Lyr Req: Farewell Dearest Nancy (Mick Hanly)

Subject: Lyr Req: Mick Hanly's Farewell Dearest Nancy
From: Brendy
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 07:08 AM

Mick Hanly recorded an album in 1976 called 'A Kiss In The Morning Early'.
It, like most of my vinyl collection over the years has dissipated hither and thither.

I used to do a lot of the songs and tunes on that album; the title track, and the excellent finger-picked version he does of 'An tSean Bhean Bhocht'

Another beautiful song on that album is 'Farewell Dearest Nancy', and although I know there are as many versions of it, as there are variations on the title, it is specifically Mick's version I'm looking for.

If anybody has the album, or remembers the words (I think it's in O'Lochlainn, but I don't have a copy of that at the minute, neither), would they ever be so kind as to post them here, as I'm dying to have another crack at doing it again.

Thanks in advance...

B.

Subject: Lyr Add: FAREWELL DEAREST NANCY (from O'Lochlainn)
From: Roberto
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 07:25 AM

Here is Farewell Dearest Nancy from O'Lochlainn, More Irish Street Ballads:
^^^
Farewell dearest Nancy for now I must leave you
To the burning West Indies my course for to steer      
I know very well that the parting will grieve thee
But my love I'll return in the spring of the year

Oh ! don't talk of leaving me, my dearest jewel
Ah, don't talk of leaving me here on the shore
For it is your sweet company that I do desire, love
I will sigh till I die, if I ne'er see you more

"Don't let my long voyage be a trouble unto you
Don't let my long absence run sore in your mind
Although we are parted, I'll still be true hearted
And we will be married when I do return

In sailor's apparel I'll dress and go with you
In the midst of all danger I will be your friend
And when that the cold stormy winds are allowing
Then, my dear, I'll be with you to wait on you then

Your lily-white hands cannot handle a cable
Nor your neat little feet to the topmast can't go
Your delicate form the gales can't endure, love
Therefore to the seas, dearest Nancy, don't go

As she stood a-wailing, the ship set a-sailing
Tears down her fair cheeks in torrents did flow
And her lily-white hands in sorrow she was wringing
Crying, Oh ! my dearest jewel, I will ne'er see you more

Now, all you young maidens, by me take a warning
Don't e'er trust a sailor or heed what they say
For first they will court you, and love you and leave you
For ever lamenting in grief and in pain

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mick Hanly's Farewell Dearest Nancy
From: Brendy
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 07:34 AM

Thank you a hundred times over, Roberto.

That's the one!

This one isn't in the DT, so if there's any combined harvesters out there....

Thanks again, Roberto, and a very happy Christmas to you.

B.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mick Hanly's Farewell Dearest Nancy
From: Brendy
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 07:45 AM

I don't think Mick sang all those verses; perhaps recording time was the consideration ... I could be wrong, I just remembered a shorter song ..., though I do remember that he credited O Lochlainn as his source for most of the songs on that album.

The O Lochlainn version that Roberto posted seems a more complete version.

B.

Subject: Tune Add: FAREWELL DEAREST NANCY (from O'Lochlainn
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 07:53 AM

Here's the O'Lochlainn tune (Roberto beat me to posting the words!).

Mick

---

X: 1
T:Farewell, Dearest Nancy
M:6/8
L:1/8
B:O'Lochlainn: More Irish Street Ballads
K:Cm
G|(F/E/) C C|A G> G|F (E/C/) (C/D/)|(E/C/) B,
w:Fare-well_ dear-est Nan-cy for now I_ must_ leave_ you,
C/>D/|E F (G/=A/)|B c> G|(G/F/) D F|G2
w:To the burn-ing West_ In-dies my course_ for to steer,
(E/F/)|G c> c|B c> G|F (E/C/) (C/D/)|(E/C/) B,
w:I_ know ver-y well that the par-ting_ will_ grieve_ thee,
C/D/|E F (G/=A/)|B c> G|(F/E/) C C|C2||
w:But, my love, I'll re_turn in the spring_ of the year.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mick Hanly's Farewell Dearest Nancy
From: Brendy
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 07:57 AM

Thanks Mick. That's perfect.

B.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mick Hanly's Farewell Dearest Nancy
From: Susan of DT
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 09:23 AM

See DT #404 for an almost identical version of this song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mick Hanly's Farewell Dearest Nancy
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 11:28 AM

The DT doesn't give original source, which was - collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams' from George Lovett (then aged 68) of Winchester, Hampshire in 1909.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mick Hanly's Farewell Dearest Nancy
From: Brendy
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 11:17 PM

Thanks Susan. There was one phrase that I distinctly remember from Mick Hanly's version, and it was "To the burning West Indies my course for to steer".

That was the line I was looking for...
I have heard many versions of this over the years; Martin Carthy and others, but I always remembered the guitar accompaniment of Mick Hanly, and I'm trying to learn it 'backwards', so to speak: find the words that fit the accompaniment...

Thanks again.

B.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mick Hanly's Farewell Dearest Nancy
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 25 Dec 07 - 09:28 AM

O Lochlainn's note to the song should also be quoted.

'This ballad also appears as "Adieu Lovely Mary", Ji, 95. EFS i, 24, 130 (where some verses of "The Holy Ground" our No. 97 appear), EFS iii, 99 and 298. *BS and EFS.'

Ji is P W Joyce's Ancient Irish Music, 1873; EFS is the Journal of the Folk Song Society. O Lochlainn generally used a double asterisk to indicate the source of his text (sometimes also the tune), but occasionally (in both books), as here, a single asterisk appears. Presumably the implication is that the text is collated from a broadside (Baird of Cork, for example, issued it as 'The True Lovers Farewell', beginning 'Fare You Well Pretty Molly') and one or more of the English texts cited from the Journal. The tune differs from those, so it's unclear where O Lochlainn got that: perhaps from Joyce (which I don't have), perhaps from memory; though he usually says when the latter was the case.

A little amplification may also be useful for the information Mick provided on the original source of the DT example. Although Mr Lovett's set appeared in the Journal of the Folk Song Society III 4 (13) 1909, 298-9, as 'Noted (and corrected from a phonograph record) by R. Vaughan Williams, Jan., 1909', RVW wasn't the 'collector' as such. Dr George Gardiner got the words from Mr Lovett more than two years earlier; either at the same time as Charles Gamblin noted the tune (August 1906) or, as was sometimes the case, prior to that.

RVW was brought in to check tunes about which there was some doubt (usually those made by Gamblin, who seems to have been less experienced than Gardiner's other collaborators) prior to publication, and this has often led to his being credited as sole collector, which was not the case. I haven't seen Gamblin's original notation for this one, so I don't know how far it differed from RVW's.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mick Hanly's Farewell Dearest Nancy
From: Brendy
Date: 25 Dec 07 - 09:50 AM

Thank you very much indeed Malcolm, for going to that trouble.

I like to mention a bit of the history of a song before I sing it. It sets the mood, quite often.

Lovely.
Thanks.

B.