Death by drowning in traditional songs

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 12:15 PM

From a Travelling lady.
Jim Carroll

In Charlestown there Lived a Lass (Roud 1414)   Mary Delaney

For in Charlestown there dwelled a lass,
She was as constant as she was true,
When the young man fell in courting her
And drew her in despair.

He courted her, oh, for six long months,
And to him she proved unkind,
Then he courted her for six long months,
And by him she proved a child.

"Oh, go home, go home to your dwelling place,
And don't bring your parients in disgrace.
Oh go home to your dwelling place
And you proved with a false young man."

"Now I will not go home to my dwelling place,
For to bring my parients in disgrace,
I would sooner go and drown myself
In a dark and a lonely place."

Now as Willie, he went out walking,
He went out to take fresh air,
And he seen his own love Mary
In the waves of the silvery tide.

Oh, he strips off his fine clothing,
To the river brim he swum,
And he brung his own love Mary
From the waves of the silvery tide.

"Oh Mary, darling Mary,
Is this what you have done,
And the last words I have said to you,
I just said it for fun."

Otherwise known as Floating Down the Tide; The Collier Lad; Molly and William etc.; this ballad was taken down several times in England: in Somerset, Oxfordshire, Suffolk and Dorset, and in Scotland, in Aberdeenshire. As far as we could find, there has been only one version made available from Ireland, that sung by publican Annie Mackenzie of Boho, Co Fermanagh, although the collector, Sean Corcoran, says it was widely known in that area.
The English texts locate the events as taking place in Camden, Brighton or Cambridge, while in Scotland it is set in Kilmarnock, Dumbarton or Marno (Marnock, Banffshire?). A Canadian version places the location as Charlottetown, similar to Mary's Charlestown. One English version gives the unfaithful lover as a farmer's son, while the three complete Scots texts make him a collier; otherwise he is, as here, 'a false young man'.
Mary's text has similarities to the two version of the song Camden Town, (Roud 564 Laws P18), recorded from English gypsies William Hughes and Nelson Ridley by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, particularly the verse that begins 'Now I will not go home...'

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 12:24 PM

Or - from the sublime to the ridiculous
Jim Carroll

Toon O' Kelso

It was in the toon o' Kelso
A lovely woman did dwell
She loved her husband dearly
But another man twice as well
Singin, fal di la lairly, fal di la lairy, fal di la lairy, an

She went doon tae the chemist's shop
Some medicine for tae buy
For she had resolved in her ain mind
That her auld man should die

She bought a dozen marrow bones
And she's ground them up right sma'
And before he'd eaten the half o' them
He couldnae see ony at a'

Im tired o' my life he cried
I'm tired o' my life
I think I'll awa' and drown myself
And that will end this strife

So down the street together they went
She whistled and she sang
Oh my husbands going to drown himself
I'll help tae push him in

Well doon the street together they went
Til they came to the waters brim
Said he, You'll take a great long race
To help to ding me in

So she went back a great lang race
Tae help tae ding him in
But the cunning old bugger he jumped aside
And she gaed tumblin' in

Oh save ma life, oh save ma life
Oh save me when I call
Oh how can I save your life
When I canna see ony at a'

Well she swam up and she swam doon
Til she cam tae the waters brim
But the cunning old man he got a long stick
And he poked her further in

Ye jaud, ye jaud, ye silly auld jaud
Ye thought ye had me blind
But I'll gae whistlin' hame again
And another wife I'll find

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 12:41 PM

Ah, yes, indeed, "Marrow Bones" ~~ the song that Frank Purslow used as the eponym for the first of those fine collections he edited for EFDSS all those years ago!

A drowning that doesn't happen is that of The Friar In The Well ~~"Help sweet love or I shall drown" ~~ who does manage to get out. It's in my mind as I sang it just last night at the 'This Is Us' CDs launch...

