“Weeping, Sad and Lonely“ Civil War song by Charles Carroll Sawyer & Henry Tucker (1912)

“Weeping, Sad and Lonely“ Elizabeth Spencer Edison Blue Amberol 1586 1912 Civil War song Words by Charles Carroll Sawyer Music by Henry Tucker Dearest love, do you remember, When we last did meet, How you told me that you loved me, Kneeling at my feet? Oh! how proud you stood before me In your suit of blue, When you vow’d to me and country Ever to be true. Weeping, sad and lonely. Hopes and fears how vain! Yet praying, When the cruel war is over, Praying that we meet again! When the summer breeze is sighing Mournfully along; Or when autumn leaves are falling, Sadly breathes the song. Oft in dreams I see thee lying On the battle plain, Lonely, wounded, even dying, Calling, but in vain. The poems of Connecticut-born Charles Carroll Sawyer do not take sides in the conflict. Instead, they express a universal war-weariness. As senior partner of the Brooklyn music publisher Sawyer & Thompson, he had a ready outlet for his lyrics. “Weeping Sad and Lonely” was the best selling of several. Henry Tucker, apparently a staff songwriter for Sawyer & Thompson, wrote the musoc. Neither the lyrics the music have much artistic merit, but the song’s popularity outlasted the war. _______________ About the singer: Elizabeth Spencer was born Elizabeth Dickerson on April 12, 1871. Her father died eight months later. In 1874, her mother was remarried. Her new husband was Colonel William Gilpin, who had served as the first governor of the Territory of Colorado in 1861. The family moved to Denver. Spencer received vocal training and learned to sing, recite stories and poetry and play piano and violin. She graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in Englewood, Colorado. She married Otis Spencer, an attorney. Spencer sang in churches, concerts, clubs, parties and amateur theatricals. By 1910 she was residing in New York City and making her first recordings. Signing an exclusive contract with Edison’s company, Spencer was busy. She made solo recordings, and she also worked in duets, trios, quartets and choruses. One group was the Homestead Trio, which consisted of Spencer and two other female vocalists, Amy Ellerman and Betsy Lane Shepherd.