7D. Every Night When The Sun Goes In, Roud 3611
(Every Night; Every Night When the Sun Goes Down)
Mrs. Effie Mitchell, daughter Becky Mitchell, unnamed child & mom-Hannah Mitchell[1]
[This ballad is taken from the 1932 edition of Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians II, p. 268. The source is Mrs. Effie Mitchell of Burnsville (Yancy County) North Carolina which was collected by Cecil Sharp on October 6, 1918. Effie's version features a primitive blues format with a repeated line and an ending line which rhymes. "Every Night" is similar to the text and form of the related Appalachian song "Careless Love" and similarly borrows the last three "apron" stanzas from the same source: the "Died for Love" ballads which includes titles such as "I Wish, I Wish," "Brisk Young Lover" and "The Butcher Boy." Some English and Scottish ballads usually titled, 'I Wish, I Wish" (Roud 495), have these these exact three "apron" stanzas with modification:
3 It's once my apron hung down low (3 times)
He'd follow me through both sleet and snow.
True love, don't weep, etc.
4 It's now my apron's to my chin (3 times)
He'll face my door and won't come in.
True love, don't weep, etc.
5 I wish to the Lord my babe was born,
A-sitting upon his pappy's knee,
And me, poor girl, was dead and gone,
And the green grass growing over me.
True love, don't weep, etc.
The English/Scottish text is the equivalent of two stanzas:
Once my apron hung down low,
He followed me through sleet and snow,
But now my apron's tae my chin,
He passes my door but won't come in.
I wish to the Lord my babe was born,
And sitting on his father's knee,
And me, mysel', was dead and gone,
And the green, green grass growing over me[2].
The chorus "True love, don't weep, true love, don't mourn," is in the same blues format and ends "I'm going a way to Marble town." The Died for Love songs frequently refer to a "marble stone" (Place a marble stone at my head and feet) and Marble Town could therefore be a reference to a graveyard or "the town of marble (stones)[3]." Here is the text from Sharp's EFSSA, II, 1932 edition p. 268, No. 189:
Every Night when the Sun goes in- Sung by Mrs. EFFIE MITCHELL at Burnsville, N. C , Oct. 6, 1918
1. Ev'ry night when the sun goes in[4],
Ev'ry night when the sun goes in,
Ev'ry night when the sun goes in,
I hang down my head and mournful cry.
True love, don't weep, true love, don't mourn,
True love, don't weep, true love, don't mourn,
True love, don't weep nor mourn for me,
I'm going a way to Marble town.
2 I wish to the Lord that train would come (3 times)
To take me back where I come from[5].
True love, don't weep, etc.
3 It's once my apron hung down low (3 times)
He'd follow me through both sleet and snow.
True love, don't weep, etc.
4 It's now my apron's to my chin (3 times)
He'll face my door and won't come in.
True love, don't weep, etc.
5 I wish to the Lord my babe was born,
A-sitting upon his pappy's knee,
And me, poor girl, was dead and gone,
And the green grass growing over me.
True love, don't weep, etc.
It's surprising that this single ballad, a relative of the "Died for Love" ballads could become so well known and reprinted. This exact version that was collected by Sharp also appears in Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs, pp 149-150. It appears in Silber & Silber, Folksinger's Wordbook page 180, the lyrics are the same except for one word omitted in the third-last verse: "He'd follow me through sleet and snow." The Fireside Book of Folk Songs (page 120) is the same as Silber & Silber, with slight differences in the melody. Some of these slight changes were probably made to avoid copyright issues.
In his diary for Thursday September 12, 1918 Sharp gives this account of the day in Burnsville, North Carolina when he collected this song:
"Have a very bad night, asthma etc and wake up feeling very seedy with bad neuralgia in my right eye. Still very cold indeed. Go out prospecting after first calling on Mrs Cheseborough whom we met 2 years ago at the Knoxville conference. She received us very cordially and asked us to lunch with her tomorrow at 12.30. Then we draw Bowley’s Creek but I am too tired to go far and beyond getting some clues we get nothing. After tea we move upstairs to two very pleasant rooms and then go up Mitchell Branch. Call on Mrs, Hannah Mitchell [see photo] who did sing but has forgotten her songs and then at her advice go on to her daughter, Mrs Effie Mitchell [see photo] from whom we get half a dozen rather good ones."
A number of recordings were made of "Ev'ry Night" including one by Jo Stafford that kept the original title. Most were blues arrangements using only the first verse and a modified chorus. Harry Belafonte and others sang a modernized arrangement titled, Suzanne[6]:
Ev'ry night when the sun goes down
Ev'ry night when the sun goes down
Ev'ry night when the sun goes down
Hang my head and mournful cry
Suzanne, Suzanne, Suzanne you're gone
True love don't weep, true love don't mourn
True love don't weep, true love don't mourn
True love don't weep or mourn for me
Goin' back to mobile town
Suzanne, Suzanne, Suzanne you're gone
Someday I pray my train will come
Someday I pray my train will come
Someday I pray my train will come
Then I can go back where I come from
Suzanne, Suzanne, Suzanne you're gone
The consequences of Stafford's and Belafonte's arrangements are that the "Died for Love" stanzas were eliminated and these arrangements were copied. Later versions such as the one by The Weavers changed the first line and consequently the name: Every Night When the Sun Goes Down. Unfortunately, a number of blues songs also use that title and this has created some confusion when the title is used now (since we don't know if it's the 12 bar blues song by Leroy Carr/Leadbelly-- or Sharp's folk song). Dozens of arrangements of Effie's song have been made-- sung by school children, choral groups, solo artists(Joan Baez) and professional groups (The Weavers). Little did Sharp realize in 1918 the international influence this little folk ballad sung by a mother from Yancy County, North Carolina would have.
R. Matteson 2017]
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Footnotes:
1. Photo by Cecil Sharp. I'm glad Becky Mitchell is smiling!!!
2. The two English/Scottish stanzas were recreated by memory from the nearly 200 UK versions I've transcribed.
3. Hypothetical conclusion as an answer to a question posed on the Mudcat Discussion Forum
4. This is a blues stanza and also is the chorus. It has been found in a number of 12-bar blues songs usually as "Ev'ry night when the sun goes down." One of the earliest blues versions is "In the Evening" by Leroy Carr recorded for Bluebird on Feb 25, 1935:
In the evenin', in the evenin', baby when the sun goes down
In the evenin', in the evenin', baby when the sun goes down
Ain't it lonesome, ain't it lonesome, when your lover can't be found.
When the sun goes down.
5. This is a common floating stanza.
6. Text from an online source, the arranger is unknown.