Topic: Dock Boggs Lyrics

[banjochris]

In the original liner notes to Dock Boggs Vol. 3, Dock's typewritten lyrics of "Loving Nancy" are reproduced. He has "My papa" in the last verse, which as you say John must have been mixed up at some point. The verse you have with brackets is as follows:
So where was I next morning
So soon as I arise
A crossing deep waters
With tears in my eyes.

Also the last line of the penultimate verse he has as "But I innocently love." I think he sings "But innocently love" on this recording.

Mike Seeger has an editor's note: "Until about 1965 Dock sang this with a major-sounding tune of his composition. At about that time he changed the tune to the present one: 'The tune I though up myself to start with and this other one, it came to me a little more natural.'
"The original text of this song was written on lined tablet paper headed 'Ballet of Loving Nancy Aug. 22, 1904 Leslie (or Lester) Ky.' Dock adds that he thinks Mistress Holbrooks' grandmother (born 1878) sang this song."

Dock mentions that he had the lyrics printed up in about 1929. Don't know of any recordings of him singing the other melody.
Chris

[Johnm]

Thanks very much for help, Chris.  I was definitely not hearing the front end of that one verse, and "innocently" is much better and less awkward than what I had.  I would like to have heard Dock's major melody to this one.  I don't know, but I don't think it is all that common for a musician to change the melody of a song he or she has been performing a particular way for decades.  Maybe Dock was inspired to do so by peoples' reaction to his tunes in that particular tuning of his and the sound of them. 
All best,
Johnm

[banjochris]

I'd like to hear that, too! BTW, I don't know if you're aware that all the Folkways liner notes are downloadable from the Smithsonian Folkways site as PDFs, just go to the album's page and you'll see the link. I wish I had thought of that before I dug out my cassette of Vol. 3 to look up "Loving Nancy"!

But the liner notes to Dock's Folkways records have lots of interesting things in them, handbills, lyrics, etc.
Chris

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Dock's version of "Drunkard's Lone Child" on the Smithsonian-Folkways set was recorded on June 30, 1963.  Dock accompanied himself out of f#CGAD tuning, in D, for the song, which he evidently learned from his friend and brother-in-law, Lee Hunsucker, around 1930.  I wonder if the roots of this song were in the 19th century, an extremely mother-obsessed period in American culture.  Dock pronounces the "t" in "hasten".

Banjochris posted his own excellent version of this tune here almost 9 years ago, (hard to believe), and it can be found at http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=813.msg6035#msg6035 .

 

I'm alone, all alone, my friends have all fled
My Father, he's a drunkard, my Mother, she is dead
I'm a poor little child and I wander and weep
For the voice of my Mother to sing me to sleep

REFRAIN: I'm alone, all alone, in this cold world so wild
God look down and pity a drunkard's lone child
In pity look down and hasten to me
And take me to dwell with Mother and Thee

She sleeps on a hill in a bed of cold clay
How sad it did seem to lay Mother away
She is gone with the angels and none do I see
So dear as my face of my Mother to me

REFRAIN: I'm alone, all alone, in this cold world so wild
God look down and pity a drunkard's lone child
In pity look down and hasten to me
And take me to dwell with Mother and Thee

It is Springtime on Earth and the birds are so glad
I listen and I wonder, my heart is so sad
Sweet flowers around and strangers pass by
But the form of my Mother no longer is nigh

REFRAIN: I'm alone, all alone, in this cold world so wild
God look down and pity a drunkard's lone child
In pity look down and hasten to me
And take me to dwell with Mother and Thee

SOLO

Last night in my dream, she seemed to draw near
She kissed me as sweetly as when she was here
She smiled on me too, and fondled my brow
And she whispered, "Sleep on, I'm a-watching you now."

REFRAIN: I'm alone, all alone, in this cold world so wild
God look down and pity a drunkard's lone child
In pity look down and hasten to me
And take me to dwell with Mother and Thee

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Dock recorded the version of "Prodigal Son" on the Smithsonian-Folkways set on December 14, 1963, backed by Mike Seeger, playing guitar out of D position in standard tuning.  Dock is once again working in D out of his f#CGAD tuning.  This is yet another song that Dock learned from Lee Hunsucker, around 1930, according to the liner notes.  Dock sings a different melody for the first verse than for all of the other verses. 

