Looking for Public Domain help

Completely aside from David's topic. but...
Love that video! Very nice! And what make of car is that?
I think it's a 1933 Ford Coupe. You might be familiar with this slightly modified version of the same car.

Of course! I should have thought of ZZ Top!! :D

Another one I just thought of:
Mary had a little lamb

Originally written in 1830, recorded by Paul McCartney, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughn... and Thomas Edison.
Among others.

I thought I'd go back to page one and research some of the suggestions. (I'm also citing the reference sources and will go back and cite the others already done.) This is what I have so far:

"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (or simply "Motherless Child") is a traditional Negro spiritual.

The song dates back to the era of slavery in the United States when it was common practice to sell children of slaves away from their parents. An early performance of the song dates back to the 1870s by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Like many traditional songs, it has many variations and has been recorded widely.

Superficially, the song is clearly an expression of pain and despair as it conveys the hopelessness of a child who has lost her mother. A subtlety in the lyrics, however, offers a measure of hope. The repetitive singing of the word "sometimes" in the song's melody line suggests that at least "sometimes" I do not feel like a motherless child.

Although the plaintive words can be interpreted literally, they were much more likely metaphoric. The “motherless child” could be a slave separated from and yearning for his African homeland, a slave suffering “a long ways from home”—home being heaven—or most likely both.

A widely acclaimed arrangement was written by Harry T. Burleigh in 1918.
Dimitri Tiomkin used the tune in a choral arrangement in the film Home of the Brave (1949)
Pier Paolo Pasolini used it in the film The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)

Notable versions:
Paul Robeson, originally recorded by EMI in the 1930s, on his album Songs of Free Men (1997) as well as on his album Paul Robeson: The Complete EMI Sessions 1928-1939 (2008) and on several previous LPs.
Lou Rawls and the Pilgrim Travelers for the album The Soul Stirring Gospel Sound of the Pilgrim Travelers (1962).
Darlene Love covered part of it for the first part of the Gospel Medley in the Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special (1968)
Jimmy Scott on his album The Source (1969)
Ike & Tina Turner covered it on their 1969 album Outta Season
The Les Humphries Singers on their first album Rock My Soul in 1970
Richie Havens used lyrical elements of this piece in an improvised song at Woodstock Festival in 1969 when he ran out of songs to play after being called back for multiple encores.
Boney M. on their second album Love for sale (1977)
Van Morrison on Poetic Champions Compose (1987), also on The Best of Van Morrison Volume Two (1993)
Martin L. Gore, on Counterfeit e.p. (1989)
Crime and the City Solution, on Paradise Discotheque (1990)
Charlie Haden and Hank Jones on Steal Away: Spirituals, Hymns, and Folk Songs
Hootie & the Blowfish, on Cracked Rear View (1994)
Kevin Eubanks, on Live at Bradley's (1996, Blue Note) (1994)
Tom Jones (accompanied by Portishead) on Reload (1999)
The daughter character, Keesha, sang this piece in the play I Can Do Bad All By Myself, written by Tyler Perry (1999)
Waterson on Matchbox Selection (2000)
Under the name Lucky Pierre, Aidan Moffat used an operatic sample of the phrase "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child" on the track of the same name from his 2002 solo album Hypnogogia.
John Legend on Solo Sessions Vol. 1: Live at the Knitting Factory (2005)
Wishbone Ash on Clan Destiny (2006)
Ghostface Killah in Ironman (album) (1996)
Listening to the trumpet-played version of Wynton Marsalis you see that child... Track 14: Traditional Spiritual from Portrait of Wynton Marsalis, SONY Classical, 1989/92
John Frusciante - live version at the Hollywood Moguls 3/28/97.
Over the Rhine recorded a live version for Live from Nowhere: Volume Three (2007)
Eric Burdon, for the film The Blue Hour (2007).
Matthew Perryman Jones, on Swallow the Sea (2008)
Beth Nielsen Chapman, the 2008 compilation album, Song of America
Loren Connors and Suzanne Langille, on 1987-89 (2000)
John Scofield on Piety Street (2009)

__________________________________________________________________________

References
^ a b "Blue Gene" Tyranny, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" article, Allmusic
^ Barton, Hymns of the Slave and the Freedman, p.17 ("Not very long ago I attended a concert given by a troupe of jubilee singers, whose leader was a member of the original Fisk company. Toward the end of the programme he announced that a recently arrived singer in his troupe from Mississippi had brought a song that her grandparents sang in slave times, which he counted the saddest and most beautiful of song of slavery. It was a mutilated version of Aunt Dinah's song ['Motherless Child' or 'I feel like I'd never been borned.']")
^ *"Sweet Chariot: the story of the spirituals" by Arthur C. Jones
^ Floyd, The Power of Black Music, page 218: "The first extended troping of the tune of 'Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child' was George Gershwin's repetition of it in Porgy and Bess (1935) as 'Summertime'."
recorded by folk artist The Simon Sisters in the mid 1960's.

