Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 04:18 AM

ORIGINS:

Since Kansas is celebrating its 150th year of statehood in 2011, local newspapers have begun printing the inevitable strings of Historical articles.

The 16 January Sunday edition of the Wichita Eagle reports that the Cabin built by Brewster Higley after he migrated from Ohio to Kansas in 1871 still stands in Smith County, Kansas. The cabin is "reasonably well preserved," after being used as a chicken coop until 1947, and has been supplied with "era articles" but little of Brewsters possessions remain. Construction was (is) native limestone on three sides, with logs at the front, and dirt floor in the sytle of the day. No dimensions given but a picture suggests it was about 9 ft by 6 or 8 ft. (?)

This report states that Higley wrote his poem in six verses in 1872. The cabin was not built until he'd settled in a bit, in 1873.

Brewster Higley was a doctor, and the report is that he was treating a gunshot wound while another man waited. The other man (Trube Reese) found the poem in one of Brewster's books and suggested it should be published. It is reported that it was printed in 1873 in the "Smith County Pioneer." The article doesn't report whether copies of the original publication survive, but such material is fairly commonly traceable through "historical associations" in the area.

Following the 1873 publication of the poem, Brewster is said to have "presented the poem to Dan Kelly of nearby Gaylord who'd been a bugler during the Civil War and had enough background in music to give it a distinctive melody." (Higley is reported as amusing himself by playing the fiddle, but apparently wasn't inclined to music composition?)

"Kelley then gave the song to Judge John Harlan and his family, who first played and sang it publicly.

The Harlans added a chorus to the song:

A Home ---- A Home ---
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

"None of the men attempted to copyright the song."

The article reports that the song (excluding the earlier publishing as a poem) was first published in 1920 by John Lomax in his (Cowboy Songs and Country Ballads)

In 1934 William and Mary Goodwin of Arizona claimed they wrote the song, "An Arizona Home," and filed a lawsuit against NBC (radio) and various publishing houses demandng damages and prohibiting the song from being played in public.

They lost, after an NBC lawyer traced the song back to the Smith County Publication in 1873. The report is that the lawyer found the elderly Trube Reese, who told him about the Harlan family, and that Clarence Harlan (then 86) sang Higley's original words for him.

Fragments of what appear to be "original words" are scattered throughout the article, but I haven't been able to put the pieces together to see if they constitute a "full six verses" as the poem reportedly was written. Scattered bits of what may be the original are also interspersed with "later versions" by others.

John

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:29 AM

Home Home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where never is heard
a discouraging word,
For what can an antelope say?

( an American comedienne, TV, late 50's)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: Artful Codger
Date: 29 May 09 - 11:20 PM

Clarence (Cal) Harlan recorded the song with the tune that Kelley, Gene Harlan, Virgie Harlan and he wrote fifty years earlier; and aside from being in major and triple time, with straight-forward phrasing, it bears no "recognizable" similarity to the famous tune. I'm unaware of any tune for this song being written down prior to the Goodwins (1905) and Lomax (collected in 1908)--even Kelley didn't notate his; it's only known from Cal's recording. So the famous tune can only be dated with any confidence to about the turn of the century. We have no clue what tunes were used for the song in the thirty intervening years. (BTW, has anyone seen the Goodwins sheet music or a transcription of their tune?)

Did you read the appelation "Blind Clarence Harlan" in White's book? Because no other accounts call him that. They just mention his blindness by the time of the recording to infer that he hadn't referred to some written record of the lyrics, making the close correspondence to Higley's poem seem the more convincing.

Genie was only repeating information from Robert Fulgham. Not only did Fulgham err on the dates by twenty years, he seemed to be stating that Higley was newly wed when he wrote the song. In fact, he was still married to his fourth wife, whom he had deserted just that year in Indiana. She finally divorced him (in absentia) in 1875. Higley remarried in 1876, five years after he wrote the poem.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: open mike
Date: 29 May 09 - 10:34 PM

i do believe i head this tune on an old swedish folk song album going by the name of Hem, hem. (Home, home)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 May 09 - 08:28 PM

I think Genie is the one who gave dates of 1849 and 1859 for Higley's poem; they appear nowhere else but in her posts. Of course they are incorrect as Artful Codger points out; Dr. Higley came to Smith County in 1871.
"Western Home," with Dr. Higley's name attached appeared in the Kirwin [KS] Chief, Feb. 26, 1876 (The page is photographically reproduced in White, John I., "Git Along, Little Dogies," p. 162; Univ. Illinois Press). It is supposed to have first appeared in the 1873 Smith County Pioneer, but no copy has been located.
All this was posted in thread 6501: Origin Home On the Range
The music also appeared before the printing by Lomax, used in Goodwin's sheet music for "An Arizona Home," 1905. Research by Samuel Moenfeldt, a lawyer for Schirmer, the music publishers, obtained affidavits from many westerners that they knew the song before the Goodwins published it.
An 1885 letter written by Bob Swartz of PA, who had tried mining in Colorado, contains the lyrics to a song he claimed was his, "Colorado Home," which has words almost identical to those of the Goodwins.
The music seems to be much older than 1905, the date of the Goodwins song; Mr. Moenfeldt recorded "Western Home" as sung by Blind Clarence Harlan, who said he learned the song in 1874. White set down the music in his book, p. 163; in 3/4 time, he says it is "close enough to the well-known melody of today as to be recognizable."

