...all wrapped in white linen.

Subject: RE: ...all wrapped in white linen.
From:
Date: 10 Feb 98 - 02:40 AM

Another version of the song above appears on Christy Moore's "Prosperous". It is entitled "Locke Hospital" and it tells the tale of a young soldier who dies of a sexually transmitted disease. On that note...

Slainte

Rick

Subject: Lyr Add: ST. JAMES HOSPITAL (from A. L. Lloyd)
From: Paul Stamler
Date: 10 Feb 98 - 12:50 AM

Another version of the song is "St. James' Hospital", which makes it sound as though he's being wrapped in linen (or, in some versions, flannel) because he has the shivers. Here are the lyrics as recorded by A. L. Lloyd:

As I was out walking by St. James' hospital
I was out walking down by there one day
I spied a young man all wrapped in white linen
All wrapped in white linen, though warm was the day.

I asked him what ailed him, I asked him what failed him
I asked him the cause of all his complaint
"It's all on account of some handsome young woman
'Tis she that has caused me to weep and lament"

"And had she but told me before she disordered me
Had she but told me of it in time
I might have got pills or salts of white mercury
But now I'm cut down in the height of me prime."

"Get six young soldiers to carry me coffin
Six young girls to sing me a song
And have each of them carry a bunch of green laurel
So they can't smell me as they bear me along."

"And don't muffle your drums, me jewel, me joy
Play your fife merry as you bear me along
And fire your bright muskets all over me coffin
Sayin', 'There goes an unfortunate lad to his home'."

It was recorded on Lloyd's Topic album "First Person", and has been reissued on the superb Fellside CD "Classic A. L. Lloyd".

Peace.
Paul

Subject: Lyr Add: STREETS OF LAREDO (corrected verse)
From: rich r
Date: 09 Feb 98 - 11:26 PM

OK so I cannot spell "Wlaked", at least I'm consistently inconsistent. I noticed in the DT that the 2nd line of verse 11 or 12 of "Streets of Laredo" apparently dropped in by mistake from some other song. The verse should be:

Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin
Get six pretty maidens to bear up my pall;
Put bunches of roses all over my coffin,
Put roses to deaden the clods as they fall.

The long version of the song in DT is the same as "The Cowboy's Lament" published in 1908 in Songs of the Cowboys by N Howard "Jack" Thorp. Thorp writes, "Authorship credited to Troy Hale, Battle Creek, Nebraska. I first heard it sung in a bar-room at Wisner, Nebraska, about 1886."

rich r

Subject: Lyr Add: DYING OUTFIT ('Streets of Laredo' parody)
From: rich r
Date: 09 Feb 98 - 10:54 PM

THE DYING OUTFIT

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo,
As I walked out in Laredo one day,
I spied a poor cowboy wrapped up in white linen,
Wrapped up in white linen as cold as the clay.

I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy.
You see by my outfit that I am one too.
We see by our outfits that we are both cowboys.
Now you get an outfit an' you can be a cowboy too.

Now you got no outfit, so you're not a cowboy.
I got two outfits. You take one of mine.
Now you got an outfit, and I got an outfit,
And in our outfits now don't we look fine?

You fit in my outfit. I fit in your outfit.
We fit in our outfits. We're outfitted fine.
They're fine-fitted outfits. They're out-fitted fine-fits.
They're fit-outed b-b-l-l-r-r-b-b. I'm fit to be tied.

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo,
As I walked out in Laredo one day,
I spied a young outfit wrapped up in his cowboy,
Wrapped up in his outfit, so I let him lay.

A version of this was recorded by Tom & Dick Smothers

rich r

Subject: RE: ...all wrapped in white linen.
From: RonU
Date: 04 Feb 98 - 11:27 PM

Looks to me like the dead Irishman was talking (or singing), also.

Subject: RE: ...all wrapped in white linen.
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 04 Feb 98 - 02:06 PM

"Streets of Laredo" is an American adaption of an English ballad (a broadside, I seem to recall). I can't remember the title: I believe that it's called "When I Was a Soldier," or "The Soldier's Lament." Maddy Prior did a fine job with it on one of the Steeleye Span albums, and even the tune was basically unchanged.

Subject: Tune Add: THE UNFORTUNATE RAKE
From: Bruce O.
Date: 04 Feb 98 - 12:48 PM

All but last d are sharpened, but even if last were, the tune would not be one of the 7 normal 'Greek' modes. I have not found the tune elsewhere under any title. 'Theme code' is 51H2H4 11H2H5.

