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Bonnie Blue Eyes/Goodbye, Little Bonnie Blue Eyes, Goodbye/More Pretty Girls Than One
Old-time, bluegrass, song.
ARTIST: Carter Family- 1936
Listen: Carter Family- Bonnie Blue Eyes
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
EARLIEST DATE: 1800s; First recorded in 1927 by the Carolina Tar Heels. Bonnie Blue Eyes was first reported by Louise Rand Bacom in 1910 JOAFL. The version she collected in 1907 was at least ten years older- putting the date back in the late 1800s.
RECORDING INFO: Bonnie Blue Eyes [Me II-D 5a]
Rt - Goodbye Little Bonnie, Goodbye ; Going West ; Goin' Back West in the Fall
Carolina Tar Heels. Mountain Frolic. Rare Old Timey Classics; 1924-37, JSP 77100A-D, CD (2007), trk# D.02 [1927/08/11] (Goodbye My Bonnie, Goodbye)
Carter Family. Carter Family. Country Music Hall of Fame Series, MCA MCAD-10088, CD (1991), trk# 7 [1936/06/09]
Carter Family. Carter Family in Texas. Vol. 7, Old Homestead OHCS 139, LP (1984), trk# 3
Carter Family. Carter Family on Border Radio, JEMF 101, LP (1970ca), trk# B.09 [1938-41]
Fredrickson, Dave. Asch, Moses (ed.) / 124 Folk Songs as Sung and Recorded on Folkways Reco, Robbins, Fol (1965), p 25
Harmon, Austin. Library of Congress Banjo Collection, Rounder 0237, LP (1988), trk# 8
Lulu Belle & Scotty. Sweethearts Still, Starday SLP 351, LP (1976/1965), trk# 5
Sizemore, Asher; and Little Jimmy. Sizemore, Asher; and Little Jimmy / Favorite Mountain Ballads & Old T..., Sizemore, fol (1932), p21 (I'm Going Out West This Fall)
Vass, Ruby. Shellans, Herbert (ed.) / Folk Songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Oak, Sof (1968), p10 [1959/06/20] (Hush Little Bonnie)
RECORDING INFO: Goodbye Little Bonnie, Goodbye [Me II-D 5a]
Rt - I'm Leaving You, Sweet Florine ; Bonnie Blue Eyes
Rm - There's More Pretty Girls Than One
Clayton, Paul. Our Singing Heritage. Vol I, Elektra EKL 151, LP (1958), trk# 13
Red Fox Chasers. Red Fox Chasers, County 510, LP (1967), trk# B.01 [1931/01/26] (Goodbye Little Bonnie)
Seeger, Mike; and Paul Brown. Way Down in North Carolina, Rounder 0383, CD (1996), trk# 9 (Goodbye Little Bonnie)
Seeger, Mike. Asch, Moses (ed.) / 124 Folk Songs as Sung and Recorded on Folkways Reco, Robbins, Fol (1965), p 57
Smith, Ralph Lee. Dulcimer. Old Time and Traditional Music, Skyline DD-102, LP (1975), trk# 3
Ward, Fields; and his Buck Mountain Band. Early Country Music. Vol. 1, Historical HLP 8001, LP (197?), trk# A.05 [1929/03/05] (Goodbye Little Bonnie)
Ward, Fields. Lomax, John A. & Alan Lomax / Our Singing Country, MacMillan, Sof (2000/1941), p148 [1937] (Little Bonnie/Bonny)
RELATED TO: “More Pretty Girls Than One”; "Sweet Florine (Going Out West)," "Goin' Back West in the Fall," "Say Darling, Won't You Love Me Once More"
OTHER NAMES: “Little Bonnie;” “Goodbye Little Bonnie;” “Hush Little Bonnie;” “Goodbye My Bonnie, Goodbye;” "Goodbye, Little Birdie, Goodbye;" "Goodbye Little Darlin'n Goodbye" (Light Crust Doughboys)
PRINT SOURCES: “All Night Long” by Shelton Brooks Publication: Chicago: Will Rossiter, 1912 Call Number: M1 .D48 Box: 153 Item: 002; Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 172-173, "Baby, All Night Long" (1 text, 1 tune); Silber-FSWB, p. 74, "All Night Long" (1 text); BrownIII 170, "It's All Night Long" (1 text); Sing Out! Reprints, Sing Out, Sof (196?), 1, p23; Leisy, James F. (ed.) / Songs for Pickin' and Singin', Gold Medal Books, sof (1962), p 34
Traditional Ballad Index: More Pretty Girls Than One
