Barbara Allen- Phoebe Smith (Kent) 1968 REC
Phoebe Smith was an English Gypsy singer, born 1913, died 8 November 2001. Born 1913 in Tanner Street, Faversham, Kent, Phoebe was the the youngest of twenty-one children. Her parents Bill Scamp and Ann (nee Jones) had ceased to travel, but did seasonal work; she spent much of her early life picking fruit in Kent. She married Joe Smith, a scrap dealer, and moved with him around Kent and Essex before settling in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Phoebe learnt many of her songs as a young girl from her elder sisters. Her uncle, Oliver Scamp, a Kentish horse-dealer, was also an important source of songs. Joe Smith played the fiddle and Phoebe loved to step-dance to her husband's music. In the early 1950s the BBC recorded some songs from one of Phoebe's brothers, Charlie Scamp. Charlie mentioned Phoebe's name and that is how she came to the attention of the 'outside' world.
In the sleeve notes to the Topic LP 12T253 Songs of the Open Road Mike Yates says that this recording was made in 1968 by Paul Carter, presumably at the same time as the recordings were made for Phoebe Smith's solo Topic LP 12T93 Once I Had A True Love. It is this same recording which was reissued on the Veteran VT136CD The Yellow Handkerchief. As it happens Mike Yates included a lyric sheet with the Topic LP so this is his version of her words.
Barbara Allen- Phoebe Smith (Kent) 1968 REC
1. In North town I were bred and born,
And Cambridge I went dwelling,
Till I fell in love with a pretty fair maid
And her name were Barbara Allen.
2. It were early into the month of May,
When the green leaves they were budding,
When a young man on his death bed laid,
For the love of Barbara Allen.
3. He sent round one of his servant men,
To the place where she were dwelling,
And says 'Young woman I been sent for thee,
If your name are Barabara Allen.'
4. Slowly she put on her clothes,
And slowly she walked to him,
Then she turned her back a-wards him
And a-saying, 'Young man, you are a-dying.'
5. 'Dying, miss now that never can be,
One kiss from you will save me.'
'One kiss from me you never shall have,
Since my poor heart you have ruined.'
6. 'You remember that last Saturday night,
In the alehouse you were drinking;
You drank your health with all fair maids,
And you daunted Barbara Allen.'
7. 'Mother, dear, come make my bed,
And make it long and narrow,
For as I may lay and take a rest,
And think of Barbara Allen.'
8. 'Mother, dear, look at my bedside,
You will see a watch a-hanging,
There's a guinea gold watch and a diamond ring,
Hung there for Barbara Allen.'
9. She were walking through the old footpath,
She heard the church bells a-tolling;
And the more they tolled, so loudly rolled,
Hard haunted Barbara Alen.
10. She were walking down a road,
She met the corpse a-coming;
And the nearer she got to the corpse,
The further he drew from her.
11. 'Set him down, my six bonny lads,
And let me gaze all upon him;
For this young man has died for me,
And I shall die tomorrow.'
12. He died on (to) one grey day,
And she died on the other.
They were both buried in (to) the old churchyard,
Both under the big laurel.
13. Out of her sprang a red rose tree,
And out from him a briar.
They grow, they grow, to a steeple tall,
And the red rose covered the briar, briar,
And the red rose covered the briar.