US & Canada Versions 9. Seventeen Come Sunday Roud 277 ("Sixteen Next Sunday;" "New Orleans," "The Modesty Answer," "Pretty Little Girl," "Sweet Little Honey," "Way Down Yonder," "Weevily Wheat," "Hi Rinky Dum," "Where Are You Going?" "One Sunday Morning," "Yaddle Laddle," "I'm Scarce Sixteen Come Sunday," "As I Rode Out," "My Pretty Maid," "Rocky Mountain," "How Old Are You?" "My Pretty Little Pink")
[The ballad, "Seventeen Come Sunday" has been collected in the US & Canada but has shown little of the popularity found in the UK. Only traces of the early Scottish form (Waukrife Mammy) have been found. In North America the ballad is based mainly on the revisions, "Maid and Soldier" and the later revision, "Seventeen Come Sunday." Many of the North American versions are so short, missing critical stanzas, that an identification is impossible. This is the case in earliest extant US version which I've dated c.1850. It appears in Cox's "Folk Songs of the South," 1925:
"Seventeen Come Sunday." Contributed by Miss Bessie Bock, Farmington, Marion County; learned from her grandmother, a lady of Scotch-Irish descent, who learned it when a little girl and who would be eighty years old if now living.
1 "O where are you going, my pretty maid?
O where are you going, my honey? "
She answered me so modestly,
"An errand for my mommie."
2 "How old are you, my pretty maid?
How old are you, my honey? "
She answered me so modestly,
"I'm seventeen come Sunday."
3 "O where do you live, my pretty maid?
O where do you live, my honey?"
She answered me so modestly,
"In a wee, wee cot with my mommie."
4 "Will you marry me, my pretty maid?
Will you marry me, my honey? "
She answered me so modestly,
"If it weren't for my mommie."
These core stanzas of "Seventeen" are missing both the opening and ending stanzas used for identification. Since her age is "Seventeen on Sunday," it's likely based on the later revision (4th form). There are at least two US versions that are related to the older Scottish Waukrife Mammy tradition. This version is No. 127, I'm Seventeen Come Sunday in English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians by Campbell and Sharp, edited Karpeles, 1932 edition. I've titled this "Sixteen Next Sunday" which is age found in the text of older US and Canada versions. Since the age is "Sixteen" it would indicate that these versions originally predated the 1840 "Seventeen Come Sunday" broadsides. This odd mixture of British revision text has the Scottish archaic ending, with the "moon is shining clearly" stanzas from the first revision, "Maid and Soldier." The opening is similar to standard "Seventeen" broadsides. The "She answered me, tee hee hee" line is common in America but apparently has its roots in Scotland as well (see Duncan Williamson's version[1]).
Sixteen Next Sunday- Sung by Mr. GEORGE P. FRANKLIN at Stuart, Va., Aug. 26, 1918. Hexatonic (no 7th)-- Sharp A
1. As I walked out one morning in May
Just as the day was dawning,
There I spied a pretty little Miss
So early in the morning.
Te loo - rey, loo - rey, loo - rey loo,
Te loo - rey, loo - rey Ian dy.
2 Where are you going, my pretty little Miss?
Where are you going, my honey?
She answered me, te hee hee hee,
I'm looking for my mummy.
3 How old are you, my pretty little Miss?
How old are you, my honey?
She answered me, te hee hee hee,
I'll be sixteen next Sunday."
4 If I come to your house to-night,
And the moon is shining clearly,
Will you arise and let me in,
If your mammy does not hear me?
5 I went to her house that night,
The moon was shining clearly;
She arose and let me in,
But her mammy she did hear me.
6 She took her by the hair of the head,
And to the floor she brought her,
And by the help of a hazel rod,
She made one wilful daughter.
7 So fare you well, my pretty little Miss,
So fare you well, my honey.
It's all I want to know of you,
You've got one darned old mummy.
Curiously all of Sharp's versions in EFFSA[1] were collected in an area of Virginia that was featured in George Foss's article (short book), From White Hall to Bacon Hollow (http://www.klein-shiflett.com/shifletfamily/HHI/GeorgeFoss/whall.html). Versions of "Seventeen" have been found in the Appalachians, New England and Maritime Canada and have migrated west to Ohio, Illinois, Texas and the Ozarks. The ballad in its pure form (as related to the main British forms) is rare in North America. The following old version is from "Folk Songs of the Catskills," page 482 by Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer, 1982. This is a fairly complete version related to the first revision "Maid and Soldier" with several changes. It was collected from George Edwards (1877-1949) and his cousin "Dick" Edwards. George was one of Cazden's most important informants. My brief bio follows:
George Edwards was born March 31, 1877 in Hasbrouck, a small place on the Neversink River. George's father, Jehila "Pat" Edwards was a scoopmaker by trade but worked as an unskilled laborer. Pat loved liquor and would sing in bars for free drinks. He died in 1927. George's mother Mary Lockwood was the stable influence in his life. She was a singer, mostly of hymns. She died in 1925. George's cousins were Charles Hinckley and "Dick" Edwards, both singers.
"Where Are You Going, My Pretty Fair Maid?" Sung by George Edwards (1877-1949) and his cousin "Dick" Edwards about 1948; collected by Cazden.
1. Where are you going, my pretty fair maid,
And where are you going my honey
she answered me most modestly,
I'm on an errant for my Granny."
REFRAIN: With my rosy diddler dow, fal de diddle dow,
Whack! the dooey diddle die doe -dow.
2. May I go along, my pretty fair maid
May I go along, my honey?
she answered me most modestly,
I durst not for my Granny.
3. "You come along to my Granny's house
When the wind blows keen and fairly,
I will arise and I'll let you in
My granny will not hear me.
4. Then I went to her Granny's house
When the wind blew keen and fairly;
She arose and let me in.
And her Granny did not hear me. (Refrain)
5. One day I met the pretty fair maid:
"It's cold and stormy weather."
She answered me most modestly,
"I am ondone forever!" (Refrain)
6. Now I have a wife in fair London town,
And why should I disclaim her?
[But] every town that I go in.
Get a girl if I can gain her. (Refrain)
7. Oh, come all you pretty fair maids,
Rises early Monday morning:
The bugle horn is my delight
And the sailor is her darling.(Refrain)
The Catskills were not the exclusive area of dissemination in New York. This report from The New York Dramatic Mirror, Volume 62, 1909 shows the ballad was sung in Vaudeville halls:
The Orpheum has Yvette Guilbert, for the headliner this week, and her offerings last night were fully appreciated by a crowded house. “I'm Seventeen. Come Sunday,” was the particular hit of her programme.
That Guilbert, a French Cabaret singer, model and actress-- by then in her 50s, would have known "Seventeen" is not unusual-- it was very popular in England at the time. In the US there's a wide assortment of uses of the "Seventeen come Sunday" stanzas including several songs which use floating verses that are based on, or originated from "Seventeen Comes Sunday." Particularly popular is the "How old are you" stanza and another stanza which seems to be derived from the Scottish ending stanza, "Fare thee well my bonnie lass." This ending stanza as been adapted in the US and has become "Fare thee well my pretty little miss" and then "Fly around my pretty little miss." The "Fly Around" versions are usually fiddle tunes, dance songs or play-party songs. The following titles are associated with these and other related floating stanzas:
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
Fly Around, My Blue-Eyed Girl (Brown Collection)
Pretty Little Miss
Little Betty Ann (Sharp EFSSA)
Shady Grove (tune/lyrics)
Daisy
How Old Are You My Pretty Little Miss?
Wheevily Wheat (floating title, Lomax, Stith Thompson, Macon)
New Orleans (Bertha Beard, NC)
An adaption of the Scottish "Fare-thee-well" verse is found in The Skillet Lickers' "Fly Around" version on Old-Time Fiddle Tunes and Songs from North Georgia, County CD-3509:
Fare you well my pretty little miss,
Fare you well my honey.
If I'm not there by the middle of the week,
You can look for me on Sunday.
It's clearly taken from "Seventeen" and in the next evolution becomes:
Fly around my pretty little miss,
Fly around my daisy--
Another "Fly Around" song by Justus Begley in 1937 is titled "Fara You Well, My Blue-Eyed Girl" and has:
Fare you well my blue-eyed girl,
Fare you well my daisy
A stanza from Grammy Fish from New Hampshire, 1940[3]:
Where are you going my pretty maid
My little blue-eyed daisy?
I am not going very far
For really I am lazy.
Wheevily Wheat which usually has the "over the water to Charlie" stanza and the "wheevily wheat/ barley" identifying stanza has become a floating title with random associated stanzas-- some with the "How are you" stanzas of "Seventeen." As an example I give the Wheevily Wheat B version from "Round the Levee" edited by Stith Thompson, 1916. He comments:
Another version of "Weevily Wheat," collected by Miss Mary S. Brown of Gatesville, Texas, from Wallace Fogle, a famous play-party singer of Coryell County, runs as follows. The boys and girls line up opposite each other; the boys begin swinging at one end, and girls at the other, each swinging his or her partner.
Way down yonder in the maple swamp,
The water's deep and muddy.
There I spied my pretty little miss,
O there I spied my honey.
How old are you, my little miss,
How old are you, my honey?
She answered with a ha-ha laugh,
"I'll be sixteen next Sunday."
The higher up the cherry tree,
Riper grows the cherry,
Sooner a boy courts a girl,
Sooner they will marry,
So run along home, my pretty little miss,
Run along home, my honey,
Run along home, my pretty miss,
I'll be right there next Sunday.
Papa's gone to New York town,
Mama's gone to Dover,
Sister's worn her new slippers out
A-kicking Charley over.
