Sweet Clonalee

DESCRIPTION: The singer explains why he is leaving Clonalee for America. He loved a girl, but she turned instead to a wealthy old farmer. The farmer accused the singer of sheep-stealing. He leaves his parents behind and curses James Magee (presumably the farmer)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection age money emigration accusation theft sheep
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H554, p. 400, "Sweet Clonalee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7967
File: HHH554

Sweet County Wexford

DESCRIPTION: "On Moniseed of a summer's morning" the Shelmaliers fight British and Gorey cavalry. After driving the British back the Irish rest. "Had we the wisdom to follow after ... We'd have saved the lives of many a martyr That died in Arklow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle death Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - Father John Murphy launches the Wexford rebellion; he defeats the Camolin cavalry that night, and the next day annihilates a small militia force at Oulart
May 29, 1798 - Father Murphy leads the insurgents against Enniscorthy
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 9, 1798 - Father Murphy, trying to lead his forces into Wicklow, defeated at Arklow
June 21, 1798 - Rebel defeat at Vinegar Hill ends the Wexford rising
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn 79, "Sweet County Wexford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 94, "Sweet County Wexford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-OISBv2, pp. 55-56, "Sweet County Wexford" (1 text; tune on p. 21)
Roud #2997
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boulavogue" (historical setting)
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
NOTES: Moylan: "According to Denis Devereux, O Lochlainn's source for the words, this song is the original upon which P.J. McCall based his 'Boolavogue'." On the other hand, see the notes to "Father Murphy (I)."
The Irish baronies of Shelmalier, East and West, are in County Wexford. - BS
This is an unusually self-honest assessment of the course of the Wexford rebellion. Wexford itself was abandoned on May 30, and Gorey even before that, but the rebels didn't occupy the latter until June 4. The delay gave the loyalists time to organize and counterattack. (See Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, being Volume I of The Green Flag, p. 115).
Wexford didn't really matter; it was south of the Rebel strong points. Gorey, though, was on the way to Arklow and, eventually, Dublin. Had the rebels headed straight there, it might have given them a chance to really threaten the government. Instead, they went to Wexford, and camped on the Three Rocks hill. They beat off a small force of Meath militia, killing its commander, Colonel Watson (see Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 177). The garrison abandoned the town (Pakenham, p. 178), and the rebels entered. (We note, incidentally, that it was in Wexford that they captured the prisoners to be brutalized at Scullabogue -- for which see "Father Murphy (II) (The Wexford Men of '98)" and "Kelly, the Boy from Killane.")
The attack on Wexford had another side effect: It caused the rebels to appoint Bagenal Harvey their commander (Kee, pp. 116-117), and he had no clue what to do; his ineptitute would contribute much to the defeat at New Ross (for which see "Kelly, the Boy from Killane" and "James Ervin" [Laws J15]).
Finally, in mid-June, the rebels headed for Arklow, which they should have occupied at least a week earlier. Repulsed (see the notes to "Father Murphy (I)"), the rebellion lost its last hint of planning, and fizzled out.
The characters cited in the song are often hard to identify. I can mention the following:
"Gowan" - "Hunter" Gowan, given his nickname because of his earlier career tracking down outlaws, who organized the "Black Mob" (a group of rebel-hunting vigilantes); he is reputed to have marched about with the finger of a rebel at the end of his sword. And worse. "Fiend" seems a suitable word for him.
"Captain Dixon" - there was a Captain Dixon, but he was a rebel sea captain; I think there is some confusion here.
"General Walpole": Presumably Colonel Walpole, ADC to Viceroy Camden? He was never a general, but he did have a brief taste of independent command, which might explain the title.
In early June, Walpole was sent from Dublin with a few hundred men and three cannon to reinforce General Loftus's troops in Wexford. This despite a complete lack of military training and experience. It showed. On June 4, as part of a plan to surround a rebel force at Ballymore, Walpole's force set out from Gorey. He did not follow the battle plan, was intercepted by the rebels, and he and most of his soldiers were killed. - RBW
File: OLoc079

Sweet Dakotaland

See Dakota Land (File: San280)

Sweet Dunloy

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his love leave Ireland for Scotland to escape her father. The father follows and has them forcibly returned to Ireland. Although the girl says she consented, the jury convicts him. After he is freed, they will go to America instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation father elopement prison trial punishment
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H577, pp. 439-440, "Sweet Dunloy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7962
File: HHH577

Sweet Europe

See Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone) (File: R059)

Sweet Evalina

See Dear Evalina (File: R823)

Sweet Evelena

See Dear Evalina (File: R823)