Bibliography
Barton, William E., D.D. "Hymns of the Slave and the Freedman" from Old Plantation Hymns with Historical and Descriptive Notes. Lamson, Woolffe and Company, 1899.
Floyd, Samuel A., Jr. The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States. Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-508235-4

External links
Lyrics as by J. W. Johnson & J. R. Johnson (1926) at negrospirituals.com
Art of the States: Piano Sonata No. 4 musical work quoting the spiritual by African-American composer George Walker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sometimes_I_Feel_Like_a_Motherless_Child
Roud Folksong Index # 10072 http://library.efdss.org/cgi-bin/query.cgi?cross=on&type=Song&access=off&op_0=or&field_0=&op_5=or&field_5=&op_9=or&field_9=&op_10=or&field_10=&op_11=or&field_11=&op_12=or&field_12=&op_13=or&field_13=&op_14=or&field_14=&op_15=or&field_15=&op_16=or&field_16=&op_17=or&field_17=&op_18=or&field_18=&op_19=or&field_19=&op_20=or&field_20=&op_21=or&field_21=&op_22=or&field_22=&op_23=or&field_23=&op_24=or&field_24=&op_25=or&field_25=&op_26=or&field_26=&op_47=or&field_47=&fieldshow=single&op=precise&query=Sometimes+I+feel+like+a+motherless+child&field=all&output=List&length=50&submit=Submit+query&index_roud=on&index_roudbroadside=on
The Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/dukesm:@field(DOCID+@lit(ncdhasm.n0735))

Unfortunately for Vic, Xabi Alonso is no longer with Liverpool.

"St. James Infirmary Blues" is an American folksong of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose (a pseudonym for Irving Mills). Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.

The source of this song is an 18th century English folk song called "The Unfortunate Rake" (also known as "Unfortunate Lad" or "The Young Man Cut Down in His Prime"). There are versions of this song throughout the English-speaking world, and it evolved into American standards such as "The Streets of Laredo" or "The Dying Cowboy". "The Unfortunate Rake" is about a sailor who uses his money on prostitutes, and it implies that he dies of a venereal disease. When the song moved to America, gambling and drinking became the cause of the man's death.

The song was first collected in England in its version as "The Unfortunate Rake" by Henry Hammond by a Mr. William Cutis at Lyme Regis, Dorset in March 1906.

Notable performers of this song include Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The White Stripes, King Oliver, Artie Shaw, Big Mama Thornton, Jack Teagarden, Billie Holiday, Cassandra Wilson, Bobby Hackett, Stan Kenton, Lou Rawls, The Limeliters, Bobby Bland, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Doc Watson, "Spider" John Koerner, Janis Joplin, The Doors, The Animals, and more recently The White Stripes, the Stray Cats, the Tarbox Ramblers, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, and Tom Jones with Jools Holland. Jazz guitarists Marc Ribot and Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones have recorded instrumental versions.

Bob Dylan used the melody in his song "Blind Willie McTell" (released on Bootleg Series, Volumes 1–3), named for blues singer Blind Willie McTell (who recorded a version of the song under the title "Dying Crapshooter's Blues"); the song makes reference to the St. James Hotel.

Van Morrison recorded a rendition on the (2003) Grammy nominated album, What's Wrong with This Picture? and a live version on the limited edition album, Live at Austin City Limits Festival (2006). Eric Clapton and Dr. John performed a rendition of the song during a 1996 concert. Arlo Guthrie performed a rendition on NPR's Talk of the Nation on November 14, 2001. Robert Crumb released a version on a CD included in the R. Crumb Handbook. Live versions appear on Joe Cocker's albums Something to Say (1972), and Live in L.A. (1976).

