Down In The Valley

 "Down in the Valley", also known as "Birmingham Jail", is a traditional American folk song. It has been recorded by many artists and is included in the Songs of Expanding America recordings in Burl Ives' six-album set Historical America in Song.

The verses mentioning "Birmingham Jail" refer to the Birmingham, Alabama, City Jail which was well-known in the mid-1920s, although the reference was often omitted in later versions. Guitarist Jimmie Tarlton claimed to have written the lyrics in 1925 while he was jailed in Birmingham for moonshining. It was first recorded by Tarlton and his partner Tom Darby on November 10, 1927, in Atlanta, Georgia, for Columbia Records. According to one biographer of the folk musician Lead Belly, he performed it for Texas Governor Pat Neff at the Sugarland Penitentiary in 1924.

The ballad is played in the 3
4 time signature. Lyrics vary, as with most folk songs. For example, sometimes the line "Hang your head over, hear the wind blow" is replaced by "Late in the evening, hear the train blow". In 1927, Darby and Tarlton sang "down in the levee" in place of "down in the valley"; the version sung by Lead Belly in 1934 substitutes "Shreveport jail" for "Birmingham jail".

Solomon Burke and Bert Berns borrowed some of the song's lyrics and melody for their own song of the same name. That song was covered by Otis Redding on his album Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul. 

This song is the basis of the 1945 Kurt Weill and Arnold Sundgaard opera Down in the Valley.

It was performed by Anne Baxter in the Wagon Train episode, “The Kitty Angel Story“ (1959).

It was performed by Joanna Moore on The Andy Griffith Show in 1962.

The author/songwriter David M. Pierce used selected lyrics from the song as titles for a series of detective novels written between 1989 and 1996: Down in the Valley, Hear the Wind Blow, Dear, Roses Love Sunshine, Angels in Heaven, Write Me a Letter and As She Rides By. The first four verses are featured in Catherine Marshall's novel, Christy, before the prologue.

It is sung in the movie Stir Crazy by the character Grossberger portrayed by Erland Van Lidth. The actual recorded artist is Dorian Holley; as credited in the movie's soundtrack.

Jim and Anna sing the song in Tillie Olsen's novel Yonnondio: From the Thirties as they arrive in the Dakotas. The 3
4 time and melancholy of the song contrast with the hope they are feeling as they arrive there.

The song is performed by Ronny Cox (Ozark Bule) and David Carradine (Woody Guthrie) in the Academy Award winning film (Best Cinematography/Best Music-Score) Bound for Glory (biography of Woody Guthrie) in the scene that takes place in a migrant fruit pickers camp.

It is also used in the movie Along the Great Divide starring Kirk Douglas, Walter Brennan, Virginia Mayo, and John Agar although it was written long after the time period set of the movie.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Dark Page”, a mental projection of Deanna Troi's father sings the song, stating she could never fall asleep as a baby unless she heard it.

In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by author Suzanne Collins, Lucy Gray Baird sings her variant of the song, changing the words to "To the Capitol Jail" instead of "To Birmingham Jail."

A group of camp counselors sing the song, accompanied by guitar, in the opening scene of Friday the 13th. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Down in the valley, the valley so low,
Hang your head over, hear the winds blow.
Hear the winds blow, dear, hear the winds blow.
Hang your head over, hear the winds blow.

Down in the valley, walking between,
Telling our story, here's what it means.
Here's what it means, dear, here's what it means,
Telling our story, here's what it means.

Roses love sunshine, violets love dew,
Angels in heaven know I love you;
Know I love you, dear, know I love you,
Angels in heaven know I love you.

Build me a castle forty feet high,
So I can see him as he rides by;
As he rides by, dear, as he rides by,
So I can see him as he rides by.

Writing this letter, containing three lines,
Answer my question, "Will you be mine?"
"Will you be mine, dear, will you be mine,"
Answer my question, "Will you be mine?"

If you don't love me, love whom you please,
Throw your arms round me, give my heart ease.
Give my heart ease, dear, give my heart ease,
Throw your arms round me, give my heart ease.

