$3.
THE
JOAN BAEZ Sixty-Six
Songs
comprising the repertory of
America's bestloved folksinger, with historical-
musical annotations.
Arrangements
mi;
for voice
and
piano by
Hi I
Elie Siegmeister,
with complete chord
progressions for the guitarist
and capo-key ti&
indications
enabling the
beginning instrumentalist to play along
with the
Joan Baez 'it:
recordings.
WI
Illustrations in color
Eric
by
Von Schmidt.
Introduction by Elie
Siegmeister
and preface by John M. Conly.
RYERSON MUSIC PUBLISHERS, INC. A DIVISION OF
VANGUARD RECORDS NEW YORK
Digitized by the Internet Archive in
2010
http://www.archive.org/details/joanbaezsongbookOOsieg
The Joan Baez Songbook
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4*.
*
55^ /.
>Vj'%i! PHOTO/WILLIAM CLAXTON
THE
JOAN BAEZ
ARRANGEMENTS AND INTRODUCTION BY ELIE
SIEGMEISTER
PREFACE BY JOHN
M.
CONLY
ILLUSTRATED BY ERIC VON SCHMIDT
EDITED BY
MAYNARD SOLOMON
MUSIC EDITORS: CHRISTA LANDON & JACK LOTHROP
RYERSON MUSIC PUBLISHERS, A DIVISION OF
VANGUARD RECORDS
INC.,
N. Y.
THE JOAN BAE2 SONGBOOK FIRST PRINTING, OCTOBER,
1964
SECOND PRINTING. DECEMBER, 1964 THIRD PRINTING, JANUARY, 1965 FOURTH PRINTING, JUNE, 1965 FIFTH PRINTING, SEPTEMBER, 1965 SIXTH PRINTING. JANUARY, 1966 SEVENTH PRINTING, JULY, 1966 EIGHTH PRINTING, NOVEMBER. 1966
154
COPYRIGHT © 1964 BY RYERSON MUSIC PUBLISHERS, INC. WEST 14th STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 64-24388 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10011
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN ANY FORM WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF BRIEF QUOTATIONS EMBODIED IN CRITICAL ARTICLES
AND REVIEWS.
ALL OF THE PIANO ARRANGEMENTS OF PUBLIC DOMAIN SONGS ARE COPYRIGHT © 1964 BY ELIE SIEGMEISTER AND MAY NOT BE REPRINTED IN ANY FORM
WITHOUT PERMISSION.
JOAN BAEZ MAKES NO COPYRIGHT CLAIM TO THE AUTHORSHIP OR ARRANGEMENT OF ANY OF THE SONGS IN THIS BOOK.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We have made every effort to determine the copyright status of the songs included herein. We wish to thank the publishers of the following songs for permission to reprint their copyrighted material. This book could not have been prepared without their kind cooperation. "The Tramp On The Street." Words and music by Grady and Hazel Cole. Copyright 1940 and 1947 by Dixie Music Pub. Co. Copyright 1964 with new material by Dixie Music Pub. Co., 57 Third Avenue, New York 3, N. Y.
"The Ranger's Command." Words and music by Woody Guthrie. Copyright 1963 by Ludlow Music, Inc., New York. N. Y. Used by permission.
Overcome." New words and music arrangement by Frank Hamilton, Guy Carawan and Pete Seeger. Copyright 1960 and 1963 by Ludlow Music, Inc., New York, N. Y. Used by permission. Royalties derived from this composition are
"We
Shall
"And Quiet Flows Inc.,
New
"Pretty right 1961
the
Don." Copyright 1961 by
Boy Floyd." Words and music by Woody Guthrie. Copyby Fall River Music,
Freedom Movement under
the trusteeship
I Had The Ed McCurdy. Copyright
"Last Night
New
New
York, N. Y.
"Ten Thousand Miles" (or, "Fare Thee Well"). Words and music by David Gude. Copyright 1960 by Sanga Music, Inc., New York, N. Y.
"What Have They Done To The Rain." Words and music by Malvina Reynolds. Copyright 1962 by Schroder Music Co. Used by permission. "Long Black right
1959 by
v
Veil." By Marijon Wilkins and Danny Dill. CopyCedarwood Publishing Co., Inc., 815 16th Avenue,
South, Nashville, Tenn. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.
of the writers.
by
Inc.,
Never Will Marry." Words and music by Fred Hellerman. "I Copyright 1958 by Sanga Music, Inc., New York, N. Y.
Zilphia Horton,
being contributed to the
Fall River Music,
York, N. Y.
Strangest
Dream." Words and music Almanac Music, Inc.,
1950 and 1955 by York, N. Y. Used by permission.
"Copper Kettle" (or, "The Pale Moonlight"). Words and music by Albert F. Beddoe. Copyright 1960 and 1963 by Melody Trails, Inc., New York, N. Y. Used by permission. "Black Is The Color." By John Jacob Niles. Copyright 1936 and 1963 by G. Schirmer, Inc., New York, N. Y. Reprinted by per-
"Dona, Dona"). Music by Sholom Secunda, Copyright 1940 and 1963 by Mills Music, Inc. International copyright secured. Used by permission of the copyright owner. English lyrics used in this book by Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz, copyright 1956 by Hargail Music Press. Used
"Donna Donna"
words by Aaron
(or
Zeitlin.
by permission. "Portland Town." Words and music by Derroll Adams. Copy1957 by Sing Out! Inc. Copyright assigned 1964 to Ryerson Music Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
right
The Flowers Gone." Words and music by Peter by a passage from Mikhail Sholokhov's novel,
"StewbalJ." By Robert Yellin, John Herald and Ralph Rinzler. Copyright 1961 and 1963 by Ryerson Music Publishers, Inc., New York, N. Y.
"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You." Words and music by Anne H. Bredon— by assignment from Janet Smith. Copyright 1963 by Ryerson Music Publishers, Inc. Used by permission.
"John Riley." By Bob Gibson and Ricky Neff. Copyright 1961 by Sanga Music, Inc. and Harvard Music, Inc., New York, N. Y. Used by permission.
"Where Have Seeger.
Inspired
All
MUSICAL ANNOTATIONS BY KALMAN SELIG PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR / JULES HALFANT
DISTRIBUTED TO THE BOOK TRADE BY CROWN PUBLISHERS, INC.
DISTRIBUTED TO THE MUSIC TRADE BY CONSOLIDATED MUSIC PUBLISHERS, INC.
TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER WITH LOVE, -JOANIE
The paramount
Joan Baez
fact about Joan Baez is beauty. She has it; she generates it; and she uses it. Lest this seem rhapsodical, be it admitted that she is a human being, with impulses, frailties, and foibles, perhaps even a little young wickedness. But the gospel is beauty. is the person, and not only vocally. Were it her wish, she could easily produce the same sort of visual impact as did,
So
John M.C only
Audrey Hepburn at seems contrived of a sort
same
the
say,
age. At close view, she
of dark sunlight.
The
skin
was made
to consort with bright colors; the dusk of the long hair
is
like
shadow in a canyon. The eyes are a deep topaze, very steady. The face is slender, strong, aquiline, and secret. There a
a slight sardonic curl to her lips, even at rest; it is a lovely mouth but not peaceful. Even silently, it speaks of a world she may want to love, but has trouble liking. is
she has no desire to appear a conventional beauty. Indeed, she dresses against any such possibility. Her admirers waggishly advert to her concert costumes as gunny sacks. Plainly
They
aren't, quite, but they are commonly handwoven garb, purposely shapeless, so that she seems almost a twig-legged waif, a grown-up Little Match Girl, in the spotlight. Offstage she is not in the least twiggy. She has a fine, lithe dancer's body. One has the impression that she would fence very well (as, metaphorically, against the everyday world, she does).
She
is
She
is
vividly alert.
a personage, of which she
may
haps, she
is
aware. Or, rather, per-
think of herself as a purpose, of which she has
been given charge whether she wants scious of her image. At an tion of this book,
she
it
artist's studio,
idly
moved behind
or not.
She
is
con-
during the preparahis
drawing board
and, half-doodling, sketched a picture (she draws very well It was a Joan Baez. More to the point, it was a Joan Baez, with tresses flowing forward over the shoulders, a young mystery. This is her image, and do not read the word in the Madison Avenue sense. It is not an image she created for any public; it is truly the image she has found, thus far, looking for Joan Baez. She offers it honestly.
and
quickly).
stylized
She
offers
it,
also, with love.
—in her singing, her
living,
summate
in
her,
musicality
her
and she would rather
Love and beauty are
indivisible
her view of the world. There art,
call
but the word it
seems
is
con-
to trouble
loving.
Here we come to a dichotomy. Joan Baez is not two persons, but she has two aspects, both important. For one thing, here is a truly lucent voice, vital and lofting, with a timbre that is a resistless distillate of poignancy and pure thrill. She can sing "Copper Kettle," a boozy ditty of rustic laziness, in a way to
make
it search souls, almost incredibly. This is a natural gift, a built-in concord of brain and vocal cords, that will never leave her. It is plain musicality, and would work with or without
loving.
Besides
this,
and not apart from
woman grown suddenly
it, is Joan Baez, 23, a young consequential to a whole sector of
today's humanity, by reason of her beauty i.e., what she does with it.
in
another way,
Joan Baez has no wish to be a leader, an emblem, or a spokesman, and she is none. She is rather, an object, a focus of feelings; and, actively, one who tends with tenderness. She is part of a sort of elite corps of today's young. They have emerged from childhood into a world which seems to them disorganized to the point of dreadfulness, almost beyond grasp or hope. They are not beatniks nor even Angry Young Men; they are too thoughtful and humane for that. They are at once responsible and baffled. And, in very dubious battle, they need consolidation, they need emotional focus, and they sorely need comfort— the ultimate, unbreakable comfort that is found only in beauty and simplicity.
"They have to find what they are, before they can do anything." Their tastes distinguish them (though this can be oversimplified). They read J. D. Salinger; the poetry of Allen Ginsberg; in some cases the suspirative science-fantasy of Ray Bradbury; and William Golding's The Lord of the Flies. Some of them have sat through David and Lisa twice. And they have gravitated en masse to folk music, and their favorite is Joan
She says
out
of them, not excluding herself:
who they
are,
Baez. This are in
is
natural; she
is
—
for
There
perfectionists.
them. They want
what she is
is
—
a better world; that
light of this (to their elders,
perfection, and they
not an ounce
one
of
whom
of
compromise
An odd
is
that.
is
writing this),
sideis
that
it would seem to be, this ideal world, altogether young. One has the feeling that they so distrust today's elders, for what they have done, or not done, that they do not even want to think of themselves at fifty or sixty, or perhaps as being fifty or
sixty.
that,
Perhaps if
some
it
would not be a bad thing
for the world, at
of the feelings of twenty-two could last a
whole
lifetime.
At
demands
that, their
aren't exorbitant, at least Joan's aren't.
When asked
(offhand and unfairly) what she would do to bring about the better world, she said simply: "End war, and let the people involved with it go to some useful work."
And added
wryly: "Including picketers
and folksingers!"
is probably wrong to call her a folksinger. She is a singer, mainly of folk songs, because she loves them. As she sings them, however, they are (what critics call) art-songs; there is It
little
genre
flavor.
beautiful, refined
To her they are and
intelligible.
at their
This
is
best
with her, almost uniquely, by Richard Dyer-Bennet.
ence
is
that a
Dyer-Bennet evening
is
when most
a principle shared
The
differ-
historical; the listener
is transported, with familiar ease, to other times and climes. With Joan Baez, history happens now. The identification is brought to the listener, he needn't go after it. The translation is complete. An ethnically-minded folklorist said once of her that she can make any song sound as if it were being sung by Joan Baez. What this acid wit missed was the point. Joan Baez
remains Joan Baez. not possible— as
in
When character-identification in a song is the pirate chronicle, "Henry Martin"— she
becomes Joan Baez, musical Joan Baez
story-teller.
Mexican and Scottish-Irish parentage, and and educator. She has lived in a number of places, mostly cities, and has been exposed to all the education she wanted. However, folk song was her own discovery, in her late teens (remember, she is precocious). Patently it filled a want in her. She has not said this, but her work shows it (as does this book): it offered her a sort of kinship with the continuing "condition humaine," the changeless part of man's nature; the sensitivity, humor, bravery, acceptance, and shrewdness that have sustained our kind in all ages and quarters of the world— and which we need now. her father
is
is
of
a rather noted scientist
Joan Baez has purveyed this, beautifully, with her voice and her presence. Now she continues the effort with this book. It would seem highly likely that anyone who buys this book already owns at least one Joan Baez record. Anyone who doesn't: buy one. However, do not try to imitate her singing. In the first place, you can't. In the second place, that is not what she offers this book for. You are supposed to discover your own way into the songs, as she did. It should be a lovely adventure.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Table
JOAN BAEZ, by JOHN M. CONLY FOLK MUSIC: THE LONG VIEW, SIEGMEISTER
by ELIE
FOR THE GUITARIST
16
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS LYRICS AND LAMENTS
17
I.
19
Wagoner's Lad
20
Man
22
Constant Sorrow
of
Lady Mary
The Water Black
Once I
I
is
Wide
28 31
Will Marry
34
36
East Virginia I
Once Loved
Queen
a Boy
II.
All
Ye
Fair
38
40
of Hearts
42 W^
Fare Thee Well
Come
W^
26
Had a Sweetheart
Never
Contents
24
the Color
is
of
13
and Tender Maidens
CHILD BALLADS
44 47
Geordie
48
Henry Martin
50 *
Mary Hamilton
53
Silkie
56
Barbara Allen
58
The Unquiet Grave
60
The Cherry Tree Carol
62
Lady Gay
64
House Carpenter
66
Matty Groves
68
III.
BROADSIDE BALLADS
Once Silver
I
Knew
a Pretty Girl
Dagger
71
72
75
The Trees They Do Grow High
78
Jackaroe
80
Stewball
82
Rake and Rambling Boy
84
Fennario
86
John Riley
89
Willie
Moore
92
Boy
94
Railroad
^^
lS
\/
10
Table
96
The
101
IV.
Banks
104
House
Ohio
of the
108
of the Rising
Long Black
113
Railroad
114
Sun
\S
Veil Bill
Boy Floyd
Pretty
116
Copper
Kettle
118
Wildwood Flower
120
Lonesome Road
122
Old Blue
126
HYMNS, SPIRITUALS AND LULLABIES All My Trials
130
Kumbaya
125
V.
132
Hallowed Be Thy
134
Twelve Gates
138
We
142
Somebody Got
We
146
Lost Shall
Hush Battle
Hymn
150
in
a Storm
Ov ercome Little
Baby
of the Republic
Amazing Grace VI.
MODERN AND COMPOSED SONGS
154
Portland
156 159
Mary
Are Crossing Jordan River
144
148
Name
to the City
Virgin
140
153
Town
Danger Waters
Where Have
All
the Flowers
Gone
162
The Tramp on the Street
164
Three Fishers
167
Donna Donna
170
What Have They Done
174
182 185 186
188
to the Rain?
Annabel Lee
178
180
y
Command
Ranger's
110
11
West
Rambler Gambler
106
Contents
the
AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS
102
of
Lily of
Babe Last Night
I
Had
I'm
Gonna Leave You
the Strangest Dre am \ Plaisir
d'Amour
THE JOAN BAEZ RECORDINGS INDEX OF TITLES INDEX OF FIRST LINES
'£<*>
12
A
Folk Music:
The
Long View by Elie
Siegmeister
when
long time ago,
my
I
first
became
interested
in
American
had an eccentricity. studied conducting at the Juilliard School for several years and had come to a trusted advisor with the idea that would make my conducting debut leading a group of singers in an evening of American folk music at Town Hall.
folk music,
friends considered
it
I
I
"American folk music," my friend said with compassion, would come to hear it?"
"Who
Nowadays one cannot
set foot in a high school lunch room these states without hearing the twanging guitar of the local Burl Ives, nor visit a cafe anywhere in Europe without being aware of an American cowboy song or a blues coming over the radio — in Swedish, Dutch, or Italian, of course.
anywhere
in
What accounts in ly,
for this astonishing
growth of a new music
—
the short space of a single generation of the rebirth of a centuries-old
music
more accuratewhen it was about
or,
just
to die out?
The answer 1930's and
is
'40's,
not simple, but
there were the
among
New
other things,
in
the
Deal and the anti-fascist
— movements
that awakened the humane instincts of all when millions were deprived, disinherited, and then destroyed, there was a need for an affirmation of things basically human. It was a time when intellectual people felt drawn to a commonality with others whose lives and rights were threatened with extinction. remember vividly the ex-
war
of us. In a period
I
citement of such expressions as Marc Blitzstein's Cradle Will Rock, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, the Federal Theater's Living Newspapers.
The discovery of folk music by a generation of young musicians and composers was more than another fad — it opened up a new meaning for American music as a whole. For now those of us who were just starting out could feel part of a rich
we
could feel like new branches on an old tree and this strengthened us. The need for roots that every artist senses sooner or later was particularly strong at that time; many of us knew we could be more ourselves in an American language than in one fathered in Paris, Vienna, or Berlin.
tradition;
When, therefore, first met Aunt Molly Jackson, the time was ripe; was enchanted by her at once. It was after one of I
I
those concerts organized by a few indigent musicans calling ourselves The Young Composers Group, at the New School, New York, early in 1933. The program notes proclaimed boldly that we were the start of a new American music (as all program notes of such groups do — and should do). After the concert, our relatives, who comprised the majority of the audience, came back to congratulate us; but among them was this strange, raggedy woman with a hawk-like face: she came right up to me and said "You think you are writing American music — did you ever hear any real American music?" After trading a few insults, we each became fascinated by the ideas of the other. Result: Aunt Molly asked me if would care to write down some of the few hundred songs she had "composed," I
13
and I
I
said
I
would.
did.
was but one of many composers currents of the time. In the early '30s
I
who responded to the we all knew of the great
Ives, then something of a legendary figure, mighty pioneer in the use of folk material. a nonetheless but "General Booth Enters Heaven," his Rutlage," "Charlie His his Concord Sonata for Piano Sonatas, Piano and Violin
work of Charles
brilliant and imaginative evocations of American of minstrel songs, ragtime, folk music, and fragments life, with their complex fabric. Henry Cowell and into jazz interwoven preaching the folk music gospel at the were Charles Seeger Alan Lomax, Ben Botkin, and others Lomax, John New School. hundreds of recordings for the collecting field were out in the wrote one of the first Thomson Virgil Library of Congress. Plough That Broke The idiom, folk movie scores using the as Jerome Moross, such men young the Plains. In addition to generation "arrived" the of members Alex North, and myself, rich use making were Copland Aaron of Douglas Moore and ballet and theater, movie, in idiom of the ballad and cowboy
loomed as
scores.
greatest adventure with folk music came in the early conducted concerts of the forties when simultaneously American Ballad Singers, wrote a score for the first folk musical to appear on Broadway, Sing Out Sweet Land, and com-
My
I
posed Ozark Set.
Among
the strongest folk musicians then beginning to be
heard around in village cafes, anti-Nazi and pro-Spanish loyalThe Almanac ist meetings were Josh White, Woody Guthrie, Singers, Burl Ives, and of course, Leadbelly. After a certain amount of exposure, it was inevitable that a bit of audience
appeal crept into the performances of some, but Leadbelly was solid as a rock. He neither could nor would be moved to do anything other than sing his repertory exactly as he always had sung it: deadpan, with a gravelly voice that was beautiful, and a guitar rhythm that shook the walls. Gradually the folk music movement spread out. New performers came on the scene: Pete Seeger, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, The Weavers, Tom Scott, and many others. Collec-
and books have come off the presses each year: after works of Cecil Sharp and John Lomax, there pioneering the Sandburg book, those of Alan Lomax, Ben Carl the appeared tions
Botkin,
Lawrence
Gellert,
John Jacob Niles, Olin Downes'
and my own Treasury of American Song and dozens and dozens more.
The influence
of folk music on
American composers did not
originate yesterday. There is more than a trace of folk rhythms and song patterns in many choruses of William Billings, a contemporary of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. In the mid1800's it was not only Stephen Foster, Daniel Emmett, Cool White, and other minstrel song-writers who revealed the in-
fluences of folk syncopation and melodic inflections; there
14
that picaresque character, Louis Gottschalk, whose piano pieces show that the tango, rhumba, and ragtime beats date back more than a hundred years.
was
But the most marked change came with Ives at the turn of the century and, more than thirty years later, with the New Deal generation of Gershwin, Thomson, Copland, Blitzstein, Moore, Gould, Moross, North, and myself among others. It was not an accident that American music - like French, Ger-
man, Russian, Hungarian music before it— took on distinctive character and emerged on the world scene at the very moment that the life-blood of folk music entered the art of serious composers. American sonatas, symphonies, operas, theater and ballet scores sprang to life at the same time as folk music
was winning wide recognition as a
native
art.
recent years this trend took another turn. The Cold War created a new phenomenon: Cold Art. The feelings of enthusiasm and faith in an ideal that moved many artists in the years 1930-45 gradually fell away, and were replaced by a deep unbelief, a corrosion of feeling, a shying away of one human being from another. Two quite contradictory effects emerged: the loss of interest in folk music by serious musicians, and the enormous growth of interest in it by the people as a whole.