The Bing Crosby musical Birth of the Blues featured the song in 1941. In 2002, the song appeared in Osamu Tezuka's Dixieland-influenced anime film Metropolis as performed by Atsushi Kimura and arranged by Toshiyuki Honda. Cab Calloway can be seen singing it and dancing a slide dance in the Betty Boop cartoon Snow White. His performance was filmed, then transferred into the cartoon using rotoscoping.

___________________________________________________________________

External links
MP3 Download and Lyrics from Roger McGuinn's Folk Den
Lyrics and Historical Info at the Mudcat Cafe
Historical investigation by Rob Walker
Suspense (1953) "St James Infirmary Blues" starring Rosemary Clooney.
Huge collection of "St. James Infirmary Blues" songs
Magical Mystery Tour Sarah Vowell discusses the song's history and affect
Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._James_Infirmary_Blues "

Roud Folksong Index # 2 http://library.efdss.org/cgi-bin/query.cgi?cross=on&type=Song&access=off&op_0=or&field_0=&op_5=or&field_5=&op_9=or&field_9=&op_10=or&field_10=&op_11=or&field_11=&op_12=or&field_12=&op_13=or&field_13=&op_14=or&field_14=&op_15=or&field_15=&op_16=or&field_16=&op_17=or&field_17=&op_18=or&field_18=&op_19=or&field_19=&op_20=or&field_20=&op_21=or&field_21=&op_22=or&field_22=&op_23=or&field_23=&op_24=or&field_24=&op_25=or&field_25=&op_26=or&field_26=&op_47=or&field_47=&fieldshow=single&op=precise&query=St.+James+Infirmary&field=all&output=List&length=50&submit=Submit+query&index_roud=on&index_roudbroadside=on

St James Infirmary Blues
ZZ Top Boogie Chillen
Cocaine - for instance Jackson Brown
Cocaine Blues - Johnny Cash

Got the info on St. James Infirmary.
Boogie Chillen only goes back to 1948.
Wasn't sure if David would want to use anything referring to drugs for this project. But I DO have some info if he wants it!

A public domain composition, "Cocaine" (a.k.a. "Cocaine Blues") is often listed as a traditional folk song, but it was actually written by Luke Jordan, who recorded the song in 1929.

"Wade in the Water"

The main chorus is:

Wade in the water.
Wade in the water children.
Wade in the water.
God's gonna trouble the water.

The song relates to both the Old and New Testaments. The verses reflect the Israelites escape out of Egypt as found in Exodus:14. The chorus refers to healing: see John 5:4, "For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."

Many internet sources and popular books claim that songs such as "Wade in the Water" contained explicit instructions to fugitive slaves on how to avoid capture and the route to take to successfully make their way to freedom. This particular song allegedly recommends leaving dry land and taking to the water as a strategy to throw pursuing bloodhounds off one's trail.

"Wade in the Water" was a popular instrumental hit in 1966 for the Ramsey Lewis Trio, which prompted further instrumental recordings by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and Billy Preston (both 1967). The melody was used for the 1988 Tony Toni Tone hit "Little Walter". The version by The Golden Gate Quartet also appears on the album Nick Cave - Roots & Collaborations (2009), establishing the song as one of the musical sources that have inspired the Australian artist.

Selective list of recordings:
Sunset Four Jubilee Singers (Paramount 12273, 1925)
The Golden Gate Quartet (1946)
Odetta The Tin Angel (1954)
The Folksmiths with Joe Hickerson (1958) Folkways F-2407
Ella Jenkins and the Goodwill Spiritual Choir (1960)
Graham Bond (1965)
Ramsey Lewis Trio (1966)
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass (1967)
Billy Preston (1968)
Big Mama Thornton (1968)
Eva Cassidy (1997)
Mary Mary Thankful (2000)

________________________________________________________________
Resources:
http://www.gwu.edu/~e73afram/dw-ah-ek.html#wade "Wade In De Water"
http://www.gospelsonglyrics.org/songs/wade_in_the_water.html "Coded Slave Songs"
Sources:
Waltz, Robert B; David G. Engle. "Wade In The Water". The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World. Hosted by California State University, Fresno, Folklore, 2007.

"Whiskey in the Jar" is a famous Irish traditional song, usually set in the Cork and Kerry mountains, about a highwayman who is betrayed by his wife or lover.

