Lyrics & Knowledge Personal Pages Record Shop Auction Links Radio & Media Kids Membership Help
The Mudcat Cafesj



User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
Cattia Lyr Add: I Wish the Wars Were All Over (38) RE: Lyr Add: I Wish the Wars Were All Over 25 Sep 20


I Wish That the Wars Were All Over / I Would That the Wars Were All Done is a traditional ballad of at least eighteenth-century origin. There are basically two versions of the ballad, one presumably dating back to the American War of Independence (1775-1783) and the second probably dating back to the Flanders Campaign (1793-1795).
Both versions were collected by the Rev Sabine Baring-Gould at the end of the 19th century.

I Wish That the Wars Were All Over: It was down in the meadows where violets are blue
two sources
Timothy Connor in “A Sailor’s Songbag: An American Rebel in an English Prison, 1777-79”
Samuel Fone of Dartmoor, Devon
FOLK REVIVAL: Sam Richards ( Invitation to North America 1977-Trish Stubbs voice)
Tim Eriksen reworks (new text and new melody) the eighteenth-century version
covered by Joan Baez in "Whistle Down The Wind" 2018 and Appalachian Road Show in Tribulation 2020

I Wish That the Wars Were All Over: In the meadow one morning when pearly with dew

Text and score are printed in the Garland of Country Song (1895 pgg 18-19) (cf) by Rev Sabine Baring-Gould for which no oral source is provided.
FOLK REVIVAL: Roy Harris in The Rambling Soldier 1995
Eliza Carthy first with "The Ratcatchers" and with The Wayward Band 2017
see my post in Terre Celtiche Blog https://terreceltiche.altervista.org/i-wish-that-the-wars-were-all-over-i-would-that-the-wars-were-all-done/


Post to this Thread -

Back to the Main Forum Page

By clicking on the User Name, you will requery the forum for that user. You will see everything that he or she has posted with that Mudcat name.

By clicking on the Thread Name, you will be sent to the Forum on that thread as if you selected it from the main Mudcat Forum page.

By clicking on the Subject, you will also go to the thread as if you selected it from the original Forum page, but also go directly to that particular message.

By clicking on the Date (Posted), you will dig out every message posted that day.

Try it all, you will see.