In
In
the post-World
War
II
period there arose the deep need for
a time of anxiety. Without a clear ideal of life, the young people of our time have turned to the universal expression that is folk music.
a
human
affirmation
in
The elemental themes represented by the songs in this collection, ranging from old Child Ballads, newer Anglo-American mountain love songs, country and western tunes, hymns and Spirituals and topical songs of today bring the singer and listener closer to the sources of American music: the spontaneous creation of many generations of the plain people of our country. ballads,
of folk music enthusiasts to evidence of a reaction against the passivity induced by ready-made entertainment. The very roughness of folk performance speaks as a bulwark against the slickness of pre-fabricated commercial art. It affirms a desire to participate actively once more in the expression of a genuine and meaningful human experience. Perhaps it is a precursor of a similar swing of the pendulum among our serious musicians who have turned this way and that, and who may once again note the musical voice of our own time and
The eagerness
of vast
numbers
sing and play these songs
people.
15
is
The chord progressions indicated above the music are the chords as they sound in the key in which the arrangement is written. Following these are chords in parentheses which are the chords actually played when a capo is used to avoid the more difficult bar chords.
For the guitarist
who wishes
to play along with the
in different keys than the keys of the piano arrangements, we have supplied a legend above each song, as for example: Key: E Capo: 4th Play: C
means
the
Joan
Baez recordings, which are often
This
For Guitarist
Joan Baez sings this song in the key of E; that be placed at the 4th fret; that the player is to finger the chords as if they were in C, but that they will actually sound in E. the capo
is
that to
Occasionally, the harmony of the piano arrangement differs from Joan Baez' guitar accompaniment. In these cases, Joan's harmony is indicated by a footnote, so that the pianist who wishes to observe her original chord progressions can do so.
The editors have refrained from suggesting any "picking" styles, preferring to leave that
choice up to the
guitarist.
16
About the Contributors
New
York City in 1909, is a distinguished American composer who, throughout his career, has been interested in American folk music both in its original form and as source material for musical composition in larger forms. Among his achievements in this area are the Broadway musical, "Sing Out Sweet Land"; "Ozark Set", which was performed by major symphony orchestras and recorded by Dimitri Mitropoulos; and "Western Suite", which was premiered by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony in 1945. Siegmeister has also attained distinction in the fields of absolute music and vocal works on tragic themes. His long list of compositions includes three symphonies, two string quartets, violin and piano sonatas, "A Strange Funeral in Braddock" and a full-length opera based on Sean O'Casey's "The Elie Siegmeister,
born
in
Plough and the Stars."
von Schmidt has been active as a painter, graphic artist illustrator for almost fifteen years. He was awarded a Fulbright to Italy in 1955-6, and has given seven one-man Eric
and
As a folksinger, he has become a the blues revival, and has recorded for Folkways Records and Prestige Folklore. It was as a folksinger that he first met Joan Baez when she was beginning her cashows
of his paintings.
major figure
in
in Cambridge in 1958-9, and the illustrations for this book are the result of their long friendship. Von Schmidt has two daughters, Caitlin and Megan, and has recently begun to write as well as illustrate books for young people. The first two, "Come for to Sing" and "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn", will soon be followed by "The Ballad of Bad Ben
reer
Bilge."
John Marsland Conly was born in Manhattan to a pair of newspaper people who had started as English teachers. At the age of eleven, he recalls, he was a fairly reliable authority on the fauna of the Mesozoic Era, meaning mainly dinosaurs. At fifteen he was a promising painter. He moved briefly into the field of scholarship and taught history at the University of Rochester for one year. He could not keep away from typewriters, however, a family failing. In 1940 he went to work for the New York Herald Tribune. Since then he has been in succession a police reporter, a science columnist, music editor of The Atlantic Monthly and editor of High Fidelity. Conly is
now,
at the
age of fifty, a free lance writer. He contributes column to The Reporter and is working on
an intermittent
three books at once.
17
18
LYRICS
AND LAMENTS Folksongs generally can be
classified into
ballads (narrative folksongs)
narrative songs).
and
two groups;
(emotive non-
The two species are not as
separate as one might believe, lyric
lyrics
distinctly
however, for
folksongs have derived wholly from
many
ballads.
When most of the narrative details are sheared away from ballads what remains is the emotional core, the essence to be found in many of the best lyric folksongs
commonplace
verses,
and phrases, forming one combination here and
another there. Their extreme beauty, in isolation or in combination, often finest art poetry in
compares favorably with the
any language.
The verses of this lyric dialogue from the Appalachians may once have been part of a ballad, but all that remains is a comment on frustrated love. Such lines are frequently found in combination with other equally beautiful ones (see for example those of "Rambler Gambler"), though they lose
little
piece. Joan
in
Wagoner's
Lad
isolation as witnessed by the five short verses of this
Baez sings
it
without accompaniment.
Moderately Bb
^ hard
S
=r^3
th.
is
for
tune
of
all
^>
-^~&_
t
^
I
P
Dm
t
Jkind,.
i
'J.
"
'
^^
-
an
^ Bl.
J She's
al
-
ways
con
trol
-
She's
led,.
fedE
32
3?
wom
3
T*
f
P
£
f*
20
I
Gm
Dm
Am
*F1
\]
ways
-
con
m
r
Con
^m
•
r
m
J
^
—
fined,
-
i
i
Z
par
her
wm
r
r
-r
trolled by
-
-r
£ Gm
Bi>
wife,
a
she's
til
m s
Dm
i
i
r i
=r
r
r
-r
P Bl>
¥ to
bus
her
^
-«9-
Bb
slave
i
^r?
^^=^ S^
ents_
m r --<«,
9fee
-
band
-
the
rest
J
J
of
her
i-
¥
J-
'
F
life.
(o)
i
t
?
^m
S*-
Oh, I'm
just a
poor
my fortune I've
is
girl,
me
he
Then
"My
daily,
3.
Oh,
my parents because he
They say
of entering
He works his
And 21
if
is
poor,
he's not
my
door,
for a living,
money's
his
own,
they don't like
they can leave
him
you may."
fare thee well darlin',
be on
my way."
"Oh, your wagon needs greasing, your whip
worthy
it,
alone.
here by me,
horses ain't hungry,
I'll
don't like him,
down
they won't eat your hay,
So
and going away.
sit
as long as
lad,
loading
is
i
"Oh, your horses are hungry,
by night and by day,
And now
^9
go feed them some hay,
always been courted
He's courted
S
5-
sad,
by the wagoner's
*
Then
sit
is
down
as long as
to
mend,
here by me,
you can."
"My wagon is greasy, my whip's in my hand, So fare thee well
no longer
darlin',
to stand."
This sorrowful cry of a lonesome man has been found in various parts of the southern mountains. Its verses consist of a series of variations on a theme— a heart-rending one at that. Occasionally the first line reads "I
am
a maid
.
.
."
or
"I
am
the song sings well by
a
.
.
but even without the change
,"
.
in
Man
of
sex
women.
CAPO: NONE
KEY: C
girl
Constant Sorrow
PLAY: C
Moderately slow G(G.efc)
$
i
J-1
m nip
J: ji
am
1
I
a
of
W m
t
v
J' trou
T^
E5 And
sor- row,
£
PP I've seen
rrf
Dm
W r^~r^ a
con-starit
§
-
Am
*
m
J'
Ji
h
bles
all
my
i
d
« L^
L-U
» days.
i I
j> I'll
a i bid
fare
-
i
CJ-r^rjp
v
22
//r.sr
I
ami others
'
Dm
Am J> J>
]>
J)
was born and
m r^ ^ ^
cJj 4^-~cJ^
Z»i.stf
ri/iir
Dm
J
hJ> raised.
.2. All
Jil
1
through
this
/7S
5
l
raised.. ^T\
mm f
!H cm ^Tp 2.
t
bound to ramble, Through sun and wind and driving rain, I'm bound to ride the Northern Railway, All through this world I'm
Perhaps
3.
Your
I'll
take the very next train.
friends
may
think that I'm a stranger,
My face you'll never see no more, There I'll
4.
I
see
is
a promise that
is
given,
you on God's golden shore.
always thought
I
had seen trouble
Now I know it's common run I'll hang my head and weep in Just to think
5.
And when I'm in some lonesome hour, And I am feeling all alone, I'll
weep
And 6.
23
sorrow
on what you've done.
the briny tears of sorrow
think of you so far a-gone.
Oh, I'm a man of constant sorrow,
etc.
text of this song has an Elizabethan ring to it, but it comes from the Ozark Mountains where Vance Randolph collected it from May Kennedy McCord. One would think that such an exquisite text and tune would be found more widely in tradition, but to date no other version of this lyric has turned up on either side of the Atlantic.
The
KEY:
CAPO: 4TH
Ctt
PLAY: A
Slow
A7 (E)
D(A)
£ He
came
I
from his
J.
m
*
J
He
grand,.
* rf rrr rr i
*mw* p D(A)
J) J) came
J
to
my
T
tage
cot
B f
afe^
door.
His
?
looks.
!
were
words
fTT fc=j=4
but his
5
1
f ->-J-4 f=
1 will
M
£
A7 (E)
**Q(A)
D(A)
few,
m
# A7 (E)
i
^^ P
D(A)
pal -ace
^m T i
Lady Mary
J'Ji
lin-ger
for
l
-
D(A)
JJ ev
er
^PJPg
f? H^F
J
p5
I "As performed: A 7 (E). **As performed: D(A).
24
D(A)
G(D)
D(A)
G(D)
pt
r
r
ten-der than
There
in her
i
r
r
words
could
be,
garden she stands,
£=£
1
But
was
I.
And now
On
Lady Mary so cold and
His beautiful
finds in his heart
He knew I would be With a But
And
place.
his bride,
kiss for a lifetime fee,
was nothing
I
so strange,
no
to
him,
he was the world to me.
noth-ing
to _
in his palace grand,
All dressed in fine satin and lace,
Who
25
^
r
A'(E)
a flower strewn bed he
lies,
lids are closed,
O'er his sad dark beautiful eyes.
mourners who mourn,
And among
the
Why
should
I
For
was nothing
And
I
a
mourner be? to him,
he was the world to me.
Originally part of a long Scots ballad, "Lord
Jamie Douglas," all that remains are these few verses which constitute the emotional core of that ballad. Most singers know it in another form as "Waly, Waly," by which title it was known as far back as the early 18th century. It remains one of the most beautiful and evocative of all British lyric folksongs.
The
Water is
KEY:
F
CAPO: 1ST
Wide
PLAY: E
Gently F(E)
n
J'
J>
j
The wat - er
J) is
i
,1.
_
Bb(A)
J' J> j* j)
wide,
I
^
F(E)
j^f
can-not get
Neith-er
o'er,
3
I a Jn_jj b
Dm(C#n
J
f-
P
nti
a
W
*=«
1
m
f
£
Am(Gjfm)
Gm(F}tm)
^-u
^
O^llM
C?(B 7 )
26
I
leaned
my back
Thinking But
first it
So did
my
it
was
against an oak,
3.
I
a mighty tree,
bent and then
it
broke,
I
Oh, love
Gay
as a
my hand
pricked
And
love prove false to me.
4.
put
in
some
soft bush,
Thinking the sweetest flower
left
handsome and love jewel when it is new, is
is
my
finger to the bone,
the sweetest flower behind. kind,
But love grows old and waxes cold,
And fades away The water
is
like
wide,
I
morning dew. cannot get
to find,
o'er, etc.
No more beautiful and simple Known in various parts
folk lyric exists than the short
verses of this Southern Appalachians, its fame has been spread to the corners of the world in the fine versions of Jean Ritchie and John Jacob Niles. What many poets have taken hundreds of lines to say, the unknown folk composer of this song has been able to capsule in two short verses. The tune for this version is the work of John piece.
Jacob KEY: En
Black
of the
is
the Color
Niles.
CAPO: NONE; GUITAR TUNED
MINOR
DOWN
Vi
TONE
PLAY: E
MINOR
Moderate] y slow EmfEm-Fi)
s
Black,
'
black,
*
J
V
Wf.l
J
black
is
S
w
—a
true
lor
J
J.
^ His
hair.
love's
B
j
J*
j>.
of
my
j
^
lips.
5fe
m
j
;
_
i>
J'
3=5 f
^m p
co
j
m i X5
tft
t
the
-
Em(Em + F#)
32
*=
j-
f-
•>
D(D)
i
m
m
-v-
J
Am(Am + D)
J p
are some -thing
Ji
J>
r won
-
d'rous
fair,-
m The
28
m
Em(Gthcn Em + F#)
E^5
%
pur
est
F eyes
and
the
F
f
|!
brav
3.
2=5 £
I
hands,
I
.
*
i
£
love
the
*
^
8t
i Am(Am + D)
I
ZBC
ground
^^& Coda ,
29
Em(Em + F(!)
where
-
on.
T=^
TT~
he
3E
stands.
^ ^ Tf~
[^T^-
another lyric of frustrated love, several of its verses being tradifound in combination with other lines. The dream verses (2 and have the ring of art poetry to them, and may be a fairly recent accretion
This
is
tionally 3)
to the song.
KEY: Bb
CAPO: 1ST
PLAY: A
Once I Had a Sweetheart
Lively, lightly A(G)
m 3^=^
B(A)
B(A)
p§
3=r Once
I Us
I
had
a
j) j.
j
sweet-heart,
and
s
3EEE3E
,OJ.
J'
r
JO
"/
as g jjj «-»-» A J *
E(D1
now_
v»
f^TO
B(A)
I
have
f=
3=£ Onre
none,
jtt^j r
g^fea
^
S ^
5t
r
^ff^S sweet-heart,
E(D)
and
gone_
•As performed: A(G).
^ I
me,
have
He's
m
r
w^
now_
leave
*fe£
^^ had
nj,
j>
;>
-*
±
-1
f 3=fc
£ He's
none,
gone i.-~
* i
r
=*L
B(A)
r
£
I
i '/
F#m(G)
^^ r
zj.
r
^
f r*-
5 32
B(A)
I
P
first
ten.
and otfut
last
l=t
f
m
% 2.
**
O
rit.
Last
r>
f
1
a ^
nt. :
h> tf> J
J
J
n^rrn
J
J
Last night in sweet slumber
I
dreamed
I
did see,
Last night in sweet slumber
I
dreamed
I
did see,
i
My own precious jewel sat smiling by me, My own precious jewel sat smiling by me.
3.
And when I awakened I found it not so, And when I awakened I found it not so,
My eyes like some fountain with tears overflow, My eyes like some fountain with tears overflow. 4.
I'll
venture through England, through France and through Spain,
I'll
venture through England, through France and through Spain,
All All
5.
33
my my
life I will
venture the watery main,
life I will
venture the watery main.
Once
I
had a sweetheart,
etc.
The refrain of this song is usually part of a British broadside ballad known in America as "Down By the Sea Shore" (Laws K 17). The verses, too, are, for the most part, widespread folk commonplaces. The unusual combination of the two, mainly the effort of Fred Hellerman, makes for an enchanting lyric on the theme of frustrated love.
KEY: D
CAPO: NONE
I
Never Will
Marry
PLAY: D
Moderately
D
A7
A
D(0,etc.)
G
days
of
my
3E3ES
1
1 All the
&) «-
A7
D
D7
life.
m pp
m 19-=-
$
(O)
f rr=-
¥
Fine
34
D
f
D
A7
^#
~o
Some
say
that
love
gent
a
is
thing,
le
-
on
It
-
zzz
i
^E5
1
3^
T 3
:
p
^^
^
I §s
brought
me
m
I r
a^
D7
And
pain,
'
4
£
Bm
*
-a
w
loved
is
Em
gone
mid
v
i
*
^ on
boy
ly
T~T
f
i
3 f D
-
r
night
l
*
ftt*
D.C. al
Fiw
train.
f
id:
&
T
T
As performed: A 7
I
on that
m
fe=
rr
m
A7
(A 7 )
fe±
Fp
the
n
y
i-i
has
?
s
^F J
*
za
D
A7
i
£
W'
ly
D.C. a l Fine
.
never will marry,
etc.
I
never will marry,
etc.
Your company, your company, Your company unto me, It makes me feel while I'm away
Arise and grow again,
That every day
Did you ever
is
You'll see the grass whereon you stand
But love
three.
4.
I
never will marry,
I
wish
my
heart were
made
letters are writ in gold.
35 I
never will marry,
a
etc.
killin' thing,
feel the
etc.
Wherein you might behold, All the wonders of my love,
The
it is
of glass,
pain?
This lonesome song
and to
is
tell
is
known widely throughout the southern mountains,
monplace expressions found ubiquitous and adorns
KEY: B
East
typical of the beautiful folk poetry which the mountaineers created of heartbreak and sorrow, borrowing inspiration from older com-
MINOR
in
British folk love songs.
many other
The tune
is
equally
Virginia
fine texts.
PLAY: A MINOR
CAPO: 2ND
Moderately Dm(Am)
i£
J 1
I
was
born
in
>
J^
J
fair pret-ty
maid-en,
£p
f
j
i
j
A7 (E)
Dm(Am)
i "XT"
age
I
do not
mm
~C*~
-i
w j
-
D(A)
£m
TOT
-*»-
North Car- o
ia,
Dm(Am)
Her name and
I iS ?
-
^^
J^~J
j
gin
m
S^
itee «— ?
«
-
Dm(Am)
G(D)
;
Vir
~CT~
Gm(Dm)
a
East
i
^E=
S
J'
.I.
^
i
Dm (Am)
G(D)
^i
~n~
(O) =Wt
know.
(O)
TT
y=M IE
(O)
f= 36
was of
Her hair
it
And
lips of a
On
her
her breast she wore white
There
I
Well, in
At
my
longed to lay
my
my
heart you are
I'll
your love
I
meet you
lilies.
head.
my
door you're welcome
At my gate If
brightsome color,
a
ruby red.
my
darlin',
in,
darlin',
could only win.
I'd rather be in some dark holler Where the sun refused to shine. Than to see you be another man's darlin', And to know that you'll never be mine.
Well
in the night
In the day
I
find
I'm dreamin' about you,
no
rest,
my darlin', through my breast.
Just the thought of
you
Sends aching pains
all
Well when I'm dead and
my Come and Come and With
feet sit
in
my
coffin,
turned toward the sun. beside
me
think on the
darlin',
way you done.
This song
was a
century, and
is
sometimes runs
in England from the 17th sung in parts of England and Scotland. The text seven or more verses, but the two given here are fully
favorite with broadside printers
to
representative of the
rest.
PLAY: C
CAPO: 4TH
KEY: E
Once Loved a toy
I
still
Moderately slow
^^ I
M^p ^m*
^ m Am (En
F(C*)
** Bb(Dm)
i
once
boy
loved a
and
Ji
=Z2
i -6-
a
bold
^
PP boy,
Ir_ ish
I
would
P^^
tor
= =J=J:
JE^L
T
T
Gm(G)
S^f
1z
Pedal simile
S
F(C)
fe come
m ^s
and would
i T"^ 4=
Gm(Dm)
go
C?(Em*)
at
S^ his
r
-
i
r-
-r
^
I
y
f
3E=m T
and (Em*) chords are to be played in higher position using first three strings. ""As performed: Gm(Dm). This and subsequent variations reflect implied harmonies
m And
quest.
1 mt
1 r
re
F(C*)
^
this
.L-F
!
r
(C")
of the guitar.
38
Am(C)
Gm (Dm
C 7 (Em*)
And this girl who has taken my bold bonnie May she make of it all that she can, For whether he loves me or loves me not, I will walk with my love now and then.
* 39
A: <^
lad,
The English collector Sabine Baring-Gould found in
1894 and believed
it
to date
back
this
song
in
tradition
to the period of the Stuart Restora-
Love metaphors utilizing playing cards motifs occur in the songs of many lands, but rarely as effectively as in this song.
tion.
folk-
Queen of
KEY: F# MINOR
CAPO: 2ND
Hearts
PLAY: E MINOR
Had I the store in yonder mountain, Where gold and silver is there for countin' I
could not count for thought of thee,
My eyes so full I
love
I
love
I
love
I
could not
see.
my father, I love my mother, my sister, I love my brother, my friends and relatives, too,
I'll
forsake them
To
the
Queen
all
and go with you.
of Hearts, etc.
40
ModenitHy
to^ To
V
d
Queen
the
Bm(Em)
F# 7 (B 7 )
Bm(Em)
Hearts
of
l
F Are
the
is
E
tJ
||,j
P
Sor- row,
of
be'
Pedal simile
S
F#(B 7 )
Em(Am)
%
^9 here
to
day,
-
m 1
gone.
he's
^S
^
it
7
1 1
men
—j—
?
7
Fj* (B
j are
plen
i" J1
p -
ty
g
r
# fe5
leaves
r what
me,
r
^
few,
M
«
d
g
my
If
love_
^
^ V I
F# 7 (B 7
Em (Am)
^^
T
Bm(Em)
f
Bm(Em)
)
sweet- hearts.
but
^=N^ w
^f^f
mT
t
p~
?
