“Shenandoah”

Description

Usually has chorus "Away, you rolling river... Away, we're bound away, across the wide Missouri (world of Misery, etc.)" The basic text seems to have told of the white man who "loved the Indian maiden" but came from a different world and now is returning

Supplemental text

Shenandoah
  Complete text(s)

          *** A ***

The Wide Mizzoura

From Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag, p. 408. No source
indicated.

1 O Shannadore, I love your daughter,
  Hi-oh, you rolling river,
  I'll take 'er cross the rolling water,
  Ah-hah, I'm bound away 'cross the wide Mizzoura.

2 For seven years I courted Sally,
  Hi-oh, you rolling river,
  For seven more I longed to have her,
  Ah-hah, I'm bound away 'cross the wide Mizzoura.

3 She said she would not be my lover,
  Hi-oh, you rolling river,
  Because I was a dirty sailor,
  Ah-hah, I'm bound away 'cross the wide Mizzoura.

4 A-drinkin' rum and a-chewin' t'bacccer,
  Hi-oh, you rolling river,
  A-drinkin' rum and a-chewin' t'bacccer,
  Ah-hah, I'm bound away 'cross the wide Mizzoura.

Notes

Bone reports, "I have never heard this song sung at other duty than weighing anchor.... The very beauty of the air has even curbed the license of wild singers in the text. No bawdy lines, no plaint of mistreatment, no blasphemous exhortations were ranted in the singing of it." - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "Shanadar" (lyrics)

Recordings

• [Al] Campbell & [Henry] Burr, "Shenandoah" (Columbia A-2300, 1917) (Victor 18327, 1917)
• Minster Singers, "Shenandoah" (Victor 61147, n.d., prob. c. 1903)
• Paul Robeson, "Shenandoah" (Victor 27430, 1941)
• Pete Seeger, "Shenandoah" (on PeteSeeger18)

References

1. Doerflinger, p. 77, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. Bone, pp. 104-105, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
3. Colcord, p. 83, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
4. Harlow, pp. 112-114, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
5. Hugill, pp. 173-178, "Shenandoah" (4 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 140-143]
6. Sharp-EFC, XI, p. 13, "Shanadar (First version)" (1 text, 1 tune)
7. Linscott, pp. 148-149, "Shenandoah or The Wide Missouri" (1 short text, 1 tune)
8. Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 66-67, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
9. Smith/Hatt, p. 24, "Shanadore" (1 text)
10. Mackenzie 105, "Rolling River" (1 text, 1 tune)
11. Sandburg, p. 408, "The Wide Mizzoura" (1 text, 1 tune)
12. Lomax-FSUSA 41, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
13. Lomax-FSNA 25, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
14. Lomax-ABFS, pp. 543-546, "The Wild Miz-zou-rye" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 546, "Shenandoah" (1 text)
15. Fife-Cowboy/West 1, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
16. Darling-NAS, pp. 314-315, "Shenandoah" (1 text)
17. Arnett, p. 44, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
18. PSeeger-AFB, p. 17, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
19. Silber-FSWB, p. 85, "Shenandoah" (1 text)
20. DT, SHENDOAH*
21. ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Shenandoah!" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
22. Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 48, "Shanadar" (1 text, 1 tune, from Sharp; I suspect it may be composite; see the notes to "Shanadar (I)")
23. ST Doe077 (Full)
24. Roud #324
25. BI, Doe077