I Went Home One Night- Chambliss (MO) 1929 Randolph A
[From: Vance Randolph's Ozark Folksongs: British Ballads and Songs Vol. 1]
I WENT HOME ONE NIGHT
Derived from an old English piece called "Our Goodman" (Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882-1898, No. 274), this ballad is widely known in the United States, usually under the title "Home Came the Old Man." See JAFL (18, 1905, p.294;29, t9I6, p. 166; 30, 1917, pp. 199, 328; 35, 1922, p. 348), Campbell and Sharp (English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1917, No. 32), Cox (Folk -Songs of the South, 7925, p. 154), Scarborough iOn the Trait of Negro Folk-Songs, 1925, p. 61), Reed Smith (South Carolina Ballad's, 1928, p. 159), Finger (Frontier Ballad's, 1927, p. 161), Davis (Trad'itional Ballads of Virginia, 1929, pp. 485-494), Chappell (Folk-Songs of Roanoke and the Albemarle, 1939, p.41), Eddy (Ballads and
Sozgs from Ohio, 1939, pp. 82-83), Linscott (Folk Songs of Old New England, 1939, p. 259), Belden (Ballads and Songs,1940, pp. 39-91), Brewster (Ballads and Songs of Indiana, 1940, pp. 149-150; Southern Folhlore Quarterly 5, 1941, p. 169), and Anderson (Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 8,1942, p.72). This piece appears in the Brown (North Carolina Folk-Lore Society) collection.
The Kirklands (Southern Folklore Quarterly 2, 1938, p. 77) mention a commercial phonograph record entitled "Three Nights' Experience," [Earl Johnson 1927] giving the same details and practically the same words as several of the Tennessee and North Carolina texts.
A. Sung by Mrs. Emma Baird Chambliss, Anderson, Mo., Dec. 12, 1929. Mrs. Chambliss learned the ballad from one of her neighbors.
Well I went home one night
As drunk as I could be,
A strange horse in the stable
Where my horse ought to be.
Come here, my little wifie
An' explain this thing to me,
How come this horse in the stable
Where my horse ought to be?
Oh now, my dear husband,
I'll explain this thing to thee,
It's nothin' but a milk cow
That your parents sent to me.
Well, I've traveled this here world over
A hundred mile or more,
But a saddle on a milk cow's back
I never seen before!
Well I went home one night,
As drunk as I could be.
A strange coat was a-hangin'
Where my coat ought to be!
Come here, my little wifie
An' explain this thing to me,
How come this coat a-hangin'
Where my coat ought to be?
Oh now, my dear husband,
I'll explain this thing to thee,
It's nothin' but a bed quilt
That your parents sent to me.
Well I've traveled this here world over,
A hundred mile or more,
But pockets in a bed quilt
I never seen before!
Well I went home one night,
As drunk as I could be,
I seen a head on the pillow
Where my head ought to be.
Come here, my little wifie,
An' explain this thing to me,
How corne this head on the pillow
Where my head ought to be?
Oh now, my dear husband,
I'll explain this thing to thee,
It's nothin' but a cabbage-head
That your parents sent to me.
Well I've traveled this here world over,
A hundred miles or more,
But a moustache on a cabbage-head
I never seen before!