The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane è una canzone popolare statunitense scritta da Will S. Hays nel 1871 per i cantori girovaghi. Scritta in dialetto, la canzone parla di un anziano, forse uno schiavo o ex-schiavo, che trascorre in suoi ultimi anni in una vecchia capanna diroccata. Il titolo viene dal ritornello:
"... de little old log cabin in de lane" (... la vecchia piccola capanna in fondo al sentiero)
Il testo stesso della canzone era folklorico e diede origine a numerose canzoni di risposta, ma la melodia fu ancora più usata, divenendo la base di molte altre vecchie canzoni folk.Thorp, Songs of the Cowboys, pp. xviii-xviv: "Again, others have been built upon well-known airs; 'The Cowboy's Dream' is sung to the tune of 'My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,' and Jack Thorp's 'Little Joe, the Wrangelr' was composed to the tune of 'The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane'. " come "Little Red Caboose Behind The Train" o "The Lily Of The Valley".
La registrazione di "The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane" realizzata da Fiddlin' John Carson fu una delle prime registrazioni commerciali di un musicista bianco dell'America rurale.Carlin, Country Music, p. x: "One artist whom Brockman recommended was a fifty-plus-year-old fiddler and sometime house painter named Fiddlin' John Carson; the Okeh label dutifully made a custom record of Carson singing the late-nineteenth-century popular song 'The little Old Log Cabin in the Lane' for Brockman to sell, but didn't even bother to assign a master number or affix a label to the 500 records pressed for him. It was only after the record became a regional hit that the light bulb of commerce lit up in the executives' heads, and suddenly they were scouring the countryside for entertainers." La sua popolarità convinse l'industria a continuare la produzione di musica folk rurale.
La canzone è da allora uno standard del Bluegrass.
Versione di Fiddlin' John Carson
Testo
Oh I'm gettin' old and feeble and I cannot work no more The children no more gather 'round my door [That rusted bladed hoe I've laid to rest] And old masters and old mrs they are sleepin' side by side [Their spirits now are roaming with the blessed]
Oh the chimney's fallen down and the roof's all caved in Lettin' in the sunshine and the rain And the only friend I've got now is that good old dag of mine [But there're angels watching over me when I lay down to sleep] When de darkies used to gather round de door When dey used to dance an' sing at night,I played de ole banjo But alas, I cannot play it anymore.
Things have changed about the place now And the darkies they have gone I used to hear them singing in the cane But the only friend that's left here Is that good old dog of mine And the little old log cabin in the lane
Oh the trees [the footpath] have all growed up that lead around the hill The fences have all gone to decay And the creeks [the pound] have all dried up where we used to go to mill And things have changed their course another way
Oh I ain't got long to stay here what little time I've got I want to rest content while I remain 'Til death shall call this dog and me to find a better home Than a little old log cabin in the lane
Note
Bibliografia Carlin, Richard. Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Routledge (2002). Thorp, N. Howard "Jack". Songs of the Cowboys. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908, 1921. Waltz, Robert B; David G. Engle. "". The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World. Hosted by California State University, Fresno, Folklore , 2007.
Categoria:Canzoni popolari del XIX secolo Categoria:Canzoni popolari statunitensi