Lyr Add: Old Spinning Wheel (Billy Hill)

Subject: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From: Sheye
Date: 07 Aug 98 - 01:53 AM

Requested on the "Mother" thread:

Old Spinning Wheel

Covered with dust and forgotten
Like the (pictures?) on the wall
Just one souvenir of the days gone by
A treasure, most of all

There's an old spinning wheel in the parlour
Spinning dreams of a long, long, ago
Spinning dreams of an old-fashioned garden
And a maid with her old-fashioned bow

Sometimes it seems like I can hear her in the (morning?)
At the organ softy singing, sweet and low
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlour
Spinning dreams of a long, long, ago...

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From: Philip Hudson
Date: 08 Aug 98 - 11:22 AM

Sheye

Thanks a bunch. I found some of this in the DT, but didnt find the initial verse "Covered with dust.." now I have the problem of not knowing the music to the initial verse. It can't be the same as the others because it doesn't scan. Maybe my mother knows it. - Philip Hudson

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From:
Date: 08 Aug 98 - 01:45 PM

I believe the first "verse" is actually a narration, rather than part of the song. That's why it doesn't scan. Also, I've always heard the line "At the organ softly playing 'Old Black Joe'." Is the "Sweet and Low" traditional or a recent PC change?

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From: Sheye
Date: 09 Aug 98 - 03:37 AM

There is music to the first verse. No, it is not the same as the rest, but I cannot hum it into the computer; it'll take the more learned than I to accomplish that feat.

Nathan: Don't know which came first. What I posted was the way my family sang it.

Later, Sheye

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD SPINNING WHEEL (Billy Hill)
From: gargoyle
Date: 09 Aug 98 - 12:23 PM

Written by Billy Hill
Performed by Don Bester
Published 1933 by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co.
Featured as background music in a "Walton's Episode"

Covered with dust and forgotten,
Like the face upon the wall
The one souvenir of the days gone by,
I treasure most of all:

REFRAIN
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor,
Spinning dreams of the long, long ago,
Spinning dreams of an old-fashioned garden,
And a maid with her old-fashioned beau.
Sometimes it seems that I can hear her in the twilight
At the organ softly singing "Old Black Joe."
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor
Spinning dreams of the long, long ago.

Turn back the years of my childhood
As you turn, old spinning wheel.
Just show me a lane with a barefoot boy,
As shadows softly steal:

REFRAIN

Subject: Chords Add: OLD SPINNING WHEEL (Billy Hill)
From: gargoyle
Date: 09 Aug 98 - 12:42 PM

Tune to first section: lower case = 1/4 upper case =1/2 Key of C A.= 3/4, G_ = holdover meas

4/4 time

lines match with lines in previous posting.

g,G,g/ G,f,e/ A,G_/_G

_e,g/C.,c/B.,g#/A_A_/_A.

a/B,c,d/G,a,b/C,B/A.

a/D.a/E.c/D_D_/_D

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From: Philip Hudson
Date: 09 Aug 98 - 07:16 PM

I think "Old black Joe" was the original. The change may have been an attempt at racial sensitivity. Then what do we do to that beautiful song itself? I have heard it sung "Old Man Joe". I don't know where I stand, for textual integrity or sensitivity. I hope I am for both. - Philip Hudson

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From: gargoyle
Date: 10 Aug 98 - 01:50 AM

The oringinal (from original 1933 sheet music) indicates "Old Black Joe"

It is NOT a matter of being politicaly correct...it is the WONDERFUL aspect of music that is played, listened to, repeated...and the nature of the human mind to draw meaning from our surroundings and experiences.... the words are HEARD and INTERPRETED by each individual person in a their own unique way.....(Why "live" is so much more enjoyable than "canned")

My father, as a boy, interpted the lines to the song "Old Black Joe" as "Old Black Toe." In rural Colorado he was a teenager before he saw a "black man." However, he had stubbed his toe, and it had turned black, and it did require him to move slowly, and say "I'm a comin' I'm a comin'" when he was called.

It ain't got a darned thing to do about political correctness....except the sickness of today that causes one to even consider it as such.

Most people of the 1930's would have been VERY familar with the reference.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 03:45 PM

The song (William J. Hill, 1930) as given by Gargoyle is correct. Most singers use only the refrain; some speak the little verses.

