Lyr ADD: Redwing / Red Wing

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing / Red Wing
From: GUEST,threelegsoman
Date: 25 May 22 - 01:55 PM

I uploaded a version of this song accompanying myself of the autoharp. The lyrics and chords are printed below the information accompanying the video.
Autoharp Red Wing (Including lyrics and chords)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing / Red Wing
From: GUEST
Date: 25 May 22 - 02:41 AM

My name is Joe. I do songs and this was one song I knew as a child growing up, learned from a book we had at school. It wasn't always easy but our teachers did their best to help the kids learn music. I learned the music and the words as I had a talent for the piano.

I was born in Glasgow in 1980 and I moved to Edinburgh in 1987 and found a new life, but not before I had found this song at nursery school in the key of C. My mum had a great singing voice and passed it on to me. In the late 80s we went to a holiday home and she bought me a piano as a present.

I went to music college in London and heard lots of folk songs on the radio on London stations, and was encouraged by staff there. It was a happy time and this was one of the many songs I later started learning properly. I love music history and there is a show on radio Scotland called Song Lines which explores the history of folk songs. I'm back here now and often do my own reviews on my dictaphone, and this website is a huge help as a resource for the kind of thing I love to do.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing / Red Wing
From: GUEST,b stead
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 08:04 PM

Has anyone a copy of the chords written beside the lyrics?

I can't figure out how the '4 chorder' goes?????

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing / Red Wing
From: Nathan in Texas
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 05:04 PM

The rockabilly version (lyrics posted above by Guest) was recorded by Sammy Masters in 1960. You can find it
here. on Youtube

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing / Red Wing
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 08:40 PM

My Mom used to sing a song about a tin Lizzie, it was sung to the tune of Let Me Call You Sweetheart.
The last verse goes something like this . . .
Let me call you Lizzie, I'm in love with you, let me hear you rattle like old Ford cars do, let me call you Lizzie, I still owe for you.

Does anyone know the rest of the words?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing / Red Wing
From: LadyJean
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 11:27 PM

My mother sang the Redwing version where she fills a body part with sand. I always wondered what the clean lyrics were.
By the way, at the bottom of the page there's an ad for Redwing Boots.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing / Red Wing
From: oggie
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 06:01 PM

I knew this as a Square Dance before I knew the song. From memory the call goes -

"First couple out and circle right, inside couple arch.
You dip and dive and away you go, inside high and outside low.
Hurry let's go, it's over and below,
You pass right through to the outside two and circle halfway round.

Dive to the right and circle left, inside couple arch.
You dip and dive and away you go, inside high and outside low.
Hurry let's go, it's over and below,
You pass right through and home you two and everybody swing..

Well your all swing your pretty Redwing,
You serenade her, your promenade her.
Promenade, promenade your Redwing's sighing,
Your Redwing's crying, her heart away.

Second couple out etc."

I think that the source was Hugh Ripon but might have been Dick (?) Chapman.

In Lincoln in the early seventies our "resident" dance band was called "Redwing" and Banjiman's dad, Peter Arrowsmith, was the accordion player.

Memories are made of this :)

Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing / Red Wing
From: Mrrzy
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 01:57 PM

Thanks!

Subject: ADD: Red Wing (a la Oscar Brand)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 01:32 AM

Well, Mrr, most of it is in Red Wing (3) in the Digital Tradition, but it misses a verse or two at the end - musica interrupta, if you will. Thanks to Spotify, I found the recording. It's on Oscar Brand's Bawdy Songs, vol. 3.

RED WING

There once was an Indian maid
Who always was afraid
That some buckaroo
Would fly around her flue
While she lay sleeping in the shade.

She had an idea grand
She filled it up with sand
To keep the boys
From forbidden joys
In Red Wing's Promised Land

CHORUS
Oh, the Sun shines down on pretty Red Wing
As she lay sleeping
This buck come creeping
With his one good eye he was a-peeping
He hoped to reach the Promised Land.

Now, he was an Indian wise
He reached for Red Wing's thighs;
With an old rubber boot
On the end of a toot
He made poor Red Wing open up her eyes.

When she come to life,
She grabbed her Bowie knife;
It flashed in the sky
As she let it fly
And shortened his love life.

CHORUS
Oh, the Moon shines down on pretty Red Wing
As she lays snoring.
Her knife adoring;
Why, no longer do the braves come whoring,
They won't pay the price of the Promised Land.