Lomax claimed to have obtained the music from a Negro bartender in San Antonio, Texas; but it probably dates to Dan Kelley and the Harlan Brothers ("The Harlan Orchestra") who set Dr. Higley's poem to music in the 1873-1876 period.

These and other details in John I. White's book.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: Artful Codger
Date: 29 May 09 - 05:45 PM

The 1859 date for Higley's composition of "The Western Home"/"O give me a home" is spurious. Higley didn't move to Kansas (from Indiana) until 1871. The Solomon River and Beaver Creek (now dried up) were features of Smith County, Kansas.

Subject: Lyr Add: A HOME ON THE RANGE (Will 1909)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 May 09 - 01:59 PM

In 1909, a year or two prior to Lomax, G. F. Will published lyrics to "A Home on the Range" in Jour. American Folklore, vol. 22, no. 84, Apr-June 1909, pp. 257-258. Questioning older cowboys, Will said: almost universally known in the northwest, though most of the men knew but a few verses."
Some verses differ from those in Lomax. A couple of verses were posted in another thread, but not the complete lyrics. The variation in form shows collection from more than one source.

Lyr. Add; A HOME ON THE RANGE
Coll. of G. F. Will, 1909

1
Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus.
A home, a home where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

2
Oh, often at night when summer was bright,
Alone 'neath the stars I would stray;
I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed,
If beauty could excel that of ours.
3
Oh, I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours,
I love to hear the wild curlew scream
O'er the bluffs and high rocks where the antelope flocks
To graze on the mountain so green.
4
Oh, give me a land where bright diamond sand
Shows in the glittering stream
That glideth along like a graceful white swan,
Like a maid in a lovely day dream.
5
Oh, give me a gale with an orbitual wail,
Where life in its streams busily flow
On the banks of the Platte River,
Where seldom is ever
The poisonous syrangias grow;
Where the air is so pure, the breezes so free,
The zephyrs so balmy at night,
I would not exchange my home on the range
For another, be it ever so bright.
6
The prairie all checkered with buffalo paths,
Where once they roamed proudly to and fro;
But now they've grown dim
Where hunters have been,
And the cowboys have laid them so low.
The red-men pressed in these parts of the West,
And likely they ne'er will return,
For the farmers they start in search of those parts
Whenever the story they learn.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Oct 02 - 01:36 PM

It is apparent from recent postings by Greenhaus and Offer that the DT attributions will never be a source of accurate information. It is a waste of time to attempt to correct or update them.
It would be better to remove all attributions from versions given in the DT than to continue to mislead the user.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 11:37 PM

Gee, I've never encountered so many Kanasans before in my life, and they're all ganging up on ME!

Well, we still haven't resolved the note from Lomax that says it was heard sung in 1867, even id we DID hear some disparaging remarks about the scholarship of the Lomax books.
I'd guess it's safe to say that the authorship is "disputed."
Now, go ahead and dispute THAT!


...interesting discussion, though.
Kansas is one of the five states in the U.S. I haven't visited. Guess I'd better not go, huh?
Gosh, Toto....


-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: Genie
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 11:09 PM

Joe, having read the various Mudcat threads on this song, as well as quite a few articles and clips from other websites (e.g.,  the U. Kans. site) and other sources, I would agree that "Home On The Range," as it is usually sung today:
¥ is (or should be) in public domain, due to its age,
¥ has been subject to the folk process over a number of decades,
¥ has verse variations that may have been composed by several of those who have laid claim to authorship, and
¥ is not exactly Dr. Higley's poem or the song it became when Kelley put it to music.
but
¥ calling the song "traditional" or crediting someone other than Higley/Kelley with its sole authorship is outrageous.

At the very least, it would seem that the credits should say something like "based on a poem by Dr. Brewster Higley and music by Dan Kelley ca. 1873," and then mention the authorship of other verses, if any, which were not derived from that work.  I have yet to see anything in these various sources that convinces me that the official Kansas story of the song's authorship is fabricated or based on unsubstantiated rumor.

As "Guest" said, "...it is obvious that the author [of the original poem] is Dr. Brewster Higley ...and... The Harlan Bros. and Dan Kell[e]y wrote the tune."

