“The Eight-Pound Bass”

Description

Ice-fishing for bass on the Nor'West Miramichi river. "For I did fish in vain, I tried and tried again, I walked around the hole till I was lame, Away up on Whitney's Flats, Amongst the Nor'West brats, But that eight-pound bass I longed for never came"

Supplemental text

Eight-Pound Bass, The
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***
 
From Louise Manny and James Reginald Wilson, Songs of Miramichi,
#16, pp. 89-90. From the singing of George F. Campbell of Newcastle,
1947.

  Last night I got a net,
  Put it in the water wet,
Walked around the hole till I was lame,
  I pulled it up with care,
  But there was nothing there,
Except a cake of ice six inches thick.

  Then I murmured, "Can it be?
  Is there ne'er a bass for me?"
So I walked around the hole till I was lame,
  From hours before twilight
  Till twelve o'clock at night,
But that eight-pound bass I longed for never came.

(6 additional stanzas)

Notes

Manny/Wilson: "This song was made up in the 1890's or early 1900's.... The eight-pound bass ... was the most salable size.... Sandy Ives says the Bass is a parody of The Letter That Never Came, to be found in Sigmund Spaeth's _Weep Some More, My Lady_, and the Bass has essentially the same tune. From another source I am told the origin of our song was The Beefsteak that I Ordered Never Came." - BS

Cross references

• cf. "The Letter That Never Came" (tune and structure)

References

1. Manny/Wilson 16, "The Eight-Pound Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. ST MaWi016 (Partial)
3. Roud #9196
4. BI, MaWi016