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Old Grey Goose/My Wife Died on Saturday Night
Old-Time Minstrel Breakdown and Song; Southeast US;
ARTIST: Sung by Dan Tate at his home in Fancy Gap, Carroll County, VA.;
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: Minstrel song- 1844;
Listen: My Wife Died on Saturday Night- Dr. Humphrey Bate and the Possum Hunters
RECORDING INFO: County 541, Dr. Humphrey Bate and the Possum Hunters - "Nashville; the Early String Bands." Folkways 2492, New Lost City Ramblers - "String Band Instrumentals" (1964). Bate, Dr. Humphrey; & his Possum Hunters. Nashville Early String Bands, Vol. 1, County 541, LP, cut# 1. New Lost City Ramblers. String Band Instrumentals, Folkways FA 2492, LP (1964), cut#A.06 (My Wife Died On Sunday);
Way Down the Old Plank Road- Anthology of American Folk Music, Oak, Sof (1973), p 94; Highwoods String Band. Dance All Night, Rounder 0045, LP (1975?), cut# 13; Luckiamute River String Band. Waterbound, Lucks '94, Cas (1994), cut#B.01; Macon, Uncle Dave. Anthology of American Folk Music, Smithsonian/Folkways SFW 40090, CD( (1997), cut# 78; Macon, Uncle Dave. Uncle Dave Macon. Early Recordings, County 521, LP (197?), cut# 4; New Lost City Ramblers. Old-Time String Band Songbook, Oak, Sof (1964/1976), p202; Scragg Family. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, Sonyatone ST-1001, LP (197?), cut# 9;
Folksong revival: as Way Down the Old Plank Road (Pat Dunford (PRT 5012a)).
Country/String Band: as Way Down the Old Plank Road (The Highwood String Band (RND 11569c, RND 0045a); Grandpa Jones (CMH 8002a, CMH 9010a); The Scragg Family (SON 1001a)); as The Old Plank Road (Luke Smathers String Band (JA 0024c)); as My Wife Died Saturday Night (Humphrey Bate and the Possum Hunters (CTY 541a); The New Lost City Ramblers (SF 40040c, FW 2492c)).
Bluegrass: as Way Down the Old Plank Road (Chubby Anthony (CMH 1779a)).
Johnny Don't Get Drunk- Ashby, John; and the Free State Ramblers. Old Virginia Fiddling, County 727, LP, cut# 8; Ashby, John. Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 12/4, p26; Chapman, Owen "Snake". Seedtime on the Cumberland. Sampler 1990-91, June Appal JA 0067C, Cas (1992), cut# 9; Chapman, Owen "Snake". Fiddle Ditty, June Appal JA 0061C, Cas (1990), cut# 2; Keys, Will. Evergreen, Cloudlands CLC 006, Cas (1992), cut# 4 (Don't Come Home Drunk Johnnie); Smith, Paul. Devil Eat the Groundhog, Rounder 0409, CD (1999), cut#13; Stamper, Art. Lost Fiddler, County 779, LP (1982), cut# 7 (Don't Come Home Drunk Johnnie); Steamboat Entertainers. Galax International, Heritage (Galax) 067, LP (1988), cut# 25 (Don't Come Home Drunk Johnnie); Walters, Bob. Paddy on the Turnpike, MSOTFA 109, Cas (1993), cut#A.02;
The Old Grey Goose-Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p 49a; Stoneking, Fred. Saddle Old Spike. Fiddle Music From Missouri, Rounder 0381, CD (1996), cut#11; Old Grey Goose Skirtlifters. Somewhere in Dixie, Skirtlifters, Cas (1987), cut#A.02; Looky, Looky Yonder- Hinton, Sam. Sam Hinton Sings the Song of Men, Folkways FA 2400, LP (1961), cut# 10;
OTHER NAMES: My Wife Died Sunday Night; Down the Old Plank Road; Way Down the Old Plank Road; Old Plank Road; Looky, Looky Yonder; Monday was My Courtin’ Day (Sharp); Aunt Dinah Drunk;
SOURCES: Dr. Humphrey Bate and the Possum Hunters (Tenn.) [Kuntz]. Kuntz (Ragged But Right), 1987; pgs. 307-308. FSCatskills 147, "Lookit Yonder" (1 text, 1 tune); Eddy 153 (last of several "fragments of Irish songs" - 1 text, which could be this or "My Wife Died on Saturday Night"); Anthology of American Folk Music, Oak, Sof (1973), p 94; Old-Time String Band Songbook, Oak, Sof (1964/1976), p202; “Old Grey Goose and Gander,” The Negro Forget-Me-Not Songster. Philadelphia: Turner and Fisher, 1844, 57; quoted in William J. Mahar, Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture, U of Illinois Pr., pp. 324-325; Mahar, p. 408: Under the title "Grey Goose and Gander" or "Gray Goose and Gander," this song appears in NFM1, NFM2, CNS1, WSS1, NSO1, BHW1, JJO1, and CNS2.
