Billy Boy- (NC) c.1942 Greer Collection Var. 1
[From I. G. Greer Collection online; typed MS, titled variant 1 with music. Notes about Greer follow. No informant, place or location provided. The first stanza was evidently missing and appears to have been added (last line is different, probably taken from Variant 2).
R. Matteson 2014]
Isaac Garfield (I. G. or “Ike”) Greer (1881-1967) was born in the Zionville community of Watauga County, North Carolina. He served as a history and government professor at Appalachian State Teacher’s College (the precursor to Appalachian State University) from 1910 to 1932. Dr. Greer was one of the earliest collectors of northwestern North Carolina folk songs, with texts primarily acquired from the counties of Ashe, Wilkes, and his native Watauga. In addition to his avid collecting of regional folk songs, Dr. Greer frequently performed the very ballads he collected (resulting in both a commercial recording on the Paramount label and several recordings for the Archive of American Folk Song by the Library of Congress Division of Music).
Billy Boy (Greer MS- Variant 1)
O where have you been, Billy boy, Billy boy?
O where have you been, charming Billy?
I have been to seek a wife; she's the joy of my life,
She's a young thing and cannot leave her Mother.
Did she ask you to come in, Billy boy, Billy boy?
Did she ask you to come in, charming Billy?
She asked me to come in; with a dimple on her chin.
She's a young thing and cannot leave her Mammy.
Did she give you for to eat, Billy boy, Billy boy?
Did she ask you for to eat, charming Billy?
She asked me for to eat; she had plenty of bread and meat,
She's a young thing and cannot leave her Mammy.
Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy boy, Billy boy?
Can she bake a cherry pie, charming Billy?
She can bake a cherry pie, quick as a cat can wink its eye.
She's a young thing and cannot leave her Mammy.
How tall is she, Billy boy, Billy Boy?
How tall is she, charming Billy?
She's as tall as any pine, slim as a pumpkin vine.
She's a young thing and cannot leave her Mammy.
How old is she, Billy boy, Billy boy?
How old is she, charming Billy?
She's twice six, twice seven, twenty and eleven,
She's a young thing and cannot leave her Mammy.