Lyr Req: Go Way From My Window

Subject: Go Way From My Bedside
From: DougR
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 09:51 PM

Belafonte included this song on one of his recording of folksongs. I'm not certain it's considered folk by folkies though. I couldn't find it in the digitrad, so it may not be. Anyway, the only lyrics I know are:

Go way from my window
Go way from my door
Go way, way from my bedside
And bother me no more, and bother me no more.

I was reminded of this song because someone started a thread about favorite celtic songs that he wanted to arrange for a sextette. I realize it is not Celtic, but I have heard a beautiful choral arrangement of this song, an it might do for him.

Thanks, DougR

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go Way From My Bedside
From: DougR
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 09:53 PM

Oops. The name of the thread should have been "Go way from my window."

DougR

Subject: Lyr Add: GO WAY FROM MY WINDOW (John Jacob Niles)
From: Giac
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 10:17 PM

Near as I remember, it is:

Go Way From My Window
(John Jacob Niles)

Go away from my window
Go away from my door
Go away way from my bedside
And bother me no more
And bother me no more

I'll give you back your presents
You give me back my ring
And I won't forget my own true love
As long as song birds sing
As long as song birds sing

I'll tell all of my brothers
I'll tell my shipmates too
The reason that my heart is broke
Is all because of you
Is all because of you


Hope this is what you wanted...

Mary

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go Way From My Bedside
From: Giac
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 10:23 PM

At the John Jacob Niles website I found this quote from him about the song:

"In 1908 my father had in his employ a Negro ditch-digger known as Objerall Jacket. As he dug, he sang, "Go way from my window, go way from my door" -- just those words, over and over again, on two notes. Working beside Jacket all day (I was sixteen at the time), I decided that something had to be done. The results were a four-verse song dedicated to a blue-eyes, blond girl, who didn't think much of my efforts. The song lay fallow from 1908 to 1929, when I arranged it and transposed to a higher key. "Go 'way from My Window" was was first sung successfully in Berlin, Germany, in 1930. It has gone a long way since." -JOHN JACOB NILES

Subject: Lyr Add: GO 'WAY F'OM MAH WINDOW
From: masato sakurai
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 10:52 PM

Part of the song can be heard at the John Jacob Niles site (CLICK HERE). The following is the Sandburg version.

GO 'WAY F'OM MAH WINDOW
("This negro woodchopper's song came up from Arkansas and the Ozarks to Tubman K. Hedrick, author of 'The Orientations of Hohen,' when he was a newspaperman in Memphis, Tennessee... Phrases of it time with ax-strokes. 'Go 'way' sinks the ax, 'f'om my window' sinks it again, and so on."--Sandburg)

1.
Go 'way f'om mah window,
Go 'way f'om mah doh,
Go 'way f'om mah bediside,
Don' you tease no mo'!

2.
Go 'way in de springtime,
Come back in de fall,
Bring back mo' money
Dan we bofe can haul.

From: Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag (p. 377; with music). The same version is in the Lomaxes' American Ballads and Folk Songs (p. 198).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go Way From My Bedside
From: DougR
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 11:01 PM

Thanks, Mary and Masato, that looks like it! I can't imagine this sone would be considered racist, can you?

DougR

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go Way From My Bedside
From: Giac
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 11:27 PM

Don't see how it could be, DougR, certainly not moreso than other work songs and hollers.

May be wrong, but I think Joan Baez also recorded the JJN version.

Mary