Sweet Evelina

See Dear Evalina (File: R823)

Sweet Fanny Adams

DESCRIPTION: Fanny Adams, her sister, and another girl go to play, but meet a clerk named Frederick Baker. He sends the younger children off with money for sweets, then murders Fanny. The singer grieves for her daughter, but notes that her murderer is now dead as well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867? (broadside announcing execution of Baker)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer's eight-year-old daughter Fanny Adams and her sister go to play with another girl, but they meet a young clerk named Frederick Baker. He offers the younger children money for sweets; when they have gone, he drags Fanny to the hollow. She is missed, and the searchers find her body, murdered and horribly dismembered. The mother grieves for her daughter, but notes that her murderer is now dead as well
KEYWORDS: grief rape violence abduction crime execution murder punishment death mourning children mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
August 27, 1867 -- Murder of Fanny Adams by Frederick Baker. Baker was hanged later in the year.
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy 333, "Sweet Fanny Adams" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2152
RECORDINGS:
Vashti Vincent, "Sweet Fanny Adams" (on FSB7)
NOTES: The murder took place at Alton, in Hampshire. Cruel to relate, the expression "Sweet Fanny Adams" became part of British vernacular; in the Royal Navy it was used to refer to any dubious meat dish.
In more recent popular usage, it means "nothing"; if one doesn't get paid for a job, for example, one says one got "Sweet Fanny Adams" or "Sweet F. A." In this context, of course, it is a euphemism for "sweet fuck-all.' - PJS
File: K333

Sweet Fields of Violo

See Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)

Sweet Florella

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

Sweet Freedom

See O Freedom (File: LxU108)

Sweet Genevieve

DESCRIPTION: The singer would "give the world to live again the lovely past" with Genevieve. They are older now, but he still loves her and wishes to be with her always: "O Genevieve, Sweet Genevieve... Still the hands of mem'ry weave... Blissful dreams of long ago"
AUTHOR: Words: George Cooper / Music: Henry Tucker
EARLIEST DATE: 1869
KEYWORDS: love age
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 202-205, "Sweet Genevieve" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-Famous, pp. 11-13, "Sweet Genevieve" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 259, "Sweet Genevieve" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 543, "Sweet Genevieve"
DT, OGENVIEV
ST RK19202 (Full)
Roud #13643
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Silver Threads among the Gold" (theme)
cf. "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (theme)
NOTES: Genevieve is reported to be the real-life bride of George Cooper who died shortly after their marriage. However, since no one can find the records of this marriage, this may be the usual sort of sentimental folklore. - RBW
File: RK19202

Sweet Girls of Derry, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is captivated by the sweet girls of Derry. He describes them as "so comely and merry" with sweet voices. "Though I left them behind me, Full soon they shall find me in Derry again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 76-77, "The Sweet Girls of Derry" (1 text)
Roud #6537
File: HayU076

Sweet Glenbush

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the maidens to listen to his(?) story, asking them to pity a wandering youth. He recalls his departure from Glenbush; now dreams and memories of home say to him, "Come back to sweet Glenbush"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H573, p. 212, "Sweet Glenbush" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH573

Sweet Hally

See Listen to the Mockingbird (File: RJ19110)

Sweet Heaven (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I want to go to Heaven and I want to go right; How I long to be there; I want to go to Heaven all dressed in white, How I long..." "Sweet Heaven (x3), Oh, how I long...." About heaven, the contest between the singer and Satan, and other floating themes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious devil floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 638, "Sweet Heaven" (1 text, with many floating verses, e.g. the terrapin and the toad, "I run old Satan round the stump")
Roud #11834
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Catfish (Banjo Sam)" (floating lyrics)
File: Br3638

Sweet Heaven (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer is going to the racetrack; he promises to share any winnings with his sweetheart. Rest floats, e.g. "Give beefsteak when I'm hungry, whiskey when I'm dry...." Chorus: "Let her go (x2) God bless her/Though she roams over land and sea...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Tenneva Ramblers)
KEYWORDS: farewell parting floatingverses nonballad lover gambling racing food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SharpAp 243, "Liza Anne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7697
RECORDINGS:
Clint Howard et al, "Sweet Heaven When I Die" (on WatsonAshley01)
Arthur Smith Trio, "Sweet Heaven" (Bluebird B-7146, 1937)
Tenneva Ramblers, "Sweet Heaven When I Die" (Victor 20861, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Country Blues" (floating verses)
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (lyrics)
cf. "Saint James Infirmary" (the "let her go" lyrics)
NOTES: This certainly has strong overlaps with "Dear Companion", paraphrasing its chorus and some of its verses. But its gestalt is different, and it has acquired a life of its own, so I split them. - PJS
I put SharpAp 243, here because its first floating verse is "Beefsteak when I'm hungry...," but it's really a mess of floaters, one of which also shows up in the "Betty Anne" version of "Shady Grove." Although it was collected in 1917, I'm not assigning that as Earliest Date for "Sweet Heaven (II)," but I note it here. - PJS
File: RcSwHeav