Genie

BTW, Joe, you said, "My copy of the John Lomax book Cowboy Songs is 1916, and the words are exactly what we sing today."  FWIW, I don't think I have ever seen  two printings of the song that had more than the first verse and chorus which gave exactly the same words.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 04:14 PM

Gargoyle, thanks for filling in the story given by Vance Randolph. The "Official Story" is given at the University of Kansas site (clickee in my post of 17 Sep 02 08:36 PM).
Sigmund Spaeth wrote indiscriminately on all kinds of music- symphonic, popular, folk, black, barbershop- you name it! He put out Guides and histories (such as his "Guide to Great Orchestral Music") and wrote for the popular magazines of the day, as well as appearing on radio.
He championed the cause of Bob Swartz as composer of "Colorado Home" and thus the originator of "Home on the Range." The appearance of the song in the 1876 Kirwin Chief put an end to the arguments.
Much of his information was taken from clippings and compilations made for him by others. He did little digging on his own. His omnipresence built a reputation, but because of his shallow investigations, some of what he published was misinformed.
His work pushing music appreciation- lectures at schools, programs on NBC radio, and his writings- did much good, and made him an important figure in music education. It was the details of music history that detracted to some extent from his efforts; they were often "off the cuff."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 03:45 PM

Verses not listed in previous thread postings:

OZARK FOLKSONGS Volume II. Songs of the South and West – Collected and Edited by Vance Randolph (Revised Edition) University of Missouri Press Columbia and London, 1980, No. 193 "Home on the Range" pp 212-212.

From Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, Springfield, Mo., Apr. 26, 1938. Mrs. McCord learned the song in Galena, Mo., in 1899.

Oh give me a land on the bright shining sand,
Where the buffalo roams on the plain,
I'll bridle my roan, I'll find me a home,
An' I'll ride in my saddle again.

Oh give me a jail where I can get bail,
Out under the hot shining sun,
I'll wake with the dwan, I'll chase the wild fawn,
I'll ride with my saddle an' gun.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 03:29 PM

Correction to the above - should be:

pp 210-213

Italics should be on titles only in the last paragraph

Sincerely,

Gargoyle

I will learn to use the preview and turn off the automatic in the future. Sorry.

---

Corrections noted and changed made. Nice piece of work, Gargoyle.
Are you from Kansas, too? [grin]
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 03:23 PM

OZARK FOLKSONGS Volume II. Songs of the South and West – Collected and Edited by Vance Randolph (Revised Edition) University of Missouri Press Columbia and London, 1980, No. 193 "Home on the Range" pp 210-213.

This piece, under various title, was known all over the Southwest in the 80's and 90's. It was printed in many newspapers and cheap songbooks, and one version was copyrighted by Balmer and Weber in 1905, credited to William and Mary Goodwin. Almost forgotten by 1930, "Home on the Range" was suddenly revived in 1932, and some of the revivers made a great deal of money. In 1934 Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin filed suit in New York against music publishers, movies companies and broadcasting chains, claiming half a million dollars damages. Mr. Samuel; Moanfieldt, a defense attorney, established the fact that the verses were written by Dr. Brewster Higley, of Smith Center, Dan., in 1873. The words have been set to several different melodies, but the original tune was supplied by Dan Kelley, on of Dr. Higley's neighbors.

A different story was back by Sigmund Spaeth, who wrote (Life 102, June 1935, p. 23) "It seems to have been proved that the original 'Home on the Range' was . . . written in 1885 by C.O. Swartz, Bill McCabe, Bingham Graves and other prospectors in a cabin near Leadville, Colorado . . . Swartz probably wrote the tune." The controversy was reviewed in "Frontier Times, Bandera, Tex., 13, Apr. 1936, pp. 367-368, and has recently been revived: Spaeth (Rotarian 67, Nov. 1945, p. 27) gives credit to the late Kenneth S. Clark of Princeton for digging up the story, and prints a page from a letter written by Swartz to his sister, giving the circumstances of composition and the words of the song. The Higly supporters rise up in protest in the January 1946 issue of the Rotarian, to which Spaeth retaliates in the February number that he will change his story if documentary evidence of Higley's composition can be produced (either the original or a photostat of the words as they appeared the Smith Center Pioneer in 1874). Homer Croy (Corn Country, 1947, pp. 164-180) devotes a whole cheaper to the story of "Home on the Range." He interviewed Dr. Higley's son at Shawnee, Okla., where the doctor died in 1911.

"Home on the Range has been recorded from oral tradition by Cook (The Border and the Buffalo, 1907, pp. 292-293, G. F. Will (JAFL 22, 1909, pp. 257-258), Lomax (Cowboy Songs 1910, pp. 39-43), Larkin (Singing Cowboy 1931, pp. 171-173). A.B. Macdonald (Kansas City Star, Oct. 25, 1936, p.4) prints seven stanzas of the original text ascribed to Dr. Higley. Spaeth concluded his article (Rotarian 67, Nov. 1945, p.27) by setting down two verses new to him from a contributor in Huron, South Dakota.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 01:13 PM

Jules Verne Allen's recording of "Home on the Range" was originally issued as Victor 21627 in 1928. The Montgomery Ward recording on Honkingduck is a re-issue (see post by Masato, above). Many of Montgomery Ward's recordings were re-issues of Victor originals.