~M~

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 01:13 PM

The Golden Vanity[Did anyone mention this

    (Trad - Child #286)

    There was a lofty ship and they put her out to sea
    And the name of the ship was the Golden Vanity
    And they sailed her on the lowland lowland low
    And they sailed her on the lowland sea

    And she had not been sailing but two weeks or three
    When she was overtaken by a Turkish revelry
    As she sailed along the lowland lowland low
    As she sailed along the lowland sea

    Then boldly up spoke our little cabin boy
    Saying, What would you give me if the galley I destroy
    If I sink them in the lowland lowland low
    If I sink them in the lowland sea

    To the man that them destroys, our captain then replied
    Five thousand pounds and my daughter for his bride
    If he'll sink them in the lowland lowland low
    If he'll sink them in the lowland sea

    The boy he made ready and overboard went he
    And he swam to the side of the Turkish enemy
    As she lay along the lowlands lowlands low
    As she lay along the lowland sea

    And he had a brace and auger made for the use
    And he bored nine holes in her hull all at once
    As she lay along the lowland lowland low
    As she lay along the lowland sea

    And some were playing poker and some were playing dice
    And some were in their hammocks and the sea as cold as ice
    And the water rushed in and it dazzled to their eyes
    They were sinking in the lowland sea

    He swam back to his ship and he beat upon the side
    Crying, Shipmates take me up for I'm wearied with the tide
    And I'm weary of the lowlands lowlands low
    I'm weary of the lowland sea

    Well, I'll not pick you up, the captain then replied
    I'll shoot you, I'll drown you, I'll sink you in the tide
    I will sink you in the lowland lowland low
    I will sink you in the lowland sea

    If it was not for the love that I bear for your men
    I'd do unto you as I did unto them
    I would sink you in the lowland lowland low
    I would sink you in the lowland sea

    And the boy bowed his head and down sank he
    And he said farewell to the Golden Vanity
    As she lay along the lowland lowland low
    As she lay along the lowland sea

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 02:24 PM

I've been drowning in traditional songs for some 65 years, and haven't died yet

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: ChillToad
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 03:55 PM

Not soldiers, not rivers:

One Friday morn as we set sail
our ship not far from land
I there did espy a fair pretty maid
with a comb and a glass in her hand her hand her hand
with a comb and a glass in her hand

And the raging seas did roar
and the stormy winds did blow
while we jolly sailor boys were up were up aloft
and the land lubbers lying down below below below
and the landlubbers lying down below
.
.
.
and she sank to the bottom of the sea the sea the sea
and she sank to the bottom of the sea

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 04:14 PM

Housecarpenter

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: Nathan in Texas
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 04:23 PM

Two possibilities haven't been mentioned: "Down in the Willow Garden" and "Knoxville Girl." Perhaps because the coroner's reports are still pending. Definitely murder, but cause of death yet to be determined.

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: Artful Codger
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 05:41 PM

Banks of the Ohio (he leads his ex-girlfriend down the the river at knife-point, then pitches her in--perhaps in some versions he stabs her first)

The Bold Fisherman (by G.W. Hunt; the fisherman drowns in the Thames)

The Leaves of the Woodlands (by Peter Bellamy, from "The Transports": the singer plans to top herself in a river)

A Norrible Tale of the Suicidal Family (one of them drowns herself in the water-butt--the only manner of suicide in the entire song that seems remotely feasible)

Willie Drowned in Eero/Yarrow

I've read accounts of soldiers and cowboys drowning while fording rivers, but don't recall any songs specifically about this.

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 07:56 PM

Wasn't there a West Indian song called Judy Drowned?

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: tijuanatime
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 04:49 AM

A song involving soldiers and drowning, but not together:

Billy Don't You Weep For Me (Nic Jones)

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: matt milton
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 05:40 AM

The Loss of Seven Clergymen - an eccentric, slightly rococo, Irish song that I know from Len Graham's book. Concerns 7 priests who go fishing and drown.

Contains the great line "all for to decoy the finny trout", a line I can't read without cracking a smile.


http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aiQ7UAwQgDUC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=%22the+loss+of+seven+clergymen%22&source=bl&ots=tmokP8UGs4

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 06:29 AM

Heres Belafonte singing 'Judy drownded', which is about as ethnic as i care to get.

http://www.myspace.com/harrybelafonte/music/songs/judy-drownded-80990400





Sweet Anna drowned in Willie Moore - well she was found at the bottom of a stream. I suppose , she might have died of food poisoning and then fell in.