Sweet Inishcara

DESCRIPTION: "I have travelled in exile midst cold-hearted strangers" in Canada and India/Indies looking for gold and spices. The singer returns home to find his home in ruins and his sweetheart dead. He will join her. "In heaven she'll welcome her wanderer home"
AUTHOR: John Fitzgerald (source: OCanainn)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1958 (recording, Copley 9-228-B)
KEYWORDS: love travel return death gold Canada India Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn, pp. 48-49, "The Exile's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12923
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Breen, "Sweet Inishcara" (on Voice04)
The McNulty Family, "The Exile of Cork" (Copley 9-228-B)
NOTES: When I was puzzling about the text of "The Exile of Cork" John Moulden pointed out that it belongs here. The matrix number for the McNulty Family's "Exile of Cork" is E3-CB-3235-1A.
Spottswood lists Tim Donovan, "The Exile of Cork" (on Decca 12157) with session date Apr 7, 1938 (matrix number 63574-A). If it can be verified that that recording is for this song it would establish a new earliest date (source: Ethnic Music on Records: a Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 by Richard K Spottswood (Urbana, c1990), p. 2751).
The singer's home is "by the beautiful Lee" and finds, when he returns, that "sweet Inishcara o'er-shadows her grave." Below Cork City, the Lee flows past Inniscara and enters the Celtic Sea.
OCanainn: "This was composed some sixty years ago [c.1918]...." - BS
File: RcSweIni

Sweet Jane [Laws B22]

DESCRIPTION: Willie bids his Jane farewell and sets off across the sea. Three years later, having gained success as a gold miner, he returns to his southern home and marries Jane
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: separation marriage gold mining
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws B22, "Sweet Jane"
BrownII 259, "Sweet Jane" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Combs/Wilgus 51, pp. 177-178, "Sweet Jane" (1 text)
DT 726, SWTJANE
Roud #3243
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Come Sweet Jane
Adieu, Sweet Lovely Jane
NOTES: This is a relatively rare song, and is not at all specific in its details. Where does the singer go to seek gold? We have no clue. Since he apparently goes overseas, it can hardly be the San Francisco or Klondike gold rushes (yes, a prospector might well go to those places by sea -- but it is not *overseas*). That leaves perhaps South Africa or Australia.
The singer claims also to have "lived on bread and salty (meat/lard), and never lost my health." Such a diet, if followed for long, would assuredly result in scurvy -- and, if pursued for three years, would certainly result in death. Clearly he got more vegetable matter than he let on.
If there is more to be said about this song, it must be hidden in a version I have not seen. - RBW
File: LB22

Sweet Jenny of the Moor

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Sweet Jinny on the Moor

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Sweet Kingwilliamstown

DESCRIPTION: An exile from Kingwilliamstown sails away, thinking about "childhood's days and happy hours ... old home and the friends so dear." "Shall I no more gaze on that shore or view those mountains high?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: exile separation Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn, p. 67, "Sweet Kingwilliamstown" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OCanainn: "Kingwilliamstown is the name by which Ballydesmond, near the Cork-Kerry border, was formerly known." - BS
File: OCan067

Sweet Kitty

See Rambleaway (File: ShH31)

Sweet Kitty Clover

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Kitty Clover, she bothered me so, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!... Her face was round and red and fat, Like a pulpit cushion or redder than that." "Sweet Kitty in person is rather low... She's three feet tall." "If Kitty to kirk with me would go..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1837 (The _Vocal Companion_)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Linscott, pp. 286-288, "Sweet Kitty Clover" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), "The Vocal Companion_, second edition, D'Almaine and Co., 1937 (available from Google Books), pp. 154-155, "Sweet Kitty Clover" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Lins286 (Full)
Roud #3743
NOTES: The Vocal Companion credits this to "Kean," but it is not certain whether "Kean" wrote words and music, or just music, or whether he was the arranger. The book tends to list only composers, not lyricists. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Lins286

Sweet Kumadee, The

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

Sweet Lily

See Oh Lily, Dear Lily (File: R731)

Sweet Little Birdie, The

See The Little Girl and the Robin (File: R880)

Sweet Londonderry (on the Banks of the Foyle)