Another claimant to authorship was C. O. (Bob) Swartz. He wrote to John White that he and two fellow miners wrote the song in 1885. White wrote in "Git Along, Little Dogies" that a sister has a dated letter from him (1885) in which he put down the lyrics of a song he called "Colorado Home." This is identical to the Goodwins' song, except for the last two lines:
Where dance halls come first and faro banks burst,
And every saloon is a dive.

This is interesting for the fact that the Rocky Mountains are the area involved, and the date is earlier than the Goodwins' claim. This would explain the lines in Goodwins' song about the Rocky Mts. and the sick camp on the hot springs on the Grande, a region to the east of Arizona. In other words, Higley to Swartz to Goodwin. (John I. White, "Git Along Little Dogies," 1975, pp. 158-160, University of Illinois Press.
The Swartz song was copyrighted in 1934 by Paull-Pioneer Music Co. The colorful sheet music includes a reproduction of "the original manuscript, a picture of Leadville, CO with the cabin marked where the song was written, and a picture of a dapper Bob Swartz, looking every inch the model (and well-to-do!!) prospector.

Yes, the Goodwins lost. Their lawyer threw in the towel when a copy of Higley's poem from 1876 showed up.

It is obvious that the author is Dr. Brewster Higley. Every citizen of Kansas will defend this claim. The Harlan Bros. and Dan Kelly wrote the tune.
Joe Offer, your dispute of this legitimate claim is a burr under the saddle of every loyal Kansan. They will no doubt demand to meet you on the streets of Dodge City, in front of the Long Branch, for satisfaction. (The trip to Boot Hill will be furnished free of charge)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST,Joe Offer
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 03:28 PM

Well, in my opinion, we've proved that the Digital Tradition is right in not giving attribution to the Digital Tradition. Seems to me, it's a true folk song, albeit relatively recent in origin. While Higley may (or may not) have written the original text, somebody else added a tune; and the song evolved significantly up to the point where Lomax published it in the 19-teens. My copy of the John Lomax book Cowboy Songs is 1916, and the words are exactly what we sing today.

All those names in the history of the development of the song are interesting (fascinating, in fact) - but what we have now is a product of the culture, something that is rightfully in the public domain.

I suppose Bill Kennedy won't like it, but that's my opinion.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 02:44 PM

The Goodwins lost their lawsuit (and their claim to copyright on the song)when the earlier Higley/Kelley manuscript (reprint?) was found, didn't they?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 02:11 PM

Several people innocently got involved in the suit brought by the Goodwins over the "Home On The Range" copyright. One was John I. White, author of "Git Along Little Dogies." In 1929, with George Shackley, he brought out a folio, "The Lonesome Cowboy: Songs of the Plains and the Hills," which included the song. It was copyrighted by the publisher. In 1930, the copyright was assigned to George T. Worth and Co. In 1932, Worth issued "Home On the Range" in sheet music, crediting White with the musical arrangement. In 1934, the Goodwins included White in their list of copyright infringers. John I. White, 1975, "Git Along, Little Dogies," p. 155.

The songbook, "The Lonesome Cowboy," 1930, contained 20 songs, paperbound. At present, copies cost $25 to $75 depending on condition.

The sheet music to Goodwins' "An Arizone Home" was copyrighted in 1905 by the Balmer & Weber Music House of St. Louis. Mary Goodwin was credited with the melody.

In 1906, the song, "In Dear Old Arizona," by George Botsford, was published by American Advance Music Co. It bears no relationship to "Arizona Home" by the Goodwins. A copy can be found at American Memory.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Oct 02 - 03:11 PM

HOME ON THE RANGE (William and Mary Goodwin, 1904)

Oh, give me a home where the bufalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
There seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Chorus:
A home, a home
Where the deer and the antelope play,
There seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Yes, give me the gleam of the
swift mountain stream
And the place where no hurricane blows;
Oh, give me the park where the prairie dogs bark
And the mountain all covered with snow.

Oh, give me the hills and the ring of the drills
And the rich silver ore in the ground;
Yes, give me the gulch where the miner can sluice
And the bright, yellow gold can be found.

Oh, give me the mine where the prospectors find
The gold in its own native land;
And the hot springs below where the sick people go
And camp on the banks of the Grande.

Oh, give me the steed and the gun that I need
To shoot game for my own cabin home;
Then give me the camp where the fire is the lamp
And the wild Rocky Mountains to roam.

Yes give me the home where the prospectors roam
Their business is always alive
In these wild western hills
Midst the ring of the drills
Oh, there let me live till I die.