Young
»
3s!
r
r
^^
mor- row,
Tif
P
*
-
=£=£
f
i P
to
Bm(Em)
first
j_j.
-j.
p
and others
last
O
Bm(Em)
)
-
shall
r I
i
^
r
I
T-Ir
do? /CS
i
limn gi 41
*
j-
i
? i=i
T
f -k
PP J
f
Ep
— 5^
I'
a variant text of one of the most beautiful of
all lyric songs of which he revised with a sure touch, but the folk preferred their own versions, and have kept the song in living tradition for several hundred years. The music for this version is the work of David Gude of Martha's Vineyard.
This
is
British origin.
Robert Burns knew a
Fare Thee
folk version
Well CAPO: 4TH
KEY: F#
CIOT THOUSATO MILES)
PLAY: D
Rhythmic, pulsating" G(D)
F(C)
*=&
i
i £ Oh,
# 3e
r^
y
"/
^^ G(D)
must
thee well,
fare
Dm
F(C)
Em(Bm)
G(D)
r
7
be
And
gone,
Wf G(D)
)
C(G)
'(D)
^E
m—m will
&*
J
-
m
re-turn,
J'
J
if
J
1
go.
ten
I
V
IX w
thou
-
m sand.
fP^lf if
& M p -*rr
*As performed: G(D).
42
"Am
EmlBm)
Em
'Am
G(D)
W.
"O
If
miles,
1
TS
^
-»
#^i r
G(D)
if
i j/*
I
ggji
D 7 (A 7
C(G)
^^ if
ten thou
go
I
Em(Bm) throughout
r-flV^
And
I
may
lie,
ever
I
I'll
it is
(O)
miles.
so far to leave
that
is
you'll,
and
me
so black
you'll not hear
my love will
rivers
oh the day, yes the day
here alone,
my moan,
my moan.
change
his color white,
will turn to night.
never will run dry, or the rocks melt with the sun,
never prove false to the boy
'Til all,
G(D)
should prove false to thee, the day, day will turn to night,
Yes, the day,
Oh, the
WTT~
P
lament and cry, and you, you'll not hear
no
you'll,
Oh, the crow If
sand
-
1
this section.
Oh, ten thousand miles While
4.
^
3E5
go,
*£
¥
=T
"As performed:
E/
'til all, 'til
all
I
j.
Em(Bm)
I
^^ ^=# *
t/
f
^
TT
-**-
331
43
m=
m
3
1
C(G)
*
RO.
I
love,
'til all,
these things be done.
all
these things be done,
i
lyric lament on false suitors is perhaps the best known such pieces from the Southern Appalachians. Numerous textual variants are known, sung to almost as many different tunes. Some of its verses can be traced back to British songs, while others are found only in America. Taken together they form an exquisite example of lyric folk
This incomparable
of
Come All
all
Ye
song.
KEY: F
CAPO: 3RD
and Tender Maidens
PLAY: D
Moderately
lively, flowing* Eb(C)
F(D)
ffff
^
Eb(C)
F(l
HP
J*
p
F(D)
F(D)
m
i
m
* !:.
m
jjj
i p
i
i
m
Cm (Am)
^m
all
ye
F(D)
Eb(C)
fair
w
?
EMC)
JiJ T W-NJV
^^
.
TT
Eg
v
•
F(D)
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Fair
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maid
Bb(G)
ens_
Take warn-ing
r
L
^ *As performed: Gm(Em).
44
* t
how
^r
p
you
court
young
J
3>J r
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They're
like
i
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star
T5
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and others
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they'll ap-pear,
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sum-mer's
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of
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mr 45
rir.
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They'll
to
tell
you some you
They'll swear to
lovin' story,
their love
is
true,
Straight-way they'll go and court another,
And
that's the love they
had
for you.
Oh, do you remember our days of courtin'
When your head lay upon my breast? You could make me believe with the
fallin'
That the sun rose a
If I'd
known
That love
5.
And
fastened
wish
I
But I
I
am
to
arm
courted
I
killin' thing,
heart in a box of golden
up with
little
I
my own
he'd speak
not no
a silver pin.
sparrow,
wings and
away
I'd fly
it
was a
And when 6.
my
locked
And I had
before
was such a
it
I'd a
I
of your
in the West.
little
could
true lover, I
would deny.
sparrow,
have no wings, neither can
I'll sit
right
And let my
Come
all
down
in
my grief
troubles pass
ye
fair
fly,
I fly,
and sorrow,
me by.
and tender maidens,
etc.
46
CHILD
BALLADS Among
the finest of all the folksongs in the
English-speaking world are the 305 classic British
James Child of
ballads which Francis
Harvard recognized as being
truly traditional,
and which he analyzed in great detail in his monumental five volume work. The English and Popular Ballads (1882-1898).
Scottish
ballads are
still
identified by the
These
numbers which
he assigned to them and, though more than half a century has passed since his pleted,
mended
work was com-
only a few ballads have been recomas additions to Child's canon, an indi-
cation of the degree to which Child's selections
have become the standard by which is
judged.
\S 47
all
balladry
1
An 18th century English broadside ballad has intertwined with a 17th century traditional Scottish ballad to produce one of the dramatic gems of British balladry. Poaching, even by a nobleman, was a serious crime. His high position, however, entitled him to a death befitting his station in life. Geordie's sweetheart (or wife) pleads for his life, usually to no avail, though in at least one other version he obtains his freedom thanks
Geordie
to the sheer force of her character.
(CHILD NO.
PLAY: E MINOR
CAPO: 1ST
MINOR
KEY: F
209)
Moderately *C*m(D)
F?m(Em)
fe^M^
A(EmorG)
D(C)
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I
£
3
ver
i
^
morn-ing
ear
-
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J'
41
fc^^s J-U was la- ment- ing
maid
is
a
i
»
fair
pret-ty
j
I Ffm(Em)
)
J) J) for her
'
J Geor
(>Q)
zr die.
(Oj
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44
bridge
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i
^ i^f ¥= r
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Ah,
my
Geordie
be hanged in a golden chain
will
Tis not the chain of many
He was born of king's And lost to a virtuous
royal breed lady.
Go bridle me my milk white Go bridle me my pony, I will
To 4.
London's court
plead for the
Ah,
He
ride to
my
steed,
life
of Geordie.
Geordie never
stole
nor cow nor
calf,
never hurted any,
Stole sixteen of the king's royal deer,
And he
sold
them
in
Bohenny.
Two pretty babies have I born, The third lies in my body, I'd freely part If
with them every one
you'd spare the
life
of Geordie.
The judge looked over his
left
He said fair maid I'm sorry He said fair maid you must be For
I
shoulder,
gone,
cannot pardon Geordie. 7.
Ah,
my Geordie
'Tis not the
will
be hanged
in a
chain of many,
Stole sixteen of the king's royal deer
And he
49
sold
them
in
Bohenny.
golden chain,
may well be but one half of a longer ballad in which a sinking of a merchant ship by a pirate is revenged when the King sends one of his captains to locate, defeat and capture the pirate. As given here, we have
Henry
the first half of that tale; the rest of the story is dramatically told in another Child ballad, "Sir Andrew Barton" (Child No. 167). Both ballads have been collected frequently from traditional singers in America.
Martin
This
KEY: B
MINOR
CAPO: 2ND
PLAY: A MINOR
Moderately fast
^
Dm (Am)
m Im I
There
were—
(CHILD NO.
three
broth
-
ers
250)
Dm (Am)
A(E)
~n in
Mer
-
ry
Scot
land,
Id
nf
9 F¥¥ E
£
t 50
AlEor
Gm(Dm)
I
Mer- ry
P m^
Scot
-
land
there
were
C)
Dm(Am)
(E)
And
three,
they
i
T7~=~
T (»i
i
^
f5
did
cast
I
I
^
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3
I^F^F £ lots
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them
of
Mpr I
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f5
go,.
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ii^i
i
^
Dm(Am)
And_
Dm(Am)
51
i
should
should
fo
P
m C(G)
F(C)
g
go,
•>=.
go,
g
^ A(CorE)
should
¥ turn
rob-ber
all
^=4- ^
r
F^
i'
on
J-
r
r
plU ^
¥ the salt
J)
r 4:
2.
The lot it fell first upon Henry Martin, The youngest of all the three, That he should turn robber For
3.
to maintain his
They had not been
all
on the
two brothers and
salt sea,
he.
sailing but a long Winter's night,
And part of a short Winter's day, When he espied a stout lofty ship, lofty ship, Come a-bibbing down on him straight way. 4.
"Hello, hello," cried
"What makes you
sail
so nigh?"
London town, Would you please for
London town, London town,
to let
it
never could be,
have turned robber
For
I
For
to maintain
"Come Or
on the
salt sea, the salt sea,
the salt sea,
me."
lower your tops'l and brail up your mizzen,
I will
And
all
my two brothers and
Bring your ship under
7.
me pass by?"
"Oh, no, oh no," cried Henry Martin, "This thing
6.
lofty ship
Henry Martin
"I'm a rich merchant ship bound for fair
5.
the salt sea, the salt sea,
all
give to
you
my lee
a full
cannon
cannon
ball,
your dear bodies drown in the
ball,
cannon
ball,
salt sea."
"Oh no, we won't lower our lofty topsail, Nor bring our ship under your lee
And you
shan't take
from us our
rich
merchant goods, merchant
goods, merchant goods,
Nor point our bold guns 8.
to the sea.
And broadside and broadside and For 'Til
fully
two hours or
Henry Martin gave
at
it
they went
three,
to
them the death
shot, the death shot,
the death shot
And 9.
straight to the
bottom went
she.
Bad news, bad news to old England came, Bad news to fair London town, There's been a rich vessel and she's cast away, cast away, cast away,
And
all
of her
merry men drowned.
52
tale told here bears resemblance to two distinct historical occurrences: one relating to a 16th century incident in the court of Mary Queen of Scots, and the other to an affair in the court of Russia's Czar Peter in the 18th century. At this late date, however, oral tradition has altered the story too greatly to pinpoint the exact incident on which the ballad might have been based. The long circumstantial version given here not have much currency today among traditional singers; all that illy remains is a lyric lament in which Mary Hamilton makes a farewell ;h without any explanation of why she is being punished.
The ballad
Mary;
Hamilton
PLAY:
(CHILD NO.
173)
Quite moderately D(A)
i £
^m
lOCc
Word
m^
3=
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32
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word
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And
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word
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to
Mad- am
r
:
G(E)
A7
— I
(E)
the_
XI
mi-
D(A)
(Fltm)
thp
to
D(A)
-z
m^^
m
is
r
¥ hall,
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£
£
the
to.
is
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2 ni and
4^4 •;
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3i
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^F^ r
r
And
Queen
-r
r
that's
r S5 ^
°As performed: D(A). **As performed: A 7 (E) through measure.
the_
^ worst
of
i
all,.
(O)
-n
3
r
3n
others\
1^ '
1
^
(O)
54
I
2.
/"'oerse only
"Arise, arise,
Arise and
I
3.
4.
Mary Hamilton,
tell
What thou
G(0
to
hast
8..
saw and heard weep by thee?"
"I put
him
in a tiny boat,
And
cast
him out
9.
first
And
the death
I
"Last night
was
I
The gallows
me."
Mary Hamilton, come with me; a wedding in Glasgow town,
"Arise, arise,
10.
is
1 1
But she put on her robes of white.
To
ride into
And
Glasgow town.
as she rode into
The city for The bailiff's
Glasgow town,
For had
I
12.
I
my
share."
off, cast off
I
would not
see."
Then by and come the King himself, Looked up with a pitiful eye, "Come down, come down, Mary Hamilton,
"Ah, hold your tongue,
For
cried,
my own wee babe,
would not dee."
be
find for this,
my gown," she cried, my petticoat be, And tie a napkin 'round my face;
wife and the provost's wife
not weep for me;
This death
to
I
let
And
not slain
the Queen's feet,
the only reward
to see,
"Ah, you need not weep for me," she
to dee."
Tonight, you'll dine with me."
let
your
my sovereign
liege,
folly be;
if you'd a mind to save my life, You'd never have shamed me here."
Cried, "Ach, and alas for thee."
"You need
was
put the gold in her hair,
"Cast
"But
of brown,
I
to travel in,
washed
The gallows
She put not on her robes of black,
Nor her robes
think
she cradled me,
lands
But he'd never come back
to
my mother
The
And And
to sea,
This night we'll go and see."
7.
did
That he might sink or he might swim,
There
6.
little
When
me,
done with thy wee babe
Arise and
5
'Ah,
13.
"Last night there were four Marys,
Tonight
there'll
be but
three,
There was Mary Beaton, and Mary Seton,
And Mary
Carmichael, and me."
"The Great
of Sule Skerry"
Silkie
'Silkies,' or sealfolk,
known
is
one
of
numerous tales of the Orkney Islands and
to the inhabitants of the
Silkie
These enchanted creatures dwell in the depth of the sea, occasionally doffing their seal skins to pass on land as mortal men. Legend has it that they then accept human partners, and some families on the islands actually trace their ancestry to such marriages. In more the Hebrides.
complete versions of the ballad the Silkie's forecast of the death of himself and his son (stanzas 5 and 6) eventually come to pass. The tune is by Dr. James Waters of Columbia University. CAPO: NONE
KEY: D
PLAY: D
(CHILD NO.
113)
Moderately G(D)
pm
G(D)
An
earth
G(D)
F(C)
G(D)
F(C)
£ ly
m
l
nurse
sits
and
f sings,
=*
I
I
&m
m
And
gm
Pedal simile
^
F(C)
#£
Aye,
she
if
m
by
sings
y
z:
g
tm
£
li
G(D)
£ - ly.
iggj
r
wean,
£ /
=z
9
And
^ £ 56
Am(Em)
Dm(Am)
QID)
i
-19-
[/?>)
^^
.;•
where
dwells
he
in.
(^>
i¥3
'*•
^
As performed: G{D) to end.
For he came one night
And
a
grumbly
Saying "Here
Although
I
to her
bed
guest, I'm sure
am
feet,
was
he,
thy bairn's father,
I,
be not comely."
am a man upon the land, am a silkie on the sea, And when I'm far and far frae
'I
I
My home
it is
And he had And he had
ta'en a purse of gold
placed
Saying, "Give to
And 'And
it
shall
come
to pass
fetch
teach him
'And ye
57
upon her knee, little young son,
on
the sun shines bright
come and
And
it
me my
take thee up thy nurse's fee."
When I'll
land,
in Sule Skerrie."
shall
And And
the very
Will
kill
my
how
to
a
summer's day,
on every
little
swim
young
stane,
son,
the faem."
marry a gunner good,
a right fine
both
gunner I'm sure
first
he'll be,
shot that e'er he shoots
my young son
and me."
^H
i r
without doubt the best known and most widely sung of all British in the Old World and in America. Most variants strongly resemble one another, undoubtedly due to the frequent publiThis
is
traditional ballads, both
cation of this ballad
in
Barbara
songsters, chapbooks, penny garlands and on
Allen
broadsides from the 17th century on.
KEY: B
CAPO: 2ND
(CHILD NO.
PLAY: A
84)
Motlorately D(A)
A(E)
D(A)
D
7
(A)
Bm(F#m)
58
A7 (E)
He To
D(A)
6.
sent his servant to the town.
the place where she was
"You must come to my master your name be Barb'ry Allen."
Saying, If
So, slowly, slowly she got up,
And And
"Young man, 4.
He
I
death was
in
him
Be good
When
my
friends
59
8.
bells knellin',
every stroke to her did say:
die of sorrow."
father, it
oh
father,
go dig
my
grave,
both long and narrow,
I will
die tomorrow."
Barb'ry Allen was buried in the old church-yard,
Sweet William was buried beside her;
Out of Sweet William's heart there grew a Out of Barb'ry Allen's, a briar.
all,
he was dead and laid in grave,
"Hard-hearted Barb'ry Allen."
"And
And
to Barb'ry Allen."
She heard the death
my grave,
Sweet William died on yesterday,
wellin',
to
dig
both long and narrow;
I will
Make say,
think you're dyin'."
"Good-bye, good-bye
And
And 7.
turned his face unto the wall,
And
5.
him did
it
Sweet William died of love for me,
dear,
slowly she drew nigh him, the only words to
"Oh mother, oh mother, go
Make
dwellin',
9.
rose,
They grew and grew in the old church-yard, 'Til they could grow no higher; At the end they formed a true lovers' knot,
And
the rose
grew 'round the
briar.
Aside from
its
exquisite poetry and music, this ballad
is
notable for
its
The Unquiet Grave
exhibition of the universal popular belief that excessive grief on the part of mourners disturbs the peace of the dead. Most of the verses of "The
Unquiet Grave" can be found in other ballads and folk lyrics, suggesting the possibility that what we have here is only a fragment of a longer ballad still undiscovered. But in its few short verses it presents a compelling and highly dramatic vignette of love, death and grief. KEY: C
CAPO: NONE
(CHILD NO.
PLAY: C
78)
Moderately C
(C+F)
F(F.rfc)
*Am
"Em
Dm =§z
And
*As performed: •As performed:
gent
ly
drops
the
rain.
C.
G 7 throughout.
60
'Am
J
i
J
i
er
nev
I've
i
L
^
^^ had
s
S
but
one
true
aagfc
7
l*
t
rf
-«-*
1 And
love,
^ '
UPPI
tLrJ
7
lLt 7
rfrfr
$
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G?
i
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7
wood
green
in
+^-* he
—0—
m
m
slain.
lies
mmm wmm
PP F
r>
S7s
i
#P
£ -r I'll
do
as
much
for
my
true love,
As any young girl may, I'll sit and mourn all on
The
twelve months and a day was passed.
ghost did rise and speak,
"Why sittest thou all on my grave And will not let me sleep?" fetch me water from the desert. And blood from out the stone, Go fetch me milk from a fair maid's breast That young man never has known."
"Go
61
breast
it is
as cold as clay,
My breath is earthly strong, his grave,
For twelve months and a day.
And when
"My
And
if
you
Your days
kiss
my
cold clay lips
they won't be long."
"How oft on yonder grave,
sweetheart,
Where we were wont to walk, The fairest flower that e'er I saw Has withered
"When
will
to a stalk."
we meet
When will we meet "When
the
Autumn
again, sweetheart,
again?" leaves that
fall
Are green and spring up again."
from the
trees
is one of the most popular of English religious folk ballads. Its tale derives from the Pseudo-Matthew gospel, and in medieval times was frequently dramatized in folk plays and mystery pageants including, among others, those performed by the Grey Friars in Coventry. Fuller versions
This
of the ballad
sometimes contain predictions
of Jesus' birth, death
The
and
Cherry
resurrection.
Tree KEY: D
CAPO: NONE; TUNE 6TH STRING TO D
PLAY: D
(CHILD NO.
Carol
54)
^
Moderately F(D)
# as
k
mm
£
When
¥fj£
was
eph
Jos
an
An
man,
old.
m
"/
s
± C-(A)
I9 ^3E old
^ I
E man
a:
was
he,
J:
'Dm(G)
^§^ He
J—
«»
i=4*
-J
5
As performed:
-
ried
Vir- gin
^m >.H
?
f
^=$
^EExE
T5 A7 (F#)
s
mar
F(D)
Mar
*
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The
I
m i
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Bf>(G).
62
Mar
^
C 7 (A)
F(D)
-
5
m
y,
The
of
Ga
-
^
^ ^r
tx
^r^
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£=P
Queen
li
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jcn
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v
Joseph and Mary walked through an orchard green,
There were berries and cherries
as thick as
There were berries and cherries as thick 3.
And Mary
as
might be seen, might be seen.
spoke to Joseph, so meek and so mild,
me some cherries, for I am with child, gather me some cherries, for I am with child."
"Joseph gather
Joseph 4.
And
Joseph flew in anger, in anger flew he,
"Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee,
Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee." 5.
Then up spoke baby Jesus from in Mary's womb, "Bend down the tallest tree that my mother might have some, Bend down the tallest tree that my mother might have some." 6.
63
And
bent
down
the tallest branch
'til it
touched Mary's hand,
Cried she, "Oh, look thou Joseph,
I
have cherries by command,"
Cried she, "Oh, look thou Joseph,
I
have cherries by command."
is one of the best of the American versions of "The Wife of Usher's Well," a remarkable ballad on the theme of persistent grief and tears disturbing the sleep of the dead. The children have been sent away to learn magic (grammaree), a point rarely recognized by the folk who sing
This
the ballad.
The
culminates
in
children's death
Lady
Gray
and their mother's prayer for their return warn her of the effect of her mourning.
their ghostly visit to
In most American versions of the Child ballads supernatural motifs disappear, except where, as in the case of "Lady Gay," there are religious overtones to the ballad tale.
PLAY: C
CAPO: 3RD
KEY: Eb
(CHILD NO.
Moderately
fr'"' J J
Eb(C)
i
i
Cm (Am)
m *T*T r wm Tf pmm
-e-
*
La
Therewas a
A B I
79)
W2
dy and a
La
-
dy
Gay,
S
«r
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^m
5
teW
^^ child - ren
Pp
£ she
had
She sent them a
three,
a
j
1^ j^
iS ass
m
:o
-o-
way
p 2E
*IS r
to the North
if
TTW
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They'd not been gone but a very short time, Scarcely three weeks and a day,
"There
is
"A King
King
a
Heaven", she
in
along
cried,
of third degree
Send back, send back
my
three
little
babes,
This night send them back to me."
