Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?

Subject: Charlottetown - the song
From:
Date: 02 Oct 00 - 11:58 AM

Hi! I am a library media specialist in Lincoln Nebraska and a music teacher is using a song entitled "Charlottetown" and wants to know some background info about the song. It has lyrics about Charlottetown is burning down...Goodbye Liza Jane. Does anyone know if an actual event took place to cause the song to be written. The music students want to know the story behind the song. Thanks!

Paula McClung

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 02 Oct 00 - 12:33 PM

The version I know goes "Charleston town is burning down." It is probably a song that has been customized to have local references. Don't know what the original version would be.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: Robby
Date: 02 Oct 00 - 01:40 PM

Do a 30 day refresher on the Mudcat Home Page and then scroll down to the thread "Re Charlotte Town", the last entry was on September 19th of this year. This should provide some of the answers or information.

If I knew how, I'd give you a LBCT (Little Blue Clicky Thigh) to take you right there, but I'm new to this html stuff.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: Robby
Date: 02 Oct 00 - 02:42 PM

OK. I've looked at my html guide. Let's see if this works. Click here. I won't know if this will work until after I submit the message, so good luck.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 11:48 AM

In Girl scouts we sang only one verse and chorus and did it as a round, thusly:

Charlotte Town is burning down
Goodbye Goodbye
Burning down to the ground
Goodbye Liza Jane

Aintcha mighty sorry
Goodbye Goodbye
Aintcha mighty sorry
Goodbye Liza Jane

Colorado, circa 1970, Flying G Ranch
CD

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 11:52 AM

whoops, added that to the wrong thread. Oh well, what I was going to say here was that my camp counselors thought it meant a place called Charlotte, rather than Charlottetown.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: Anglo
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 05:07 PM

I learned this, roughly as above, as "Scarlet Town" with some of the Liza Jane verses referred to in Robby's blue clicky thread. This was from a folk singer in England in the mid 60s.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 07:25 PM

In Barb'ry Allen, it's Charlotte town, isn't it? I think I assumed it was Charlotte, North Carolina. But is it older, as in from England?

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: jets
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 11:22 PM

The town of Charloton in Prince Edwards Island Canada,with much of the rest of the island ,was davestated by a fire. The date was some time in the middle 1800s .Could this be the origin of the song?

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,the bomb
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 01:23 PM

and to sing in chorus Charlottetown a couple of versus

Charlottetown's burning down
goodbye goodbye
burning down to the ground
goodbye Liza Jane

Aintcha mighty sorry
goodbye goodbye
aintcha mighty sorry
goodbye Liza Jane

Charlottetown is burning down oh goodbye Liza Jane my Liza (x2)
Burning down unto the ground oh goodbye Liza, Liza Jane

Aintcha mighty sorry
goodbye goodbye
aintcha mighty sorry
goodbye Liza Jane



thats all i know hope it helps :)

p.s i'm a boy so yea it was imberissing but we didnt sing that in
our concert :)

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Nov 10 - 07:57 PM

I dont knwo any iformation about charlottetown but my cloir class is doing it for one of their songs. wish i could b more of a help...

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 04 Nov 10 - 08:16 PM

The Great Fire of Charlottetown PEI was in 1866.
FIRE

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,MC
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 11:06 PM

Judy Henske cut a version with quiet a few verses in 1964 on her "High Flying Bird" album.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,theamazingone
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 10:14 PM

charlottes town is burning down goodbye bye-bye charlottes town is burning down goodbye liza jane aincha mighty sorry goodbye bye-bye aintcha mighty sorry goodbye liza jane goodbye liza jane my liza burning down unto the ground goodbye liza, liza jane (X2)aintcha mighty sorry goodbye bye-bye aintxha mighty sorry goodbye liza jane

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,wyatt :)
Date: 22 Feb 12 - 07:38 PM

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,stylo167
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 10:07 AM

In 1866 there was a fire in Charlottetown, PEI, Canada. The fire destroyed most of the town. I can't find any information on "Liza Jane" though.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 10:11 AM

http://www.mikeballantyne.ca/transcriptions_other/lizajane.php

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 28 Sep 13 - 06:44 AM

Charlottetown aka Scarlet Town?

