Leaving Home:
Electronic Edition.

Performed by The Swingbillies

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Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.

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Text transcribed by Monique Prince
Text encoded by Elizabeth S. Wright
First edition, 2003
ca. 7K
Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2003.

Source Description:

(title page) Leaving Home
The Swingbillies
1 p.

Call number 78-16071 General Collection/Sound Recordings (#30001), (Southern Folklife Collection, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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        The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH digitization project, Documenting the American South.
        These song lyrics are transcribed from a recording by The Swingbillies held by the Southern Folklife Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These lyrics accompany a digital audio file.
        The text has been encoded using the recommendations for Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines.
        All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as entity references.
        All single right and left quotation marks are encoded as ' and ' respectively.
        Spell-check and verification made against printed text using Author/Editor (SoftQuad) and Microsoft Word spell check programs.

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Library of Congress Subject Headings

Languages Used:

• English

LC Subject Headings:

• Ballads, English -- Texts.
• Ballads, English -- United States.
• Folk songs, English -- United States -- Texts.
• Folk songs, English -- United States.
• Textile factories -- North Carolina -- Songs and music.

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Revision History:

• 2005-02-21,
  Celine Noel and Wanda Gunther
  revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic edition.
  
  
• 2003-09-11,
  Elizabeth S. Wright
  finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing.
  
  
• 2003-08-21,
  Elizabeth S. Wright
  finished TEI/SGML encoding
  
  
• 2003-07-17,
  Monique Prince
  finished transcribing the text.
  
  

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Leaving Home

Audio File (MP3 file, ca. 2.7MB, 2:53 min)

                         Now Frankie and Johnnie were sweethearts
                         And they had a quarrel one day
                         Johnnie vowed he'd leave her
                         Said he was going away
                         Never coming home
                         Going away to roam

                         Now Frank she begged and she pleaded
                         She was hollerin' 'Johnnie please stay
                         Now, hon, I've done you wrong
                         But please don't go away'
                         And Johnnie sighed
                         And Frankie cried

                         Oh I'm going away, I'm going to stay, never coming home
                         Gonna miss me honey in the days to come
                         When the winter wind begins to blow, the ground is covered up with snow
                         Think on me, wish to be back loving man
                         Gonna miss me honey in the day, day, days to come

                         Now Frankie done said to her Johnnie
                         'Now say man, your hour has come'
                         Underneath her silk kimono
                         She drew a forty-four gun
                         It was a bear
                         But lot to fare

                         Now Johnnie fled down the stairway
                         He's cryin' 'Frankie, don't shoot'
                         Frankie aimed the forty-four
                         Five times with a root-toot-toot
                         And Johnnie fell
                         And Frankie yelled

                         Oh I'm going away, I'm going to stay, never coming home
                         Gonna miss me honey in the days to come
                         When the winter winds begin to blow, the ground is covered up with snow
                         Think on me, wish to be back loving man
                         Gonna miss me honey in the day, day, days to come

                         Now send for rubber-tired hearses
                         And you better get your rubber-tired hack
                         Carry little Johnnie to the graveyard
                         I shot him in the back
                         With a great big gun
                         When he went to run

                         Now send for thousand policemans
                         To take me right away
                         And lock me down in the dungeon cell
                         And throw the key away
                         'Cause Johnnie's dead
                         Just 'cause he said:

                         Oh I'm going away, I'm going to stay, never coming home
                         Gonna miss me honey in the days to come
                         When the winter winds begin to blow, the ground is covered up with snow
                         Think of me, wish to be back loving man
                         Gonna miss me honey in the day, day, days to come

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