Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena

Subject: Lyr Add: LORENA
From: Rex
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 12:50 PM

EJ wanted chords to this but I figured maybe some of yous might want to see it. The words are in the DT of course, (don't look for songs without it!) but here are the chords. The chord for the end of the fifth line is "Am" as shown in Irwin Silber's fine work, the Songs of the Civil War. But I humbly suggest that the "D" chord seems to fit better to me. And I prefer "Bm" to "B7" at the start of the next line. So what do I know?

  -------------------------------------------------------
  
  LORENA 
  
      G                        C
  The years creep slowly by, Lorena
      D                     G  
  The snow is on the grass again. 
      G                         C   
  The sun's low down the sky, Lorena
      D                                   G 
  The frost gleams where the flow'rs have been. 
  
          Em                        D (Am)
  But the heart throbs on as warmly now
     Bm (B7)                         Em
  As when the summer days were nigh. 
  D       G                    C
  Oh, the sun can never dip so low
    D                          G 
  A-down affection's cloudless sky. 
  

A hundred months has passed, Lorena
Since last I held that hand in mine.
And felt the pulse beat fast, Lorena
Though mine beats faster far than thine.

A hundred months, 'twas flowery May
When up the hilly slope we climbed.
To watch the dying of the day
And hear the distant church bells chime.

We loved each other then, Lorena.
More than we ever dared to tell.
And what we might have been, Lorena,
Had but our lovings prospered well.

But then, 'tis part. The years are gone,
I'll not call up their shadowy forms.
I'll say to them, lost years, sleep on.
Nor heed life's pelting storms.

The story of that past, Lorena,
Alas, I care not to repeat.
The hopes that could not last, Lorena,
They lived, but only lived to cheat.

I would not cause e'en one regret
To rankle in your bosom, now.
For if we try, we may forget,
Were words of thine long years ago.

Yes, these were words of thine, Lorena.
They burn within my memory, yet.
They touched some tender chords, Lorena.
Which thrill and tremble with regret.

'Twas not thy woman's heart that spoke.
Thy heart was always true to me.
A duty stern and pressing broke,
The tie that linked my soul with thee.

It matters little now, Lorena.
The past is in the eternal past.
Our heads will soon lie low, Lorena.
Life's tide is ebbing out so fast.

There is a future, Oh thank God.
Of life, this is so small a part.
Tis dust to dust beneath the sod.
But then, up There is heart to heart.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: kendall
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 01:00 PM

Thats an interesting chord sequence, (Em and B7th) Maybe I'm set in my ways but I still prefer Am and Bm. Lovely song anyway you do it. I heard a guy in Florida sing this with 3 chords..I ran screeming from the circle!

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: Rex
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 01:04 PM

Ah me, you know the chords and words all lined up just fine when I typed them in a text file and then pasted them in. What's to become of me? Can anyone offer a suggestion of how to keep the spacing, etc. intact? I know, it's probably common knowledge and kept in one those permathreads.

Rex (thoroughly whipped by a computer)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 01:34 PM

Thanks Rex, a Gentleman and Scholar you are!

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: Rex
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 11:31 PM

Aw, that's more than I deserve. What a jumble of words and chords. I'm still smarting from the whipping this computer gave me. If you can make sense of it, I guess I'll leave it that way. But I sure would like someone to tell me how to keep it as it was originally.

Rex

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 11:45 PM

It's still a heartbreaker of a song, after all these years. One of the few that will "get" me.......just think of all those poor boys longing for Home........and a little love.

Subject: Lyr Add: LORENA (Webster & Webster, 1857)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 06:38 PM

Correction to last line given by REX:
"But there, up there, 'tis heart to heart." 'Up there' italicized in sheet music.
The DT is correct but authors not credited Also pointed out by Masato in thread 14713.
Lyrics- Rev. H. D. L. Webster. Music, J. P. Webster. Sheet music 1857.

Not to be confused with the song "Lorene," found in Texas along with Lorena; another song of parting. (First line, "The bright light was shining in heaven."
Not to be confused with the slavery song of parting, "Lorena."

Lyr. Add: LORENA 2 (Slavery)

It was down upon the old plantation
Where in youth ole master owned me as a slave
There lived a colored girl, called Lorena
An' we courted where the wild bananas wave
O, the moon shown o'er my Lorena
As we sat an' watched the possum playing in the corn
An' the moon shown o'er the wild bananas
An' the ole owl hooted like a horn.

Chorus:
O Lorena, dear Lorena,
Won't you come, come, come again to me.
O Lorena, dear Lorena,
Won't you come, come, come again to me.

For four long years we had courted
An' had joined ourselves together both as one.
By hard labor, ole master, we supported
An' our happiness in life had just begun.
Till one day, ole master sold my Lorena
An' I thought this darkies heart would surely break
For he sold her 'way down to ole Virginia
An' left me to mourn for her sake.