This is a song that evokes the mining days in the west. It is not set in Arizona. The Rocky Mountains are mentioned; this moves the locale east to the New Mexico-Colorado region and north. "The hot springs below where the sick people go And camp on the banks of the Grande seems to refer to the hot springs on the Rio Grande Canyon in New Mexico between Santa Fe and Taos. The drills and the sluices were active in both states (as they became in 1912) as well as elsewhere in the west.
This version should not be neglected just because of the copyright fight which was waged over the song. I wonder if there is still another version with words more exclusive to Arizona, thus the name "Arizona Home" which has been applied in some references to the song.

Sheet music for a setting by Austin E. and Alta S. Fife of the 1876 version, and for the 1910 version may be found at Home on the Range
The 1910 text of Lomax is also given. "American Folk Music: Oral Tradition to Choral Art", an essay by Thomas J. Porter, Bismarck state College, ND, is also on the website.

Note: In the third verse of the Higley (1876) song, the second line is given as "Where the life streams with buoyancy flow. This is better grammar than that in the 1876 version from the Kirwin "Chief" as posted by Dicho and by Masato.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Oct 02 - 11:17 AM

Jules Allen (The Singing Cowboy) sang "Home on the Range" with a different tune. His recording (Montgomery Ward M-4343; issued November 1933) is at Honkingduck).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 12:03 PM

Crosby.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 12:02 PM

Listen to different versions at NPR's Present at the Creation: Home on the Range: Vernon Dalhart (1927), James Richardson (1939), Gene Autry (1943), Frank Sinatra (1946), and Central Heights Elementary Chorus (2002). Moreover, Paul Brown performed the song "as it probably sounded when Dan Kelley first put Dr. Brewster Higley's poem 'My Western Home' to music." According to Meade et al.'s Country Music Resources (p. 395), Dalhart's recording ("A Home On The Range," rec. 04/02/1927) is the earliest, and resembles the original version.

Bing Crosy's is HERE.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST,Bill kennedy
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 09:25 AM

have to say I checked the forum before I posted this thread to see if there had been any discussion in the last 3 years, came up nil. Checked the threads that came up in the regular forum and none seemed to deal with attribution, so I began the thread, sorry if it covers old ground, but good to get a study thread started, I think, thanks Joe for picking it up as such.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 08:04 AM

Thanks, GUEST & Stewie.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 02:51 AM

Masato, in your posting above of the original poem, you have 'Forever in assure so bright' for the second last line. It should read 'Forever in azures so bright' - Dicho had it correctly in the other thread. See White p164.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 11:45 PM

My tendency would be to combine. So many threads already. Often one long thread and others with just a few items.
Put 6501 and 51550 together and you have just about all the material for a study thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 11:05 PM

Yeah, it looks like the previous thread covered the issue quite well. It's best to use the filter to check for previous threads on a subject. This thread should have been part of the previous one.
-Joe Offer-

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Click for closely-related thread

---

Think I should combine the threads?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 10:56 PM

Masato, we are re-plowing an old field.
The "Western Home" in the Kirwin Chief, 1876, reproduced from White, with the note on "here to range" was posted 30 Mar 02 in thread 6501 by Dicho. Just 5 1/2 months ago. Along with the rest of the stuff here. Just shows that searches through threads of the last two years are too difficult to carry out.

Subject: Lyr Add: WESTERN HOME (Higley)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 09:57 PM

The Kirwin Chief (Kirwin, Kansas; vol. 3, no. 14, Feb. 26, 1876) version (from the photo of the page in John I. White, Git Along, Little Dogies, p. 162; text only) [Note the line "I would not exchange my home here to range" in the last stanza]:

Western Home
By Dr. Higley

Oh! give me a home where the Buffalo roam.
Where the Deer and the Antelope play;
Where never is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not clouded all day.
[Chorus] A home! A home!
Where the Deer and the Antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not clouded all day

Oh! give me land the land where the bright diamond sand,
Throws its light from the glittering streams,
Where glideth along the graceful white swan,
Like the maid in her heavenly dreams.
[Chorus] A home! A home!

Oh! give me a gale of the Solomon vale,
Where the life stream with buoyancy flow;
Or the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever,
Any poisonous herbage doth grow.
[Chorus] A home! A home!

How often at night, when the heavens were bright,
With the light of the twinkling stars.
Have I stood here amazed, and asked as I gazed,
If their glory exceed that of ours.
[Chorus] A home! A home!

I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours,
I love the wild curlerw's shrill scream;
The bluffs and white rocks, and antelope flocks,
That graze on the mountains so green.
[Chorus] A home! A home!

The air is so pure and the breezes so free,
The zephyrs so balmy and light;
That I would not exchange my home here to range,
Forever in assure so bright.
[Chorus] A home! A home!

