Fall On My Knees
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown and Song- A local Galax, Va./Mt. Airy, N.C. tune.
ARTIST: Freight Hoppers;
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Late 1800’s
RECORDING INFO: Heritage XXXIII, Ace Weems and His Fat Meat Boys - "Visits" (1981). Yodel-Ay-Hee 005, The Wildcats - "On Our Knees" (1992). Bluestein, Evo. Deep Shady Grove, Swallow 2002, LP (197?), cut# 6; Camp Creek Boys. Camp Creek Boys, County 709, LP (1967), cut# 4; Hooven, Greg. Tribute to Fred Cockerham, Heritage (Galax) 079C, Cas (1993), cut#A.04; Iron Mountain String Band (Galax). Music from the Mountain, Heritage (Galax) 101C, Cas (1992), cut# 2; Molsky, Bruce. Warring Cats, Yodel-Ay-Hee 011, Cas (1993), cut# 11; Round Peak Band. Round Peak Band, Marimac 9044, Cas (1992), cut#A.08; Rutherford, Enoch. Old Five String, Vol 2, Heritage (Galax) 052, Cas (1991), cut# 15; Rutherford, Ernest; and the Gold Hill Band. Old Cap'n Rabbit, Heritage (Galax) 080, Cas (1989), cut# 18; Stecher, Jody; and Kate Brislin. Stay Awhile, Rounder 0334, Cas (1995), cut#A.03
OTHER NAMES: Lonesome Road;
SOURCES: Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pg. 239-240. Flying Fish 334, The Red Clay Ramblers- "It Ain't Right" (1986). Cockerham, Fred. Old Time Herald, Old Time Herald OTH, Ser (1987-), 1/2, p21; Jarrell, Tommy. Old Time Herald, Old Time Herald OTH, Ser (1987-), 4/3, p40; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: "D Major. ADAE. AA. Ray Alden (1981) states that around the Round Peak, N.C., area this is known as Fred Cockerham's tune; Tommy Jarrell said "He knew a hundred verses." Cockerham's wife, Eva, told Alden that he would "sometimes sit in his big green armchair and play this song for hours." Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell remembered the tune "going around" the Round Peak area (where he was raised) around 1915, though, as Richard Nevins points out, it had been known in neighboring Grayson County, Va., for a generation before that, testifying perhaps to the isolation of the mountainous region at the time. Source for notated version: Tommy Jarrell (Mt. Airy, N.C.)." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
LYRICS:
FALL ON MY KNEES from the Freight Hoppers
CHORUS: Well I fall on my knees, Beggin' you please, Come and stay with me, little girl, Won't you come and stay with me.
Well I'm going down the line, where the sun don't never shine Gonna skid on that cold ice and snow, little girl Gonna skid on that cold ice and snow.
If I had as many dollars as the sands in the sea Well I'd give it all to you to marry me, little girl Well I'd give it all to you to marry me.
Well I wish to the Lord, I'd never been born or died when I was a baby, little girl or died when I was a baby .
I never would have kissed your ruby red cheeks, or eaten that salty gray meat, little girl, or eaten that salty gray meat.
You told me one, you told me two, you told me ten thousand lies, little girl, you told me ten thousand lies.
You told me more lies than there stars in the sky. You'll never get to heaven when you die, little girl you'll never get to heaven when you die.
Well the longest train I ever saw, it was 99 coaches long, little girl it was 99 coaches long.
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