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the "ancient walled city," "sweet Londonderry on the banks of the Foyle." Orphaned, he works for years as a sailor. He courts a pretty girl of Londonderry. He hopes to work for her when they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting home sailor work
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H813, p. 468, "Sweet Londonderry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9453
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Londonderry on the Banks of the Foyle
Lovely Derry on the Banks of the Foyle
File: HHH813

Sweet Loughgiel

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls leaving Loughgiel and his friends at home. He describes his early life there. He dreams of being back. He hopes someday to return, and wishes he could be as content as he was there
AUTHOR: "McWilliams"
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H506, p. 214, "Sweet Loughgiel" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH506

Sweet Lovely Joan

See Lovely Joan (File: ShH57)

Sweet Lulur

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a policeman in Danville. "He bound my feet in cold iron, all tangled my feet in chains, But before I'd go back on my Lulur, I'll have them tangled again." He notes that "If it hadn't a-been for sweet Lulur, it was Lulur that brought be here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: police prison love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 350, "The Prisoner's Song" (7 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 excerpts, and mention of 1 more; "A"-"C," plus probably the "D" excerpt, are "The Prisoner's Song (I)"; "E" and "G," plus perhaps the "H" fragment, are "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight"; "J" and "K" are "Sweet Lulur")
Sandburg, p. 307, "Way Up on Clinch Mountain" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text is "Rye Whiskey," but the short "B" text is perhaps this or something like it though probably composite, perhaps with "The Wagoner's Lad")
Roud #767
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Roud, presumably following Brown et al, lump this with "The Prisoner's Song" group. It appears to me distinct. - RBW
File: BrIII350

Sweet Maisry

See Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)

Sweet Mama

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet mama, treetop tall, Won't you please turn your damper down? I smell hoecake burning, Dey done burnt some brown. I'm laid mah head On de railroad track. I t'ought about Mama An' I drugged it back. Sweet mama, treetop tall, Won't...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food love suicide
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 242, "Sweet Mama" (1 short text)
File: ScNF242b

Sweet Marie

DESCRIPTION: The man longs for Marie, but finds it hard to tell her: "Sweet Marie, come to me, Come to me, Sweet Marie, Not because your face is fair, love, to see, Every daisy in the dell Knows my secret very well, Yet I dare not tell Sweet Marie... ."
AUTHOR: Words: Cy Warman / Music: Raymon Moore
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 229-230, "Sweet Marie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-Famous, pp. 70-74, "Sweet Marie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11353
RECORDINGS:
Walter Morris, "Sweet Marie" (Columbia 15115-D, 1927)
SAME TUNE:
Sweet Marie (the Racing Mare) (Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 229)
NOTES: I am told that "[This] song was featured in the 1947 movie 'Life with Father' (William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor) based on the memoirs of Clarence Day, Jr... (articles first appeared in The New Yorker in the 1920s and were later published as three books: God and My Father, Life with Father, Life with Mother). Prior to becoming the movie (and later a TV series in the 1950s), 'Life with Father' was written as a play and opened on Broadway in 1939.
"Percy French did a parody of the song with Sweet Marie becoming a racehorse. That song is available in "The Songs of Percy French" selected and edited by James Healy (Ossian Publications/Mercier Press--1986/1996)."
Moore was a nineteenth century singer who apparently was very popular as a performer. Warman apparently came to him and asked him to perform "Sweet Marie," which Warman had written in honor of his wife. Warman eventually came up with a tune and sang it as part of the musical comedy "Africa." Ironically, it was no great success when Moore sang it -- but when he quit the play, his replacement made it a hit. - RBW
File: MCB229

Sweet Mary

DESCRIPTION: Dialog; young man asks sweet Mary whether he may ask her parents for her hand. She replies that they will reject his suit; he says he will die of grief. She has a way to save him; "Since my parents are both so contrary/You'd better ask me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, Horton Barker)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection request dialog humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Sweet Mary" (on Barker01)
NOTES: Should not be confused with "Farewell, Sweet Mary," although it's just possible that this may be a parody of that song. - PJS
File: RcSweeMa

Sweet Mary Jane

See Bright Phoebe (File: FSC070)

Sweet Mary of Cliftonhill

DESCRIPTION: At harvest time the singer sees Mary with another man. Later they drink to each other at a tavern. He reminds her of good times they have had. She leaves for home. They kiss and part. Miles away now he pines for her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting love parting harvest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 708, "Sweet Mary of Cliftonhill" (8 texts, 6 tunes)
Roud #6148
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Harvest Time
Clifton's Braes
File: GrD4708