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 09:55 PM

I don't believe that a copy of the Smith County Pioneer 1873 which supposedly had the poem has ever been found. The attorney Moanfeldt only found a "reprint," which he could not use in evidence. Only the 1876 copy remains.
Genie and others have posted all this material in thread 6501, see clickie Home, in a post above.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 09:31 PM

" A Home On The Range." John A. Lomax, 1910, "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads." Lomax publishes words and music without comment.
"A Home On The Range." John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, 1938, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads." "A Negro saloon keeper in San Antonio gave me the music to "Home On The Range" as herein reprinted. The words are also identical with the version of "Cowboy Songs," 1910. They were assembled from several sources and have since often been pirated."
By 1947, John and Alan Lomax published the considerably embellished story, as given by Joe Offer above. Apparently this was the first mention of a recording. The statement that the verses "were assembled from several sources" was dropped. In 1938 he said the music came from the Negro saloon keeper; in 1947 he said a blind music teacher set it down.

All of this is long after the publication of the words in the Kirwin Chief (Feb. 26, 1876), one of the little papers read and reread on the plains.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 08:49 PM

OK, now here's the entry on "Home on the Range" from Fuld's Book of World-Famous Music (1965):

m. Daniel E. Kelley. w. Dr. Brewster M. Higley.
The words were probably first published in the Dec., 1873, issue of The Smith County (Kansas) Pioneer under the title, "Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam," according to the Feb. 19, 1914, issue of the same newspaper (which reprinted the poem). [Kansas State Historical Society - KSHS].
The words were next probably printed under the title "Western Home," in the March 21, 1874, issue of the Kirwin (Kansas) Chief, according to the Feb. 26, 1876, issue of the newspaper (which reprinted the poem). KSHS. This 1876 newspaper disproves the claim that the song was first composed in 1885 under the title Colorado Home.
The music (and words) were first published under the title "An Arizona Home," with the music ascribed to W. M. Goodwin and the words to Wm. Goodwin. The copyright deposit copy at the Library of Congress states that it was copyrighted 1904, but in a later lawsuit it appeared that it was copyrighted Feb. 27, 1905, and the copyright copy was deposited on the later date.
First edition: The publisher is Balmer & Weber Music House Co., St. Louis. Front cover has a drawing of a cowboy and girl, and is green, blue and white. p. [2] blank. m. on pp. 3—5. p.n. 5401-4. pp. [6], [71 and back cover are blank. [Library of Congress(CDC)]
The words of "Home on the Range" were then included in G. F. Will, "Songs of the Western Cowboys" in Journal of American Folklore, Boston and New York, N.Y., April—June, 1909, p. 257; ULS, p. 1435. The words and music were then included in John A. Lomax, Cowboy Songs (New York, N.Y., 1910), p. 41; NYPL and JF.
The fascinating story of how a supposed folk song was tracked down to its lyricist, composer, date of composition and date of first publication is best described in Kirke Mechem, "Home on the Range," in the Kansas Historical Quarterly (Nov 1949). The words and music were written in 1872 or early 1873 in Smith County, Kansas, and the song is now the official Kansas State Song. Kelley was a musician and entertainer who was born in North Kingston, R.I., in 1843 and who died in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1905. Higley was a pioneer doctor who was born in Rutland, Ohio, in 1823 and who died in Shawnee, Okia., in 1911.

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So, I guess I agree that the Higley attribution is plausible (there's that word again)- but Lomax apparently wasn't completely convinced. Of course, many people aren't convinced that Lomax is plausible.
-Joe Offer-

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Bill Kennedy - what is the source of the lyrics and attribution information you posted? In this sort of situation, it is far more important to cite your source of information, rather than to post unattributed information that you contend to be factual. I take it that you got the information from this fascinating Home on the Range Website.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 08:36 PM

1. Wild curlew's scream is correct. There is an error in the lyrics given on the Univ. Kansas site. Western Home

The first public performance of the song was in 1873. The poem on which it is based had been written sometime before, but the date is uncertain (perhaps 1871, perhaps earlier).
As Bill Kennedy stated, the words are those of the first singing in 1873; the refrain was added, the first line was changed, and there may have been other minor changes to the original Higley poem. This was the first performance as a SONG, so it is the date of its origin. But read the story on the University of Kansas site. Higley was not a good poet, so other later changes, additions and deletions have probably done little harm.

It is becoming a lot of trouble to go back to previous postings unless you keep notes. I have a note that the thread was 6501 Home but if that is where Kennedy's submission is, I am not sure (too much screen juggling for a luddite). With the number of new postings asking for information about songs that were discussed in earlier threads, some by people who have been around for some time, it is obvious that searching is troublesome for occasional users.

Bill, you may not live to see the attribution posted, but those who give a damn can more easily find the Kansas site.

Subject: ADD Version: Home on the Range
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 07:46 PM

Here is the version from the John Lomax book Cowboy Songs (and other Frontier Ballads), 1916 edition. Lomax did not document his source.

