Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar

Subject: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: GUEST,teenfolkfan
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 02:27 AM

Hello! I've just been listening to what I suppose is a variation of the traditional song 'The Gaberlunzie Man', called 'A Beggar A Beggar', but I can't find the lyrics used in this version anywhere. Possibly they were an addition of the musician's own creation, but if not I'd love to know where they came from! I can't locate any song with the title 'A Beggar A Beggar' either. Maybe I'm just being ignorant. If you'd like to hear the version to which I'm referring it is sung really sweetly by Lisa Knapp and it is on her MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/lisaknappmusic. The melody and words are so pretty, I'd love to find their source or any other information about the song as I can't quite make out every word from the recording.

I believe it starts:

A beggar, a beggar come over the lea
He was asking lodgings for charity
He was asking lodgings for charity
Could you love a begging man o?
A beggar, a beggar, I could never love again
For I had one daughter and Jeanie was her name
For I had one daughter and Jeanie was her name
She's ran away with a begging man, o.

Any help on this version of the song would be most appreciated. :D

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 03:55 AM

I believe Lisa's (rather stunning) version is a variation on the version sung by Lizzie Higgins, the daughter of Jeannie Robertson.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 04:04 AM

I'm listening to Lizzie Higgins's version right now. It seems clearly to be the source of Lisa's recording, but her arrangement is (understandably) quite different. It's available on Voice of the People 17 (It Fell Upon a Day, A Bonny Summer's Day), and on the CD In Memory of Lizzie Higgins produced by Musical Traditions.


Mustrad's Lizzie Higgins CD


The Voice of the People

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 04:05 AM

Cheers! :) It really is rather stunning.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 05:04 AM

I think it's my favourite song that she sings, actually. Have you seen her do it live?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 05:14 AM

From Mustrad:

1-7 The Beggarman (The Gaberlunzie Man) (Roud 119, Child 280 + 279 App, G/D 2:274/5)
Recorded by Peter Hall at the Jeannie Robertson Memorial Concert, 1977

A beggar, a beggar cam ower the lea
He was asking lodgings for charity
He was asking lodgings for charity
"Wid ye loo1 a beggar man-o,
Lassie, wi ma tow row ray?"

"A beggar, a beggar, I'll never loo again.
I had a dochter2 and Jeannie was her name.
I had a dochter and Jeannie was her name;
She's run awa with the beggar man-o,
Laddie, wi ma tow row ray."

"I'll bend my back an I'll boo my knee
An I'll pit3 a black patch oer my ee4
And a beggar, a beggar they'll tak me to be
An awa wi you a'll gang5o,
Laddie, wi ma tow row ray."

"Oh lassie, oh lassie, yer far too young
An ye hannae got the cant6 o the beggin tongue.
Ye hannae got the cant o the beggin tongue
An wi me ye winnae gang-o,
Lassie, wi ma tow row ray."

She's bent her back and she's booed her knee
An she's put a black patch oer her ee.
She has kilted her skirts up aboun her knee
An awa wi him she's gan-o,
Laddie, wi ma tow row ray

"Yer dochter Jean is comin ower the lea;
She's taken hame her bairnies three
She has yin on her back, ay, another on her knee
An the other yin is toddlin hame-o,
Lassie, wi ma tow row ray."

1 love; 2 daughter; 3 put; 4 eye; 5 go; 6 way.

Very widely sung in Scotland, and all but one of Roud's 67 instances are from here. [Extraordinarily, though, Lizzie is the only singer of whom he has a recording]. Cilla Fisher and Artie Tresize sing a version in Cilla and Artie Greentrax CDTrax 9050 (1979).

The lively tune first appear in the Balcarres Lute Book (1690-1700), with tune plus words in Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius in 1725 (see the remarkably detailed accounts in Nick Parkes and John Purser's 2006 CD-Rom of James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion). The words alone also appeared in Allan Ramsay's highly influential Tea Table Miscellany in 1724, and together with the equally popular thereafter, Jolly Beggar, has been attributed to James V (1512-1542), the hanger of Johnny Armstrong, who reputably wandered his kingdom in disguise, often as a beggar, as The Guidman of Ballangeich, in his sympathy with the common people, (although this may have been simply a liking for low life). His short life and troubled reign would not have left him much spare time for such sojourning, nor his marriages to two wives, the second bearing him the future, tragic Mary Queen of Scots (and France). Lizzie said this was the first song she learned from her father, when she was aged 4, and was a genuine 'pipe folksong'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 04:33 PM

The late great Ian Jock Manuel sang this version. It's on one of two solo LPs he made but may also be in anthologies.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: GUEST,teenfolkfan
Date: 15 Feb 09 - 01:13 AM

THANKS RUTH! Sorry for the huge delay -- I've only just checked back again and now I see that you've supplied the lyrics! Thank you very much. :)

PS - In response to your question, sadly I haven't had the chance to see Lisa Knapp play live as I'm on the wrong side of the globe, but one day maybe! Thank you again for all your help & information!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: GUEST,wes finch
Date: 14 May 13 - 07:29 AM

I've heard Sarah Hayes do a lovely version on a Fellside records compilation. Here's a link to a live version by her:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMYiXz_17mw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 14 May 13 - 03:57 PM

Also sung brilliantly by Enoch Kent.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: GUEST,SteveT
Date: 15 May 13 - 04:43 AM

Also a nice version (The Beggarman) on Malinky's Last Leaves (when Karine Polwart was with them).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 15 May 13 - 08:21 AM

If you can track it down listen to Ewan MacColl's version on "English and Scottish Ballads" - Topic with A.L.Lloyd

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: GUEST,Wee Jock
Date: 16 May 13 - 05:50 AM

There is a version of A Beggar,A Beggar called The Beggarman in the Song Book titled Come Gies A Song published by The Hardie Press, edited by Shelia Douglas, which also contains a further 72 Traditional Scottish Songs including love songs and also some bothy ballads.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Wee Jock

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Beggar A Beggar
From: GUEST,Tattie Bogle
Date: 16 May 13 - 06:45 AM

Shepheard, Spiers and Watson have also recorded it as " The Auld Beggarman" on their 2012 CD "Over the High Hills". Info here: http://www.springthyme.co.uk/1043/