Lyr Req: Jack Haggerty

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: GUEST,hg
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:21 PM

...I appreciate your scholarship, rich. I am continually impressed with your research and always look for your posts. I still love the music aspect of the forum... thanks for keeping it alive...hg

Subject: Lyr Add: FLAT RIVER GIRL (from Beck)
From: raredance
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 01:45 PM

Another lumberjack song thread reminded me I wasn't finished here.

FLAT RIVER GIRL (Beck "Lore of the Lumber Camps" version E, from Mrs. Alice S Vaughan opf Greenville, MI. Mrs Vaughan got her version of the song from John Tucker, the brother of Anne Tucker Mercer)

1. I'm a heartbroken raftsman, from Greenville I came.
My virtue's departed; and also my fame.
Tis the strong darts of Cupid have caused me much grief;
My heart bursts asunder, I can ne'er find relief.

2. Occupation, I'm a raftsman, where the white waters roll;
My name is engraved on lake, sand and shoal.
From Six Lakes to Greenville I'm very well known;
And they call me Jack Haggerty, the pride of the town

3. I will tell you my troubles without more delay,
How a bright little lassie my heart stole away;
She was the blacksmith's fair daughter on the Flat River side
And I always intended to make her my bride.

4. Her form like the dove it was slender and neat;
Her hair hung in ringlets to her tiny white feet.
Her voice sweet as music, her eyes a dark brown,
I told her I loved her as we strolled through the town.

5, I dressed her in jewels and the finest of lace;
In the costliest of muslins her form I embraced.
I gave her my wages, the same to keep safe,
And begrudged her nothing I had on this earth

6. I took her to suppers, to parties, to balls;
Out riding Sunday morning, my first early call.
I called her a jewel, what a name for a wife!-
When I think of her treachery it near takes my life.

7. I worked on the river; I made quite a stake;
I laid by my wages, I ne'er played the rake
I was the boy that was happy on the swift rolling stream:
My thoughts were of Anna; she haunted my dreams.

8. One day on the river a letter I received,
Saying from her promises herself she'd relieved.
"My marriage to another I've a long time delayed,
And the next time you see me I'll ne'er be a maid."

9. To her mother, Jane Tucker, I lay all the blame;
She has caused her to leave me, to darken my name.
She cast off the rigging that God would soon tie
And left me a wanderer until the day that I die.

10. Farewell to Flat River. For me there's no rest:
I'll shoulder my peavey, and then I'll go West;
I will go to Muskegon some comfort to find,
Farewell to Flat River, and the gay girls behind.

11. Come all you brave raftsmen with hearts stout and true,
Don't depend on a woman; you're beat if you do.
And if ever you see one with brown chestnut curls,
Just think of Jack Haggerty and his Flat River girl.

This is a fairly complete version without many unusual phrases. We do discover that Anna had brown eyes, she went to the suppers and dances, but just regular rides, no boat rides. there is a little extra geography, as he is known from "Six Lakes to Greenville". He has also taken to engraving his name on the lake, even more ephemeral than the sand. I choose not to comment on the "Farewell to Flat River, and the gay girls behind" line.

happy easter

rich r

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: GUEST,harpgirl
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 06:56 PM

Interesting variation Rich. I think verses four and six seem to change the song alot.. Jack becomes a dandy rather than a river rat. I like it when he engraves his name on the "high rocks on/f shore". I did it myself all around the North Channel and Georgian Bay when I was a girl...harpgrrrl

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: raredance
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 08:37 PM

Good point to make, although I think I would argue that verses 4 & 5 of Beck "D", immediately preceding, express pretty much the same sentiments. Maybe dapper Jack lurks in both of those. Georgian Bay in L Huron? Good you're not one of those red-eyed Wiarton girls.

rich r

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: harpgirl
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 08:40 PM

yup...red eyed Wiarton girls?????

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: raredance
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 10:15 PM

Drift warning!

Sorry for being obscure, it'a a line from "White Squall" by Stan Rogers

rich r

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: harpgirl
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 12:19 AM

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 01:53 AM

The tune that Touchstone sing this to (composed by Mick Hanly ?) is the same as Brian McNeill used for "The Back of the North Wind*.

Murray

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: Naemanson
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 10:00 AM

This is all very well but there are no chords for any of these versions. I have only heard the Touchstone version but these others all look inviting to me. Which one do we have the chords for? And if it isn't the Touchstone version then I guess the midi file needs to be added also.

This is a little like the old books where the collector faithfully writes down the lyrics of the songs but say little to nothing about the tune. For those of us who don't write music these books are fascinating from an intellectual point of view but little help if we want to sing the songs.

Thanks for the thread, by the way. I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that I don't appreciate what has been said so far. As with most of the human race, I just want more.

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: raredance
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 11:12 PM

The old books are not without their tune lines. Cazden et al. "Folk Songs of the Catskills"; Doerflinger, "Songs of the Sailor and Lumbermen"; Glass & Singer "Songs of Forest and River Folk"; Peters, "Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin"; Fowke, "Lumbering Songs from the Northern Woods"; Gardner & Chickering "Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan" all contain a melody line. Beck "Lore of the Lumber Camp" has 2 tunes. Beck's tunes are reprinted in Goodin, "Sounds of the Lake and Forest, Michigan Folk Songs". Rickaby "Ballads and Songs of the Shanty-Boy" has 3 tunes (one of which is the same as one of Beck's). A version has been recorded by Paul Calyton on "Timber-r-r! Folksongs and Ballds of the Lumberjack" (1957, Riverside RLP 12-648). clayton, in turn, says his version is based on a Library of Congress recording by John Norman of Michigan.

rich r