Gypsy Davy- (SM) pre1927 Sandburg

Gypsy Davy- (SM) pre1927 Sandburg

[From: American Songbag- Carl Sandburg 1927. SM stands for Southern Mountains. No information is supplied by Sandburg about this ballad. The music is provided. This is a version derived from the minstrel print versions published in the 1800s with the same title. See Hooley's (1863) or Wehman's (1880s).

R. Matteson 2012]

GYPSY DAVY- A fragment of an old ballad lives on in versions of two verses or ten, with many varying accounts  of what happened between the two men and the one woman.

1 I was a high-born gentleman,
She was a high-born lady.
We lived in a palace great and tall,
Till she met with Gypsy Davy.

2. Last night she slept in a goose-feather bed,
With her arms around her baby.
Tonight she lies in the cold, cold ground
In the arms of her Gypsy Davy.