The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #25270   Message #297746
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
14-Sep-00 - 11:03 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Alison Cross / Allison Gross (Child #35)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Allison Gross
Lizzie Higgins' version was recorded on What a Voice (Lismor LIFL 7004, 1985); all the notes have to say is: "...came to Lizzie through her father, who learned it from his mother", which isn't terribly helpful.  The text is pretty much as quoted by Jock Morris, above, though his transcription lacks a verse, and there are the usual minor variations.  I'll try to sort out a midi from Lizzie's singing, but it may take time.

So far as I can tell (and I do agree about their sleeve-notes), Steeleye Span made their tune up themselves, but Martin Carthy wasn't involved; he was long gone by then.  If he'd still been around, they'd have made a better job of it.  Dave and Toni Arthur recorded a version, (on Hearken to the Witches' Rune, Trailer LER 2017, 1970) set to a melody that I take to be a modified (modal) form of the tune Cecil Sharp found in Somerset with The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter, including a form of the refrain: "Line, twine, the willow dee".  As Bruce has pointed out, there are no known traditional tunes for this song prior to the late 20th century, so anybody who's recorded an earlier text has got the music from somewhere else.

Malcolm