"Wheevily Wheat" is a floating title but should have the "Wheevily Wheat" stanza in it-- in the preceding lyrics it does not appear. The last line is a reference to "Bonnie Sweet Prince Charlie" who, in a bizarre twist, is part of Robert Burn's song that introduces "pretty little pink" also related, although vaguely to the "How old are you" songs in the US. "Charlie" is Prince Charles Edward Stewart, 1720-1788 and the related songs have the "Over the water to Charlie" lines. See the "Way Down Yonder" titles in the collection and Uncle Dave Macon's "Wheevily Wheat." Here's an Oklahoma version with the Charlie reference in last stanza:
My Pretty Maid- sung by Robert L Risinger of Norman, Oklahoma-- no date give, before c.1950.
1. "Where are you going, my pretty little miss?
Where are you going, my honey?
She answered me with a 'Uh, uh, huh,
I'm going home to mommy.'
2. ‘How old are you my pretty little miss,
How old are you my honey?’
She answered me with a 'Uh, uh, huh,
"I'll be sixteen next Sunday."
3. "Where do you live my pretty little miss,
Where do you live my honey?"
She answered me with a "Uh, uh, huh,
I live at home with mommy."
4. Will you marry me my pretty little miss,
Will you marry me my honey?"
She answered me with a "Uh, uh, huh,
I would if it wasn't for mommy."
5. "Where are you going, my pretty pretty maid?
Where are you going, my darling?
Down to the river to water my geese
and over the river to Charlie."
The following titles are play-party songs that are related by the use of similar floating stanzas:
Bile Dem Cabbage Down
Pretty Little Pink
Charlie's Neat
Coffee grows on white oak trees
Shady Grove
Higher Up the Cherry Tree
Here are two core stanzas of "Seventeen" used as floating stanzas in Tales and Songs of Southern Illinois by Charles Neely:
Come trip with me, my pretty little miss,
Come trip with me, my honey;
Come trip with me, my pretty little miss;
I'll be sixteen next Sunday.
How old are you, my pretty little miss,
How old are you, my honey?
She answered me with a "Tee, hee, hee"
"I'll be sixteen next Sunday."
Another association with the "How old are you" stanza is found in Child 243 Gypsy David/Davy (House Carpenter). This is the most popular House Carpenter text, as recorded by Carter Family in 1940-- and widely copied (originally recorded by Cliff Carlisle 1939, covers include Bascom Lunsford and later Doc Watson). Here are the first three stanzas, the second is the "How old are you" stanza:
Black Jack David
Black Jack David came ridin' through the woods,
And he sang so loud and gaily.
Made the hills around him ring,
And he charmed the heart of a lady.
And he charmed the heart of a lady.
"How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?"
She answered him with a silly little smile,
"I'll be sixteen next Sunday.
I'll be sixteen next Sunday."
"Come go with me, my pretty little miss.
Come go with, me my honey.
I'll take you across the deep blue sea,
Where you never shall want for money.
Where you never shall want for money."
The wide variety of titles and floating verses is confusing and the Texas version "Wheevily Wheat, B[4]" has been followed by this a version from Lomax (Folk Songs of North America, 1940) that uses the same stanzas but adds some new ones. The Lomax version is a composite of many versions and floating stanzas. Two stanzas associated with several composite versions of Seventeen found in the US are also found in the related song "Pretty little Pink." Here's the text of a version collected in north Carolina that dates back to the the late 1800s. It was sung by Bertha Hubbard Beard and recorded about 1970s when she was over 90 years old. She was born in 1880 Alexander County and learned this from her father.
"New Orleans"
I'll put my knapsack on my back,
My rifle on my shoulder,
I'll march away to New Orleans
And there I'll be a soldier.
CHORUS: Fal la linka do, oh do oh do,
Fal la linka do, oh di dee.
How old are you my pretty little miss,
How old are you my honey?
She answered me with a modesty,
I'll be sixteen next Sunday.
CHORUS: Fal la linka do, oh do oh do,
Fal la linka do, oh di dee.
Will you marry me my pretty little miss,
How old are you my honey?
She answered me with a modesty,
I'll have to ask my Mommy.
CHORUS: Fal la linka do, oh do oh do,
Fal la linka do, oh di dee.
I'll put my knapsack on my back,
My rifle on my shoulder,
I'll march away to New Orleans
And there I'll be a soldier.
CHORUS: Fal la linka do, oh do oh do,
Fal la linka do, oh di dee.
Well the coffee grows on white oak trees,
And the river flows with brandy
The streets all lined with ten-dollar bills
And the girls aa sweet as candy.
CHORUS: Fal la linka do, oh do oh do,
Fal la linka do, oh da dee.
The additional stanzas found in this and several other versions are related to "Pretty Little Pink" as found in W. W. Newell's "Games and Songs of American Children," first published in 1883, No. 175, from East Tennessee. Newell comments: "The manner of playing [the game instructions] has not been obtained."
My pretty little pink, I once did think
That you and I would marry,
But now I've lost all hope of that,
I can no longer tarry.
I've got my knapsack on my back,
My musket on my shoulder,
To march away to Quebec town,
To be a gallant soldier.
Where coffee grows on a white-oak tree,
And the rivers flow with brandy,
Where the boys are like a lump of gold,
And the girls as sweet as candy.
Newell also commented: "In another version, Mexico was substituted for Quebec." It's clear this version substituted "New Orleans" for Mexico/Quebec. The soldier stanza has replaced core the soldier stanza[5] in the revisions of "Seventeen." The "coffee grows" stanza is part of "Four in the Middle" play-party songs. The "How Old are You" stanzas are more closely aligned with "Pretty Little Pink" and "Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss" than the titles "Wheevily Wheat" and "Shady Grove[6]" which have previously been attached to the "How old" stanzas of Seventeen.
This old stanza[7] as sung by Mrs. Jane Gentry at Hot Springs, Madison Co., N. C, July 27, 1917 is also associated with "Seventeen" and "Fly Around":
The higher up the cherry tree,
The riper grows the berry;
The sooner a young man courts a girl,
The sooner they will marry.
Many of these floating stanzas are arranged by singers and instrumentalist in random order. The "How old are you?' stanza has become another floating stanza which sometimes includes other "Seventeen" stanzas. For more information see: appendix 9B. Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss."
Richard Matteson 2018]
_____________________
Footnotes:
1. "My Rolling Eye," sung by Duncan Williamson from Inveraray, county Argyllshire; recorded by George McIntyre, November, 1967. From: Collection - School of Scottish Studies; Original Track ID - SA1967.140.B7.
2. English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians-- Sharp collected two versions in North Carolina that were apparently fragments and were not included in EFFSA, 1932.
3. "Hi Rinky Dum" sung by Grammy Fish of New Hampshire in 1940-- from Country Dance and Song, No. 9, 1978. Also Warner Traditional American Folk Songs and Flanders recording Track 20a.
4. See in this collection where it's titled, "Way Down Yonder."
5. In the 1st revision (Maid and Soldier) it appears:
Oh! soldier, will you marry me?
Now is your time or never,
And if you do not marry me,
I am undone forever.
6. "Way Down Yonder," my title, replaced the "Shady Grove title for a version from Pike county, no informant named. From: Songs of the Cumberlands by Bess Alice Owens; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 49, No. 193 (Jul. - Sep., 1936), pp. 215-242.
7. See Sharp's EFSSA, 1917 and 1932 editions. Gentry was a Hicks before marriage and many of her songs are very old as handed down from her family in Beech Mountain, North Carolina.
_________________________
CONTENTS: (To access individual versions, lick on highlighted blue title below or on the title attached to this page on the left hand column).
1) My Pretty Maid- Bessie Bock (WV) c.1850 Cox
New Orleans- Bertha H. Beard (NC) c.1894 REC
That Blue-Eyed Girl- Fletch Rymer (NC) 1898 Brown
Sixteen Come Sunday- Flora McDowell (TN) c.1905
Way Down Yonder- Mary Brown (TX) 1916 Thompson
Sixteen Next Sunday- G. Franklin (VA) 1918 Sharp A
Sixteen Next Sunday- F. Richards (VA) 1918 Sharp B
Sixteen Next Sunday- L. Cannady (VA) 1918 Sharp C
Sixteen Next Sunday- S. Reynolds (VA) 1918 Sharp D
Sixteen Come Sunday- L. Jones (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Sixteen Come Sunday- Connolly (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Seventeen Come Sunday- (NC) c.1919 Brown A
The Modesty Answer- Hatfield (WV) 1928 Cox
Pretty Little Girl- Mrs. Bair (OH) c.1931 Eddy A
Sweet Little Honey- Mrs. Topper (OH) c.1931 Eddy B
My Pretty Little Miss- (TX) 1936 Owens
Way Down Yonder- Nancy Trivette (KY) 1936 Owens
Weevily Wheat- Uncle Dave Macon (TN) 1938
My Pretty Little Pink- student (TN) 1938 Henry B
Hi Rinky Dum- Fish (NH) 1940 Warner/Flanders
Where Are You Going? Glasscock (NC) 1943 Brown B
Sixteen This Sunday- S. Luther (NH) 1945 Flanders
Where Are You Going? Edwards (NY) c.1948 Cazden
One Sunday Morning- Susie Barlow (UT) 1948 Hubbard
Yaddle Laddle- Gant Family (TX) 1948 Seeger
I'll Be Seventeen Come Sunday- Gilkie (NS) 1949
Where are You Going? B. Ritchie (KY) c.1950 REC
I'm Scarce Sixteen Come Sunday- Duncan (NS) 1950
As I Rode Out- Hartlan (NS) 1950 Creighton B
Scarce Sixteen- Mrs. Hartlan (NS) 1950 Creighton C
My Pretty Maid- Robert Risinger (OK) c.1950 Moores
Seventeen Come Sunday- H. Morry (NL) 1951 Peacock
Rocky Mountain- Rufus Crisp (KY) c.1953 REC
How Old Are You? Fred High (AR) 1953 Parler A
Where are you going? A. Dornan (NB) c.1954 Creight
Seventeen Come Sunday- Samms (NL) 1960 Peacock
How Old Are You? P. Seeger (NY) 1960 Lomax
How Old Are You? C. Bowman (AR) 1960 Parler B
Where Are You Going? Hammons (WV) 1970 Howard
___________________________________________
Mellingr Henry: Song of the Southern Highlands 1938
As this song was recorded under the title of "My Pretty Little Pink," it is given a place here1; but it is, of course, a mixture of several songs: stanza 2 is similar to a stanza in "Come, All You Fair and Tender Ladies" ("Little Sparrow"); stanza 3 is from "The True Lover's Farewell" (cf. Campbell and Sharp, No. 61, stanza 6); stanzas 4 and 5 are evidently recalled from "The Gypsy Laddie." The song was recorded in the Cumberland Mountains by Onelee Brooks, a student in Lincoln Memorial University.