RELATED MELODY: Johnny Don't Get Drunk; "Johnny, Don't Come Home Drunk" “Old Grey Goose;” “Lookit Yonder;” "I Had a Wife;" "John Styles and Susan Cutter" (tune);
NOTES: C Major. Standard. ABB. Old Gray Goose/Lookit Yonder is the minstrel origin of “My Wife Died on Saturday Night.” The “Old Grey Goose” was a minstrel song, possibly written in 1844 by A Fiot. It was published that year in Philadelphia, with the note that it was 'sung by Aken, the celebrated banjoist'. Four years later, the song was in the repertoire of the well-known Christie Minstrels. A set collected by Norman Cazden appears in his book Folk Songs of the Catskills - vol.1. p.554.(1982). (Yeats)
Old Gray Goose lyrics concern a man's dead wife, whose return he fears: "On Saturday night my good wife died, On Sunday she was buried, But Monday was my courting day, And Tuesday I got married. Now, lookit here, and lookit there, and look way over yonder..."
Nathan (Emmett, 461-62) shows a sheet music edition (Philadelphia: A. Fiot, 1844) with additional verses dealing with a "bery fat" Miss Dinah Rose (see: Versions 2 & 4). Only the first and second verses Nathan reprints are similar to the version quoted here. The others refer to the Miss Dinah of that song as "fat" and as having a "great big hole right in her stocking" and make the usual reference to the exposed heels of the blackface characters. This version was probably connected with a dance.
Another version of the song (Version 1) sung by the Virginia Serenaders was published in 1844 Keith's Music Publishing House, 67 & 69 Court St., Boston was arranged for the Piano Forte by J.W. Turner and credits J.P. Carter as composer.
The tune was widespread and a version of it was collected by Cecil Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, vol. II (p. 277; with tune) entitled, “A-Monday Was My Courtin’ Day.”
Dr. Humphrey Bate, a bona-fide physician with a medical degree from Vanderbilt, recorded “My Wife Died on Saturday Night” with his band The Possum Hunters. Bate sang and played harmonica and some guitar, and his was one of the most popular bands in the Nashville area for many years. They were the first string band to air on Nashville radio and the first to tour from the Grand Ole Opry. The good Dr. led the Possum Hunters until his death in the 1940's, and the band continued in various forms until the 1960's. The harmonica was not an uncommon instrument in early American string bands.
