Bring Back My Blue Eyed Boy To Me: A Song History
The Traditional Ballad Index files "Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy to Me" under "My Blue-Eyed Boy," a lament for a lost sweetheart pieced together mostly from floating verses and recognized by its plea for the blue-eyed lover's return.[1] Many of those verses also turn up in "The Butcher Boy" or in versions of the "Pretty Little Foot" songs, and the index's editor writes that this song and "The Butcher Boy" sit so close together that he nearly catalogued them as one.[1] The index even assigns to this song one of the variants that Bronson printed among his versions of "The Lass of Roch Royal."[1] Collectors have found it in the American South, Midwest and Appalachians as well as in Scotland and Ireland, and the index gives its earliest date as 1909, from Belden's Missouri Folklore Society collection, with a possible sighting as early as 1879.[1]
The heroine who waits anxiously for her absent lover (Utka Nayika), Northern India, Pahari kingdoms, gum tempera on paper, c. 1800. Shown for its theme of waiting for an absent lover; it has no connection to the song.
The Carter Family recorded their version for Victor in Camden, New Jersey, on February 15, 1929 (matrix BVE-49866), and the Discography of American Historical Recordings lists A. P. Carter as its composer.[2] According to the Ballad Index, the record came out on Victor V-40190 in 1930 and was later reissued on Montgomery Ward and Bluebird.[1] Other early country performers took up the song as well: Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett recorded it for Columbia in 1929, and the Brier Hopper Brothers released it on Champion in 1933.[1] In Richmond, Indiana, Boyden Carpenter made a Gennett test recording of it with guitar and harmonica on January 22, 1930.[3]
The song also lasted in oral tradition: the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection at Missouri State University holds a "Blue Eyed Boy" sung by O. B. Campbell, recorded in Vinita, Oklahoma, on August 9, 1971.[4] Jim Miller includes it in 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 1, a set of 15 solo mountain dulcimer arrangements with tablature, lyrics and chord symbols, published by Fingers Of Steel.[5]
Sources
- The Traditional Ballad Index: "My Blue-Eyed Boy".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-49866. Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me / Carter Family".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Gennett matrix 16125. Bring back my blue eyed boy / Boyden Carpenter".
- Missouri State University, Max Hunter Folk Song Collection: "Blue Eyed Boy".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Jim Miller, 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 1".
- Image: The heroine who waits anxiously for her absent lover (Utka Nayika), Northern India, Pahari kingdoms, gum tempera on paper, c. 1800. The Cleveland Museum of Art.