Peter King’s music

Corrina, Corrina
Music + lyrics traditional
3:56 | :30 soundbite


This song is at least a century old, and nobody knows who wrote it. But whoever he was (let’s assume it was a he), you can still tell that he was really in love, both for better and for worse.

I do the song in a weird tuning (open G, but with the low E string tuned down to a C instead of a D), taxing the pitch-holding capabilities of my wonderful Santa Cruz OM guitar. My version doesn’t sound too much like anybody else’s, I don’t think. But I do remember hearing, a long time ago, another sweetly melodic version of this song (basically a 12-bar blues) performed by a folk singer named Michael Cooney at the old, original Main Point outside Philadelphia.

Naturally, I just this minute did a Google search and found that his version, “Weeping Willow (Corrina),” is available on a CD called Singer of Old Songs.

The site doesn't offer any 30-second soundbites, so I can't say for sure, but I’ll bet our versions are similar in spirit, at least.

The Main Point, by the way, was a great club that served the best brownies and hot apple cider in the world. They were brought to long tables where customers sat by waitresses who were often our high school classmates and who got to, well, hang out after the show with the likes of Eric Anderson and Jackson Browne.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard Springsteen and the E-Street band at the Point, atomizing this tiny club with “Spirit in the Night.” But I digress …

Weepin' willow, and a mornin’ dove
Weepin' willow, and a mornin’ dove
Corrina, Corrina, you’re the gal I love

Got a bird that whistles, got a bird that sings
Got a bird that whistles, got a bird that sings
Without Corrina, Lord it don’t mean a thing

Corrina, Corrina, where you been so long
Corrina, Corrina, where you been so long
Cause I ain’t had no lovin’, ever since you've been gone