“Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?”
Description
Bill (a B&O brakeman) and his woman have a fight; he storms out. She begs, "Won't you come home, Bill Bailey... I'll do the cooking, honey, I'll pay the rent; I know I've done you wrong." (At last Bill shows up in an automobile)
Notes
Although obviously not a folk song in origin, this strikes me as a popular enough piece as to belong here. Fuld mentions several papers examining who "Bill Bailey" might have been. He seems to find none of them entirely convincing.
The story in Geller is that William Bailey was a "lazy shiftless Negro whose angry spouse, weary of supporting him, had finally turned him out." Cannon, apparently too sexist to fathom this, was convinced she would take him back, and made the wife the lazy one.
Spaeth's _A History of Popular Music in America_ mentions another 1902 song, "I Wonder Why Bill Bailey Don't Come Home" (by Frank Fogarty, Woodward, Mills), and still another, "Since Bill Bailey Came Back Home," by Billy Johnson and Seymour Furth. Unfortunately, he supplies no details. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "The Hop-Joint" (some lyrics; character of Bill Bailey)
- cf. "Oh, Baby, 'Low Me One More Chance" (theme)
Recordings
- Perry Bechtel's Colonels, "Bill Bailey" (Brunswick 498, c. 1930)
- Al Bernard, "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home" (Brunswick 312, 1929; Panachord [UK] 25148, 1931; rec.1928)
- Homer Brierhopper, "Bill Bailey" (Bluebird B-6903, 1937)
- Big Bill Broonzy, "Bill Bailey" (on Broonzy01)
- Arthur Collins, "Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home" (CYL: Edison 8112, 1902)
- Warde Ford, "Bill Bailey" [fragment] (AFS 4215 B3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
- Jess Young's Tennessee Band [or Young Brothers' Tennessee Band], "Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home" (Columbia 15219-D, 1927)
References
- Silber-FSWB, p. 253, "Bill Bailey" (1 text)
- Geller-Famous, pp. 205-210, "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Fuld-WFM, pp. 145-146, "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?"
- DT, BLLBAILY*
- Roud #4325
- BI, FSWB253B