If I Only Had the One I Love- Hughes (Dors) 1963 MacColl
[From the recording Sheep-Crook and Black Dog. (MTCD365-6). CD liner notes follow. These are the rarely heard 1963 and 1966 recordings made by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker.
R. Matteson 2017]
Mrs Hughes’ variations on this well-known tune are both remarkable and beautiful. Roud has 15 versions of this lovely song, five of which are from North America. The others are from May Bradley and Bill Smith, of Shropshire, plus Sam Richards collected it from Bill ‘Pop’ Hingston, of Dittisham, Devon, as did Gavin Greig from a Miss Ross, in Scotland, and Lucy Broadwood from both Mr. and Mrs Petulengro in Westmorland. Mrs Hughes’ ‘he carries the mark all on his arm’ in her first verse becomes the splendid ‘he carries my name all on his arm’ - a tattoo! - in Tom and Chris Willett’s version.
Other CD recordings: Tom and Chris Willett (MTCD361-2); May Bradley (MTCD349); Bill Smith (MTCD351)
Caroline Hughes (1900 - 1971) Caroline Hughes (née Bateman) was born in 1900 in a horse-drawn caravan in Bere
Regis, Dorset. “My mother's name was Lavinia Bateman and my father was Arthur Hughes. I was one of seventeen children. My parents worked all their lifetime to bring we up clean and respectable. My father was a rat-and-varmint destroyer. We could bide anywhere, and was respected with anybody. My father had a good name and a good character. My mother worked hard, use to go hawking to get a living in a straightforward way. Never done no wrong. Never been had up for stealing, robbing, lived a straight life ... I started to go hawking with my mother, time I got up old enough, then I went to school ‘til I was ten year old. Then I took off with my mother to get my living, just like all my sisters did. And I grew up to get married and I knew how to get my living.”
If I Only Had the One I Love- Sung by Caroline Hughes
Oh, ‘tis my true love’s a sailor boy
He ploughs the ocean deep and wide
Well, he carries the mark all on his arm
And he brings those membrance back to me.
Well, I wish that I had the one I love, dearly love,
How happy happy should I be.
Oh, but there’s my hand but not my heart
And friends we’ll meet and friends we’ll part.
Oh, now fetch to me the one I love, dearly love,
And you fetch her, fetch her back to me
But if I only had the one I love, dearly love,
How happy, happy should I be.