The song's exact origins are unknown. A number of its lines and the general plot resemble those of a contemporary broadside ballad "Patrick Fleming" (also called "Patrick Flemmen he was a Valiant Souldier") about an Irish highwayman executed in 1650. In the book The Folk Songs of North America, folk music historian Alan Lomax suggests that the song originated in the 17th century, and (based on plot similarities) that John Gay's 1728 The Beggar's Opera was inspired by Gay hearing an Irish ballad-monger singing "Whiskey in the Jar". In regard to the history of the song, Lomax states, "The folk of seventeenth century Britain liked and admired their local highwaymen; and in Ireland (or Scotland) where the gentlemen of the roads robbed English landlords, they were regarded as national patriots. Such feelings inspired this rollicking ballad." At some point, the song came to the United States and was a favorite in Colonial America because of its irreverent attitude towards British officials. The American versions are sometimes set in America and deal with American characters. One such version, from Massachusetts, is about Alan McCollister, an Irish-American soldier who is sentenced to death by hanging for robbing British officials. The song appeared in a form close to its modern version in a precursor called "The Sporting Hero, or, Whiskey in the Bar" in a mid-1850s broadsheet.

A partial discography:
Seamus Ennis (Alan Lomax field recording in Ireland) World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, Vol. 2: Ireland 1951
Burl Ives - Songs Of Ireland 1958 "Kilgary Mountain"
The Brothers Four- In Person 1962 "Kilgary Mountain"
The Highwaymen (folk band) - B side to their single "I'm On My Way" 1962 "Kilgary Mountain"
The Limeliters - Sing Out! 1962 "Kilgary Mountain"
The Seekers - The Seekers 1964
Peter, Paul & Mary - A Song Will Rise 1965 "Gilgarra Mountain"
The Dubliners –
More of the Hard Stuff 1967
A Drop of The Dubliners 1969
Live at the Albert Hall 1969
The Dubliners Live 1974
Live In Carré 1983
30 Years A'Greying (with the Pogues) 1992
Irish Drinking Songs 1993
Alive-Alive-O 1997
Live At Vicar Street 2006
Thin Lizzy - Vagabonds of the Western World 1973
Metallica - Garage Inc. 1998
Tommy Makem - The Song Tradition 1998 "Captain Farrell"
Belle & Sebastian - The Blues Are Still Blue EP 2006
Simple Minds - Searching for the Lost Boys 2009
The song has also been recorded by singers and folk groups such as Robert DeCormier Singers, The Pogues, Roger Whittaker, The Irish Rovers, the Poxy Boggards, Seven Nations, King Creosote, Brobdingnagian Bards, and Christy Moore.
Contrary to what is commonly believed and repeated, The Clancy Brothers never recorded the song. The confusion stems from the album Irish Drinking Songs which is composed of separate tracks by The Dubliners and The Clancy Brothers, with the former performing "Whiskey in the Jar." Liam Clancy did record it with his son and nephew on Clancy, O'Connell & Clancy in 1997, and Tommy Makem recorded it on The Song Tradition in 1998.
It was given a rock veneer by Thin Lizzy. The 1972 Irish release stayed at the top of the Irish charts for 17 weeks, and the British release stayed in the top 30 for 12 weeks, peaking at No. 6, in 1973.
Thin Lizzy's version has since been covered by U2, Pulp (1995), Smokie, Metallica (1998, their version won a Grammy), Belle & Sebastian, Gary Moore (2006), Simple Minds (2009), and Israeli musician Izhar Ashdot.
Jerry Garcia and David Grisman recorded a bluegrass version of the song for the album Shady Grove.
Lillebjørn Nilsen adapted it to Norwegian, as "Svikefulle Mari", on his 1971 album Tilbake. Finnish band Eläkeläiset recorded a humppa version as the title track of their 1997 album Humppamaratooni. In 2007 the Lars Lilholt Band made a Danish version, "Gi' mig whiskey in the jar", appearing in the album Smukkere med tiden.
Charlie Zahm recorded it in his album Festival Favorites.

