Silver Dagger (song)

"Silver Dagger"
Song by Joan Baez from the album Joan Baez
Released 1960 (1960)
Genre Folk
Label Vanguard
Composer Traditional
Language English
Joan Baez track listing

"Silver Dagger"
(1)		 East Virginia
(2)

"Silver Dagger", with variants such as "Katy Dear", "Molly Dear", "Drowsy Sleeper", "Awake, Awake, Ye Drowsy Sleepers" and others (Laws M4 & G21, Roud 2260 & 2261), is an American folk ballad, whose origins lie possibly in Britain.[1] These songs of different titles are closely related, and two strands in particular became popular in commercial Country music and Folk music recordings of the twentieth century: the "Silver Dagger" version popularised by Joan Baez, and the "Katy Dear" versions popularised by close harmony brother duets such as The Callahan Brothers, The Blue Sky Boys and The Louvin Brothers.

In "Silver Dagger", the female narrator turns away a potential suitor, as her mother has warned her to avoid the advances of men in an attempt to spare her daughter the heartbreak that she herself has endured. The 1960 recording by Joan Baez features only a fragment of the full ballad.[2] "Katy Dear" uses the same melody but different lyrics, telling a similar story from a male perspective.[3]

History

The song exists in a large number of variations under many different titles, and with lyrics that may show mixture of different songs. The early lyrics of "Silver Dagger" and "Drowsy Sleeper" have some relation to each other, but differ in lines, verse rhythm and outcome.[4] The plot of "Silver Dagger" is similar to that of "Drowsy Sleeper" whereby the parents object to the match between a boy and a girl, except that the silver dagger is used as a suicide weapon, while in "Drowsy Sleeper" the couple elope.[4][5] The texts of these two songs may share a common origin in the older theme of night visit in traditional English songs.[6][7] However, at some point in the 19th century, there also appears to have been a fusion of these two different songs whereby the tragic ending of "Silver Dagger" becomes attached to "Drowsy Sleeper", giving rise to some later variations of the song.[4]

Steve Roud observes:

"A whole book could be written this song which involves its connections with other songs which involve young men at their sweethearts' windows at night, disapproving parents and silver daggers. Hugely popular with North American traditional singers, 'Drowsy Sleeper' was also collected regularly in Britain and appeared on broadsides there from at least the 1820s" [8]

The earliest known text of "Drowsy Sleeper" in Britain may be dated to 1817, and the first verse of a variant of the song appears in a songbook of American folk songs first published in 1855, John G. McCurry's The Social Harp.[5][9] A version of "Drowsy Sleeper" was published in a broadside ("Who's at My Bedroom Window?") by H. J. Wehman in 1890.[10] A version collected in Kentucky was printed in The Journal of American Folk-Lore in 1907, and three versions were collected by Henry M. Belden in 1908.[11][12] Cecil Sharp published an English version in 1908 as "Arise! Arise!".[13] Sharp also collected a version of the song in the United States as "Awake, awake", sung by Mary Sands in Madison County, North Carolina on August 1, 1916.[5][14]

The song was recorded commercially as "O! Molly Dear Go Ask Your Mother" by Kelly Harrell in 1926, as "Sleepy Desert" by Wilmer Watts And The LoneLy Eagles in 1929, and as "Wake Up You Drowsy Sleeper" by The Oaks family in 1930. As "Katie Dear (Silver Dagger)" it was recorded by the Callahan Brothers in 1934, and as "Katie Dear" by the Blue Sky Boys in 1938.[5] (Country music authority Bill C. Malone states that the Callahan Brothers learned traditional ballads like "Katie Dear" from their mother). In 1956 it was recorded by the Louvin Brothers.[15] The song was part of the repertoire of the Country Gentlemen, who toured both the bluegrass and folk music circuits during the 1950s and 1960s. In the early 1960s, "Katie Dear" was recorded by folk revival musicians, including Joan Baez, and Ian & Sylvia. Today it is commonly performed and recorded by bluegrass musicians.[5]

The differences in titles and some lyrics may also be a result of the song being handed down through the unwritten, oral tradition, or adapting from different sources, and where each performer may add their own verses and nuances to the song.[16] These songs have been sung using different tunes. Relation to other songs such as Old Virginny/Man of Constant Sorrow and Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies have also been noted.[5][6]

Lyrics

"Silver Dagger" as sung by Joan Baez

Don't sing love songs; you'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here, right by my side
And in her right hand, a silver dagger
She says that I can't be your bride.

All men are false, says my mother
They'll tell you wicked, lovin' lies
The very next evening, they'll court another
Leave you alone to pine and sigh.

My daddy is a handsome devil
He's got a chain five miles long
And on every link a heart does dangle
Of another maid he's loved and wronged.

Go court another tender maiden
And hope that she will be your wife
For I've been warned and I've decided
To sleep alone all of my life.
"Katy Dear" as sung by Ian & Sylvia

Oh, Katy Dear, go ask your father
If you might be a bride of mine
If he says yes then come and tell me
If he says no, we'll run away.

I cannot go and ask my father
For he is on his bed of rest
And by his side there's a golden dagger
To pierce the heart I love the best.

