Click on the title to link to a presentation of the song listed in the headline.
The year 2009 has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.
Remembering The Old Songs:
OLD SHOES AND LEGGINGS
by Lyle Lofgren
(Originally published: Inside Bluegrass, July 2007)
There are a number of obvious reasons why an old man who has accumulated worldly power would want to possess a beautiful young lady. Literature is full of such stories, often involving forced marriages and tragic endings. But when the old man has no money, tragedy turns to farce, and it's a rich vein to mine. Songs on the subject have been around a very long time. An example from Scotland is An Old Man Come a-Courtin' Me which has an adult theme, and in fact sounds like a pub song. Robert Burns's What Can a Young Lassie Do With An Old Man strikes me as a publishable re-writing of that older song. Even Tin Pan Alley got into the act, with Get Away, Old Man, Get Away, composed and popularized in 1926 by Frank Crumit. It made its way into tradition when J.E. Mainer recorded a hillbilly version.
This month's song perhaps originated in Scotland. It first appeared in print in the early 1700s, and has remained popular in British oral tradition under such titles as An Old Man Came O'er The Lea or With His Grey Beard Newly Shaven. American versions tend to emphasize foot and leg wear. If you want to see classic leggings, look at a photo of WWI soldiers. The long cloth strips wrapped around their lower legs protected pants from mud and burrs. The old man in the song has overshoes and leggings because he has to walk through the mud and brush, being too poor to ride. His clothes and shoes are protected. The only problem is that he doesn't bother to take them off when he's in the house.
Alan Lomax once pointed out that a traditional song has to have something that appeals to young people, or it will die out after only one generation. In typical Lomax fashion, he extended this axiom into a hypothesis that all folk songs are children's songs. I won't go that far, but it does seem that the staying power of this song has to do with some juvenile aspects: it ridicules old men, people of one's parents' generation; and the repetitive format and rhyme scheme are like some other children's songs.
I think of this one as being sung by teenaged girls. To hear it that way, you need to find an obscure field recording, My Mother Told Me, (Gant Family, Austin TX, 1936; Library of Congress Archive of Folk Song 645B4). You can listen to the version given here on Smithsonian-Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music. (Eck Dunford of Galax, VA; recorded 1928; originally released as Victor V40060). The record label said Old Shoes and Leggins, but Eck clearly sings "overshoes." The song structure encourages invention, even of the unconscious type. For example, I've sung a "I hung up his coat and it smelled like a goat" verse for many years, and I was surprised when I listened to the song and found it isn't on the record.
The old man acts the fool, particularly in his inappropriate use of work implements. Give him a hoe and he Jumps Jim Crow. "Jim Crow" nowadays refers to 20th century segregation laws, but the original came from Daddy Rice (1808-1860), the stage name of a popular Broadway blackface minstrel. He performed a ridiculous dance called "Jump Jim Crow." Instead of cutting wood with a saw, the old man uses it as a musical instrument, playing Rye Straw. That's a well-known fiddle tune (sometimes called Joke on the Puppy), but its only verse is scatological and not suitable for polite company. Neither is the old man.
Complete Lyrics:
A man that was old came a-courting one day,
And the girls wouldn't have him.
He come down the lane on his walking cane
With his overshoes on and his leggings.
My mother she told me to give him a chair,
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I give him a chair and he looked mighty queer,
With his overshoes on and his leggings.
My mother she told me to hang up his hat,
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I hung up his hat and he kicked at the cat
With his overshoes on and his leggings.
My mother she told me to give him some meat
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I give him some meat, and oh how he did eat
With his overshoes on and his leggings.
My mother she told me to give him the hoe
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I give him the hoe and he jumped Jim Crow
With his overshoes on and his leggings.
My mother she told me to give him the saw
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I give him the saw and he played "Rye Straw,"
With his overshoes on and his leggings.
My mother she told me to put him to bed
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I put him to bed and he stood on his head
With his overshoes on and his leggings.
My mother she told me to send him away
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I sent him away and he left Christmas Day
With his overshoes on and his leggings.
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