7 Ten things to consider about "The Star of Logy Bay" Philip Hiscock, Folklore Dept., Memorial University of Newfoundland Newfoundland song-maker Mark Walker was born in 1846, and died in 1924. He is best known for two songs that today are sung widely in Newfoundland: "Tickle Cove Pond" and "The Antis of Plate Cove." Several other Walker songs are less famous, but are well-known among singers. They include "Fanny's Harbour Bawn" and "Lovely Katie-Oh." 1 Among his descendants, he is additionally said to have written one of Newfoundland's most famous songs, "The Star of Logy Bay," known in the family as "True Love's Lamentation." Nonetheless, there is no direct evidence of his authorship. In this paper, I investigate some of the pros and cons of the family's claims, looking at the relative weight you can place on style, narrative form and other aspects of the song. "The Star of Logy Bay" was one of the very most popular songs in the public traditions of Newfoundland in the 20 th century. Paul Mercer's Index of Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print lists 21 times the song was published between its earliest known publication (in 1902) and 1974, Mercer's cut-off date. 2 Only one song has more listings – "Kelligrews Soiree," with 23 listings – while second place was shared with "The Ryans and the Pittmans." The next place – 4 th – is held by "The Squid Jiggin' Ground" at 18 listings. In print anyway, these four are the superstars of Newfoundland vernacular song. The authorship of three of these four songs is not only known, but also widely celebrated. But "The Star of Logy Bay" has no widespread attribution. Another indicator of 20 th century popularity is Michael Taft's index of commercial sound recordings up to 1972. 3 Taft lists nine recorded versions of the song, which ties it with "The Badger Drive." However, ten other songs have more listings, up to 17 for "Jack was Every Inch a Sailor" and 22 for "I's the B'y." 4 We might also come at this quantitative study of popularity by another route, a more complex one. This is the Song Title Index in the MUN Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA) where about 5000 versions of songs are noted; they represent about 2000 titles. "The Star of Logy Bay" is reported only eight times, including twice by the same person at one session. Nonetheless, nine recordings in the first thirty years of recorded music in Newfoundland is not bad, and shows the great popularity of the song. 5 Of the seven informants, one was a song collector singing a tiny fragment of the song to prime his informant. 6 That leaves a half dozen recordings of the song, one of which was a group singing and another a young student at a school concert. 7 The number of "field recordings" – four or five – seems rather low for such a "popular" song. 8 But, as Casey, Rosenberg, and Wareham pointed out thirty years ago about Newfoundland singers and songs, the fact of media popularity can throw water on the fires of field popularity. 9 On the one hand, singers feel no special cachet in singing songs well-known in the media. On the other hand, field collectors have been more interested in hearing little-known songs. We are then left with a pretty poor quantitative measure of "real" popularity of the song. Just the same, the song clearly has been very well-known, among the first to be sung at sing-along functions, or to be included in printed songsters and sound recordings of "well- known Newfoundland songs." Besides being popular, "The Star of Logy Bay" has also been a contentious song. Logy Bay itself is a cove about five miles north of St. John's. It has been a well-known community for over a hundred years, including in the late 19 th century for its healthful spa. 10 The road to Torbay originally went through Logy Bay, and both were fairly prosperous farming communities, supplying St. John's with dairy products, vegetables, and hay, the gasoline of its time. The contention lies in the line "Between Torbay and Outer Cove, 'tis there my love did dwell." Logy Bay is not between Torbay and Outer Cove. Going north from St John's, the road passes through Logy Bay, Outer Cove, Middle Cove and Torbay. To this day, people discuss, and argue about, the meaning or mistake of that line. Some singers have tried to recast the text to get it geographically right. Others have tried to reanalyse the meaning so that the true love is hiding out in Middle Cove – in other words,