X:1
T:The Unfortunate Rake
N:from Crosby's 'Irish Musical Repository', 1808
N:(for The Wandering Harper, not Unfortunate Rake)
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:Em
B|B e e e f g|f ^d B A G F|E e e e f g|f ^d BB2 A|\
B e e e f g|f ^d B A G F|G B e G3/2 A/ B|A G F E2||F|\
G B B B3/2 A/ G|F ^D F A3/2 G/ F| G B E G3/2 A/ B|\
A G F E2F|G B B B3/2 A/ G|F ^D F A3/2 A/ g|f3/2 e/ ^d e =d B|\
A3/2 G/ F E2|]

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BUCK'S ELEGY
From: Bruce O.
Date: 04 Feb 98 - 12:02 PM

[This version is obviously a bit corrupt. 2nd and 3rd verses don't agree about the mercury.]

The Buck's Elegy

As I was walking down Covent Garden,
Listen awhile, and the truth I'll relate,
Who should I meet but my dearest comrade,
Wrapt up in flannel, so hard was his fate.

Had I but known what his disorder was,
Had I but known it, and took it in time,
I'd took pila cotia, all sorts of white mercury,
But now I'm cut off in the height of my prime.

Doctors take away your mercury bottles,
For I am going to draw my last breath,
And into my coffin throw handfuls of funeral fine [No
[should be 'lime', to cover smell]
Let them all see that I die a sad death.

When I am dead wrap me up in funeral fine,
Pinks and fine roses adorning my head,
Come all gallows whores that do mourn after me,
Let them all follow me unto my grave.

There is Capt.---, and likewise Capt. Townsend.
These are the men that shall hold up my pall;
Come draw up your merrymen, draw them in rank and file,
Let them fire over me when I lay low.

Come bumble your drums, bumble them with crapes of black,
Beat the dead march as we go along,
Come draw up your merry men, draw them in rank and file,
Let them fire over me when I lay low.

From Holloway and Black, 'Later English broadside Ballads', I, #17, where references to traditional versions of the British Isles are given. I don't seem to have a copy of "The Unfortunate Rake" version. The Irish tune "The Unfortunate Rake" is in Crosby's 'Irish Musical Repository', but it does not sound to me to be at all related to America tunes to "Tom Sherman's Barroom", "St. James Infirmary (or Hospital)" or "Streets of Loredo", that I have heard.

Subject: RE: ...all wrapped in white linen.
From: Jon W.
Date: 04 Feb 98 - 11:01 AM

I searched the database and found several versions including parodies but nothing like the original "Unfortunate Rake." Anyone care to submit it?

Subject: RE: ...all wrapped in white linen.
From: Bruce O.
Date: 04 Feb 98 - 10:35 AM

He originally died in Ireland. Irish broadsides of the song, c 1800, are "The Unfortuante Rake" and "The Buck's Elegy". It was the mercury given him to control his syphilis that killed him. I can't remember whether the mercury was in the form of calomel or corrosive sublimate (chlorides of mercury).

Susan of DT?

Subject: RE: ...all wrapped in white linen.
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 04 Feb 98 - 08:33 AM

Yeah, he must be dead, because in addition to being wrapped in a shroud, he's "cold as the clay". I always figured he was a ghost, which is why he could be dead but singing the song. Or maybe the writer was looking at the deceased young man, imagining what he would say if he could talk.

Subject: RE: ...all wrapped in white linen.
From: leprechaun
Date: 04 Feb 98 - 12:50 AM

I always thought of it as a shroud, or something they wrap him in before they stuff him in a coffin. Sort of like a cotton bag you wrap around a deer or elk carcass to keep the flies out. I think the idea that he dies after the song is just a matter of poetic license.

Mothers don't let your babies grow up to be turtle boys. I've got to make it to Rose's back door. But I'll be better, Doc, as soon as I am able.

Subject: ...all wrapped in white linen.
From: RonU
Date: 04 Feb 98 - 12:09 AM

I know this seems perhaps insignificant but here goes anyway. In the song "Streets of Laredo (the cowboy's lament)" there is the line where the young cowboy was all wrapped in white linen. I don't get it, never did. Originally before I had seen all the words, I thought he was already dead but, the words in the database make it clear he died after telling his sad story. What gives ??