702. The Little Log Cabin in the Lane
'The Little Log Cabin in the Lane.' Sung by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Turkey Creek, Buncombe county. No date given. The singer stated that this was the version his mother used to sing. Our melody is closely related to that of 'My Little German Home Across the Sea' as found in OFS iv 396, No. 870A. The statement of the editor of the latter volume that the "given text is sung to the same familiar tune, except that the chorus is lacking," seems strange indeed. Previously the same editor referred to this tune of 'The Little Old Log Cabin' as written by Will S. Hays^ (cf. Ford 281), but from the melody which he gives with the text quoted above, one would judge that
he either never saw the composed tune, or never took the trouble to compare the latter with the tune which he affixed to his text. Neither has anything in common with the other.
F-601
I am grow - ing old and fee - ble,
And I can - notwork no more;
I have laid the rust - y - blad - ed hoe to rest.
My ole' mass - a and ole' miss - us sleep-in' side by side
And my friends are now all num-bered with the blest.
My — old log cab - in in the lane,
My old log cab - in the lane,
And the on - ly friend that's left me that little dog
In cabin the lane.
my lit - tie old log
For melodic relationship cf. ***CRS Kit S3, i6, first half of chorus is diflferent; OFS iv 306, No. 870 A, except chorus; OPS 11 220, No. 197 A; **ASb 89; PSL 378, except chorus; BTFLS rv-v 78, no chorus, however; *Ford 281; CS 187-9 (1938).
Scale: Hexachordal, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: abacdeac (2,2,2, 2,2,2,2,2) = aa1ba1 (4,4,4,4) = Reprisenbar. In another, older recording by the same singer, we find quite a different text, all of which, unfortunately, cannot be understood:
I am growing old and feeble And
And my work along the years is nearly done.
My old Massa has departed
And I soon will follow him.
All my friends and one by one.
Chorus: Oh, he said to me, goodbye,
You'll I'll never see those good old times again,
And I think
That I fondly used to hear
In my little old Log Cabin in the Lane.
1 Morrison, Songs We Love, 1903, p. 299.