{"id":5640,"date":"2020-10-20T16:12:23","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T16:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=5640"},"modified":"2024-08-06T06:46:48","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T06:46:48","slug":"brigham-young","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/brigham-young\/","title":{"rendered":"Brigham Young"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Brigham Young and his five and forty wives
Brigham Brigham Young<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1870(sheet music) <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Lyrics<\/strong><\/td>JB Geoghegan<\/td>Music<\/strong><\/td>JB Geoghegan<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN8056<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>James Hillier<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
Peterson, Heber 1932 USA : Idaho
Hubbard, Mrs. Salley A. 1946 USA : Utah
Jones, Lewis W. 1946 USA : Utah <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Brigham Young<\/strong>\nFrom sheet music held in British Library (1870)\n\nOld Brigham Young is a Mormon bold. \nAnd leader of the roaming rams; \nAnd shepherd of a heap \nOf pretty little sheep. \nAnd a nice fold of pretty little lambs. \nAnd he lives with his five and forty wives \nIn the city of the great Salt Lake. \nWhere they woo and they coo, \nAs little doves do, \nAnd cackle like a ducks to a drake. \n\nOh, Brigham. Brigham Young, \nIt's a miracle how he survives, \nWith his roaming rams and pretty little lambs, \nAnd his five and forty wives.<\/em> \n\nHi number forty-five is about sixteen, \nNumber one is sixty and three; \nAnd they make such a riot -\nHow he ever keeps them quiet, \nIs a downright mystery to me. \nFor they clatter and they claw, and jaw, jaw, jaw, \nAnd each has a different desire; \nIt would aid the renown \nOf the best shop in town \nTo supply them with half they require.\n\nOld Brigham Young was a stout man once, \nTho' now he's thin and old; \nAnd I grieve to state \nHe is bald on his pate, \nWhich once had a covering of gold. \nFor his youngest wives won't have white wool. \nAnd his old ones won't have red; \nSo with tearing it out, \nTaking turn and turn about, \nThey have torn all the hair off his head.\n\nNow his girls are singing psalms all day, \nAnd his boys they all sing songs; \nAnd among such a crowd \nHe has it pretty loud. \nFor they're musical as Chinese gongs. \nAnd when they advance for a Mormon dance. \nHe's filled with the greatest surprise; \nFor they're sure to end the night \nWith a Tabernacle fight, \nAnd scratch out one another's eyes.\n\nThere never was a home like Brigham Young's, \nSo curious and so queer,\nIf his joys are double; \nHe's treble lot of trouble, \nAnd it gains on him year by year; \nYet he sits in state and bears his fate, \nIn a serve-me-very-right sort of way; \nIf there's one wife to bury, \nThere's another one to marry, \nAnd there's something going wrong every day.\n\nNow if any body envies Brigham Young, \nLet them go to the Great Salt Lake; \nAnd if they have leisure \nTo examine their pleasure, \nThey will find it a great mistake. \nOne wife at a time, so says my rhyme, \nIs enough for the proudest Don \nSo ere you strive \nTo be lord of forty-five, \nLive happy \u2013 if you can \u2013 with one.<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This is a well-known traditional American song which seems to have originated on this side of the Atlantic. It appears in a number of collections collections of songs associated with the American West , including John Lomax’s Cowboy Songs <\/em>(1919). In the UK it appears widely on several broadsides which cannot be dated easily, so the first date we can be confident about is when it was sung in the Halls as explained below. The earliest version I can find from American printed sources is from Henry de Marsan Singer’s Journal, which we can date around between January – July 1871. This is a 4-6 months after the first evidence of it being sung in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The British Library has this sheet music, which states that the song was written and composed by JB Geoghegan<\/a> and sung by James Hillier. There is no publication date but the newspaper article below suggests September 1870.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The earliest reference to a song called Brigham Young<\/em> being sung in the British Music Halls is in The Era<\/em> in 1866, when it was sung by George Leybourne at Gatti’s in London. I have not found any other references to Leybourne singing this particular song and it’s more likely that it was actually My Wife Has joined The Mormons<\/em>, which Kilgarriff lists in the repertoire of Leybourne.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
We are on safer ground in September 1870, when the following advert appears in The Era:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Era Sept 4 1870<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Several related adverts and reviews linking Hillier to the song appear in The Era in October 1870 to  March 1871, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Mr James Hillier …. His laughable performance as a Mormonite, who sings of the matrimonial privileges and troubles of Brigham Young<\/p>\nThe Era  Dec 4 1870<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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Mr James Hillier … created roars of laughter by the quaint style in which he rendered the various phases of matrimonial life, especially when he described the difficulties Brigham Young has to contend against in supporting forty-five wives<\/p>\nThe Era Mar 19 1871<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
NB According to Wikipedia by the end of his life Young had had 55 wives, so except for a short while, Brigham Young did not have 45 wives and we can assume Geoghegan was using poetic license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
James Hillier (1840-1874), <\/strong>was billed as <\/strong>The King of Musical Humourists<\/em> and\/or King James (The First) Hillier<\/em>. He was a boy chorister in a Catholic church and as a young man was played “low comic” parts in various theatre and opera productions, before establishing himself as a comic in the early Music Hall.  In early 1874 The London Entr’acte<\/em> declared him one of the two best comic singers at present on the music Hall stage.  <\/em>Tragically just months later he died suddenly of heart disease aged 34, leaving his wife and five children without income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An excellent modern version: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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