44. The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin (Child 277)
Not old — Child's earliest recorded text is from the late eighteenth century — this ballad is a general favorite among ballad-singing folk on both sides of the water. See BSM 92, and add to the references there given Tennessee (BTFLS viii 74), Florida (FSF 322), Missouri (OFS I 187-8), and Indiana (BSI 151-4). Robert Leslie Mason has recently (SFLQ xi 134-5) reported from Tennessee a text that is a curious combination of this ballad and 'The Farmer's Curst Wife.' All of the North Carolina texts use the "Dandoo" refrain, most of them combining with it some form of the "clish-ma-clingo" refrain. There is little variation in the story content.
A. 'Danyou.' Sent in by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, in 1915 with the notation: "The above song was written down March 14 by Mrs. Ada Rayfield (formerly Miss Miller), a relative of Lorenzo Miller. Lorenzo (Ranz) Miller is the man who sings this song. He served through the Civil War in the Confederate Army, he was a fifer. Mr. Miller is still a splendid fifer and singer. He lives in the mountains east of Zionville." Some time later (1921) Mrs. Rayfield sang the ballad for Dr. Brown, enabling him to take down the tune. The intercalated refrain and the repetition of the opening line of the stanza run through the text.
1 There was an old man that lived in the West
Dan -you
There was an old man that lived in the West
And he had him a wife that was none of the best.
Um to diddle to Dan-you
2 This old man come in from the plow,
Said to his wife, 'Is dinner ready now?'
3 'There's a little piece of bread laying on the shelf;
If you want any more just get it yourself.'
4 He jumped into his sheep pen
And downed with a wether and took off its skin.
5 He tooked the sheepskin to his wife's back
And the way he made the hickory crack!
6 'I'll tell my father and brothers three
What a whipping you gave me.'
7 'I don't care if you tell your father and all your kin
How I dressed my mutton skin.'
B. 'Dandoo.' From Dean W. E. Bird, Cullowhee, Jackson county. A somewhat longer text than A, with expansion of the refrain. The manuscript has a notation that seems to mean that this song is sometimes sung with a refrain "For gentle, for Jenny, for Rosamaree," the refrain commonly used with it in New England versions.
1 There was an old man who lived in the West
Dandoo
There was an old man who lived in the West
To my clash-i me clingo
There was an old man who lived in the West,
He had an old woman who was none of the best.
Lingarum! Lingorum! Smackarorum! Curlimingorum! to my clash-i me clingo!
2 One day the old man came in from the plow,
Says, 'O my good wife, is my dinner ready now?'
3 'There's a piece of bread a-lying on the shelf.
If you want any more you can bake it yourself,'
4 I took me a knife and I went to the barn
And I cut me a hickory as long as my arm.
5 Then I went out to my sheep pen
And I grabbed me up an old sheepskin.
6 I threw that skin on my old wife's back
And with that stick I went whickety-whack.
7 'I'll tell my mother, I'll tell all my kin
How you beat me up with a hickory limb.'
8 'Go tell your mother, go tell all your kin
I was only tanning my old sheep skin.'
9 Next time the old man came in from the plow,
Says, 'O good wife, is my dinner ready now?'
10 She flew all around and she spread the board
And 'Yes, my dear husband' was her every word.
11 And ever since then she has been a good wife,
And I hope she will be to the end of her life.
C. 'Dandoo.' Record on a wax cylinder of text and music from the singing of Frank Proffitt of Sugar Grove, Watauga county, made in 1937. Substantially the same as the preceding except for the refrain, which runs as in the following opening stanza:
This good little man come in at noon
Dandoo, dandoo
This good little man come in at noon:
'Have you got my dinner soon?'
To my highland, to my lowland.
To my crish crash, to my clingo.
D. 'The Wife Wrapped in a Wether Skin.' From Miss Edith Walker of Boone, Watauga county. An abbreviated text, three stanzas, with an elaborate refrain :
There was an old man lived in the West
Dan-u dan-u.
There was an old man lived in the West
Umphy-doddle-u-dan-u.
There was an old man lived in the West.
He had him a wife, she was none of the best.
To my harem-garem-girem-larem
Umphy-doddle-u-dan-u
----------------------------------
44. The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin (Child 277) [Music from Vol. 4]
A. 'Danyou.' Sung by Mrs. Ada Rayfield. Recorded in ms score by Mrs. Rayfield at Zionville, Watauga county, March 14, 1915. For another title, coming from the folk-music of Northeastern England, 'Broom, Green Broom,' cf. FMNEE 21.
For melodic relationship cf. ***SharpK i 271-2, No. 39B; measures 1, 5, 13, 14 are identical with our fifth measure ; also 2-4 and 6 are closely related ; ibid. 274, version E and 275, No. 40A, first verse; PSL 41, measure 1. Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: abb1c (3,2,2,3). This unusual structure comes about through elision: measures 3-4 and 8-9.
C. 'Dandoo.' Sung by Frank Proffitt, with guitar. Recorded at Sugar Grove, Watauga county, in 1937. The motive of a descending fourth is quite in evidence here, as it is in all of our versions.
For melodic relationship cf. **SharpK I 271, No. 39B, measures 1-4; FSF 322, No. 172, measures 1-2. Scale: Tetratonic (2,4), plagal. Tonal Center: g. Structure aba1a2a1b1 (2,2,2, 2,2,2) =: aba1 (4,4,4).
2 He laid the hide all on her back,
Dandoo, dandoo.
He laid the hide all on her back
And the way he made that hick'ry crack
To my highland, to my lowland.
To my crish crash, to my clingo.
D. 'The Wife Wrapped in a Wether Skin.' Sung by Miss Edith Walker. Recorded at Boone, no date given. For some unknown reason, the singer repeats the first two lines before proceeding with the song as printed. In the next stanza, the singer exchanges measures 7-8 for that given in the variations below; then these eight measures are repeated. There seems to be 'method in the madness.'
Measure 12 of variation continues the same as measure 12 in stanza. Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: ababacaaic (2,2,2,2,2, 2,2,2,4) = aa1 (8,12).
D(1) 'Wife Wrapped in Weather's Skin.' Sung by Mrs. Laura B. Timmons. From the previous recording of Dr. W. A. Abrams, Boone, August 8, 1940. Observe the singular spelling of "Weather's." The constant interplay between the ascending and descending fourths should be noted. It seems to be almost a musical illustration of what is going on.
Scale: Heptachordal, plagal. Tonal Center : e-flat. Structure : abacdd1d1c1 (2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2) = ab (8,8).