Listen to Riley Puckett sing it on the Record Lady, Archives page 8.
Index Record Lady

Listen to Slim Whitman, perhaps his biggest hit: Whitman
The lyrics shown here use "Sweet and Low" but Slim Whitman correctly sings "Old Black Joe."

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 03:50 PM

Record Lady Index

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From: GUEST,dec31mts.net
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 08:09 AM

Must disagree. Old Black Joe and The Old Spinning wheel in the Parlor were two totally separate songs and I cannot believe the Spining Wheel had anything to do with the song about the old man. I'm 82 and my Mother had sheet music to both and we all sang both songs. Another song of those bygone days was When It's Lamlighting Time in the Valley, and the thought expressed in that song is quite similar to the one about the Spinning wheel. Nope, they're two (2) separate songs and have absolutely nothing to do with "racial sensitivity". However, I heard a local band, last night, 15/Oct2005, playing the song - but they didn't know the words to it and I only remembered about 3/4 of them. Ian Thomson, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 04:27 PM

Guest, you mis-understand.
In the original sheet music by Billy Hill (see post by Gargoyle above)- "At the organ softly singing 'Old Black Joe'"

Later singers changed the line to "At the organ softly singing 'sweet and low.'"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Old Spinning Wheel
From: GUEST,Fred, the Collector, Goldrup
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 07:46 PM

Let's be reasonable - when someone like Billy Hill wrote a song, it became a classic in music. Songs, poems, books - they represent what life was like at that time. When people try to change the author's feelings, they become bigots. "Old Black Joe" isn't about Black people - it's about a black man someone loved enough to immortalize him in a song. Let's realize that "Politics" does not belong in literature unless it's a protest like "Mother Jones" - and remember that song was written at the time for a specific reason. I'm against people saying "We shouldn't even SAY 'Old Black Joe'. We need to keep our perspective of the times. Look at what has happened with the wonderful Walt Disney CLASSIC movie, "Song Of The South"! It is a beautiful STORY - but long AFTER the movie won an Academy Award for "Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah", bigots got Disney to lock the film up in their vaults. I have this film, and my Grandkids love the tales told by Uncle Remus! But a FEW got this Classic fikm off the market! The grandkids don't even realize Uncle Remus was a slave! I just direct their attention to a little boy's personal trauma over his Mom and Dad's divorce, and how Uncle Remus loved the lad enough to teach a lesson using Br'er Rabbit and the others to make the boy laugh. I say, "Leave music, poetry, books alone as representative of their times. If you want to get rough, start complaining about the vulgar language on TV, and the disgusting pornographic action of Screaming jerks who can't carry a tune in a freight train!

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Old Spinning Wheel
From: GUEST,Joyce Wike
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 12:12 PM

Old Spinning Wheel In The Parlor and Old Black Joe are two separate songs.

I believe where the confusion lies is in the fact that one of the lines in the song Old Spinning Wheel goes:

Sometimes it seems that I can hear her in the twilight,
At the organ softly playing Old Black Joe.

Or that is the way the lyric went in the version my mom and dad sang when I was a small child.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Old Spinning Wheel (Billy Hill)
From: GUEST,Lynda Jandro
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 11:40 PM

I am old woman and I remember often hearing my mother sanging the Old Spinning Wheel, epecially when she was sewing. She sung it with the phrase "Old Black Joe". What's the problem? It is beautiful old song and brings back many memories for me. Lighten up out there!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Old Spinning Wheel (Billy Hill)
From: GUEST,folklore student Ivy
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 08:11 PM

My grandmother, her mother sang that tune to her, she sang it to my mother, my mother sang it to me and I sang it to my daughter. It was used as a lullaby and the lyrics were only to one of the two songs refered to. I can tell you that this version came before the updated version of the 1930's

It went something like this:

There's an old fashion maid in the garden
With her hat and her old fashion beau
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor
Spinning dreams of a long long ago

Sometimes It seems
I can hear her in the twilight
Softly singing the tunes of long ago

There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor
With a maid and her old fashion beau.
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor
Spinning dreams of a long long ago

Sometimes It seems
I can hear her in the twilight
Softly singing the tunes of long ago

There's an old fashion maid in the parlor
With her hat and an old fashion Bow.
There's an old fashion maid in the parlor
Spinning her dreams from long long ago.


It was about a woman who had loved a slave boy and he was taken from her for that reason.

