Bards Old Time Fiddle Tunebook Supplement/Cripple Creek
Cripple Creek is an Old Time Appalachian folk song for the fiddle, though it is often played on the banjo as well.. No one knows when it was composed, but there are theories about just where Cripple Creek is. Some say it is Cripple Creek, Virginia, while others say it is based on Cripple Creek, Colorado during the gold rush. It was frequently recorded by early country musicians in the 1920s.[1]
Lyrics
[edit | edit source]The following are lyrics from a 1909 version.[1]
- A. "(From East Tennessee; mountain whites; from memory; 1909)"
- Goin' to Cripple Creek, goin' ter Rome (roam),
- Goin' ter Cripple Creek, goin' back home.
- See them women layin' in the shade,
- Waitin' fer the money them men have made.
- Roll my breeches ter my knees
- En wade ol' Cripple Creek when I please.
"A well-known mining district in Virginia." Probably Rome, Tennessee; there is also a Rome in Georgia.
- B. "(From South Carolina; country whites, MS. of Mr. Bryan; 1909)"
- Goin' to Cripple Creek, going in a run;
- Goin' to Cripple Creek to have my fun.
When Cecil Sharp collected folksongs in the Appalachian Mountains in 1917 he found one version of Cripple Creek:
- "Gone to Cripple Creek" sung by Mrs. Wilson Pineville, Kentucky, Aug 27, 1917.
- Gone to Cripple Creek, gone in a run,
- Gone to Cripple Creek to have some fun.
- Gone to Cripple Creek, gone in a run,
- Gone to Cripple Creek to have some fun.
- "Gone" is probably a mishearing of- goin'.