Lyr Req: jack, jack, you'll soon forget me

Subject: jack, jack
From: GUEST,jim grogan
Date: 04 Dec 07 - 05:55 PM

Does anybody know the lyrics to a song that began

Jack Jack you'll soon forget me
Soon forget your sweetheart, Grace

........
and later on has the line

No more I'll see your loving face

.....

and later still

But now its too late, I'm blind

Subject: RE: jack, jack
From: Peace
Date: 04 Dec 07 - 07:06 PM

I have found lots of nothing. But this humbling admission will refresh the thread.

Subject: RE: jack, jack
From: Amos
Date: 04 Dec 07 - 07:10 PM

There's a reference to it on this page as having been performed by one Bill Smith in Englad.

The song is listed as one which was recorded by his son Andrew Smith, by which I presume he means tape-recorded. See the list "Songs recorded from Bill Smith 1979 –1983 by Andy Smith".

I assume it is the same song by the title, but could find no other reference to it.


A

Subject: RE: lyr req: jack, jack, you'll soon forget me
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Dec 07 - 02:25 AM

Let's bump this back up to the top. I searched under "jack you'll soon forget me" and "your sweetheart grace" and found nothing at Google or Roud. The link from Amos to "Your Sweetheart Grace" at the Traditional Song Forum (tradsong.org) looks most hopeful - anybody know somebody at tradsong.org?
-Joe-

Subject: RE: lyr req: jack, jack, you'll soon forget me
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 05 Dec 07 - 03:44 AM

Yes. I can circulate a message on their discussion list (there are other people here who are also involved, of course, and who may be able to do it sooner than I); but first, it would be helpful if Jim Grogan would tell us how, and when, and from whom, he heard the bits he remembers, and whether the tune was a familiar one. Any contextual information at all would be potentially useful; particularly as there is very little to go on as yet.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: jack, jack, you'll soon forget me
From: open mike
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 02:57 PM

the trad song forum mentions songs of the west,
and appears to be from Western U.K., not the U.S. West,
which is what comes to mind for me, being involved in
Cowboy music and poetry.

Did the original post come from the U,K,?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: jack, jack, you'll soon forget me
From: open mike
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 02:58 PM

see also this question...perhaps combined threads are in order?
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=107084&messages=1

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: jack, jack, you'll soon forget me
From: GUEST,Andy Smith
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 12:01 PM

"Jack dear, you soon will forget me
You'll soon forget your sweetheart Grace
How it breaks my heart to think lad
I no more shall see your smiling face
Some day you'll find another
Now that what worries my poor mind
I always thought that I should be your wife Jack
It's too late now, sweetheart, I'm blind."

My father, Bill Smith, heard this song sung by Tom Vaughn, then a retired farm worker, in the Tally Ho! in Boulden, South Shropshire, UK in the 1930's. He remembered that there were other verses and thought it a grand old song, but could never sing more than the above.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: jack, jack, you'll soon forget me
From: GUEST,Walker
Date: 14 Sep 11 - 11:32 AM

I remember my gran singing this and I think I have some more lyrics. I think the song starts like this-
In a factory in a city an explosion once took place
and a girl so young and pretty lost her sight in that sad way
made her think she'd lose her lover
a soldier (or poss sailor) boy so young and brave
so she wrote to him this letter
telling the state of her sad fate...........

Then you get the verse as above about Jack dear. Unfortunately I can't get past this although I seem to recall that he takes the letter to his commanding officer to ask for leave and goes to visit Grace, explains that he would never leave her and therefore we have a happy ending. Can anyone expand on this.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: jack, jack, you'll soon forget me
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 09:14 AM

There is now a CD of songs sung Bill Smith called "A Country Life: Songs and Stories of a Shropshire Man" (MTCD351), published by Musical Traditions. The liner notes quote the same verse that is given by Bill's son Andy above.