“The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane”

Description

Singer, a former slave, is getting old and can't work; his master and mistress and fellow slaves are gone; only his old dog remains. His home is falling apart. He recalls the dances they used to have. He hopes the angels will watch over him.

Long description

Singer, a former slave, is getting old and feeble; he can't work any more, his master and mistress are gone, and so are the other former slaves; no one else remains except his old dog. In former days the other "darkies" would gather around his door, and he'd play the banjo while they danced. His house is falling down, the footpath is overgrown and the fences fall down. Chorus: "The chimney's falling down, and the roof is caving in/I ain't got long round here to remain/The angels watches over me when I lay down to sleep/In the little old log cabin in the lane"

Notes

This pop song is the basis from which all of the cross-referenced songs were built. From a modern perspective it's sentimentally stereotyped balderdash, but it was a huge hit when published -- and, judging by the number of versions on 78s, it remained wildly popular half a century later. (Presumably among white people.) It's indexed here primarily because of the genuine folk songs it inspired. - PJS

According to Bill Malone (_Don't Get above Your Raisin'_, p. 54), the 1923 Fiddlin' John Carson recording is "one side of the first documented recording of a southern rural musician." - RBW

Not quite; Eck Robertson recorded several sides of fiddle music on Victor before Carson made his first recording, and one of the discs was released before Carson's. But it didn't have any impact, probably because Victor considered itself a "prestige" label and had no idea how to market it. (They also, unlike their competitors, had no distribution agreement with a major mail-order company like Sears, and wouldn't until the 1930s, so they missed a prime means of distribution to rural buyers.) Carson's OKeh disc, backed with "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow," wasn't the first, but it was the one that started the avalanche. - PJS

Same tune

• The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim (File: R197)
• Little Joe the Wrangler [Laws B5] (File: LB05)
• The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill (File: HHH642)
• Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell (File: R204)
• The Freehold on the Plain (File: FaE174)
• Beans, Bacon, and Gravy (File: Arn170)
• Sara Jane (File: RcSarJan)
• The Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square (File: FCW025H)
• The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I) (File: BRaF455)
• The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (II) (File: Br3235)
• The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (III) (File: RcTLRCBT)
• The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (IV) (File: LSRai261)
• The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (V) (The Hobo Tramp) (File: LSRai382)
• My Cabin Home Among the Hills (File: RcMCHAtH)
• Callahan Brothers, "Little Poplar Log House on the Hill" (Conqueror 8384, 1934)

Cross references

• cf. "The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim" (tune)
• cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (subject, tune)
• cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune)
• cf. "Beans, Bacon, and Gravy" (tune)
• cf. "The Freehold on the Plain" (tune)
• cf. "Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (tune)
• cf. "Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square" (tune)
• cf. "cf. "Sara Jane" (tune)
• cf. "My Cabin Home Among the Hills" (tune)

Recordings

• Bentley Ball, "De Little Old Log Cabin in de Lane" (Columbia A3087, 1920)
• Kenneth Barton [pseud. for Marian Underwood], "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Challenge 331, 1927)
• Binkley Bros. Dixie Clodhoppers, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor V-40129, 1929)
• Frank [or Kenneth] Calvert [pseud. for somebody, probably Vernon Dalhart or Carson Robison], "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Grey Gull/Radiex 4135, 1927)
• Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (OKeh 4890, 1923)
• Carroll Clark, "De Little Old Log Cabin in de Lane" (Columbia A-696, 1909)
• Vernon Dalhart, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Cameo 1174/Romeo 399, 1927) 2455
• Girls of the Golden West, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 23857, 1933; Bluebird B-5737, 1934)
• Doc Hopkins, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Broadway 8305, rec. 1931)
• Bradley Kincaid, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Champion 15923 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9505, 1929)
• Silas Leachman, "Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 1893, 1903)
• Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner [Mac and Bob], "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Brunswick 350, 1929; Supertone S-2036, 1930; Aurora [Canada] 22004, 1931)
• Uncle Dave Macon, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Vocalion 14864, 1924)
• Clayton McMichen "Log Cabin in the Lane" (Crown 3447 [as Bob Nichols], 1933; Varsity 5026, n.d. but prob. c. 1939)
• Metcalf & Spencer, "The Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia 645, 1902; Columbia A-480, 1909)
• Metropolitan Quartet, "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Edison 80484, n.d.) (CYL: Edison [BA] 3573, n.d.)
• David Miller, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Gennett 3082/Silvertone 4019, 1925)
• Fiddlin' Powers & Family "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 19448, 1924) (Edison, unissued, 1925)
• Riley Puckett, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia 107-D, 1924) (Columbia 15171-D, 1927)
• Oscar Seagle, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia A-3582, 1922; rec. 1921)
• Frank C. Stanley, "A Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Imperial 44823, c. 1906)
• Ernest V. Stoneman "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 20235, 1926) (Montgomery Ward M-8305 [as Stoneman's Dixie Mountaineers], 1939); Ernest V. Stoneman Trio, "Little Log Cabin in the Lane" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
• John White, "The Little Old Log Cabin" (Paramount 3190, 1930)

References

1. Roud #2473
2. BI, RcLOLCIL