Ellie Rhee, so dear to me
Is gone for ever more
And our home was down in Tennessee
Before this cruel war
Carry me back to Tennessee
That's where I long to be
Among the fields of yellow, yellow corn
With my darling Ellie Rhee
Well, why should I from day to day
Keep wishing to be free
From the master I run away,
For to be with my Ellie Rhee
Carry me back to Tennessee
That's where I long to be
Among the fields of yellow, yellow corn,
With my darling Ellie Rhee
Oh Ellie Rhee so dear to me
She's gone for ever more
And our home was down, down in Tennessee
Before this cruel war
Carry me back to Tennessee
That's where I long to be
Among the fields of yellow, yellow corn,
With my darling Ellie Rhee
With my darling Ellie Rhee
With my darling Ellie Rhee
sitenotes:
This song was finally released as a bonus track on the remastered and expanded version of Sunday's Child (2005). It was recorded 26 August 1974 at Island Studios, Hammersmith.
It was also recorded live in Australia during John's second tour, during a performance at the Kirk Gallery, Sydney, July 1978 but never released. On this occasion John made an interesting remark: "This is the very first song I ever learned, well it's part of the first song I ever learned".
In his 2020 autobiography One Two Three Four, sound engineer Richard Digby Smith recalls how this "poignant tale about the loneliness of separation during the slavery days of the American Civil War" was recorded during the Sunday's Child sessions.
"One early morning, at the end of a long night of recording, we had all ordered taxis and were passing the time chatting in the reception area. John enquired as to whether or not there was any blank space on the end of the last reel of tape we had been working with earlier. Yeah, sure I said, there is about ten minutes worth left. The vocal and guitar mics were still in place because we were coming back later in the day so no need to strip down the studio. John said he had a song he wanted to record, that a certain mood had come over him and that he just wanted to capture something. We slid back into the studio and John put on the headphones, gathered up his guitar and I put the tape machine into record. What happened next can only be described as magical. I love that guy's voice and his guitar playing, but this time he excelled even my expectations. [...] Whenever I hear the track today, I find myself expecting a taxi to arrive."
Ellie Rhee was 'adapted and arranged' in 1865 by Septimus Winner (1827-1902). The title sheet says "Respectfully dedicated to Miss Annie Berger | Carry Me Back To Tennessee | or | Ellie Rhee | as sung by | Carter's Zouave Troupe".
Winner based his song on a 1852 published Ella Ree by Charles Stewart and James Porter.
Ellie Rhee is also widely considered to have been introduced to South Africa by Americans working in the Transvaal gold mines, and to have greatly influenced the text of the well-known Afrikaans song Sarie Marais.