“Spider’s Web” – An American Folk Song
One goal of the Mama Lisa’s World sites is to help preserve traditional songs around the world. Sometimes songs have been remembered by a group through unexpected means. This seems to be the case with Spider’s Web.
Margaret B. was taught this song by her mother, who learnt it from her mother, who learnt it from her mother. In Margaret’s family, they sing it as a lullaby to the children.
According to Margaret, Spider’s Web originates with 19th century Kentucky settlers. The Girl Scout’s sang it as a camp song back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, thus helping to preserve it in many peoples’ memories.
Margaret recorded Spider’s Web and posted it on YouTube. Happily, she contacted me and let me post it on Mama Lisa’s World. Now we can all hear the song. Just click on the bar below to hear Margaret’s haunting rendition of Spider’s Web. I’ll post the lyrics below the video.
Spider’s Web
Down in the valley,
There is a mission,
By the old oak tree.
By the mission,
There is a fountain,
Where my love told me:There’s a web like a spider’s web,
Made of silk and light and shadows,*
Spun by the moon in my room at night.
It’s a web made to catch a dream,
Hold it tight ‘til I awaken,
As if to tell me, my dream is all right.In the evening,
I was leaving,
My love dreamt of me.
I was sleeping,
She was weeping,
When she said to me:There’s a web like a spider’s web,
Made of silk and light and shadows,
Spun by the moon in my room at night.
It’s a web made to catch a dream,
Hold it tight ‘til I awaken,
As if to tell me, my dream is all right.I met a stranger,
His name was Danger,
We rode side by side.
Down in Santa Fe,
I killed a man they say
Danger told me, “Ride!”There’s a web like a spider’s web,
Made of silk and light and shadows,
Spun by the moon in my room at night.
It’s a web made to catch a dream,
Hold it tight ‘til I awaken,
As if to tell me, my dream is all right.Now if I return,
They will hang me,
By the old oak tree,
Down by the mission,
Down by the fountain,
Where my love told me:There’s a web like a spider’s web,
Made of silk and light and shadows,
Spun by the moon in my room at night.
It’s a web made to catch a dream,
Hold it tight ‘til I awaken,
As if to tell me, my dream is all right.*This line can alternately be sung as, “Made of silver light and shadows”.
Many thanks to Margaret B. for sharing this song with us. You can see other YouTube videos by Margaret on her YouTube Home Page. Thanks also to Patsi for pointing out this song to me – which she remembered from Girl Scouts.
-Mama Lisa
August 11th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Thank you so much for having this song! I sang it at girl scout camp when I was younger (1980s/90s)–I’m 25 now. It was always a favorite of mine and every once and a while I still get the song stuck in my head, but I couldn’t completely remember all of the words. Thanks again! It’s a beautiful song!
August 15th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
I learned this song at camp 30 or more years ago. But I only remembered the chorus, I guess the words to the verses kind of scared me back then! I love the chorus and have sung it as a lullaby to my three children and now to my grandchildren. I have never been able to remember the rest of the song, but I wanted to know it again. Thank you! Now I can pass on the entire song to my daughter and grandsons.
September 16th, 2007 at 10:17 am
I have had this song in my head since summer camp, 1975, but never even thought to look on the web for it until today-My counselor used to sing it to us before bed. You sing it just like she did (although she would play the guitar too) and now the mystery of what some of the lyrics were are solved. (I always wondered why Danger would tell her “Right”-but now I see it’s “ride.”(makes sense.) Such a dark song for a children’s song.
Anyway, thank you for posting it. .
October 20th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Wow. Just was singing the chorus in the shower…wonderful camp memories with this song…thanks for the trip down memory lane.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I love the song, someone dear to me wanted to hear that song again and I wanted to play it for her… do you know where I could find the chords or the notes to play for her?
March 30th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Thank you for posting this!! I learned this song at camp, two years ago.. I don’t suppose anyone else learned this song at a place called “Nature Camp”? It’s in Vesuvius, Virginia. I have many fond memories of singing this song at camp but could only remember the chorus.. Hearing the whole thing again really made me smile.
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Dear Margaret,
This was amazing! I love the song! I am an English teacher from Budapest, Hungary. I have a lot of elementary students who are actually adults, which means they have difficulties in learning words and intonation in a foreign language. Your voice and this beautiful song made them indeed happy, and helped a lot in their language development.
P. S . Please sing us more songs from your childhood memories!
September 14th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
If you wanted to play this on guitar i would suggest playing D, A, Em, G quietly… when the line comes “my dream is alright” switch quickly over to D to make it sound better.
May 9th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
My dad and I have sung this song together ever since before I can remember.
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Thanks for publishing these lyrics! For some odd reason, this song randomly appeared in my brain & got stuck there the other day; something I remembered from some 30 years ago in girl scout camp. I remembered the end being “as if to tell me that dreaming’s all right,” rather than “my dream is all right,” but maybe it doesn’t make a difference.
I’d love to get the guitar chords. Does anyone have them?
August 13th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Thank you for putting this on the web. I am 54 and when I was a girl, my cousins, who were lucky enough to go to Girl Scout summer camp, taught me this song. Since I played the guitar, they wrote down the words and chords for me. I had the guitar, case and words in the case until 16 years ago when my house was broken into and that was the only thing taken. Since then, I have been trying to find the song. The chords posted on this site seem very familiar. I will try them.
Thanks
August 22nd, 2009 at 6:18 pm
OMG – I too remember this song from camp. I get in stuck in my head all the time. It was always one of my favorites. Thank you so much for posting it. I’ve been trying to find my old song book now that my daughter has started going to camp & I wanted to sing this for her. A million thanks.
September 4th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Wow – thank you so much. I remember this song from Girl Scout Camp back in the late 70s. I had no idea it was so old. The chorus gets stuck in my head all the time, but this is the first time I’ve been able to find it online. It was so nice to hear it, not just read the lyrics. This version was a bit slower than I remember, but not by much and the tune was just the same.