Talk:Down by the Riverside

History
It would be nice to have a section on the history of this song. Is anybody up for writing one? Jynx~dewiki (talk) 04:50, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Untitled
I correct the article. Holger Terp

Early prints
Ain't gonna study war no more / Down by the riverside is first printed in “Plantation Melodies” Chicago, the Rodeheaver Company, 1918. Other early prints of Ain't gonna study war no more / Down by the riverside is: —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.61.237.193 (talk) 15:53, 21 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Dann, Hollis. Ed.: Fifty-eight spirituals for choral use - Boston, C. C. Birchard & Co., c1924. No notes.
 * Utica Jubilee Singers Spirituals : As Sung at the Utica Normal and Indusrtial Institute of Missisippi / Taken down by J. Rosamond Johnson. With introduction by C. W. Hyne. Boston : Olivar Ditson Company, nd. Negro Spiritual. Apparently no recordings of Down by the riverside, even though the song vere on the groups repertoire.
 * Boatner, Edward: Spirituals Triumphant, Old and New (Round Note Edition) : National Baptist Convention, Nashville Tennessee Date Published: (1927). No notes.
 * Fisher,William Arms: 1926, Seventy Negro Spirituals, edited for low voice. Oliver Ditson Company, NY, sheet music format, pp. 60-62. Noted as Negro Spiritual.
 * Deas, E. C. 1928: Songs and spirituals of Negro composition:
 * Holger Terp, editor, the Danish Peace Academy


 * Thanks. You can correct the article if you like. Unfortunately there don't seem to be any free e-texts of Rodeheaver's Plantation Melodies on the web, even though it's presumably out of copyright. --Zundark (talk) 18:39, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

This is an old, old song . ..
The article mentions the first publication date as 1918, which is all well and good, but I was taught in grammar school that this song was popularly sung during the Civil War era. I don't have any documentation to back that up at all, so I figure adding that information to the article would fall under "original research" and thus rightly be removed. But I'm wondering if anybody else has any sources to back this up? (Musichealth.net mentions this older history, but seeing as they don't cite their sources, I figure it wouldn't be considered a reliable source by Wikipedia standards.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.44.178.27 (talk) 22:06, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Referenced by
Referenced by Robert A. Heinlein's _Starship Troopers_: “Nevertheless, let's assume the human race manages to balance birth and death... and thereby becomes peaceful. What happens? Soon (about next Wednesday) the Bugs move in, kill off this breed which 'ain't gonna study war no more' and the universe forgets us.... Both races are tough and smart and want the same real estate....But does man have any 'right' to spread throughout the universe?...The universe will let us know—later—whether or not Man has any 'right' to expand through it.” — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.51.53.24 (talk) 23:15, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Frederick Hibbert?
I was informed that "Down by the Riverside" is attributed to "Frederick Hibbert/Traditional". I didn't recall ever having heard of Frederick Hibbert, so I searched on the name and found only Frederick Nathaniel "Toots" Hibbert, the lead singer of the reggae group the Maytals. This group recorded the song and so I imagine this is somehow the source of the misattribution. It appears at https://www.rockol.it/testi/pete-seeger-study-war-no-more-down-by-the-riverside-98086392?refresh_ce, http://testicanzoni.mtv.it/testi-Pete-Seeger_2514/testo-Study-War-No-More-(Down-By-the-Riverside)-519826 and https://www.songtexte.com/songtext/pete-seeger/study-war-no-more-down-by-the-riverside-4bfc332a.html, but these are all with the same Pete Seeger lyrics and thus probably share the same erroneous origin. I don't suppose this matters and I'm not suggesting it merits mention in the article (unless there was a different Hibbert who actually did have a hand in the development of the song), but I'm curious about it and would appreciate an explanation if anyone here knows. Thanks. -Roy McCoy (talk) 21:53, 22 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Sometimes if you arrange a public-domain song, you receive songwriting credit for that arrangement (see |here). Not sure what exactly happened with this song... AnonMoos (talk) 07:06, 24 June 2021 (UTC)