“The Norway Bum”
Description
"I'm a bum and addicted to rum." His father drove the singer from home because "I loved a fair lass far beneath my own class." They married; his wife and child died in a fire in Norway. "To drown sorrow I plunged into rum... And now I am only a bum"
Notes
Ives-DullCare: "No one was killed in the fire that destroyed much of Norway, Maine, in 1894, and there is no evidence to show that the song is based on a real person or incident, but, since Scott was not given to fiction, we can be reasonably sure that he thought his source ... was factual." - BS
References
- Ives-DullCare, pp. 119-121, 251, "The Norway Bum" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Roud #13992
- BI, IvDC119