1. Sixteen roosters on a fence, All in a row;
There's wondering where their loves could be, And just where they must go.
2. Wish I had a needle and thread As fine as I could sew;
I'd take my true love to my side And down the road I'd go.
3. Do you see that turtle dove, Sitting in yonder pine ?
It's mourning for its own true love Just like I mourn for mine.
4. How old are you, my pretty little Pink ? How old are you, my honey ?
How old are you, my pretty little Pink ? I'll be sixteen next Saturday.
5. Will you marry me, my pretty little Pink ? Will you marry me, my honey ?
Will you marry me, my pretty litde Pink? I'll marry you next Sunday.
Notes from Folk Songs of the South- Cox 1925 (version dates circa 1850)
126 MY PRETTY MAID
For this song, usually known as " Seventeen Come Sunday," see Johnson, The Scots Musical Museum, No. 397 (as altered by Burns) ; Cromek, Select Scottish Songs, 1810, 11, 116; Lyle, Ancient Ballads and Songs, 1827, p. 155; Ford, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland, 1, 102; broadside, "Soldier and the Fair Maid" (Forth, Pocklington, No. 66); Sharp and Marson, Folk-Songs from Somerset, n, 4; Sharp, One Hundred English Folksongs, No. 61; Sharp, English Folk Songs, 1, 104; Butterworth, Folk Songs from Sussex, p. 16; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 1, 92; n, 9, 269; iv, 291; Baring-Gould, Songs of the West, No. 73, in, 42 (rewritten; cf. iv, xxxiv). Cf. Child, iv, 389.
_____________________
Brown Collection Notes:
11. Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid?
This song of the milkmaid, still remembered in England —Somerset and Devon (JFSS ii 9-10), Yorkshire (JFSS 11 J70) — is known in various parts of English-speaking America: Newfoundland (BSSN 138-g). New Jersey (JAFL Lii 58-9. a some- what lewd derivative), Virginia (SharpK 11 156-8), Mississippi (JAFL XXXIX 150-1, FSM 277-8). Missouri (OFS I 330). Ohio (BSO 188-90). Nebraska (ABS 228-30). The content of the various texts varies considerably, but they may all be considered forms of the same song. There are two in our collection.
A. 'Seventeen Come Sunday.' Sent in by Mrs. Sutton, with the following account of the singer:
"Over beyond Sugar Loaf in Henderson County there lives an old man who sings ballits. He makes whiskey, too, or did, and spent a good deal of time in Atlanta. He has a cabin to which we couldn't go with the car.
"We parked way up on a hillside and climbed down a steep winding path between laurel thickets and found him sitting by the woodpile, strumming a banjo. He said it was 'too party to waste time plowin'.' He also asked us to 'tarry till even.' . . . Not many of his songs were 'fitten to sing before the wimmern,' but he accepted us as kindred spirits and sang them anyway. . . . He sang a number of sea ballads. . . . He also called the young woman he was courting in the hope that she would consent to becoming his fourth wife his 'doney.' Sometimes he made it 'doney gal.'
"The song he liked best of those he sang was 'Seventeen Come Sunday.' When he finished singing this song he observed that 'seventeen is jist about the right age to catch a gal. Ef she's older than that she's apt to be gittin' oneasy and it comes too easy.' We asked him if the 'doney' he had now was over that. He said she was. 'When a feller gits as old and wore out as I am he near 'bout has to take him a gal off'n the cull list,' he remarked philosophically. 'I've had me three young wives, and this un I'm a-courtin' now ain't fur from the whit- leather stage. But, at that, she ort to outlast me.' "
1. 'Where are you going, my pretty maid?
Oh, where are you going, my honey?'
She answered me most modestly,
'An errand for my mommy.'
2. 'How old are you. my pretty maid?
How old are you, my honey?'
She answered me most modestly,
'I'm seventeen come Sunday.'
3. 'Where do you live, my pretty maid?
Where do you live, my honey?'
She answered me most modestly,
'In a cottage with my mommy.'
4. 'Will you marry me. my pretty maid?
Will you marry me. my honey?'
She answered me most modestly,
'If it wasn't for my mommy.'
____________________________
The Milkmiad Notes: Folk-Songs of the South - Page 392
John Harrington Cox - 1963
MILKMAID. For English references see Sharp, One Hundred English Folksongs, p. xxxi (No. 44). No song is better known in America. It has often been printed in song- books: as, The Universal Songster (New York, 1829), p. 119; The New ... See Pound, No. 112. The only American text, so far as I know, to show the English refrain of "dabbling in the dew" is West Virginia A. Contributed by Mr. Wallie Barnett, Leon, Mason County, 1916; learned from his mother.
1 "Where are you going ...
_____________________________
Notes: Folk Songs of the Catskills - Volume 1 - Page 480
Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer - 1982
However, similar conversational interchange is also found in many other traditional songs that are quite distinct in their substance. The Milkmaid, or Dabbling in the Dew (Cox, C. J. Sharp), opens with the almost identical line, "Oh, where are you bound, my pretty fair maid?" But it tells of a more
My Pretty Fair Maid. Because the core of the tale in Where Are You Going, My Pretty Fair Maid? lies in the tension between the characters rather than in a particular outcome as in a literary plot.
___________________________
Earliest "Milkmaid" text:
“WHERE ARE You GOING, MY PRETTY MAID 2" (4th S. v. 402, 600; vi. 62, 122.)—B. S. R. A. asks if this song is old; and Dr. Dixon answers, it can be traced for sixty years, but he has no doubt it is much older. It may be found in Pryce's Archatologia Cornu-Britannica, published in 1790. It is called a Cornish song, and is in old Cornish and English. It commences: —
“‘Whither are you going, pretty fair maid,' said he,
“With your white face and your yellow hair?”
‘I am going to the well, sweet sir," she said,
“For strawberry leaves make maidens fair.’”
The following note is added:— “This was the first song that ever I heard in Cornwall: it was sung at Carclew, in 1698, by one Chygwyn, brother-in-law to Mr. John Grose of Penzance.”— Tonkin. W. J. Penzance. The version of this ditty given by your learned and cheery correspondent F. C. H. agrees, as far as it goes, with that which I remember half a century ago, but verses are omitted which seem to me to add to the perfection of the “drama.” Verse 2, as I have heard it, ran thus:—
“May I go with you, my pretty maid?
Yes, if you please, kind sir, she said:
Sir, she said, &c.
3. “Will you marry me, my pretty maid
2 Yes, if you please, kind sir, she said: Sir, she said, &c. 4. “What is your father, my pretty maid 2 Father's a farmer, sir, she said: Sir, she said,” &c. The inquisitiveness as to “who's who" displayed in this verse may seem to delay too much the progress of the dialogue, and I never heard the yerse in Lancashire or Cheshire, where I first learned the song, but it is common among the scald-cream dairies of Devon. Then follows the crucial question about “fortune,” and so on to the end. But the last verse given by F. C. H. is new to me, and seems foreign to the tone of the previous verses, implying pertness rather than the arch dignity and naïveté hitherto so characteristic of the beleagured maid. Crow Down.
___________________________________
Two stanzas from "Seventeen" :
Four British Ballads in Southern Illinois by Charles Neely from The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 52, No. 203 (Jan. - Mar., 1939), pp. 75-81
BLACK JACK DAVID[3]
"The Gypsy Laddie" is known in Southern Illinois by the title, "Black Jack David" or "Gypsy Davy." This particular variant has deteriorated sadly. Only three stanzas, changed considerably from the Child versions, remain. It has, moreover, been confused with "Weevily Wheat"; stanzas 3 and 4 are perhaps taken from a variant of this song current in the neighborhood from which "Black Jack David" came.4
Black Jack David came riding down the lane,
Singing so loud and gaily,
Making all the woods round him ring
To charm the heart of a lady,
To charm the heart of a lady.
"How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?"
She answered me with a smile and kiss,
"I'll be seventeen next Sunday.
I'll be seventeen next Sunday."
"Will you go with me, my pretty little miss?
Will you go with me, my honey?"
She answered me with a smile and kiss,
"I'll go with you next Sunday,
I'll go with you next Sunday."
She pulled off her low heel shoes,
All made of Spanish leather.
She put on her high heel shoes,
And they rode off together,
And they rode off together.
Last night she slept on a warm feather bed
Beside her husband and baby.
Tonight she sleeps on the cold, cold ground
By the side of Black Jack David,
By the side of Black Jack David.
3 Obtained from Mr. Frank Irvin, Mascoutah, Ill. This variant of "The Gypsy Laddie" was one of the songs that the youth used to sing in the evening at Broughton, Ill. Child, No. 200; Barry, Eckstorm, Smyth, Variant B, pp. 27-272. Child's B Variant is a little like "Black Jack David," and Barry, Eckstorm, Smyth's Variant B has two stanzas that are very much like two in the Southern Illinois variant-stanzas i and 8, which go thus:
"The Gypsy Davy came over the hills,
Came over the eastern valley,
He sang till he made the green woods ring,
And charmed the heart of a lady.
