Lyr Req: I Wonder As I Wander

Subject: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: Judy G
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 08:56 PM

Howdy, I need the lyrics to I Wonder as I Wander. Please help me out! I need them before Dec 9. Thanx, Judy

Subject: Lyr Add: I WONDER AS I WANDER
From: MMario
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 09:18 PM

I found them her:http://kididdles.com/mouseum/i052.html

at kiddiddles

I Wonder as I Wander

Traditional Written By: Unknown Copyright Unknown

I wonder as I wander
Out under the sky
How Jesus the Savior
Did come for to die
For poor on'ry people
Like you and like I
I wonder as I wander
Out under the sky

When Mary birthed Jesus,
'Twas in a cow's stall
With wise men and farmers
And shepherds and all
But high from God's heaven,
A star's light did fall
And the promise of ages
It then did recall

If Jesus had wanted
For any wee thing
A star in the sky
Or a bird on the wing
Or all of God's angels
In heav'n for to sing
He surely could have it,
'Cause He was the King

I wonder as I wander
Out under the sky
How Jesus the Savior
Did come for to die
For poor on'ry people
Like you and like I
I wonder as I wander
Out under the sky

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: Susan A-R
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 09:58 PM

I have always wondered. Is o'nry ordinary or ornery?

Susan A-R

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 10:47 PM

Ornery, to my mind. This was written, I'm pretty sure, by John Jacob Niles. He often claimed as "traditional," songs he had actually made up himself. This would appear to be one of those.

Sandy

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: Bruce O.
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 10:58 PM

Sandy's recollection is mine, too.

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: catspaw49
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 11:12 PM

Sandy, I just looked up the Niles thread to post here for that purpose. Judy et al...We ran a thread awhile back about John Jacob Niles and his "authorship" of "traditional" songs. Here's a link to that thread.

CLICK HERE (and pray)

Spaw

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: Judy G
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 10:07 AM

Hey Susan, Ornery is an adulteration of the word Ordinary.

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: MMario
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 10:32 AM

I was just thinking....and realized that I've always heard or'nry as "lonely".....

MMario

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: Judy G
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 10:34 AM

Dear MMario Thanx for the lyrics!

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: bunkerhill
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 05:00 PM

Ever see the picture of J.J. Niles carrying Doris Ulman across Cutshin Creek? Or some of Ulman's pictures of Niles in "The Appalachian Photos of Doris Ulman." I almost always think of them when I hear "I Wonder As I Wander." The key line, IMHO, is "why Jesus our savior did come for to die." Ulman became ill on a photo-taking mission with Niles in 1932; he rushed her back to New York, where she died. He dutifully completed developing her photos. "I Wonder..." was published same year. Way I got the story (mostly from Ron Penn, director of JJ Niles Center at Univ of Ky) Niles heard Annie Morgan singing a couplet while Ulman was taking pic of her father, a street preacher in Murphy, NC. He paid her a nickel to sing more, but the couplet was all she knew. Niles completed the song, passed it off for years as collected, then owned up to having written it after learning he could make some money as the author. Seems to me, Sandy, that this song's in season whenever we have to wonder why somebody had to die.

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 05:06 PM

I looked in 'The Ballad Book of J. J. Niles' (first time I've opened it in about 25 years), but don't find the song there.

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 08:39 PM

Here's a quote from the Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols

In the introduction to The Songs of John Jacob Niles (1975), Niles reported that he wrote this carol in 1933, basing it on a fragment he had overheard in the courthouse square in Murphy, Cherokee County, North Carolina. He published it in his Songs of the Hill-Folk (1934), where verse 1 is repeated after verse 3.

It may not be traditional, but I love the haunting melody of this song.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: I Wonder As I Wander Lyrics, Please!
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 09:55 PM

Interesting post Mark...and I've enjoyed some of your others. If no one has said it, welcome to the 'Cat!!

Spaw