4.
She made a bed
in the
uppermost room,
On it she put a white sheet. And over the top a golden spread That they much better might
5.
sleep.
"Take
it
off,
take
it
off," cried the older one,
"Take
it
off,
take
it
off," cried he,
"For what's to become of this wide wicked world
Since sin has
She
On
first
begun."
set a table of linen fine, it
she placed bread and wine,
"Come
eat,
Come
eat,
come drink, my three little babes come drink of mine."
"We want none of your bread, Neither do
we want your
mother,
wine,
For yonder stands our Savior dear,
To Him we must "Green grass
Cold clay
is
And every It
65
is
resign."
over our heads, mother,
over our
tear
feet,
you shed
for us,
wets our winding-sheet."
*
mm
When death, cruel death, came harkening And stole those babes away. 3.
tnst
3E
gram- ma
2.
and others
f
7? i
i
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s
title for this ballad, "James Harris, or the Daemon Lover," indicates the supernatural status of the returning lover, a point which is usually rationalized or eliminated in most American versions. In this fine version, however, the demonic character of the suitor is alluded to in the dramatic closing verses. Next to "Barbara Allen," this is probably the
Child's
most popular KEY:
C MINOR
of the Child ballads
performed
American
in
PLAY: A MINOR
CAPO: 3RD
House Carpenter
tradition.
(CHILD NO.
243)
Moderately
C(G)
i
Well
met, well met,"
r
Dm(Am)
mm cried
J
r i^j
r Am (Em)
C(G)
1
salt,
salt—
sea,
WP 1^ ^ =
—r—^r"I've
he,.
y^Ti
£ Bb(Am)
All
J' J
5 h ^^
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the
yh
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re-turned from the
just
PP
22
¥
i
F(C)
y
y
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Dm(Am)
C(GorE)
(O)
^ love
of
thee."
S Jk^
JK*
f
^
(O)
^
Jn-j
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°As performed: Dm(Am).
66
"I
could have married the king's daughter, dear,
9.
Well they'd not been gone but about
She would have married me,
But
I
two weeks,
have forsaken her crowns of gold
I
know
When
All for the love of thee."
it
was not
She wept most "Well,
if
10.
I'm sure you are to blame,
I
am
I
find
"Ah,
And go
nice
you forsake your house carpenter,
11.
along with me,
"I
do not weep
Or I
By
the banks of the
Who
if I should forsake my house carpenter, And go along with thee, What have you got to maintain me on And keep me from poverty."
"Well,
12.
do weep
Will be at your
your house carpenter,
for
any more."
my house carpenter
I
my own wee babe
shall see
any more."
Well, they'd not been gone but
about three weeks, I'm sure
Our
was not
it
four,
gallant ship sprang a leak to rise
and sank.
any more.
out on the sea,
all
Seven more upon dry land,
One hundred and
for
never
Never "Six ships, six ships
for
shall see
for any golden store,
take you where the grass grows green, sea."
maid,
your golden store
Who never you
I'll
salt, salt
for
Or do you weep
young man."
my fair young
"Ah, why do you weep,
Weep you
married to a house carpenter,
him a
will
bitterly.
you could have married the king's
daughter, dear,
For
three,
lady began to weep,
this fair
ten
all
13.
One
time 'round spun our gallant ship
Two times
brave sailor men,
command."
'round spun she,
Three times around spun our gallant ship
And
sank to the bottom of the
sea.
She picked up her own wee babe,
And
kisses gave
him
three,
Said, "Stay right here with
And
14.
my house carpenter,
"What That
keep him good company."
hills,
what
rise so fair
"Those are the
hills
she putted on her rich
So glorious
And
of
She shone
Heaven my
love,
I."
attire,
to behold,
as she trod along her
my love,
and high?"
hills
But not for you and
Then
are those,
15.
way,
like the glittering gold.
"And what
my Those
hills,
what
hills
are those,
love, hills
so dark and low?"
"Those are the
hills
Where you and
I
of Hell,
my love,
must go."
r 67
This dramatic ballad traces back to at least the beginning of the 17th century
in
has proven more popular
Britain, but
this
in
country than
Matty
the
in
and the gruesome revenge which follows has struck a responsive note in the New World wherever Puritan and Calvinist precepts hold sway, undoubtedly accounting for its widespread Old World.
popularity
KEY: Bo
Its
tale of adultery
in this
country despite
MINOR
PLAY: A MINOR
CAPO: 1ST
Groves
great length.
its
(CHILD NO.
81)
Moderately and freely Em(Dm)
Bm(Am)
H
J' Hi
-
J>
J'
J'
ho,
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ho,
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words_
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L-JUr
to
W
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Bm(Am)
hear.
^ i*
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ly words to
?
ly
3=£
"As performed: Bm(Am), F#(E). ""For some verses: Em(Dm) passing through
i
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the
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31
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day
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:
1
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J'U
ty Groves to church did
£
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'
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year,
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Bm(Am).
68
spied three ladies dressed in black,
He As
2.
they
came
into view,
Lord Aden's wife was gaily clad,
A flower among the few, 3.
She tripped up
among
the few.
Matty Groves,
to
Her eyes so low
a flower
cast
down.
Saying, "Pray, oh, pray
come with me
stay,
As you pass through the town, as you pass through the town." 4.
cannot go,
"I
fear 'twould cost
I
For
I
You "This
5
dare not go,
I
I
see by the
are
little
deny
false, this
6.
wife, you're the great
may be
at
true,
hide thee out of sight,
I'll
serve
me
stay,
you there beyond compare, you the night, and sleep with you the night."
sleep with
little
page did
listen well,
To all that they did say, And ere the sun could rise again He quickly sped away, he quickly 8.
And he did run the Kings' He swam across the tide, He To
9.
ne'er did stop until he
the
great Lord Arlen's
sped away.
highway,
came side, to the great
Lord Arlen's
"What news, what news, my bully boy, What news brings you to me,
My castle burned, my tenants robbed, My lady with baby, my lady with baby?" 10.
"No harm has come your house and The little page did say, "But Matty Groves
With your
1 1
wife."
Whitehall, King Henry at Whitehall."
I'll
Her
Lord Arlen's
to consecrate
"Oh, pray, oh pray come with
And 7.
you wear,
it all,
Lord Arlen's gone King Henry
life,
ring
Lord Arlen's
may be
can't
my
fair
Lord Arlen
ne'er a
bedded up
lady gay, with your fair lady gay."
called his
He bade them He bade them
And
is
land,"
merry men,
with him go, ne'er a
word
to speak,
horn to blow, and ne'er a horn
to blow.
side.
12.
But among Lord Aden's merry men Was one who wished no ill, And the bravest lad in all the crew
Blew 13.
shrill,
blew
his
horn so loud and
shrill.
what's this," cried Matty Groves,
"What's
this,
"What's
this that I
It
14.
horn so loud and
his
do hear?
must be Lord Arlen's merry men,
The ones
that
"Lie down,
lie
And
keep
do
I
fear, the
down,
my
ones that
do
fear."
Matty Groves,
little
back from cold,
only Lord Arlen's merry
It's
I
men
A-callin' the sheep to fold, a-callin' the sheep to fold." 15.
Matty Groves he did
Little
He took a nap asleep, And when he woke Lord A-standing 1
6.
17.
"Ah,
it's
But
Arlen was
a-standing at his
at his feet,
very well
it's it's
best in
I
like
my
feet.
I
it
sheets, fair
young bride
asleep,
who
lies in
my
arms asleep."
Matty Groves,
you can;
fast as e'er
In England
your
little
asleep?"
your bed,
like
your
arms
"Rise up, rise up,
As
I
fine I like
Who lies
19.
down,
"How now, how now, my bully boy, And how do you like my sheets? And how do you like my fair young bride Who lies in your arms asleep, who lies in your arms
And
18.
lie
be said
shall ne'er
slew a sleeping man,
slew a sleeping man."
I
And the firstest stroke little Matty He hurt Lord Arlen sore,
struck,
But the nextest stroke Lord Arlen struck,
Matty struck no more,
Little
20.
"Rise up,
rise up,
Draw on your
Now
tell
my
pretty clothes,
me do you
like
me best or the dying Matty Groves?"
She picked up Matty's dying head, She kissed from cheek Said, "It's
"Ah, woe
Why
is
all
all his
me and woe
I'd rather
kin, than is
have
Arlen and
all his
kin."
thee,
stayed you not your hand?
For you have In
to chin,
Matty Groves
Than Arlen and 22.
Matty struck no more.
gay young bride,
Or like you Matty Groves, 21.
little
killed the fairest lad
of England, in
all
of England."
70
i
BROADSIDE BALLADS Almost from the inception of .*»^>
8!
w %»
:>•
printing,
song materials were published on one sheets of paper of various sizes
ballad
and
side of single
and sold for a few
pennies by street singers and hawkers at country fairs of towns and cities throughout
and on the
streets
Europe, and
later in the
name from
their
New World
as well. Taking
those song sheets which were wider
than they were long, the ballads which appeared on
kA
became known
them
artistry
these
of
as
'broadside'
compositions
ballads.
The
was generally of a
lower order than those of the older traditional ballads,
many
of them being the work of hack scriveners
in the
employ of the
printers.
But the ballad sheets
helped to wing these songs on their way into oral circulation,
course
the
in
of
which
smoothed out and changed from to
many were
journalistic dross
minor oral masterpieces.
The ballad classified
scholar,
many
Malcolm G. Laws,
Jr.,
has
of the non-Child ballads found in
America, and the numbers which appear after the titles
are those which he has assigned to ballads given
here.
S 5H fjrri
Ml
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US
,
".j'"-
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jo\»(i
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oil
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7.
HM
The rejected
suitor
who
in
when she
turn rejects his false lover
finally
Once
a popular theme in traditional and broadside balladry, and numerous different versifications have been collected from traditional singers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This is one of the best of calls for
him
is
Knew
I
them, uncomplicated by the introduction of other themes.
a Pretty KEY: E
PLAY: E MINOR
CAPO: NONE
MINOR
(LAWS P
Girl
10)
Slow and very free
^
Gm(Em) UrrUtrrW 1
!.!
i'
!
'
Once
1.
,i', I
i
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knew*
tj'i a pret-ty
« ^^ i
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loved her
girl
f3=
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r
my
h
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<&"
S= =
D 7 (B 7
Bb(G)
P glad
i
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give
my
heart
and
hand.
m irr
^
a I'd
life.
m-.*
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5
J' to
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It
make
my
her
w IS
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Gm(B
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D7 (B 7 '/O
Gm(Em)
)
ig»
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Oh,
wife,
h''
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wife.
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s
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Cm(Am)
M
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She
i ^S
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her
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the
^^
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put
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P
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me
led
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arms.
a
5
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come
don't
J'
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D 7 (B 7
Gm(Em)
)
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please
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more.'!.
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Well, I'd not been gone but about six months,
So come
When she did complain, And she wrote me a letter,
And
come back come again."
Saying, "Please
Ooh, please
And
I
again,
never place your affections
On a green growin'
tree,
'Cause the leaves they
know,
Roots
And
Where once he could not
Will soon fade away,
Ooh, where once he could not
go.
tree.
will wither,
will decay,
That no young man should venture, go,
i
all ye young lovers, Take a warning from me,
Ooh, on a green growin'
wrote her an answer,
Just for to let her
p^
the beauty of a
young maid,
Ooh, soon fade away.
74
Silver
Dagger
Family opposition to the marriage of lovers takes many forms in tradialmost all of which end either with the lovers committing suicide or one of them being done away with by the recalcitrant parents. inconIn this version of "The Silver Dagger," however, the ballad ends clusively for we are not told what course will be taken by the rejected
tional ballads,
lover.
KEY: Db
CAPO: 4TH
PLAY: A
(LAWS M
4
AND G
21)
Lively BMD)
F(A)
in *
*
^
Jjpl rF
*
Don't sing
*
*
#
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you'll wake
f^ £
motb-er,_
She's sleep-ing
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She says that
can't
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first unit otliers
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tell
7
I
r
my
you wicked,
The very next
7
3^
WJ
mother,
lovin' lies.
evening, they'll court another,
Leave you alone
to pine
My daddy is a handsome devil,
and
sigh.
He's got a chain five miles long,
Go court another tender maiden, And hope that she will be your wife,
And on
For
every link a heart does dangle
Of another maid
77
1
5
he's loved
and wronged.
To
I've
been warned, and
sleep alone
all
of
my
I've
life.
decided
This ballad appears to have been founded on an actual occurrence. In the 17th century, young Lord Craigton was married to Elizabeth Innes, a girl several years his senior, in a child marriage intended to consolidate family fortunes.
The young husband died several years
later.
The use
The Trees They Do
of
a colored ribbon as a marriage token (stanza 4) is a centuries-old tradistill found in rural folk communities. The ballad is widely known in Scotland ("Lang A-Growing"), Ireland ("The Bonny Boy"), and in England under the title given here.
tion
KEY: F
(LAWS O
PLAY: E MINOR
CAPO: 1ST
MINOR
Grow High
35)
Moderately slow
Cm (Am)
Gm(Em)
Gm(En
i
i
^F= The
they
trees
grow
te p
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p
tf
— Ma
green,
m i
4=U *
W ny
the
is
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grow
~r
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r
i my
time
true
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I've
r
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Cm(Am)
love
Bb(6)
i ~~o~'
Ma
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,
'•'As
-
Eb(C)
seen,
su ^
do
Gm(Em)
£—*5
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they
leaves
if t
^
Dm(Bm)
'Dm (Em)
^=±
f
»
—xs
*-
±
the
3E
Bb(G)
*
and
sustained
iliii
9
high
^F" J
3E
ny
an
m
hour
^
I've watched
him
all
a
r
*
r
-
lone,
He's
i
rf=TT
* £22
1 H-*-i
performed: Gm(Em).
78
Dm(Bm)
I
Cm(Am)
but
he's
dai
•^
a* ^=^
-
—
ly
m
i^=P
Gm
*Cm
Gm(Em) -»-
f
n young.
Dm(Bm)
Oi
-**-
grow
'>
log.
*
P
t*
:
1
fFT
101
1
3
-**-
<0>
me great wrong, boy who is too young,
Father, dear father, you've done
You have
married
me
to a
I'm twice twelve and he
but fourteen,
is
He's young but he's daily growing.
Daughter, dear daughter, I
have married you
He'll
make
I've
done you no wrong,
to a great lord's son,
a lord for you to wait upon,
He's young but he's daily growing.
Father, dear father,
We'll send
him
tie
blue ribbons
To
let
the maidens
One day spied
I
all
you see
to college for
I'll
I
if
all
around
know
was lookin'
fit,
one year
yet,
his head,
that he's married.
o'er
my father's
castle wall,
the boys a-playin' with the ball,
My own true love was the flower of them all, He's young but he's daily growing.
At
the age of fourteen, he
At
the age of fifteen, the father of a son,
At the age of
And
was a married man,
sixteen, his grave
it
was green,
death had put an end to his growing.
girl who disguises herself as a soldier or sailor in order to be at the side of her lover is an age-old theme, and in English alone more than 20 different ballads on this theme have been collected from traditional singers. "Jackaroe" is one of the most popular of these to be found in
The
America. Here, as
KEY: D
MINOR
in
most ballads about a "female warrior," PLAY: A
CAPO: 5TH
Lively
MINOR
i 3t w
There
^m
was
ends
well.
(LAWS N
Em (Am) ire
all
7)
G(C)
B(E')
p ^ mer
a weal-thy
Jackaroe
-
p
if
m£f
Lon-don
chant, In
did
he
^
21
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smoothly flowing
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J a
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J* -
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f f
G(C)
C(F)
j daugh
-
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i
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The
i
J truth
i ^T
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Em (Am)
4r
dwell,
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you
w I'll
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s
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m
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Em (Am)
Oh,
tell,
B(E 7
truth
the
r
2.
$
j
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r
e'er
Now Jackie's gone To
sailor her true love e'er
could be,
could be.
a-sailing with trouble
on
his
mind,
leave his native country and his darling girl behind,
Oh,
his darling girl behind.
She went into a
And
tailor
shop and dressed
in
men's array,
stepped on board a vessel to convey herself away,
Oh, convey herself away.
5.
"Before you step on board,
She smiled
Oh, they
6.
all in
call
"Your waist
is
Your cheeks Oh,
7.
8.
"I
me
sir,
your name
I'd like to
her countenance, "they call
me
know."
Jackaroe,
Jackaroe."
light
and slender, your
fingers are neat
and small
too red and rosy to face the cannon-ball,
to face the cannon-ball."
know my
waist
is
slender,
my fingers
would not make me tremble
But
it
Oh,
to see ten
thousand
neat and small,
to see ten
thousand
fall,
fall."
The war soon being over, they hunted all around, And among the dead and dying her darling boy she found, Oh, her darling boy she found.
9.
She picked him up
And
all in
sent for a physician
Oh, who quickly healed 10.
her arms and carried
who
to the town,
quickly healed his wounds,
wounds.
his
This couple, they got married, so well did they agree, This couple they got married, so
Oh, so why not you and me. 81
him
why
i
^ r;
She had sweethearts a-plenty and men of high degree,
Oh, her true love
4.
{r»
f
r
^
tell.
I'll
± i.
i
There was none but Jack the
3.
you
to
{
m
i
m M
Em (Am)
)
not you and me,
form, this ballad told of a race between a horse named and a mare, 'Miss Portly,' on the Kildare race track in the early 19th century. In America the song has been most popular in the Negro south, where the winning horse is known variously as 'Stewball' or 'Kimball.' The music for this version is the work of the Greenbriar Boys. In its original Irish
Stewball
'Sku-ball'
KEY:
C
CAPO: NONE
PLAY:
(LAWS Q
C
22)
Lazy rhythm
i
^ &
Gm(Am)
BMC)
£
SfcZ*
Stew
-
ball
r was
t
r
good horse,
a
f
r
r
He
t wore
a
high
Cm 7 (Dm)
the
mane
I •= P
?
And
bead,
r99
Sm
i
FW
verse.) (small notes optional for any w '*
^>"
his
fore - top
i F^
^f
i=f
1
on
F?^
BL>(0 <
Was
P*P f
^1
as
fine
as
silk
1
,' l
I
i
li
!
(o)
thread.
FTT ^PT
T (o)
f (o) 82
2.
I
rode him
I
rode him in Spain,
And I
3.
in
England,
never did
I
always did gain.
So come
all
you gamblers,
Wherever you
And
On 4.
lose, boys,
are,
don't bet your
that
Most
little
money
gray mare.
likely she'll stumble,
Most likely she'll fall, But you never will lose,
On my 5.
As
boys,
noble Stewball.
they were a-ridin'
'Bout halfway around,
That gray mare she stumbled
And
fell
on
And away Ahead
Came
the ground.
out yonder,
of them
all,
a-prancin' an' dancin'
My noble Stewball.
The
original British broadside ballad from
lists
many crimes of Dukes and Earls,
Lords,
gallows.
In oral
which
this version
is
descended
Kake and Rambling Boy
the narrator, including the robbery of various for which he is eventually condemned to the
the
tradition the narrative
element
is
pretty weak, his crimes
are generalized and his burial instructions give no indication of his capture and sentencing. Its handsome tune more than makes up for the loss of details
KEY:
in
this ballad version.
CAPO: 3RD
C
(LAWS
PLAY: A
L 12)
Livoly
G 7 (E 7
C(A)
|'N)J Well,
(A
j
J
and
rake.
I'm.
t?'f
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4
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3
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ma-ny
There's
ci
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I've
i
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mar-
j
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i
ried
^^ i
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me.
a
joy,
P G 7 (E 7
F(0)
o And now
en
did
I
£
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£
boy,_
I r fp if
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+
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ramb-ling
a
7
)
pret-ty
±=m
lit
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F(D)
wife.
% 7
£
i
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84
G 7 (E 7
i'i' J
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And
love
I
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dear
J
U;
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j
Oh, she was
Caused me Oh, yes
And
I
I
i
pretty,
it, I
J
jTT
broad highway,
do declare,
got myself ten thousand there.
Well, I'm a rake, etc.
85
than
er
both neat and gay,
to rob the
robbed
-
^
:
j
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C(A)
love
I
my
mr=^
? life7
^ >
j-
?
Oh, when
I
die, don't
my bones And at my feet, Place
To
tell
>
j-
r bury
me
at all,
in alcohol,
place a white snow dove,
the world that
Well, I'm a rake, etc.
I
died for love.
Cecil Sharp discovered several versions of this ballad in the Southern Appalachians on his collecting trips during the first World War, though it appears to have disappeared from American tradition since that time. It is still
and was KEY: E
extremely popular earlier
known
in
Scotland as "The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie— England as "Pretty Peggy of Derby." in
Fennario
O"
PLAY: C
CAPO: 4TH
Moderately lively PC)
BMF)
F(C)
Bb(F)
7
*
w As
fe(E
m p
lightly flowiny
1
'h
we
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marched
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down
^
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xc
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down
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we
As
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"As performed: F(C).
