US & Canada Versions: 275. Get up & Bar the Door
[This ballad is rare in US and Canada. For some reason it never caught on even though the concept of making a pact between a married couple that- whoever speaks first has to bar the door- is an intriguing one. Most of the US and Canadian versions are directly from Scottish immigrants and are close to Child A.
The first US published version appears to be a burlesque on p. 169 of Delehanty and Hengler's Song and Dance Book (1874) which I do not have access. In 1873 the songwriter Will S. Hays penned an original song, Get Up and Shut the Door, that used the concept and title. It is not related to the ballad except for the "Get up and shut the door" line.
Several of the US collected versions published are of questionable authenticity. Both Brown A and B may not be traditional from North Carolina- version A was sent in by an informant without corroboration and B, a Scottish version, was learned by York from the famous collector James Carpenter, and is a cover of an unknown Scottish version. Cox's 1924 West Virginia version and Comb's 1924 West Virginia version are identical and were supplied by Carey Woofter, then a student at the University of West Virginia. Woofter gave a different source for each one which is very unlikely and the possibility exists that this was a re-write/translation by Woofter. A similar West Virginia text published by Gainer, a student collecting friend of Woofter's in the 1920s, was attributed as sung by Charlie Montgomery in 1963 (reprinted in Singa Hipsy Doodle in 1971) and then in 1975 Gainer printed the same ballad as sung by W. A. Thomas. Why did Gainer change the informant in 1975? It's a mystery to me. Of Niles' version he says, "I have known since early childhood." No other versions have been found in Kentucky, where Niles grew up. Since some of Niles versions have been rejected summarily by "ballad" musicologists, this one is also questionable (even though I'm sure, as with Gainer, many of his contributions are authentic).]
CONTENTS: (To view individual versions listed below, click on titles on left hand panel attached to this page)
Old John Jones- Clevenger (WV) 1924 Cox- Woofter
John Jones- Thomas (WV) pre1975 Gainer
Arise and Bar The Door, O- Gamsby (MI) 1935
Joan and John Blount- Walters (NL) 1929 Greenleaf
Get Up and Bar the Door- Whitley (NC) 1952 Brown A
Get Up and Bar the Door- York (NC) 1941 Brown B
The Old Man and the Door- (KY) c.1898 Niles
Old John Jones- Chenowith(WV) 1924 Combs/Woofter
The Barrin' o' Oor Door- Kilbride (MA) 1953 Flanders
Get Up & Bar the Door- Salswell (FL) 1949 Kirkland
Get Up and Bar the Door- McGill (NB) 1929 Barry A
Get Up & Bar the Door- Macausian (ME) 1928 Barry B
Get Up & Bar the Door- McKeen (NS) 1950 Creighton
Get Up and Bar the Door- Fleming (VA) 1921 Davis
Get Up & Bar the Door- Cooper (MA-OK) 1920 Moore
Get Up & Shut the Door- Wilbur (MO) 1900 Rand A
Get Up & Shut the Door- Bone (MO) 1930 Rand
Bar the Door O- (NL) pre-1965 Peacock
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Missing versions:
1) Delehanty and Hengler's Song and Dance Book (1874), 169.
2) Get Up and Bar the Door- Library of Congress recording 3251 A1; Performer Marjorie Edgar, Place collected Chicago, Illinois, Collector Robertson, Sidney
3) Get Up and Bar the Door- Helen Hartness Flanders Collection (Middlebury College, Vermont) T16 A 14
Performer Art Singer
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
275. GET UP AND BAR THE DOOR
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 318 / Brown Coll / Combs, F-S Etats-Unis, 147 / Cox, F-S South, 5x6 / Davidson's Universal Melodist, I, Z75 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 495 / Gardner and Dickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 371 / Greenleaf and Mansfield, Bids Sea Sgs Newfdld, 41 / Jones, F-L Mich, 5 / Randolph, Oz F-S, 1, 186 / SFLQ, XIII, 170 / Va FLS Bull, # 9 .
Local Titles: Arise and Bar the Door -O, Get Up and Bar the Door, John and Joan Blount, Old John Jones.
Story Types: A: A housewife is boiling pudding when a cold wind blows the door open. The husband tells her to bar the door; however, she is busy and refuses. They agree that the first one who speaks must shut the door. Two travellers, attracted by the light from the open door, enter the house. Getting no reply to any of their questions or remarks, they eat and drink
what they find. The husband and wife watch, saying nothing. One of the travellers proposes to take off the man's beard (and in some texts decides to use the hot pudding to soften it), while the other traveller plans to kiss the wife. This last proposal brings some words from the husband, and he has to bar the door.
Examples: Barry (A), Combs, Gardner and Chickering.
B: The story is essentially the same as that of Type A. However, the husband and wife get sleepy on home-brewed ale and go to bed forgetting to bar the door. The agreement is made, and the travellers come. They eat and drink downstairs and then go up and pull the wife out of bed and begin to kiss her on the floor. This freedom is too much for the husband. Examples: Greenleaf and Mansfield.
Discussion: The Type A texts follow the Child A and B story closely. However, Type B seems to be of a different sort from anything in Child. It resembles Child C in that the couple go to bed, there are three travellers, and the wife is laid on the floor, but the narrative is fuller and the door is not blown open, as in Child.
The fragmentary B version in Randolph's Oz F-S indicates that the men actually shave off the husband's beard.
Crude lyrics are easily and often inserted into this ballad. For other tales of the same sort see Child, V, 96 8. For a burlesque of the ballad see Delehanty and Hengler's Song and Dance Book (1874), 169.