The Traditional Ballad Index has a number of entries on this song because the songs bearing this title are so varied:
Root, Hog, or Die [Laws B21]
DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in California broke and takes a job making hay. He soon gambles his pay away, gets drunk, and lands in jail. A friend pays his fine; he warns against the dangers of playing poker
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: poverty drink gambling prison reprieve
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws B21, "Root Hog or Die"
Randolph 422, "Root Hog or Die" (5 texts, mostly short and perhaps excerpted, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 347-349, "Root Hog or Die" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 422C)
Silber-FSWB, p. 57, "Root, Hog, Or Die" (1 text)
DT 598, ROOTHOG3
Roud #3242
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (II)"
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (III)"
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (IV)"
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (V)"
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (Confederate Version)"
File: LB21
Root, Hog, or Die! (II)
DESCRIPTION: A bull-whacker recalls good times in Salt Lake City when his Chinese whore could roll her hog eye, and he would root hog or die.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy whore foreigner
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 576-582, "Root, Hog or Die!" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 11, "Root Hog or Die" (2 texts, 1 tune, with the "A" and "B" texts being different forms of the song. "A" appears to be a cleaned-up version of this form.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] and references there
NOTES: The supplemental texts supplied by Legman in Randolph-Legman I are more interesting than the one stanza fragment that Randolph collected. - EC
[Note: Randolph actually collected five "clean" versions of this piece, but all -- except that listed as "Root Hog or Die (Confederate Version)" -- are quite fragmentary. - RBW]
I am not entirely sure that the Fife "A" text is a variant of this piece (though it starts in the same way). But if it isn't, it needs its own entry -- and I'm tired of the proliferation of "Root Hog or Die" versions.... - RBW
File: RL576
Root, Hog, or Die! (III -- The Bull-Whacker)
DESCRIPTION: A "Western" "Root Hog" version, with the singer herding cattle and keeping an eye out for local wildlife. He complains about the hard life and bad food, but also talks about the pretty girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work travel animal whore
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 171, "Root, Hog, or Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 430-432, "The Bull-Whacker" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 11, "Root Hog or Die" (2 texts, 1 tune, of which the "B" text, "The Philosophical Cowboy," appears to belong here)
DT, ROOTHOG1*
Roud #4292
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Philosophical Cowboy
NOTES: The final verses of this version resemble the bawdy text (Root, Hog, or Die II), and one wonders if this version might not have been cleaned up. But the lead-in is completely different. - RBW
File: LoF171
Root, Hog, or Die! (IV)
DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you all a story that happened long ago, When the English came to America... The Yankees boys made 'em sing 'Root hog or die.'" The singer describes various English defeats: the Tea Party, Bunker Hill, Yorktown, Baltimore, New Orleans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (a text reported by Belden to be this was found in the 1859 Dime Song Book)
KEYWORDS: battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 16, 1773 - Boston Tea Party. Americans protest the British tax on tea by dumping a shipload into Boston Harbor
June 17, 1775 - Battle of Bunker Hill (fought on Breed's Hill, and won by the British, though at heavy cost)
Oct 19, 1781 - Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown (not really as a result of being defeated; his supply line had been cut by the French navy)
Aug 24, 1814 - A British force under Robert Ross captures Washington, D.C. after brushing aside the incompetent defenders. (Madison's administration had already fled). Two days later the British leave for Baltimore.
Sept 13, 1814 - Battle of Fort McHenry, which saves Baltimore from the British attack.
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which British General Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulse Pakenham.
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden, p. 334, "Root Hog or Die" (1 text)
Roud #4734
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] and references there
File: Beld334
Root, Hog, or Die (V)
DESCRIPTION: Minstrel song? "Root, Hog, or Die," with some "Walkin' in the Parlor" verses: "The greatest ole nigger that I eva' did see, Looked like a sick monkey...." "I come from Alabama with a pocketful of news..." Cho: "Chief cook and bottle washer...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Allsopp)
KEYWORDS: cook work nonballad floatingverses food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 161, ("Root, Hog, or Die")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] and references there
cf. "Walkin' in the Parlor" (lyrics)
File: FWA161A
Root, Hog, or Die (VI -- Cowboy Bawdy variant)
DESCRIPTION: The singer heads to Arizona to punch cattle. He takes a holiday in Phoenix, where was pretty girl says she will "see what I can do for your root, hog, or die." He contracts a venereal disease; "that's why I lost the head of my root, hog, or die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: bawdy cowboy sex disease disability
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon 22, pp. 140-142, "Root, Hog, or Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3242
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gay Caballero" (theme of disease destroying sexual organs)
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
File: Logs022
Root, Hog, or Die (VII -- Sailor version)
DESCRIPTION: "'twas on the 24th of March we got underway, Bound to the Western Bank on a bright and sunny day." The sailor complains about his work, about getting wood from a fellow named Carter, and about the cook
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Beck-Maine)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-Maine, pp. 215-217, "Root, Hog, or Die" (1 text)
Roud #4732
File: BeMe215
Root, Hog, or Die (Confederate Version)
DESCRIPTION: Various cracks about the incompetence or cowardice of the Yankees, ending by saying "We'll make the Dutch (or Old Abe, or any other tempting target) root hog or die." Also praises the confederate armies in extravagant terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (various Confederate songsters, according to Silber-CivWarFull)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 10, 1861 - Battle of Wilson's Creek
FOUND IN: US(So,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Belden, pp. 361-362, "Root, Abe, or Die" (1 text)
Randolph 248, "Root Hog or Die" (1 text, with an element of "The Bonnie Blue Flag" mixed in)
BrownIII 372, "Root Hog or Die" (1 short text, perhaps mixed)
Silber-CivWarFull, pp. 240-242, "Flight of Doodles"; p. 243, "Root Hog or Die (Southern Version)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, ROOTHOG2*
Roud #7829
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] and references there
cf. "The Jolly Union Boys" and references there (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
NOTES: Randolph's version of this song is very specific to Missouri; see his notes.
Belden's version, at first glance, has almost nothing in common with Randolph's brief and mixed-up version. But both are from the Ozarks, and both involve the Missouri campaigns of Nathaniel Lyon and the Battle of Wilson's Creek. If they aren't the same piece, they are communal efforts on the same theme. Close enough.
Brown's short text is another matter; it seems more generically Confederate, and refers to Fort Sumter. But it's too short to file separately. And Silber's two texts are both clearly Confederate adaptions of "Root, Hog...."; they all seem to be one-shots, not worth separating out.
For the complex background to the Battle of Wilson's Creek, see the notes to songs in the cross-references, notably "The Jolly Union Boys" and "Joe Stiner." - RBW
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