The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #58013   Message #916430
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
23-Mar-03 - 06:23 AM
Thread Name: Lyr/Origins Req/Add: The Sally Buck
Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: SALLY BUCK
I was quite mistaken to say that the set published by Cecil Sharp in Nursery Songs from the Appalachian Mountains was a collation. Looking more closely, I see that it's entirely Alex Coffey's version, though "tidied up" for publication. It isn't really necessary to post it, but here it is, anyway; for the sake of completeness and so that the editorial process can be seen. I omit the repeats after the first verse, as in the book.


SALLY BUCK

(Sung by Mr Alex Coffey at Nash, Va., May 9, 1918)

As I rode out a-hunting,
'Twas on a winter day,
The trees was in full bloom,
And the flowers fresh and gay,
Yes, the flowers fresh and gay.

As I rode down to the river brim
I spied a thousand deer
All on the tide did swim...

I cocked my gun immediately
And under water went;
For to kill one of them deers,
It was my whole intent...

I being under water,
Ten thousand feet or more,
I fired off my pistol,
Like cannons they did roar...

I killed one of them deer
And out of water went;
For to seek for those that fled
It was my whole intent...

I bent my gun in a circle,
And shot all round the hill,
And out of five-and-twenty deer
Ten thousand I did kill...

As I stood there a-gazing,
I saw the moon draw nigh;
And I clapped my wings upon my back,
Hopped on as she passed by...

And as the moon went down at night
She fetched a certain whirl;
And that's the way this poor boy
Fell into the world...

The money that I got
For my meat and skin,
I put it in a forty foot barn,
And it would not all go in...

The balance of my money
I lent it out of hand,
And now intend to live
A jolly, jolly gentleman...


Cecil Sharp & Maud Karpeles, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, II, 159B, p. 218.


X:2
T:Sally Buck
S:Alex Coffey, Nash, Va., May 9, 1918
Z:Cecil Sharp
B:English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, II, 159B, p.218
N:Pentatonic. Mode I.
N:Roud 3607
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
M:2/2
K:G
G2|c2 c2 A2 G2|c2 A4 G2|c2 c2 d2 c2|e6 d2|e2 e2 d2 d2|
w:As I rode out a-hunt-ing, 'Twas on a win-ter day, The trees was in full
c4 A2 G2|c2 c2 A2 E2|G4 G3 G|c2 c2 A2 E2|G6|]
w:bloom, And the flow-ers fresh and gay, Yes, the flow-ers fresh and gay.


Sharp also noted variations for bars 2, 6-7 and 10-11.

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