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Babe O'Mine/Going 'Round the World,Baby Mine/Banjo Pickin’ Girl
Old-time Bluegrass song, widely known.
ARTIST: Composed By R.D. Burnett; Monticello, Ky. Source: Printed at page 7 of booklet accompanying 'A Rambling Reckless Hobo: The Songs of Dick Burnett and Leonard Rutherford' Rounder LP 1004. CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1930's First Published as “Baby Mine” Words Charles Mackay; Music Achibald Johnson in 1874.
RECORDING INFO: 1.Coon Creek Girls. Early Radio Favorites, Old Homestead OHS 142, LP (1982), cut# 10 2.Coon Creek Girls. Banjo Pickin' Girl, Rounder 1029, LP (1978), cut# 16 3.Coon Creek Girls. Going Down The Valley; Vocal & Instrumental Music from the South, New World NW 236, LP (1977), cut# 17 4.Fink, Cathy. Leading Role, Rounder 0223, LP (1985), cut#B.05 5.Hazel And Alice. Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, Rounder 0054, LP (1976), cut# 11 6.Ledford, Lilly Mae. Banjo Pickin' Girl, Greenhays GR 712, LP (1983), cut# 1 7.Rutherford, Ernest; and the Gold Hill Band. Old Cap'n Rabbit, Heritage (Galax) 080, Cas (1989), cut# 9 8.Sexton, Lee "Boy". Whoa Mule, June Appal JA 0051, LP (1987), cut# 8 (Going Round This World) 9.Skirtlifters. Somewhere in Dixie, Skirtlifters, Cas (1987), cut#B.06 (Goin' Around the World (Baby Mine)) 10.Stamper, I.D.. Red Wing, June Appal JA 0010, LP (1977), cut# 8 (Going Round This World) R. D. Burnett & Lynn Woodard, "Going Around the World" (recorded for Gennett 1929, but unissued; on BurnRuth01); Coon Creek Girls, "Banjo-Pickin' Girl" (Vocalion 04413/OKeh 04413, 1938; on GoingDown); Pete Steele, "Goin' Around This World, Baby Mine" (on PSteele01)
RELATED TO: "Crawdad (Sugar Babe)" "New River Train" “I’m Going Back to Jericho”
OTHER NAMES: Baby Mine; Going round the World Baby Mine; Banjo Pickin’ Girl; Going Round This World; Living on the Mountain Baby Mine; Going Away From Home;
SOURCES: Manfred Helfert; Ceolas; Mudcat Café; Liner notes; Silber-FSWB, p. 54, "Baby Mine" (1 text); Roud #11519;
NOTES: The song, Going ‘Round the World Baby Mine/Banjo Pickin’ Girl, originated from a a popular song “Baby Mine” from the late 1800’s. The song form used in “Baby Mine” published in 1874 as “Baby Mine” with words by Charles Mackay and music by Achibald Johnson is similar to the Captain Kidd/Froggy Went A-Courtin’ family of songs. These songs have a repeated part: ("Oh my name is Captain Kidd, as I sailed, as I Sailed") (Froggy went a courtin’ and he did ride un-huh, un-huh); "Sam Hall" ("My name it is Sam Hall, it is Sam Hall"); the hymn "Wondrous Love" ("Oh, what wondrous love this is, O my soul, O my soul").
There are several bluegrass/folk songs that have evolved from Baby Mine with the “baby mine” tag: "Banjo-Pickin' Girl" and “Crawdad Song.” Sometimes there isn’t a tag “I wish I was a Mole (Tempy)” or the tag has been changed to “sugar babe:”
"I'm Going Back to Jericho" by Dock Walsh
I'm goin' back to Jericho, sugar babe,
I'm goin' back to Jericho, sugar babe,
I'm goin' back to Jericho,
And I'm getting married 'fore I go, Sugar babe.
From Stewie: In their notes to the Rounder album, 'Banjo Pickin' Girl', Charles Wolfe and Patricia A. Hall mentioned the 'Baby Mine' song. It seems clear that Lily Mae Ledford and the Coon Creek Girls were responsible for entrenching 'Banjo Pickin' Girl' in southern tradition. The pertinent passage in the Wolfe/Hall notes is as follows:
Norm Cohen has described 'Banjo Pickin' Girl' as a song that 'conjures up the image of another fun-loving, wanderlusting mountain girl - the Appalachian equivalent of the jazz age's flapper'. In this respect, it shares much of the spirit of Roba Stanley's 'Single Girl', Moonshine Kate's 'Poor Girl's Story' and the Bowman Sisters' 'Old Lonesome Blues'. Parts of this song have been traced to the middle of the sixteenth century and the melody is related to a cluster of mountain banjo songs like 'Crawdad' and 'Sugar Baby'. The 'baby mine' refrain is found in a pop song from 1879 of that name. Another Kentucky variant of the song is performed by Dick Burnett on Rounder 1004.
The Burnett piece referred to is 'Going Around the World' (1929) for which he claimed authorship, albeit a parody of 'Baby Mine'. Emry Arthur recorded a song of the same title in 1928. The Coon Creek girls recorded 'Banjo Pickin' Girl' in 1938.
Here are the lyrics to Sara Ogan Gunning's "Babe O'Mine":
BABE O MINE/GOING AROUND THE WORLD SARAH OGAN GUNNING
(SARAH OGAN GUNNING/WOODY GUTHRIE) (1930s/1941)
The other side of the record featured a Guthrie solo of Sara [sic] Ogan's
"Babe O' Mine;" it was his first commercial recording after the RCA Victor
"Dust Bowl Ballads" album. Ronald D. Cohen & Dave Samuelson, liner notes
for "Songs for Political Action,"
Bear Family Records BCD 15720 JL, 1996, p. 79.
ORIGINAL ISSUE: Keynote K 304 B, 1941. [WOODY GUTHRIE, vocal solo].
I'm gonna write you a letter, babe o' mine,
I'm a-gonna write you a letter, babe o' mine.
I'm a-gonna write you a letter just as quick as times get better,
But I've gotta get organized, babe o' mine!
I'm goin' 'round this world, babe o' mine,
I'm a-goin' around this world, babe o' mine,
I'm a-goin' 'round it once and I'm goin' 'round it twice,
And I'm a-gonna get organized, babe o' mine!
I'm a-goin' to California, babe o' mine,
I'm a-goin' to California, babe o' mine,
I'm a-goin' to Californy, it's a rough and a teejus journey,
And I gotta keep organizin', babe o' mine.
I'm a-gonna leave old North Caroliner, babe o' mine,
I'm a-gonna leave old North Caroliner, babe o' mine,
I'm a-gonna leave old North Caroliner and I'm gonna catch me a boat to Chiner,
And I gotta keep organizin', babe o' mine.
See the sailors' kids and wives, babe o' mine,
See the sailors' kids and wives, babe o' mine,
See the sailors' kids and wives, I'm compelled to save their lives,
So I gotta keep organizin', babe o' mine.
Well, we've got to win this race, babe o' mine,
We've got to win this race, babe o' mine,
Yes, we've got to win this race, put the bosses in their place,
And we gotta get organized, babe o' mine.
It's that good old C. I. O., babe o' mine,
It's that good old C. I. O., babe o' mine,
It's that good old C. I. O., 'cause it's everywhere you go,
So we'll just keep organizin', babe o' mine.
Organize, organize, babe o' mine,
Organize, organize, babe o' mine.
Well, the boss'll be surprised when he finds us organized,
So we'll just keep organizin', babe o' mine.
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