The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #134031   Message #3046346
Posted By: GUEST,Doug Saum
04-Dec-10 - 02:22 PM
Thread Name: does anyone know a wife-selling song?
Subject: RE: does anyone know a wife-selling song?
This is not a song of a wife sold in a market, but I think it might be of tangential interest in the context of this thread. The words are from W. B. Yeats, the song can be found on my CD "First Songs: Lullabies for Ireland." It's titled "going the Road."

I was going the road one day / (O the brown and the yellow beer),
And I met with a man that was no right man / (O my dear, o my dear, o my dear).

2
"Give me your wife," said he / (O the brown and the yellow beer),

"Till the sun goes down and an hour of the clock" / (O my dear, etc.)

3
"Good-bye, good-bye, my husband / (O the brown and the yellow beer),

For a year and a day by the clock of the sun" / (O my dear, etc).

4
"I know of a girl" said I / (O the brown and the yellow beer),

"Who can shorten the time by the clock and the sun" / (O my dear, etc.).

5
"And one's as good as another / (O the brown and the yellow beer),

So get you away with your no right man" / (O my dear, etc.).

Doug Saum