86
P
Cap
Am
F(C)
Bb(G)
-
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P
F
F
tain
fell
in
} } with
love
'Af
\
lad
a
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Bb(F)
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ST.
They
dove,
^i called
^^ name,
by
her
pret-ty
z*xz
31
-f
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and others
p
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What
F(C)
-^v
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^ r/i.
IS
«
*As performed: C(G). **As performed: FCC) is retained. "As performed: Bb(F) is retained.
2.
87
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first
Gm
^
5
What will your mother think, pretty Peggy, oh? What will your mother think, pretty Peggy, oh? What will your mother think, when she hears the And the soldiers all marching before you, oh?
guineas clink,
o.
i
In a carriage you will ride, pretty Peggy, oh,
In a carriage you will ride, pretty Peggy, oh, In a carriage you will ride, with your true love by your side
As
fair as
any maiden
in the areo.
Come skipping down the stairs, pretty Peggy, oh, Come skipping down the stairs, pretty Peggy, oh, Come skipping down the stairs, combing back your yellow hair, And bid farewell to Sweet William, oh.
Sweet William
is
dead, pretty Peggy, oh,
Sweet William
is
dead, pretty Peggy, oh,
Sweet William
is
dead, and he died for a maid,
The
fairest
maid
in the areo.
If
ever
I
return, pretty Peggy, oh,
If
ever
I
return, pretty Peggy, oh,
If
ever
I
return, all
Destroying
all
your
cities I will
the ladies in the areo.
burn
soldier or sailor who disguises himself in order to test his sweetheart's fidelity has long been a favorite theme with ballad singers. Of course, everything turns out happily when she proves true and he reveals his real identity to her. To prove his identity, the 'long lost lover' usually shows her one half of a token which they broke between them
The returning
John Riley
at his departure.
KEY:
89
C MINOR
CAPO: 3RD
PLAY: A MINOR
(LAWS N
42)
Lively, flowing
Dm(Am)
Dm(Am)
t
:x
§
l
Fair
z
^
>m
J-
m~^::
gar
^
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den,
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4
331
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Said
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" Fair
j-
will you
maid,
-
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3^f
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all
f
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young maid
^
m ffffp —M~a~ A 3 3 3 3*3* -a:
J>J?..I
mar
-
C(G)
ry
me?"
J
I
:
r
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J J
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t~t 90
Gm(Dm)
=i
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I
I
Dm(Am)
then,
1
P was
sir,.
first awl others
her
re
-
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ply.
O
last
T»~
-rr-
"cr;
o> a:
f
a. a.
* w
^^ "Oh, no, kind
For
—
a
_.
3 233 *
sir, I
I've a love
*
_:
•
sails all
on the
s
no man
shall
What
And
if
he's
I
he and his love both married be?"
6.
91
4Jl
-o-
some battle slain, when the moon doth wane. drownded in the deep salt sea,
will die
If he's
marry me."
found another love,
J
"If he's in
seas,
"What if he's in some battle slain, Or drownded in the deep salt sea?
I
iN=^
JI-
He's been gone for seven years, Still
J J-J
-n.
cannot marry thee,
who
J
I'll
5.
be true to his memory."
"And
And I
if
he's
found another
love,
he and his love both married be,
wish them health and happiness
Where
He picked her up all in his arms, And kisses gave her, one, two, three, Saying, "Weep no more, my own true I am your long lost John Riley."
they dwell across the sea."
love,
to the marriage of two lovers of British favorite broadside theme. Though the text has the sound reported only been has Moore" "Willie of ballad the balladry, broadside
Willie
having America, and rather rarely at that. One Ozark singer reported written about was song the claimed who Moore William Reverend met a of salt. him. Such claims can usually be taken with a grain
Moore
Tragedy resulting from parental opposition
was a in
CAPO: 2ND
KEY: F#
PLAY: E
Fast CHE)
F(E)
PN y)
:» i
l
"
J
r
C7
Mi aged
King
JiT'l'V
^^
m
^ E^
za.
Court
twen4y one,
-
ed
a
maid
-
en
Her
fair,
±=1
Pf T>
m
i
Moore was a
^ m
F(E.efc)
i
I
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Wil-lie
fi
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E
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^^^TTJT]^ eyes
were like
two.
dia
-
monds
pp Ra
bright,
wmm f*f 'T
^
melody "As performed: F(E) throughout song as a drone with the five-tone
7
T
1 in
-
ven__ black
was her
Vf 'H §^
J
^
the bass.
92
and others
first
i
i
fr
J'
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j'^H
l
i i.j
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a 5^
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They
said,
"This could never be,"
consent,
"I love Willie
Moore," sweet Annie love
I
Never 4.
to
*/*
hmmm, hmmm, hmmm--.
"Better than
And I would
-rjVJVjrr
1
m ^aa
j
He courted her both day and night, To marry him she did agree, But when they went to get her parents'
3.
last
hmm.hmm.hmm.
hair,
I
\
replied,
my life, weep here and cry, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm--.
rather die than
be his wife,"
That very same night sweet Anne disappeared, They searched the country 'round In a
little
The body
stream by the cabin door. of sweet Annie was found,
hmmm, hmmm, hmmm-
Sweet Annie's parents they
One mourns, In a
little
The body Willie
green
And
mound
Moore
now
his friends did part,
him was
he's in Montreal,
died of a broken heart,
hmmm, hmmm, hmmm-. Willie
door
lies.
scarce spoke that anyone knew,
the last heard of
Where he
in front of their
of sweet Annie
Soon from
live all alone,
the other cries,
Moore was
a king, etc.
Usually the villain of this piece is a 'butcher boy,' and the scene takes place in 'Jersey City.' Despite its localization in America, this ballad traces back to an amalgamation of two British broadsides: "The Squire's Daughter" and "There Is a Tavern in the Town."
KEY: D
MINOR
CAPO: 5TH
PLAY: A
"Oh, mother dear, It's
that railroad
He's courted
And now "There
is
Where
at
I
cannot
boy
a place in
sits
I
tell,
love so well.
me my life away home he will not stay."
(LAWS P
Boy
24)
Her
father, he
came home from work,
Saying, "Where's
my
daughter,
she seemed so hurt."
He went upstairs to give her hope, And he found her hanging by a rope.
London town,
that railroad
and
that
MINOR
Railroad
boy goes
him down,
He took a knife and he cut her down And on her bosom these words he found
He takes a strange girl on his knee, And he tells to her what he won't tell me." "Go
dig
my
grave both wide and deep,
Put a marble stone
And at my To tell the world
at
my head
breast put a white
and feet, snow dove,
that I died of love."
Moderately Em(Ann)
G(C)
Em(Am)
C(F)
Em(Am)
94
B 7 (E)
Em(Am) $
„
-
£ rs=& f
I £
make
to
stairs
i
s
Em(Am)
I
her
D(G)
m^m And
bed,
not
a
s
Uf
^^ ^
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C;
f5' A oerse ends here)
Bm(Em)
3^
*Em(C)
daugh
-
ter,
•As performed: G(C)
95
Em(Am)
S
Bm(Em)
what's troubl-ing
Em (Am) JffiL
you?"
Lover is another familiar newspaper headline theme: "Jealous Stabs Rival to Death." The broadside of yesteryear was the direct ancestor of today's newspapers, and headline stories have changed little since their earlier publication on English and Irish broadsides. This is a particularly handsome Ohio version of a ballad that should be better
Here
The Lily of
known.
KEY: Bb MINOR
CAPO: 6TH
PLAY: E
MINOR
(LAWS P
the
29)
West
'"v
fit-
96
Fast Bm(Em)
SS
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melody
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Sir
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bring out l.h.
i
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97
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7
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7
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pleas -in'
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considerably from performance with guitar.
my
to
7
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£
Her
mind.
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JJ.
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7
ro
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cheeks,
w
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lips,
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my
pierced
—--y— 1
'Mi
f
v
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the
name
I
v
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f
And
breast
=1
she
was
bore
T
T
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The
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Bm(Em)
$
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the
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98
2.
I
courted lovely Flora some pleasure there to find,
man which sore distressed my my liberty, deprived me of my rest
But she turned unto another
me of my lovely
She robbed
Then
go,
3.
Flora, the
'Way down
in
lily
And I
I
of the West.
yonder shady grove, a
Conversin' with
my
Flora there,
the answer that she gave to
was betrayed by Flora,
the
JUDGE ROY BEAN
^__ LAW
WEST
I
stepped up to
I
seized
Being
Then
him by
mad go,
I
it
of high degree
seemed so strange
him
it
sore did
me
to
me.
oppress-
of the West.
%4«W^
my rival, my dagger in my hand, the collar, and boldly bade
to desperation I pierced
to stand
Flora, the
my
love
lily
trial, I
him
him
stand.
in the breast
of the West.
had
to
in the criminal
make my
plea,
box and then commenced on me.
my life away, deprived me of my rest my faithless Flora, the lily of the West.
Although she swore Still I
man
Of THE PECOS
my lovely
had
lily
They placed me
99
mind.
AMERICAN BALLADS
AND SONGS Native American folksongs and ballads result from a combination of several cultural strains meeting
and
coalescing under the unique conditions of American life
* .
:
*
•
*J
and mores. The product
every
now and
is
no
less
various strains which contributed to
boy songs, bad men songs,
Negro
American when
then one catches a glimpse of the its
ballads, love lyrics,
ballads,
being.
Cow-
moonshining
and hunting songs may be
the
product of a specific region, occupation, or status group,
but cutting across
something in all of
distinctly,
all
these
levels
there
them which speaks for the land as a whole.
• %
f*
I
is
perhaps peculiarly, recognizable
usual pregnant is an American murdered girl ballad which omits the sweetheart theme. Here the young man kills the girl because she rejected marhis proposal, with other versions indicating family opposition to the
This
Banks
riage as the cause for her refusal to marry. Though similar in theme to various British broadside ballads, versions of this song have been re-
ported only
KEY: B
in
of the
America.
Ohio
PLAY: A
CAPO: 2ND
Moderately
^^ mm
my
-«»-
take
to
love
a
tj^j
p
-
-y-h^i
I
33^
asked
I
A'(E)
D(A)
walk,
TfTJ
^
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t D(A)
pP^i to
take
-oa
walk,.
TT-T1
I
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}> just
}> a
3E
J> lit -
r
tie
walk,.
TTTJ
102
A7 (E)
D(A)
&=£
TJTJJ
ZEE
Down by
the
banks.
of
O
the
-
D(A)
J
»j
hi
o
tjtj
s
r
*
*
f-
1=
i Tt~
(O)
f
[r>\
f
Chorus:
And only no
In
say that you'll be mine
other's
arms entwine,
Down beside where the waters flow, Down by the banks of the Ohio. I
held a knife against her breast
As
into
She
my arms she
cried,
"Oh,
pressed,
Willie, don't
murder me,
I'm not prepared for eternity."
And only I
started
say, etc.
home
'tween twelve and one,
"My God! what have I done? woman I loved, Because she would not be my bride." I cried,
Killed the only
And only say,
etc.
f
I
is an American version of part of a British lyric song; additional verses to the original song can be found in "The Wagoner's Lad." In its present form, the song has been collected from New England farmers, southern mountaineers, western pioneers and cowboys. Some of its verses appear as folk lyrics in other songs.
This
KEY: B
CAPO: 2ND
Rambler Gambler
PLAY: A
Bb7 (A 7
^¥i '
m
I'm a
5=^
^^? I
^
—n g:
-&
home.
zrh
=F^
if
-#
r
&k
T
like
me
^ They can
EKD) -»» leave
% *
i
And
±=4
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pie.
p from
B^A?)
Bh(A)
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way.
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long
m
i f
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F"(E?)
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£ 104
first ami other*
F 7 (E 7
Bl»(A)
It's
a dark night and
The moon
gives
no
it's
last
F 7 (E 7
)
lonesome,
light,
)
But her parents didn't
Now she is
like
me,
the same,
My pony won't travel
If
This dark road tonight.
Just
I had me a little sweetheart, Her age was nineteen, She was the flower of Belton, The rose of Saleen.
I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler,
Well,
I'm writ in your book, love,
you
blot out
my name. etc.
Alan Lomax collected a version of this song from a miner's daughter in Kentucky in 1937. Subsequently it was adapted to a form which was popularized by Josh White. The song has made its round across the nation for more than twenty years among city singers of folk songs, but its possible origins remain an enigma.
KEY: D
CAPO: NONE (6TH STRING TUNED
MINOR
House of the
Rising Sun
PLAY: D MINOR
D)
Slow
i
S
Dm (Dm.
Dm
A7
etc.)
3EE£
? Then
*£U f^r^
>gv mf
heavily
wm w
m i
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a-
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i as
the
Ris
A7
i
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Or
if NtJ»
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r
m
Dm
New
in
r-
Bl-
m
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22
m ^*Lfr
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house-
a
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^^
r./i.
i
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Sun,.
They
i^
:sz
^
^
And
it's
~J
106
Dm
^m
^
M
Ume,_
AdcI
girl,.
I
PP
I'd
listened to
have been
But
I
at
>
r
*P
common
what
home
was young and
Let a rambler lead
in
g
*
my mother said,
Go
3.
tell
my baby sister,
Don't do what
today,
foolish,
me
j2l
blues
oh God,
I
have done,
But shun that house
They
astray.
I'm goin' back to
New Orleans,
My race is almost run, I'm goin' back to spend
my life
Beneath that Rising Sun.
107
J #i
Dm
had
If I
for
ami others
As performed: A 7 against sung Am,
2.
^
i
Dm
=
(A 7 )
J'
I
If a
/irsf
7
God,.
oh
I
f
jppf
Am
G?(or Bdim 7
call the
in
New
Rising Sun.
Orleans,
is Woody Guthrie's version of a cowboy song about which very little known. One of Vance Randolph's Ozark singers told him it was already "an old song in 1893." The story of the pioneer woman who fought beside her menfolk is as much real history as romance. In other versions the woman is killed by Indians, after which the cowboys ride out to avenge
This
Ranger's
is
Command
her death.
CAPO: 4TH
KEY: F#
PLAY: D
Moderately slow
m
munii P
#mi
PP
^^
i £
cow- boys
all
m LT m
sing
Ji
S^
you
J
-
cr
J-
ts
7
^
illPiill y y LP
LJ
P^P
C(G)
£
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i'ii
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ii
the
r
you
If'lf If'f 3 3 3 P
m
$
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P^ eF
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LP
)
of
all
U^tf P l^pip
lightly
WM
i
r
Come
NWi
D 7 (A 7
=3^ p-p
G(D)
# ?
TT
law_
of
the
1
i g
J'
Ran-ger's
Com
1 -
f
IS
I 108
and others
first
last
G(D)
1
J'
l inaiui.
2.
LP
m$ To
:
To
||
guns.
zn
LP
^
LP 'LP
^T i
p^p
hold a six-shooter and never to run
As long
as there's bullets in both of
3.
I
met a
I
asked her to the round-up with
fair
your guns.
maiden whose name
She said she'd go with
And
me
I
don't know,
me would
she go,
to the cold round-up,
drink that hard liquor from a cold bitter cup.
We started for the round-up in
5.
the Fall of the year,
Expecting to get there with a herd of
When
the rustlers broke
on us
She rose from her warm bed a
in the
fat steer,
dead hour of night
battle to fight.
She rose from her warm bed with a gun in each hand, Saying,
"Come
and
Come
O
G(D)
all
As long
of
all
fight for
of you cowboys,
your land."
you cowboys, and don't ever run,
as there's bullets in both of
your guns.
T
Here's a modern ballad that sounds a
movie
but
plot,
in
true ballad style
it
lot like
a television
capsules
all
drama
the details
or a
Long
a few
in
The accused, but innocent, man
can't supply an alibi for his a murder simply because he was in the arms of his best friend's wife. Is he to be pitied for his naivete or to be admired for his gallantry? The ballad is the work of Marijon Wilkins and
stanzas.
whereabouts
Danny
at the time of
Black
Dill.
CAPO: NONE
KEY: D
Veil
PLAY: D
Lively
Verse
EMD)
ea
^=5 l.Ten peo
-
years
a
pie
who
J.
J'
-
on
saw
they
f
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;
dark
ma
s p
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22
killed
neath
the
ran
looked
a
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f
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Town lot
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slay
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S F
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was who
Some- one That
greed
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f
cold
">
J
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if
a
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:
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1
go
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Hall
light.
2.
like
me.
3.
f
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mm
The The
TT^J P i^S 110
Refrain
th (for 4
and 6 th
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Ab(6)
w=
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J> walks
She
^^r
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:
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these
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hills
j
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Ab(G)
is long
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veil,
^
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1
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its
my
^ i 1 i 1 when
f^fi
5
J>
Vis
-
grave
r
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the
J
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winds
night
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wail,
wm as "As performed: Ah(G). "As performed: Eb(D) throughout.
111
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Fm 7 (G)
Eb(D)
s^
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r
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i
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fe
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bod
y
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sees,
rw
Se '):
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ner.se
but
T^
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fts.£
Ig
-*»-
-<5*-'-
5.
The
^
f^fl J
F
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s
m
ft
The judge If
I
said, "Son,
what
you were somewheres
else,
spoke not a word, though
For
I'd
been
in the
She walks these
is
arms of
hills in a
it
your
my life,
best friend's wife.
long black
veil,
my grave when the night winds Nobody knows, nobody sees, Nobody knows, but me. scaffold
She stands
is
But sometimes
when
wail,
high, eternity near,
in the
crowd, she sheds not a
moan,
In a long black veil she cries o'er
She walks these
tear,
at night.
the cold winds
hills, etc.
A8
alibi?
meant
Visits
The
s
then you won't have to die."
my
F
/->.
my bones.
F
/0
IE
O
1
J
The original "Railroad Bill" is said to have been a Negro turpentine worker from Alabama at the end of the 19th century. His career of crime had its Robin Hood overtones, but he killed one too many sheriffs and they finally cut him down. To the southern Negro he became a symbol of a black man who had bucked white authority and who had been too smart to get caught. His ballad travelled out of Alabama into the southern mountains where its narrative details fell by the way until it became a popular instrumental show piece with just a few disconnected verses held over from the original ballad.
Railroad Bill
CAPO: 3RD
KEY: Eb
Lightly, with
humor
^^ EMC)
m
B'»(G 7 )
Eb(C)
m
Sggs Live
I^
'J J>J'J
J-
Rail-road Hill,
Ride,
M '\lH{
I
ride,
J J ^
1
ride.
ride.
fFfff U2f IJi
J
J
Eb
*Al.
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fe
f J
J'
on
last
EMC)
Eb(C)
>
s
]
Wi,LJj J
Bb7 (G 7
way up
and others
first
Eb(C)
y
U
.j)*>.
j
fff —
tff
h
^
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&
"As performed: Eb(C) to end.
Railroad
He
C
G 7 (E)
EUC)
Rail -road Bill,
Al>(F)
PLAY:
Bill,
Railroad
Bill,
never work' and he never
will,
Ride, ride, ride.
Kill
me
You
a chicken, send
think I'm workin',
me I
the wing,
don't
Ride, ride, ride.
Railroad
Live
Bill,
Railroad
Bill,
way up on Railroad
Ride, ride, ride.
Hill,
do a
thing,
Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, was a convicted
Pretty
criminal at the age of twenty. His crimes included bank robbery and murder, but the folk made a hero of him. In composing this ballad, Woody Guthrie portrayed Floyd as many Oklahomans saw him— a modern day Robin Hood. The ballad contains one of Woody's most memorable lines: "Some rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen."
CAPO: 5TH
KEY: F
PLAY:
Boy Floyd
C
Quito fust G(C)
fa
S
i
Come
* Na
a
-
T
r £
P
J
r
m a
dren,.
^ 1
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r
P
£
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m
r
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I
rhythmic
^^ s
me,
round.
S3
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h
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gath-er
¥ P Jm J_£ ^J_JL ^_J_^
3
ga—
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T "As performed: D
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m
Pret-ty Boy Floyd, an
i
sto
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J-1
will
I
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5
3
r
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Bm(G 7 )
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D?(G 7 )
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m Ok- la
out- law,
r
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1
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of
P« '):»
5
£=5
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tell,
C(F)
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7 (G 7 ).
114
y; ho
i
-
ma
*
knew
him
-9 well.
^^
-2 SI Was
On
c?)
i
5
^
in the
a.
r
r
town of Shawnee,
r Yes, there's
7.
The same
a Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in the wagon,
As 3.
into
4.
town they rode.
A deputy sheriff approached them, In a
manner
story told,
the outlaw paid their mortgage,
And
saved their
tell
little
home.
about the stranger,
Who came to beg a meal,
rather rude,
And
And his
Left a thousand-dollar
wife she overheard.
Boy grabbed
Well, Pretty
Then he took a
life
Every crime
Was added
a long chain,
to the trees
and
rivers,
in
napkin
Oklahoma
bill.
