Fellow music lovers,

This is what I wrote to Bebop when I sent in my last song for the 20-4-1 disk.

Bebop, I need help! Yesterday my family (which is quite large) came over to the party I threw to make sure they didn’t forget to honor their old dad on fathers day. They tend to give all the credit to their Ma and overlook the fact that old dad had quite a large part in their entrance into this world. I have to point out how much it took out of me to accomplish this feat. Anyway, I thought I would honor them by letting them listen to the new song I was going to send to you for the next 20 for 1 disk. The song was a very old standard by a very, very well known and honored composer of American music. A classic to say the least. Well, I played my heart out trying to interpret the feeling of romping in that old river and admiring the twisting and turning of it’s waters flowing threw it’s rambling banks and curves. After the foot stomping and very inspiring rendition of the old favorite southern classic, I rose from the bench and took my very humble bow and asked how they liked it. To the very last person they said it was nice but what was the name. They all agreed the song sounded sort of familiar but could not come up with the name. My first reaction was of gross disappointment with my family and friends. Their inability to recognize an old favorite showed their lackluster appreciation of the arts. A quality that I tried to instill in them since childhood. Was I a failure as a father? In my mind the notion of being a failure was an impossible thought. My mind started to do tricks with me. Maybe, just maybe I might be loosing it. Maybe trying to give the old river sort of a bluegrass flavor, maybe too hillbillyish? What, just what? Was I too far north for a southern river? Bill, this is why I need help. I sort of changed the name of the song I’m sending you to see if you recognize the original name. I know you will but I would like to see of any of the others on the forum could. To my surprise Bill said I would offer a prize to the one who came up with the name. I was really worried and could see big bucks changing hands. Thank goodness I said original name. Kind of like when Ruthie calls me honey. Honey do this or honey do that. Honey is not my real name or disposition. Sometimes I wonder why she calls me honey. Oh well! Maybe I’m better than I think? Could be better off not knowing. Anyway so it is with this song. I might of thrown you guys off by naming it just, River.

Bill wrote me back and said the name was ‘Swannee River’. Also two others wrote me with the same name. Being older than most of you and Ruthie being older than me we of course know it by the older name and also by Swannee River. So here is some documentation and history of the mystery tune I murdered with my KN. I know sometimes I ramble on and on. It might be old age but I kind of like to blame it on all the kids and the multitude of grand kids. Maybe that’s why my playing sometimes rambles on and kind of gets away from the tune.


Center for American Music
Stephen Foster Pages

Go!

The Old Folks at Home

* State song of Florida, adopted in 1935 through House Concurrent Resolution no. 22.
* Words and music written in 1851 by Stephen Collins Foster in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for E.P. Christy and his performing troupe, Christy's Minstrels, in New York. E.P. Christy paid Foster for the privilege of having his name appear as composer of Old Folks at Home, apparently at Foster's suggestion, an arrangement Foster later tried to reverse
* First line: "Way down upon the Swanee River, far, far away"
* In the original draft of the song in Foster's sketchbook, Foster used the Pedee River instead of the Suwannee
* Most popular song ever published at that time; sold 100s of thousands of copies
* The first international "folk song," familiar in every culture of every continent
* Foster never saw the Suwannee River, never visited Florida. The river was chosen from an atlas to fit the poetic meter of the lyrics
* The song started the tourist industry in Florida; beginning in 1880s, it drew millions of people from around the world seeking the symbolic river and idyllic home described in the song's words
* Meanings of the words, significance of the song

(selective list, paraphrased, based on interpretations reported in the literature):


1. Foster's intended meaning (1850s):

No matter how far we may travel or what sadness the world imposes on us, all our hearts ache for the best memories of childhood, the security of a family and parents ("old folks"), the familiarity of a home.
2. Post-reconstruction era (1870s-1890s):

Blacks yearn to go back to the plantation, where they were better off. (The song was performed condescendingly and with exaggerated dialect.)
3. Harry T. Burleigh and Antonin Dvorak (1890s):

A "heart song" of the American people, a folk song alongside slave's spirituals.
4. W.E.B. DuBois (ca. 1900):

Old Folks at Home is legitimately considered an authentic song of the Negro race, who have adopted it to express their own emotions.
5. W.C. Handy ("Father of the Blues" in his autobiography, 1955):

Old Folks at Home, My Old Kentucky Home, and Old Black Joe helped bring about emancipation, and owe something to the "well of sorrow" that gave rise to the blues.
6. Civil Rights Era (1950s-1960s):

Any song ever associated with negative ethnic images should be eliminated.
7. Postmodern era (1980s-1990s):

Any song (even The Star Spangled Banner and America) can be interpreted both positively and negatively. Old Folks at Home has hundreds of meanings around the world.


* Related songs by Foster (date of composition):


Nelly Was a Lady (1849): First known song for the mass market to insist on an African-American woman as a "lady" and to portray a married African-American couple as a faithful, loving husband and wife destroyed by slavery
My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night (1852): over several years Foster had tried to persuade professional performers to portray African-Americans with dignity; this is his first song for the professional stage published without dialect
Old Dog Tray (1853): Foster's first song for the professional stage in which race is not identifiable
Hard Times Come Again No More (1854): race is not identifiable, and those who can afford life's pleasures are asked to "sup sorrow with the poor"
Old Black Joe (1860): a secular hymn written by a white man to the beauty and dignity of a black man, first such song in American history
 

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Old Folks at Home

Way down upond de Swanee ribber,
Far, far away,
Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber,
Dere's wha de old folks stay.
All up and down de whole creation,
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for de old plantation,
And for de old folks at home.

chorus:
All de world am sad and dreary,
Ebry where I roam,
Oh! darkeys how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home.

All round de little farm I wandered
When I was young,
Den many happy days I squandered,
Many de songs I sung.
When I was playing wid my brudder
Happy was I
Oh! take me to my kind old mudder,
Dere let me live and die.

One little hut among de bushes,
One dat I love,
Still sadly to my mem'ry rushes,
No matter where I rove
When will I see de bees a humming
All round de comb?
When will I hear de banjo tumming
Down in my good old home?