Lyr Req: The Low-Backed Car (Samuel Lover)

Subject: Peg in a Low Back'd Car
From: GUEST,Sarah the Anglophile Dryad and Pirate
Date: 30 Jun 02 - 06:03 AM

Hi,

I'm looking for an Irish song that dates at least to the 19th century and is referred to quite a bit in 'Gone With the Wind'. The name is 'Peg in a Low Back'd Car' in the book, but it might be hiding under a different name now. Any help would be great. Thanks!

--Sarah [e-mail]

---

Also see Irish Jaunting Car

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Peg in a Low Back'd Car
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Jun 02 - 09:36 AM

Isn't this (Click here for lyrics & MIDI) the song? It was Peggy who sat in her low-back'd car, though. Sheet music is in the Levy Collection (unfortunately, its images can't come up):

Title: The Low Back'd Car. A Characteristic Irish Song As Given by the Author in His Irish Evenings.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Written and Composd by Samuel Lober.
Publication: New York: Firth & Hall, No.1 Franklin Sq., 1846.
Form of Composition: strophic
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: When first I saw sweet Peggy, 'Twas on a market day
Plate Number: 4058
Subject: Carts & wagons
Subject: Courtship & love
Subject: Weddings
Call No.: Box: 061 Item: 055

Song sheet (Title: Song Sheet Low Back'd Car. / Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: na / Publication: Philadelphia: T.M. Scroggy, 443 Vine St., below 13th, n.d.) is HERE.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Peg in a Low Back'd Car
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Jun 02 - 10:24 AM

Sheet music for "The Low-Backed Car" is in The Library of Irish Music (Click here) (AMSCO, 1998, pp. 144-145), which says "Words: Samuel Lover / Traditional Air: 'The Jolly Ploughboy'." Samuel Lover (not Lober) is the correct name (See THIS PAGE).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Peg in a Low Back'd Car
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Jun 02 - 10:37 AM

P.S. If you put "the Low-Back'd Car" into the search box of American Memory Collections: All Collections, you'll get "14 Items containing the exact words the Low Back'd Car"; most are song sheets.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Peg in a Low Back'd Car
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Jun 02 - 09:35 PM

Some remarks in thread 30447: Low-Back'd Car
Mis-typing in Masato's post: composer is Lover, not Lober.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Peg in a Low Back'd Car
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Jun 02 - 09:39 PM

Mis-typing above is by Levy, not by me.
~Masato

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LOW-BACKED CAR (Samuel Lover)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Jul 02 - 03:38 PM

Lyrics and chords copied from http://spikesmusic.spike-jamie.com/irish/1/WHEN-FIRST-I-SAW-SWEET-PEGGY.pdf

THE LOW-BACKED CAR
(Samuel Lover (1797-1868))

    

     D                 A           D     A      D
  When first I saw sweet Peggy, 'twas on a market day.
    A7                  D         Bm   Em     A       D
  A low-backed car she drove, and sat upon a truss of hay.
       G                                                             D
  But when that hay was blooming grass, and decked with flowers of spring,
      G                            F#o             Em      E7     A7
  No flower was there that could compare with the blooming girl I sing!
         D         Em7         D       Em7                  Em
  As she sat in her low-backed car, the man at the turnpike bar
       D             F#m             Bm             D
  Never asked for the toll, but just rubbed his old poll
            D          G          D
  And looked after the low-backed car.

In battle's wild commotion, the proud and mighty Mars,
With hostile scythes, demands his tithes of death in warlike cars;
While Peggy, peaceful goddess, has darts in her bright eye
That knock men down in the market town, as right and left they fly -
While she sits in her low-backed car, than battle more dangerous far -
For the doctor's art cannot cure the heart
That is hit from that low-backed car.

Sweet Peggy round her car, sir, has strings of ducks and geese,
But the scores of hearts she slaughters by far outnumber these.
While she among her poultry sits, just like a turtledove,
Well worth the cage, I do engage, of the blooming god of Love!
While she sits in her low-backed car, the lovers come near and far,
And envy the chicken that Peggy is pickin'
While she sits in her low-backed car.

I'd rather own that car, sir, with Peggy by my side,
Than a coach and four, and gold galore and a lady for my bride.
For the lady would sit fornisnt me, on a cushion made with taste,
While Peggy would sit beside me, with my arm around her waist.
As we drove in the low-backed car, to be married by Father Maher,
Oh, my heart would beat high at her glance and her sigh,
Though it beat in a low-backed car.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Peg in a Low Back'd Car
From: Warsaw Ed
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 01:40 PM

Since the Contemplator MIDI seems to be unavailable, I'll throw in my ABC Notation of the song:
X:27
T:The Low-Back'd Car
M:6/8
L:1/8
Q:192
S: Samuel Lover - Celtic Fake Book Sequenced by Warsaw Ed
K:D
z5D|D2FF2A|G2Ez2C|D2FA2A|A4zF|
G2GE2E|F2FD2F|G2ED2C|D4zD|D2GG2B|
B2AA2D|D2GG2B|A4zD|D2dd2B|B2AAGF/2F/2|
E2DE2F|A3F2E|DB,A,D2D|D3z2F|EDB,E2E|
E3zFG|AGFAGF|dcBAFE|DB,A,D2D|D3z3||

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Peg in a Low Back'd Car
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 12:31 AM

Victor Herbert was a grandson of Samuel Lover (Charles Hamm, Yesterdays: Popular Song In America, p. 322).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Peg in a Low Back'd Car
From: Metchosin
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 01:58 AM

When we were kids, my brother and I used to snigger (as naughty kids are apt to do) at this song when my mother sang it. We didn't know that word "poll" referred to someones head.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Low-Backed Car (Samuel Lover)
From: GUEST,Jaime
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 10:26 AM

I actually have an original copy of this book "The Low Back'd Car. Anyone know how much it's worth?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Low-Backed Car (Samuel Lover)
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 12:37 PM

1890 3-page score from £16.50 to £27.92 on bookfinder.com

Mick