It's pretty striking when you realize that two rediscovered musicians, Dock Boggs and Robert Wilkins, both recorded such strong and altogether different song settings of the Biblical story of the prodigal son very soon after their respective rediscoveries.  I need to transcribe Rev. Wilkins performance live from the 1964 Newport Folk Festival; it has a long spoken intro that is wonderful in addition to the song lyrics.

I'd appreciate correction or corroboration on the bent bracketed word I have at the beginning of the second line of the fifth verse.  It sure sounds to me like what Dock is saying, but doesn't make a lot of sense based on what I've always understood the word to mean.



When I left my Father's house, I was well-supplied
I made a mistake and I did wrong, and I'm dissatisfied
REFRAIN: I believe I'll go back home, I believe I'll go back home
I believe I'll go back home, acknowledge I've done wrong

I go back to my Father's house, I'll fall down on my face
Say that I'm unworthy, I seek a servant place
REFRAIN: I believe I'll go back home, I believe I'll go back home
I believe I'll go back home, acknowledge I've done wrong

I go back to my Father's house, the place I love so dear
For there, they have plenty to eat, and I'm a-starving here
REFRAIN: I believe I'll go back home, I believe I'll go back home
I believe I'll go back home, acknowledge I've done wrong

Father seen him coming, he met him with a smile
Threw his arms around him, says, "This is my wandering child."

Father said to his servant, "Go kill the fatted calf.
Invite both friends and relatives, my son's come home at last."
REFRAIN: I believe I'll go back home, I believe I'll go back home
I believe I'll go back home, acknowledge I've done wrong

Banquets in procession, all sorrow had passed
Father's heart was filled with joy, his son come home at last

The elder son was jealous, I b'lieve I heard him say,
"Gave my brother his portion, I never went away."
REFRAIN: I believe I'll go back home, I believe I'll go back home
I believe I'll go back home, acknowledge I've done wrong

Father said to his elder son, "You've been both good and kind.
Not a calf I've given thee, but I all I have is thine."
REFRAIN: I believe I'll go back home, I believe I'll go back home
I believe I'll go back home, acknowledge I've done wrong

Edited 10/2 to pick up corrections from banjochris

All best,
Johnm

[banjochris]

I think he's singing "invite" and cutting off the "in," but it could be "provide" crammed into one syllable, too, I think. In the following verse, I believe it's "Banquet's in procession," or at least that would make more sense.

I love this song, maybe even more than Wilkins' treatment of the subject. Dock does that little upward vocal slide in this one, like you mentioned in "Miner's Child" -- I think that's something he came up with in later years; I don't believe he does it in the '20s recordings.
Chris

[Johnm]

Thanks once again for your help, Chris.  In re-listening, it is "invite", followed by "both", where I had "all".  I believe it is "procession" in the next verse, too, as you suggested.  I was torn between "position" and "possession", which had closer vowel sounds but made less sense.  "Procession" has the right vowel sounds and makes sense, too.  I've made the changes.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Dock recorded "Bright Sunny South", yet another song he learned from Lee Hunsucker, on December 14, 1963.  For the song, Dock accompanied himself on the banjo out of gDGCD tuning, and the CD's liner notes advise us that Dock came up with this banjo accompaniment in mid-1963, or in other words, post-rediscovery.  This brings up an interesting point, because I think quite often the tendency with rediscovered musicians is to assume that they have achieved their full stylistic evolution by the point at which they're rediscovered, and that everything we hear them do is something that they worked out at some point prior to being rediscovered.  This information on Dock's version of "Bright Sunny South" points toward an ongoing stylistic evolution for at least some rediscovered musicians, with new arrangement ideas and sounds continuing to occur to them on into this later period of life. 

I think "Bright Sunny South" has one of the most beautiful of Dock Boggs' song melodies.  It uses the notes of an F major pentatonic scale, F-G-A-C-D, but with G as the key center, so you might think of the song as having a Dorian pentatonic sound, since it is based on the II note of the F scale.  The melody spans the octave from the D of the open fourth string of the banjo up to the D an octave higher at the open first string. In that range, the melody notes end up being D-F-G-A-C-D, ascending from the low point of the melody to its high point.

