Clementine

Coal mine excavation where you could get a splinter

Clementine is one of those songs with a mixed history, mixed in the sense it is cited by different sources with unique information about its origin.  The folk ballad is usually credited as having been written by Percy Montrose in 1884.  Others believe it was written by a man named Barker Bradford.  Still others, many years ago, believed the song came from Mexican workers during the time of the gold rush.

At the outset the song appears to be a sad one, a ballad where someone is grieving the loss of a lover or grown daughter.  Yet the song turns to speak of size 9 shoes and herring boxes without top-ses that are parodies that take away from the possible romantic ballad one presumes at the outset.

And it is performed here with that tongue-in-cheek, upbeat style:

Virginia Belle

During the times of Stephen Foster, in the 19th century, 25% of the children never lived past childhood.  Families anticipated the possibility of losing a child, so many made that first birthday an important occasion

Sierra Mae Lamar--a missing child

.  The sensitive lyrics of Stephen Foster reveals his understanding of the culture of his times and the common thread that existed among many people, with the loss of a child.

But still Foster's songs have an aura of hope, of something precious, something beautiful to be found in one's grief or whatever tragedy befalls a person.  He surely understood that, suffering from alcoholism, the loss of his family and his eventual descent into poverty, where he worked for mere pennies in the saloons of the period.

The song Virginia Belle is one of Foster's lesser known songs, but the beauty of it again underlines Foster's talent as a musician as well as his ability to tell the stories of his time.  He was that troubadour of old at a time when newspapers were in business but when music also was used to convey emotions and ideas.  The preciousness of life was underlined by the hardships of the time, early death of children, hard work, plagues, illnesses, financial difficulties.  This song gives us a view into the world of those times, with the song that captures not just the feelings then but the emotions of everyone who has suffered the loss of a child or who waits for the lost one to return home.  For loss, as Foster observes in a number of his songs, is not just a physical one.