Oh, girls if you want to be wives,
Put away those knives;
Boys like to play for a fling in the hay,
But they don't want to pay the rest of their lives.

Mind what mama said,
If you're lyin' in your bed,
If you can't evade,
Don't reach for a blade;
Have a hell of a time instead.

CHORUS
Oh, the clouds go floatin' over Red Wing,
As she lay snoring, her life is boring;
Why she'd even welcome Hermann Goering
Into the pleasure of her promised land.

---

There are other transcriptions at the pdf link below (but they're not as good as mine)
http://kristinhall.org/songbook/SeaAndPub/RedWing.pdf

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing / Red Wing
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 01:04 PM

None of these (in the Trad or in the thread) seem to have the full Oscar Brand Bawdy Songs version, does anybody know that one?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From: GUEST,Shannon
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 05:26 PM

Where can I find the lyrics to the charlie chaplin version? I love this song, great childhood memories.

Subject: ADD Version: Redwing
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 12:46 AM

RED WING

There once was an indian maid, a pretty little indian maid
who heard one day her radio play
and the rock and roll just stole her heart away

So now every single night
all around her campfire bright
all the braves, they yearn to take their turn
and dance to their heart's delight

Rock rock tonight with rockin red wing
While the tomtoms wailing
her feet are sailing
Rock rock tonight with rocking redwing
little indian maiden, loves to rock and roll

her father chief standing bear,
stands with a feather in his hair
And he taps his feet to the rock n roll beat
and he says redwing's sure dancing mighty neat

she danced up a prairie storm,
just to keep her wigwam warm
and her little brother Max
bought a new tenor sax and man can he bloow that horn!

Rock rock tonight with rockin red wing
While the tomtoms wailing
her feet are sailing
Rock rock tonight with rocking redwing
little indian maiden, loves to rock and roll

Subject: Requesting Red Wing
From: GUEST,genericphoto
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 08:25 PM

On of the Saturday Bluegrass shows I watched on TV back in the early '60's the artists used the Red wing song. They re-worked the Lyrics for the "Red Wing Exterminating Company" as a sponsor (much like Flatt and Scruggs used the "Martha White" theme)
.
For the life of me I can't remember the artists, but it could have been the Osborn Brothers, Jim and Jessee, Louvin Brothers, or the Stanley Brothers. I grew up in eastern Tennessee and it might have been only broadcast in Tennessee.
.
It went something like this:

" If your troubles are termites call on Red Wing,
We come a runnin'
the bugs are goning'"

.... something like that.
.
Somebody out there must remember these lyrics, I'm wanting our band to use it in a new "old Time Radio show" we are putting together.
.
help !!!
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From: mandotim
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 08:54 AM

Guest Gargoyle; I didn't say the lyrics were terrific, nor did I comment on their worthiness (worthy of what?); I said the Tinkers did a terrific version of a parody. Apart from that, to whom do you refer as 'we', and who appointed you their spokesperson?
As Malcolm Douglas points out, a cursory search of the DT database would have produced the relevant lyrics for you to pass judgement on.
Finally, if you are going to be instantly sniffy about people expressing enthusiasm for a particular recording, do at least try to get their name right.
Regards,
maNdotim

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 07:37 AM

Already in the DT, as is the bawdy parody.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 06:52 AM

Well.....Madotim.....please post the terrific tinkers lyrics and we can adjudicate their worthiness.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From: mandotim
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 06:36 AM

Re the 'Charlie Chaplin' parody; there's a terrific version of it on the Oldham Tinkers album 'Oldham's Burning Sands'.
Tim

Subject: ADD Version: Redwing
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 05:29 AM

I know a rude version :

RED WING

There once was an Indian maid
Who always was afraid
Of anyone who might stick it up her flue
As she lay in the shade.
She had an idea so grand -
She filled her flue with sand
So that anyone who might stick it up her flue
Would never reach the promised land.

And the moon shone bright on little Red Wing
As she lay sleeping
There came a-creeping
A handsome cowboy with eyes a-peeping
Around the flip-flap of Red Wing's tepee.

Red Wing sprang to life -
She grabbed a Bowie knife-
With a backhand flick she severed his
(wonder what rhymes with 'flick'?)
And blighted his sexual life.

And the moon shines bright on little Red Wing
And in the morning
There hung a warning -
A pair of cowboy's balls adorning
The flip-flap of Red Wing's tepee.

I's't get me coat . . .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From: John Hardly
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 08:39 PM

Just a 'for what it's worth'...

