Remembering the Old Songs:

The Wind and Rain

by Bob Waltz
(Originally published: Inside Bluegrass, January 1996)

After two months of relatively sweet old songs, it's time to turn to the dark side. Yes, folks, it's time for a murder ballad.

Before people get all bent out of shape, let me point out that this is one of the most popular songs of all time. It has been found throughout Britain, and in at least eighteen of the United States. There are literally hundreds of versions known. My record collection contains five different tunes for it, and that's just a handful of those that are known. This version is well-known in bluegrass circles; I believe the Dry Branch Fire Squad has recorded it (I wish I could say on which album, but I can't find it). Locally, I remember hearing it performed by the Powdermilk Biscuit Band.

Francis James Child, who made the first attempt to catalog versions of the song (he knew some thirty different texts), gave the piece the generic title The Twa Sisters (yes, I said "Twa," not "Two"; many of the oldest versions are in Scots dialect). The oldest dated version was printed in 1656.

Other titles for the piece are common, e.g. The Cruel Sister, Binnorie, Rollin' a-Rollin'. The Wind and Rain seems to be a primarily American version.

Almost none of the versions in existence today preserve the full story, but it seems to have run something like this:

A young knight came to court the daughters of an old lord. (Most accounts say there were three daughters, but the middle daughter never does anything, so we can ignore her.) After spending some time with the oldest daughter, the knight decided that "his natural choice was the young and fair." (I guess the Political Correctness movement didn't have much clout in sixteenth century Northumbria.)

The oldest sister was not so easily defeated. She invited the younger sister to walk with her by a stream. Once there, she pushed her sister into the brook. When the younger sister begged for help, the elder revealed her true colors: "I'll neither lend you my hand nor glove, but I will have your own true love."

So what could the younger sister do but float downstream? Eventually her body washed up in the miller's pond. (In some accounts, the miller came down while she was still alive, stole her engagement ring, and pushed her back into the water.) A wandering minstrel came by and found the body, and (don't ask me why) used it to make a harp or fiddle. The hair provided strings, the breastbone the frame, and so on. He then headed off to play at a wedding -- the wedding of the older sister and the courting knight. While there, the harp sings out the story of her murder. The murdering sister was found out, and they all either died or lived happily ever after.

Fortunately, this short American version doesn't go into much of that!

A warning to pickers: This song is in the key of G, but in the Mixolydian mode, meaning that it uses F notes instead of F#s as the note below G. Hence all the F chords!

Wind and Rain

Complete Lyrics:

Two little girls in a boat one day,
O the wind and rain;
Two little girls in a boat one day,
Crying, The dreadful wind and rain.

The one pushed the other in the water so wide,
O the wind and rain;
The one pushed the other in the water so wide,
And she cried the dreadful wind and rain.

She floated down to the old miller's dam,
O the wind and rain;
She floated down to the old miller's dam,
And she cried the dreadful wind and rain.

The miller came down with his long log pole,
O the wind and rain;
Charles Miller came down with his long log pole,
And she cried the dreadful wind and rain.

He hooked her out by her long yellow hair,
O the wind and rain;
He hooked her out by her long yellow hair,
And she cried the dreadful wind and rain.

And he made fiddle strings of her long yellow hair,
O the wind and rain;
He made fiddle strings of her long yellow hair,
And she cried the dreadful wind and rain.

And he made fiddle screws of her long finger bones,
O the wind and rain;
He made fiddle screws of her long finger bones,
And she cried the dreadful wind and rain.

But the only tune that fiddle could play
Was O the wind and rain;
The only only tune that that fiddle could play
Was O, the dreadful wind and rain.

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