DESCRIPTION: Singer is a rambler who likes women; his mother told him to settle down, but he won't. He cries, thinking of pretty girls, and hopes he'll never die; he leaves us this lonesome song: "Every town I ramble around/There's more pretty girls than one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: loneliness rambling nonballad lyric floatingverses love separation travel farewell courting parting family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 734, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie Blue Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans, p. 10, "Hush, LIttle Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 284, "Bonnie Blue Eyes" (2 text plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt); also 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 texts, both mixed; "A" is mostly "Pretty Little Foot" with verses from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" while "B" is a hash of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," ""More Pretty Girls Than One," "In the Pines," and others)
Cambiaire, pp. 23, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 170, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 192, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 142, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Goodbye" (1 text)
Roud #11505
RECORDINGS:
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (Challenge 423 [as Crockett & Cannon], 1929)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Goodbye My Bonnie, Goodbye" (Victor 21193, 1928, rec. 1927)
The Carter Family, "Bonnie Blue Eyes" (Decca 5304, 1936)
Cranford & Thompson, "Goodbye Little Bonnie" (Supertone 2594, c. 1932)
Woody Guthrie, "More Pretty Gals" (Folk Tunes 150, n.d., prob. mid-1940s)
Ken Marvin, "More Pretty Girls" (Mercury 6366, 1951)
Ozarkers, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (OKeh 45573, 1932)
Prairie Ramblers, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" ((Perfect 6-10-58/Melotone 6-10-58/Conqueror 8713, 1936)
Riley Puckett, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One - Parts 1 & 2" (Decca 5439, 1937)
Ridgel's Fountain Citians, "Little Bonnie" (Vocalion 5389, 1930)
Rutherford & Foster, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (prob. Brunswick, 1930; on KMM)
Arthur Smith Trio, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" Montgomery Ward M-4822/Bluebird B-6322, 1936)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Blue Eyes" (on DownYonder)
Fields Ward and the Grayson County Railsplitters, "Good Bye Little Bonnie" (Gennett, unissued, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2]" (words, tune)
cf. "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76] and its various offshoots (tune)
cf. "Lonesome Road" (words)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Dixon Brothers, "Bonnie Blue Eyes - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6691, 1936)
Arthur Smith Trio, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6889/Montgomery Ward M-7155, 1937)
Arthur Smith Trio, "Answer to More Pretty Girls Than One" (Bluebird B-7437/Montgomery Ward M7476, 1938)
Howard Dixon & Frank Gerald (The Rambling Duet), "More Pretty Girls Than One - Part 3" (Bluebird B-7484/Montgomery Ward M-7464, 1938)
NOTES: This song and "Danville Girl" [one of the various forms of Laws H2 - RBW] are siblings. - PJS
And the whole family is rather a mess. "More Pretty Girls Than One" is reasonably well-known. The Silber text "Goodby, Little Bonnie, Goodbye" has been found with this tune. Since both are largely floating verses, we decided to lump them.
Randolph's text also has a similar tune, and it shares the basic form of the Silber text, as well as some lyrics:
""Goodbye, little bonnie blue eyes (x2), I'll see you again, But God knows when, Goodbye, little...." "I'm going on the railroad train... 'Cause I love you, God knows I do." "I'm goin' on the ocean blue...." "Lay your hand in mine...."