Last night I slept in a warm, soft bed,
And in my arms my baby,
To-night I'll lie on the cold, cold ground,
Beside of Gypsy Davy."
4 "Weevily Wheat" is current in a number of variants in Southern Illinois. Lomax has a variant of the song (American Ballads and Folk Songs, pp. 292-293) with a stanza somewhat like the third stanza of "Black Jack David."
"How old are you, my pretty little Miss?
How old are you, my honey?"
She answered me with a 'Ha, ha' laugh,
"'I'll be sixteen next Sunday.' "
One can see how the confusion might have happened when he remembers that Child's B Variant contains a stanza (Number 4) which begins
"'Will you go with me, my hinny and my heart?
Will you go with me, my dearie ?'"
_____________________________
Where Are You Going, My Pretty Little Girl (american) Time: 1:27
The Amorous Muse (1968) Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger
Where are you going my pretty little girl
Where are you going my honey?
She answered me with a Ha, ha, ha,
I'm going to see my mammy.
American Ballads and Folk Songs - Page 292
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=048631992X
John A. Lomax, Alan Lomax - 2013 - Preview - More editions
Wheevily Wheat 2:
Where do you live, my pretty little Miss?
Where do you live, my honey?
She answered me with a sweet to be,
"In the loom house with my mammy."
Run along, my pretty little Miss,
Run along home, my honey,
Run along home, my pretty little Miss,
I'll be right there next Sunday.
Papa's gone to New York town,
Mamma's gone to Dover,
Sister's wore her slippers ou
t A-kicking Charley over.
Take her by the lily-white hand,
And lead her like a pigeon;
Make her dance the Weevily Wheat
Till .
----------------
Rocky Mountain
Rocky mountain, rocky hill
Rocky hill was grassy.
There I met a purty young miss,
Lord but she was sassy.
cho:
Lord Lord Lord
(repeat last line of verse)
How old are you, my purty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?
She answered me "Lord Lord
Be seventeen come Sunday."
Come go with me my purty little miss
Come go with me, miss Nancy.
She answered me "Lord, Lord
You'd better ask my mammy."
Take my knapsack on my back
Rifle on my shoulder.
Goin' down to New Orleans
Goin' to be a soldier.
Note: Collected from Rufus Crisp, Allen KY, ca.1953. His "Lord Lord" might have been "Law Law". Rufus wasn't too strong on
enunciation, but he frailed a mighty banjo.RG
Where are You Going My Pretty Little Miss?...by Doc Watson & Jean Ritchie from Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
"(Man) Oh...Where are you going my pretty little miss
where are you going my daisy?
(Woman)Well, if I don't find a young man soon,
I think I'm goin' crazy...
A-Rink a ma dink a diddle I do,
a rink a ma dink a doody"
_______________________
BETTY ANNE
cho:Lor', lor', my little Betty Anne,
Lor', lor', I say,
Lor', lor', my little Betty Anne,
I'm going away to stay.
Cheeks as red as a red, red rose,
Her eyes as a diamond brown,
I'm going to see my pretty little miss
Before the sun goes down.
It's rings on my true love's hands
Shines so bright like gold.
Go and see my pretty little Miss
Before it rains or snows.
When I was up at the field at work,
I sit down and cry,
Studying' bout my blue-eyed boy,
I thought to my God I'd die.
Fly around my pretty little Miss,
Fly around I say,
Fly around, my pretty little Miss,
You'll almost drive me crazy.
Fly around my pretty little Miss,
Fly around my dandy,
Fly around my pretty little Miss,
I don't want no more of your candy.
From English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians, Sharp
Collected from Mrs. Ellie Johnson, NC 1916
note: more commonly known as Shady Grove
------------------------
One Sunday Morning- Susie Barlow (UT) 1948 Hubbard
Hubbard, Ballads and Songs from Utah #74, "One Sunday Morning" p. 147
Sung by Susie S. Barlow of Salt Lake City Nov. 28, 1948
1. One Sunday morning
Just as the day was dawning,
Twas there I met a pretty little maid,
Before the sun was rising
CHORUS: To ma roo ri row, to ma rattle inka day,
To ma roo row rattle inka dandy.
2. Her shoes were black, her stocking white,
The buckles were of silver,
She had a dark and rolling eye,
Her hair hung o'er her shoulder.
3. Where are you going my pretty little maid?
Where are you going my honey?
So modestly she answered me,
On an errand for my mommie.
4. Will you marry me, my pretty little maid?
Will you marry me, my honey?
So modestly she answered me,
"I dare not for my mommie."
5. If I should come to your mama’s house.
When the night is dark and dreary,
Would you get up and let me in,
Your ma she should not hear you.
6. If you should come to your mama’s house.
When the moon shone bright and clearly,
I would get up and let you in,
I wouldn't care if she heard me."
------------
I'M SEVENTEEN COME SUNDAY. (identical to his wife, Farnces' version. Sung by Mr. Ebe Richards at Callaway, Franklin
Co., Va., Aug. 18th 1918.
How old are you, my pretty little Miss?
How old are you, my honey?
She answered me with the brightest smile:
I'll be sixteen next Sunday,
Be sixteen, be sixteen,
Be sixteen next Sunday.
O what can you do, my pretty little Miss?
O what can you do, my honey?
She answered me with the brightest smile:
I can put on bread for mamma, mummy
Put on bread, etc.
Will you marry me, my pretty little Miss?
Will you marry me, my honey?
She answered me with the brightest smile:
I would if it weren't for mamma, mummy
I would, etc.
------------------
Track 07 : Sixteen This Sunday (Seventeen Come Sunday) - voice performance by Sidney Luther at Pittsburg (New Hampshire). Classification #: LAO17. Dated 09-23-1945.
How old are you my pretty fair maid
How old are you my honey?
She looked at me quite modestly
I'm just sixteen this Sunday
With a rollin roll
Her shoes were black and her stockings white
And her buckle it was silver---
Track 08a : Come Sixteen on Sunday (Seventeen Come Sunday) - voice performance by Sidney Luther at Pittsburg (Nh.). Classification #: LAO17. Dated 09-23-1945.
Track 16a : Hi Rinky Dum (Seventeen Come Sunday) - voice performance by Lena Bourne Fish at E Jaffrey (Nh.). Classification #: LAO17. Dated 05-09-1940
https://archive.org/details/HHFBC_tapes_D02B/D02B+sideB.mp3
--------
Ballads and songs from Ohio - Page 189
https://books.google.com/books?id=fEpOAQAAIAAJ
Mary Olive Eddy - 1939 - Snippet view - More editions
“Oh, where do you live, my pretty little girl, Oh, where do you live, my honey?" She answered me most modestly, “In the loom shop with my mamma." 4. “How old are you, my pretty little girl, How old are you, my honey?" She answered me with a te he he, “I'll be sixteen next Sunday." 5. Her shoes were black, her stockings were white, And her buckles were of silver, She had a fair and rolling eye, And her hair curled over her shoulder. 6. “Don't you want a man, my pretty little girl, Don't
--------------
I'M SEVENTEEN COME SUNDAY.
As I walked out one morning in May,
Just as the day was dawning,
There I spied a pretty little Miss,
So early in the morning.
Te loorey loorey loo,
Te loorey loorey landy.
Where are you going, my pretty little Miss?
Where are you going, my honey?
She answered me, te hee hee hee,
I'm looking for my mummy.
How old are you, my pretty little Miss?
How old are you, my honey?
She answered me, te hee hee hee,
I'll be sixteen next Sunday.
If I come to your house to-night
And the moon is shining clearly,
Will you arise and let me in,
If your mammy does not hear me?
I went to her house that night,
The moon was shining clearly;
She arose and let me in,
But her mammy she did hear me.
She took her by the hair of the head,
And to the floor she brought her,
And by the help of a hazel rod,
She made one wilful daughter.
So fare you well, my pretty little Miss,
So fare you well, my honey.
It's all I want to know of you,
You've got one darned old mummy.
Sung by Mr. Franklin at Stuart, Patrick Co., Va. Aug. 26th 1918.
----------------------
Brown Collection Volume 3, 1952
286 Fly Around, My Blue-Eyed Girl,
Here are assembled a number of songs of rather widely different character but held together by a common phrase (sometimes with "blue-eyed miss" or "pretty little miss" instead of "blue-eyed girl") in the chorus stanza. They are not always easily to be kept apart from songs with the "pretty little pink" phrase. Where these latter are definitely play-party or dance songs they are considered under the caption 'Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees.' The songs brought together here are not described by the contributors as play-party songs — though some of them may have been so used. A song using the phrase reported by Sharp from North Carolina, "Betty Anne' (SharpK ii ;^/), is not considered by him a play-party song. There is in our collection a record of the song as sung by Miss Hattie McNeill of Ferguson, Wilkes county, in 1922.
'That Blue-Eyed Girl.' Sung by Rynic-r, a banjo-picker, in "The Beats" near the mouth of Newfound Creek in Buncombe county. This is reminiscent of the English milkmaid song 'Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid?"
1 How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?
She looked at me with a smiling look:
'I'll be sixteen next Sunday.'
Chorus:
It's fly around, my blue-eyed girl,
It's fly around, my daisy ;
It's fly around, my pretty little miss —
You've done run me crazy.
2 Will you marry me, my pretty little miss?
Will you marry me, my honey?
She looked at me with a smiling look :
'I'll marry you some Sunday.'
3 It's every day and Sunday too,
It seems so dark and hazy,
I'm thinking about my blue-eyed girl —
She's done run me crazy.
practically never wear rings." In place of our final stanza the JAFL. print closes with one about the "lonesome road" :
You've caused me to walk
That long lonesome road
Which has never been
Travelled afore, hoo-hoo.