Sweet Mossy Banks of the Wey, The

See The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea [Laws O15] (File: LO15)

Sweet Nightingale (I), The

See Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale) (File: K089)

Sweet Nightingale (II), The

See The Birds in the Spring (File: RcTBiITS)

Sweet Omagh Town

See Omagh Town and the Bards of Clanabogan (File: TST066)

Sweet Portaferry (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Why should men toil foreign lands to explore, When wonder and pleasement are here at the door ... and leave Portaferry and the Kingdom of Down?" If the singer were rich he might travel but at the end he'd return home.
AUTHOR: Leslie Montgomery
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: travel lyric Ireland home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 94, "Sweet Portaferry" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Portaferry is about 20 miles southeast of Belfast. - BS
File: OLcM094

Sweet Portaferry (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer travels around Ireland but "Sweet Portaferry remains in my mind." He returns from foreign lands with "silks and fine laces" to his true love. "Then I'll whisper so fondly and I know she'll agree 'O! Sweet Portaferry, you're a dear spot to me'"
AUTHOR: Cathal O'Byrne
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: travel lyric Ireland love sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 94A, "Sweet Portaferry" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Portaferry is about 20 miles southeast of Belfast. - BS
File: OLcM094A

Sweet Primeroses, The

See The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: ShH51)

Sweet Refrain

DESCRIPTION: "A music hall was crowded in a village o�er the sea, And brilliant lights were flashing everywhere." A minstrel sings, and a "darkey" remembers his mother and the days of his youth; he begs, "Sing again that sweet refrain"
AUTHOR: Gussie L. Davis ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: music
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, p. 121, "Sweet Refrain" (1 text)
Roud #4834
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(124), "Sing again that Sweet Refrain," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Minstrel from the Sunny South
NOTES: This business of a song inspiring a memory seems to have been a common idea in the late nineteenth century; Julian Jordan did it with "The Song That Reached My Heart," which treats "Home! Sweet Home! the way this song treats "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River." - RBW
File: Dean121

Sweet River Suir

DESCRIPTION: The river most deserving of praise is the Suir. The river "has the most devinest aspect" and the best navigators. Its shores have the most melodious bulls. "Its meandering banks so transparent pure; It far surpasses mugs, jugs, and glasses"
AUTHOR: Phil Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: river humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 84A, "Sweet River Suir" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: "The River Suir rises in the Devils Bit Mountains [North Tipperary] and flows through the limestone country of South Tipperary and North Waterford" (source: South East [Ireland] Tourism site). For other songs about the river see "The Clonmel Flood," "The Wreck of the Avondale," "The Wreck of the Gwendoline," and "Rare Clonmel." - BS
File: OLcM084A

Sweet Rose of Allandale

See The Rose of Allandale (File: SWMS257)

Sweet Rose of Allendale

See The Rose of Allandale (File: SWMS257)

Sweet Rosie O'Grady

DESCRIPTION: "Just down around the corner of a street where I reside, There lives the sweetest little girl that I have ever spied." The singer vows never to forget the day they met, and says that the very birds sing her name
AUTHOR: Maude Nugent
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad bird marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dean, p. 62, "Rose O'Grady" (1 text)
DT, SWTROSY*
Roud #9560
NOTES: According to Spaeth, "Maude Nugent, who sang and danced at Johnny Reilly's famous place, 'The Abbey'... is officially recognized as the creator of Sweet Rosie O'Grady, althouth there is a strong suspicion that her husband, Billy Jerome, actually wrote the song." The reason for this is that she never wrote anything else of significance -- but let's be serious: This is a silly piece of work. It wouldn't take much of a songwriter to produce such a thing. It became a hit presumably because the tune is good and harmonizes well in barbershop arrangements.
Billy Jerome, according to Spaeth, p. 331, was responsible for such tremendous hits as "Bedelia," "Mister Dooley," "China Town, My China Town," "My Irish Molly, O," and "The Hat My Father Wore on Saint Patrick's Day." Not a particularly inspiring list of songs to my way of thinking.
Whoever the author, it didn't bring much money to the Nugent/Jerome household. They sold the rights for a few hundred dollars, according to Spaeth, and when the copyright was renewed, they reassigned them, resulting in much quarreling over royalties. - RBW
File: Dean062A

Sweet Silver Light of the Moon

See The Silvery Moon (File: R800)

Sweet Sixteen

DESCRIPTION: The singer talks about "the pretty girls who often may be seen 'Long about they time when they're sweet sixteen." He describes how they primp and show off and talk about boys. (He warns that they tease, or will not work.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal); copy in the Lomax papers probably from before 1940
KEYWORDS: youth beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon 38, pp. 200-202, "Sweet Sixteen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #10098
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Putting on the Style" (theme)
File: Logs037