Brown's two substantial texts ("A" and "B") are similar: Most of the same verses, but no chorus. Note the absence of the "more pretty girls" verse, which originally caused us to classify separately.
After some discussion, Paul Stamler and I decided to lump the lot, even though it's against our general policy, simply because none of the variations are really well-attested enough to be regarded as independent songs. But it should be noted that almost anything can be grafted onto this stalk.
The "Goodbye, Little Bonnie Blue Eyes" family, which includes Shellans's "Hush, Little Bonnie," is Roud #762. These texts often end with the singer coming back. - RBW
NOTES: After some deliberation I've decided to include this song in the fiddle tune section because it's melody is so popular and has been played by a number of fiddlers. The melody and chord structure have been uses for the song "More Pretty Girls Than One." Originally a waltz, many bluegrass versions today are ramped up and palyed in fast 4/4 time.
According to Meade, the melody and structure have been used for the related songs "Sweet Florine (Going Out West)," "Goin' Back West in the Fall," "More Pretty Girls than One" and "Say Darling, Won't You Love Me Once More" (Wilmer Watts).
Bonnie Blue Eyes was first reported by Louise Rand Bascom in 1910 JOAFL. The version she collected in 1907 was at least ten years older- putting the date back in the late 1800s.
Louise Rand Bascom: One of the most plaintive of mountain songs is a ballad which is said to have been written July 5, 1907, but which, upon inquiry in other neighborhoods, is found to be ten years old at least. It is called " Bonnie Blue Eyes," and it illustrates the use of an object only recently made known to the common intelligence. In the old ballads we find stanza after stanza introducing the pen-knife or pin or other implements sufficiently new to the ballad-maker to be interesting.
In this ballad the novelty is a train, something which few of the mountaineers to the
present day have seen. Also, the ballad-maker, who seems to have been an adventurous soul, threatens to journey to the West, a land in the eyes of the mountaineers similar to what America must have been in the eyes of the Spaniards. Curiously enough, the men who leave home at all do go to the very far West; but they always come back again, when they've seen the world, and resume their former method of living. "Bonnie Blue Eyes" is an admirable ballad for illustrating the inability of the musician to render the same "piece" twice in the same way. It is first
given as it was sung for the author, then as it was "drawed off" for the author by the musician, a mountain girl of "considerable schoolin'."
BONNIE BLUE EYES- A from Ballads and Songs of Western North Carolina
1. Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry,
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry,
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry,
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry.
2. I hyar the train comin', I do,
I hyar the train comin', I do,
I hyar the train comin' to carry me through,
I hyar the train comin', I do-o-o,
3. Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry,
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry,
Ef ye cry, little Bonnie, you 'll spile your eye.
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry-i-i.
4. I asked your Popper for you,
I asked your Mommer for you,
I asked your Popper an' Mommer for you.
They both said "No-o-o."
5. She tole me she loved me, she did,
She tole me she loved me, she did,
She tole me she loved me, she never did lie,
Good-by, little Bonnie, good-by-i-i.
6. I'm forty-one miles from home,
I'm forty-one miles from home,
I'm forty-one miles from home,
Good-by, little Bonnie Blue Eyes.
7. And now she's married an' gone,
An' now she's married an' gone.
I've waited around fur her too long,
An' now she's married an' gone.
BONNIE BLUE EYES- B
1. I'm goin' out West next fall,
I 'm goin' out West next fall,
I 'm going out West, whar times is the best,
I'm goin' out West next fall.
2. Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry,
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry,
For if you cry, you'll spile your eye,
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry.
3. When you tole me you loved me, you lied,
When you tole me you loved me, you lied.
When you tole me you loved me, you lied, my dear,
When you tole me you loved me, you lied.
4. I asked your Mommer fur you,
I asked your Popper fur you,
I asked your Popper an' Mommer both fur you,
They both said " No-oh-no."
