Butcher's Boy- Blue Sky Boys (NC) 1940 REC
[Bluebird recording B8482, on 2-5-1940 reissued on "Classic Country Remastered: Atlanta, GA – New York City 1940-1947.”
Blue Sky Boys were brothers Earl Bolick (November 16, 1919 – April 19, 1998) and Bill Bolick (October 28, 1917 – March 13, 2008).
Covered by Lilly brothers on Rounder recording, The Country Songs Of The Lilly Brothers [1964] - The Lilly Brothers
R. Matteson 2017]
The Butcher's Boy- sung by The Blue Sky Boys of Hickory, NC in 1940.
[brief mandolin intro]
1 In London City where I did dwell,
A blue-eyed boy I loved so well,
He courted me my life away.
And with me then he would not stay.
2 There is a strange girl in this town
And there my true love sits him down
He takes the strange girl on his knee,
And tells to her what he won't tell me,
3. It's grief to me and I tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I,
But gold will melt and silver fly,
True- hearted love will never die.
4. I went up stairs to go my bed,
And nothing to my mother I said.
But mother said, "You're acting queer,
What is the trouble my daughter, dear?
5. "Oh mother dear you need not know,
The pain and sorrow grief and woe,
Give me a chair and sit me down
With pen and ink to write words down."
6. Go did my grave both wide and deep
Place marble at head and feet
And on my grave place a willow tree
That he may mourn and weep for me.
7. And when her father he first came home
Where is my girl, where has she gone?
He went upstairs, the door he broke,
And found her hanging from a rope.
[mandolin fill]
8. He took his knife and cut her down,
And in bosom these words were found,
A silly girl am I you know,
To hang myself for the butcher's boy.