Throw your arms round me, before it's too late;
Throw your arms round me, feel my heart break.
Feel my heart break, dear, feel my heart break.
Throw your arms round me, feel my heart break. 

Down by the Riverside (I Ain't Gwine Study War No More)

 "Down by the Riverside" (also known as "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" and "Gonna lay down my burden") is an African-American spiritual. Its roots date back to before the American Civil War, though it was first published in 1918 in Plantation Melodies: A Collection of Modern, Popular and Old-time Negro-Songs of the Southland, Chicago, the Rodeheaver Company. The song has alternatively been known as "Ain' go'n' to study war no mo'", "Ain't Gwine to Study War No More", "Down by de Ribberside", "Going to Pull My War-Clothes" and "Study war no more". The song was first recorded by the Fisk University jubilee quartet in 1920 (published by Columbia in 1922), and there are at least 14 black gospel recordings before World War II.

Because of its pacifistic imagery, "Down by the Riverside" has also been used as an anti-war protest song, especially during the Vietnam War. The song is also included in collections of socialist and labor songs. 

Much of this spiritual contains Biblical imagery. In general, the song is focused on the concept of leaving the feelings of anger and pessimism behind, as to have a new spiritual dress, in the setting of a riverside, prior to going across it.

The song suggests baptism in water, using the metaphor of crossing the River Jordan to enter the Promised Land in the Old Testament. The refrain of "ain't gonna study war no more" is a reference to a quotation found in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 2, verse 4 (KJV): "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." One of the lines also references Jesus Christ, specifically, "Gonna talk with the Prince of Peace," as the "Prince of Peace" is a common title for Jesus. In "Gonna climb the road to heaven," the road is a metaphor for the difficult journey of life, as a road and travel can be dangerous and full of trial. This sentiment is similar to the line, "Gonna climb up on that mountain," which again is symbolic of the arduous journey of life. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Goin' to lay down my burden, Down by the riverside, Down by the riverside, Down by the riverside; Goin' to lay down my burden, Down by the riverside, to study war no more.

Refrain: I ain’t goin’ to study war no more, ain’t goin’ to study war no more, ain’t goin’ to study war no more. I ain’t goin’ to study war no more, ain’t goin’ to study war no more, ain’t goin’ to study war no more.

Goin’ to lay down my sword and shield, Down by the riverside, Down by the riverside, Goin’ to lay down my sword and shield, Down by the riverside, to study war no more. [Refrain]

Goin’ to try on my long white robe, Down by the riverside, Down by the riverside, Goin’ to try on my long white robe, Down by the riverside, to study war no more. [Refrain]

Goin’ to try on my starry crown, Down by the riverside, Down by the riverside, Goin’ to try on my starry crown, Down by the riverside, to study war no more. [Refrain] 

Down By The Bay

 "Down By the Bay" is a traditional children's song. A famous version was performed by Raffi and appears on his 1976 album Singable Songs for the Very Young; it is his signature song. In an interview with the Vulture Newsletter, Raffi described it as being “An old, old song", saying that "It may have been a World War I song ... It came from England.” ^[1] A Greek folk song called "Γιαλό, γιαλό" ("γιαλό" meaning "bay" or "seaside") exists with this same melody.^[2] It is an Ionian Cantada, a style of folk music that originated in the late 19th century.^[2] Thus, the actual origin of this song may be uncertain.

In recent years, it has gained popularity as a campfire song among the Scouting Movement in Britain. Another version of the song is "Down by the Sea." The chorus from this was used by the folk band, Fiddler's Dram, in their song "Johnny John."

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever see a fly
Wearing a tie?"
Down by the bay.

Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever see a bear
Combing his hair?"
Down by the bay.

Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever see a moose
Kissing a goose?"
Down by the bay.

Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever see a whale
With a polka dot tail?"
Down by the bay.

Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever see a llama
Wearing pajamas?"
Down by the bay.

Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever have a time
When you couldn't make a rhyme?"
Down by the bay

Alphabet Song

 The Alphabet song is set to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, this song has been a part of almost everyone’s childhood. The Super Simple version is slowly paced allowing time for children to say each letter and to follow along with on an alphabet chart or other visual guide. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G
H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P
Q, R, S, T, U, V
W, X, Y, Z

Now I know my ABCs.
Next time won’t you sing with me?

A, B, C, D, E, F, G
H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P
Q, R, S, T, U, V
W, X, Y, and Z

Now I know my ABCs.
Next time won’t you sing with me?

Dixie Land

 'Dixie Land' also known as 'I Wish I Was in Dixie', 'I Wish I Was in Dixie’s Land', and 'Dixieland'. 

Daniel Decatur Emmett is credited with writing Dixie, but many other people have claimed to have composed "Dixie", even during Emmett's lifetime. Emmett was a white minstrel show writer and blackface player from Mount Vernon, Ohio. Many Mount Vernon residents claim that Emmett collaborated informally with a pair of black musicians named Ben and Lew Snowden, black musicians from Mount Vernon, who also claim to have written the song. However, it is doubtful that the Snowden brothers wrote the song as they would have been only small children at the time Emmett composed Dixie.  

Dixie is the best-known song to have come out of blackface minstrelsy. Although not a folk song at its creation, Dixie has since entered the American folk vernacular. The song likely cemented the word "Dixie" in the American vocabulary as a synonym for the Southern United States. It became a favorite of Abraham Lincoln’s and was played during his campaign in 1860 and at his inauguration in 1861. 

Emmett published "Dixie" (under the title "I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land") in 1860. His tardiness in copyrighting the song allowed it to proliferate among other minstrel groups and variety show performers. By 1908, four years after Emmett's death, no fewer than 37 people had claimed the song as theirs.  

Its lyrics tell the story of a freed black slave longing for the plantation of his birth. During the American Civil War, Dixie was adopted as the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy. New versions appeared during wartime that more explicitly tied the song to the events of the Civil War. The song presented the point of view, common to minstrelsy at the time, that slavery was overall a positive institution.  

The song even added a new term to the American lexicon: "Whistling Dixie" is a slang expression meaning "unrealistic fantasizing". For example, "Don't just sit there whistling Dixie!" is a scolding used against inaction, and "You aren't just whistling Dixie!" indicates that the person is serious about something.  

Today, Dixie is sometimes considered offensive, and its critics link the act of singing it to sympathy for the concept of slavery in the American South. The song’s supporters, however, view it as a legitimate aspect of Southern culture and heritage.  

Dixie" is structured into 32 measure groups of alternating verses and refrains, following an AABC pattern. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

LYRICS  

I wish I was in the land of cotton,  

Old times there are not forgotten;  

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.   

In Dixie Land where I was born in,  

Early on one frosty mornin’,  

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.   

Old Missus marry "Will-de-weaber,"  

William was a gay deceiver;  

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.   

But when he put his arm around her,  

He smiled as fierce as a forty-pound'er,  

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land  

There's buck-wheat cakes an Indian batter,  

Makes you fat or a little fatter;  

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.   

Then hoe it down an scratch your grabble,  

To Dixie land I'm bound to travel.  

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land. 

Did You Ever See a Lassie?

 "Did You Ever See a Lassie?" is a traditional folk song. The use of the terms "lassie" and "laddie" mean that this song is often attributed to possible origins in Scotland (by various forms of media; see "references" section), but it was first collected in the United States in the last decade of the nineteenth century and was not found in Great Britain until the mid-twentieth century. However, it can be surmised that the words to the song may have come from Scottish immigrants or Scottish-Americans because of the aforementioned terms. 

Along with "The More We Get Together", it is generally sung to the same tune as "Oh du lieber Augustin", a song written in Germany or Vienna in the late seventeenth century. It was first published in 1909, in Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium by Jessie Hubbell Bancroft. 

The song is often accompanied by a circle singing game. Players form a circle and dance around one player. When they reach the end of the verse they stop, the single in the middle performs an action (such as Highland dancing), which everyone then imitates, before starting the verse again, often changing the single player to a boy, or a boy can join the center player - thus creating an extra verse in the song ("Did you ever see a laddie..."). 