5. I'm forty-one miles from home,
I'm forty-one miles from home,
I'm forty-one miles from home, Bonnie Blue Eyes,
I'm forty-one miles from home.
6. I hyar the train comin', I do,
I hyar the train comin', I do,
I hyar the train comin' to carry me through,
To see my little Bonnie Blue Eyes.
7. I'm goin' to see Bonnie Blue Eyes,
I'm goin to see Bonnie Blue Eyes,
The only little girl I ever loved
Was my little Bonnie Blue Eyes.
8. But now she's married an' gone,
But now she's married an' gone.
But now she's married,
I 've waited too long to get my little Bonnie Blue Eyes.
Brown Collection- 284 Bonnie Blue Eyes
"A purely North Carolina product," Dr. Brown noted on his version of this song. Its appearance outside the state lends some support to this judgment; Davis (FSV 99) reports it from Carroll and Dickenson counties, Virginia, and the Archive of American
Folk Song has a recording of it from Blount county. Tennessee, all of which places are on or close to the North Carolina border. Gordon (F'SA 81) has a nine-stanza version which he describes as a banjo picker's song but does not say where he found it.
Randolph COFS iv 209-10) has a four-stanza version from Missouri. Of our texts the first two were published by Louise Rand Bascom in the Journal of American Folk-Lore in 1909. She noted then that the song; was "said to have been written July 5, 1907,"
but further investigation convinced her that it was "ten years old at least" at the time she wrote. The versions vary widely. Dr. Brown remarks that it is a "sort of communal composition, there are four or live different versions or fragments."
[see above A. B. from Bascom]
C. 'Bonnie Blue Eyes.' A third, much abbreviated, text from Miss Bascom's papers; from Highlands, Macon county. With the tune.
1 Good-bye, little Bonnie, good-bye,
Good-bye, little Bonnie, good-bye,
You've told me more lies than the stars in the skies.
You ain't my Bonnie Blue Eyes.
2 You tole me you loved me, you always did lie.
Good-bye, little Bonnie, good-bye.
3 The Danville train's in town.
I know of the way little Bonnie goes 'roun'
That the train is due in town.
4 I'm goin' to the West some day,
I'm goin' to the West, but not to stay,
I'm comin' back some day.
D. 'Bonnie Blue Eyes.' Manuscript in Dr. Brown's hand, with the notation : "These two stanzas are selected from at least a dozen and a half. . . . Collected near Highlands, N. C." With the tune.
1 Good-bye, little Bonnie, good-bye,
Good-bye, little Bonnie, good-bye;
You've told me more lies than the stars in the skies,
You ain't my Bonnie Blue Eyes.
2 And now I'm far from home,
And now I'm far from home ;
But I love little Bonnie in spite of her lies.
My own, my Bonnie Blue Eyes.
There are also in the Collection two anonymous sheets with the music for this song.
Bonnie Blue Eyes- Carter Family 1936
Listen: Carter Family- Bonnie Blue Eyes
Goodbye my little Bonnie Blue Eyes
Goodbye my little Bonnie Blue Eyes
You've told me more lies than the stars in the skies
Goodbye my little Bonnie Blue Eyes
I saw my little Bonnie last night
She looked so dear to me.
She's the only girl I ever loved
She's now gone back on me.
[Guitar solo]
Oh stand at the gate and weep
Oh stand at the gate and weep
Oh stand at the gate and weep and morn
Oh Bonnie, won't you love me once more?
Come and lay your hand in mine
Come and lay your hand in mine
Come and lay your arms around my neck
And say that you will be mine.
[Guitar solo]
Oh you know what you promised me,
Oh you know what you promised me.
You promised that you'd marry me,
Oh you know what you promised me.
I've stayed in the country too long,
I've stayed in the country too long.
The only wrong that I have done,
I've stayed in the country too long.
[Guitar solo]
Come and go with me to the train,
Come and go with me to the train.
Come and go with me and see me get on,
Goodbye my little Bonnie I'm gone.
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