Red Wing

AKALittle Red Wing
First Published1905

Writer/composerThurland Chattaway / Kerry MillsRoudRN27849

Music Hall PerformersAlexandra Dagmar, Ouida MacDermott
Folk performancesCollected from the singing of:
Neal, Riley; USA : Arizona; no date
Kaplan, Norman; USA : New York; no date
Modern performances
Oscar Brand (1950 parody), Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, George Lewis (jazz version 1950s), Slim Whitman
There once lived an Indian maid,
A shy little prairie maid,
Who sang all day a love song gay,
As on the plains she'd while away the day.
She loved a warrior bold,
This shy little maid of old,
But brave and gay he rode one day
To battle far away.

Now the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,
The breeze is sighing, the night bird's crying,
For afar 'neath his star her brave is sleeping, 
While Red Wing's weeping her heart away.

She watched for him day and night;
She lit all the campfires bright;
And under the sky each night, she would lie
And dream about his coming by and by,
But when all the braves returned,
The heart of Red Wing yearned,
For far, far away, her warrior gay
Fell bravely in the fray.

An American Tin Pan Alley song whose melody turns up in all sorts of interesting places. The melody was written by music publishing executive Kerry Mills, based on an earlier piano piece written by German composer Robert Schumann. It comes from a period when romanticised portraits of Native Americans were particularly common, another example is Hiawatha: His song to Minnehaha.

As is the case with other hits imported from America and sung on the British Music Hall stage, this song was not particularly associated with any one performer though Alexandra Dagmar and Ouida MacDermott both sang it.

The tune of this song seems to be particularly useful for parodies – it was famously used both for the wartime Music Hall hit The Moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin and for the Woody Guthrie song Union Maid (1940). A number of bawdy parodies are in circulation – one of the milder ones (from Oscar Brand) is given below:

It has also become something of a bluegrass and country standard. Here it is played by Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel:

Sources:

Last Updated on March 14, 2023 by John Baxter | Published: March 14, 2023

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