Background: StephenFoster's 'Hard Times'

Subject: Lyr Add: HARD TIMES COME AGAIN NO MORE (S Foster)
From: dani
Date: 01 Oct 97 - 09:51 AM

HARD TIMES COME AGAIN NO MORE
Stephen Foster

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears
O, Hard Times, come again no more.

CHORUS: 'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary
Hard Times, Hard Times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
O, Hard Times, come again no more

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er
Tho' her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day
O, Hard Times, come again no more

'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave
'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
O, Hard Times, come again no more

While we seek mirth and beauty and music bright and gay
There are frail forms fainting at the door
Tho' their voices are silent, their pleading looks still say
O, Hard Times, come again no more

A - E A D / A A E A - ://

Chorus:
A - D A / - - A B E /

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I compared these lyrics with those in the DT today. The Rise Up Singing songbook has verses in the order that Dani posted, but sheet music at Levy and my Treasury of Stephen Foster uses the order shown in the Digital Tradition. The DT lyrics are identical to what I found on the sheet music.
-Joe Offer, 25 Sept 2003-

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: Justin
Date: 01 Oct 97 - 09:35 AM

No one mentioned DeDannon's version (Mary Black), which is my favorite. I've heard that, in his last years, Foster wandered from bar to bar singing for drinks and his most requested song was, "Hard Times".

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: Earl
Date: 30 Sep 97 - 11:21 PM

If you need the words in a hurry, click here: Hard Times Come Again No More

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: GaryD
Date: 30 Sep 97 - 09:45 PM

Hi people!..I came across the song sung on the PBS Civil War Song Special sung by the McGarrigle (sic?) families..I went nuts over the song..and their version..especially the harmony on the Refrain..Heard some other sad things about Foster..he died in abject poverty and alcohol with songs he couldn't even give away..but we'd give plenty today!. .So, Dick!,...How can I bring up the words? I want to sing it at next Jam!

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 30 Sep 97 - 06:21 PM

Please. Please. Y'all may not realize it, but you've all been co-opted as unpaid proofreaders. All corrections and error notices most gratefully accepted.

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Sep 97 - 04:47 PM

Hi, Dick - I've noticed a few others like that, that I can't access. Do you need us to point them out to you when we find them, or should the October edition fix them all?
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 30 Sep 97 - 12:24 PM

Joe- The reason that the database won't produce Hard Times is an example of the inflexibility of computers. When you click on the title, the program looks for the first line of the song's file--and we, through practiced incompetence, headed the file with a blank line. It will be fixed in the next edition (late October, I think). And thanx for pointing it out. dick

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: dani
Date: 30 Sep 97 - 09:40 AM

You're absolutely right. I mixed up my 'frail forms fainting at the door' with the 'pale drooping maiden who toils her life away'.

Thanks so much! Since I learned this song I've found myself singing it to myself in moments of unfounded self-pity. Love to think of Foster singing it to himself, though I do feel sorry for him.

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: Frank Phillips
Date: 30 Sep 97 - 01:09 AM

I picked up a 1946 Random House Book called "A Treasury of Stephen Foster" in Coeur d'Alene this summer. It says that Hard Times is the second of 2 songs based on fragments of folk songs that he heard as a child in the Negro church where the family nurse, Olivia Pise, worshipped. The other was "Oh boys carry me 'long" published July 1851. Hard Times was published in January 1855. The book also says that Foster used to sing the song in a state of semi-inebriation when the poverty of his later years made it applicable to his own state.

I thought this book was a real "find" until I started searching the music sections of the used book stores here in Calgary. 2 of them had copies. Seems it must have been widely distributed.

Frank

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: DrWord
Date: 29 Sep 97 - 11:41 PM

I have a lovely "sesquicentennial" edition of 39 Foster tunes which are reproductions of the sheet music. The date on Hard Times is 1854. Cheers :) Dennis

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: Songster Bob
Date: 29 Sep 97 - 03:58 PM

My assumption is the "hard times" was referring to the constant and recurring cycle of boom and bust which the 19th Century was particularly vulnerable to, and to the fact that most times, the poorest people didn't ever get much from the boom times, but went bust fastest when the balloon burst. History books are replete with references to "the panic of 18xx." Those panics were the result of a lot of factors, of course, but unrestricted capitalism and the prevalence of speculators, adventurers and a good number of frauds were a big part of the cause. For a different folk song connection to these mercantile matters, look up the history of "Oleanna." That project was an attempt to set up a colony -- or at least settlement -- in Pennsylvania (I think), where the land being purchased by Ole Bull, champion fiddler and would-be benefactor, was in fact not owned by the sellers, who ripped Ole off and left the settlement high and dry. At least, that's the way I heerd it!

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: Jon W.
Date: 29 Sep 97 - 12:48 PM

This link will take you to a summary of a biography of Stephen Foster written by his brother and published in 1896. The summary gives background for a couple of songs, but unfortunately not Hard Times. The book is reported to have the background of 160+ songs, if anyone has a copy of it.

