Ya know, when I sing, "My wife, she's the devil, she's black as the coal" -- her complexion is NOT what comes to mind, but her nagging ways; her husband compares her to a devil. And no one who has ever heard me sing it has ever been confused and thought it referred to race. I think that argument is completely and totally contrived to be so PC as to be ridiculous.

No one seems to get upset, though, about the lazy drunkard's attitude towards his nagging wife. I get a kick out of singing, "My WIFE, she do disturb me..." etc. and I can evoke a bit of wry humor there because I'm definitely a woman (and a wife). That's not the only song I sing where I make a comment 'twixt songs about always blaming the woman... And occasionally I'll sing "Mickey's Warning" ("Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk") after it. Seems only fair.

I learned the song from a recording by The Watersons. The repeated line in the last verse ("There's a clear crystal fountain, near England doth roll") always bothered me. Dave Diamond gave me "Here's a glass of strong cider his death to console" instead...and then a few years later I changed it to "Here's a glass of strong PORTER his death to console". BTW, I also sing "No stone at his head, but what matter to he" -- interpreted as since he was buried at sea, he has no marker over his actual grave.

Linn