The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (song)
| "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" | |
|---|---|
 Cover, sheet music, 1913 | |
| Song | |
| Published | 1913 |
| Composer | Harry Carroll |
| Lyricist | Ballard MacDonald |
| Language | English |
"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" is a popular song published in 1913, with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald and music by Harry Carroll. Inspired by the John Fox, Jr.'s 1908 novel of the same title, the song expresses the singer's love for his "girl" June, who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The chorus is:[1]
- In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,
- On the trail of the lonesome pine—
- In the pale moonshine our hearts entwine,
- Where she carved her name and I carved mine;
- Oh, June, like the mountains I'm blue—
- Like the pine I am lonesome for you,
- In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,
- On the trail of the lonesome pine.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine has been recorded numerous times, and was featured in Laurel and Hardy's 1937 film Way Out West. This version was released as a single in 1975 in the UK and, thanks largely to being championed by disc jockey John Peel on his Radio 1 evening show, reached No. 2 in the charts. The song was also recorded by Vivian Stanshall, the English frontman of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and released as "Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia" by NWOBHM band Tokyo Blade.
The song is featured in the stage play The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine, and is played during the opening credits of the 1936 film adaptation. Since 1964, the play has been performed in an outdoor theater in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, hometown of the novel's author: it was designated the "official outdoor drama" by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1994,[2] and is now the sixth longest running outdoor drama in the United States.
References
- ↑ MacDonald, "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (Sheet music).
- ↑ Trail of the Lonesome Pine Amphitheatre/June Tolliver Playhouse Official Tourism Website of the Commonwealth of Virginia
Bibliography
- MacDonald, Ballard (w.); Carroll, Harry (m.). "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (Sheet music). New York: Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc. (1913).
External links
- "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine", Manuel Romain (Edison Blue Amberol 1743, 1913)—Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.
- Transcription of Laurel & Hardy version