Uncle Dave Macon (1870-1952) recorded a version of the song entitled “Way Down the Old Plank Road” April 14, 1926. He was one of the most popular early recording stars. Called "The Dixie Dewdrop" Macon was also one of the oldest people represented on this recording. Uncle Dave was the first star of the Grand Old Opry and one of its most beloved members for the quarter century he was on the air. Born in McMiniville, Tennessee, Macon's family owned a hotel in Nashville which catered to many a passing vaudeville musician. Macon was undoubtedly influenced by many of these individuals, as his performances were filled with enthusiasm, humor and numerous banjo tricks creating an overall impression which harkened back to the days of the medicine show (Bill Malone, Country Music U.S.A, pg. 72). Always a colorful character Macon was proprietor of the Midway Mule and Wagon Transportation Company. He hauled materials from town to town entertaining passers-by as he worked. His professional show business career did not start until he was into middle age. Many of his songs paint a picture of social and political life in the South. Macon's recordings have been extensively reissued over the years. Down the Old Plank Road is about working on a Georgia chain gang.
An African-American version entitled “Aunt Dinah Drunk” was published in Thomas W. Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes, edited by Charles K. Wolfe, U. of Tennessee Pr., 1991, pp. 46-47; Probably an amalgam of diverse minstrel stanzas, this particular version does not appear in standard black collections. The third part, with the refrain, "Way down on de old plank road," appears in the recorded repertoire of Uncle Dave Macon (Vocalion 15321, 1926). Tally's papers contain two versions; the A version below is the one printed in the original edition.
Robin Bullock on her recording Between Earth and Sky- Another transatlantic medley: "Johnny Don't Get Drunk" appears to be an Appalachian variant of the Irish reel, "Miss Monaghan," with the sections reversed. Above are some recordings of the related melody, "Johnny Don't Get Drunk."
Dan Tate’s version of “Old Gray Goose/My Wife Died” is below. Here’s some info by Mike Yeats: Dan Tate was born in 1896 and must at one time have known a phenomenal number of songs and banjo tunes. Though frail and almost totally blind, his welcome to a complete stranger was as warm and genuine as could be. After recording many of his songs in 1979 and 1980 I called to see him again in 1983. "Did I sing you Lily Monroe?" he asked when I walked through his doorway. "It must be about England, 'cause they send for a 'London' doctor to heal up his wounds." He also recounted how one recent snowfall had almost ended his life. "I thought I was a gonner, Mike. I woke up and it was quiet, real quiet; and cold, real cold. The stove had gone out and I had no wood inside. I tried to open the door but it just wouldn't open. The house had just about disappeared in the snow. Well...I wrapped some blankets around me and sat in the chair, expecting to die. And do you know? It wasn't long before I heard my friends coming to dig me out!" Strength of character, tenacity and sensitivity are words that I'd use to describe Dan and his neighbors. Dan had been recorded for the Library of Congress by Professor Fletcher Collins, of Elon College, NC. Library records date these recording to 1941, although Dan was adamant that they had been made in 1938. I had heard one or two of Dan's recordings prior to meeting him and found that he still just loved to sing. One morning he began to talk about 'the war'. I thought that he was talking about the Great War, until he began to describe the American Civil War Battle of Shiloh. As a young man he had known people who had fought in the Civil War.
Here are the lyrics to “Old Gray Goose/My Wife Died” by Dan Tate:
Johnny Gordon lost his cow,
And where do you reckon he found her?
He found her up that rocky branch,
With a hundred buzzards round her.
Chorus: Look here, look there,
Look away over yander.
Don't you see that old grey goose,
A-smiling at that gander.
Johnny Gordon lost his wife,
And where do you reckon he found her?
He found her up that rocky branch,
With a hundred men around her.
In 1971 Roy Palmer noted the following two related verses from Mrs Cecilia Costello of Birmingham:
Saturday night I lost my wife
And Sunday morning I found her.
Behind the pump, a-scratchin' her rump
With all the men around 'er.
She jumped over the chimney pot
I jumped over the timber.
She cried out 'er back was broke
And I cried out, 'My finger'.
... and Bob Patten noted this verse from Harry Adams at Ile Abbots,
Somerset, in 1978:
Saturday night I lost my wife
And where do you think I found her?
Up in the moon, playing a tune,
With all the girls around her.
This latter verse was also used as a mnemonic for a version of The Kingsbury Jig, a variant of The Oyster Girl (see Sharp MS, M59).
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