The song seems most likely to be speaking of a young man conscripted to serve in the Civil War.  The language is somewhat flowery, and I suspect Dock garbled more of the the original lyrics than was usual for him, coming up with phonetic approximations that made sense to him.  The last line of the first verse, for instance, would make more sense as "Ever dear to my memory, sweet as a dream", but it's not what Dock sang.  Similarly, the last line of of the last two verses would make more sense as "I'm going in defense", but Dock sings "I'm going in to fence".  In virtually ever place where the lyrics seem awkward or nonsensical, a version of the same line that sounds almost the same, but makes sense via a few slight adjustments is readily available.  The song has such a beautiful sound that these shortcomings seem very minor indeed.



In the bright sunny South, in peace and content
The days of my boyhood I scarcely have spent
From the deep flowing spring to the broad flowing tree
Every dear to my memory, as sweet is my dream

I leave my confinement and comfort of life
The danger of bloodshed, provision and strife
I've come to come close and reply with my word
As I shoulder my musket and billet my sword

My father looks sad as he beg me to part
And my mother embraced me with anguish of heart
And my beautiful sister looked pale in her woe
As she grabbed me and blessed me and told me to go

Dear Father, dear Father, for me do not weep
For a lonesome high mountain, I mean for to sleep
And the dangers of war I intend for to share
And for sickness and death I intend to prepare

Dear Mother, dear Mother, for me do not weep
For a mother's kind voice, I ever will keep
You have taught me, "Be brave.", from a boy to a man
And I'm going in to fence of her own native land

Dear sister, dear sister, I can not tell my woe
Your tears and your sorrow, they trouble me so
I must be a-going for here I can not stand
For I'm going in to fence of her own native land

All best,
Johnm



 

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Dock recorded "Mother's Advice" on December 14, 1963, accompanying himself out of gDGBD tuning and backed by Mike Seeger on guitar.  This song is also sometimes called "Hold Fast to the Right", which is how the Nashville Bluegrass Band recorded it about 25 years ago with ace fiddler Stuart Duncan delivering a really nice vocal.  Dock evidently learned the song from his friend and brother-in-law, Lee Hudsucker.



Sit down by the side of your Mother, my boy,
You have only a moment, I know
If you wait 'til I give you my parting advice
It is all that I have to bestow

REFRAIN:  Hold fast to the right, hold fast to the right
Wheresoever your footstep may roam
Don't forsake not the way of Salvation, my boy,
You have learned from your Mother at home

SOLO

I gave you to God, in your cradle, my boy
I have taught you the best that I knew
And as long as His mercy permits me to live
I shall never cease praying for you

REFRAIN:  Hold fast to the right, hold fast to the right
Wheresoever your footstep may roam
Don't forsake not the way of Salvation, my boy,
You have learned from your Mother at home

SOLO

You will find in this bundle a Bible, my boy
It's a book, of all others, the best
It will teach you to live and prepare you to die
And will lead to the Gates of the Blessed

REFRAIN:  Hold fast to the right, hold fast to the right
Wheresoever your footstep may roam
Don't forsake not the way of Salvation, my boy,
You have learned from your Mother at home

You leave us to seek for employment, my boy,
You have yet of the world to be tried
But in all of the struggles and temptations you meet
May you, in your Saviour, confide

REFRAIN:  Hold fast to the right, hold fast to the right
Wheresoever your footstep may roam
Don't forsake not the way of Salvation, my boy,
You have learned from your Mother at home

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Dock recorded "Danville Girl" on June 4, 1964, using a gDGAD tuning on his banjo to play in D.  The tuning is identified incorrectly in the liner notes as being f#DGAD.  Dock is joined by Mike Seeger on guitar for the song.  The song has a beautiful dark, lonesome sort of melody, using a D minor pentatonic scale, D-F-G-A-C, deriving from the F major pentatonic scale.  Dock pronounced "Danville" "Danville".



