Subject: Origins: Rolling Stone
From: Joe Offer
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry:
Rolling Stone, The [Laws B25]
DESCRIPTION: Hard times leave a husband wanting to move to (California/Wisconsin); his wife wishes to stay at home. She wins the argument by pointing out that they might be killed by Indians on their wayAUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-Pioneer)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes travel settler
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws B25, "The Rolling Stone"
Thompson-Pioneer 57, "Wisconsin" (1 text)
Belden, pp. 351-352, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Randolph 194, "The Rolling Stone" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 186-188, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 194A)
Fuson, p. 100, "The Stone that Is Rolling" (1 text)
FSCatskills 87, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-NewGreen, pp. 106-108, "The Wisconsin Emigrant's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-Larkin 14, "The California Song" (1 text)
Peters, p. 43, "Away to Wisconsin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard, #162, "A Rolling Stone Will Gather No Moss" (1 text)
Cohen-AFS2, pp. 428-429, "[Wisconsin] Emigrant's Song" (1 text plus an excerpt and a text of a possible English source from 1734)
Scott-BoA, pp. 161-163, "The Wisconsin Emigrant" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 387, ROLLNGST*
ADDITIONAL: David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 50-51, "Away to Wisconsin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #710
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Husband's Departure" (form, lyrics)
File: LB25
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The Ballad Index Copyright 2020 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.
THE ROLLING STONE (Digital Tradition Lyrics>
"Since the times have grown harder, I've a mind to leave home
Since the times have growed harder, my plow, drag and cart,
I will go to Wisconsin, some comfort to view,
I will double my fortune like other folks do,
While here we must labor each day in the field,
The winter destroys all the summer can yield."
"Oh husband, I've took with a sorrowful heart
Long time you've neglected your plow, drag and cart;
Your sheep are disordered [and] the land they run on,
And your new Sunday jacket goes everyday on.
Stick to your farm, and you'll suffer no loss,
[For] the stone that goes rolling will gather no moss. "
"Oh wife, let us go; don't let us stand,
I'll buy a farm all clear to my hand."
"Husband, remember the land is to clear,
'Twill cost you the labor of many long year;
There you might labor each day in the field,
And the winter will consume all the summer will yield.
Stick to your farm, and you'll suffer no loss,
[For] the stone that goes rolling will gather no moss."
"Wife, let us go; don't let us wait,
For I long to be there, and I long to be great.
You may be a rich lady, and who know but I
Might be a great Governor ere long,'fore I die."
"Husband, remember the land of delight,
'Tis surrounded by Indians and it's p'undered by night;
Your house may be plundered and burnt to the ground,
And your wife and your children lays mangled around:
Stick to your farm, and you'll suffer no loss,
The stone that goes rolling will gather no moss."
"Oh wife you've convinced me; I'll argue no more,
I never once thought of your dying before.
I love my dear children, although they are small,
It is you my dear wife, I love better than all.
I'll stay on the farm, and I'll suffer the loss,
For the stone that goes rolling will gather no moss."
From Folk Songs of the Catskills, Cazden Haufrecht and Studer
Collected from George Edwards
DT #387
Laws B25
@farm @family @pioneer
filename[ ROLLNGST
TUNE FILE: ROLLNGST
CLICK TO PLAY
RG
