Depressive ghost songs

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 07:15 PM

Me Mammy killed me,
Me Daddy ate me,
Me sister Mary picket ma banes
And buried me neath twa marble stanes
And I grew and I grew intil a bonny wee doo-doo.

The late, great Stanley Robertson sang this to me one night in a kitchen some place as part of a long rambling story. Afterwards he said ; 'Ye'll forget the story in a day or twa but ye'll have the song wi ye the rest o' yer life."

That was over 20 years ago. Once heard, never forgotten. Doo-doo is a dove.

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Thompson
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 06:37 PM

What's that English song that starts "My mother killed me, my father…" Can't remember what the rest of the atrocities were.

And there's a really depressing Irish one that The Voice Squad used to sing, The Brown and the Yellow Ale, about, if I remember it rightly, a man who had mistakenly offered his young wife to someone else with unfortunate results. And they sing one about sleeping on a dead lover's grave. And doesn't The Lass of Aughrim end up with her deaded by Lord Gregory's disapproving mother who leaves her out in the snow and the rain with her yellow hair and her babby?

Subject: Lyr Add: BLUE GHOST BLUES (Lonnie Johnson)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 05:45 PM

This song is also about depression and anxiety, but it evolves toward a more conventional ghost story, especially in the second version, where Johnson mentions his dead lover.


BLUE GHOST BLUES
As recorded by Lonnie Johnson

I. 1927 recording:

Mmm, I feel myself sinkin' down. (2x)
My body is freezin'; I feel something cold creeping around.

My windows is rattlin', my doorknob turnin' round and round. (2x)
This haunted house blues is killin' me; I feel myself sinkin' down.

I been fasten' in this haunted house six long months today. (2x)
The blue ghost is got the house surrounded, Lord, and I can't get away.

They got shotguns and pistols standin' all 'round my door. (2x)
They haunt me all night long so I can't sleep no more.

The blue ghost haunts me all night; the nightmare ride me all night long. (2x)
They worry me so in this haunted house, I wisht I were dead and gone.

II. 1938 recording:

Mmm, something cold is creeping around. (2x)
Blue ghost is got me; I feel myself sinkin' down.

Black cat and a owl come to keep my company. (2x)
They understands my troubles, mmm, and sympathize with me.

I been in this haunted house for three long years today. (2x)
Blue ghost has got my shack surrounded, O Lord, and I can't get away.

I feel cold arms around me and ice lips upon my cheek. (2x)
My lover is dead; how plainly plain-like I can hear her speak.

My windows begin rattlin'; my doorknob is turnin' round and round.
My windows is rattlin'; doorknob is turnin' round and round.
My lover's ghost is got me, and I know my time won't be long.


[Walter Davis also recorded a song with this title, but I haven't heard it.]

Subject: Lyr Add: BLACK GHOST BLUES (Lightnin' Hopkins)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 04:09 PM

Different song, same title, same metaphor:


BLACK GHOST BLUES
As recorded by Lightnin' Hopkins on "Double Blues" (1989) and "Soul Blues" (1991)

Black ghost, black ghost, please stay 'way from my door.
Black ghost, black ghost, will you please stay 'way from my door?
Yeah, you worry poor Lightnin' so now, I just can't sleep no more.

Yeah, when I go to dreamin' first night, black ghost is all poor Lightnin' can see.
I go to dreamin' first night, black ghost is all poor Lightnin' can see.
You know that's why I begin to wonder why you keeps on worryin' me.

Black ghost is a picture, and a black ghost is a shadow, too.
Whoa, a black ghost is a picture, and a black ghost is a shadow, too.
You just can see'm but you can't hear'm talk; ain't nothin' else that a black ghost can do.

Subject: Lyr Add: BLACK GHOST BLUES (from Merline Johnson)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 03:54 PM

Maybe this isn't what the original poster had in mind, but in this song, the "ghost" seems to be a metaphor for depression itself.


BLACK GHOST BLUES
As recorded by Merline Johnson, "The Yas Yas Girl," 1940.

Ev'ry time I go to sleep, a black ghost would come to me. (2x)
That's why I'm blue, blue as I can be.

I had a dream last night that the black ghost was knockin' on my door. (2x)
He said he come to tell me my man didn't want me no more.

Go away, mister black ghost; please don't bring me no news, (2x)
Because I don't want to have these mean old black ghost blues.

Black ghost, black ghost, you calls me all the time. (2x)
Won't you please stay away, so I can help this man of mine.

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 03 Oct 02 - 01:48 PM

For a couple of longer sets -with tunes- see the DT files  LOST JIMMY WHELAN 2   and   LOST JIMMY WHELAN

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Art Thieme
Date: 03 Oct 02 - 01:40 PM

I forgot this verse:

And cold were the arms that encircled around her,
And cold was the bobom she pressed to her heart,
"One fond embrace, love, and then I must leave you,
One lovinv kiss, and then we must part."

sorry (Art)

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Art Thieme
Date: 03 Oct 02 - 01:36 PM

"The Lost Jimmy Whalen"

Possibly the most vivid ghost song ever me thinks.

After the death her love in an American lumber camp drowning, she is so distraught while walking by the river crying that her intense emotion brings the shade of James Whalen to the surface and into her embrace---for one last moment. ("The Death Of James Whalen" is a whole other song recounting how he died.)

In part it reads:

And then there arose from the depths of the river,
A vision of beauty as bright as the sun,
With robes of red crimson encirclin' around him,
And unto this fair maid to speak he begun.

"Why have you called me from the realms of glory,
All back to this cold world. We'll soon have to part."
"Just to have you embrace me once more in your arms, love.
Oh, press me, dear Jimmy, press me to your heart."

