{"id":25070,"date":"2024-10-28T15:08:42","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T15:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=25070"},"modified":"2025-12-09T07:59:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:59:21","slug":"break-the-news-to-mother","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/break-the-news-to-mother\/","title":{"rendered":"Break the News to Mother"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Just break the news to mother<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1897<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Charles K Harris<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN4322<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Alfred Hurley, Miss Maude Needham, Miss Flo' Chester, Miss Ella Dean, The Four Sisters Silcott and The Gotham Comedy Quartet.<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Taylor, Jack ; Canada : Newfoundland ; 1929
Carson Robison Trio ; USA : (New York) ; 1930
Keeping family ; England : London ; 1930s – 1950s
Clark, Mrs. C.E. ; USA : Iowa ; 1931
Parsons, Vida ; USA : Iowa : 1931
Broderick, W.J. ; USA : Iowa : 1931
Whitney, Mary Jane ; USA : Iowa : 1931
Armistead, W.B. ; USA : Virginia : 1932
Ragon, Ormon ; USA : Tennessee : 1939
Woodruff, Fred ; USA : Arkansas : 1941
Starks, Will ; USA : Mississippi : 1942
…. and over 50 more traditional singers on both sides of the Atlantic in the period 1945-2000 (see VWML) <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Break the news to Mother<\/strong>
From US Sheet music (1897)<\/a> 

While the shot and shell were screaming upon the battle field
The boys in blue were fighting their noble flag to shield;
Came a cry from their brave captain, \u201cLook boys! Our flag is down;
Who\u2019ll volunteer to save it from disgrace?\u201d
\u201cI will,\u201d a young voice shouted, \u201cI\u2019ll bring it back or die\u201d;
Then sprang into the thickest of the fray;
Saved the flag but gave his young life; all for his country\u2019s sake;
They brought him back and softly heard him say:

\u201cJust break the news to mother,
She knows how dear I lover her,
And tell her not to wait for me,
For I\u2019m not coming home;
Just say there is no other
Can take the place of mother;
Then kiss her dear, sweet lips for me,
And break the news to her.\u201d<\/em>

From a far a noted general had witnessed this brave deed.
\u201cWho saved our flag? Speak up lads, \u2018twas noble, brave, indeed!\u201d
There he lies, sir,\u201d said the captain, \u201che\u2019s sinking very fast;\u201d
When slowly turned away to hide a tear.
The general in a moment, knelt down beside the boy;
Then gave a cry that touch\u2019d all hearts that day.
It\u2019s my son, my brave young hero; I thought you safe at home.\u201d
\u201cForgive me, father, for I ran away.\u201d<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
An early Tin Pan Alley song found widely in the repertoire of traditional singers throughout the English speaking world. It was one of a number of songs written about one conflict which enjoyed greater success in another. This song was originally written in response to a 1896 drama about the American Civil War but the songwriter, Charles K Harris, believing that the audience for a song about the Civil War would be limited, filed it away until  the Spanish-American war of 1898. A year later it crossed the Atlantic and was widely sung in Britain at the time of the 2nd Boer War (1899-1902).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An early historian of the Halls, Maurice Willson Disher, took a dim view of such imports, though I suspect this may have been more to do with a resistance to a perceived Americanisation of entertainment than criticism of profiteering by music publishers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Spanish-American conflict of 1898 was over so soon that …. by 1899 [the songs] had about as much interest as out-of-date newspapers, and the United States would weep over them no more. It was then, month by month, that trouble became inevitable in the Transvaal. With ample time for preparation, publishers on both sides of the Atlantic arranged for the performance in Great Britain of the stuff that had sprung from minds under the real stimulus of war. The transfer of patriotic outbursts from one country to the other succeeded zestfully. Without the slightest suspicion that the goods they were consuming were second-hand, the audiences of English music-halls and pantomimes enthusiastically cheered ballads in honour of imaginary heroes who had already died, in an entirely different cause from the one now under consideration, for the sake of profitable fiction.<\/p>\nMaurice Willson Disher in Victorian Song<\/strong><\/em> (1935)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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The sheet music shown here is the UK 1899 sheet music for Break the News to Mother<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Willson-Disher suggested that other imported Spanish-American war songs included Goodbye Dolly Gray<\/a><\/em> and Blue Bell<\/em> <\/a> – though Blue Bell seems to have been first published 6 years after the Spanish-American conflict, in 1904.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The songs were widely parodied in the Halls and revived again in World War 1- both as parodies and serious songs…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attentive readers may notice that, unlike most songs produced in Britain at turn of the century, the British performance rights don’t seem to have been owned by any individual singer and the list of notable performers is relatively long.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A recording or download of this song can be purchased from Windyridge CDs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An early recording by George Gaskin  from 1899 (surface noise):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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