Annotation:Whose been here since I've been gone?

Back to Whose been here since I've been gone?

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WHOSE BEEN HERE SINCE I'VE BEEN GONE? Old Time, Breakdown. Gerry Milnes relates a story attached to the tune in which a man returns home after having been away for a year in the army, only to find a newborn baby in a cradle (some version have him sneaking in while his wife is out hanging the wash). His reaction: to take the fiddle down off the wall and play “Who’s Been Here Since I’ve Been Gone.” Some versions of the story give that his second surprise is that the fiddle is in a different tuning than the one he plays in. Jeff Titon (2001) notes that “Who’s been here since I’ve been gone” is a “floating lyric sung by a cuckold that also turns up in African American tradition” and gives Howlin’ Wolfe’s song “Smokestack Lightning” as a example. Solomon Northrup discussed slave fiddling in his book 12 Years a Slave and printed the “Who’s been here…” lyric. See note for “annotation:Ways of the World (2).” See also the related “Pretty Little Girl with the Blue Dress On” and “Gate to Go Through.”

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Gennett 6828 (78 RPM), Doc Roberts (Ky.). Shanachie Records 6040, Gerry Milnes & Lorriane Lee Hammond – “Hell Up Coal Holler” (1999. “Old Mose Coffman played this one”).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]

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