City,
was on a Christmas day, Came a whole carload of groceries,
And 10.
a letter that did say:
"Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
And you
say that I'm a
thief,
Here's a Christmas dinner,
Oklahoma,
For the families on
name.
Yes, he took to the trees and timbers
1 1
As through As through
relief."
Well, as through this world I've rambled, I've seen lots of
Some Some
At many a farmer's door. 12.
in
his
It
of shame,
to his
underneath
was
It
9.
On the Canadian river shore, And the outlaw found a welcome
funny men,
rob you with a six-gun. with a fountain pen.
this
world you
this
world you roam,
travel,
You'll never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.
115
a starving farmer,
Using vulgar words of language,
To live
6.
many
How
Others
8.
And the deputy grabbed a gun, And in the fight that followed, He laid that deputy down. 5.
(O)
i
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«
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2.
J>
J>
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G(C)
D7(G7)
C(F)
Here, in song, are a moonshiner's recipe and instructions for making whiskey. It was written by Albert Frank Beddoe and included by him in a little known collection of ballads from Bexar County, Texas. Its present popularity places
it
first
on the moonshiner's
CAPO: NONE
KEY: D
Copper
parade.
Kettle
PLAY D
Moderately
a
Bb(A')
Eb(D)
Get you
a
cop
Eb(D)
BWA*)
E1.(D)
ffes gfei
i
hit
per
-
gg? —*
^
ket-
i
^"
is
asi^
LP*
with
TF
LI
r
cop
-
per
^JL
i
«H^ Cov-er
coil,
a
Cm(Bm)
G''(F$)
Be
m
«m
Get you
tie,.
new
madf
com
-
J
and
TH^J ?
^^ s
J>
mash.
7
p?
-
J)
p
^
B|.|»
11
(A"
)
not actually played, but indicated by bass run of guitar.
116
mm
^ ^
4
r
r
i>
f
"As
-
i^E *
tfc= |P£=^
3SFE=f
a
W p
4
m 7
in
^^ r lr
7
pale
^
r
We just lay there by the juniper, etc. with hickory,
Don't use no green or rotten wood, They'll get you by the
smoke
While you lay there by the juniper,
Get you a copper
kettle,
Get you a copper
coil,
etc.
Cover with new-made corn mash,
And never more you'll
toil.
You'll just lay there by the juniper, etc.
117
moon
^ - light.
(O
Since seventeen ninety-two.
fire
±
f
My Daddy he made whiskey, My Granddaddy did too, We ain't paid no whiskey tax
Hickory and ash and oak,
2St
(O)
performed: Gm(F|m).
Build you a
p
Cm(Bm)
G(F$)
the
'
^i
r
fill-in'
?
»
p
j
Cm(Bm)
^
p
Watch them jugs
bright,
is
^ spi
FmlEml
Cm(6m) T
moon
^
F
±= '
the
&i r r
?
ggbe
^
while
ju- ni- per
Gm(F#m)
^^
Though known widely throughout the southern mountains,
little is
known
Wildwood
about the origin of this charming piece. Folklorists think it may have circulated as sheet music or in some parlor song books, but their thesis is unsupported by any known printed versions until the 1930s. The degree of variation in known texts and some curious verbal corruptions suggest it has existed in oral tradition for some time, whatever its ultimate source
Flower
may have been. PLAY: G
CAPO: 4TH
KEY: B
Lively, lightly
^^ p
I
F 7 (D)
B!.(G)
JJ'J
will
twine
f^P
with
my
minp
-
of
les
l;
if
t
-
^
ir
r
j
j
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JJ1J
f
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a ro
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so
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i
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t
£
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and the
^^
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r
so
r bright
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rjL r
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with
its
r
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li- lies
J so
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hair
TS
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With the
f
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ven black
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jji
mm
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BUG)
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331 dew
^^ Tfrr ^## »/ 118
F 7 (D)
I
f^
zaz-
And
the
J 'i pale and
the
<7 r^
I
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lead
*
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er
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and
eyes
BMG)
J
J
look so
blue..
(
F ffpi r f i
f
^m
^
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m
r
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2.
I will sing and my life shall be gay, charm every heart, in its crown I will sway, woke from my dream and all idols was clay,
dance,
I will
I will I
And
all
portions of lovin' had
all
flown away.
me to love him and promised And cherish me over all other above, He
taught
My poor heart is wondering,
me no warning, no words
He
left
He
taught
me
to love
That was blooming
to love
no misery can
tell,
of farewell.
him and called me his flower, him through life's
to cheer
weary hour,
How I
long to see him and regret the dark hour,
He's gone and neglected his
frail
wildwood
flower.
v
4f
* --*
119
z;
r
j
:
iv#'
t
This lover's lament traces back to a Negro "Jubilee" song, a short-line from the immediate post Civil War period. In the course of its
Lonesome Road
spiritual
song has become extremely popular among white the South and Midwest, as well as remaining a staple with Negro singers in the deep South. secularization, the
singers
in
CAPO: 4TH
KEY: E
PLAY: C
Lively
^^
i
^
that
long, lone
F(C)
Look
i
up
down
and
fc?F
'if
^m
and
J--J
i.h.
P -*>
C?(G 7 )
F(C)
m down
m 1
your
Lord,
I f
I
f
my
cry,
?
Hang
f
Tf
lr
m
i
m
head.
f
f
Bl>(For Dm)
i-
i
t i
*Dm
your
a
#
~
£
Hang down
road,
za
*0
fm
F
some
m
^mif
f
*V
F(C)
2 head
*
jOl
and
f
*
S £
m
cry.
T
r
TT f
i
f= "O"
"As performed: F(C) throughout.
120
They say
Why Why Oh,
I
all
good friends must
not you and
I,
wish to the lord that
was a baby,
I
was a baby.
time,
lord,
eatin' this cold
my
cornbread
lord,
soppin' this salty gravy.
I
wish to the lord that
Or heard your Heard your You'd
Where
lyin'
lyin'
You'd
never seen your face,
my
lord,
tongue.
better look all
I'd
tongue,
up and down
better look
lonesome road,
that long
of your friends have gone,
And you and I must
my
lord,
go.
up and down
Hang down your head and Hang down your head and 121
some
never been born,
my
soppin' this salty gravy,
Oh,
7.
I'd
I
would not be here
Or Or
part
lord,
not you and I?
Or died when Or died when
I
my
cry, cry.
that long
my
lord,
lonesome road.
Hill people and back country folk used to live off hunting, and a good hound dog was worth his weight in gold in helping them to track and catch food. No wonder they wrote paeans of praise in his honor, and mourned his death in song. "Old Blue" is known throughout the rural South, from Alabama to Texas, by white and Negro folk alike.
KEY: D
CAPO: NONE
Old Blue
PLAY: D
Moderately C(D)
feS
I tt
Had
a
dog
J
J
and his
name was
*f=
fefe
J
>
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"7^
Blue,
^
/V^ f i-
m f B F^ S ^=S —
«M
Had
i
i Had
dog
a
j'
i dog
a
^ and
his
f
?
r
£ name
was
his
Blue,
-»Blue,
— pi
r
m
G(A)
•
g
f
Peiidl aim He
j j nameS5 was
and
r
I
*v^
i
r
f
r
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t 122
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AND
SPIRITUALS,
LULLABIES A body
of religious song that involves every emotion
and experience in
American
in daily life
history.
folk songs are the
has deep and special roots
Foremost among these
Negro
spirituals.
has written more eloquently than
Of
W
.
religious
these,
E. B.
nobody
Du
Bois:
"These songs are the articulate message of the slave to the world. ple,
They are
the music of an
unhappy peo-
of the children of disappointment; they
of
tell
death and suffering and unvoiced longing toward a truer world, of misty wanderings
and hidden ways
Through
Sorrow Songs there
all
the sorrow of the
breathes a hope things.
—a
Sometimes
it
faith in
sometimes a
sometimes assurance of boundless some fair world beyond. But whichever
men
will
skins."
..
**:
,-ir,
i. =
,'.Y -•'
is
.
.
the ultimate justice of
is faith in life,
in death,
meaning
.
faith
justice in it
is,
the
always clear: that sometime, somewhere,
judge
men by
their souls
and not by
their
This spiritual-lullaby probably originated in the ante-bellum South, from where it was transported to the West Indies. It appears to have died out
All
in this country only to be discovered in the Bahamas. From there it was reintroduced to us, eventually becoming one of the standards of the popular folk song movement.
KEY:
CAPO: 1ST
Ctt
PLAY:
My Trials
C
Flowing-, with a moderate calypso beat
%
C(Cetc)
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E
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Gm
^p
Hush,
^
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ba
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don't
by,
you
§
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llu lut
Ma- ma
know your
^^
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die.
^
Am 7
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ifft^ ijt
^
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was born to
insi '
You
jjfe
i^ fc
f^
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cry,
fjgs^ f^tej^ \
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All
my
f
E3EE5
P
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or
Lord,-
tri-als,
T3T
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1 Soon
i Pv t
127
J' be
m m
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ver.
P^F r
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£
(after
3 rd and 5 th
ne.rses only)
p 1
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1^1
m
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late,
my
broth
- ers,
i
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but
late
rr^.^n rr^-^Tn¥ /
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)
5
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my
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nev-er
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Lord,
tri - als,
v
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be
Soon_
:z:
pi
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D.S.%
In
j
j
^tt river of
Well,
my
All
=*= fg^Pf
£ P **»
Jordan
is
muddy and
S 3E ~rt~
cold,
body, but not the soul,
Lord, soon be over.
trials,
I've got a little
book with pages three
And every page spells liberty, All my trials, Lord, soon be over. Too Too
late,
my
All
my
late
brothers,
but never mind
trials,
If living
Lord, soon be over.
were a thing that money
could buy,
You know
the rich would live and the poor would die,
All
5.
my
Lord, soon be over.
There grows a
And All
tree in Paradise,
the Pilgrims call
my
Too
129
trials,
trials,
late,
my
it
the tree of
life
Lord, soon be over.
brothers, etc.
•^7
•—
xlowing down ^7=M.
chills the
it
a,i "''"' c
^
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'
^
As in the case of "All My Trials," this song had to travel to foreign lands and be brought back to us before it achieved its rightful place in our songlore. It started as a Negro gospel song, "Come By Here, Lord," was exported to the West Indies where it was rephrased in 'pidgin-English' as "Kumbaya," and returned to the United States where it is now a great
Kumbaya
favorite with city singers.
CAPO: NONE
KEY: D
PLAY: D
Slow ^
AUG)
Eb(D)
Eb(D)
|
^"4
J j Kum-ba
i
-
r ya,
Gm(Ffm)
p
my
r
Lord,.
Ab(G)
-o-
kum - ba
ya.
f Kum - ba
Eb(D)
Bb(A)
1
Ab(G)
rr
~'r
Eb(D)
*Fm(A)
Eb(D)
Fm(A)Bb
'
Eb(D)
QSJ
i £E £
pi S^ -As performed: Bo,
^ kum-ba
-
ya;
22 Oh,
-•*-
Lord,
kum-ba
-
ya.
(Q)
i
i
a
p-
TT m
-«*-
w
fj^m r-
Ei>,
tO)
Bb,(A, D,A).
130
Someone's singing Lord, Kumbaya (3)
Oh, Lord, Kumbaya
Kumbaya, my Lord, Kumbaya (3) Oh, Lord, Kumbaya Someone's praying Lord, Kumbaya (3)
Oh, Lord, Kumbaya
Kumbaya, my Lord, Kumbaya (3) Oh, Lord, Kumbaya Someone's sleeping Lord, Kumbaya
(
3
Oh, Lord, Kumbaya
Kumbaya, my Lord, Kumbaya (3) Oh, Lord, Kumbaya
131
Numerous composers, great and small, have tried their hand at preparing a musical setting for "The Lord's Prayer," with varying degrees of success. Perhaps the best known setting is that of Alfred Hay Malotte. But for sheer excitement none approaches this West-Indian style setting by
Hallowed
Be
an anonymous composer.
Thy KEY:
H
CAPO: 1ST
Name
PLAY: E
Lively
first (and subsequent without repeat)
om
F(E
C 7 (B 7
Bb(A)
F(E)
)
^ Hal
m
-
low
-
name.
m ^m tfcj
/
m
I f
f
i
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£
last time
m
Fin*
F(E)
Our
Fath
m f
f sf8
m
C 7 (B 7
F(E)
^^
F(E)
)
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m
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which art
er,
=# Hi
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in
ffi
Fine
C 7 (B7
F(E)
)
m Heav
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s
Thy
be
ed
a fe£ i
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C 7 (B 7
^^5 w Hal
-
low
-
ed
be
m
)
S Thy
F(E)
name.
m i f
3=
f
£ 132
C 7 (B 7
BI-(A)
1
C 7 (B 7
RE)
)
3
I*-
Thy
imfei
^f
King
dom
come,
*
^
S
Thy
be
will
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7
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)
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done,
1 £=^e /AC.
2.
3.
On Earth as it is in Heaven, (Hallowed .) Give us this day our daily bread, (Hallowed .
And
forgive us
As we 4.
And
all
.
our trespasses (Hallowed
forgive those
who
trespass against us,
.)
.
.
.
133
)
(Hallowed
all
that
is evil.
(Hallowed
.
.
.
.
.
.
.)
)
.)
.
For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory (Hallowed Forever, forever, forever and ever. (Hallowed .) .
6.
.
lead us not unto the devil to be tempted, (Hallowed
But deliver us from 5.
.
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, (Hallowed Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Hallowed be Thy name.
.
.
.)
.
.
•
•)
This song has long been one of the favorites of Negro street singers and itinerant preachers throughout the United States. It was recorded by blind street minstrels in the early days of 'race' records, and these re-
cordings undoubtedly affected the oral circulation of the song. The reference is to the City of Heaven mentioned in the New Testament, for which
see Revelations
21
:
13, 14.
Twelve Grates
to KEY:
F
CAPO: 1ST
PLAY: E
the City
134
Moderately C 7 (B 7
F(E)
W^ beau-
C 7 (B 7
f
eit-y,
Oh,
f PJ
j
7
ap
i
ti - ful
C 7 (B 7
F(E)
)
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)
F(E)
)
what
^
beau-ti-ful
a
,
j
»
PQ*T
W
=s
1: "D"-
what
Oh,
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r
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f
^
beau-
ti
^5
s -
ful
cit
7
J
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j£ JE5 'i-
Twelve gates
i ^ 135
-
—'-*» -*»-
in - to
3
the
y,
well,
ri
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ci
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33. -
lu
^
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C 7 (B 7
FIE)
C 7 (B 7
FIE)
)
F(E)
)
Finr
Fint
C 7 (B 7
C 7 (B 7
F(E)
)
H
J£-
Three gates
I 4
m Three
P
V
F gates
F
P
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P
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the
West,
F to
ID
J>=-J
f fe=^E C 7 (B 7
b
4
r East,
the
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f F
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Three gates
ff
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-
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TT
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C 7 (B 7
FIE)
J
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)
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F
F
Three gates
North,
W
1 1
F~F in
-
i to
the
jhfpj
136
Bb 7 (A 7
I
RE)
J South,
PI3^
mak-ing
J-
Twelve gates
that.
J> ;>
ji
in - to
1
the
1,
IJH
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h j.
Al
le
hj
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^P
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D. S. B»> 7 (A 7 )
C 7 (B 7
F(E)
)
Well, oh what a beautiful City,
etc.
See those children yonder,
They all dressed in red, They must be the children, Children that Moses led,
You know,
there're
Twelve Gates
Well, oh what a beautiful City,
When
I
into the City, Allelu-
etc.
get to Heaven,
I'm going to sing and shout,
There
ain't nobody up there Who's going to put me out. You know, there're Twelve Gates
to the City,
Well, oh what a beautiful City, etc.
%'
Allelu—
u£ fine
C 7 (B 7
F(E)
£>.
137
-
N.
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)
aZ Fine
Peggy Seeger helped to make this Christmas spiritual popular, borrowing it from "American Folk Songs for Christmas" compiled by her mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger. The song dates from the end of the 19th century, and is a fine example of the folk Negro's attitude toward his religion— a religion
which he
in
is
on personal terms with
Him and about Him, much as
familiarly to
if
his Saviour,
He were
a
Virgin
Mary
speaking
man down
the
street.
PLAY: A MINOR
CAPO: NONE
KEY: A MINOR
Slow Gm(Am + F#)
,
Gm(Am)
D (E)
.
had- a
lB
one
E
*»
4^5^
^m Bb(C)
°As performed:
glo
-
ry
hal
- le
5
$
r 1
i _i
f
Oh,
SOD,
I
mm p^¥ Gm(F)
Eb(F)
£
Er
Pedal simile
Gm(Am)
Bb(C)
Dm (Em)
Bb(C)
EfcKF).
138
Dm (Em)
w
S
D 7 (E?>
G(A)
ti
f£ be
§ffi
-»-
?.Nl
*
King.
m ^s i
last
Gm(Am)
JJ
to the new-born
>J
first anil otlirrs
Gm(Am)
2.
-Well,
_
/T\ -**-
-«*-
"CF
&
6-
—<9-
"Well,
Mary how you
call that pretty little
baby,
Oh -, pretty little baby, Oh -, pretty little baby, Glory be to the new-born King." "Well,
Oh Oh -,
some
think
I'll
call
think
I'll
call
to the
-,
Him Him
I'll
call
Him
Savior
Savior Savior,
new-born King."
three wise men, three wise
to the
men,
new-born King.
Said, "Follow that star, you'll surely find the baby,
Oh -, Oh -,
surely find the baby, surely find the baby,
Glory be
139
Jesus, think
Riding from the East there came three wise men,
Glory be
6.
Him
I
Oh -, came Oh came
5.
call
-, I
Glory be
4.
^ ^7\
to the
new-born King."
Well, the Virgin
Mary had-a one
son, etc.
The Negro
spiritual, like the
Anglo-American
lyric
folksong,
is
We
frequently
a patchwork of commonplace phrases and lines. This song is a perfect example of such patchwork, for it contains lines and stanzas (e.g., 'Jordan River,' 'Jacob's Ladder,' 'Golden Crown,' etc.) usually found either by themselves or in combination with still other commonplace spiritual expressions. In this manner the Negro religious singer could slowly bring songs into being, adding bit by bit to standard phrases until the accretions created
KEY: Eb
Crossing
something entirely new.
CAPO: 1ST
Are
Jordan River
PLAY: D
Lively and vigorous D(D.efc)
i
Riv
-
G
^
Want
er,
my
3S y
F
•>
m
F »
r
F j
D
s
D
W^
crown,
I
want
my
D'
—r—r We
crown.
Pi^ TT 7
'
/ m
S'
^^
mm
A7
%
i^^S cross - ing.
W ^m
that Jor-dan
i"iii
are
Riv
-
er,
I
want
my
i
+
gol-den
31
f
+
p
my
crown,.
3 tr 140
D
A7
I
ft
f
rJ-
rrown.
i^ ;
^S
J
D7
1
Jor-dan
1
r
r"
>
>
deep and
Riv-er,
rii^i
*
I
p f
cc
»
y
7
r3
S=
if wide,
M |,i
y
PF
y
ff
^
Now when
Heaven \c?\ I'm gonna sit down on that golden throne / Jordan River, chilly and cold, Chills the body but not the soul. I
get to
We are crossing, etc. We I
are climbing Jacob's ladder,
want
to
sit
down on
(2) that golden throne
Jordan River, deep and wide, I
got a
home on
We are crossing,
the other side. etc.
We are crossing etc. 141
I
got a
d
:
M "
Versions of this song were recorded by street singers in the '20s and '30s, from which recordings the song has become popular in the present folk song movement. The metaphor of the 'storm' appears rather frequently in Negro religious song. The term should not be taken literally, for it refers to 'the storm of life.' Other spirituals utilizing this phrase make it clear that the only way out of the 'storm' is through belief in and
Somebody Got Lost in a
observance of the Lord's word.
KEY:
Storm
PLAY: C
CAPO: FIRST
Ctt
Moderately
A7 (G 7
D(C)
Ihll
|p
j Some
-
5
bod-y got
felE^
i
^
wm
^ Some- bod-y got
i
a
§ppi rr
#
D(G 7
r
^s ^
r—
A7 (G 7
)
)
storm,
lost
M ^r=^ i
r
i
)
»
TTTf
f
m
g§ ^ Gm7 (Fm)
G(F)
* *i* '
p
fe£§^
^
XE
pr
r
"Cjr
'-
m
d
Some-bod-y got
fefc
'
j
G(F)
D 7 (C 7
d
r
d
'
fee
D(C)
s
mr
4
m
PP i
storm,
lost
rJ
P simply
m
D(C)
)
some
lost,
P^¥
^s
-
bod-y got
lost,
i
r~£r J
CJf
E
i
|J,4 b
J
*
J i
err
1 r
u
"As performed: A 7 (G 7 ).
142
I
5 B
A7 (G?)
D(C)
i
—*
s
*^
lost
s
2.
Poor sinner got
3.
143
in
* » «
y'tJVJ'r
and others
1
last
1
D(C)
D(C)
/Ti.
Some-bod-y got
is
first
r.
r
a
s i'f
^
lost in a storm, etc.
