The University Museum

LOVE FOUND, LOVE LOST

I Wish I Had Someone To Love Me

Finding and losing love is a topic that has captured the imagination of songwriters for as long as there have been people meeting and parting ways. "I Wish I Had Someone To Love Me" is just such a tune, as it describes the singer's dismay over the departure of her loved one. This song was born out of a different one from the 1920s known as "The Prisoner's Song," which recounts an inmate's sadness at separation:

I'll be carried to the new jail tomorrow
Leaving my poor darling alone
With the cold prison bars all around me
And my head on a pillow of stone.

Now if I had wings like an angel
Over these prison walls I would fly.
And I'd fly to the arms of my poor darling
And there I'd be willing to die.

Track One features two women singing "I Wish I Had Someone To Love Me," recorded by Professor McIntosh during the early 1950s. This version is a straightforward rendition of the song without accompaniment.

Listen to Track One in one of three formats.

Track Two demonstrates one of the conundrums posed when performances are recorded for playback to an audience. Unlike Track One, this track was transferred to CD using an audio filter that eliminates some of the extraneous noise on the recording. Some would say that it "cleaned up" the sound of the women singing; others would say that some of the character of the recording has been removed. The listener must make up his or her own mind as to the benefit or damage caused by such technological alterations.

Listen to Track Two in one of three formats.

Track Three features an instrumental version of "I Wish I Had Someone To Love Me" performed on mountain dulcimers by members of Prairie Moon Consort from their 1999 CD Monday Night Waltz. Listen to the evocative sound of the dulcimers as they melodically portray the sadness of the song's lyrics.

Listen to Track Three in one of three formats.

The Mudcat Café Lyrics and Knowledge Search http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2895
The Mudcat Café Lyrics and Knowledge Search http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6847