Sweet Smiling Lassie o' Modest Fifteen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "fell in love wi' the bonnie young lassie, The sweet smiling lassie o' modest fifteen." He proposed, she consented, they married "and noo we are livin' fu' happy and bien [prosperous]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: love marriage beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 732, "The Sweet Smiling Lassie o' Modest Fifteen" (1 text)
Roud #6165
File: GrD4732

Sweet Soldier Boy

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

Sweet Sunny South (I), The [Laws A23]

DESCRIPTION: A young Southerner, armed and ready, bids farewell to family and sweetheart. He sets off for the war, hoping to return when the Yankees are driven off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: war farewell
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws A23, "The Sweet Sunny South"
FSCatskills 18, "The Bright Sunny South" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 97, "The Sweet Sunny Souoth" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 76, "The Rebel Soldier" (2 texts, but only the first belongs here; the second is The Rebel Soldier)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 272-273, "Sweet Sunny South" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 49, "The Sunny South" (1 text)
DY 698, SUNNYSTH
Roud #800
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Bright Sunny South" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
NOTES: Laws, obviously, considers this piece to be of American origin. Cazden et al, however, note that the versions hardly REQUIRE a setting in the American Civil War, and that one southern version refers to a FOREIGN war. In addition, the song has been found primarily in the North. On this basis Cazden argues for an Irish rather than southern American origin.
Gardner and Chickering's text has an interesting last few stanzas which wish that "from Union and Yankee our land shall be free." This sounds rather like a particularization from perhaps Kentucky or Missouri. - RBW
Not to be confused with the sentimental song of the same name [in the Index as "Sweet Sunny South II - RBW], wherein the singer returns to his childhood home to find everyone dead and gone. The characteristic first lines of that song are "Take me back to the place where I first saw the light/To the sweet sunny south take me home." - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LA23

Sweet Sunny South (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Take me back to the place where I first saw the light, To my sweet sunny south take me home." The singer (perhaps an ex-slave) describes home and how much he misses it. He hopes to return to the graves of "my little ones" "to rest and to die" among them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: home death burial grief homesickness loneliness return family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
SharpAp 186, "The Sunny South" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
BrownIII 400, "The Sweet Sunny South" (1 text)
Rorrer, p. 88, "Sweet Sunny South" (1 text)
DT, SUNSOUTH
Roud #772
RECORDINGS:
DaCosta Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Take Me Back to the Sweet Sunny South" (Gennett 6176/Champion 15318/Challenge 333, 1927)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Sweet Sunny South" (Paramount 3136, 1928)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Take Me Home to the Sweet Sunny South" (Bluebird B-6479/Montgomery Ward M-5035, 1936)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Take Me Back to the Sweet Sunny South" (on NLCR04)
Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers, "The Sweet Sunny South" (Victor 21132, 1927)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Sweet Sunny South" (Columbia 15425-D, 1929; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
Posey Rorrer and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Sweet Sunny South Take Me Home" (Edison, unissued, 1928)
Jackson Young [pseud. for Ben Jarrell], "Take Me Back to the Sweet Sunny South" (Champion 15318/Herwin 75555, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On the Banks of the Old Tennessee" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
'31 Depression Blues (File: Rc31DB)
NOTES: Rorrer notes sheet versions of this dating back at least to the Civil War period, and possibly to several decades before that, but gives no details.
It seems fairly clear that the original versions were about a slave who had gained his freedom by some means but now wished to be back in his old place. Songwriters of the mid nineteenth century were fond of this (propagandistic) theme. One wonders how popular it would have been had the audience been Blacks rather than Whites. - RBW
Not to be confused with "The Sweet Sunny South (I)" [Laws A23], a Confederate soldier's farewell. - PJS, RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: DTsunsou

Sweet Tayside

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears two lovers. The man says it would be a "great sin" if the girl does not give him a love token. She asks what he would have; he names a ring, a garter, and a broach. She gives them, then laments that he is untrue. He then marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love courting ring gift betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig #97, p. 2, "Sweet Tayside" (1 text)
GreigDuncan4 882, "Sweet Tayside" (2 texts plus a single verse on p. 570, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 118-119, "Sweet Tayside" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 92-93, "The Ploughman's Daughter" (1 tune)
Roud #5544
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (tune, per GreigDuncan4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ploughman's Bonny Lassie
File: Ord118

Sweet Thing (I)

