Faded Coat of Blue - Original Carter Family

Faded Coat Of Blue




My brave boy sleeps in his faded coat of blue
In a lonely grave unknown lies a heart that beats so true
He sank faint and hungry among the famished brave
And they laid him sad and lonely within a nameless grave No more the bugle calls oh weary one
Rest noble spirits in their graves unknown
For we'll find you and know you among the good and true
Where a robe of white is given for a faded coat of blue

He cried "Give me water and just a little crumb
And my mother she will bless you through all the years to come
And tell my sweet sister so gentle good and true
That I'll meet her up in Heaven in my faded coat of blue"

No dear one was nigh him to close his mild blue eyes
No gentle voice was by him to give him sweet replies
No stone marks the lonely sod on a lad so brave and true
In a lonely grave he's sleeping in his faded coat of blue

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Country
• folk
• guitar
• carter
• family
• fold
• finger
• picking

[shoelover25]

thanks for the song and that. I am a big fan of the Carter family i love country music. I haven't herd that song before. That is a pic of A.P Carter and Maybelle is it and how the other one?

[jlabomb]

Sara Carter is the lead singer of The Original Carter Family, she was AP's wife at the time. Maybelle married AP's brother.

[Juliemorgana]

I'd be interested to know whether the language is American Civil War era. Could it be a reworking of an earlier song ... this was done so often. Does anyone think the lyrics might have roots in an earlier era, as often happens?

[wmoday]

Buell Kazee, from Magoffin Co, Kentucky (in SE Ky.), did sing "famished" brave in the 1928 recording. His wife provided a copy of his lyrics for the Magoffin Co. Historical Society's periodical many years later. The original Carter Family played in our home town in the mid 30's. My mother saw them at the local show. She said Sara sat while Maybelle stood and A.P. was off in the wings somewhere. It is possible that A.P. transcribed this while listening to someone sing it and heard Spanish.

[wmoday]

This was a song that A.P. collected and worked it up as he would have said. A cousin of mine, Buell Kazee, from Magoffin Co., Kentucky, recorded this around 1928, the Carter Family vesion was recorded in 1934. It is a beautiful song that I once asked Maybelle to sing, but it was one that she didn't remember all the words to at the time. John Hugh McNaughton wrote the song at the end of the Civil War. A monument in our home town has many family member names, North and South.

[Waynedog1]

Thanks for these lovely old heartland classics! I just received an email from Anita Cart'er's daughter yesterday. What a wonderful gift from God they all are...

[blugras32]

Regarding "famished" or "Spanish"...keep in mind this was when recording was in it's infancy. Multi-track recorders (if existent at this time) were not available to Peer either due to cost or portability. In making the recording the group basically gathered around the mic and played the song, in one take, all the way through. They didn't have the luxury of unlimited takes to get the song perfect. I think Sara might've mis-read/mis-pronounced the word and it was left that way.

[estelle715]

@mikerickson01 This song is written about the Civil War not the Spanish War.Listen to the words, the soldier is hungry and is a 'famished brave' not Spanish! Later in the song it also mentions if he could get a crumb to eat his mother would be forever grateful.It makes no sense,the Blue coat is a Union Soldier.My great-uncle died in the Civil War,his brother,my great-grandpa.was also in the war and survived and lived until 1922.They were both Union.

[mikerickson01]

@fscofi A mother's grief over her fallen soldier son doesn't depend on the war (or the side) that he died in.

I think you're right, AP probably changed the words to refer to the (then) recent

Spanish conflict, focusing the song on mourning a dead son.

Many in the audience knew the original words. The change let them know that its a mourning song, rather than a "never forget" or a "the south will rise again" song.

[andylarson19591]

True about the slave for freedom but BUT it was only offered to slaves in few counties around RIchmond about four weeks before FIve Forks and Appomattox.

[ysbaddaden2003]

@deaddoc

Confederates offered slaves their freedom in return for fighting for Dixie.

The Union already had black soldiers fighting for them, and had more of them.

And the Emancipation Proclamation was partially to break the value of the Confederate's promise.

[deaddoc]

@scotohibernicus Another tidbit; There were also some black Confederates! They were willing, not forced. The details of history will always confound the broad assumptions that many are repeatedly taught these days.