The Old Gray Mare

Last updated

"The Old Gray Mare" is an American folk song, more recently regarded as a children's song. [1]

Contents

History

Some authors have said that the song originated from the performance of the horse Lady Suffolk, the first horse recorded as trotting a mile in less than two and a half minutes. It occurred on 4 July 1843 at the Beacon Course racetrack in Hoboken, New Jersey, when she was more than ten years old. [2] [3] [4] One author attributed the song to Stephen Foster, although the composer is usually listed as unknown. [2] The archival evidence, however, is that the song originated a few decades later in the nineteenth century as a campaign ditty, composed as an epithet of seven-term Baltimore mayor Ferdinand Latrobe by Democratic political operative and appointee Thomas Francis McNulty. [5]

Popular early recordings were by Prince's Orchestra (1917) and by Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan (1918). [6] Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album On the Sentimental Side (1962).

The song was featured in a 1993 episode of The Simpsons titled "Krusty Gets Kancelled", where an old man sings the first verse of the song with his pants down and becomes a hit on television. In the 2011 episode "Moms I'd Like to Forget", 4th graders including Bart sing a parody of the song, which the 5th graders declare as a dishonor to the original. Also, in a 2017 episode, the title "The Old Blue Mayor She Ain't What She Used to Be", is a play on words of the song's title.

It is also used as the secondary fight song for the Murray State Racers athletic teams. [7]

Lyrics

The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be,
Ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be,
The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be,
Many long years ago.
Many long years ago, many long years ago,
The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be,
Many long years ago.
The old gray mare, she kicked on the whiffletree,
Kicked on the whiffletree, kicked on the whiffletree,
The old gray mare, she kicked on the whiffletree,
Many long years ago.
Many long years ago, many long years ago,
The old gray mare, she kicked on the whiffletree,
Many long years ago.

Pattern

The repetitive pattern of the song is common to many traditional folk songs, including "London Bridge is Falling Down". The melodic system of the two songs is also similar, with the middle of the three repetitions of the phrase being sung to a similar melody, but down a scale degree. [9] The melody has also been used in American songs such as "Ain't I Glad I Got out the Wilderness" and "Ain't You Glad You Joined the Republicans", and in turn is related to the melody of the spiritual "Go in the Wilderness". [10]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Opie, Iona Archibald and Opie, Peter (1997) Children's Games with Things: marbles, fivestones, throwing and catching, gambling, hopscotch, chucking and pitching, ball-bouncing, skipping, tops and tipcat Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, page 147, ISBN   0-19-215963-1
  2. 1 2 Hotaling, Edward (1995) They're off!: horse racing at Saratoga Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York, page 25, ISBN   0-8156-0350-9
  3. ↑ "The Horse in 19th Century American Sport: The Golden Age of the Trotting Horse" International Museum of the Horse
  4. ↑ Reed, Jerry (22 July 1967) "A look At My Mail" The Progress-Index (Petersburg, Virginia, newspaper) page 8, upon Lady Suffolk being inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Trotter in Goshen, New York
  5. ↑ "The Press: Fireless Firebrand". 20 March 1939. Archived from the original on February 16, 2013 – via www.time.com.
  6. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1986). Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954. Wisconsin, USA: Record Research Inc. p.  561. ISBN   0-89820-083-0.
  7. ↑ "Traditions". GoRacers.com. Murray State Racers athletics. October 31, 2005. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Was there really an Old Gray mare?". OldGrayMares.com. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  9. ↑ Jay Rahn, "Stereotype Forms in English-Canadian Children's Songs: Historical and Pedagogical Aspects", Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1981)
  10. ↑ Go in the Wilderness lyrics on http://traditionalmusic.co.uk

Related Research Articles

"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English ballad. The song lists a number of impossible tasks given to a former lover who lives in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. The "Scarborough/Whittingham Fair" variant was most common in Yorkshire and Northumbria, where it was sung to various melodies, often using Dorian mode, with refrains resembling "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" and "Then she'll be a true love of mine." It appears in Traditional Tunes by Frank Kidson published in 1891, who claims to have collected it from Whitby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Bo-Peep</span> English folk song

"Little Bo-Peep" or "Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6487.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hey Diddle Diddle</span> English nursery rhyme

"Hey Diddle Diddle" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19478.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Bridge Is Falling Down</span> Nursery rhyme from England

"London Bridge Is Falling Down" is a traditional English nursery rhyme and singing game, which is found in different versions all over the world. It deals with the dilapidation of London Bridge and attempts, realistic or fanciful, to repair it. It may date back to bridge-related rhymes and games of the Late Middle Ages, but the earliest records of the rhyme in English are from the 17th century. The lyrics were first printed in close to their modern form in the mid-18th century and became popular, particularly in Britain and the United States, during the 19th century.