And then this young man he seemed for to vanish,
And into the clouds he was seen for to go,
Leaving this fair one alone and distracted,
Weeping and wailing with tears and with woe...

Anbd throwing herself on the banks of the river,
And weeping as though her poor heart it would break,
Oh, my dearest, my darling, my lost Jimmy Whalen,
I will sigh 'til I die by the side of your grave."

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: GUEST,Baillie
Date: 03 Oct 02 - 04:58 AM

Malcolm Douglas, thanks for the mention about the bodleian website! marvellous!!! well worth looking at!

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 07:54 PM

Yes, I've always liked that one. For Baillie's benefit, a broadside edition of Grim King of the Hosts can be seen at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

The lunatick lover: or, The young man's call to grim King of the ghosts for cure Printed c.1700 for J. Walter, at the Golden Ball in Pye-Corner [London].

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 07:25 PM

Has 'Willie's Fatal Visit' (Child #255) been mentioned? Where the culprit gets torn apart by the ghost of his scorned lover? Gruesome!

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: GUEST,MAG at work
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 05:31 PM

"Rolling of the Stones" -- I'll pop off now and see if it is in the DB.

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 05:27 PM

The Grey Cock/ Lover's Ghost appears from both perspectives (he dead and she dead) in various versions.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: mmsarge
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 02:05 PM

The best ghost song I ever heard is 'Bringing Mary Home' by Red Sovine, about a little girl killed in a car accident who appears on each anniversary of her death.

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: GUEST,Baillie
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 12:09 PM

What about the song 'Grim King of the Ghosts' recorded by the 'City Waites' on their 1974 album 'A gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions'
they recorded 4 verses of a very long old ballad from the 16th century, I would love to find the rest of the verses if anyone out there has a 16th century book with the rest of the words in!

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Amergin
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 10:35 AM

here's a ghost song...not sure if it is depressing though....

Silent Voices

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Snuffy
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 08:25 AM

Sounds like The Suffolk Miracle, Joan - 3 version in DT.

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 03:18 AM

I found the text of "The Holland Hankerchief" on the Literary Gothic website, where it says the text is from the Digital Tradition - yet I can't find it in the DT! Here's the link: Holland Handkerchief.



Joan

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 10:43 PM

I have The Unquiet Grave as a man singing about the death and the ghost of his sweetheart. From A.L. Lloyd in the same set I referenced earlier.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 09:13 PM

There's the one about the handkerchief transmitted or somehow substantiated by the ghost to his former lover, while she's dreaming? I think there might be a version on The Voice of the People, but I haven't had time to check yet.

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: GUEST,Hagbardr
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 09:13 PM

One of my favorites is The Holland Handkerchief.

--Hagbardr

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: mg
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 09:07 PM

I thought the person in the unquiet grave was a woman and the man was singing. Did someone mess with this song? Or come to think of it, maybe the song doesn't say and I just assumed... mg

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 08:33 PM

Apologies for the dud link!

Lyr Add: The Grey Cock (NOT Penguin version)

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 08:30 PM

There are lots of versions of The Grey Cock, but most of them are straight "night visiting" songs, with no supernatural elements involved; such elements seem to have been borrowed from other songs, typically the Irish broadside ballad Willy O. Dave's text, posted at Lyr Add: The Grey Cock (NOT Penguin version) is, I'm afraid, the "Penguin" version with a few words changed, even if it was recorded by Bert Lloyd (who later put it into the Penguin book, of which he was one of the editors) before that book was compiled.

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 05:31 PM

Well, back to the old drawing board!   In any case, I submmitted the words to the version I sing, as a new thread.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 05:29 PM

Try this version:

Grey Cock

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 05:05 PM

The two best ghost songs I know are The Unquiet Grave and The Grey Cock. However, there's more than one Grey Cock, I find, and I don't know how I could specify to you.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Alice
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 04:50 PM

Wow, that was my first message using the make a link feature, speeding up the whole process. It is great not having to type in the line breaks, too!

Thanks for the transformed Mudcat!

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Alice
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 04:48 PM

Check out the songs here, Spooky Stories and Songs,
http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/236/spooky_stories_and_songs.html

including a song written by Mudcat's own Denise Couch of Mad Rush (Deni).... "Lord Preserve Us".

Alice

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 10:33 AM

I don't know that they're all depressing - after all in most of the "Grey Cock" and "Lover's Ghost" versions, the fellow's got a great excuse for sodding off in the morning !

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Hecate
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 10:29 AM

"Lowlands" and "She moved through the fair" are both ghost songs."The cruel mother" often has the ghostly child return to accuse the murdering parent.

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: GUEST,JB3
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 02:48 AM

"The Wife of Usher's Well," or actually, "The Lady Gay," as the version I sing is called, is quite haunting. (literally!) A mother sends her three children off to learn witchcraft, they die and come back to see her one last time, only to tell her, "Every tear that you shed for us, it wets our winding sheet." I also like "The Unquiet Grave," where the living girl haunts the dead boy's grave until he rises up to ask "Who is this sits upon my grave and will not let me sleep?" "Long Black Veil" is another instance of the living haunting the dead!

June in Houston

Subject: RE: Depressive ghost songs
From: Barry T
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 01:54 AM

Dunno if this one evokes sadness, given that it's arranged fairly up-tempo... but it's a great traditional song on a familiar theme of a lover coming back from the grave for a visit: The Ghost Lover.

Subject: Depressive ghost songs
From: GUEST,gui
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 01:38 AM

what are the saddest traditional ghost songs?

thanks.