4 It's every day and Sunday too
I hang my head and cry ;
I'm thinking about my blue-eyed girl —
Oh, surely 1 will die !
5 If I had no horse at all,
I'd be found a-crawlin'
Up and down the rocky branch
Looking for my darlin'.
B. No title. Collected from James York, Olin, Iredell county, in August 1939. The final stanza is from 'Bonnie Blue Eyes' ; stanza 3 seems to belong to some convict's song. The first stanza may be assumed to be a chorus.
1 Fly around, my blue-eyed girl,
Fly around, my daisy ;
Fly around, my blue-eyed girl.
You almost run me crazy.
2 Hard to love when you can't be loved,
It's hard to change your mind.
You've broke my heart, you've killed me dead,
You left me far behind.
3 They bound my hands with iron bands,
They bound my feet with chains ;
And before I leave my sweet daisy
I'd wear the old shackles again.
4 Don't cry. my bonnie blue eyes,
Don't cry my bonnie, don't cry ;
For if you cry you'll spoil your eyes ;
Don't cry. my bonnie blue eyes.
'Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss.' Contributed in 1939 by Otis Kuykendall of Asheville. The penultimate stanza appears in various songs of the mountain folk.
I The stormy clouds are rising.
It sure looks like rain.
Hitch up Mike and Charlie, boys.
And drive little Liza Jane.
Chorus: Fly around, my pretty little miss,
Fly around, my daisy.
Fly around, my pretty little miss,
You almost run me crazy.
2 Went up on the mountain top.
Gave my horn a blow.
Thought 1 heard somebody say,
'Yonder comes my beau.'
3 You may ride the grey horse
.And I will ride the roan ;
^'ou may court the other girl.
But leave mine alone.
D. 'The Blue-Eyed Girl.' Reported by I. G. Greer from the singing of Mrs. N. J. Herring of Tomaliawk, Sampson county. Highly composite. For what is here marked "chorus" see 'Shady Grove' ; the needle and thread stanza belongs to a play-party song, 'Wish I Had a Needle and Thread"; and the joke about the yellow girl's kinky hair is one of the floating items of Negro (or pseudo-Negro) song.
1 Fly around, my blue-eyed miss,
Fly around, my daisy ;
Fly around, my blue-eyed miss,
You're about to run me crazy.
Chorus: Shady grove, my little love.
Shady grove, I say ;
Shady grove, my little love,
Going far away.
2 Massy had a yellow girl.
Brought her from the South ;
Her hair way^ kinked upon her head
She couldn't shut her mouth.
3 I wish I had a needle and thread
As fine as I could sew ;
I'd sew my sweetheart to my side
And down the river I'd go.
4 Wish I had a banjo string
Made of golden twine ;
Evry tune I could pick on it
'I wish that gal was mine.'
5 Wish I was a mocking-bird
In yonders mountain high ;
I'd take wings and fly
To my true love's side.-
^ Should this be "was" ?
- This stanza is marked "Cho. 5." meaning perhaps that it takes the place, at the end of the song, of the lines marked "chorus" above.
-----------------
English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians: Comprising 122 Songs and ...
By Olive Dame Campbell
No. 88 Betty Anne
----------------
How Old are You My Fair Pretty Maid
Roud Folksong Index (S370090)
1 of approx 68 results
First Line
How old are you my fair pretty maid, how old are you my honey
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
Song Collectors Collective website (http://songcollectorscollective.co.uk/)
Performer
Black, Freda
Place
England : Hampshire : Headley
Collector
Lee, Sam
Date collected
2012c
Format
Sound archive
Src Contents
Audio
----------
How Old are You
Roud Folksong Index (S178495)
2 of approx 68 results
First Line
How old are you my pretty little miss
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes (expanded edn., 1991) pp.196-197
-----------
How Old are You My Pretty Little Miss
Roud Folksong Index (S208691)
4 of approx 68 results
First Line
How old are you my pretty little miss
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
Folktrax 903-30
Performer
Sheilor, Mrs.
Place
USA : Virginia : Meadows of Dan
Collector
Kennedy, Peter
Date collected
1975
---------------
How Old are You
Roud Folksong Index (S178496)
5 of approx 68 results
First Line
How old are you my pretty little miss
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
Seeger, American Folk Songs for Children (1948) pp.56-57
Performer
Gant Family
Place
USA : Texas
Collector
Lomax, John a.
-----------------
How Old are You
Roud Folksong Index (S408130)
7 of approx 68 results
First Line
How old are you my pretty little miss
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
Ozark Folksong Collection (Univ. of Arkansas) reel 156 item 2
Performer
High, Fred
Place
USA : Arkansas : Berryville
Collector
Parler, Mary Celestia
Date collected
1953 (20 Oct)
------------------
Keystone Folklore Quarterly - Volume 17 - Page 142
https://books.google.com/books?id=hrPYAAAAMAAJ
1972 - Full view - More editions
'Last night you lay on a warm feather bed By the side of me and the baby. Tonight you'll lie on the cold damp ground By the side of Black Jack Daley.' 3. Tbe Carter Family, 1927, "Black Jack David" 1. Black Jack David came ridin' through the woods, And he sang so loud and gaily, Made the hills around him ring, And charmed the heart of a lady, And charmed the heart of a lady, (refrain line) 2. How old are you my pretty little miss, How old are you my honey? She answered him with a .
Pretty. Little. Miss. —William A. Owens, Swing and Turn: Texas Play-Party Games (Dallas: Tardy Publishing Company, 1936), 75. MOVEMENT • As all sing the first verse they move to the middle of the circle and then outward. They do this movement twice for the four phrases of the ... Oh, come along, my pretty little Miss, Oh, come along, my honey, Oh, come along, mypretty little Miss, I won't be home 'till Monday. 3. How old are you, my pretty little Miss, How old are you, my honey?
-----------------
Round the Levee
edited by Stith Thompson
2A. WEEVILY WHEAT.
Take her by the lily-white hand
And lead her like a pigeon,
Make her dance the weevily wheat
Till she loses her religion.
Chorus—A little more of your weevily wheat, ,
A little more of your barley, ,
A little more of your weevily wheat
To bake a cake for Charley.
Charley, he's a nice young man,
Charley, he's a dandy,
Charley, he's the very lad Who stole his father's brandy.
Charley here and Charley there
And Charley over the ocean,
Charley he'll come back some day
If he doesn't change his notion.
If verses are exhausted, they sing the multiplication table in various stanzas, as follows:
Five times five are twenty-five,
Five times six are thirty,
Five times seven are thirty-five,
Five times eight are forty.
Another version of "Weevily Wheat," collected by Miss Mary S. Brown of Gatesville, Texas, from Wallace Fogle, a famous play-party singer of Coryell County, runs as follows. The boys and girls line up opposite each other; the boys begin swinging at one end, and girls at the other, each swinging his or her partner.
- , 22B. WEEVILY WHEAT.
Take this lady by the hand, and lead her like a pigeon,
Make her dance the weevily wheat and scatter her religion,
Five times five are twenty-five, five times six are thirty,
Five times seven are thirty-five, five times eight are forty.
Don't want none of your weevily wheat, don't want none of your barley
I'l take some flour and a half an hour and bake a cake for Charley.
Charley he's a nice young man, Charley he's a dandy,
Charley he's the very young man that stole his daddy's candy.
Way down yonder in the maple swamp, the water's deep and muddy.
There I spied my pretty little miss, O there I spied my honey. How old are you, my little miss, how old are you, my honey? She answered with a ha-ha laugh, "I'll be sixteen next Sunday." The higher up the cherry tree, riper grows the cherry, Sooner a boy courts a girl, sooner they will marry, So run along home, my pretty little miss, run along home, my honey, Run along home, my pretty miss, I'll be right there next Sunday. Papa's gone to New York town, Mama's gone to Dover, Sister's worn her new slippers out a-kicking Charley over.
Charley he's a nice young man, Charley he's a dandy,
Charley he's the very young lad that feeds the girls on candy.
Charley here and Charley there, Charley over the ocean,
Charley says he won't come home until he takes a notion.
Miss Brown writes under date of July 8, 1912, "On a recent visit to my father's ranch [Coryell County], I made a find in the way of folk-lore. At a party given by the manager of the ranch the old songs and dances of the play-party were the means of entertainment. My 'find' was one Wallace Fogle, who could and did sing these songs till everybody was ready to drop, himself included. He is called the music-box of the country, and comes miles to one of these parties in order to lead in the singing and dancing. I think it would be safe to say that he knows at least thirty of these songs." Later Miss Brown took down from Mr. Fogle nine of the songs as he played and sang them. "Weevily Wheat" has already been given; the remaining eight follow here.
-----------
Literary America - Volume 1, Issues 7-8 - Page 30
https://books.google.com/books?id=oFzQAAAAMAAJ
1934 - Snippet view - More editions
Where are you going my pretty little miss? Where are you going my honey? She answered me, tee hee hee hee, I'm looking for my mummy. How old are you my pretty little miss? How old are you my honey? She answered me, tee hee hee hee, I'll be sixteen next Sunday. If I come to your house tonight, And the moon is shining clearly, Will you arise and let me in, If your mammy does not hear me? I went to her house that night, The moon was shining clearly; She arose and let me in.
----------
Here's one set of lyrics, but they're not bawdy:
FLY AROUND MY PRETTY LITTLE MISS
CHORUS: Fly around, my pretty little miss.
Fly around, my daisy.
Fly around, my pretty little miss.
You almost drive me crazy.
The higher up the cherry tree,
The riper grows the cherries.
The more you hug and kiss the girls,
The sooner they will marry. CHORUS
Coffee grows on white oak tree.