Oh, I went down to Danville
Got stuck on a Danville girl
You bet your life she's out of sight
She wears those Danville curls

She wears her hair on the back of her head
Like all high-toned people do
The very first train that leaves this town
Gonna bid that girl adieu

I don't see why I love that girl
For she never cared for me
But still my mind is on that girl
Wherever she may be

Look up, look down this lonesome road
Hang down your head and cry
The very best friends have to part sometimes
And why can't you and I

SOLO

It's forty mile through the rock
It's sixty through the sand
Oh, I relate to you the life
Of a many poor married man

SOLO

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Dock Boggs recorded "Little Omie Wise" on February 10, 1968, accompanying himself on the banjo in C out of gCGBD tuning, and backed by Mike Seeger on guitar.  Dock delivers the song at a brisk tempo, singing a melody pretty close to the one that G. B. Grayson used for his version of the song that is included on Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music".  Dock has a number of different lyrics than Grayson or Doc Watson, who also recorded the song, sang, and it's always interesting to hear how different singers vary the singing of a ballad.  Incidentally, Pan posted a fine version of this song sung by Doug Wallin in the "Country Blues on youtube" thread on Halloween, so it's still pretty near the end of that thread.  As on many old ballads, the narrative voice shifts a couple of times during the course of the singing of the song.  Dock plays no solos, but follows each verse with an instrumental re-statement of the second line of the verse.



John Lewis said, "People, I'll tell you no lie,
For the way I murdered little Omie Wise."

He told her to meet him at Adams's Spring
He'd bring her some money and other fine things

Foolishly, she met him at Adams's Spring
He brought her no money, no other fine things

I'll tell you some history and I think it's not too late
Little Omie was murdered the year of eighteen-eight

"John Lewis, John Lewis, I'm afraid of your way.
Your mind is to ramble and lead me astray."

"Little Omie, little Omie, I'll tell you my mind.
My mind is to drownd you and leave you behind."

"Hop up behind me, away we will go,
Down to the river, where the deep waters flow."

She hopped up behind him, away they did go,
Down to the river, where the deep waters flow

He beat her, he banged her, she couldn't hardly speak
He threw her in the river where the water's twenty foot deep

Little Omie was missing, the people did not know
They gathered together, and a-hunting they did go

They rambled, they rambled the whole world around
Poor little Omie had never yet been found

But two little boys was fishing, it was on Wednesday morn
They saw little Omie's body come down in the storm

They threw their net around her and drew her to the bank
Her clothes were wet and muddy and they laid her on a plank

They sent for John Lewis to come and see the sight
He'd murdered his own true lover, and he did not deny it

They hand-cuffed John Lewis, they taken him off to jail
Surround little Omie's body, and taken her to the grave

"My name is John Lewis, a name I'll never deny.
I murdered my own true lover, and now I'm ready to die."

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Dock Boggs recorded "Dying Ranger" on February 10, 1968, accompanying himself on a banjo tuned gCGBD, and backed by Mike Seeger on guitar.  Dock's way of phrasing the melody on the banjo right underneath his singing was very unusual--more often players will have a time stroke that keeps the rhythm moving along but which doesn't really state the melody in any explicit sort of way.  Dock really played what he was singing, most of the time.  His singing on "Dying Ranger" is masterful, by the way, and really worth seeking out. His very finely-honed control of pitch is worth studying, as is the way he came off of his notes.



The sun was sinking in the west, and fell with a linger ray
Through the branches of a forest, where a wounded ranger lay
The group that gathered around him, his comrades in the fight
A tear rolled down each manly cheek as he bid his last good night

One tried and true companion was kneeling by his side
To stop the life blood flowing, but alas, in vain he tried
To stop the life blood flowing, he found 'twas all in vain
The tears rolled down each manly cheek like light showers of rain

"Draw closer to me, comrades, and listen to what I say.
I'm a-going to tell a story while my spirit hastens away.
Away back in Northwest Texas, that good old Lone Star State
There's one that's for my coming, with a weary heart, will wait."

"It's a fair young girl, my sister, my only joy my pride.
She was my friend from boyhood, I had no one left beside.
I've loved her as a brother, and with a father's care. 
I've strove, from grief and sorrow, her gentle heart to spare."

"But our country was invaded, she called for volunteers.
She threw her arms around me, then bursted into tears,
Saying, "Go, my darling brother, though a stranger from our shore.
My heart may need your presence, but our country needs you more."

