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Red River Valley (song)

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This article is about a folk song. For other uses, see Red River Valley (disambiguation).

"Red River Valley"
Single by Hugh Cross and Riley Puckett
B-side"When You Wore a Tulip"
Writtenc. 1890s
ReleasedJanuary 1928 (1928-01)
RecordedNovember 3, 1927 (1927-11-03)[1]
StudioAtlanta, Georgia
GenreCanadian folk music, Country, Western
Length2:54
LabelColumbia 15206
Songwriter(s)Traditional

"Red River Valley" is a folk song and cowboy music standard of uncertain origins that has gone by different names (such as "Cowboy Love Song", "Bright Sherman Valley", "Bright Laurel Valley", "In the Bright Mohawk Valley", and "Bright Little Valley"), depending on where it has been sung. It is listed as Roud Folk Song Index 756 and by Edith Fowke as FO 13. It is recognizable by its chorus (with several variations):

From this valley they say you are going,
We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile.
For they say you are taking the sunshine
That has brightened our pathway a while.

So come sit by my side if you love me.
Do not hasten to bid me adieu.
Just remember the Red River Valley
And the cowboy that has loved you so true.

Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time, ranked #10.[2]

Lyrics and chords

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Wikiversity offers more help singing this song[3]

{\language "english" \new PianoStaff \transpose c c << \new Staff\relative c'{\set Staff.midiInstrument= #"reed organ" \clef treble \key g \major\time 4/4 \tempo 4=90 r2 r4 d8 g8 b4 b8 b8 b4 a8 b8 a4 g2. b4 g8 b d4 c8 b a2. d8 c b4 b8 a g4 a8 b d4 c4 ~c4 e,8 e8 d4 fs8 g8 a4 b8 a g1 } \addlyrics{From this val -- ley they say you are go -- ing. We will_miss your_bright eyes and sweet smile, for they say you are ta -- king the sun -- shine, that has bright -- ened our path -- way a while.} \new ChordNames {\chordmode {\clef bass g,2 g, g d:7 g, g, g g:7 d:7 c g g:7 c c d:7 g c g } }>>}

Origins

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According to Canadian folklorist Edith Fowke, there is anecdotal evidence that the song was known in at least five Canadian provinces before 1896.[4] This finding led to speculation that the song was composed at the time of the 1870 Wolseley Expedition to Manitoba's northern Red River Valley. It expresses the sorrow of a local woman (possibly a Métis) as her soldier lover prepares to return to the east.[5]

The earliest known written manuscript of the lyrics, titled "The Red River Valley",[6] bears the notations "Nemaha 1879" and "Harlan 1885."[7] Nemaha and Harlan are the names of counties in Nebraska, and are also the names of towns in Iowa.

The song appears in sheet music, titled "In the Bright Mohawk Valley", printed in New York in 1896 with James J. Kerrigan as the writer.[8] The tune and lyrics were collected and published in Carl Sandburg's 1927 American Songbag.[9]

An important recording in this song's history was the 1927 Columbia Records master (15206-D) performed by Hugh Cross and Riley Puckett under the actual title of "Red River Valley". This version was the very first commercially available recording of this song under its most familiar title, and it was the inspiration for many of the recordings that followed.[10]

Film appearances

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TV appearances

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1962-63, sung by Ken Curtis on his TV series Ripcord, with Harry Carey Jr. playing guitar. It was one of two guest appearances Carey made on the show (one in 1962, and the other in 1963).

Other cultural references

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  • The song is played by Randall in Recess in the episode "One Stayed Clean" while he is sitting with TJ, Gus and the diggers in their hole. In the episode, the gang helps Gus (who has never had a picture day because of his constantly changing schools) stay clean so he can have a great school photo.
  • "Red River Valley" was the theme song of Our Gal Sunday, a soap opera broadcast on CBS radio from 1937 to 1959.[15]
  • "Jarama Valley", a song about the Battle of Jarama of the Spanish Civil War, used the tune to "Red River Valley". It was recorded by Woody Guthrie and The Almanac Singers, featuring Pete Seeger.
  • The tune to "Red River Valley", set to new lyrics and titled "Can I Sleep in Your Arms", was used on Willie Nelson's 1975 album Red Headed Stranger. This version was based on the song "Can I Sleep in your Barn Tonight Mister."
  • Johnny Cash wrote and performed a humorous song titled "Please Don't Play Red River Valley" for his 1966 album Everybody Loves a Nut
  • Bob Dylan wrote and recorded "Red River Shore" — which uses motifs and plays with themes from "Red River Valley" — for Time Out of Mind (1997). Left off the album, two versions of it were included in The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006 in 2008.
  • The Kidsongs Kids parodied this song on their 1995 Let's Put on a Show video as "We'll Put on a Show".
  • The Swedish song "I'm a Lapp", recorded in 1959 by Sven-Gösta Jonsson, is based on the melody of "Red River Valley."[16]
  • Johnny and the Hurricanes recorded a rock and roll instrumental version in 1959 of the song titled "Red River Rock", which became a hit in the U.S. (#5), the UK (#3), and Canada (#3).
  • The tune of "Red River Valley" was used for the verses of the 1963 Connie Francis hit "Drownin' My Sorrows" (#36).[17]
  • "Drownin' My Sorrows" was covered in German as "Ich tausche mit keinem auf der Welt" in 1964 by Margot Eskens and in Croatian as "Uz Tebe Sam Sretna" in 1968 by Ana Štefok.
  • The premier Czech vocalist Helena Vondráčková made her recording debut in September 1964 with "Červená řeka", a rendering of "Red River Valley".
  • A fatalistic chorus can be found in some sources related to F-105 pilots in Vietnam:[18][19]

