Bo Lamkin (Bolamkin)- Frank Proffitt (NC) 1959 Warner (1937 Brown) REC
[My spelling of title. From Traditional American Folk Songs, Warners, 1984. Also Brown Collection, 1952, Vol. 2 and 4. Recorded on Folk Legacy.
Warner titles this Bolamkin, which obscures the origin. The "Bo" is short for "Bold." The Brown Collection of NC Folklore first collected the song from Proffitt in 1937 (See below). He sent in a 14 stanza handwritten MS several years before the Warner's visited Beech Mountain (c. 1939) after buying a dulcimer via the mail from Nathan Hicks, Frank Proffitt's father-in-law in 1938.
MS of 14 stanzas: http://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/b437f515e3df57c24580657bf5f5bc26.jpg
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
Bo Lamkin- Collected from Frank Proffitt by Frank Warner c. 1959; recorded by Frank Profitt, Folk Legacy; Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK8V3f7_iJ0
1. Bo Lamkin was as fine a mason
As ever laid a stone
He built a fine castle
And pay he got none (repeat last 2 lines)
2. He swore by his Maker
He`d kill them unknown;
Beware of Bo Lamkin
While I'm gone[1] from home.
3. Bo Lamkin he comes to the castle
And he knocked loud and long,
There was none as ready as a faultress, (false nurse)
She arose and let him in.
4. Oh where is the landlord?
Or is he at home?
Oh, no, he's gone to merry England
For to visit his son.
5. ["Where is the landlord's lady
Did she go with him?"
"Oh no," said the faltress,
'She's upstairs a-sleeping."][2]
6. How will we get her downstairs
Such a dark night as it is?
Stick pins and needles in the little baby,
Stick pins and needles in the little baby.
7. Bo Lamkin rocked the cradle
And the faultress she sung,
While the tears and the red blood
From the cradle did run.
8. The lady comin' downstairs
Not thinking no harm,
Bo Lamkin stood ready
He cotched her in his arms.
9. Bo Lamkin, Bo Lamkin,
Spare my life one hour,
You can have my daughter Betsy
My own blooming flower.
10. Bo Lamkin, Bo Lamkin,
Spare my life one day,
You can have all the gay gold
Your horse can tote away.
11. Oh keep your daughter Betsy,
For to go to the flood,
To scour the silver basin
That catches your heart`s blood.
12. Daughter Betsy was a-settin'
In the castle so high,
She saw her dear father come
A-ridin' hard by.
13. Dear father, dear father,
Come see what's been done.
Bo Lamkin has been here
And he's killed your dear son.
14. Bo Lamkin has been here,
He's killed your baby,
Bo Lamkin has been here
And killed your lady.
15. Bo Lamkin was hung
To the scaffold so high,
And the faultress was burned
To a stake standin' by.
1. Warner has, "When he'd come from home." See also Brown.
2. from Warner.
3 Warner
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Brown Collection of NC Folklore
B. 'Bo Lamkin.' Contributed by Frank Proffitt, Sugar Grove, Watauga county, in 1937. Fourteen stanzas, much like A; B1 4 5 6 7 8 9 10= A1 5 6 8 10 II 13 14, B14= A 17. Stanzas 2 and 3 of B read:
He swore by his maker he'd kill them unknown.
'Beware of Bo Lamkin when I am gone.'
Bo Lamkin came to the castle door, he knocked till it rung.
There was no one ready as the faltress;[1] she arose and let him in.
And stanzas 11-13 of B run:
Daughter Betsy a-sitting in the parlor so high.
She seen her dear father coming riding hard by.
Oh father, dear father, don't blame me for what's done;
Old Bo Lamkin has been here and killed your dear son.
'Old Bo Lamkin has been here and killed your dear lady;
Old Bo Lamkin has been here and killed your baby.'
1. Corrupted, apparently, from "false nurse."
Brown Collection B. 'Bo Lamkin.' Sung by Frank Proffitt, Sugar Grove, Watauga county. Recorded, but no date or place given. In a second recording of the same singer the tonal material is strictly pentatonic.
For melodic relationship cf. *BMFSB 20, last two measures. Scale: Hexatonic (4), plagal. Tonal Center: g. Structure: aa1ba1 (2,2,2,2) =: Reprisenbar.