The river flows with brandy.
If I had my pretty little miss,
I'd feed her sugar candy. CHORUS
Going to get some weevily wheat.
I'm going to get some barley.
Going to get some weevily wheat
And take a cake to Charlie. CHORUS
Source: New Lost City Ramblers 'Volume 3' Folkways LP FA2398.
Like most fiddle tunes, the verses of the song consist mainly of floaters. There are several reissues that are readily available on CD at the moment, but none of them is bawdy:
The Skillet Lickers 'Old Time Fiddle Tunes and Songs from North Georgia' County CD-3509. Riley Puckett on lead vocals sings verses like:
Eighteen pound of meat a week
Whiskey in the still
How can a young man stay at home
When the girls all look so well
I will try to transcribe it later.
There is also a version by Frank Blevins and His Tar Heel Rattlers on a wonderful CD: Various Artists 'Music From the Lost Provinces' Old Hat CD 1001. The debut CD for the label.
There is a spirited version by the Hillbillies with Elvis Alderman on fiddle. They call it 'Blue Eyed Girl' and it is available on: The Hillbillies/Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters 'Complete Recorded Works Volume 1 1925-1926 Document DOCD-8039.
---------------------
Rocky Mountain
Rocky mountain, rocky hill
Rocky hill was grassy.
There I met a purty young miss,
Lord but she was sassy.
cho:
Lord Lord Lord
(repeat last line of verse)
How old are you, my purty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?
She answered me "Lord Lord
Be seventeen come Sunday."
Come go with me my purty little miss
Come go with me, miss Nancy.
She answered me "Lord, Lord
You'd better ask my mammy."
Take my knapsack on my back
Rifle on my shoulder.
Goin' down to New Orleans
Goin' to be a soldier.
Note: Collected from Rufus Crisp, Allen KY, ca.1953. His "Lord Lord" might have been "Law Law". Rufus wasn't too strong on
enunciation, but he frailed a mighty banjo.RG
-------------------
Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City. SFW40005 live in 1963-- Folkways 2426 from 1963 (youtube)
Where are You Going?
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie) - PM
Date: 18 Jan 03 - 06:17 PM
Here's the starting verses of Dad's version:
Where are you goin' my pretty little miss,
Where are you goin' my daisy?
O, if I don't get me a young man soon
I think I'm a-goin' crazy.
Chorus: Hi rinktum-a-dinktum-a-diddle diddle dum,
Hi rinktum-a-dinktum-a-doody;
Hi rinktum-a-dinktum-a-diddle-diddle dum,
Hi rinktum-a-dinktum-a-doody.
How old are you my pretty little miss,
How old are you my honey?
Well, if I don't die of a broken heart
I'll be sixteen next Sunday!
---------------
There's an interesting version on You tube sung by Bertha Hubbard Beard . There it is called "New Orleans", but my guess that name was supplied by the youtubers because Bertha probably had no name for it. (The idea that old time songs always had names is wrong.) One interesting line is "She answered me with a modesty,'I'll be 16 next Sunday." "Modesty" isn't used that way any more, but it's a perfectly good use of the word.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyuRLQlYevo
-----------------
Folk Songs of the Catskills - Volume 1 - Page 482
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0873955811
Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer - 1982 -
blew keen and fairly;
She arose and let me in.
And her Granny did not hear me. (Refrain)
5. One day I met the pretty fair maid:
"It's cold and stormy weather."
She answered me most modestly,
"I am ondone forever!" (Refrain) "
6. Now I have a wife in fair London town,
And why should I disclaim her?
[But] every town that I go in.
Get a girl if I can gain her. (Refrain)
7. Oh, come all you pretty fair maids,
Rises early Monday morning:
The bugle horn is my delight,
And the sailor is her darling.
--------------------
I'll Be Seventeen Come Sunday
(Kenneth Peacock) Var A
See also: Seventeen Come Sunday (Peacock)
And also: As I Roved Out (The Fables)
And also: As I Roved Out (Rankin Street)
And also: As I Roved Out (Ryan's Fancy)
As I roved out one May morning,
One May morning so early,
I met a dark and comely maid,
And her hair hung down her shoulder.
With my rue-rye-ah, fall-a-diddle-ay,
Rye-oh fall-a-diddle die-doh.
Where are you going my pretty fair maid,
Where are you going my honey?
'Twas with a smile she answered me:
"I've a message for my mama.
With my rue-rye-ah, fall-a-diddle-ay,
Rye-oh fall-a-diddle die-doh."
How old are you my pretty fair maid,
How old are you my honey?
'Twas with a smile she answered me:
"I am seventeen come Sunday.
With my rue-rye-ah, fall-a-diddle-ay,
Rye-oh fall-a-diddle die-doh."
Oh you are too young to take a man,
You are too young to marry;
'Twas with a smile she answered me:
"Just step aside and try me
With my rue-rye-ah, fall-a-diddle-ay,
Rye-oh fall-a-diddle die-doh."
Oh I went to her mama's house,
When the moon shone bright and clearly;
And she arose and let me in,
And her mama did not hear me
With my rue-rye-ah, fall-a-diddle-ay,
Rye-oh fall-a-diddle die-doh."
This variant collected by Kenneth Peacock in 1951 from Howard Leopold Morry [1885-1972] of Ferryland, NL, and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, pp.284-285 by The National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
I'll Be Seventeen Come Sunday
(Kenneth Peacock) Var B
"How old are you my pretty fair maid,
How old are you my honey?"
She answered me quite cheerfully,
"I am seventeen come Sunday."
With my rue-die-ah, fall-the-diddle-ah,
Fall the doleful lie day.
"You're rather young for to take a man,
You're rather young my honey."
"Oh if you think I'm not of age
"You can go ahead and try me.
With my rue-die-ah, fall-the-diddle-ah,
Fall the doleful lie day.
This variant was collected by Kenneth Peacock in 1960 from George Samms [1908-2002] of Stephenville Crossing (Formerly Codroy Valley) NL, and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, p.286, by The National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
####.... Both versions above are variants of a 19th-century British broadside ballad [Laws O17] American Balladry From British Broadsides (G Malcolm Laws, 1957). Also variants of a British broadside ballad, Seventeen Come Sunday, published by J Paul and Co (London) sometime between 1838 and 1845, and archived at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, shelfmark: Firth b.34(67) ....####
Kenneth Peacock noted that this amusing ditty has wide currency in both North America and in England where it originated. Despite its light-hearted mood there is a sinister undercurrent suggested by use of the word 'rue' in both variants. The double meaning of the word is clearer in the following verse from The Seeds Of Love collected by Cecil Sharp.
My garden it is run wild,
For the want of planting it new;
The beds that used to be covered with thyme,
Are all run into rue.
Peacock continued by noting that in her eagerness to have her garden planted, this 'dark and comely maid,' who will be seventeen come Sunday, also runs the risk of having it 'all run into rue.' Notice also, Peacock adds, the words 'fall,' 'doleful,' and 'die.' He summarizes with, "The nonsense vocables in this sort of chorus have more meaning than generally supposed."
Kenneth Peacock also recorded a variant as Seventeen Come Sunday on his album Songs and Ballads of Newfoundland, Folkways FG 3505, LP (1956) Cut #B.07.
A variant with the title As I Roved Out was also recorded by Ryan's Fancy (Irish Love Songs, Boot Records 1982).
A variant was also recorded with the title As I Roved Out by The Fables (A Time, 2000).
A variant was also recorded with the title As I Roved Out by Rankin Street (Pre-GBS tape - Live At The Blarneystone Pub in St John's NL, trk#16, 1991, NRA Productions, Ltd).
--------------
Letters - Issues 9-16 - Page 31
https://books.google.com/books?id=NDDmAAAAMAAJ
1929 -
TODDY O'
Hands all aroun", toddy-o,
Toddy-o, toddy-o;
First to the left, then to the right,
Swing aroun' ole toddy-o.
All hands up and circle to the left,
Circle to the left, circle to the left;
Break the chain, go promenade back;
Go promenade back, go promenade back;
And swing aroun' Miss Toddy-o.
(Tune changes by some one or two quickly starting it)
O, this girl, this pretty little girl,
The girl I have beside me;
The girl I want, the girl I'll have,
If ever I get married.
How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?
How old are you, my pretty little miss?
I'll be sweet sixteen next Sunday.
Go jump in the well, my pretty little miss,
Go jump in the well, my honey;
Go jump in the well, my pretty little miss,
And I'll jump in next Sunday.
First young gent step out to the right
And swing your opposite lady;
Give your partner your right hand,
And promenade left-han' lady.
"Black Jack David" is a variant of Child 200, "The Gypsy Laddie." It is a traditional Scottish folk tune. James Francis Child dates the earliest printed version of this song to the early 1700s. The first recording of this song was made in 1939 by Cliff Carlisle for Decca. The Carter Family's version came out a year later. It has been recorded literally dozens of times by artists ranging from Woody Guthrie to the White Stripes.
Black Jack David came ridin' through the woods,
And he sang so loud and gaily.
Made the hills around him ring,
And he charmed the heart of a lady.
And he charmed the heart of a lady.
"How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?"
She answered him with a silly little smile,
"I'll be sixteen next Sunday.
I'll be sixteen next Sunday."
"Come go with me, my pretty little miss.
Come go with, me my honey.
I'll take you across the deep blue sea,
Where you never shall want for money.
Where you never shall want for money."
-------------
Black Eyed Gal
First Line
Black eyed gal won't marry me
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
Kincaid, Mountain Ballads Bk.9 (1939) p.9
Performer
Kincaid, Bradley
Place
USA : Kentucky
-----------
http://swar.tapor.ualberta.ca/LookOfTheListen/media/liner/FW07510.pdf
1958
---------------
Deborah Denenfeld, Western Kentucky Play-Parties, Appalachian Music Fellowship
Most of the following songs were taken from the play-party that I have already mentioned. Those gathered elsewhere were
from acquaintances in my immediate home vicinity. It is interesting to note that the tunes were the same in the two foregoing
counties but that the words making up the songs were not the same. By following the words closely much of the procedure of the dances can be pictured.