Come and sit by my side at the briefing,
We will sit there and tickle the beads,
Then we'll head for the Red River Valley,
And today I'll be flying Teak lead,

To the valley he said we are flying,
With a Thud of the plane to the earth,
Many jockeys have flown to the valley,
And a number have never returned

  • In its soundtrack, the 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas adapted the lyrics and tune of "Red River Valley" as "New Vegas Valley".
  • The first four verses of the chant "Scouser Tommy", sung by supporters of Liverpool F.C., is to the tune of "Red River Valley".
  • "Red River Valley" is the official Slow March of the Fort Garry Horse, a reserve Line Cavalry Regiment of the Canadian Army.
  • The 19th-century Manitoba song "Red River Valley" is played weekly on TV in the Philippines on a GMA TV comedy show titled Bubble Gang, with varied Tagalog humorous lyrics sung to the accompaniment of ukuleles, recurring from circa 2011 to present day by various performers.
  • David McEnery (1914–2002), singer-songwriter, otherwise known as Red River Dave, takes this name from the song.
  • The Ant and the Grasshopper story is sung to the tune of "Red River Valley" in a Cocomelon video (2018).[20]

Sources

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  • Edith Fowke and Keith MacMillan. (1973). The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin.
  • Allen, Jules Verne. "Singing Along" (reprinted from New Mexico Magazine, 1935). Roundup of Western Literature: An Anthology for Young Readers pp. 82–85, edited by Oren Arnold.
  • Kerrigan, James J. "In The Bright Mohawk Valley". New York: Howley, Haviland & Co. (1896).
  • Fowke, Edith "The Red River Valley Re-examined." Western Folklore 23 (July 1964) 1630–71.
  • Fuld, James J. The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk. Dover Publications (2000).
  • Waltz, Robert B; David G. Engle. "The Red River Valley". The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World. Hosted by California State University, Fresno, Folklore, 2007.

References

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  1. ^ "Columbia matrix W145091. Red River Valley / Hugh Cross; Riley Puckett - Discography of American Historical Recordings". adp.library.ucsb.edu. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
  2. ^ Western Writers of America (2010). "The Top 100 Western Songs". American Cowboy. Archived from the original on October 19, 2010.
  3. ^ Chords from irish-folk-songs.com
  4. ^ Fowke, Edith (1964). "'The Red River Valley' Re-Examined". Western Folklore. 23 (3): 163–171. doi:10.2307/1498900. JSTOR 1498900.
  5. ^ H. Stewart Hendrickson (Research Professor Emeritus, University of Washington), Red River Valley (Retrieved March 23, 2014)
  6. ^ The Red River Valley, Edwin Ford Piper Collection, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.
  7. ^ Fuld, James J. (1966). The book of world-famous music, classical, popular and folk. Internet Archive. New York, Crown Publishers.
  8. ^ Kerrigan, In The Bright Mohawk Valley.
  9. ^ Sandburg, Carl (1927). The American Songbag. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company. p. 130. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  10. ^ "Hugh Cross Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More". AllMusic. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  11. ^ Hickey, Matthew (May–June 1996). "TV's Silent Panic: Harpo Marx & the Golden Age of Television". Filmfax magazine. pp. 64–69.
  12. ^ "ShoutFactoryTV : Watch The Marx Brothers TV Collection Episode : The Marx Brothers: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington". Shoutfactorytv.com. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  13. ^ "Cannibal Ferox (1981)". IMDb.com. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  14. ^ Planes, Trains and Automobiles | Hollywood.com. Archive.is. Retrieved on April 11, 2017.
  15. ^ Fairfax, Arthur (December 28, 1940). "Mr. Fairfax Replies" (PDF). Movie Radio Guide. 10 (12): 43. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 19, 2015. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  16. ^ Jones-Bamman, Richard (2001). "From 'I'm a Lapp' to 'I'm a Saami': Popular Music and Changing Images of Indigenous Ethnicity in Scandinavia". Journal of Intercultural Studies. 22 (2): 189–210. doi:10.1080/07256860120069602. S2CID 145791883.
  17. ^ Billboard Vol. 75 #29 (July 20, 1963) p. 4
  18. ^ There Is a Way – F-105 Jets / United States Air Force 1967 Educational Documentary – WDTVLIVE42. YouTube (June 27, 2012). Retrieved on 2017-04-11.
  19. ^ The Tiger Band Unhymnal, Clemson University, South Carolina, 1967.
  20. ^ "The Ant and the Grasshopper | CoComelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs - YouTube". YouTube. November 13, 2018.
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