Oh Katy Dear, go ask your mother
If you might be a bride of mine
If she says yes then come and tell me
If she says no, we'll run away.

I cannot go and ask my mother
For she is on her bed of rest
And by her side there's a silver dagger
To pierce the heart I love the best.

He picked up a silver dagger
He pierced it through his wounded breast
Farewell Katy, farewell darling
I'll die for the one I love the best.

She picked up the bloody weapon
She pierced it through her snow-white breast
Farewell Momma Farewell Poppa
I'll go with the one I love the best.

Recordings and performances

The song has also been widely performed and recorded by bluegrass musicians, as many songs thought of as traditionally bluegrass songs actually trace back to what is now known as "old-time" music.

20th century

21st century

Adaptations

See also

References

  1. ↑ Roud 711 Vaughan Williams Memorial Library entry
  2. ↑ "Silver Dagger". The Contemplator's Folk Music and Carolan Resource Center.
  3. ↑ Lyle Lofgren. "Remembering The Old Songs: KATIE DEAR (Laws G21)." 2002-03. Inside Bluegrass. Retrieved 2010-12-15.
  4. 1 2 3 Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer (June 1983). Folk Songs of the Catskills (annotated ed.). State University of New York Press. p. 195. ISBN 978-0873955805.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Matteson, Jr., Richard L., Richard Matteson (2006). Bluegrass Picker's Tune Book. Mel Bay Music. p. 204. ISBN 9781609745523.
  6. 1 2 Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer (June 1983). Folk Songs of the Catskills (annotated ed.). State University of New York Press. pp. 196 – 198. ISBN 978-0873955805.
  7. ↑ Charles Read Baskervill (December 1921). "English Songs on the Night Visit". PMLA (Modern Language Association) 36 (4): 565–614. doi:10.2307/457352.
  8. ↑ Roud, Steve, 2015, Song notes to My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean: British Songs in the USA (CD boxset), Nehi Records NEH3X1.
  9. ↑ John G. McCurry. Daniel W. Patterson and John F. Garst, eds. The Social Harp (PDF). University of Georgia Press. p. xix.
  10. ↑ John Harrington Cox, ed. (1925). Folk-Songs of the South. Pelican Publishing Company. p. 350. ISBN 9781565545922.
  11. ↑ The Journal of American Folk-Lore. Forgotten Books. p. 338 – 339.
  12. ↑ G. L. Kittredge (1917). "Ballads and Songs". The Journal of American Folklore 30 (117): 283–369.
  13. ↑ "Folk Songs from Somerset (Sharp, Cecil)".
  14. ↑ "A Nest of Singing Birds: Cecil Sharp, Mary Sands and the Madison County Song Tradition". Musical Traditions.
  15. 1 2 "The Louvin Brothers: Tragic Songs Of Life".
  16. ↑ "Arise Arise / Awake Awake / The Drowsy Sleeper / Silver Dagger / Waking Dreams". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music.
  17. ↑ O! Molly Dear Go Ask Your Mother. Victor Vi 20280.
  18. ↑ Reissued on Worried Blues, The Complete Commercial Output of Frank Hutchison and Kerry Harrell JSP Records JSP7743 (2005), My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean: British Songs in the USA Nehi Records NEH3X1 (2015).
  19. ↑ Sleepy Desert. Paramount Pm 3282
  20. ↑ Reissued on Gastonia Gallop, Cotton Mill Songs & Hillbilly Blues Old Hat Records CD-1007 (2009), My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean: British Songs in the USA Nehi Records NEH3X1 (2015).
  21. ↑ Wake up You Drowsy Sleeper. Victor Vi 23795
  22. ↑ Reissued on My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean: British Songs in the USA Nehi Records NEH3X1 (2015).
  23. ↑ Katie Dear (Silver Dagger). Banner Ba 33103, Melotone Me 13071, Oriole Or 8353, Perfect 13017, Romeo Ro 5353
  24. ↑ Reissued on The Dixon Brothers with The Callahan Brothers JSP Records JSP77113 (2011)
  25. ↑ Katie Dear. Bluebird BB B-7661, Montgomery Ward Records MW M-7468
  26. ↑ Reissued on The Blue Sky Boys, The Very Best of Classic Country Remastered JSP Records JSP7782 (2007)
  27. ↑ Who's The Knockin' On My Window. Decca De 5612, Montgomery Ward Records MW M-8071, Melotone (Canada) MeC 45275
  28. ↑ Reissued on The Carter Family, Volume 2, 1935-1941 JSP Records JSP7708 (2003)
  29. ↑ James E. Perone (October 17, 2012). The Album: A Guide to Pop Music's Most Provocative, Influential, and Important Creations. Praeger. pp. 1 – 2. ISBN 978-0313379062.
  30. ↑ John Nogowski (July 30, 2008). Bob Dylan: A Descriptive, Critical Discography and Filmography, 1961-2007 (2nd Revised ed.). McFarland. p. 167. ISBN 978-0786435180.
  31. ↑ In Concert - The Eagles. BBC. April 5, 1973. Event occurs at 21:40–26:40.

External links

http://www.dansher.com/band/SilverDagger.pdf - Words and chords to Silver Dagger


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