Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:Baltimore Fire, The
DESCRIPTION: "It was on a silver falls by a narrow That I heard a cry I ever will remember... Fire, fire, I heard the cry From every breeze that passes by... While in ruin the fire was laying Fair Baltimore, the beautiful city." About the terrible fire in Baltimore
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers; first printed in Maury's Songster of about 1905)
KEYWORDS: disaster fire
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb. 7-8, 1904 - Fire wipes out practically the entire downtown section of Baltimore.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 97, "Baltimore Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer, p. 87, "Baltimore Fire" (1 text)
Cohen-AFS1, pp. 176-177, "Baltimore Fire" (1 text plus an excerpt from "Boston Fire," the inspiration for the piece)
DT, BALTFIRE*
Roud #12392
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Baltimore Fire" (on NLCR03)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Baltimore Fire" (Columbia 15509-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on CPoole02)
File: CSW097Go 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 2017 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.
And here are the Digital Tradition lyrics:
BALTIMORE FIRE
It was on a silver falls by a narrow
That I heard the cry I ever will remember,
The fire sent and cast its burning embers
On another faded city of our land.
cho: Fire, Fire, I heard the cry
From every breeze that passes by,
All the world was one sad cry of pity
Strong men in anguish prayed,
Calling loud to Heaven for aid,
While the fire in ruin was laying
Fair Baltimore, the beautiful city
Amid an awful struggle of commotion,
The wind blew a gale from the ocean,
Brave firemen struggled with devotion,
But their efforts all proved in vain.
cho:
The awful news did spread across the wire
Of another sad catastrophe so dire,
That Baltimore City is afire,
And sinking 'neath the foe's relentless hand.
From New Lost City Ramblers; originally recorded by Charlie
Poole.
@fire
filename[ BALTFIRE
TUNE FILE: BALTFIRE
CLICK TO PLAY
RG
New Lost City Ramblers recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXMmLokot6s (probably not playable in UK)
The first two verses of the DT lyrics are exactly as printed in the Old-Time String Band Songbook by John Cohen and Mike Seeger, with musical notation by Hally Wood. ©1964, 1976 by Oak Publications.
The songbook does not include the third verse - I imagine it was added to the DT from Bill D's 1997 post above.
Notes from the songbook:Little is known about the source of this song. Charlie Poole recorded it in May 1929 when he was a young man. Twenty-five years earlier, on February 7 and 8, 1904, a major fire wiped out practically the entire downtown section of Baltimore.
The song is not to be encountered in folklore collections nor on any other phonograph records. The details are accurate in their reference to the "silver falls" (Jones Falls, which was one boundary of the blaze where the firefighters stopped the forward advance of the flames after two days), and to "a gale from the ocean, which refers to a shift in the wind that changed the direction of the fire.