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Riding Down from Bangor
Topic Started: Apr 2 2014, 08:21 PM (3,445 Views)
Caro

Do any of you know this song which I mentioned in Mornington Cresent? Not the one about having a loverly time the day we went to Bangor, but one set in America, in or near Maine. It was written in the 1890s by Louis S Osborne, and I know it well through an old songbook. When I went checking its singers on Google I found a long PDF google books site which said it had never been recorded, which I find odd, since I feel sure I have heard it, and in a later site I saw some mention of the Beverley Sisters. It is about a student on a train who sits beside a young woman, and waits for a tunnel to kiss her. The last lines are: "Out into the daylight rode that eastern train, student's hair was ruffled just the merest grain. Maiden seen all blushes when then and there appeared a tiny little earring in that horrid student's beard."

Now I have found the full lyrics, most of which I can sing by heart: iding Down from Bangor
Louis Shreve Osborne

RIDING DOWN from Bangor, on an eastbound train
After weeks of hunting, in the woods of Maine
Quite extensive whiskers, beard, mustache as well
Sat a student fellow, tall and slim and swell

Empty seat behind him, no one at his side
Into quiet village, eastern train did glide
Enter aged couple, take the hindmost seat
Enter village maiden, beautiful, petite

Blushingly she faltered, “Is this seat engaged?”
Sees the aged couple, properly enraged
Student’s quite ecstatic, sees her ticket through
Thinks of the long tunnel, thinks of what he will do

Pleasantly they chatted, how the cinders fly
Til the student fellow, gets one in his eye
Maiden sympathetic, turns herself about
“May I if you please sir, try to get it out?”

Then the student fellow, feels a gentle touch
Hears a gentle murmur, “Does it hurt you much?”
Whiz! Slap! Bang! Into the the tunnel quite
Into glorious darkness, black as Egypt’s night

Out into the daylight glides that eastern train
Student’s hair is ruffled, just the merest grain
Maiden seen all blushes when then and there appeared
A tiny little earring, in that horrid student’s beard.

I also see that George Orwell wrote a little essay based on this folksong. Our last bookclub book was Orwell's Animal Farm - very depressing book, I found. Next one is Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson. Should be a little more cheery if outside our rather conservative experiences. .

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waiting4atickle
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Seems to have been recorded by several people, Caro: Frank Crumit, J.J. Worthington, The Webb Brothers, The Beverley Sisters, Marais & Miranda... There are versions by the first and last of those on Youtube:-

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=riding+down+from+bangor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSN15yOciPU

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Caro

Thanks, w4at. Though I see, somewhat embarrassingly, that on the Frank Crumit version I have already commented on it! So much for memory, though I did feel I had heard it. Now if you can just find me Twenty-One Years by Kate Smith I will be ever so grateful. I can only find a version by Canadian-Irish band Ryan's Fancy, but I feel sure I remember a version by Kate Smith. I certainly know different words from the British one with Dartmoor. Smith's (if it was her) talked of Nashville.
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waiting4atickle
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Posted Image

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Caro

Oh, aren't you clever! Thank you very much. I haven't found any mention anywhere that Kate Smith sang this, and I was so sure she had. Perhaps I haven't had a look at a list of Kate Smith's songs. Cheers for that.
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waiting4atickle
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If you're looking for recorded songs, Caro, it's often worth trying Google Images. That photo is from ebay, where someone from S Australia offered it for AU$29.90 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/KATE-SMITH-Twenty-One-Years-In-The-Baggage-Coach-Ahead-78rpm-10-1932-NMINT-/151138462630

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