Talk:Low Bridge (song)

message: The page included the lyrics to "Low Bridge."  I think the lyrics should be removed because as per Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information.
-- danntm 17:47, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I appreciate your concern.  My main concern was that wikipedia is not a collection of primary source material, and to main consistency with other song articles that do not include the lyrics.  However, the lyrics may certainly be included in wikisource. -- danntm T C 16:29, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I respectfully disagree, because the most important goal of an encyclopedia is to provide comprehensive information on notable subjects, not to maintain consistency across all song articles.  Furthermore, lyrics in the public domain are clearly permissible under Wikipedia policy and guidelines.  WP:SONG says: "Do not include the song's entire lyrics... in the article unless you are certain they are in the public domain."  Also, WP:NOT states that "...the article may not consist solely of the lyrics, but has to primarily contain information about authorship, date of publication, social impact, etc."  This article complies with both of those policies.  JD Lisa 22:24, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

text: I don't trust the eriecannalsong.com link-- the author contradicts themself by writing that the song is a "folksong" (which it plainly is not as already established in this article) and then writing at the bottom that Thomas S. Allen is a Tin Pan Alley songwriter (i.e. a commercial writer who was never on the canal).  They also say "the lyrics... has changed over time" when one cannot simply see a change in published, well-sourced lyrics due to popular mis-use and then unilaterally say "the lyrics have changed."  It's also weasel-word-ish to say "the current line... is a change from the original line" after saying that the piece "has changed over time," as though the most recent version the author heard is the only legitimate "current" version.  Who knows when the most "recent" version the author heard was?  Yesterday?  Fifty years ago when they were a kid?) – NewkirkPlaza (talk) 15:42, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title: Lyrics

message: The quoted lyrics say 15 "miles" on the canal.  The photo of the front page of the lyrics sheet says 15 "years", not miles.  I suggest that this discrepancy should be reconciled, somehow. Stwiso (talk) 05:40, 9 June 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: It's fifteen miles on the Erie Canal, this is because they changed horses/mules after fifteen miles.  63.198.18.61 (talk) 04:25, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

text: "urban" legend, or an explanation in search of a question.  The Canal is 350 miles long, and took about a week to travel end to end when it opened.  It would be odd to have a trusty old mule if you had to change her out a couple times a day.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.255.228.33 (talk) 18:04, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Miles or years?

message: The article says the song was written in 1905 but there is no documentation given. The sheet music gives the copyright date of 1913. If there is no documentation for a 1905 authorship date, I think 1913 should be given instead.
--Sandy Schuman (talk) 22:23, 7 September 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  When was the song written? 

message: In the discussion of lyric changes, the article says speeding up for a lock is not a standard course of action.  Actually, it makes perfect sense.  A lock goes through a cycle.  Barges can only enter at the start of the cycle.  So if the narrator sees the upcoming lock is at that point (barges are already entering or are about to enter), he would want to speed up to get there in time to catch that cycle.  Otherwise, he'll have to wait until the next cycle, and then he won't make Rome by 6 o'clock. (The 19th C. equivalent of speeding up for a yellow light?) KevinBTheobald (talk) 21:28, 10 April 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Personal arguments for and against a particular lyric are irrelevant-- the only thing that matters is secondary sources.  Unfortunately, I think finding the "correct" lyric is a lost cause at this point considering how much the lyrics have drifted over the last 100 years and how much incorrect mythology has built up around the song.  NewkirkPlaza (talk) 15:42, 4 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Passed that lock vs. here comes a lock