"if I had the wings of an angel"
Bllbrs
angel...over these prison walls I would fly". Does anyone know the actual
name, who recorded it or wrote it and where I might find the words, music or
any info about it? Thanx!
Jason Hill
<bll...@aol.com> writes
"The Prisoner's Song", recorded by Vernon Dalhart in the early 1920's.
--
Jason Hill
Adam Hurt
Powell's CD, "If I Go 10,000 Miles." However, it seems to me that I have heard
those words in other songs; maybe they are "floating" lyrics???
-Adam
O--*-~ (<<<it's a banjo, ain't it cute?!)
Carl Baron
Bllbrs wrote:
> My father used to sing a song that went... "If I had the wings of an
> angel...over these prison walls I would fly". Does anyone know the actual
> name, who recorded it or wrote it and where I might find the words, music or
> any info about it? Thanx!
THE PRISONER'S SONG
Oh I wish I had someone to love me
Someone to call me her own,
Oh I wish I had someone to live with
For I'm tired of living alone.
Oh please meet me tonight in the moonlight
Please meet me tonight all alone
For I have a sad story to tell you
It's a story that's never been told.
I'll be carried to the new jail tomorrow
Leavin' my poor darlin' alone
With the cold prison bars all around me
And my head on a pillow of stone
Now I have a grand ship on the ocean
All mounted with silver and gold
And before my poor darling would suffer.
Oh that ship would be anchored and sold.
Now if I had wings like an angel
Over these prison walls I would fly.
And I'd fly to the arms of my poor darling
And there I'd be willing to die.
Note: From Vernon Dalhart recording, 1924. This was the flip
side of Wreck of the old 97, and Dahlhart made several cover
versions for some 30 different labels. This was clearly the
single most popular record ---of any type--- produced at the
time, with reported sales up in the billions of records
being reported. A decade later, Acuff covered it, and sold
another million or so.
@jail
filename[ PRSNRSNG
play.exe_PRSNRSNG
RG
from the Digital Tradition
Carl
John Lupton
(Bllbrs) wrote:
>My father used to sing a song that went... "If I had the wings of an
>angel...over these prison walls I would fly". Does anyone know the actual
>name, who recorded it or wrote it and where I might find the words, music or
>any info about it? Thanx!
"The Prisoner's Song", one side of Vernon Dalhart's hit 78 record in 1924,
said by many to be the first million-seller in country music. The other side
was "Wreck Of The Old 97".
**********************************************
John Lupton, "Rural Free Delivery"
WVUD-FM 91.3, Newark DE (www.sas.upenn.edu/~jlupton/rfd.html)
Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music/
Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival
**********************************************
Robinjoy25
>>angel...over these prison walls I would fly". Does anyone know the actual
>>name, who recorded it or wrote it and where I might find the words, music or
>>any info about it? Thanx!
>
>--
>Jason Hill
>
>
>
>
Jason,
The song is the Prisoner's Song and it was done by Vernon Dalhart in 1924.
You can get it on the History of Country Music set from the Smithsonian. I'm
also sure you can get a cd with this from CD Now or Borders to name a couple
Good luck and enjoy!
Robin
Manfred H
wrote:
>In article <20000704152307...@ng-ff1.aol.com>, bll...@aol.com
>(Bllbrs) wrote:
>
>>My father used to sing a song that went... "If I had the wings of an
>>angel...over these prison walls I would fly". Does anyone know the actual
>>name, who recorded it or wrote it and where I might find the words, music or
>>any info about it? Thanx!
>
>"The Prisoner's Song", one side of Vernon Dalhart's hit 78 record in 1924,
>said by many to be the first million-seller in country music. The other side
>was "Wreck Of The Old 97".
>
>**********************************************
>John Lupton, "Rural Free Delivery"
>WVUD-FM 91.3, Newark DE (www.sas.upenn.edu/~jlupton/rfd.html)
>Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music/
> Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival
>**********************************************
I just received this email yesterday:
>The lyrics to The Prisoner's Song (so the tale has been passed down in my
>family) were written by my great grandfather, Robert Taylor, on the walls
>of the Early County Jail in Blakely, Georgia, where he was serving time for
>public drunkeness sometime between 1900-1909. It entered the prison
>culture from there, and was later set to music by the Masseys and performed
>with great success by Vernon Dalhart and Roy Acuff. My grandfather was
>well known as a fiddler, and also knew Fiddlin' John Carson and Moonshine
>Kate, who often traveled those parts in the 1920's. The poem remained on
>the prison wall for some years. My grandfather is buried in the city
>cemetery of Blakely.
>Joseph Valles
>Atlanta, Georgia
jva...@hotmail.com
Fyi
Best regards
Manfred
Doc Watson, Woody Guthrie, The Almanac Singers site at
http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/3448/
Bob Dylan Musical Roots site at
http://members.xoom.com/elstongunn/
History in Song site at
http://www.historysong.com/
Ed Muller
song. It's available on a cd reissue titled "Cattle Call" on the Country
Stars label.
Bllbrs <bll...@aol.com> wrote in message
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