____________________________________________________________________

^ Folk Songs of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, ed. William Cole, arr. Norman Monath, Cornerstone Library, New York, 1961.
^ The Singing Island: A Collection Of English And Scots Folksongs, Compiled By Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, Mills Music, London, 1960.
^ Patrick Flemming, Folklore Home Page, California State University, Fresno (retrieved 10 July 2008)
^ Patrick Fleming, The Complete Newgate Calendar Vol. I, Law in Popular Culture collection, Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas at Austin (retrieved 10 July 2008)
^ a b The Folk Songs of North America: In the English Language, Alan Lomax, Peggy Seeger, Mátyás Seiber, Don Banks, Doubleday, 1960 Google Books (retrieved 11 July 2008
^ The sporting hero, Firth c.17(314), Bodleian Library Catalogue of Ballads (retrieved 10 July 2008)
^ Phil Lynott: The Rocker, Mark Putterford, Omnibus Press, 2002, ISBN 0711991049 Google Books (retrieved 11 July 2008)
^ Tilbake, musikkonline.no
^ Track listing, Lars Lilholt Band official site (retrieved 11 July 2008)
Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_in_the_Jar "

"Scarborough Fair"

The song tells the tale of a young man, who tells the listener to ask his former lover to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.

As the versions of the ballad known under the title "Scarborough Fair" are usually limited to the exchange of these impossible tasks, many suggestions concerning the plot have been proposed, including the hypothesis that it is a song about the Plague. In fact, "Scarborough Fair" appears to derive from an older (and now obscure) Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight (Child Ballad #2),[1] which has been traced at least as far back as 1670 and may well be earlier. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task ("For thou must shape a sark to me / Without any cut or heme, quoth he"); she responds with a list of tasks that he must first perform ("I have an aiker of good ley-land / Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand"). However these lyrics appear to be more attributable to Anglo-Saxon than Scots.

As the song spread, it was adapted, modified, and rewritten to the point that dozens of versions existed by the end of the 18th century, although only a few are typically sung nowadays. The references to "Scarborough Fair" and the refrain "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" date to nineteenth century versions, and the refrain may have been borrowed from the ballad Riddles Wisely Expounded, (Child Ballad #1), which has a similar plot.

Meaning of the refrain:
Much thought has gone into attempts to explain the refrain "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme", although, as this is found only in relatively recent versions, there may not be much to explain. The oldest versions of "The Elfin Knight" (circa 1650) contain the refrain "my plaid away, my plaid away, the wind shall not blow my plaid away" (or variations thereof), which may reflect the original emphasis on the lady's chastity. Slightly younger versions often contain one of a group of related refrains:

Sober and grave grows merry in time
Every rose grows merry with time
There's never a rose grows fairer with time

These are usually paired with "Once she was a true love of mine" or some variant. "Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" may simply be an alternate rhyming refrain to the original. Folksong scholar Märta Ramsten states that folksong refrains containing enumerations of herbs — spices and medical herbs — occur in many languages, including Swedish, Danish, German, and English.

The arrangement made famous by Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" originated in the late 20th century. Paul Simon learned it in 1965 in London from Martin Carthy. Then Art Garfunkel set it in counterpoint with "Canticle", a reworking of Simon's 1963 song "The Side of a Hill" with new, anti-war lyrics. It was the lead track of the 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, and was released as a single after being featured on the soundtrack to The Graduate in 1968. The copyright credited only Simon and Garfunkel as the authors, causing ill-feeling on the part of Carthy, who felt the "traditional" source should have been credited. This rift remained until Simon invited Carthy to duet the song with him at a London concert in 2000.

Prior to Simon's learning the song, Bob Dylan had borrowed the melody and several lines from Carthy's arrangement in creating his song, "Girl from the North Country," which appeared on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Nashville Skyline (1969), Real Live (1984) and The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration (1993).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarborough_Fair

"big international book project but publisher refuses to shell out for copyrighted material"

I'm really curious about this; aren't the modern arrangements usually copyrighted? I know when we cover the slave spiritual "Give Me Jesus" using Jeremy Camp's very popular modern arrangement, we have to report it under the licensing rules, and he is listed as the artist. I'd think the same would apply in most situations where a modern artist does an arrangement of a song in the public domain.
A specific new arrangement of a public domain song can be copyrighted, but it can also serve as inspiration for yet another modern take that doesn't fall under the copyright. It's not a black and white issue, really. I'm sure the publisher has a team of lawyers (read: one harried young guy or girl who does all the work so his/her boss can report on the issue to management and take the credit) looking at the issue.

