Lyr Add: Sweet Lulur

Subject: ADD:Way Up on Clinch Mountain (Sandburg Version B)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Aug 04 - 07:42 PM

The Traditional Ballad Index (see above) says the version "B" of "Way Up on Clinch Mountain" in Sandburg's American Songbag "is perhaps this or something like it though probably composite, perhaps with 'The Wagoner's Lad'"

Seems like a weak connection to me, but here's the song text:

Way Up on Clinch Mountain (Sandburg Version B)

Way up on Clinch Mountain where the wild geese fly high,
I'll think of little Allie en lay down en die.

You may boast of yore knowledge en brag o' yore sense,
'Twill all be forgotten a hundred years hence.

Oh Lulu, oh Lulu, oh Lulu, my dear,
I'd give the whole world if my Lulu was hyer.

Sandburg's "A" text is a version of "Rye Whiskey" - you'll find that one here (click).

Subject: ADD Version: Sweet Lulur
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Aug 04 - 07:13 PM

Sweet Lulur

When I was in Danville, a-walking down the street
I spied a policeman who bound my hands and feet:
He bound my feet in cold iron, all tangled my feet in chains,
But before I'll go back on sweet Lulur I'll have them tangled again.

Oh Lulur, oh Lulur my darling; oh Lulur, oh Lulur, my dear,
If I* hadn't a-been for sweet Lulur, it was Lulur that brought me here.

*one expects "it"


From Thomas Smith, Watauga county, in 1915, with the notation: "The above verses are all I recall of a song which I heard sung when a child probably thirty or more years ago by a Miss Louise Wilson at my grandmother's house."


source: #350K from the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Volume III

Subject: ADD: Sweet Lulur
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Aug 04 - 07:06 PM

Another song related to "The Prisoner's Song" is "Sweet Lulur." Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on the song:

Sweet Lulur

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a policeman in Danville. "He bound my feet in cold iron, all tangled my feet in chains, But before I'd go back on my Lulur, I'll have them tangled again." He notes that "If it hadn't a-been for sweet Lulur, it was Lulur that brought be here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: police prison love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 350, "The Prisoner's Song" (7 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 excerpts, and mention of 1 more; "A"-"C," plus probably the "D" excerpt, are "The Prisoner's Song (I)"; "E" and "G," plus perhaps the "H" fragment, are "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight"; "J" and "K" are "Sweet Lulur")
Sandburg, p. 307, "Way Up on Clinch Mountain" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text is "Rye Whiskey," but the short "B" text is perhaps this or something like it though probably composite, perhaps with "The Wagoner's Lad")
Roud #767
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" (floating lyrics)
Notes: Roud, presumably following Brown et al, lump this with "The Prisoner's Song" group. It appears to me distinct. - RBW
File: BrIII350

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions

The Ballad Index Copyright 2004 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

---

Sweet Lulur

He bound my feet in cold iron,
All tangled my feet in chains
But before I'll go back on sweet Lulur
I'll have them tangled again.

Chorus:
O Lulur, O Lulur my darling,
O Lulur, O Lulur my dear,
If it hadn't been for sweet Lulur,
Sweet Lulur that brought me here!

I had three ships on the ocean
All lined with silver and gold,
And before I'll go back on sweet Lulur
I'll have them hoisted and sold.

From John M. Greer of Boone, Watauga County, North Carolina, 1915.

source: #350J from the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Volume III