The Girl I Left Behind

"The Girl I Left Behind" also known as "The Girl I Left Behind Me" is a long-standing popular folk tune. According to Theodore Ralph, it was known in America as early as 1650, under the name "Brighton Camp", but there is little evidence to support this assumption. In Ireland it was known as "The Rambling Labourer" and "The Spailpin Fanach" and was first published in Dublin in 1791. [http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/master/girlileft10.html] "The earliest known version of the melody was printed about 1810 in Hime's "Pocket Book for the German Flute of Violin" (Dublin, n. d.), vol. 3, p. 67, under the title "The Girl I left Behind Me; NLI." (National Library of Ireland, Dublin) [James J. Fuld, 3rd. ed. 1985, "The Book of World-Famous Music Classical, Popular and Folk, pp. 242-244, Dover Pub]

It has many variations and verses. Here is one example:

:All the dames of France are fond and free:And Flemish lips are really willing:Very soft the maids of Italy:And Spanish eyes are so thrilling

:Still, although I bask beneath their smile,:Their charms will fail to bind me:And my heart falls back to Erin's isle:To the girl I left behind me.

Civil War use

The song was popular in the US regular army, who adopted it during the War of 1812 after they heard a British prisoner singing it. [ [http://www.contemplator.com/england/girl.html The Girl I Left Behind Me (Version 1) ] ] :I'm lonesome since I crossed the hill:And over the moor that's sedgy:Such lonely thoughts my heart do fill:Since parting with my Betsey

:I seek for one as fair and gay :But find none to remind me:How sweet the hours I passed away:With the girl I left behind me

During the Civil War the Confederates had their own version::Old Abe lies sick, Old Abe lies sick :Old Abe lies sick in bed:He's a lying dog, a crying dog:And I wish that he was dead

:Jeff Davis is a gentleman:Abe Lincoln is a fool:Jeff Davis rides a big white horse:And Lincoln rides a mule

Lincoln's assassination inspired another version. [ [http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/jwbooth.htm Wilkes Booth came to Washington / Booth Killed Lincoln ] ]

Examples of use in media

The song has a march beat and has often been associated with British and American military bands, especially in the context of soldiers heading out to (or returning from) battle. There is a British variant called "Brighton Camp". In the 1968 film The Charge of the Light Brigade, Scottish Highlanders whistle it as they advance towards the Battle of the Alma.

This tune has been quoted in some pieces of classical music, such as:
*Hamilton Harty's "An Irish Symphony"
*Roy Harris's Symphony No. 4 "Folk Song Symphony"

This tune has also been used as a theme for western films about Indian Wars, such as:
*A 1915 silent film about Custer, titled "The Girl I Left Behind Me".
*A frequently heard theme in the soundtrack of the John Ford and John Wayne "Cavalry Trilogy", including "Fort Apache" and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon".

The tune appears in the Popeye Cartoon "Popeye the Sailor meets Sindbad the Sailor." Popeye mumbles to it under his breath as he marches toward his final confrontation with Sindbad.

"The Frogs And The Lobsters", an episode of the recent Horatio Hornblower series, features the tune being played by a band of the Royal Marines, along with the first few bars of 'Rule Britannia'.

The tune is easy to play on the fife, and is one of two songs often associated with the famous "The Spirit of '76" painting, along with "Yankee Doodle". One example in popular culture which illustrates this cliché is at the end of the Bugs Bunny cartoon, "A Wild Hare", in which the bunny marches into the sunset at the end of the cartoon, playing the tune on a fife and effecting a stiff leg as with the fifer in the painting.

"The Girl I Left Behind" has been recorded many times, by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Joyce Anderson, and Matt Cunningham, among others.

The tune is also used for the Irish folk song, Waxie's Dargle.

A tune very similar to The Girl I Left Behind was sampled in the overworld music in the NES game Kid Icarus

It is not to be confused with a song of the same name by Davy Jones

In a 1960s Beverly Hillbillies episode, the melody is used for the commercial jingle "the best durn soap is Foggy Mountain Soap".

References

External links

* [http://www.contemplator.com/england/girl.html "The Girl I left Behind" Text and MIDI]

* [http://www.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/detherowgirl1236.html R. P. Detherow, recorded by John Quincy Wolf, Jr, in 1952.]