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Joe Offer DTStudy: Every Night When the Sun Goes In [Down?] (9) DTStudy: Every Night When the Sun Goes In 22 Jun 16


This is an edited DTStudy thread, and all messages posted here are subject to editing and deletion.
This thread is intended to serve as a forum for corrections and annotations for the Digital Tradition song named in the title of this thread.

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There are many songs with similar titles, so it's easy to get this song confused with others. The lyrics in the DT appear to come from Sharp. I think we should do some study on this and post a few versions.

Here is the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

Every Night When the Sun Goes In

DESCRIPTION: "Every night when the sun goes in (x3), I hang down my head and mournful cry." The singer says she is leaving, and wishes the train would come to take her home. When her apron was low, he would follow her everywhere; now it is high, he ignores her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: seduction suicide pregnancy betrayal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
SharpAp 189, "Every Night when the Sun Goes In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 149-150, "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside, p. 120, "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 180, "Every Night When The Sun Goes In" (1 text)
DT, EVRYNITE*

Roud #3611
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (lyrics, plot)
cf. "Careless Love" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This is so close to "The Butcher Boy" that I was almost tempted to list them as one. The introductory theme of returning home, however, separates the songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LxA149

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2016 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

Here are the DT lyrics:

EVERY NIGHT WHEN THE SUN GOES IN

Every night when the sun goes in (3 times)
I hang down my head and mournful cry.
True love, don't weep, true love, don't mourn (3 times)
True love, don't weep nor mourn for me,
I'm going away to Marble town.

I wish to the Lord that train wwould come (3 times)
To take me back where I come from.
True love, don't weep, etc.

It's once my apron hung down low (3 times)
He'd follow me through both sleet snd snow.
True love, don't weep, etc.

It's now my apron's to my chin (3 times)
He'll face my door and won't come in.
True love, don't weep, etc.
I wish to the Lord my babe was born,
A-sitting upon his pappy's knee,
And me, poor girl, was dead and gone,
And the green grass growing over me.
True love, don't weep, etc.

from English Folk Songs in the Appalachian Mountains, Sharp
Collected from Mrs. Effie Mitchell, Burnsville, NC 1918
@love @bastard
filename[ EVRYNITE
TUNE FILE: EVRYNITE
CLICK TO PLAY
RG


I found the song in volume 2 of Sharp-Karpeles, English Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians, #189. I've put corrections to the DT text in bold.

EVERY NIGHT WHEN THE SUN GOES IN (DT - Corrected)

Every night when the sun goes in (3 times)
I hang down my head and mournful cry.
    True love, don't weep, true love, don't mourn (2 times)
    True love, don't weep nor mourn for me,
    I'm going away to Marble town.

I wish to the Lord that train would come (3 times)
To take me back where I come from.
    True love, don't weep, etc.

It's once my apron hung down low (3 times)
He'd follow me through both sleet and snow.
    True love, don't weep, etc.

It's now my apron's to my chin (3 times)
He'll face my door and won't come in.
    True love, don't weep, etc.

I wish to the Lord my babe was born,
A-sitting upon his pappy's knee,
And me, poor girl, was dead and gone,
And the green grass growing over me.
    True love, don't weep, etc.

from English Folk Songs in the Southern Appalachians, Sharp
Collected from Mrs. Effie Mitchell, Burnsville, NC 1918
@love @bastard
filename[ EVRYNITE
TUNE FILE: EVRYNITE
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

A couple of little typos, but the big thing is that "true love don't weep, true love don't mourn" is repeated only twice. The melody repeats twice in each verse. Also, there was a line break missing before the last verse. The melody in the DT matches Sharp exactly.

This exact version collected by Sharp also appears in Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs, pp 149-150.

In Silber & Silber, Folksinger's Wordbook page 180, the lyrics are the same except for one word omitted in the third-last verse: "He'd follow me through sleet and snow." The Fireside Book of Folk Songs (page 120) is the same as Silber & Silber, with slight differences in the melody.


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