A HOME ON THE RANGE

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all of the cities so bright.

The red man was pressed from this part of the West,
He's likely no more to return
To the banks of Red River where seldom if ever
Their flickering camp-fires burn.

How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light from the glittering stars,
Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.

Oh, I love these wild flowers in this dear land of ours,
The curlew I love to hear scream,
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks
That graze on the mountain-tops green.

Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Flows leisurely down the stream;
Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along
Like a maid in a heavenly dream.

Then I would not exchange my home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

The John & Alan Lomax book Best Loved American Folk Songs (1947) has essentially the same lyrics, but with the "diamond sand" verse omitted. The notes, however, are quite interesting:

62. HOME ON THE RANGE

One day in 1908 I walked into the Buckhorn Saloon in San Antonio lugging a heavy Edison recording machine. It was the earliest, crudest type of dictaphone, requiring for its operation earphones and a large five-foot horn. The amazed German proprietor stared at my strange equipment and hastily put his hand under the counter where he was supposed to keep his arsenal of democracy. When I told him I was looking for cowboy songs, his face relaxed. He seemed to feel safe, though not entirely satisfied. He kept looking furtively at the unwieldly big-mouthed horn as though he feared it might be a gun. My friend, the proprietor, had two fads: it was said that festooned on the walls of his saloon hung the world’s largest collection of horns; he was likewise interested in ballads. I had come to the right place.
He told me of a Negro singer who ran a beer saloon out beyond the Southern Pacific depot, in a scrubby mesquite grove. This Negro had been a chuck-wagon cook for years and had made the trip up the Chisholm Trail half a dozen times. He sang many cowboy songs. I found my man behind his saloon shack with his hat drawn down over his eyes, his head tilted back against a mesquite tree. When I shook him awake and told him what I wanted, he muttered as he looked at me with bloodshot eyes, "I'se drunk, I’se drunk, come back tomorrow and I’ll sing for you."
I spent all the next day under the mesquite with this Negro. Among the songs he sang for me was "Home on the Range." From the record- ing I made that day down in the redlight district (they used stolen switch-lanterns to advertise the trade), Henry Leberman, a blind teacher of music, a few weeks afterward set down the music. This version, printed in the 1910 edition of Cowboy Songs, makes up the core of the tune that has become popular in this country and is sung throughout the English-speaking world. Mr. Leberman used earphones and played the old-fashioned cylinder records over and over again until he felt sure that he had captured the music as the Negro saloon-keeper had rendered it.
In 1925, Oscar J. Fox of San Antonio put the song into sheet-music form. Five years afterward, David Guion of Dallas followed with a slightly different arrangement. During the next six years eight other publishers of music issued the song with some variations. In 1933 the radio people took it up. For two or three years afterwards, “Home on the Range” was broadcast nightly by all of the big networks. It became known that it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s favorite song.
Suddenly radio stations in the United States were warned not to include “Home on the Range” on their programs. A suit for infringement of copyright had been filed in the courts of New York against thirty-five individuals and corporations for a cool half a million dollars. The claimants brought forth a copyright version of “Home on the Range,” dated 1905, the music of which was similar to the current tune. A clever New York attorney, however, managed to locate in Smith Center, Kansas, eighty-six year old Clarence Harlan and his wife who made affidavit that in 1874 they had learned the song under the title of “The Western Home.” The old couple recorded their early version of “Home on the Range” on phonograph records. The lawyer exhibited his new evidence to the plaintiff’s attorney. The suit was dropped and the song was established in the public domain.
Homer Croy has gone further into the Kansas origin of “Home on the Range” in his book, “Corn Country.” He tells of his visit to Smith Center, where old timers reminisced about Bruce Higley, the “writing doctor,” who came out to Kansas from Indiana to escape a termagant wife and homesteaded in a little cabin on the banks of Beaver Creek. Higley farmed a little, doctored his sod-buster neighbors and wrote a lot of verse.
One evening, as he waited for a deer to stick its head up along the breaks of the Beaver, an idea for a poem came to him and he scribbled down the first rough version of “Home on the Range.”

O give me the gale of the Solomon Vale,
Where light streams with buoyancy flow;
On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever,
Any poisonous herbage doth grow.

Time has dealt kindly with this crude poem. The folk have rubbed off its rough edges and improved the poesy. Time has turned the Higley cabin into a henhouse and filled the once-clear Beaver with sand and gravel. Higley, himself, moved to Shawnee, Oklahoma, where he died in 1911, a year after I published the Texas version of “Home on the Range” in my first book of cowboy songs.
When I read Mr. Croy’s story, I turned to my files. A folklorist learns to be skeptical of any story of “ultimate origins.” There I found a letter which stated that “Home on the Range” was sung in Texas in 1867. Where will the trail end? My guess is that it goes far back beyond Kansas and Texas, as well, into the big songbag which the folk have held in common for centuries.

