“Foggy Mountain Top”

Description

Floating fragments: "If I was on some foggy mountain top/I'd sail away to the west...." "If I'd listened to what my mama said/I would not have been here today/Lying around this old jail cell/Just a-weeping my poor life away"

Notes

Some versions of this never-entirely-coherent song seem to have mixed with "The False Young Man, (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)" to yield mixed forms such as "White Oak Mountain." It can be hard to tell, with shorter versions, which is which. - RBW

Recordings

  • Carter Family, "The Foggy Mountain Top" (Victor V-40058, 1929)
  • Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle, "Foggy Mountain Top" (Columbia 20920, 1952)
  • Monroe Bros., "On Some Foggy Mountain Top" (Montgomery Ward M-4749/Bluebird B-6607, 1936)
  • New Lost City Ramblers, "On Some Foggy Mountain Top" (on NLCREP1, NLCRCD1) (NLCR16)
  • Ola Belle & Bud Reed, "Foggy Mountain Top" (on Reeds01)

References

  1. [Randolph 799, "If I Was On Some Foggy Mountain Top" -- deleted in the second printing]
  2. BrownIII 365, "The Foggy Mountain Top" (1 text)
  3. SharpAp 112, "The Rocky Mountain Top" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
  4. Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 42-43, "Foggy Mountain Top" (1 text, 1 tune)
  5. Silber-FSWB, p. 66, "Foggy Mountain Top" (1 text)
  6. DT, FGGYMTTP
  7. Roud #11735
  8. BI, CSW042

About

Author: unknown
Earliest date: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection)
Found in: US(Ap,SE)