Hard Times is my favorite of Foster's songs I've heard so far. It can relate to anyone's hard times. It was a particular favorite of the Mormon pioneers (my heritage) and they made many versions of it, some serious and some parodies.

BTW, isn't it "FRAIL forms fainting by the door"? I always assumed this line referred to slaves, who certainly wouldn't have been "pale." I could be wrong.

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: Dale Rose
Date: 29 Sep 97 - 11:11 AM

I know of a book about Stephen Foster which includes the words, music, and background to a number of his songs. I have to confess to not having read it all; I was just entering the information into the music data base at the Ozark Cultural Resource Center. Unless someone beats me to it, (that's OK!) I will look into it the next time I am up there.

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: dani
Date: 29 Sep 97 - 10:46 AM

Thanks, Joe. I actually know the words, and can sing it (unlike most of the things I ask y'all's help with). I was hoping to find out maybe when it was written, what hard times he was referring to, etc. It fits the theme of a project I'm working on, but I want to offer some depth to the choice if I can, with some knowledge about the song.

Guess what I discovered! I now have speakers and can play MIDI files. This is just too exciting for me! Isn't this stuff COOL?!

Dani

Subject: RE: Background: StephenFoster song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Sep 97 - 03:26 AM

Well, the words are in the database, but for some reason, I can't access this one song. I've searched under [Hard Times] and [Come Again No More]. The song comes up both times, but without a clickable link so I can access the lyrics (this is only on the online version - the song can be accessed on the PC version). Max? Dick?
-Joe-

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Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry:

Hard Times Come Again No More

DESCRIPTION: "Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears While we all sup sorrow with the poor." The singer describes sad people suffering from poverty, and begs, "Hard times, come again no more."
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1854 760350)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: US Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 588, "Hard Times Come Again No More"; Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 589, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (2 texts)
WolfAmericanSongSheets, #852, p. 57, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (1 reference)
Emerson, pp. 86-87, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (1 text)
DT, HRDTIMES*
Roud #2659
RECORDINGS:
Edison Quartette, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (CYL: Edison 9120, 1905)
L. M. Hilton, "Hard Times Come Again No More [Mormon version]" (on Hilton01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(866)[few words missing or illegible], "Hard Times Come Again No More" ("Let us pause in life [sic] pleasures and count its many tears"), J.B. Hodge (Sunderland), 1850-1861; also Harding B 11(3352), Harding B 11(1477), Harding B 11(1478), Harding B 11(1479), Firth c.16(246), Harding B 11(1687) , Harding B 11(1686), "Hard Times Come Again No More"
LOCSheet, sm1854 760350, "Hard Times Come Again No More", Firth, Pond, & Co. (New York), 1854; also sm1882 21586, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (tune)
LOCSinging, as105130, "Hard Times Come Again No More" ("While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay"), Firth, Pond, & Co. (New York), no date; also as105130, sb20165b, "Hard Times Come Again No More"
SAME TUNE:
Hard Crackers, Come Again No More (cf. Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 116)
Sad Times. The Burning of the Steamboat New Jersy, on the Delaware, Night of March 15, 1856. Sixty-Two Persons Hurried into Eternity by Water and by Fire (by Ned Buntline) (WolfAmericanSongSheets p. 138)
Sorrow Shall Come Again No More ("What to me are earth's pleasures, and what its flowing tears") (WolfAmericanSongSheets p. 148)
NOTES: It is perhaps more a comment on the folk revival than on this song to note that it is easily the most popular Foster song with revival singers. It wasn't especially popular at the time, and Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 116) regards it as an "adequate potboiler."
According to notes in Deems Taylor et al, A Treasury of Stephen Foster, Random House, 1946, p. 19, "Stephen once told his brother, Morrison, that Oh! Boys, Carry Me 'Long, and Hard Times Come Again No More were based on snatches of Negro melodies he heard in a Negro church to which he was taken in childhood by the family nurse, Olivia Pise. They are the only songs in which Foster admittedly used actual Negro material."
Ken Emerson, Doo-Dah! Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture, Da Capo, 1997?, p. 29, notes that Stephen Foster's parents lost their home very early in Foster's life, and suggests that "Foster would compose so many songs about home in part because he seldom knew one for long." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: DThrdtim

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Click here for sheet music at the Levy Sheet Music Collection - published 1854.
There's an answer song, Better Times Are Coming Bye and Bye, published in 1896.

Subject: Background: StephenFoster song
From: dani
Date: 28 Sep 97 - 05:16 PM

At the risk of receiving far more than I give... I have another query. I'm hoping that someone who knows Stephen Foster stuff can help me find some background info on a Foster song: Hard Times. It's in RUS, I understand, but I was hoping for some dimensional knowledge. Whose hard times is he referring to? Whose cabin? Who is that pale form fainting at the door? Thanks, Dani