Somebody
got lost in a storm, etc.
TJ
TV
"o storm.
storm.
zn. -
"O"
£ 4.
X5"
"T*
r
Don't ever get
5.
rj j rj
lost in a
Somebody
^
storm, etc.
got lost in a storm, etc.
Numerous songs have been borrowed from the church and with a few verbal changes have been put to use as Wobbly songs, union songs, picket-line songs, and most recently as integration songs. This is one of the best of such songs, which saw service earlier in union halls and is
now widely sung by whites and Negroes
We
movement. Tennessee
Shall
Food and Tobacco Workers Union, who based it on one of the stanzas of a hymn which began "We will overcome." From then on numerous verses have been 'zipped in' as needed.
Overcome
Zilphia Horton in
first
heard
members
1947 from
at the
in
the
civil
rights
Highlander Folk School
in
of the
CAPO: 2ND
KEY: B
it
A
PLAY:
Solemn
cm
C(A)
fe [
?|
J We
=§
J
shall
*(FiU)
o
-
come,.
ver
O
i
pp
CHl
wm
shall
o
¥
¥
¥
-
ver
-
come
r
i
^^ deep
in
my
#N^ P
¥j
j ¥
j ¥
C(A)
some
-
Am(FJtm)
Dm(B')
G(E)
I
come,
ver
j
J=J
s:
J-
6(E)
^^
£
Oh,.
day.
^
1 r
8-
i
j
-
j
f
C(A)
F(D)
o
i r
'' :
r
shall
^
1
r
Dm{B')
We
p?
I
AmH)
F(0j'"6(D)
We
F(D)
m
^m ?.£
C(A)
C
F(D)
Am(F#m)
C(A)
I
-»heart
do
be
(¥)
(S)
-9sthat
^=
J 3E
J> i
J>
W
j"~r^
i
~TF~
As performed: Am(F#m). ">As performed: F.C.D.G.DfD.A.B'.E.B'). :
144
FID)
C(A)
some
T
f
J
i
day.
3s:
1r
r
r
4^=i
23
s
We are not afraid, we are not We are not afraid, today.
We'll walk hand in hand, we'll walk hand in hand, We'll walk
Oh, deep That we
.(O)
f
r 2.
C(A)
(O)
ipi 55P
F(D>
—T)
ver
o
shall
C(A)
-b^
? I we
G(E)
C(A)
hand
in
my
shall
in
hand, some day.
heart
I
do
Oh, deep in
believe,
overcome some day.
4.
That we
We shall overcome,
etc.
(Additional verses)
We shall The
live in
truth will
peace
make
We shall brothers be
.
.
us free
.
E!Vt>
tyewflfc
BVAL 00
.
my
shall
heart
I
afraid.
do believe
overcome some day.
This charming cradle song has been collected mainly in the South but has become what may be the best known lullaby in America. Cecil Sharp
Hush
collected it in Virginia and North Carolina in the fall of 1918, and the song has since been recorded from Alabama to Texas. Most recently it has been found as the text of ball-bouncing and skip-rope games, and a Rock and Roll version has even been recorded commercially.
CAPO: NONE
KEY: C
Little
Baby
PLAY: C
Moderately F(C)
i
\>
>
JO
i
Hush
Ift
,
^
J
lit - tie
ba
J~]
J
^
^
J
[J>
don't say
by,
-
C-(G')
C(G)
a
J
I
Fa
word,
^§^
^
£
J)
pa's going to
-
j
cf
r
p
2 *
2-
j
'H'
buy
you
a
m
j
^
P
^z:
Jl
J
C'fG^l
don't
bird
/'/r.sr
are/ otfiiTS
^
Pa-
^
)'
pa's going to
i r* ^f^
1
J'
j buy
^^
J' you
J a
1
J
j
/a.sf
J'
-jj
,i
dia
-
mond
ring._
•
J
J
J^v
=
11
J
J ba
-
by
J>
£p
in
town._
^ O
-&.
-
F(C)
F(C)
j,
suit;,
^
o 146
2.
If that
diamond
ring
is
brass,
Papa's going to buy you a looking-glass. If that looking-glass gets
broke,
Papa's going to buy you a billy-goat.
3.
If that billy-goat
don't pull,
Papa's going to buy you a cart and bull. If that
cart
and
bull turn over,
Papa's going to buy you a dog
4.
147
named Rover.
dog named Rover don't bark, Papa's going to buy you a horse and If
that
If that
horse and cart
You'll
still
fall
cart,
down,
be the sweetest
little
baby
in town.
Ward Howe was
Julia
sitting in her hotel
room
Washington
in
listening
Battle
"John Brown's Body" as they marched to the front in December of 1861. As she watched and listened, a poem shaped itself in her mind and she rapidly put it down on a scrap of paper. It was later published in the Atlantic Monthly, and has since become one of America's most stirring songs.
to soldiers singing
Hymn of the
CAPO: 2ND
KEY: F#
Republic
PLAY: E
With majesty
k
^
Bb(E)
1 Mine
i
E
eyes
fe
have
seen
ing
ry
glo
Eb(A)
K
I
-
the
of
the
r
»>f
com
^^
—*£
of
Lord,
the
^j-m
j
He
tram
is
m
-
K
pling
out
the
vin
-
tage where
the
1 f
'
I
r
3 F 7 (B 7
Bb(E)
i
"'
Ji grapes
mA —
-Z.
a
J of
Ji WTath
h
*
are stored,
He
=
^
Bb(E)
)
a-
1
has
"*
loosed
mr
'
the
-4
m'. fate
-
ful
£ light
-
ning
^ of
His
m
148
m
ter
y
m i-
-
ri -
ble
•
'
i
r
^^ ^£ =f
swift sword,
^ r=£ >
d
truth
ry,
-
glo-ry,
r
i
Hal-le
r
lu
-
Glo
ja!
m
ing
on.
#T
^w^
- ry,
1
J
Bb(E)
glo-ry, Hal-le
J- 3
-
Mhfir
i
Glo
i
-
ry,
**Cm(A)
'
lu
His
ja!
1
S
is
H
t=»
-*—+
m £
fe^fet
«3="
truth
f
l'i"
march- ing
on.
(/TO
i
(O)
"As performed: Gm(Cj(m). performed: Eb(A).
"As
In the beauty of the
With a glory
As He
in
died to
His truth
is
lilies
Christ was born across the sea,
His bosom that transfigures you and me. make man holy let us die to make men free,
marching on.
Glory, glory,
149
ja!
B|,(E)
F(B»)
i
glo-ry, Hal-le
-
?=«
r
l
lu
I-
£ Qm(dm)
P
-
f
Jn
P
¥
march
is
±E± ^ f
r
f'JtJp'If Glo
Bb(E)
)
£
His
Eb(A)
I
F 7 (B 7
BKE)
>Cm(A)
•(Cfm)
c
etc.
John Newton (1725shape note and other hymnals since the early years of the 19th century. The tune is anonymous but is related to several Scottish secular melodies tracing from the 18th century. When sung in Negro churches across the country, it is usually performed to a tune which is closely related to the white melody but is sung more slowly and embellished in "Old Hundred" style. This version was collected by John Cohen in Kentucky. Joan Baez sings it without accompaniment.
The
hymn was
text of this white Protestant
1807)
and has frequently been published
written by
Amazing
in
Grace
Fairly slow, freely
maz
#» j save
J j
grace,
ing
-
To
me,
a wretch like
m— m «F
£ffEJ
y >
save
wretch
a
*
ni
I
J'
'
I
'
t
1
now
I'm
'
i
once
|l^£3
r
' I
was_
I::
'
!
'
blind
lost
Uti
but now
fm $
hour
j
.
That
day
cious
I
mm
first
be
-
lieved,
-
S
now_
but.
v p Was
i J pre
m
found,
I'm_
"X
:se=
# Was
found,
lib.)
jj
a
i
-
'
see,
I
^m pre
mm
J*
dynamics throughout ad
(similar
but
lost
:/
~ ;
was
me.
like
3D
|
I
rfttw
w-^-m
day
but
blind
J J
cious
^
iUjH>£
that
a •
grace
zn
3E
azg now
I
m
4i f :
J' *
i 1
That
ap
m
i that
grace
? ap
The
peared,
first
—
be
150
g
J) 'Twas
lieved,
I
J
heart
And
ma
Through
-
dan
ny
-
-
1
gers,
toils
1
1
>'
have
and
me
safe
^=tt i
home,
Jl
I
grace
my
TT fears
£
fears
lieved.
and _
toils
f :r
I
al
rea
me
safe
^
i
have al
this
Ji
\ti
Jl
J>
grace
Jl
grace will lead
?
s lead
5
come. _
'Tis
And
will
rea - dy
^^
far,
n
-
dy.
-
far,
i
I
^F
y this
3t
J
igJ'J>J'#^f
snares,
i
3
Through
;jj_
vj.jj_ grace
^^^
^
re
snares,
cj
r And
And
fear,
m ^
brought
1
1
p
that
ji
grace thatfs brought
i
I
my _
gers,_
'Tis
'Twas grace
fear.
lM-
come.
151
to
_
to
Ji
J>
ny dan
3=F
i
heart
grace
m
y
my
^5^ w
^
m
Ji
Sig!
i J i
J»
ma
Ji
£
lieved,
I
taught
J
1
my_
^ *
J
grace that
1
taught
$
J
p ^p^
L^-
ll
J
—
me_
that's
J me
/T\
home.
ffl
MODERN AND COMPOSED SONGS For almost a century, the
folklorists
have de-
bated the origins of folk song, with some believing that folk music is created collectively and others taking up the cudgels for individual authorship. Both are right, of course, for folk
music
is
created both individually and
Here are some
commun-
examples of modern and/or composed songs which have been acally.
striking
cepted and welcomed by the community, and
which are perhaps songs.
in
process of becoming folk
few short verses we have the story of a life— birth, marriage, war and death. This vignette is the work of Jack Elliott's old side-kick, Derroll Adams, folk singer and song writer from Portland, Oregon, who today makes his home in Belgium. In
a
Portland
children,
KEY: F MINOR
Town
PLAY: E MINOR
CAPO: 1ST
Moderately slow Gm(Em)
(^4 f
m ?
J,
J) was
I
bom
in
land
*
£ in
-
land
town,
Yes
i-W
^ I
p$
f^E ^i
was
F(D)
9
mmm
I
i^s Gm(Em)
Dm'D)
Port
town.
^
te
9^^
^
-
T
p
born
Port
s
w
"•
Gm(Em)
Gm(Em)
FID)
^
tn
was,
m
yes
u
^^
I
i
Pedal simile
Gm(Em
As
AMR
Gm (Em) (O)
performed: F(D)
154
was born in Portland town, Got married in Portland town, Yes I did, yes I did, I
Yes,
did.
I
Got married
Had Yes
Portland town.
in
children one, two, three, did, yes I did,
I
Yes,
I did.
They
them away
sent
Ain't got no kids
No
I ain't,
No,
no more,
I ain't,
I ain't.
I
was born
I
was born in Portland town,
Yes Yes,
155
no
to war,
I I
in Portland
was, yes was.
I
was,
town,
This song
is typical of the exciting 'Highlife' music heard in the cafes of Ghana. It shows the influence of American jazz and Latin American rhythms on West African native musics, indicating a direction in musical diffusion which ethnomusicologists are first beginning to notice after
Danger Waters
years of studying the movement in the reverse direction, from Africa to America. Its poetry, too, is worthy of notice for it exhibits a fluidity of
words and metaphors based on ordinary speech patterns which home directly, if sometimes savagely. KEY: Eb
CAPO: 1ST
And
I
First
we go
strike
PLAY: D
holler,
"Why?"
in a
etc.
me back me shillin', me back me shillin', You can stand on your own Give me back me shillin'.
room,
Give
Make me Momma no know, Make me lie on a sofa, Make me have-a me labor.
Give
And
And
I holler,
"Why?"
etc.
Hold me
tight,
hold
me
I holler,
tight,
hold
me
now,
etc.
tight,
Danger waters coming, baby, hold me Hold me
"Why?"
feet
tight,
tight,
Danger waters coming, baby, hold me.
And
I
holler,
"Why?"
etc.
(2)
156
Moderately *
Chorus
£
&ri t
V J
FB
j
'>\K
-«r»-
m
Eb(D)
And
hoi
I
-
"Wny?"
ler,
f
A
7 J
1
1.
'.
Y
st ,
(O)
EE5
The
tor- toise boy
no
mon
a
-
mi.
(Oi
mf 5
c ST
^^
2 nd and 3 rd)
Eb 7 (D?) «
-
Eb(D>
P^ 3
m
Eb(D)
fr
"Why?
1
TfT
S^ <
ler,
n
i TfjTf
T
f
ffi
Verse
hoi-
Bb7 (A 7
y
fr-N-H T^»
VI
1
J
[
fe£
And
"Why?".
hoi -ler,
I
Ab(G)
hi
J
J'
J>
And
*3
**
Eb77m?) (D
Eb(D)
£
-«-
:
First he give
me
m
S=£
JHZ
Then he give me
one.
w
pupi ^m
Ab(G)
And he give me
two,
&
"TW
T
i
p
m
j.
j
2" d and 3 rd nerse
k w>
i
Bb
Eb(D)
J>
j
three and
iS
7
J I
J ] hoi
ck
^
§ Be
•
• t
»
-
(A7 )
r Ef=
ler, " Lord- y, have
s
Bb7 (A7
*
J J
J
mer-cy!"
J zjj:
(2.)
>
Eb(D)
S
make me have
a
me
zz:
#
lab
^* ^m ? T? r
*To be sung before each verse and after 4th verse. cc Small notes for 4th and final chorus.
157
Eb(D)
^^
*
(4th verse only)
Eb(D)
«
&E 4.
^EJE
* me
Hold
me
hold
tight,
tight,
PiPfj £^*1 f
^-
f=f
WFF
P Bb(A)
I £E Dan-ger wat-ers
•^
i
:
«
:
com-in',
by,
^^•*i
me
Hold
7
tight.
ppFfi
iv*>
?
ft
3EE= me
Hold
pH
^tz i
W^ sm
-
:«^=>=^
» *
a
*w
ba
i
_
^e?
3EE±E me
hold
tight,
PFFfP S ffe|s*e: gjjj^
i
-»
Dan-ger
^m
i
wat
-
ers
p|
com-in',
£).
Eb(D)
£
¥'i
tight,
ba
-
by,
C
chorus
hold
7
F^
i * 4 ¥ i
i !
iii /;.
C.
chorus
158
Where Have All the Flowers
Gone?
~ 159
Pete Seeger got the idea for this song from a verse of an old song quoted by Mikhail Sholokhov in "And Quiet Flows the Don." The original words in translation are: "Where are the geese? They've gone to the reeds. And where are the reeds? They've been gathered by the girls. And where are the girls? They've taken husbands. And where are the Cossacks? They've gone to war." Similar circular-question songs are found in the works of folk and art composers and poets in many parts of the world.
KEY: B
CAPO: 2ND
PLAY: A
Moderately Am(Fffm)
C(A)
Am(Fjtm)
$ $ 4 V.
§
f flow-ers
j>
y
J
Dm(Bm)
^
Long
gone,
J
i# (#•)
Dm(Bm) G'(E 7
)
C(A)
G(E)
£
S3i
time
pass
-
ing,
JhJ
r^
i _i
Pedal simile
Am(F#m)
Dm(Bm)
160
m
*^ ev
G 7 (E 7
Dm(Bm)
C(A)
er
-
C(A)
)
i When
learn.
will they
er
learn?
m
S
$^
m
JSt
^^
T=F
m
"As performed: Guitar retains F(D).
2.
Where have Where have Where have
When 3.
4.
5.
161
young
girls
gone, long time passing,
all
the
gone, long time ago,
the
young young
girls
all
girls
gone, gone to young
the
all
the
all
every one,
will they ever learn?
when
will they ever learn?
all
the soldiers gone, long time passing
all
the soldiers gone, long time ago,
all
the soldiers gone, gone to graveyards every one
will they ever learn,
when
will they ever learn?
all
the graveyards gone, long time passing,
all
the graveyards gone, long time ago,
all
the graveyards gone, covered with flowers every one
will they ever learn,
Where have
when
men
young men gone, long time passing, young men gone, long time ago, the young men gone, they are all in uniform,
all
they ever learn,
Where have Where have Where have
When 6.
will
Where have Where have Where have
When
the
will they ever learn,
Where have Where have Where have
When
all
all
when
will they ever learn?
the flowers gone, etc.
m
Early
the history of recorded
in
and singers began
music, white mountain musicians
hillbilly
own
The Tramp
songs based largely on has continued to this day. One of the best of these modern gospel songs is this composition by Grady and Hazel Cole, based on the Dives and Lazarus story and the death of Christ. to create their
religious
biblical narrative. Their influence
The
last
KEY:
Ctt
verse
is
on the
a recent addition to the song.
CAPO: 1ST
PLAY:
Street
C
Moderately lively Eb7 (C
Eb(C)
sm
m On
-
£ i ^m mp
m^E
-<5^
a
ly
±=d
tramp
was
P
P f F
*
^^
*
Laz'- rus
3 F F
*
FF
(F-F(?*)
^^
i
i
i
He
begged,
a
i ass ^p^r
a
-r^rr
m
-rrr
s
22Z
Bb 7 (G*) 22
lay
down
/J,
j
—
*T7 fe£
tUt"
^tF^
$
i
P
Ab(F)
i
^
*
that
S
Eb(C)
f
wm the
rich
i
w man's
gate,
i
^tt f (F#")
and (C) played by sliding
in
barre position from
p
(F).
162
EMC)
E\P
^ ^^ mn mmfT ^tt s
ft
ppp
^
j
f
^
)
j.
like
Bb7 (G 7
tramp
a
f
TVr
zr
S
Is
-i9-=-
die.
to
2
fc^
*
W **
But they left him
eat,.
pi Sm
7
EMC)
AWF)
i
(C
S
)
Eb(C)
l£ZL
on the
*
•
^
-S4r
^F?rH
street.
^s
#
F
(O)
3
F F
*
*
F F (TO
^
He was somebody's
see
f
5
darlin',
3=j=j
r
he was some mother's son,
Once he was fair, and once he was young, Some mother she rocked him, her little darlin' to sleep, But they left him to die like a tramp in the street. 2.
Jesus
who
died on Calvary's Tree,
Shed His life-blood for you and
They pierced His
And
they
left
side,
Him
for
me,
His hands and His feet
to die like a
tramp on the
street.
He was Mary's own darlin', he was God's chosen Son, Once He was fair and once He was young, Mary she rocked Him, her little darlin' to sleep, But they left Him to die like a tramp on the street. 3.
When
the battles are over and the victory's
won
Everyone mourns for the poor man's son, Red, White and Blue and victory's sweet,
And
they
left
him
to die like a
tramp on the
street.
163
He was somebody's
darlin',
he was some mother's son,
etc.
The hardships and heartbreaks of people who earn their living sea have never been as starkly and dramatically described as
poem by ley.
off
the
in
this
Three Fishers
the 19th century English clergyman and novelist, Charles Kings-
The music was composed
by the English musician, singer and music
teacher, John Hullah.
CAPO: 2ND
KEY: A
PLAY:
G
Moderately
m
Gm(Em)
Bh(G)
Gm(Em)
Dm(Bm) T
I
i
BMG)
9 Three
s
£
¥
fish - ers
^w
went
sail - ing
out
itc
i
£
iff
mf
m
ti.
£
'EiMi
r^
F 7 (D)
fc
? R(D)
BMG)
Bb(G)
y
Gm(Em)
k
^
t
Dm(Brri)
'
j>
ji
Ij
j)
i
in -
to
the west.
Out
in - to
y
j
ag
;
i
J
^
J'
J'
the west
J
i
as the
r
1j
^
p
^^
went down.
sun
Each
^ r
z^:
dr
r
J
/
"T Cm (Am) th
4
I
p thought
fe ff
^m
p on
r the
p worn
-
r an
Jl
Jl
j
loved
him
the
i
r
p that
^ ^
Cm(Am)
Dm(Bm)
Gm(Em)
best,
^
And
the
/Tv
P 164
D 7 (B 7
Gm(Em)
)
^m
-rt£ 1
J' child
J'
J, watch
stood
ren
-
-
4
j)
j)
ing
them
J
j>
'
out
J
i
*.
of
£
^
P1
£
r
nf.
¥
£
rs
For
town.
the
Slower *Gm(G)
i
'Cm(C)
(Em)
V£
-* men
must work
and
S^eeS J worn
-
wm
i
f^
m .*
j
^
man
-
to
PIS
S^
Gm(Em)
FID)
"As performed: Bb(G) performed: Eb(C).
"As 165
Bb(G)
and
earn
to
tie
r^
E
n
^E=^ And
keep,
^=^ ^=r
the
m" har
-
bor
m i
*
£
Bb(G)
f
S
lit -
ft
m
y
.
For there's
F(D)
h
J)
x
^
EMC)
JJ
en must weep,
j
Gm(Efn)
Bb(6)
F(D)
r Gm(Em)
m bar
E
E
p first ami others GmfEnO Dm(Bm)
be
^i Last
Gm(Em)
#
Three wives
sat
They trimmed
And And
up
in the lighthouse tower,
the lamps as the sun went
down,
they looked at the squall and they looked at the shower, the night-wrack
came
rolling in ragged
and brown.
