Billie Boy- Dusenberry (AR) c1933
[From: The Dusenbury songs: being the seventy traditional songs collected from the singing of Emma Dusenbury of Mena, Ark., at various dates between Aug. 27th, 1933 & Aug. 10th, 1936.
R. Matteson 2014]
BILLIE BOY- Emma Dusenbury
Where have you been Billie Boy, Billie boy
Where have you been charming Billie?
I've been for to see a girl
. . . [1]
But she's young thing who cannot leave her Mother.
Can she bake a cherry pie Billie boy, Billie boy
Can she bake a cherry pie charming Billie
She can bake a cherry pie
Quick as a cat can wink its eye
But she's a young thing who cannot leave her Mother.
Has she got pretty hands Billie boy, Billie boy
Has she got pretty hands, charming Billie
Yes she's got pretty shaped hands.
But I think they need soap and sand
She's a young thing who cannot leave her Mother.
How tall is she Billie Boy, Billie Boy,
How tall is she charming Billie?
She's as tall as any pine
And straight as a punken vine,
But she's a etc.
How old is she Billie Boy, Billie Boy,
How old is she charming Bille?
She's twice six, twice seven
Twice twenty and eleven,
But she's a etc.
1. Apparently a line is missing like, "She's the darlin' of my world," although there's nothing indicated in the text that something is missing. She might have accidentally sung "girl" instead of "wife" and not been able to rhyme it.