"Willie the Weeper" is a song about drug addiction. It is based on a standard vaudeville song, likely written in 1904.
The song has many different versions, but all share a common theme: Willie, a chimney sweeper with a dope habit, is introduced. The rest of the song is a description of his drug-induced dream.
The references to "smoking pills" in these "Willie" tunes isn't that strange when it is taken into consideration that drug vernacular at the time referred to balls of opium as "pills."
As "Willie the Peeper" the song was published in 1912.
Written (or more likely adapted) by Harry Armstrong, Billy Clark and James Coogan.
And (as the sheetmusic shows) sung with great success by 2 of the composers themselves.
In 1927 Carl Sandburg wrote in his book The American Songbag:
R. W. Gordon in his editorship of the Adventure magazine department "Old Songs That Men Have Sung" received thirty versions of Willy the Weeper, about one hundred verses different. Willy shoots craps with kings, plays poker with presidents, eats nightingale tongues a queen cooks for him; his Monte Carlo winnings come to a million, he lights his pipe with a hundred dollar bill, he has heart affairs with Cleopatra, the Queen of Sheba, and movie actresses.
After the Melrose/Bloom version got published in 1927, Ernest Rogers recorded a new version of "his" song, this time on the Victor-label and with a slightly different title.
(c) Ernest Rogers (1927) (as "Willie the Chimney Sweeper")
"Down by Blackwaterside" (also known as "Blackwaterside", "Blackwater Side" and "Black Waterside", is a traditional folk song, provenance and author unknown, although it is likely to have originated near the River Blackwater, Northern Ireland.
The song tells the story of a woman who has her heart broken "down by Blackwaterside" when a suitor breaks his promise of marriage, which he made to trick her into having sex with him. Her suitor mocks her for believing that he would marry her and tells her to go back to her father. He tells her she has only herself to blame for having sex before marriage. She realises he will never return and berates herself for believing his lies.
In 1969 Led Zeppelin recorded "Black Mountain Side" for their debut-album, which is an instrumental version of "Black Water Side". In fact Jimmy Page took the guitar arrangement from Bert Jansch's version of that song, recorded for Jansch's 1966 album Jack Orion.
Bert Jansch on his turn had learned "Black Water Side" from Anne Briggs, who recorded her version in 1971. The linernotes suggest that Anne Briggs got her version from a 1952 BBC Archive recording by Mary Doran (probably through the intervention of A.L. (Bert) Lloyd).
But from opinions expressed elsewhere it seems most likely that she learned it from Isla Cameron's 1959 recording.
And Isla Cameron on her turn had learned the song, either directly (from a 1952 BBC Archive recording by Winnie Ryan) or via the intermediary services of the singer A. L. Lloyd.
A broadside from the 19th century with much of the same lyrics (especially verses 3, 4 and 5) is Roud # 564 in the Bodleian Libraries "The Distress'd Maid", dated between 1813 and 1838
But even before that (ca 1670) a broadside, dealing with the same themes of seduction and abandonment, was published in London: "The forsaken damsel; or The deluded maid"
Containing a few of the same verses (see verses 10 till 15) and floating lyrics.
So in 1959 Isla Cameron recorded the familiar version of this traditional as "Blackwaterside" (see later on in this post)
But already in 1951, under the supervision of Alan Lomax, Isla Cameron had recorded a variation of this traditional, with much of the same lyrics, but not the familiar tune.
(o) Isla Cameron (1951) (as "As He Walked Down by the River")
Between 1951 and 1953 Alan Lomax was in Dublin, Ireland, where he recorded a woman called I. Gledhill. These recordings are identified only as "scraps—Dublin" on the tape box. It is unclear who or what "I. Gledhill" refers to. (PS I think I. Gledhill might in fact be Isla Cameron)
(c) I. Gledhill (1951/1953) (as "As He Walked by the River")
As I said above in 1959 Isla Cameron recorded another variation of this traditional, which she might have learned from Winnie Ryan, who recorded a version in Belfast in 1952.
Winnie Ryan was part of a group of tinkers from County Waterford, that were recorded in Belfast by Peter Kennedy. On the same day 2 other members of that group of tinkers were also recorded singing a version of the same traditional: Paddy Doran and his wife Mary Doran.
(c) Mary Doran (1952) (as "Blackwater Side")
Recorded by Peter Kennedy on July 24th, 1952 in Liam Andrew's house at Springfield Road, Belfast.
The original tape for this recording session does not appear to be in Peter Kennedy's collection. However, a dub was made onto 78rpm disk by the BBC at the time.
This undigitised disk can be found in the British Library catalogue BBC #18551
Here below a link to a photograph of travellers' encampment at Dan O'Neill's loanen on the outskirts of Belfast, Northern Ireland, near Black Mountain, taken on either 24 July 1952 or 1 August 1952 on the occasion of a BBC recording session. Individual performers cannot be identified, but probably include Lal Smith, Mary Doran and Winnie Ryan
----> Wanted a soundfile of Winnie Ryan's "Down By Blackwaterside" <-------
Around the same time in 1952 Peter Kennedy recorded Paddy Tunney singing a few songs, but apparently didn't record a version of "Blackwater Side" back then.
But in 1966 (probably close before Bert Jansch) in London, Paddy recorded a version under the supervision of Bill Leader, the same producer who supervised the Bert Jansch version.
In the liner-notes of Paddy's album it says:
Blackwater Side
"Another tale of unrequited love, set to a beautiful air which Paddy decorates in characteristic fashion. The first verse is evidently modelled on The Irish Girl (cf. Joyce, Old Irish Folk Music and Song, and Colm O Lochlainn, More Irish Street Ballads), but there the resemblance ends. Paddy learned the song from the singing of a ‘traveller’, Paddy Doran, who says that the River Blackwater referred to in the song is in County Wexford. The tune is Doh mode hexatonic"
Next a version by Anne Briggs. Many sources say Briggs got her's from the 1952 Mary Doran version. The lyrics have similarities, but the vocal line is more likely in line with Isla Cameron's 1959 version.
In the liner notes for Anne Briggs’s self-titled 1971 LP, A.L. Lloyd explained:
"Some English singers know this as "The False Young Man". It’s one of those pieces whose verses have floated in from half-a-dozen other songs. A form of it was published late in the nineteenth century by the London broadside printer Henry Such of Southwark. Anne’s version is the one popularised from a BBC Archive recording of an Irish traveller, Mary Doran. Anne says her accompaniment is based on Stan Ellison’s version".