For men must work and women must weep, Though storms be sudden and the waters be deep And the harbor bar be moaning. Three corpses lay out on the shining sand, In the morning gleam as the tide went down,
And
the
women were weeping and
wringing their hands,
For those who would never come back For men must work and
And And
the sooner
good-bye
it's
to the town.
women must weep,
over, the sooner to sleep
to that
bar and
its
moaning.
166
This song, composed for the Yiddish musical theatre by Sholom Secunda, has long been a favorite with Jewish folk singers. Several translations have been attempted by various singers, but none tell the tale so well as this one by Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz.
Donna Donna
CAPO: 2ND
KEY: B MINOR
PLAY: A
MINOR
Moderately
m
Em(Arr)
r
B?(E)
j-'j
j.'j P
^^ Em (Am)
w
Em(Am)
g
i wag
-
=
mourn-ful
^
I f=^r 167
s Pff As performed: B(E).
Em(Am)
High
i
a
J
P
J
There's a
ket,
Jl
1
r
i with
calf 1
r-i
J)
m s
*Am(E)
^? eye,
'
J
a
n
T
V
3
-
J
^
i
ga^E
c
mar
for
T
C(ForAm)B(E)
'
J
Am (Dm)
Em(Am)
*Am(E) J
bound
on
m
* i
-f*
Jiu
*Am(E)
On
5?i
•
J»
^
m
i
-
bove
T
him
Em(Am)
* there's
i
-©-
a
f
?
ps=e swal
"T
-
„
^^ ^
Em(Am)
*Am(E)
a
*
J
i
Am(Dm)
wing-ing swift
low
>
n-i r
U-^>
K±Z2I
?
-
ly
a
B 7 (E)
Em(Am)D(G) ?
f
PNi
the winds are
TT*
f Em(Am)
M 1
r"
f
laugh
day
t
*=§
^
^
whole
the
Em Urn)
B 7(E)
^
J>J-
J
OT
r
p
r
r f r
?
£
£
G(C)
Laugh and
might,
*
r their
all
'
D(G)
33
and
through,
F¥^ LTLZ
F B 7 (E)
£ half
ST
B 7 (E)
£=5 the
summer's
r
*f J
J) J) J)
Don-na, don- na, don
7
na,_
^^W -
^
£
£S S r-rrr don
na,
-
-
na.
v
l
tlP
^^
^^
Em(Am)
Don-na,don-na,don
night.
Hi
D(G)
si £
^^
Em(Am)
Pf^ ^ I
with
3i
-
^^ ffl ,
*
J' r
i
They laugh
laugh-ing,
5§
-
7
J.
J)
p
G(C)
i
t
,j
i
*=#
Sf i
J?
r
r
D(G)
j
How
through the sky.
Em(Am)
G(C)
frf*
P B 7 (E)
Em(Am)
G(C)
-o-
I'JUiJ^J-
don.
Don-na, don- na, don
i
lB" p
r
f
j. j
j
^ -
na,
J-^
rry
P 168
Em(Am)
pa
m
don
¥ -
Em(Am)
B?(E)
f
Don
na.
-
]>
J'
na,
don
J> -
don
na,
-
don.
na,
3 -a-
f=rf
WFw
^
SSi
5 'Stop complaining," said the farmer,
"Who
told
you a
calf to be,
Why don't you have wings to fly with, like the swallow so proud How the winds are laughing, they laugh with all their might,
and free?"
Laugh and laugh
night.
the whole day through, and half the
Summer's
Donna, Donna, Donna, Donna; Donna, Donna, Donna, Don-
(2)
Calves are easily bound and slaughtered, never knowing the reason why,
But whoever treasures freedom,
How
Laugh and laugh Donna,
169
like the
swallow has learned to
the winds are laughing, they laugh with
etc.
the whole day through,
all
fly,
their might,
and half the Summer's
night.
m
of topical song writers have commented on the dangers of and the death and sickness which rides with radioactive winds and rain. Malvina Reynolds is one of the few to successfully capture the feeling of the potential tragedy by her simple story of a little boy and the grass around him which disappears in "the gentle rain that falls for
A number fall-out
years."
CAPO: NONE: GUITAR TUNED
KEY: B
DOWN
V;
TONE
PLAY C
What Have They Done to the Rain?
~v 'X »r.
i .
-
170
Moderately
B^^i a
Just
fall -
rain
i
a
all
inK
i
rfrr
s 53
The
round,
-
i
rrrj
^ i
^
r-
I
BKC)
F(G)
(Em)
Dm(G)
IPPS
~Q~
lit- tie
3jE
1
Cm(Dm)
BMC)
3 grass
m
its
lifts
3SE53
"
fT=i *
^^f i
a
^
""As
171
performed: F(G).
heav
-
en
-
ly
d
"
r=f=rT
^^
32
sound,
rr^r f
i
Dm(Em)
PS
P *~rs Just
-
the
r
£
Gm(Am)
^— to
head
lit
32
-tie
£
-»rain,
just
a
lit -
1
T»~
tie
rain,
^F 22=
~o
I
f
£
t ¥
J
J
J-
Just
a
lit
J.
~n~
-tie
boy
stand -ing
PPPF> r
y
j
j
5
pent
g"
(is
j *
f
*
P rs:
-
le
rain
that
Bb(C)
)
-s^
m
falls
for
-&-
r
-j
*
f
»
r And
the
r
j
j
r=^r
r-p-rr
^
mi
'
years,
.J'
Gm(Am)
?
^
Dm(Er
^
£ grass
gone,
is
^7^7
the
* *
f
>
f
p3
boy
dis
-
ap
-
pears,
^m «~F
m
I
f
¥
And
f=f=^
£
BI»(C)
Eb(F)
i
j
The
rain,.
the
fEE-EE^
M rp" J-
in
r
F 7
9E
P^l
•
^^^
I
*Dm(G)
Cm(Dm)
Bl.(C)
[
~cr
keeps
rain
fall -
i
J
f
§e f
*
F
ing
J
rT ¥
like
J
help
-
less
^m TT7" *
tears,
r-^^
And
I
5^£ i
-As performed: F(G).
172
Cm(Dm)
F(G)
I9
I
have
they done
to
the
V
j^^
ty
*f" j
^
a
Just a
The
leaves
Just a
little
i
^
^^
breeze out of the sky,
nod
their
heads as the breeze blows by,
breeze with some
smoke
they done to the rain?
Just a
boy standing
little
if
*f"
*
What have
The
173
little
o
ZEE
rain?
mm ^rr nu
last time.
r>
T»~ what
r
first time
in its eye,
in the rain,
gentle rain that falls for years, etc.
f
In a short life of only 40 years, Edgar Allan Poe secured a prominent place for himself as a literary critic, an idealistic and romantic poet, and one of the most powerful and compelling mystery and fantasy tale tellers. Of his poetic creations, perhaps only "The Raven" is better known than his tragic love poem, "Annabel Lee." The musical setting given here was
composed by Don KEY:
Gtt
Lee
Dilworth.
CAPO: NONE
MINOR
Annabel
PLAY:
Gtt
MINOR (BARRE)
Fairly lively
S i s fpfi Gm(GJim)
i
M
w It
$gGm(G{W
was
ma
m
DHQp)
E ny
ny and
a
Pgently flowing
^ Pedal simile
Gm(Gjim)
*Dm(FH)
go
T Bb(B)
S in
Ab(A)
Eb(E)
-9
dom
King
a
by
the
i
>
r
f
Ebm (Em)
Gb(G)
S £^
£
fe
maid
That
-
en
there
UMn
J-
r
1
1
"As performed: F(F#).
174
i i
Cb(C)
Db(D)
lived
whom
n
you
r
7
Ebm(Em)
'Ab(Em)
may
know
by the
w
fi
Ebm(Em)
Eb(E)
i
Cm(C}!n
U with
lived
^ ^^ /irsf
175
=
oth
J'
£
J
er
thought than to
F^
iJ-^T] r
-
Bb7 (B?)
Eb(E)
love
and
^^ r
1 be
loved
by
P^P
and second verses only
Eb(E)
,J
no
s Bb(B)
Fm(Fftm)
%
of
r
M=Z1
Bb(B?)
name
As performed: E^m(Em).
D. S.
%
D. S.
%
third and subsequent verses
BWB)
EKE)
^
Eb(E)
^5 To
her
shut
up
in
a
i
•
f
r
Cm(CjW
se
-
pul
-
f
r
third, fourth
Fm(F^m) b"
1
J
J»
cher
in
m r
Bb 7 (B 7 )
Eb(E)
and fifth verses
EWE)
]l this
dom
^ King
r
-
by
the
i
sea.
-6-
'•«F:
^£»
^m
2T
z>.
s.
5s
176
2.
For
was a child and she was a
I
4.
child,
I
and
With
Yes
loved with a love that was more than love
my Annabel
the angels, not half so
happy
in
heaven,
Went envying her and me
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we
And
Lee:
—
In this
that
was the reason
kingdom by
(as
all
men know,
the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by
a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
Chilling
my Annabel Lee
That the wind came out of the cloud by 3.
And
this is the
reason that, long ago,
Killing
night,
night,
my Annabel Lee
In this kingdom by the sea
A wind blew out of a cloud, Chilling
So
my Annabel
that her high-born
5.
kingdom by
Lee:
kinsmen came
And
And
the
Of the And Of
moon
far than the love
neither the angels in heaven above,
never beams, without bringing
beautiful
And
all
rise,
but
I feel
my
life
and
I lie
down by
my bride,
In her sepulcher there by the sea, In her
tomb by
the bright eyes
Annabel Lee;
through the night,
darling,
me dreams
Annabel Lee;
the stars never
the beautiful
Of my
177
was stronger by
Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee
the sea.
6.
it
Of those who were older than we Of many far wiser than we Of many far wiser than we.
And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulcher In this
But our love
the sounding sea.
the side
blues is that of 'traveling on,' moving from loves and new experiences. This restlessness is rarely expressed so well in modern urban blues as in this song by Anne Bredon of San Francisco.
One
of the favorite
one place
in
Babe I'm Gonna Leave Yon
new
CAPO: 1ST
MINOR
KEY: Bb
themes
to another, finding
PLAY: A MINOR
FlowingEm(Dm<
Bm(Am)
Bm(Am)
sm
FH'
8 *3
:',
s
J=
±
a
ai p Tell
p
you when rCV.
i
»
y
r
r
n r i
ar 7
a tempo
„
p
p
I'm
gon
-
J> na
^S
f^
Jj
p
l
leave
you,_
leave
=p
±
r;7.
T
)
r
a tempo
-y
Bm(An
7 FjJ (E?)
summer comes a
^=
r
-
roll -
G(F)
leave you
ing,
when
r7\
*
'
2
j_'
zr
ol'
^
ifei
^¥
-A.
^ j-
ol'
n r
Vl/
May be played by holding Am fingering and sliding up to the 7th and 8th frets, while continuing to play on middle strings. 'As performed: G(F).
(Dm
4
P^
when
you
PP
^
summer-time,
f-
PP G(F)
-i
imp
''r r
Pedal simile
rubato o s^r^
mf
J
i
nt.
f
—
-
fS^T-
rubato
v
you,
ST-.y.)
a=g
h
leave
-
p
I
'r
I'mgon-na
Babe
H
tJl
for guitar:
178
'F|m 7 (E 7
Bm(Am)
)
sum - mer
comes a
-
"As performed: F# 7 (E 7 ) against sung F#m,
long
common
Babe, that highway's
That old highway's Callin'
Callin'
3.
in
blues.
a-callin',
a-callin',
me to travel on, travel on me to travel on alone. Babe,
I'd like to stay here,
You know
I'd really like to stay here,
My feet start goin' down, My feet start goin' down, 4.
out Westward,
Babe,
I
goin'
goin'
down down
that highway,
alone.
got to ramble,
You know
I
got to ramble,
My feet start goin' down and I got to follow, They
just start goin'
down, and
I
got to go.
•Vc\
179
for peace is perhaps nowhere better expressed in song Ed McCurdy's masterpiece, "Strangest Dream," written in 1950 and now the unofficial anthem of non-political peace groups throughout
Man's yearning
than
Last Night
in
the English-speaking world.
Had the
I
Strangest CAPO: NONE
KEY: C
Dream
PLAY: C
Simply, with dignity C (C.rtc)
pM Last nigbt
I imp
M
&m
I_
¥
had
the
F?
Strang
est_
dream
m¥
m Pedal simile
^
world
i
c
•
bad
i
all
greed,
¥
to
G7
<*>>-
£ '
4 put_
an
I
±=s
m^ fM
Finn
G7
* Dm(G'/)
¥ E5
r "As performed:
Am
« end.
to
¥
¥
war.
te±
¥
¥ (o)
3E ~o
T
.
180
'Dm(F)
dreamed
I
^
We
was
there
f*
might
a
-
i fc^
^J
r
And
men,
Am
C(G 7
s
the
pap
5
r
f •*As performed:
fight
}•
r
3^# r
J J -
er_
were
they
sign
a
r
^
^^
^
f
^
^r
r-
ing_
gain.
J.—
i
-
D. C. al Fine.
m
they'd
1-
S
G7
)
was
F
s said
room
the
u ^^
FPU'
with
And
room,
f
C7
I
—
-r
p^
filled
y
r
F.
r D. C. al
And when the paper was all signed, And a million copies made,
Last night I
ever had before,
They
I
dreamed
all
joined hands and circled 'round,
And
grateful prayers were
And
the people
on the
made.
streets
Were dancing 'round and
below
'round,
With swords and guns and uniforms All scattered on the ground.
181
I
had the
the world
To put an end
Fine
strangest dream,
had
to war.
all
agreed
Tedesco. a GermanThis song is the best known composition of Martini born operatic composer who made his name and fame in his adopted country, France, during the 18th and 19th centuries. The version given here eliminates the developmental sections of the original song, thereby transforming it from a 'through-composed' art song into a strophic folkil
like
song. The authorship of this English translation
CAPO: 1ST
KEY: F
Plaisir
d'Amour
unknown.
is
PLAY: E
Slow, but flowing-
im ^
f^ f
1.
Plai
2.
The
C 7 (B 7
F(E)
RE)
m
)
* -
sir
joys
d*a
mour
of _
love _
Bb(A)
^
)
m
£
£
ne
du
re
qu un.
are
but
a
mo
^
C 7 (B 7
F(E)
mo
ment,
ment
long, _
i
i
-6-
^m -i
i
W Cha The
#
I 3p
i
-
Pudal simile
^
Bdim(Ajtdim)
C 7 (B 7 -Abass)
grin
d'a
mour
du.
re
of
love
en
-
pain
l
T
F(E-G|}bass)
l
;z=
B
T w
182
Gm (A or F#m)
Your
You 4.
5.
eyes kissed mine,
brought
I
me heaven
saw the love right then
183
them
shine,
eyes kissed mine.
My love loves me, and all the wonders I see, A rainbow shines in my window, my love loves me. And now he's
gone, like a dream that fades into dawn,
But the words stay locked 6.
in
when your
Plaisir
d'amour,
etc.
in
my
heartstrings,
"My
love loves me."
The Joan Baez Recordings JOAN BAEZ
Dagger / East Virginia / Fare Thee Well / House of the Sun / All My Trials / Wildwood Flower / Donna Donna / John Riley / Rake and Rambling Boy / Little Moses / Mary Hamilton / Henry Martin / El Preso Numero Nueve. Silver
Rising
VANGUARD
JOAN BAEZ, VOL.
2
VRS-9078 (Monophonic)
and VSD-2077 (Stereophonic)
/ The Trees They Do Grow High / The Lily of West / Silkie / Engine 143 / Once Knew a Pretty Girl / Lonesome Road / Banks of the Ohio / Pal of Mine / Barbara Allen / The Cherry Tree Carol / Old Blue / Railroad Boy /
Wagoner's Lad the
I
d'Amour.
Plaisir
VANGUARD
JOAN BAEZ
IN
CONCERT
VRS-9094 (Monophonic)
I'm Gonna Leave You / Geordie / Copper Kettle / Kumbaya / What Have They Done to the Rain / Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair / Danger Waters / Gospel Ship / House Carpenter / Pretty Boy Floyd / Lady Mary / Ate Amanha
Babe,
/
Matty Groves.
VANGUARD
JOAN BAEZ PART 2
IN
CONCERT,
and VSD-2097 (Stereophonic)
Once All
I
VRS-9112 (Monophonic)
Had
Right
/
a Sweetheart
We
Shall
/
and VSD-2122 (Stereophonic)
Jackaroe
Overcome
Manha de Carnaval
/
/
Don't Think Twice,
Portland
Town
/
It's
Queen
of
Te Ador / Long Black Veil / Hearts / Railroad Bill / Rambler-Gambler / Fennario / 'Nu Bello Cardillo / Three Fishers / Hush Little Baby / Battle Hymn of the /
Republic.
VANGUARD
JOAN BAEZ
/ 5
There but
VRS-9113 (Monophonic)
for
and VSD-2123 (Stereophonic)
Fortune / Stewball / No, No, No,
It
Ain't
Me,
Babe
/ The Death of Queen Jane / Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 (Villa-Lobos) / Go 'Way From My Window / Still Miss I
When You Hear Them Cuckoos Hollerin' / Birmingham Sunday / We'll Go No More A-Roving / O
Someone
/
Congaceiro / The Unquiet Grave.
VANGUARD
VRS-9160 (Monophonic)
and VSD-79160 (Stereophonic)
184
The Joan Baez Recordings
FOLK FESTIVAL AT NEWPORT, 1959,
VOL. 2
Virgin
Mary
VANGUARD
NEWPORT BROADSIDE
1963
With
1963,
185
VOL.
1
Are Crossing Jordan River
/
with
Bob Gib-
Side
/
with
Bob
VRS-9144 (Monophonic)
Oh, Freedom
VANGUARD
and VSD-2054 (Stereophonic)
VRS-9063 (Monophonic)
God On Our
VANGUARD
EVENING CONCERTS AT NEWPORT,
We
/
son.
/
Wagoner's Lad
/
VRS-9148 (Monophonic)
Dylan. and VSD-79144 (Stereophonic)
Te Ador
/
Ate Amanha.
and VSD-79148 (Stereophonic)
ALL MY TRIALS
Index of
Titles
53
'-» \
THE JOAN BAEZ SONGBOOK
This
and
a book of the songs Joan Baez sjngs on her Vanguard recordings
is
Here are sixty-six of the most nVunting and beautiful songs and songs in the folk vein. Many of these songs have never before appeared in print. Others have never before appeared in the at her concerts.
folk
The texts are full. The vocal lines and arrangements for piano and guitar have been kept as close-as is possible to the way Joan Baez performs them. They have an aptness and basic simplicity which brings them within everyone's reach. version published here.
CONTENTS LYRICS AND LAMENTS
Wagoner's Lad
BROADSIDE BALLADS
Black
Marry
•
East Virginia •
is
Constant Sorrow
of
Come
•
All
Lady Mary
•
•
The Water
is
Once Had a Sweetheart • Never Will Once Loved a Boy • Queen of Hearts • Fare
the Color I
Ye
•
I
I
and Tender Maidens
Fair
Geordie • Henry Martin • Mary Hamilton • Silkie • Barbara Allen • The Unquiet Grave • The Cherry Tree Carol • Lady Gay,» House Carpenter • Matty Groves
Once High
I
•
Knew •
Floyd
•
Stewball
•
Willie
Banks of the Ohio Ranger's
Dagger • The Trees They Do Grow Rake and Rambling Boy • Fennario • Railroad Boy • The Lily of the West
a Pretty Girl • Silver
Jackaroe
John Riley
AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS
Man
•
Thee Well
CHILD BALLADS
•
Wide
Moore
•
Command
Copper
•
Kettle
•
•
Rambler Gambler Long Black Veil •
House
•
Wildwood Flower
•
Sun • Boy Old Blue
of the Rising
Railroad
•
Bill
•
Lonesome Road
Pretty •
HYMNS. SPIRITUALS
All
AND LULLABIES
the City • Virgin
MODERN AND COMPOSED SONGS
Portland Town • Danger Waters • Where Have All the Flowers Gone • The Tramp on the Street • Three Fishers • Donna Donna • What Have They Done to the Rain • Annabel Lee • Babe I'm Gonna Leave You • Last Night Had the Strangest Dream • Plaisir d'Amour
• Hallowed Be Thy Name • Twelve Gates to Mary • We Are Crossing Jordan River • Somebody Got Lost in a Storm • We Shall Overcome • Hush Little Baby • Battle Hymn of the Republic • Amazing Grace
My
Trials •
Kumbaya
I
MUSICAL ARRANGEMENTS AND INTRODUCTION BY ELIE SIEGMEISTER
PREFACE BY JOHN
M.
CONLY
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ERIC VON SCHMIDT
N
RYERSON MUSIC PUBLISHERS, A DIVISION OF
VANGUARD RECORDS
INC.,
NEW YORK