DESCRIPTION: "What you gonna do when the pond goes dry, honey, What you gonna do when the pond goes dry, baby?" Sundry verses about catching fish, rural life, and (presumably) sexual innuendo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: nonballad courting sex
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 443, "Sweet Thing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 349-350, "Sweet Thing" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 443)
Lomax-FSUSA 34, "Sweet Thing/Crawdad Song/Sugar Babe" (3 texts, 1 tune)
SharpAp 245, "Sugar Babe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 62, "The Crow-Fish Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 240, "What Kin' o Pants Does the Gambler Wear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 235, "Sweet Thing" (1 text)
Roud #4853
RECORDINGS:
Callahan Brothers, "Sweet Thing" (Decca 5952, 1941)
Lulu Belle and Scotty, "Sugar Babe" (Melotone 6-08-58/Perfect 6-08-58, 1936)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Birmingham Jail" (Brunswick 293, 1929/Supertone S-2031, 1930)
(Banner 6401/Regal 8792/Conqueror 7363, 1929; probably the same as the Pickard Family's "Get Me Out of This Birmingham Jail," Brunswick 385, 1929; Supertone S-2068, 1930)
"T" Texas Tyler, "Sweet Thing" (4-Star 1228, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Crawdad" (tune, lyrics, and everything else) and references there
cf. "Going Down This Road Feeling Bad" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Bud & Joe Billings (pseud. for Frank Luther & Carson Robison) "Birmingham Jail #2" (Victor V-40082, 1929)
NOTES: Songs with this tune and metrical pattern turn up throughout North American tradition; like the limerick, this skeleton seems to have become a favorite framework for humorous material. - PJS
This song poses a conundrum (hinted at in Paul's comment), because it merges continuously with the "Crawdad" family; they use the same tune (at least sometimes) and ALL of the same verses. Roud lumps them. Chances are that they are the same song. But the tenor of the song changes somewhat with the presence or absence of a crawdad; after initially lumping the song, the Ballad Index staff decided to split them, based solely on mention of a crawdad. Which meant, e.g., that "The Crow-Fish Man (I)" files here even though it's clearly derived from "Crawdad." So one should definitely check all versions of both to get the complete range of material. - RBW
Well, adding to the conundrum, the version of "The Crow-fish Man" in SharpAp *does* mention crawdads, so it gets filed under "Crawdad Song." - PJS
File: R443A

Sweet Thing (II)

See Crawdad (File: R443)

Sweet Town of Anthony, The

See By Kells Waters (Kellswaterside) (File: HHH802)

Sweet Trinity, The

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

Sweet Violets (II)

See Teasing Songs (File: EM256)

Sweet William (I)

See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Sweet William (II)

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

Sweet William (III)

See Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)

Sweet William (IV)

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

Sweet William (V)

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

Sweet William (VI)

See The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly) [Laws N4] (File: LN04)

Sweet William and Lady Margery

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

Sweet William and May Margaret

See Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)

Sweet William and Nancy

See Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)