Subject: ZDTStudy: HOME ON THE RANGE
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 07:29 PM

Hmmmm. Looks like we'd better do a DTStudy on this one, too. Here's the Digital Tradition text, along with the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index.
-Joe Offer-

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HOME ON THE RANGE

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the lights from the glittering stars
Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.

CHORUS

Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Flows leisurely down the stream;
There the graceful, white swan goes gliding along
Like a maid in a heavenly dream.

CHORUS

Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all of the cities so bright.

CHORUS

Oh, I love those wild flowers in this dear land of ours,
The curlew I love to hear scream,
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks
That graze on the mountain tops green.

CHORUS
-----------------------------------------------------------------

This song, according to John Lomax, was first printed in 1911,
and for twenty years attracted practically no attention. It is
said to have been sung on the doorstep of Franklin D. Roosevelt's
home by a group of newspaper reporters the night he was first
elected President.
@cowboy
filename[ HOMERANG
RG

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PLEASE NOTE: Because of the volunteer nature of The Digital Tradition, it is difficult to ensure proper attribution and copyright information for every song included. Please assume that any song which lists a composer is copyrighted ©. You MUST aquire proper license before using these songs for ANY commercial purpose. If you have any additional information or corrections to the credit or copyright information included, please e-mail those additions or corrections to us (along with the song title as indexed) so that we can update the database as soon as possible. Thank You.

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Home on the Range

DESCRIPTION: "Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam...." The singer praises the land of the west, "Where the sky is not cloudy all day." Details vary from version to version, and besides, you all know the song anyway....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Kirwin Chief)
KEYWORDS: cowboy home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 193, "Home on the Range" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 62, "Home on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 108, "Home on the Range" (3 texts, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 26, "Home On The Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 49, "Home on the Range" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 178-179, "Home on the Range" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 273-274, "Home on the Range"
DT, HOMERANG
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Home On The Range" (Victor 21627, 1928)
Ken Maynard, "Home on the Range" (Columbia test recording, c. 1930; on MakeMe, WhenIWas2)
Pete Seeger, "Home on the Range" (on PeteSeeger17)
SAME TUNE:
Toys, Beautiful Toys (Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 32-33)
Alaska: Home on the Snow (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 243)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Western Home
Arizona Home
Notes: Various candidates have been proposed as the author of this piece, e.g. Daniel Kelley and Dr. Brewster Higley (1873; for this story, see Fuld), "C.O. Swartz... and other prospectors" (1885), and probably others. Given the feel of the piece, it seems likely that there is only a single author -- but I'd have a hard time saying WHICH single author.
Various adaptions have been published over the years, e.g. "Arizona Home" by William and Mary Goodwin (1904), but none depart far from the original form. - RBW
File: R193

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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 06:38 PM

The questioned lines would be "the wild curlew's scream", I think. It's a bird.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Home on the Range & Attribution
From: GUEST,Genie
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 05:02 PM

Bill, please check the information given and linked to in the previous Home On The Range threads. I am pretty sure, from having looked up a number of sources, that Higley wrote the poem around 1859, and there was originally no chorus.

It would be nice to get proper attribution in the DT, but lets try to have the dates right if we can.

Genie

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WESTERN HOME
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 04:56 PM

well I mentioned it in another thread, than checked, it is not attributed in the old DT, don't know if that is corrected in the new DT. Poem was written by Dr. Brewster Higley in 1871. Music was added by the Harlan Bros. in 1873.

Here are the originated words that Clarence (Cal), Eugene (Gene) Harlan and Dan Kelley came up with on their first singing on April-1873, with young Virgie Harlan.

The Western Home

Oh, give me a home
Where the buffalo roam
Where the deer and the antelope play'
Where seldom is heard
A discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

"Chorus"
A home, a home
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where never is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Oh, give me land the land
There the bright diamond sand
Throws its light on the glittering stream
Where glideth along
The graceful white swam
Like a maid in her heavenly dream.

Chorus

Oh, give me the gale
Of the Solomon vale
Where the life stream of buoyancy flows
On the banks of the Beaver
Where seldom, if ever
Any poisonous herbage doth grow.

chorus

I love the wild flowers
In this bright land of ours,
I love, too, the wild curler's scream
The bluffs and white rocks
And antelope flocks,
That graze on the mountain so green.

A home, a home
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where never is heard
A discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

How often at night
When the heavens were bright
By the light of the twinkling stars,
Have I stood here amazed
And asked as I gazed
If there glory exceeds that of ours.

chorus

The air is so clear,
The breeze so pure,
The zephyr so balmy and light;
I would not exchange
My home here on range
Forever in assure so bright.

chorus

A home, a home
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where never is heard
A discouraging word
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

the info given re:Lomax and Roosevelt is correct as far as it goes, but if as Joe says the DT is not the place for comments about the songs, why include these commets instead of the attribution to the author of the song?

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