As of recently, there's a really nice YouTube of Joel Mabus playing this.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 06:35 PM

But any time I hear the tune it's the words of Woody Guthrie's Union Maid that sound in my head.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From: GUEST,Charlie Chaplin
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 06:05 PM

I was glad to find something about this song. My father sang it this way, and his father who fought in the Boer war WW1 must have sung it to him:

Oh, the sun shines bright on Charlie Chaplin.
His boots are cracklin for the want of black'nin
And his old baggy troosers they need mendin,
Before they send him to the Dardanelles.

He sang it with a Scottish (Glasgow) accent and taught it to my son before he passed away two years ago.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From:
Date: 28 Mar 04 - 10:17 AM

In the 1930's my father occasionally sang snatches of a tune which today I realise
must have been "Pretty Redwing". The lyrics however, made reference to the
Dardanelles campaign of the the 1st World War------ and went something like this:-

Oh, the moon shines down tonight on Charlie Chaplin.
His boots are crackling from want of blackening
And his long baggy trousers they need mending,
Before they send him to the Dardanelles

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From: Ferrara
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 04:11 PM

Do look at the sheet music cover. It's gorgeous.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From:
Date: 15 Mar 04 - 10:03 PM

I am not 81 yrs old, and so often old songs come to mind.
The parody on "Pretty Redwing" (Charlie Chaplin"   Went something
like this.

Oh, the moon shines tonight on Charlie Chaplin.
His shoes are crackin'; they need a-blackin'
And his baggy old pants they need a patchin'
Where he's been scratchin' mosqito bites.

Helen Jacobs

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Redwing
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 26 Sep 02 - 10:17 PM

Union Maid uses the Redwing tune. There's another thread with more info.

Richie

Subject: RE: Redwing lyrics
From: GUEST,belfast
Date: 26 Sep 02 - 09:54 AM

Slight digression. Isn't this the tune that Woody Guthrie used for "union Maid"?

Subject: RE: Red Wing lyrics
From: GUEST,Still Cookieless Genie
Date: 26 Sep 02 - 05:15 AM

Joe, I clicked your link and I see that Mills is credited and that there is only one minor alteration of the lyrics (and one typo) in the DT ("o'er the plains" vs. "on the plain" in verse one.

But now I remember why I posted the lyrics: when I checked the DT (I looked through all the "R" songs, the only "Redwing" or "Red Wing" songs I found were the parodies.

I'm still not sure why this happens sometimes -- i.e., you can find a song in the DT by putting the title into the DT search box but not by clicking open the alphabetized song titles.

Genie

Subject: RE: Redwing lyrics
From: GUEST,Cookieless Genie
Date: 26 Sep 02 - 05:05 AM

Joe, since the sheet music at the Levy site is from 1907, I think it may have been the original publication of the song. (Someone please correct me if I am wrong about this.) That's why I posted it, even though it differs from what is in the DT.

I don't believe the DT gives credit to the music composer, and the lyrics in the DT may have been 'folk-processed' a bit.

Subject: Lyr Add: RED WING (Thurland Chattaway)^^^
From: GUEST,Argenine
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 06:01 AM

The lyrics posted above may be from later publications, but The Levy Sheet Music Collection gives the following lyrics and authorship credits:

RED WING  Lyrics: Thurland Chattaway; Music: Kerry Mills ©1907

There once was an Indian maid, a shy little prairie maid,
Who sang a lay, a love song gay,
As o'er the plains she'd while away the day.
She loved a warrior bold, this shy little maid of old,
But brave and gay he rode one day to battle far away.

Chorus:
Now the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,
The breeze is sighing, the night bird's* crying,
For afar 'neath his star her brave is sleeping,
While Red Wing's weeping her heart away.

She watched for him day and night,
She kept all the campfires bright,
And under the sky, each night she would lie,
And dream about his coming by and by.
But when all the braves returned
The heart of Red Wing yearned.
For far, far away her warrior gay
Fell bravely in the fray.

Chorus

*  The Levy sheet music says "...the night bird's crying...,"  as in "...the night bird is crying... ."^^^

---

Click for version in the Digital Tradition, which is almost the same. Still, it's good to have various transcriptions for comparison.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: REDWING (Thurland Chattaway)^^^
From: GUEST,Granny Moira
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 03:20 AM

REDWING ORIGINAL LYRICS: by {Thurland Chattaway}

REDWING

There once was an Indian maid a shy little prairie maid
who sang all day a love song gay as through the fields she'd while the hours away.
She loved an Indian brave this shy little prairie maid
and then one day he rode away to battle far away..

