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I'll Twine Mid the Ringlets/Wildwood Flower
Old-Time Parlor Song; Words and Music Maud Irving and J.P. Webster- 1860
ARTIST: Lyrics ORIGINAL CARTER FAMILY RECORDING: RCA Victor Studios, Camden, NJ, May 10, 1928 (45029-1; issued as Vi V-40000).
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
EARLIEST DATE: 1860- Sheet music Maud Irving and J.P. Webster
RECORDING INFO: Wildwood Flower [Me II-E10] - Webster, J. P./Irving, Maud
Rt - Forsaken Lover ; Wildwood Flower Revisted; Pale Amarylis
At - I'll Twine Mid the Ringlets
Rm - Sinking of the Reuben James
Mf - Texas State Anthem
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Wildwood Flower Revisted - Irving, Maud/Webster, J. P./Fink, Cathy
Rt - Wildwood Flower
Fink, Cathy. Leading Role, Rounder 0223, LP (1985), trk# B.03
OTHER NAMES: Pale Wildwood Flower; Frail Wildwood Flower; Forsaken Lover; Wildwood Flower Revisted; Pale Amarylis; I'll Twine Mid the Ringlets
MELODY FOR: Sinking of the Reuben James
SOURCES: Mudcat; Folk Index; Ballad Index
NOTES: Wildwood Flower is a parlor song titled "I'll Twine Mid the Ringlets" by
Maud Irving and J.P. Webster published in 1860. Autoharpist Sara Carter sang lead when the Carter Family made "Wildwood Flower" the #3 hit in the nation in 1928.
For years the Carter Family were credited with writing/arranging the song. A debate about the origin and type of flower, which the Carters called "pale Aronatus" perhaps "pale Amarylis," has perplexed researchers. In the 1928 version the Carters sing: "The myrtle so bright with an emerald hue; And the pale Aronatus with eyes of bright blue." The song was passed down through the generations and I doubt Sara Carter knew what words she was singing. Different people hear different syllables; the exact meaning and type of flower may never be known.
The song is a popular bluegrass/country instrument usually as a guitar solo. The melody was adapted and used for Woody Guthrie's song "Sinking of the Reuben James."
Ballad Index Notes: DESCRIPTION: The singer prepares to deck herself out with flowers in her hair, in response to her former lover who now has abandoned her. She promises to behave joyfully and forget she knew him, and make him regret that he "neglected his pale wildwood flower"
AUTHOR: Words: Maud Irving / Music: Joseph Philbrick Webster (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment beauty flowers
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
BrownIII 263, "The Pale Wildwood Flower" (3 texts plus a fragment)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 248-249, "[Pale Wildwood Flower]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 50-51, "Wildwood Flower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 798, "The Wildwood Flower" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 500-501, "The Wildwood Flower" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 798A)
Silber-FSWB, p. 166, "Wildwood Flower" (1 text)
DT, WILDWFLR*
Roud #757
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Wildwood Flower" (Victor V-40000, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4432, 1934; rec. 1928) (Melotone 5-11-65, 1935); as "The A. P. Carter Family," "Wildwood Flower" (Acme 996, n.d.)
Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle, "Wildwood Flower" (Columbia 21138, 1953)
John D. Mounce et al, "Wildwood Flower" (on MusOzarks01)
James Roberts, "Frail Wildwood Flower" (Gennett 6566 [as Wikel Miller]/Conqueror 7254 [as Joe Reeves], 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben James" (tune)
I'LL TWINE 'MID THE RINGLETS (Maud Irving and J.P. Webster) (1860)
I'll twine 'mid the ringlets of my raven black hair
The lilies so pale and the roses so fair
The myrtle so bright with an emeral hue
And the pale aronatus with eyes of bright blue.
I'll sing and I'll dance, my laugh shall be gay
I'll cease this wild weeping, drive sorrow away.
Tho' my heart is now breaking, he never shall know
That his name made me tremble and my pale cheeks to glow.
I'll think of him never, I'll be wildly gay
I'll charm ev'ry heart, and the crowd I will sway.
I'll live yet to see him regret the dark hour
When he won, then neglected, the frail wildwood flower.
He told me he loved me, and promis'd to love
Trough ill and misfortune, all others above
Another has won him; ah, misery to tell
He left me in silence, no word of farewell.
He taught me to love him, he call'd me his flower
That blossom'd for him all the brighter each hour
But I woke from my dreaming, my idol was clay
My visions of love have all faded away.
WILDWOOD FLOWER- Carter Family 1928
MAYBELLE CARTER: The first time I heard this song, I was just a kid. My mother sang it and her mother sang it. It has been handed down for years and years. It's the most popular song, we ever recorded, and there's hardly a country group who doesn't use this song. [Dorothy Horstman interview, Nashville, TN, 6 Sep 1973, reprinted in Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy, New York, 1976, pp. 201-202. Lyrics as reprinted ibid., p. 202.]
Oh, I'll twine with my mingles and waving black hair
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair
And the myrtles so bright with emerald dew
The pale and the leader and eyes look like blue.
Oh, I'll dance, I will sing and my laugh shall be gay
I will charm ev'ry heart, in his crown I will sway
When I woke from my dreaming, idols were clay
All portions of love then had all flown away.
Oh, he taught me to love him and promised to love
And to cherish me over all others above
How my heart now is wond'ring misery can tell
He's left me no warning, no words of farewell.
Oh, he taught me to love him and called me his flow'r
That was blooming to cheer him through life's dreary hour
Oh, I'm longing to see him through life's dark hour
He's gone and neglected this pale wildwood flower.
WILDWOOD FLOWER Carter family- another take on first verse
Oh, I'll twine with my mingels and waving black hair
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair
And the myrtle so bright with the emerald hew
The pale amanita and islip like blue
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
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