"Lily of the West" is a traditional British and Irish folk song, best known today as an American folk song, listed as number 957 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The American version is about a man who travels to Louisville and falls in love with a woman named Mary, Flora or Molly, the eponymous Lily of the West. He catches Mary being unfaithful to him, and, in a fit of rage, stabs the man she is with, and is subsequently imprisoned. In spite of this, he finds himself still in love with her. In the original version, the Lily testifies in his defense and he is freed, though they do not resume their relationship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ring a Ring o' Roses</span> Folk song

"Ring a Ring o' Roses", "Ring a Ring o' Rosie", or "Ring Around the Rosie", is a nursery rhyme, folk song and playground singing game. Descriptions first emerge in the mid-19th century, but are reported as dating from decades before, and similar rhymes are known from across Europe. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roses Are Red</span> Love poem and childrens rhyme

"Roses Are Red" is the name of a love poem and children's rhyme with Roud Folk Song Index number 19798. It has become a cliché for Valentine's Day, and has spawned multiple humorous and parodic variants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pease Porridge Hot</span> Nursery rhyme and clapping game

"Pease Porridge Hot" or "Pease Pudding Hot" is a children's singing game and nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19631.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Raggle Taggle Gypsy</span> Traditional folk song

"The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" (Roud 1, Child 200), is a traditional folk song that originated as a Scottish border ballad, and has been popular throughout Britain, Ireland and North America. It concerns a rich lady who runs off to join the gypsies (or one gypsy). Common alternative names are "Gypsy Davy", "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies O", "The Gypsy Laddie(s)", "Black Jack David" (or "Davy") and "Seven Yellow Gypsies".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">As I was going by Charing Cross</span> English language nursery rhyme

"As I was going by Charing Cross", is an English language nursery rhyme. The rhyme was first recorded in the 1840s, but it may have older origins in street cries and verse of the seventeenth century. It refers to the equestrian statue of King Charles I in Charing Cross, London, and may allude to his death or be a puritan satire on royalist reactions to his execution. It was not recorded in its modern form until the mid-nineteenth century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20564.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polly Put the Kettle On</span> Traditional song

"Polly Put the Kettle On" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7899.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">What Are Little Boys Made Of?</span> Nursery rhyme and traditional song

"What Are Little Boys Made Of?" is a nursery rhyme dating from the early 19th century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 821.

The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadside Index and a "field-recording index" compiled by Roud. It subsumes all the previous printed sources known to Francis James Child and includes recordings from 1900 to 1975. Until early 2006, the index was available by a CD subscription; now it can be found online on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website, maintained by the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). A partial list is also available at List of folk songs by Roud number.

"The Broomfield Hill", "The Broomfield Wager" "The Merry Broomfield", "The Green Broomfield", "A Wager, a Wager", or "The West Country Wager" (Child 43, Roud 34) is a traditional English folk ballad.

The Farmer's Curst Wife is a traditional English language folk song listed as Child ballad number 278 and number 160 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Goodman</span> Song

"Our Goodman" is a Scottish and English humorous folk song. It describes the efforts of an unfaithful wife to explain away the evidence of her infidelity. A version of the song, "Seven Drunken Nights", was a hit record for The Dubliners in the 1960s.

"I Love Little Pussy", alternatively called "I Love Little Kitty", is an English language nursery rhyme about a person who is kind to a pet cat. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12824.

Nottamun Town, also known under other titles such as "Nottingham Fair" and "Fair Nottamon Town" is an American folk song. Although sometimes suggested to be an English song of medieval origin brought to North America during the early colonial era and preserved in oral tradition, and still described as such in some popular works, it is more likely derived from popular 18th and 19th century printed broadsides, with the most likely immediate precursor being the 19th century "Paddy's Ramble to London".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross</span> English nursery rhyme

"Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross" is an English language nursery rhyme connected with the English town Banbury in Oxfordshire. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 21143.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Francis McNulty</span> American singer and sheriff (1859–1932)

Thomas Francis McNulty was an American Democratic political operative and epithetist. He was at one time sheriff of Baltimore, Maryland. McNulty is most remembered, however, as the composer of the children's song "The Old Grey Mare".

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.