In kind of the same vein as Johnny Cash and the "American Recordings," I enjoy Aerosmith's album "Honkin' On Bobo" from five years ago or so. They covered Road Runner, Baby Please Don't Go, Jesus Is On The Main Line, and several others that are surely in public domain, and did it with obvious Aerosmith style.

Stikman (Ernie) posted a link (on SSG) that has lessons on singing.
And perusing the site I noticed a list of songs that were mostly traditional.

http://www.songtrain.net/songs/index.html

"Jack-A-Roe"

"Jack Monroe", also known as "Jack Munro," "Jackie Monroe," "Jack-A-Roe," "Jackaroe," "Jackaro," "Jackie Frazier," "Jack the Sailor," "Jack Went A-Sailing," "The Love of Polly and Jack Monroe," among other titles, is a traditional ballad of uncertain (though presumably British) origin.

The version "Jack The Sailor" collected in Cecil Sharp's English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians is frequently cited.

Dianne Dugaw's Warrior Women and Popular Balladry, 1650-1850 gives a 1934 version of "Jack Monroe" collected in Missouri, and also notes the existence of a version "on an 1830s Boston broadside in American Antiquarian Society, Uncatalogued Ballads."

The song is a staple of the folk rock repertoire and has been performed by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and more commonly, The Grateful Dead (as Jack-A-Roe). In 1931, Florence Reece used this tune for her song "Which Side Are You On?".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_YBrxsprys Bob Dylan Version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyAu4dbW4BE Grateful Dead Version

Roud's Broadside/Folksong Index lists this as "Jack Munroe" and states that it comes from a book "Book of a Thousand Songs" published in 1843.

Roud Index ID# S314043 (Jack Munroe)

Roud Index ID# X7164 (Book of a Thousand Songs)

"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, a ground of the form called a romanesca.

A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves". It then appears in the surviving A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584) as "A New Courtly Sonnet of the Lady Green Sleeves. To the new tune of Green sleeves."

The tune is found in several late 16th century and early 17th century sources, such as Ballet's MS Lute Book and Het Luitboek van Thysius, as well as various manuscripts preserved in the Cambridge University libraries.

Covered by:
Odetta: 1957 album At the Gate of Horn
John Coltrane: 1961 album Africa/Brass
Vince Guaraldi Trio: 1965 soundtrack A Charlie Brown Christmas
Elvis Presley: 1968 retitled as "Stay Away" B-side of "U.S. Male"; featured in film Stay Away, Joe
James Taylor: 1968 debut album James Taylor
Jeff Beck: 1968 album Truth
Glen Campbell: 1972 album The Artistry of Glen Campbell
Leonard Cohen: 1974 album New Skin for the Old Ceremony
Flanders and Swann: The Greensleeves Monologue Annotated
Olivia Newton-John: 1976 album Come on Over
Mason Williams with Mannheim Steamroller: 1987 album Classical Gas
Loreena McKennitt: 1991 album The Visit
Timo Tolkki: 1994 album Classical Variations and Themes
Blackmore's Night: 1997 debut album Shadow of the Moon
Vanessa Carlton: 2002 album Maybe This Christmas
Ensemble Planeta: 2003 album étoile
Jethro Tull: 2003 album The Jethro Tull Christmas Album
David Nevue: 2004 album Sweet Dreams and Starlight
Kevin Max: 2005 album Holy Night
Derek Trucks Band: 2006 DVD Songlines Live
The King's Singers: 2008 album Simple Gifts
Daniel Kobialka: "Greensleeves Fantasy"; 2009 album Musical Inspirations Series: Peace

Roud Broadside/Folksong Index ID# B99477 and B107919

"The Wild Rover" (Roud 1173) is a popular folk song whose origins are contested.

According to Professor T. M. Devine in his book The Scottish Nation 1700 - 2000 (Penguin, 2001) the song was written as a temperance song. This would place it no earlier than 1829. The song is found printed in a book, The American Songster, printed in the USA by W.A. Leary in 1845, and spread from Scotland to America from the Temperance movement. There is another USA printed version in the "Forget-Me-Not Songster" (c 1850), published by Locke. An alternative history of the song is suggested by the fact that a collection of ballads, dated between 1813 and 1838, is held in the Bodleian Library. The printer, Catnach, was based in "7 Dials", London. The Bodleian bundle contains "The Wild Rover". The Greig-Duncan collection contains no less than six versions of the song. It was compiled by Gavin Greig 1848–1917.