"It's true I love my country.  For her I gave my all.
If it hadn't've been for my sister, boys, I'd be content to fall.
I'm dying, comrades, dying, she'll never see me more.
But in vain she'll wait my coming, by a little cabin door."

Edited 11/25 ro pick up correction from banjochris

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Dock Boggs recorded "Mixed Blues" on June 3, 1964, playing the banjo out of gDGBD tuning and backed by Mike Seeger on guitar.  The song follows the AAB phrasing format of a 12-bar blues, but Dock heard and played different lengths for it than those that are most often encountered.



SOLO

Oh you caused me trouble, woman, and you caused me to kill a man
Caused me trouble, and you caused me to kill a man
Oh, now I'm in the jailhouse, got to do the best I can, best can

Oh, it's hard to be in trouble and all bound down in jail
Hard to be in trouble and all bound down in jail
All your friends done forsaken you and no one to go your bail, go your bail

SOLO

Goin' away now, baby, I'm a-goin' away for a spell
Goin' away now, woman, and I'm goin' away for a spell
But to leave my wife and babies, I'd rather be in hell

SOLO

It's all right to flirt, mama, and it's all right to roll high
It's all right to flirt and it's all right to roll high
Find you feel that you're safe, and your man is standin' by, stand by

Oh, the train that I ride is sixteen coaches long
Train I ride is sixteen coaches long
Don't stop in any station for to take any passengers on, passengers on

SOLO

These is my old blues and I'll sing them when I please
These is my old blues and I'll sing them when I please
Oh, the blues ain't nothin', baby, but a heart disease, a heart disease

SOLO

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Dock Boggs recorded "Harvey Logan" on September 24, 1963, backed by Mike Seeger on guitar.  Dock played the song, which he evidently learned from a Kentucky guitarist and singer Clintwood Johnson, in the key of C, with his banjo tuned gCGBD.  The song has a really pretty melody that is very reminiscent of "Bully of the Town".  Dock sings it right at the top of his range, and I find the song unusually hard to hear, so I would sure appreciate some help with the lyrics to the bent-bracketed passages.



People don't know, 'ceptin' I tell you so
Down on the Bowery where the rounders they all go
REFRAIN: Oh my babe, woman babe

Gamblin' for money, the money wouldn't come right
They fooled around, got into a fight
REFRAIN: Oh my babe, woman babe

SOLO

About that time, the cops passed along
They stopped in the game, knew something's going on wrong.
REFRAIN: Oh my babe, woman babe

They went in, intention to make arrest
Knew Harvey was an outlaw, from 'way out West
REFRAIN: Oh my babe, woman babe

SOLO

Over his head, billies they did break
Harvey gave them contents of a smokeless .38
REFRAIN: Oh my babe, woman babe

Catching Harvey Logan, they put him in the Knoxville Jail
Just because he was a stranger, no one would go his bail
REFRAIN: Oh my babe, woman babe

SOLO

Harvey was in jail, that guard wasn't very far
Threw a lasso over the jailer and pulled him to the bar
REFRAIN: Oh my babe, woman babe

Harvey said to the jailer, "You know you done me wrong.
Hush up your cryin' and put the saddles on
REFRAIN: Oh my babe, woman babe

SOLO

Crossed the bridge at midnight, the clock was striking twelve
There stood his old Captain, a-fixin' to give him awful
REFRAIN: Oh my babe, woman babe

SOLO

Edited 11/25 to pick up many corrections from banjochris

All best,
Johnm

[banjochris]

Some suggestions on "Harvey Logan" -- I always feel like there should be more verses to this song but have never heard any other versions.

CHORUS: Oh my babe, MY WOMAN babe
3.2 KNEW SOMETHIN' GOIN' ON WRONG (Seeger has "They stopped and they gazed," but "They stopped in the game" makes good sense and sound)
6.2 because he was A STRANGER
7.2 THREW A LASSO OVER THE JAILER
8.2 THEM SADDLES on
9.2 fixin' to give him AWFUL (he sings this instead of "hell" or "awful hell," I think)

P.S. On "Dying Ranger" you're missing "ray" at the end of the first line, just a typo I'm sure.
Chris