The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #28698 Message #1834978
Posted By: Joe Offer
15-Sep-06 - 02:22 AM
Thread Name: 10,000 Miles Away (On the Banks of a Lonely River)
Subject: Lyr Add: TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY (Vance Randolph)
Ten Thousand Miles Away
(Randolph #697A)
On the banks of a lonely river, ten thousand miles away,
I had an aged mother whose hair was turnin' gray.
Oh, blame me not for weepin', oh, blame me not I pray,
For I want to see my mother, ten thousand miles away.
I wish I was a little bird, I'd fly so far away,
To the banks of the lonely river, ten thousand miles away.
Last night as I lay sleepin' I dreampt a pleasant dream,
I thought I saw my mother, close by a lonely stream.
Today I got a letter, 'twas from my sister dear,
She spoke of my dear mother, an' I wish that she were near.
They tell they have laid her in the cold an' silent grave,
On the banks of the lonely river, ten thousand miles away.
But as years roll on before me, I sometimes kneel an' pray.
For the banks of the lonely river, ten thousand miles away.
singer: Mrs. Cory Almy Wilson, Zinc, Arkansas, April 4, 1932
Several persons told Randolph that the authorship was claimed by an itinerant singing teacher named Hubbard, who sold a book of his own songs in the Joplin (Missouri) mining district in about 1895.