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,Yay
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 01:15 PM

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,Yay
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 01:15 PM

I know. T

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,cosmos42
Date: 23 Aug 15 - 01:23 PM

And yet another example of songs being distorted as they pass down orally, I learned it as German Town. Then again, that could be because I learned it at Camp Sherman, and they customized it as a dismissal song ("Sherman town is burning down, goodbye, goodbye...Ain't you mighty sorry, goodbye ________"), so maybe I just extrapolated that the original was "German Town".

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: Stanron
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 08:36 AM

There are some similarities to the English nursery rhyme

London Bridge is falling down
Falling down falling down
London Bridge is falling down
My fair lady.

The story was that a medieval king gave the toll revenues from the bridge to his wife. Instead of spending the money on maintaining the old wooden structure she just went shopping. Hence the 'falling down' and the 'my fair lady'.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,Anonymous
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 04:05 PM

I learned this song in choir,and it goes:
Hey,ho the boatmen row.(Floatin' down the river on the Ohio)×2
   Charlotte town's burnin' down goodbye, goodbye.Burnin' down to the ground goodbye Liza Jane.
   Black my boots and a make them shine goodbye,goodbye.Black my boots and a make them shine goodbye Liza Jane.
   There's a gal in Baltimore goodbye,goodbye. Silver door plate on her door goodbye Liza Jane.
CHORUS:Aintcha mighty sorry goodbye,goodbye. Aintcha mighty sorry goodbye Liza Jane.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 05:28 PM

There's also the song Charleston Town.

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/old-time-music/old-time-songs/charleston_town_.html

This song is about US Civil War General Sherman's Marich to the Sea, when he burned Atlanta and other cities.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Aug 17 - 03:29 PM

Emily Crocker's arrangement Charlotte-Town is a mashup of several folksongs. Not a primary source.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: Amos
Date: 01 Aug 17 - 05:42 PM

Charlotte NC is a major town in the American South. Given that the song sounds like a Southern Appalachian piece, I would suspect that was the Charlotte town in question. But the city was a major rail hub in the period, and was not badly damaged by the Federals. AFTER the war, there was extensive burning and looting until the Federals moved in and occupied the city until 1872.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Aug 17 - 10:19 AM

I heard the song as 'Scarlet Town' and was told that 'Scarlet Town' was another name for London - though it seems unlikely to me. The only other context where I've heard of 'Scarlet Town' was as the setting for some versions of the song 'Barbara Allen'.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 22 Sep 19 - 09:29 AM

I sang this song in our school choir in the early 70's.I remember the lyrics but never heard the song again in life.Today I heard Charlottetown, looked it up and hear I am! Thanks everyone for retoring my sanity and all of the interesting stories about the song!

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Sep 19 - 10:02 AM

Robby, I want a blue clicky thigh! I just have clicly knees.
I never realized this Charlottetown was in PEI. Great thread.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST,Denro55
Date: 28 Mar 24 - 09:04 PM

Watching an episode of The Amazing Race Canada, in March 2024, from 2014. They are in Charlottetown PEI and it made me remember the round from Girl Scout Camp, Camp Yankee Trails, from the 70s. Thanks for the info - even though there are so many different town names, and that very interesting long song with this interspersed within - I bet the song came first and Charlottetown was added after the fire in PEI in the mid 1800s.

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Mar 24 - 01:21 PM

is the PEI one the Boston Burglar was sent to?

Subject: RE: Help: What do you know about Charlottetown?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Apr 24 - 02:48 PM

The Boston Burglar was sent to Charlestown, a Boston suburb.