TODDY O’
Hands all aroun’, toddy-o,
Toddy-o, toddy-o;
First to the left, then to the right,
Swing aroun’ ole toddy-o.
All hands up and circle to the left,
Circle to the left, circle to the left;
Break the chain, go promenade back;
Go promenade back, go promenade back;
And swing aroun’ Miss Toddy-o.
(Tune changes by some one or two quickly starting it)
O, this girl, this pretty little girl,
The girl I have beside me;
The girl I want, th
e girl I’ll have,
If ever I get married.
How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?
How old are you, my pretty little miss?
I’ll be sweet sixteen next Sunday.
Kentucky Play-Parties Project
Deborah Denenfeld
May & June, 2007
===========================
How Old are You
Roud Folksong Index (S178495)
88 of approx 609 results
First Line
How old are you my pretty little miss
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes (expanded edn., 1991) pp.196-197
Negro Folk Rhymes. By Talley Thomas V.. Expanded edition, edited by Wolfe Charles K.. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991. xxvii + 318 pp.
---------------------
Seventeen Next Sunday
Source
Library of Congress recording 3018 B1
Performer
Mooney, Mrs. Ada
Place
USA : Mississippi : Oxford
Collector
Halpert, Herbert
Date collected
1939
------------------
How Old Are You? - Beth's Notes
www.bethsnotesplus.com/2014/12/how-old-are-you.html
Gant family, texas
Lyrics. How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?”
She answered me with a tee hee hee,
“I'll be sixteen this Sunday.”
Refrain The yaddle laddle laddle um daisy,
The yaddle laddle laddle um
yaddle laddle laddle um,
Yaddle laddle laddle um daisy.
Where do you live my pretty little miss?
Where do you live, my honey?”
She answered me with a tee hee hee,
I live on the hill with mummy.
What can you do, my pretty little miss?
What can you do, my honey?”
She answered me with a tee hee hee,
I can put on bread for mummy.
------------------
"Weevily Wheat" songs lyrics from Uncle Dave Macon:
WEEVILY WHEAT- Uncle Dave Macon
'Way down yonder in the maple swamp
The water's deep and muddy
There I spied my pretty little miss
Oh there I spied my honey.
Chorus:
Weevily wheat ain't fit to eat
And neither is your barley
Have some flour in half an hour
To bake a cake for Charley.
How old are you my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?
She answered me with a 'Yes sir-ee
'I'll be sixteen next Sunday'
Marry me, my pretty little miss
Oh, marry me my honey
She answered me with a 'Yes, sir-ee
'Just go and see my Mammy'
'Way down yonder in Bangor town
Once there lived a Quaker
Every man had to own some land
If not but half an acre
Charley he's a handsome man
Oh, Charley he's a dandy
Charley he's the very man
That sold his hat for brandy
Source: 'Songs and Stories of Uncle Dave Macon' Uncle Dave Macon c/o of WSM, Nashville Tennessee 1938. Copyright Uncle Dave Macon 1938. Reprinted by the Tennessee Folklore Society.
--------------
Come On, Come On, My Pretty Little Miss
by Sibert, Boyd; Sibert, Roy
Samantha Bumgarner - Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
[square dance calls) plays the A part
I'll Be Sixteen Next Sunday
by Schroeder's Playboys
Monroe Family
,
Publication date 1937-10-17
Sixteen This Sunday- Sidney Luther (NH) 1945 Flanders
Where are You Going My Pretty Little Miss?...by Doc Watson & Jean Ritchie from Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
"(Man) Oh...Where are you going my pretty little miss
where are you going my daisy?
(Woman)Well, if I don't find a young man soon,
I think I'm goin' crazy...
A-Rink a ma dink a diddle I do,
a rink a ma dink a doody"
-----------------------------
?Archives Catalogue? - then click on ?James Madison Carpenter Collection? - then click on ?Cylinder Recordings'.
Brad@lammilaw.com
Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City. SFW40005 live in 1963-- Folkways 2426 from 1963 (youtube)
Come On, Come On, My Pretty Little Miss
Performers
Sibert, Boyd
Sibert, Roy
Date Recorded
1937-10-08
https://lomaxky.omeka.net/exhibits/show/counties/item/801
Come one, come my pretty little miss,
Come one, come my honey,
Come on let's go to bed,
And spend a piece of money.
Oh I went down and I went to bed
As though I loved her dearly,
I eased her dress and petty coat,
All up around her belly.
Come one, come my pretty little miss,
Come one, come my honey,
You're the only woman I ever knew
That
---------------------
Where are You Going?
Where are You Going My Pretty Little Miss?...by Doc Watson & Jean Ritchie from Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
"(Man) Oh...Where are you going my pretty little miss
where are you going my daisy?
(Woman)Well, if I don't find a young man soon,
I think I'm goin' crazy...
A-Rink a ma dink a diddle I do,
a rink a ma dink a doody"
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie) - PM
Date: 18 Jan 03 - 06:17 PM
Here's the starting verses of Dad's version:
[guitar]
Where are you goin' my pretty little miss,
Where are you going' my daisy?
"O, if I don't get me a young man soon
I think I'm a-goin' crazy."
Chorus: Hi rinktum-a-dinktum-a-diddle diddle dum,
Hi rinktum-a-dinktum-a-doody;
Hi rinktum-a-dinktum-a-diddle-diddle dum,
Hi rinktum-a-dinktum-a-doody.
How old are you my pretty little miss,
How old are you my honey?
"Well, if I don't die of a broken heart
I'll be sixteen next Sunday!"
3. Oh can you court my pretty little miss,
Oh can you court my flower,
I'll court more in a minute and a half
than you can in an hour.
4. Will you marry me, my pretty little miss?
Will you marry me, good looking?
I'll marry you but I won't do
Your washing or your cooking.
Waltz the Hall: The American Play Party - Page 156
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1578067421
Alan L. Spurgeon - 2005
Texas Folklore Society: 1943-1971 - Page 54
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0929398785
Francis Edward Abernethy, Carolyn Fiedler Satterwhite - 1992 - Preview - More editions
... a Single Girl Again 209 My Pretty Little Miss
My pretty little miss | Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/item/afc9999005.5328
Title: My pretty little miss; Contributor Names: Lomax, John Avery -- 1867-1948 (recordist): Griffin, G. A., Mrs. (singer); Created / Published: Newberry, Florida. Subject Headings: - United States of America -- Florida -- Newberry; Notes: - Sung by Mrs. G. A. Griffin. (statement of responsibility): - AFS 00954 A03 (AFS Number) .
Ballads and songs from Ohio - Page 153
https://books.google.com/books?id=fEpOAQAAIAAJ
Mary Olive Eddy - 1939 - Snippet view - More editions
Smith, No. XV, p. 162. 5 2 THE MILKMAID THE LITTLE MAID From Mrs. S. T. Topper, Ashland, Ohio. I. “Oh, what is your name, my pretty little maid," he said, “Oh, what is your name, my pretty maid?" “Mary, the milkmaid, kind sir," she answered him, “Mary, the milkmaid, kind sir," she said. 2. “Oh, who is your father, my pretty little maid,“ he said, “Oh, who is your father, my pretty little maid?" “A husband to my mother, kind sir," she answered him, "A husband to my mother, kind sir," she said .
---
[unknown song]
Recorded April 27, 1937, from the singing of Mrs. G. A. Griffin, of Newberry. Florida. When she was a girl about ten years of age, she learned this song from one of the daughters of Mr. W. A. Gordon, of Dooly County,
---------------
1915 "History of DeKalb county, Tennessee"
There were parties,
sometimes called frolics. Candy-pulling and fru-
menty boilings were often the outcome of a quilting,
log-rolling, or corn-shucking. Such plays as "thim-
ble," "snap," "slapout," and "Jake's a-grinning"
would be engaged in. Others would be accompanied
by songs on this order :
The higher up the cherry tree,
The riper grows the cherry;
The sooner you court a pretty girl,
The sooner you will marry.
The dances were usually rough in outlying communities. The more cultured, especially near the middle of the nineteenth century, enjoyed the Virginia
reel and other less boisterous dances ; their plays, too, were more refined.
--------------
"Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" was a version by the Ashe County, North Carolina, string band Frank Blevins and His Tar Hell Rattlers, a name made up on the spot at the 1927 Columbia recording session in Atlanta for 16 year old fiddler Frank Blevins, his older brother and guitarist Ed Blevins and banjo player Fred Miller.
Blevins led the band with spirited fiddling and singing that belied his age. Inspired by a few shots of Georgia corn liquor, they first recorded the traditional mountain dance tune Sally Ann, a rendition with such verve and passion that it rivals any other. Next they performed I've Got No Honey Babe Now, a song that shares some lyrics with the old banjo piece Honey Babe, but with a different melody. Old Aunt Betsy was a Frank Blevins original, combining a simple theme with exuberant delivery. The session ended with a second traditional dance tune, Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss. Here are Blevins lyrics:
LYRICS:
Inst.
Fly around my pretty little miss,
Fly around my daisy;
Fly around my pretty little miss,
You like to drive me crazy.
Inst.
I went round to see my gal,
She was standing at the door.
Shoes and stockings in her hand,
Barefeet on the floor.
Fly around my pretty little miss,
Fly around my daisy;
Fly around my pretty little miss,
You like to drive me crazy.
Inst.
When I was a little boy,
Sixteen inches high,
Up’n kissed that pretty little gal
Apple of my eye.
Inst.
