Lord Baseman- Workman (KY) early 1900s Rec. 1971
[From You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5FZt0kV9zk Lomax 1983; REC Mother Jones' Will (MTCD512), Wilson.
Coal miner, union activist, and singer Nimrod Workman (November 5, 1895 - November 26, 1994) sings the ballad of "Lord Bateman" — which he calls "Lord Baseman" — Child #53. Shot by Alan Lomax and crew at Nimrod and Molly Workman's home in Mascot, Tennessee, July 26, 1983. CD liner notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
Liner notes: Musical Traditions Records- Nimrod Workman: Mother Jones' Will (MTCD512), Wilson recorded Nimrod Workman's "Lord Baseman" in Chattaroy, West Virginia in 1976.
1. Lord Baseman (Child 53, Roud 40). It often struck me, in discussing such songs with my informants, that these old ballads probably served the mountain people as useful relics of an older morality, in a manner allied to that which Homer and Virgil provided for more literate audiences. In this vein, I was often told that the antics of Lord Baseman, Mathie Groves and the Carolina Lady would worry my informants greatly as children, leading them to muse upon 'the right thing to do' in such situations. As such, the old ballads conveyed a breeze of exoticism into a society where moral evaluation otherwise ran along conventionally constrained rails (even if moral action itself did not). This song was commonly printed in early American songsters and proved well enough known in Victorian England that Thackeray, Dickens and Cruikshank employed it as the center of a burlesque of 'Ancient Ballade' scholarship:
The poet has here, by that bold license which only genius can venture upon, surmounted the extreme difficulty of introducing any particular Turk, of assuming a foregone conclusion in the reader's mind, and adverting in a careless, casual way to a Turk unknown, as to a casual acquaintance. "This Turk he had___". We have heard of no Turk before, yet this familiar introduction satisfies us at once that we know him well.
As a philosopher of language, I find this delicious.
The name 'Suslan Pine' is of considerable antiquity: Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads has it as 'Susie Pye'. The admirable Eunice Yeatts MacAlexander performs a comparable Virginian version on MTCD501-2, as did Alice Penfold on MTCD230. Here and elsewhere on this CD, Nimrod's pronunciation of names varies rather freely through his performances ('Baseman' is often rendered as 'Bayston', for example). We have not attempted to capture these variations in our transcriptions.
LORD BASEMAN- Nimrod Workman Learned early 1900s in Kentucky (no date given). Rec. 1971
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5FZt0kV9zk
There lived a man, a man of honor,
Noble man of high degree
Who could nor would not be contented
'Til he sailed a voyage all over sea.
He sailed east and he sailed west
Sailed all near some Turkish shore
There he was caught and put in prison
For seven long years to stay or more.
They bored a hole through his left shoulder
Tied him to some trusty[1] tree
They threw him in to a dungeon cell
Where daylight he might never see.
And this old king he had a daughter
Noble daughter of a high degree
She stole them keys to her father's prison
And vowed Lord Baseman she'd set free.
She said, "Honey, have you land or have you living
Have you living of a high degree?
What would you give to this Turkish lady
Out of these prisons would set you free?"
"Honey, I've got gold and I've got silver
I am living of a high degree
But I'd give my all to a Turkish lady
Out of these prisons would set me free."
She took him to her father's parlour
Called for a glass of strongest wine
Every health she drunk unto him
Saying "Lord Baseman I wish you was mine."
Suslan Pine she had a ship
Set it floating all on the deep
She shipped Lord Baseman across the sea
And wished him safe in his own country.
She said "I've got a bargain to make with you
You wed no woman nor me with no man
When seven long years has passed and over
Then I'll cross these raging mains."
Then seven long years had passed and gone
And the eighth they were returning on
She took her gold staff in her hand
To seek Lord Baseman in that foreign land.
She traveled 'til she came to Lord Baseman's dwelling
There she rung most modestly
"Who's there, who's there?" cried a proud young porter
"That knocks so makes these whole valleys ring?"
"Is this your place, Lord Baseman's dwelling?
Or is your noble lord within?"
"Yes, oh yes," cried this proud young porter,
"But he's just this day took a new bride in."
"Go ask him for three cuts of bread,
One bottle of the most strongest wine
Ask him if [he] do not remember
Who freed him from them cold iron bonds?"[2]
Away this proud young porter ran
Fell upon his bended knee
"I'll bet, I'll bet," Lord Baseman said,
"Sweet Suslan Pine done crossed the sea"
She had a gay gold ring on every finger
Round her middle gold diamonds three
She got gold enough around her neck
To buy your bride and her company.
Lord Baseman risen from his table
Table leaves he's split in three
"Yonder stands the most fairest damsel
That my two eyes did ever see."
"Curse Suslan Pine", the old man said,
"Curse Suslan Pine from across the sea
Would you forsake your new wedded little wife
For that Suslan Pine from across the sea?"
"Old man, old man, I married your daughter
She is none yet worse to me
She came to me in a horse and buggy
She can ride back home all in her coaches three[3]."
Took Suslan Pine by her lily white hand
Led her over the marble wall
Married two wives, [one] in the morning soon
Sweet Suslan Pine at twelve o'clock at noon.
1. originally "ostrich"
2. original transcription had "bounds"
3. original transcription had "courtship free"