Green Willow Tree- Cooper (NC) 1924 Chappell A
From Chappell- Folk Songs of the Roanoke and the Abermerle 1939
II. Sea Ballads and Songs
These examples of sea ballads and songs, or ballads and sea songs, are not chanteys, work-songs of the sea primarily, such as Boone's Capstan Bars and Colcord's Roll and Go, and have little to do with the hard toil of seamen. They are better suited to the sailor in port, and his maid before and after. In other respects they are concerned with the mystery and justice of the sea, shipwrecks, pirates, and sea battles.
Additional texts and helpful commentary on the wide circulation of these songs and ballads may be had from Louise Pound, American Ballads and Songs, 1922; W. Roy Mackenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs From Nova Scotia, 1928; H. H. Flanders and George Brown, Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballads, 1931, 1932; E. B. Greenleaf and G. Y. Mansfield, Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland, 1933; Arthur P. Hudson, Folksongs of Mississippi, 1936.
21. The Green Willow Tree
A (Henry Cooper, 1924, 1935 Chapanoke, NC)
Up steps cabin boy; What will you give
If I go and sink the Turkish Revolee?
I'll give you gold I'll give you fee,
'Sides my own daughter, you can have her on deed.
He bantered [1] upon his back, he bantered upon his breast,
And he swum until he came to the Turkish Revolee;
He had an instrument all fitted. for the use,
Punched four and twenty holes all at one push.
Some was playing cards, some was throwing dice,
All taken up with the devil and his vice;
Some came with hats, some came with caps,
All trying to stop up the salt water gaps.
But she sunk in the Lowlands, lies so low,
But she sunk in the Lowlands sea.
He bantered upon his back, he bantered upon his breast,
And he swum back to the Green Willow Tree;
Says unto the captain, Will you take me on board
And be as true to me as you was to your word?
No, says the captain, I won't take you on board,
I won't be to you as I was to my word;
You may drown in the Lowlands, lies so low,
You may drown in the Lowlands sea.
If it weren't for your mate that you have on board
I would do unto you as I done unto them,
I would sink you in the Lowlands, lies so low,
I would sink you in the Lowlands sea.
1. bent upon his back= bent over on his back