Barbra Allen- Winkle (MO) 1969 Max Hunter H
[From the Max Hunter Collection; Cat. #0835 (MFH #38). I've made minor corrections in spelling and puctuation.
This has a different opening and a "country" sound.
R. Matteson 2015]
Barbra Allen - As sung by Melvin Winkle, Mountain View, Arkansas on August 26, 1969.
http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=0835
VERSE 1
In London city where I once did dwell
That's where I got my learnin';
I fell in love with a pretty young girl
And her name was Barbra Allen.
VERSE 2
I courted her fer seven long years
She said, she would not have me,
Straight away home as I could go
And I likened unto dyin'.
VERSE 3
Go send by servant to the town
Where Barbra was a dwellin';
"My master's sick, he sent for you
If your name be Barbra Allen."
VERSE 3
And when she went by his dying bed,
She saw his pale lips quiverin';
And no better I'll ever be,
If I cain't get Barbra Allen."
VERSE 5
"O, don't you remember a long time ago
Way down in yonders tavern
I drank a toast to the ladies all
An you slighted Barbra Allen."
VERSE 6
"Yes, I remember a long time ago
Way down in yonders tavern;
You drank a toast to the ladies all
And my love went for Barbra Allen."
VERSE 7
And when she went down the winding road
She heard the wee birds singin';
Every bird it seemed to say
"Hard-hearted Barbra Allen."
VERSE 8
"O Papa, O Papa, go dig my grave
And dig it deep and narrow
Little Jimmy Crews has died for love
And I must die with sorrow."
VERSE 9
They buried Jim in the old church yard
They buried Miss Barbra beside him
And from his grave there grew a red rose
And from her grave a brier.
VERSE 10
They grew to the top of the old church tower
They could not grow any higher;
They locked[1] and tied in a true love's knot
Red rose around the brier.
1. hard to understand- may sing, "loped" or "lapped"