I ran across this while searching for something else, and I thought we ought to have it.

You can hear this song at YouTube. The transcription is mine.

You will recognize several "floater" verses, but verse 4 is new to me and rather mysterious.

To me, this sounds about as close as you can get to the primordial American folk music.


HARD FOR TO LOVE a.k.a. HARD TO LOVE
As sung by "The Appalachian Vagabond" (Hayes Shepherd*), Vocalion 5450, 1930.

1. So it's hard for to love when you can't be loved.
Oh, it's hard for to change your mind.
You have broke the heart of a many poor boy.
Oh, you'll never break this heart of mine.

2. So I'm goin' away but I ain't a-go'n' to stay
If I go ten thousand miles.
Though I'm goin' away but I'm coming back again
If I go ten thousand miles.

3. So you see—the turtledove
Sing in yonder's pine.
It's a-grievin' over the loss of his love
Just like I grieve about mine.

4. So the farm is fee'd like a solid block of ice,
Oh, the fee run raw an' barr'n.
Though the farm is fee'd like a solid block of ice,
But my love for you won't care.

5. So it's who will shoe them pretty little feet?
Oh, it's who will glove them hands?
Oh, it's who will kiss them red ruby cheeks** ?
Lord, I'm in some far-off land.

6. So it's papa will shoe my pretty little feet.
Oh, mama will glove my hands.
Oh, sister will kiss my red ruby cheeks**,
And I ain't a-gonna marry no man.


* While listening to samples at Allmusic.com, I'm sure I have heard the same recording attributed to Dock Boggs. I think this is a mistake. The voice sounds like Shepherd; it doesn't sound like Boggs. Furthermore, I think whoever put up the recording at YouTube is mistaken in saying that Hayes' brother Bill also performs in this song.

** "cheeks," sic. According to most versions of this floater verse, he should have sung "lips," but "cheeks" is a better rhyme (or, strictly speaking, assonance) with "feet."

VERSE 4: Am I hearing this correctly? Please let me know if you think otherwise. The meaning of the verse seems to hinge on the words "fee" (as a verb) and "fee'd" (participle). I don't remember ever hearing this word used this way in an American folk song, but some old English expressions do survive this way.

"The doctor is fee'd for a dangerous draught."
--from Henry Fielding, Don Quixote in England

"If lawyer's hand is fee'd, sir, he steals your whole estate."
--from John Gay, The Beggar's Opera

"He is fee'd like other lawyers to make the worse appear the better reason."

"His gardener, who is fee'd by the nurseryman...."

"The fiddler is fee'd by the gallants that dance."

So to fee someone is to hire their services. But what does it mean for a farm to be fee'd? I couldn't find any examples, but I guess it means money is owed on it, for rental or mortgage payments. "Like a solid block of ice" implies that the payment is a serious burden on the farmer. "The fee runs raw and barren" suggests that the farmer is getting little or no profit for his work and investment. "My love for you won't care" suggests that the narrator-farmer expects his love will provide compensating joys.

That's the way I understand it. Any comments?