"Red Wing"
Sheet music cover (1907)
Song
Published	1907
Genre	Western swing, bluegrass
Composer(s)	F.A Mills
Lyricist(s)	Thurland Chattaway

"Red Wing" is a popular song written in 1907 with music by F.A Mills and lyrics by Thurland Chattaway. Mills adapted the music of the verse from Robert Schumann's piano composition "The Happy Farmer, Returning From Work" from his 1848 Album for the Young, Opus 68. The song tells of a young Indian girl's loss of her sweetheart who has died in battle.

Lyrics

There once lived an Indian maid,

A shy little prairie maid,

Who sang all day a love song gay,

As on the plains she'd while away the day.

She loved a warrior bold,

This shy little maid of old,

But brave and gay he rode one day

To battle far away.

Now the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,

The breeze is sighing, the night bird's crying,

For afar 'neath his star her brave is sleeping,^{[N 1]}

While Red Wing's weeping her heart away.

She watched for him day and night;

She lit all the campfires bright;

And under the sky each night, she would lie

And dream about his coming by and by,

But when all the braves returned,

The heart of Red Wing yearned,

For far, far away, her warrior gay

Fell bravely in the fray.

Now the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,

The breeze is sighing, the night bird's crying,

For afar 'neath his star her brave is sleeping,

While Red Wing's weeping her heart away.^[1]

Covers

The song has been recorded numerous times in many styles. It was sung by John Wayne in the 1943 film In Old Oklahoma and again by John Wayne and Lee Marvin in the 1961 film The Comancheros and finally by John Wayne and Lauren Bacall in the 1976 film The Shootist. In 1950 Oscar Brand recorded a bawdy version in his Bawdy Songs & Backroom Ballads, Volume 3.

• The song was connected with and often performed by actress Princess Red Wing.^[2] It "achieved a folk song-like popularity" and became a standard for"Native American fiddlers".^[2] Its name refers to Red Wing, Minnesota, which is named for Mdewakanton Dakota Chief Red Wing.^[2]
• Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys recorded a Western swing cover of Red Wing in the 1940s.
• George Lewis helped make it a standard of the traditional jazz revival era.
• An instrumental version, with Chet Atkins on guitar, was released by Asleep at the Wheel in 1993.
• American roots music group The Steel Wheels recorded a version with new lyrics in 2011.
• Slim Whitman, country music singer

In popular culture

The chorus of Red Wing is the jingle for the Ice Cream Wagon ice cream truck company of Commerce City, Colorado.^[3]

The music has been played during intermissions at Olympia Stadium, Joe Louis Arena, and Little Caesars Arena ever since the Detroit Falcons became the Detroit Red Wings.

John Wayne sings it with Lee Marvin in the movie “The Comancheros”

"Union Maid" by Woody Guthrie

In 1940 Woody Guthrie wrote new lyrics to the tune, retitled "Union Maid". Guthrie's are perhaps the most famous of alternative words for the song; his song begins:

There once was a union maid, she never was afraid

Of goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.

She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called,

And when the Legion boys come 'round

She always stood her ground.

Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,

I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.

Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,

I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.

The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin

Red Wing was parodied in a version popular among British troops during the First World War, which begins with the line, "Now the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin." This variant originated in response to the comedian's refusal to enlist, and was featured in the movie Oh! What A Lovely War.^[4] It was subsequently perpetuated among British schoolchildren. During the 1970s, Harry Boardman and the Oldham Tinkers folk group recorded a version incorporating all of the verses that they remembered from their childhood.^[5]

First World War

The following version was published in 1916 by B. Feldman.^[6]

You've sung of the boys in blue,

You've sung of their girls so true,

You've marched to the strain of the well-known refrain

Of "Who's Your Lady Friend?" and "Tipperary" too,

Our Tommies so brave and strong

Have sung ev'ry kind of song

But what is the lay they're singing today

As they go marching along?

Refrain

When the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin

His shoes are cracking, for want of blacking

And his little baggy trousers they want mending

Before we send him to the Dardanelles.

Some day there will come a time

To "Wind up the Watch on the Rhine",

And Tommy and Jack will come marching back

And take a cup for the sake of "Auld Lang Syne".

But ere that happy day

The Germans have got to pay,

When we march in to capture Berlin

We will sing this little lay.

Refrain

A variant of the refrain goes

When the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin

His boots are cracking, for want of blacking

And the bottoms of his shoes, they won't need mending

Before they send him to the Dardanelles.

Another variant (some years later, and without the war reference) goes

Oh, the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin

His boots are cracking, they need a blacking

And his old gray trousers need a patching

Cause he's been scratching

Mosquito bites!

Oldham Tinkers

Refrain

The moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin

His boots are crackin’ for want of blackin‘

And his owd fusty coat is wanting mending

Until they send him to the Dardenelles

Charlie Chaplin had no sense

He bought a flute for 18 pence

But the only tune that he could play

Was ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay

Refrain

Charlie Chaplin meek and mild

Stole a sausage from a child

But when the child began to cry

Charlie socked him in the eye

Refrain

Charlie Chaplin went to France

To teach the ladies how to dance

First you heel, and then you toe

Lift your skirts and up you go

Refrain

Charlie Chaplin Chuck-Chuck-Chuck

Went to bed with three white ducks

One died and Charlie cried

Charlie Chaplin Chuck-Chuck-Chuck

Refrain