It is often considered to be a drinking song rather than a Temperance song. The song is a staple for artists performing live music in Irish pubs. It is also the basis of Burnley Football Club's anthem "No Nay Never", which is sung about local rivals Blackburn Rovers.

Countless popular singers and bands have covered the song, amongst others

Burl Ives
Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem
The Corries
Cruachan
Doble Fuerza
Dropkick Murphys
The Dubliners
The Idlers on Ten Thousand Miles Away and others
The Irish Rovers
Johnny Logan on Johnny Logan and Friends
The High Kings
Orthodox Celts on their debut album in 1994
The Pogues, on their debut album, Red Roses For Me
Rapalje
Rolf Harris
The Seekers
Stiff Little Fingers on their live album which was later repackaged as the third disc of their Anthology
The Town Pants
Týr on their 2003 album Eric the Red
Woods Tea Company
Morning Call

"In the Pines", also known as "Black Girl" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", is a traditional American folk song which dates back to at least the 1870s, and is believed to be Southern Appalachian in origin. The identity of the song's author is unknown, but it has been recorded by dozens of artists in numerous genres. A 1993 acoustic version by Nirvana introduced the song to many people at the end of the twentieth century. Kurt Cobain attributed authorship to Lead Belly, who had recorded the song several times, beginning in 1944, but the version performed by Lead Belly and covered by Nirvana does not differ substantially from other variants of the song.

Like numerous other folk songs, "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" was passed on from one generation and locale to the next by word of mouth. The first printed version of the song, compiled by Cecil Sharp, appeared in 1917, and comprised just four lines and a melody. The lines are:

Black girl, black girl, don't lie to me
Where did you stay last night?
I stayed in the pines where the sun never shines
And shivered when the cold wind blows

In 1925, a version of the song was recorded onto phonograph cylinder by a folk collector. This was the first documentation of "The Longest Train" variant of the song. This variant include a stanza about "The longest train I ever saw". "The Longest Train" stanzas probably began as a separate song that later merged into "Where Did You Sleep Last Night". Lyrics in some versions about "Joe Brown's coal mine" and "the Georgia line" may date it to Joseph E. Brown, a former Governor of Georgia, who famously leased convicts to operate coal mines in the 1870s. While early renditions that mention that someone's "head was found in the driver's wheel" make clear that the train caused the decapitation, some later versions would drop the reference to the train and reattribute the cause. Music historian Norm Cohen, in his 1981 book "Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong," states the song came to consist of three frequent elements: a chorus about "in the pines", a stanza about "the longest train" and a stanza about a decapitation, though not all elements are present in all versions.

Starting the year following the 1925 recording, commercial recordings of the song were done by various folk and bluegrass bands. In a 1970 dissertation, Judith McCulloh found 160 permutations of the song. As well as rearrangement of the three frequent elements, the person who goes into the pines or who is decapitated has been described as a man, a woman, an adolescent, a wife, a husband or a parent, while the pines have represented sexuality, death or loneliness. The train has been described killing a loved one, as taking one's beloved away or as leaving an itinerant worker far from home.

In variants in which the song describes a confrontation, the person being challenged is always a woman, and never a man. The Kossoy Sisters folk version asks, "Little girl, little girl, where'd you stay last night? Not even your mother knows." The reply to one version's "Where did you get that dress, and those shoes that are so fine?" is "from a man in the mines, who sleeps in the pines."[1] The theme of a woman who has been caught doing something she should not is thus also common to many variants. One variant, sang in the early twentieth century by the Ellison clan (Ora Ellison, deceased) in Lookout Mountain Georgia, told of the rape of a young Georgia girl, who fled to the pines in shame. Her rapist, a male soldier, was later beheaded by the train. Mrs. Ellison had stated that it was her belief that the song was from the time shortly after the U.S. Civil War.