The song is featured in the 1963 motion picture Ladybug, Ladybug. In the movie, children sing the song as part of a game while walking home from school during a nuclear bomb attack drill.

The song, as sung by children, was used in a 1990 commercial for Maidenform, and played over a succession of pictures of women in uncomfortable-looking clothing, was followed by the tag-line, "Isn't it nice to live in a time when women aren't being pushed around so much anymore?"

The song is featured in an episode of The Simpsons, "The Otto Show", and was titled "Hail to the Bus Driver". 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Did you ever see a lassie,

A lassie, a lassie?

Did you ever see a lassie

Go this way and that?

Go this way and that way,

Go this way and that way.

Did you ever see a lassie

Go this way and that?

Did you ever see a laddie,

A laddie, a laddie?

Did you ever see a laddie

Go this way and that?

Go this way and that way,

Go this way and that way.

Did you ever see a laddie

Go this way and that?

Oh My Darling, Clementine

 "Oh, My Darling Clementine" (or simply "Clementine") is a traditional American Western folk ballad in trochaic meter usually credited to Percy Montross (or Montrose) (1884), although it is sometimes credited to Barker Bradford.

Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
Multiple variations of the song exist, but all center on Clementine, the daughter of a "miner forty-niner" and the singer's lover. One day while performing routine chores, Clementine trips and falls into a raging current and drowns, as her lover is unable to swim and declines to attempt to rescue her. In Montross's version, the song ends somewhat farcically by noting he will not go so far as necrophilia: "Though in life I used to hug her, now she's dead – I'll draw the line."

The lyrics were written by Percy Montross in 1884, based on an earlier song called "Down by the River Liv'd a Maiden", printed in 1863. The origin of the melody is unknown. In his book South from Granada, Gerald Brenan claims that the melody was from an old Spanish ballad, made popular by Mexican miners during the California Gold Rush. It was best known from Romance del Conde Olinos o Niño, a sad love story very popular in Spanish-speaking cultures. It was also given various English translations. No particular source is cited to verify that the song he used to hear in the 1920s in a remote Spanish village was not an old text with new music, but Brenan states in his preface that all the information in his book has been checked reasonably well.

It is unclear when, where, and by whom the song was first recorded in English, but the first version to reach the Billboard charts was that by Bing Crosby recorded on June 14, 1941, which briefly reached the No. 20 spot. It was given an updated and up-tempo treatment in an arrangement by Hal Hopper and John Scott Trotter. The re-written lyrics include a reference to Gene Autry ("could he sue me, Clementine?") amongst the five swinging verses. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

In a cavern, in a canyon,

Excavating for a mine,

Lived a miner forty-niner,

And his daughter, Clementine.

 

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling,

Oh, my darling Clementine,

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

 

Light she was and like a fairy,

And her shoes were number nine,

Herring boxes without topses,

Sandals were for Clementine.

 

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling,

Oh, my darling Clementine,

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

 

Drove she ducklings to the water,

Every morning just at nine,

Hit her foot against a splinter,

Fell into the foaming brine.

 

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling,

Oh, my darling Clementine,

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

 

Ruby lips above the water,

Blowing bubbles soft and fine,

But, alas, I was no swimmer,

So I lost my Clementine.

 

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling,

Oh, my darling Clementine,

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

 

In a churchyard near the canyon,

Where the myrtle doth entwine,

There grow roses and the posies,

Fertilized by Clementine.

 

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling,

Oh, my darling Clementine,

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

 

Then the miner, forty-niner,

Soon began to peak and pine,

Thought he oughter join his daughter,

Now he's with his Clementine.

 

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling,

Oh, my darling Clementine,

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

 

In my dreams she still doth haunt me,

Robed in garments soaked in brine,

Though in life I used to hug her,

Now she's dead, I'll draw the line.

 

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling,

Oh, my darling Clementine,

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

 

How I missed her, how I missed her,

How I missed my Clementine,

Till I kissed her little sister,

And forgot my Clementine.

 

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling,

Oh, my darling Clementine,

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.