I stumbled across this song in the Digital Tradition today, and found lots of OCR errors in our transcription. I looked for a thread discussing the song, and found none. It's a song I've known about for a long time (mostly from the Art Thieme recording), but never really known well. Perhaps it's time to take a look at it.
This is an edited DTStudy thread, and all messages posted here are subject to editing and deletion.
This thread is intended to serve as a forum for corrections and annotations for the Digital Tradition song named in the title of this thread.Search for other DTStudy threads
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]
DESCRIPTION: A passerby hears a girl wailing for her lost Jimmie Whalen. He comes from the grave, and she begs him to stay. He cannot; death keeps them apart.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: death ghost lover
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Laws C8, "Lost Jimmie Whalen"
Rickaby 4, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
RickabyDykstraLeary 4, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 726-727, "Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text)
Leach-Heritage, pp. 177-179, "Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 445-446, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 48, "Jimmie Whalen's Girl" (1 text)
Beck-Bunyan, pp. 139-141, "Jimmie Whalen's Girl" (1 text)
Beck-Lore 79, "Jimme Whalen's Girl" (1 text)
Fowke-Lumbering #32, "Lost Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 26, "Lost Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
AbbottFowkeEtAl29, "Lost Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 186-187, "Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 114-115, "Lost Jimmy Whalan" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 385-389, "Jimmy Whelan" (2 texts, 4 tunes)
Lehr/Best 61, "Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 35-37,249, "The Lost Jimmy Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 81, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 27-28, "Lost Jimmy Walen" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 602, JIMWHEL* JIMWHEL2*
Roud #2220
RECORDINGS:
Mrs John Coughlin, "The Lost Jimmy Whalen" (on MREIves01)
Mrs Mary Dumphy, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (on NFMLeach); "Jimmy Whalen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "Jimmy Whelan" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Ken Peacock, "Jimmy Whalen" (on NFKPeacock)
Art Thieme, "Lost Jimmy Whalen" (on Thieme05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "James Whalen" [Laws C7] (subject)
File: LC08Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song ListGo to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or DiscographyThe Ballad Index Copyright 2020 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.