Covers:
Peg Leg Howell recorded a traditional blues version as "Rolling Mill Blues" in 1929 for Columbia Records; also performed with Eddie Anthony on fiddle and recorded as "The Rolling Mill Blues" in the late 1940s.
Bill Monroe's 1941 and 1952 recordings with his Bluegrass Boys were highly influential on later bluegrass and country versions. Fiddles and yodeling are used to evoke the cold wind blowing through the pines, and the lyrics suggest a quality of timelessness about the train: "I asked my captain for the time of day/He said he throwed his watch away". His rendition is slower than the versions performed by Lead belly and others.
Lead Belly recorded over half-a-dozen versions between 1944 and 1948, most often under the title, "Black Girl" or "Black Gal". His first rendition, for Musicraft Records in New York City in February 1944, is arguably his most familiar.
Nathan Abshire, a Louisiana Cajun accordion player, recorded a distinct variation of the song, sung in Cajun French, under the name "Pine Grove Blues." His melody is a hard-driving blues, but the lyrics, when translated to English, are the familiar, "Hey, black girl, where did you sleep last night?" It became his theme song and he recorded it at least three times from the 1940s onward.
Pete Seeger's version of "Black Girl" appears on the 2002 Smithsonian Folkways re-release of recordings from the 1950s and the 1960s entitled American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 1.
The Louvin Brothers' version appears on the 1956 album, Tragic Songs of Life.
The Kossoy Sisters recorded "In the Pines" in their 1959 session with Erik Darling.
Bob Dylan performed the song on November 4, 1961 at the Carnegie Chapter Hall in New York City. He performed it again on January 12, 1990 at the Toad's Place in New Haven, Connecticut. Neither of these recordings has been officially released.
The New Christy Minstrels, under the direction of Randy Sparks, recorded a version for their 1961 debut album on the Columbia label.
Doc Watson often performed the song, and a live recording exists, dating from the 1960s. He sang it faster than most other versions, accompanied only by his banjo.
Roscoe Holcomb recorded a version, available on The High Lonesome Sound.
Jackson C. Frank's version appears on the second disc of Blues Run the Game.
Clifford Jordan's 1965 jazz arrangement with singer Sandra Douglass.
The Four Pennies recorded and released "Black Girl" in October 1964, which reached No. 20 in the British charts.
The Pleazers recorded "Poor Girl" in 1965. It was originally recorded as "Black Girl," but changed due to it being viewed as racist.
Grateful Dead recorded the song on July 17, 1966. It appears as "In The Pines" on their 2001 box set, The Golden Road.
John Phillips' version of "Black Girl" appears as a bonus track on the remastered CD of John Phillips (John, the Wolf King of L.A.) recorded in 1969.
Long John Baldry's "Black Girl," a duet with Maggie Bell, appears on It Ain't Easy.
Dave Van Ronk's version appears on The Folkway Years 1959 - 1961.
Link Wray recorded two versions titled "Georgia Pines" and "In the Pines" on his 1973 folk-rock release Beans and Fatback.
The Osborne Brothers recorded a version for the album Up This Hill And Down (Decca DL-74767) in June 1966.
Gene Clark recorded the song for his 1977 album Two Sides to Every Story.
Charlie Feathers recorded a version in the 1980s in Memphis.
Mark Lanegan's version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" was recorded in August 1989, and appears on his 1990 debut solo album, The Winding Sheet.

Promo single from Nirvana's 1994 album MTV Unplugged in New YorkNirvana occasionally performed "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" during the early 1990s. Singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain was introduced to the song by Lanegan, and played guitar on the latter's version. Like Lanegan, Cobain usually screamed the song's final verse. Cobain earned critical and commercial acclaim for his acoustic performance of the song during Nirvana's MTV Unplugged appearance in 1993. This version was posthumously released on the band's MTV Unplugged in New York album the following year. A solo Cobain home demo of the song, recorded in 1990, appears on the band's 2004 box set, With the Lights Out. It does not feature the final screamed verse of later versions.
Dolly Parton's live version was recorded in 1994. It appears on her album, Heartsongs: Live From Home. "It's easy to play, easy to sing, great harmonies and very emotional," said Parton of the song, who learned it from elder members of her family. "The perfect song for simple people."
Odetta, the American folk/blues singer, recorded the song for her 2001 tribute album to Lead Belly, Looking For A Home - Thanks to Leadbelly.
R. Crumb performed "In the Pines" in Hamburg, Germany in 2003. The only known release of this live performance is on R. Crumb's Music Sampler that is included with the R. Crumb Handbook.
Ralph Stanley & Jimmy Martin's version appears on their album, First Time Together, released in 2005.
Smog's version appears on his 2005 album A River Ain't Too Much to Love.
Josh White's recording of "Black Girl" on New York to London (2002).

Roud Broadside/Folksong Index ID# S149079