The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #457   Message #723652
Posted By: masato sakurai
05-Jun-02 - 12:58 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Baltimore Fire..a 'new' old verse....
Subject: RE: Baltimore Fire..a 'new' old verse....
The DT (New Lost City Ramblers Song Book) version, which is from Charlie Poole):

BALTIMORE FIRE

[E]It was on a silver falls by a [A]narrow
That I [E]heard the cry I ever will re-[B7]member,
The [E]fire sent and cast its burning [A]embers
On a-[E]nother faded [B7]city of our [E]land.

cho: [E]Fire, Fire, I heard the cry
From [A]every breeze that [E]passes by,
[A]All the world was [E]one sad cry of [B7]pity
[E]Strong men in anguish prayed,
[A]Calling loud to Heaven for aid,
[A]While the fire in [E]ruin was laying
Fair [B7]Baltimore, the beautiful [E]city.

"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...." (NLCR Song Book, p. 113)

~Masato