Broadside ballads entitled 'The Caledonain Laddie' and 'Sich a Getting Up Stairs'

Commentary

Two broadside ballads entitled 'The Caledonian Laddie' and 'Sich a Getting Up Stairs'. 'The Caledonian Laddie' begins: 'Blythe Sandy is a bonny boy, And always is a wooing, O, / He is e'er so bold and kind, / Although he is a wooing, O!' 'Sich a Getting Up Stairs' begins: 'At Kentuck last night a party met, / Dey say dem going to hab a treat'. Both ballads are illustrated with a woodcut.

Below the title of 'Sich a Getting Up Stairs', 'J. Harkness, Church Street, Preston'. John Harkness carried on business as a printer at 121 Church Street, Preston, Lancashire. The two ballads on this sheet are very different in tone. 'The Caledonian Laddie' is about a young Scotsman marrying his sweetheart. 'Sich a Getting Up Stairs' was a popular blackface minstrelsy song set at a party in Kentucky. It is written in a typical minstrelsy dialect caricaturing African American speech and its language and sentiments are very hostile towards Black Americans.         

Early ballads were dramatic or humorous narrative songs derived from folk culture that predated printing. Originally perpetuated by word of mouth, many ballads survive because they were recorded on broadsides. Musical notation was rarely printed, as tunes were usually established favourites. The term 'ballad' eventually applied more broadly to any kind of topical or popular verse.

previous