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD SPINNING WHEEL (Billy Hill)
From: GUEST,Reed
Date: 23 Mar 08 - 09:17 PM

My father in law passed away recently, and in going through his belongings I have the sheet music to The Old Spinning Wheel, copyright 1933, this copy published in 1935 (featuring, on the cover of the sheet music, Fred Waring).

Here are the lyrics as sold in 1935:

Covered with dust and forgotten
Like the face up-on the wall
The one souvenir of the days gone by
I treasure most of all

Turn back the years of my childhood
As you turn, old spinning wheel
Just show me a lane with a barefoot boy
As shadows softly steal

(REFRAIN)
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor
Spinning dreams of the long, long ago
Spinning dreams of an old fashioned garden
And a maid with her old fashioned beau

Sometimes it seems that I can hear her in the twilight
At the organ softly singing "Old Black Joe"
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor
Spinning dreams of the long, long ago
----------------------------------------------
So that shows that anything done after that was changed, most probably to not offend anyone.

Of course, it is entirely possible that the venerable Shapiro, Bernstein & Co, music publishers, made alternate versions for alternate audiences. This was common enough in that era.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Old Spinning Wheel (Billy Hill)
From: GUEST,Lynda Paz
Date: 02 Aug 08 - 12:31 PM

I was cleaning out my mother's home with my daughter and granddaughters and remembered Mom singing this song while I was packing up her spinning wheel. While singing what I remembered of the song to my granddaughter I stopped short when I got to "Old Black Joe". My granddaughter is mixed race and I was uncomfortable singing the original lyrics which might provoke questions I was not prepared to answer to my 7 year old. (Just to provide a different perspective on the issue.) I searched the web to find the lyrics when I encountered this discussion. I am really grateful to locate all the words, and am happy to learn of a substitution for the phrase. The song entirely captured the shared moment of saying goodbye to the homestead and passing on the memories to another generation. (Now, if I can just get that tune out of my head!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Old Spinning Wheel (Billy Hill)
From: GUEST,Gerald Hampton
Date: 08 Nov 08 - 06:14 PM

Several years ago we were playing a jam at the Ozark RV Park and we did "Old Spinning Wheel". Sue Thomas from over in Mississippi remarked that the song was "just too pretty to not have another verse". I asked her to write one. She did and here it is:

"As I sit here alone in the parlor, And the fire casts a soft warm glow,
I'm reminded of an old fashioned love song, that I sang in the long, long, ago.

(Chorus)
"And now it seems that I can see her by the window,
    As the ribbons in her hair begin to blow.
And the old spinning wheel in the parlor, Spins the dreams of the long, long ago."

So, here is to Sue, she passed away this week. Thanks Sue.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Old Spinning Wheel (Billy Hill)
From: GUEST,Margaret Bodenhorn
Date: 16 Jul 09 - 09:59 AM

I would like the sheet music for The Old Spinning Wheel In The Parlor

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Old Spinning Wheel (Billy Hill)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 12:14 AM

Margaret: See WorldCat--You might find it in a library near you.

It is still under copyright, so you're not likely to find images online.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Old Spinning Wheel (Billy Hill)
From: open mike
Date: 23 May 10 - 03:21 PM

I was looking for this song for a wool spinning friend..
and of course found it here...but never heard the discussion
as posted 20 feb 08 "It was about a woman who had loved a slave boy and he was taken from her for that reason. "

any other info about that background?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Old Spinning Wheel (Billy Hill)
From: GUEST,jon shively
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 06:33 PM

I have a different version of the Old Spinning Wheel that I learned from an aunt in 1970. We used to get together to sing song on the porch in her home in Latrobe PA. Here is the version I use and sing.


OLD SPINNING WHEEL

1. There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor
Spinning dreams of the long, long ago,
Spinning dreams of an old fashion garden
And a maid with her old fashion beau.

REFRAIN 1: I can see them alone in the moonlight
Holding hands and speaking soft and low.
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor
Spinning dreams of the long, long ago.

2. As they walked and talked in the garden
And spoke of things that would be,
They spoke of a house and the garden
And they spoke a little about me.

REFRAIN 2: I can see them alone at the organ
Holding hands and singing Sweet and Low.
There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor
Spinning dreams of the long, long ago.

3. As I sit here alone in the moonlight
And I think of the love that they had,
I think of that maid and her young beau
That I knew as my mother and dad.