FOR HE’S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW

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FOR HE’S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow” is a British and American song which is sung to congratulate a person on a significant event, such as a retirement. The melody originates from that of the French song “Marlbrough s‘en va-t–en guerre.” According to the Guinness Book of World Records, “For […]

FOUR STRONG WINDS

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FOUR STRONG WINDS “Four Strong Winds” is a song written by Ian Tyson in the early 1960s. It was first recorded by The Brothers Four in a version that “Bubbled Under” the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1963. Subsequently, it was recorded by Ian and Sylvia on an album of the same name released in […]

FOX, THE FOX

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FOX THE “The Fox” is a traditional folk song. It is also the subject of a picture book, “The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night”, by Peter Spier. According to ‘Blugrass Picker’s Tune Book’ by Richard Matteson, the earliest version of this song appears to have been a Middle English poem, dating from the […]

FRANKIE & JOHNNY

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FRANKIE & JOHNNY Frankie and Johnny” (sometimes spelled “Frankie and Johnnie”; also known as “Frankie and Albert” or just “Frankie”) is a traditional American popular song. It tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds her man Johnny “making love to” another woman and shoots him dead. Frankie is then arrested; in some versions […]

FREIGHT TRAIN BOOGIE

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FREIGHT TRAIN BOOGIE “Freight Train Boogie” reached #2 on the charts for the Delmore Brothers in 1946 and has been recorded by Reno & Smiley, Red Foley, The Maddox Brothers and Rose, and even John Denver. Casey Jones he was a mighty man But now he’s resting in the promised land The kind of music […]

FREIGHT TRAIN

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FREIGHT TRAIN When Elizabeth Cotton and her brother were playing music together each would have songs that they called their own, and this was one that she made up and sang as hers. It was one of the few she ever composed herself and was largely inspired by the train running near her home. These […]

FRIEND OF THE DEVIL

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FRIEND OF THE DEVIL “Friend of the Devil” is about an outlaw, on the run from the police. His crime is never explicitly stated. The Devil helps him escape, but winds up chasing him just as the law does; several lines of the song are ambiguous, and could refer to either law enforcement or servants […]

FROGGIE WENT A-COURTIN

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FROGGIE WENT A-COURTIN “Frog Went A-Courtin’” is an English language folk song. Its first known appearance is in Wedderburn’s “Complaynt of Scotland” (1548) under the name “The frog came to the myl dur.” There is a reference in the London Company of Stationer’s Register of 1580 to “A Moste Strange Weddinge of the Frogge and […]

FROZEN LOGGER

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FROZEN LOGGER The” Frozen Logger” was written by a onetime mule skinner, hobo poet and bull cook named Jim Stevens, one of the first men to set the tall tales of Paul Bunyan down on paper (1925). He wrote the lyrics in 1928, borrowed the melody of an old ballad to go with them. He […]

GALLOWS POLE

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GALLOWS POLE “The Maid Freed from the Gallows” is one of many titles of a centuries-old folk song about a condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner. The ballad existed in a number of folkloric variants from many different countries, and has been remade in a variety of formats. It […]