Sweet William of Plymouth

DESCRIPTION: William, a sailor, courts poor Susan. She rejects her parent's plan to marry her to a wealthy squire and is sent away. William returns from sea, and they -- not knowing he is now rich -- tell him she is dead. William and Susan meet and marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 4(91))
LONG DESCRIPTION: William, a seaman, courts Susan, "but a fisherman's daughter ... "[but] the most beautiful creature on earth." "The day was appointed the knot should be tied" but Susan becomes sick, and cannot be cured by "famous Physicians"; the wedding had to be postponed. William is called to go to sea, leaving her behind. He promises to marry when he returns "if thou by good fortune alive dost remain." She promises to remain true. He leaves. She recovers. She rejects a "wealthy young farmer" who courts her, and a squire as well. The squire appeals to her father and mother who, "being ambitious of honour and fame, Did strive to persuade her, but all in vain." She rejects their attempt.
They send her to Holland, planning to tell William, on his return, that Susan has died; if William marries another then Susan would be free to marry the squire. William, gone two years, returns "laden with riches." Susan's parents tell him she has died. He leaves his money with his own parents and decides "to travel again, Perhaps it will wear off my anguish and pain." At sea again, a storm wrecks his ship on the Dutch shore. He goes to the Hague, to repair his ship, and meets Susan. She tells him of her parent's plot. They go to Plymouth where they plan their wedding. He invites Susan's parents, saying that he has decided to marry another since Susan is dead. They agree, and "fetch home our daughter to marry the squire." She was dressed so finely that "her father and mother her face did not know." Susan reveals herself to her mother, and her parents give her their blessing, not yet knowing about his riches. He hints at his wealth and "with music and dancing they finish'd the day."
KEYWORDS: courting rejection disguise wreck
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan5 1078, "The Fisherman's Daughter" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Julia H.L. De Vaynes, The Kentish Garland (Hertford, 1882 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 669-674, "Sweet William of Plymouth"
Roud #6763
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 4(91), "Sweet William of Plymouth" ("A seaman of Dover, sweet William by name"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 4(96), "Sweet William of Plymouth"; Harding B 4(96), "Sweet William of Plymouth"
LOCSinging, as10407a, "The Fortunate Lovers" or "Sweet William of Plymouth" ("A Seaman of Plymouth, sweet William by name"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds)" [Laws K36] (theme: poor sailor returning wealthy, is rejected by sweetheart's parents who think him still poor)
NOTES: The GreigDuncan5 fragment -- "And she was not courted by none of the worst, A young squire came to court her at last; He called her his jewel, his true love, his dear ... 'I cannot, I daur not, you must be denied.'" -- corresponds to lines 37-39, 45 and 48 (of 200) of the Vaynes (i.e., Roxburghe Collection III.332) text with some changes, viz., "So that she was counted [sic] by none of the worst; A wealthy young farmer came to her the first, And call'd her the jewel and joy of his life.... Then came a squire, who call'd her his dear .... "I must not, I cannot, you must be deny'd." Helpfully, the GreigDuncan5 title was "The Fisherman's Daughter" which is not hinted at in the GreigDuncan5 text or notes.
I have gone into great detail in the LONGDESCRIPTION because "Sweet William of Plymouth" has sometimes been considered a version of "A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.)" [Laws P9]. That is clearly not the case and may be caused by confusion with the broadsides for "The Sailor from Dover" which follow the standard story line for Laws P9. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Grd1078

Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77]

DESCRIPTION: (Sweet William) dies while engaged. Since he has an unfulfilled commitment, his spirit cannot rest. He goes to his sweetheart, who begs him to wed her/kiss her/etc. When she learns that he is dead, she releases him from his promise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1740 (Ramsey)
KEYWORDS: ghost promise freedom death
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Bord)) Ireland
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Child 77, "Sweet William's Ghost" (8 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 77, "Sweet William's Ghost" (11 versions+ 1 in addenda)
Morton-Ulster 8, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 130-133, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text)
Butterworth/Dawney, p. 48, "Willie the Waterboy" (1 text, 1 tune, short enough that it might be Child #77 or Child #248 or a combination or perhaps independent; Roud files it with Child #248, but Dawney with Child #77)
Davis-More 21, pp. 152-156, "" (1 text, so fragmentary that it might be some other ballad with intrusions from "Sweet William's Ghost")
Flanders/Brown, pp. 240-241, "Lady Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text, taken from the Green Mountain Songster)
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 178-183, "Sweet William's Ghost" (2 texts, the first being the Green Mountain Songster version)
BrownII 23, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 9, "Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 390-395, "Lady Margaret" (1 text, 6 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 9, "Sweet William's Ghost" (2 texts, 9 tunes) {Bronson's #3}
Leach, pp. 256-262, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text plus a Danish text for comparison)
Leach-Labrador 4, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 47, "Sweet William's Ghost" (2 texts)
Gummere, pp. 203-205+348-349, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 78-80, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text)
DT 77, WILIGHOS* WILIGHO2 (GHOSWILL? -- a very worn down version that might be derived from this piece)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #428, "Sweet William and May Margaret" (1 text)
Roud #50
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Lady Margaret" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 5(1), "Sweet William's Ghost," unknown, n.d.
NOTES: Child versions A, B, C and G end the ghost's visit with crowing cocks; in Ireland (Morton-Ulster 8 and Paddy Tunney on Voice03) the cock may be replaced by the moor cock. The ghost/cock motif accounts for the connection, by some, of "Willy O!" to Child 77. - BS
Tom Shipley, in The Road to Middle-Earth (third edition), p. 210, notes that Herd's text of this (Child's B) mentioned "Middle-Earth," implying that this song might have been a small part of the inspiration of the world (though not the plot) created by J. R. R. Tolkien. Rather a stretch -- but interesting, the more so as Tolkien did have a strong affinity for folklore and folk song. And Shippey, pp. 214-215, notes that in the crisis of Gondor, as the Witch-King is confronting Gandalf at the gate of Minas Tirith, a cock crew -- a token of the change from the triumph of dark to the triumph of light. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C077

Sweet Willie (I)

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

Sweet Willie (II)

See Come All You Fair and Tender Girls (File: WB2080)

Sweet Willie (III)

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Sweet Willie and Fair Annie

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

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