Search

Detailed search

Song

The Two Soldiers

Written by
Unknown author(s)
Language
English
Comments
aka "Blue Eyed Boston Boy". The "Two Soldiers" is an American Civil War ballad written by an unknown author in the 1860s purportedly inspired by the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, where General Lee's Confederates trounced General Burnside's Union troops. The song was apparently well-known in its time. Many decades later Alan Lomax recorded two takes (1555B & 1556A) of Monroe Gevedon of Kentucky in 1937 singing this song but went unissued at the time. In the late 1950s, Willard "Uncle Wilie" Johnson (of the Brady Snifters) obtained a copy of the second take and Mike Seeger learned it and recorded it in 1964 and other performers followed Mike's rendition. The song starts "It was just a blue-eyed Boston boy, His voice was low with pain, I'll do your bidding, comrade mine, If I ride back again. But if you ride back, and I am dead, You'll do as much for me, My mother, you know, must hear the news, So write to her tenderly."

Now the rest of the story. The song seemed to start in the middle of the story. In the 1970s Jon Pakake (also of the Brady Snifters) obtained the first take that Lomax had recorded and sure enough, here was the entire song. However, by this time, the version Mike Seeger had initially released was too well known, so very few renditions ever capture the entire song, plus it would make for a very long song. Gevedon's second take that also starts out with the Boston Boy line was finally released in 1995, but not his original recording with the full lyrics.
Licensing
Request a synchronization license

Meta

Added by mduval32323

Versions

Add cover
Report error