Advice to Young Ladies- Trivette (NC) 1939 Brown 5A
[Single stanza with music from Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume V, music 1957. Notes from Volume III follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
254. Little Sparrow
This lyric of the lovelorn is a favorite in the Southern mountains. See BSM 477 and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 80-1). Florida (SFLQ viii 172-3), Missouri (OFS I 315-17), and Indiana (SFLQ in 205, BSI 328). It is often called 'Come all you fair and tender ladies,' from its opening line. It is distinguished from other songs of a like spirit, such as 'The Inconstant Lover,' by the image of the bird and, generally, by the likening of love to a fair dawn that turns into bad weather. One of the following texts is marked by a trace — rare in American tradition — of the old English 'Seeds of Love' songs.
5A. 'Advice to Young Ladies.' Sung by Mrs. J. Trivette at Heaton, Avery county, July 30, 1939. Basically, our melody is like that of the stanza of F-670. It is identical with that of another recording, with the title 'The Little Sparrow.' For additional texts cf. FSF 366-8; FSEK 98, stanza 1; Texas FS 136-7 and 196-7. F-246
Come all ye fair and tender ladies,
Take warning how you treat your men;
For they are like the star of morning,
Look at them and then they're gone.
I myself had once a . . .
Scale: Mode II, plagal. Tonal Center: d(m). Structure: abn''b ('2,2,2,2) = aa1 (4,4)- Every phrase cadences on I.