For two long years, we were parted
But the thought of her was ever in my heart
Till one day ole massa read me a letter
Telling me my Lorena was dead
Then I knew that her spirit gone on to heaven
An' she never more would know this darkies pain.
There's a bright and starry crown for her awaiting
An' she never more shall wear a slavers chain.

Sung in Real Audio in the Max Hunter Collection by Mrs. George Ripley, Milford, MO, 1959.
A peculiar song. Echoes of other songs can be picked out. Relationship to the published Lorena of 1857?
Lorena
MFH #374.

Subject: Lyr Add: LORENE (from William A. Owens)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 07:34 PM

Lyr. Add: LORENE

The bright light was shining in heaven
The stars were all twinkly and blue;
The soft bonnie breeze of the twilight
Reminds me, my dear one, of you.
Last night as we parted in sorrow
With heavy hearts hasting away,
You promised, my darling, to meet me
To give me your answer today.

Chorus:
Give me your answer, Lorene, today;
Say you'll be mine, love,
Don't turn away.
You are my angel, my star, my queen;
Give me your answer
Today, sweet Lorene.

They say that you'll go to some city,
Where beloved ones you're seeking to find;
With the rich and the gay you will mingle
And the friends you are leaving behind.
You know that you promised me, darling,
That you would soon make my life joy;
Come look in my eyes for this moment
And give me your answer today.

William A. Owens, 1950, "Texas Folk Songs," pp. 186-188, with sheet music. Coll. from Mayme Finch, Texas. "I had known "Lorene" a long time as a fiddle tune, but the first and only time I found all the words to it was when mayme Finch sang it for me."

The music (3/4) is reminiscent of "I'll Never See Blue Eyes Again." (Out of the barroom he staggered, etc.)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: Midchuck
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 09:25 PM

The bytes go creeping by, Eudora
The net has broken down again.
I'll get my mail today, Eudora,
But I'll be damned if I know when

    For the screen fills in as slowly now,
    As when I was on AOL.
    But with the mail that's coming in now
    I think it may be just as well.

The spam comes pouring in, Eudora;
A never-ending siren's song.
If all of it were true, Eudora,
I'd have a Thing 12 meters long.

    They sell you stocks and bonds and girls,
    And boys, and condos by the sea.
    I don't know where they got my address,
    But like some old drunk, they just won't leave me be.

P.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 09:28 PM

As for LORENA 2, the Carter Family recorded it in 1931 as "No More The Moon Shines On Lorena" [audio from Honkingduck]. According to Meade et al.'s Country Music Sources (p. 467), the original (words & music) was written by Louis Staab in 1889(?).

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 10:53 PM

A 1939 recording of "Lorena #2" (first line: "Way down on the old plantation") sung by John McCready is at California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties. Notes provided, however, are wrong: "This song, popular during the Civil War, is a version of 'Lorena' with words by Henry De Lafayette Webster and music by Joseph Philbrick Webster."

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 11:30 PM

On sheet music by Louis Staab, "Faust, Fantaisie de Concert, piano," he is listed as author of "Lorena," "Martha," "Ever of Thee," etc.
University of North Carolina, sheet music list.
www.lib.unc.edu/music/eam/ns10.htm: Sheet Music S

Sheet music for Lorena (2) not found.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 11:37 PM

Wrong page:
sheet music S

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 11:45 PM

'Lorrena' (= Lorena #2) by Karl and Harty [audio] is at The Record Lady's All-Time Country Favorites (click on "REQUESTS PAGE TWO"). This must be the Refro Valley Boys' "Loreena" (rec. 1932).

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 11:58 PM

Lorena (2) not in the 12 cd Clinch Mountain Collection, nor in the websites devoted to Carter Family lyrics.
Noted that "Lorrena" was shipped to Louisiana in the Karl-Harty recording.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 05 Sep 03 - 09:08 AM

Is nobody (other than myself) going to compliment Midchuck on a disgusting parody which my SO and I thoroughly enjoyed? AAAAAAAAAAK!!
and all too true. . .
and Q, it IS in the Carter Family collection, it's called No More the Moon Shines on Lorena, (recorded Nocvember 1930) the original was Victor 23523, and, as usual, copyright is in the name of A.P. Carter. As for me, I prefer the Blue Sky Boys version. . .

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: Inükshük
Date: 05 Sep 03 - 01:42 PM

One of the best Civil War stories I ever heard was about a skirmish at Ball's Drop in West Virginia. A bunch of rebels were rounded up and put in jail. All night they argued with their captors about the true and proper lyrics for "Lorena".

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Lorena
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Sep 03 - 07:36 PM

Thanks, Pete, if titles have more than one word, I am challenged. The Carter version also appears in the Carter Family Songs website, with the extended title: No More Lorena

The chorus 'O Lorena, dear Lorena' is left out, the second part of the first verse, slightly changed, serving that function. In both the Texas and Carter versions, I wonder where the wild bananas came from, since they are not native. Maybe Staab was a -yankee.

Is the original by Louis Staab preserved anywhere- are there only folk versions left- or perhaps his song is a third Lorena.