{Chorus}
Oh the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,
the breeze is sighing, the night birds crying,
For a far far away her brave is dying
and Red Wings's crying her heart away.

She watched for him day and night,
She kept all the campfires bright,
And under the sky,
Each night she would lie,
And dream about his coming by and by
But when all the braves returned the heart of Red Wing yearned
for far far away her warrior brave fell bravely in the fray.

{chorus}
Now the Moon shines tonight on pretty Redwing,
the breeze is sighing, the night birds crying,
for a far'neath his star her brave is sleeping,
while Redwing's weeping her heart away.^^^

Subject: RE: Redwing lyrics
From: Dale Rose
Date: 28 Nov 99 - 06:31 PM

Myra, start a new thread, (the words Create a New Thread are just in larger print just above the thread list) choose the lyr req prefix, then title your thread Stuck behind Buford, or something like that. You'll get a better response than here in a thread (mostly) about Redwing.

Subject: Buford Lyrics
From: Myra
Date: 28 Nov 99 - 06:25 PM

Does anyone know the words and/or chords to "I Got Stuck Behind Buford". I heard it this weekend on the radio show Cartalk. The song could also be called "Buford".

It was written by Greg Trafidlow.

Subject: RE: Redwing lyrics
From: Dale Rose
Date: 28 Nov 99 - 03:16 PM

Just to add a bit of the history, it was written in 1907, words by Thurland Chattaway, music by Kerry Mills. Kerry Mills should also be remembered as the composer of Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis, Whistling Rufus and At A Georgia Camp Meeting.

The sheet music is available at Duke and also at Levy. Just put red wing in the search, and you'll get it. Here is a direct link to a small version of the sheet music cover, one of my favorites. Red Wing from Duke

Subject: RE: Redwing lyrics
From: raredance
Date: 28 Nov 99 - 12:19 AM

Musicman,

I know there is a current thread on this, which is why I refreshed this 1997 thread that has an additional verse to the bawdy version that is not in the DT. I don't have the patience with HTML to establish a working link, so I refreshed the thread hoping someone would link them or find a way to merge them. You nicely linked this thread to the new one, but as of yet there isn't a link from the new thread to this one. Maybe I should have cut and pasted (or slashed and burned?)

rich r

Subject: Chords Add: RED WING
From: Gary T
Date: 27 Nov 99 - 05:11 PM

It's a 4-chorder, I,IV, V, II. In C:

C - F C F C D G <(verse)

C - F C F C G C

F - C - G - C C7 <(chorus)

F - C - G - C -

G7 can be used instead of G, and D7 can be used instead of D. I worked this out in my head, and I sure hope I got it right, otherwise I'll look pretty foolish.

Subject: RE: Redwing lyrics
From: Musicman
Date: 27 Nov 99 - 12:51 PM

just had a whole thread on it here

Subject: RE: Redwing lyrics
From: Joan
Date: 18 Feb 97 - 11:21 PM

Thanks for the tip on spelling and for the extra verse. I don't think I'll be singing that one for the family, but I enjoyed it just the same!

Joan

Subject: Lyr Add: RED WING
From: rich r
Date: 17 Feb 97 - 10:09 PM

Looking in the DT at Red Wing #3, I noticed that the version there is essentially the one recorded by Oscar Brand except it is missing a whole verse and chorus. Here it is.

...shortened his love life.
CHO: Oh the moon shines down on pretty Red Wing,
As she lays snoring,
Her knife adoring
For no longer do the braves come whoring
They won't pay the price for the promised land

O girls if you wanna be wise
Put away those knives
Boys like to pay
For a fling in the hay
But they don't wanna pay for the rest of their lives
Mind what your mamma said
If you're lying in your bed
If you can't obey
Don't reach for a blade
Have a hell of a time instead.

Last chorus as in Red Wing 3

cheers
rich r

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 6-Jun-02.

Subject: RE: Redwing lyrics
From:
Date: 17 Feb 97 - 02:31 PM

Look under Red Wing .... two words...

Subject: Redwing lyrics
From: Joan
Date: 17 Feb 97 - 12:11 PM

Does anyone know the lyrics to Redwing? The "Indian Maiden" thread stated that three versions exist in DT but I was only able to find one about Charlie Chaplin sung to the Redwing tune. It goes something like: "There once was an indian maid A shy little prairie maid Who sang a lay A lovesong gay As on the plain she whiled away the day" I need chords, too! This was my grandmother's favorite song and I would love to know it. Thanks.