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Danville Girl (Pete Seeger version)
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown and Song. USA, Mississippi.
ARTIST: Recorded by Pete Seeger.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: Late 1800’s; (1927 recordings, Burnett & Rutherford, Dock Boggs)
RECORDING INFO: Burnett & Rutherford, "Ramblin' Reckless Hobo" (Columbia 15240-D, 1927; on BurnRuth01); Dock Boggs, "Danville Girl" (Brunswick 132B, 1927); (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1); New Lost City Ramblers, "Danville Girl" (on NLCR06); Pete Seeger, "Danville Girl" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01) Recorded for the Library of Congress by Herbert Halpert from the playing of John Hatcher, Tishomingo County, Mississippi, 1939. Boz Scaggs cover from the album "Boz Scaggs" on Atlantic SD 19166 (Waiting for a Train);Boggs, Dock. Dock Boggs, Vol 2, Folkways FA 2392, LP (1965), cut# 3; Boggs, Dock. Country Blues, Revenant 205, CD (1997), cut# 5; Dane, Barbara. Anthology of American Folk Songs, Tradition TR 2072, LP (196?), cut#B.04; Elliot, Jack; and Derroll Adams. Roll On Buddy, Topic 12T 105, LP (1957), cut# 9; Elliot, Ramblin' Jack. Jack Elliot, Archive of Folk Music FS-210, LP (19?), cut#B.02; Glazer, Joe. Union Train, Collector 1925, LP (1975), cut#A.02; Guthrie, Woody. Woody Guthrie Sings Folk Songs, Vol. 2, Folkways FA 2484, LP (1964), cut#A.06; Houston, Cisco. I Ain't Got No Home, Vanguard VRS 9107, LP (1960), cut# 4; Pine River Boys with Maybelle. Outback, Heritage (Galax) 003 (III), LP (1974), cut#A.03; Scott and Stanley. Hard Times in the Country, Talkeetna TR 100, LP (1974), cut#B.02; Sky, Patrick. Two Steps Foreward - One Step Back, Leviathan SLIF 2000, LP (197?), cut#B.04; Williams, Robin and Linda. Robin and Linda Williams, Flashlight FLT 3003, LP (1975), cut#A.05;
OTHER NAMES: “Wild and Reckless Hobo,” “Waiting for a Train (attributed to Jimmie Rodgers),” "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home," “The Railroad Bum,” “Western Hobo,” "Belt Line Girl;" "New Danville Girl," “Brownville Girl”
RELATED TO: “Knoxville Girl;” "More Pretty Girls Than One"
SOURCES: Laws H2, "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home; A Wild and Reckless Hobo; "The Railroad Bum;" Randolph 836, "A Wild and Reckless Hobo;" Sandburg, pp. 456-457, "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home"; Lomax-AFSB, pp. 28-30, "Ten Thousand Miles from Home;" Ohrlin-HBT 42, "Sam's 'Waiting for a Train'" Silber-FSWB, p. 54, "Danville Girl," Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 130, "At the Jail"
NOTES: G Major. Listed as a fiddle tune in Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc. Recorded for the Library of Congress by Herbert Halpert from the playing of John Hatcher, Tishomingo County, Mississippi, 1939.
The song belongs with a group of “hobo” songs which share several verses: Wild and Reckless Hobo, Waiting for a Train, and Danville Girl itself. The song was probably composed around 1870 or 1880 and many recordings document one or another version under the above titles. Norm Cohen, Long Steel Rail has a comprehensive and extended discussion of the song and its history. It’s been used by Bob Dylan for several new versions including "New Danville Girl/Brownville Girl/New Brownville Girl” and Woody Guthrie for "Belt Line Girl."
Jimmie Rodgers’ version of "The Danville Girl" is named “Waiting for a Train.” It is credited to Jimmie Rodgers by John Greenway and others but certainly is Rodgers adaptation of “Danville Girl’ from folk sources.
"The Danville Girl" subtext is identified by the verses that set it apart, including the “You bet your life she's out of sight/She wore those Danville curls” and “'She wore her hair on the back of her head/Like high-toned people do.” It's also got floating verses, including some from "Gambling Man"
From Alan Lomax's notes to PeteSeeger02, "There are stanzas in this one from so many different hobo songs, sung in so many different ways, that one might call this the master hobo song. Actually I had some hand in mixing the verses together in American Ballads and Folk Songs (Macmillan, 1934), from which this version comes."
LYRICS:
My pocket book was empty,
My heart was full of pain.
Ten thousand miles away from home
Bumming a railroad train.
I was standing on the platform
Smoking a cheap cigar
Listening for that next freight train
To carry an empty car.
Well I got off at Danville
Got stuck on a Danville girl
You bet your life she's out of sight
She wore those Danville curls.
She took me in her kitchen
She treated me nice and kind
She got me in the notion
Of bumming my last time.
She wore her hair on the back of her head
Like high-toned people do,
But the very next train come down that line
I bid that girl adieu.
I pulled my cap down over my eyes
Walked down to the railroad track
Then I caught a westbound freight;
Never did look back.
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