Fly around my pretty little miss,
Fly around my daisy;
Fly around my pretty little miss,
You like to drive me crazy.
-----------
The Skillet Lickers 'Old-Time Fiddle Tunes and Songs from North Georgia' County CD-3509
(Fiddle)
Put that meat all under the bed,
Yonder comes the owner.
Sold my hog and bought me a mule,
Ain't gonna bray no more.
Eighteen pounds of meat a week,
Whiskey in a still.
How can the young men stay at home,
When the girls all look so well?
(Fiddle)
Fare you well my pretty little miss,
Fare you well my honey.
If I'm not there by the middle of the week,
You can look for me on Sunday.
(Fiddle)
Jaybird died with the whooping cough,
Sparrow died with the colic.
Long came a red bird, fiddle on a peg,
Wind along down to the frolic.
Eighteen pounds of meat a week,
Whiskey in a still.
How can the young men stay at home,
When the girls all look so well?
(Fiddle)
Put that meat all under the bed,
Yonder comes the owner.
Sold my hog and bought me a mule,
Ain't gonna bray no more.
(Fiddle)
Fare you well my pretty little miss,
Fare you well my honey.
If I'm not there by the middle of the week,
You can look for me on Sunday.
(Fiddle)
Eighteen pounds of meat a week,
Whiskey in a still.
How can the young men stay at home,
When the girls all look so well?
Spoken: Court 'em, boys, court 'em.
Fiddle outro
------------------
I'm Seventeen Come Sunday / The Gypsy Laddie
Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) (CJS2/9/3224)
Title
I'm Seventeen Come Sunday / The Gypsy Laddie
First Line
Will you court me, my pretty little Miss?
Performer
Callaway, Margaret
Date collected
16 Sep 1918
Place
USA : N. Carolina : Burnsville
Collector
Sharp, Cecil J.
Roud Number
277
------------------
H:DATA/MULIST/OTSONGS 17/08/04 16:45
Page 36 of 36
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
Key of D.
Chorus
Fly around my pretty little miss
Fly around my daisy
Fly around my pretty little miss
You almost drive me crazy
1. The higher up on the cherry tree
The riper grows the cherries
The more you hug and kiss the girls
The sooner they will marry.
Chorus etc throughout.
2. Coffee grows on white oak trees
The river flows with brandy
If I had my pretty little miss
I’d feed her sugar candy
3. Going to get some weevily wheat
I’m going to get some barley
Going to get some weevily wheat
And bake a cake for Charlie
4. 16 horses in my team
The leader he is blind
I'm going down that rocky road
To see that gal of mine.
5. How'd you make you living now?
Susan-anna gal
Drinking whiskey and playing cards
Susan-anna gal
6. I'm going to the Western Country
Leavin you behind
I'm going to the Western Country
Leavin you behind
7. I wish I was in the Western Country
H:DATA/MULIST/OTSONGS 17/08/04 16:45
Page 37 of 37
Settin in a big armchair
One arm around my whiskey jug
The other round my dear
8. I went up on the mountain top
and I gave my horn a blow
Thought I heard my darling say
Yonder comes my beau
9. Once I had a pretty little gal,
I brought her from the South;
Feet as big as Running Boards,
And she would not shut her mouth
10. Don't Ever Marry a Old Man,
I'll tell you the reason why
Spits his old tobacco juice
And never zips his fly
11. Cheeks as red as a blooming rose,
Eyes of the prettiest brown,
I'm goin' to see my pretty little miss,
Before the sun goes down.
12. When I was in the field at work,
I sat down and cried,
Studyin' 'bout my blue-eyed girl,
I thought to God I'd died.
13. There's a ring that's on my true
love's hand,
It shines as bright as gold,
I'm goin' to see my pretty little miss,
Even if it rains or snows.
14. Fare you well my blue-eyed girl,
H:DATA/MULIST/OTSONGS 17/08/04 16:45
Page 38 of 38
Fare you well my darlin',
Fare you well my blue eyed girl,
I'm going back to Harlan.
15. Her head was like a coffee pot
Her nose was like a spout
Her mouth was like a fireplace
With the ashes all raked out.
16 Up and down Sycamore Ridge
Runnin' through the weeds,
Lookin' for that pretty little girl
That wears them silver beads.
17 Goin' down to Georgie,
From there to New Orleans,
Lookin' for my pretty little girl,
I hope I find her, please.
18 If you see that girl of mine,
I wish that you would tell her
To be true to her soldier boy
And have no other feller.
19 Goin' back to see that girl,
Well, I hope that she won't mind me,
Then I'll stop and stay all day
With the girl I left behind me.
20. If you see that gal of mine,
Tell her if you can,
Before she goes to make up dough,
To wash her dirty (nasty) hands.
21. How old are you my pretty little miss
How old are you my honey?
If I don't die of a broken heart
I'll be sixteen next Sunday
H:DATA/MULIST/OTSONGS 17/08/04 16:45
Page 39 of 39
22. Will you marry me, my pretty little
miss
Will you marry me, good lookin'?
I'll marry you, but I won't do
Your washin' or your cookin'!
23. Blue-eyed gal won't marry me
Brown-eyed gal won't have me;
If I can't have the gal I want
Single I will tarry.
24. Possum up in a 'simmon tree
Raccoon on the ground;
Possum up in a 'simmon tree
Shakin' 'simmons down.
1-3 from:From Old time string band songbook; from Samantha
Bumgarner.
4-5 From Susananna Girl .Tommy Jarrell
6-7 From Rafe Stefanini. Song title Western Country, on
newsgroup 7 September 2001.
----------------
Bayard, S. P. (1964). “S. P. Bayard Collec
tion of Pennsylvania Ballads & Folk Songs.”
04/27/1964. T-82-00003-61-74, 7 of 36.
Recording includes: 61) A true love’s
Song (The Silver Dagger); 62) Mary’s
Lover (Edwin in the Lowlands); 63)
Young Edwin (fragment); 64) I was brought
up in Sheffield (Sheffield Apprentice); 65)
Awake, arise, you drowsy sleepers;
66) Go away from my window; 67) The
Sailor Boy (Tarry Trousers); 68) Oh, no,
my boy, not I; 69) Oh, where are you going my
pretty little miss (seventeen some
Sunday); 70) Miss Kather
ine Morey (Katey Morey); 71) The Boogyboo (The
Foggy Dew); 72) Oh, no, no, Sir, no (Oh, no, John); 73) No, Sir, no; 74) No, Sir,
no (fragment).
-----------
Tell Me a Story, Sing Me a Song: A Texas Chronicle - Page 89
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0292786123
William A. Owens - 2011
A Texas Chronicle William A. Owens. Even the following words were taboo to the religious and to many not so religious: "Oh, where are you going, my pretty little miss, My little blue-eyed daisy?" "If I don't find me a young man soon I think I am going crazy."
--------
My Pretty Little Miss
Roud Folksong Index (S216257)
119 of approx 609 results
First Line
Oh where are you going my pretty little miss
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
Owens, Texas Folk Songs pp.210-211
Performer
Place
USA : Texas
------------------
Sweet Sixteen
Roud Folksong Index (S384330)
221 of approx 609 results
First Line
.. How old are you my honey
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
Field Recorders' Collective FRC 112 ('The Shelor-Blackard Family')
Performer
Blackford Shelor, Clarice
Place
USA : Virginia : Meadows of Dan
Collector
Alden, Ray / Spilkia, Dave
Date collected
1975
Format
Sound recording
Src Contents
Audio
"How Old are You My Pretty Little Miss" Mrs shelor
----------------
Tales and Songs of Southern Illinois - Page 201
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0809321831
Charles Neely, John Webster Spargo - 1998 - Preview - More editions
How old are you, my pretty little miss, How old are you, my honey? She answered me with a "Tee, hee, hee" "I'll be sixteen next Sunday." B13 Charlie he's a nice young man, Charlie he's a dandy; Charlie loves to swing the girls, For swinging comes so handy. Chorus: I won't have none of your weevily wheat; I won't have none of your barley. Give me some flour in half an hour To bake a cake for Charlie. Come trip with me, my pretty little miss, Come trip with me, my honey; Come trip
--------------
Seventeen Come Sunday
Roud Folksong Index (S251271)
229 of approx 609 results
First Line
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1256 (version d)
Performer
Place
USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector
Adams, John Taylor
Date collected
1938 (15 Sep)
Format
Manuscript
Src Contents
Text
-------------
Gant Family's “Yaddle, Laddle,” as “How Old Are You?
How Old are You
Roud Folksong Index (S178496)
261 of approx 609 results
First Line
How old are you my pretty little miss
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
Seeger, American Folk Songs for Children (1948) pp.56-57
Performer
Gant Family
Place
USA : Texas
Collector
Lomax, John a.
Date collected
-----------
Darling Child
Roud Folksong Index (S232568)
266 of approx 609 results
First Line
Roud No
277 [Search for 277 in the current indexes]
Other nums
Laws O17
Source
WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1256 (version c)
Performer
Sloan, Raymond H.
Place
USA : Virginia : Franklin County
Collector
Sloan, Raymond H.
Date collected
1938 (21 Nov)
Format
Manuscript
Src Contents
---------------------
Nursery Songs from the Appalachian Mountains
https://books.google.com/books?id=ncJEAQAAMAAJ
1921 - Read - More editions
Where are you going, my honey, my love?
Best old soul in the world.
Going to the store. (Spoken.)
2 What are you going to buy, my good old man
2 What are you going to buy, my honey, my love?
Best old soul in the world. New dress. (Spoken.)
3 How much will it cost, my good old man?
How much will it cost, my honey, my love?
Best old soul in the world. Fifty cents. (Spoken.) 4 What do you want for supper, my good old man 7 What do you want for supper, my honey, my love : Best ..