Willie Moore was a king, his age twenty-one,
He courted a damsel fair;
O, her eyes was as bright as the diamonds every night,
And wavy black was her hair.

He courted her both night and day,
'Til to marry they did agree;
But when he came to get her parents consent,
They said it could never be.

She threw herself in Willie Moore's arms,
As oftime had done before;
But little did he think when they parted that night,
Sweet Anna he would see no more.

It was about the tenth of May,
The time I remember well;
That very same night, her body disappeared
In a way no tongue could tell.

Sweet Annie was loved both far and near,
Had friends most all around;
And in a little brook before the cottage door,
The body of sweet Anna was found.

She was taken by her weeping friends,
And carried to her parent's room,
And there she was dressed in a gown of snowy white,
And laid her in a lonely tomb.

Her parents now are left all alone,
One mourns while the other one weeps;
And in a grassy mound before the cottage door,
The body of sweet Anna still sleeps.

[Willie Moore never spoke that anyone heard,
And at length from his friends did part,
And the last heard from him, he'd gone to Montreal,
Where he died of a broken heart.]

This song was composed in the flowery West
By a man you may never have seen;
O, I'll tell you his name, but it is not in full,
His initials are J.R.D.4

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 06:43 AM

Would you like a contrasting song where a ship-wrecked sailor survives? The Isle of France - Mauritius or l'Ile Maurice - another song from Nic Jones.

"I'm from the Shamrock," this convict cried,
"That has been tossed on the ocean wide.
For being unruly, I do declare,
I was doomed to transport these seven long years.

"When six of them they were up and past
I was coming home to make up the last.
When the winds did blow and the seas did roar
They cast me here on this foreign shore."

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 06:56 AM

Ah, yes, right, thanks Al. Fair Annie [or whoever] does indeed drown in Willie Moore, in the little stream before the farmhouse door.

~M~

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 11:35 AM

Bold Fisherman

C G7 C / G7 / F C G7 C / F C G7 C

There was a bold fisherman who sailed out from Pimlico
To slew the wild codfish and the bold mackerel.
When he arrived off Pimlico, the stormy winds did wildly blow
His little boat went wibble, wobble, and over board sprang he.

    G7 C G7 / G7 C /

    Singing:
    Twinki doodle dum, twinki doodle dum, twas the highly
          interesting song he sung.
    Twinki doodle dum, twinki doodle dum sang the bold fisherman.

He wriggled and scriggled in the water, so briny-O.
He yellowed and bellowed for help but in vain.
Then downward he did gently glide to the bottom of the silvery tide;
But previously to this he cried: "Fare the well Mar-i-Jane."

    Singing: . . .

His ghost walked at midnight to the bedside of his Mar-i-Jane
He told her how dead he was; said she: "I'll go mad."
"Since my love he is so dead," said she, "All joy on earth has fled
    for me."
"I never more will happy be.", and she went raving mad.

    Singing: . . .

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: Artful Codger
Date: 16 Nov 11 - 03:06 PM

Hunt's song "The Bold Fisherman" is more extensive in its original. See this thread:
There Was a Bold Fisherman

As for the reversal--a sailor surviving--there's "Fare Thee Well, My Dearest Dear", where the one who drowns (along with most of the crew, presumably) is the sailor's true love, who insisted on going with him disguised as his cabin boy. But this occurs on the briny. There are also all the Robinson Crusoe songs, for that matter.

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 18 Nov 11 - 02:44 AM

A lovely song about logging in northern New York state - River Driving (My girl's waitin' for me) - sung by both Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis. You can now go tubing on the Sacandaga.

Big French Joe and I went out
To break a jam when I heard him shout
'Prenez garde' and the jam went out
My girl's waitin for me

Big French Joe, the logs drowned him
He had no chance to fight or swim
With the logs jammed up to the river's rim
My girl's waitin for me

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: The Doctor
Date: 18 Nov 11 - 04:32 AM

Hi John of Elsie's Band
I didn't know about the trad version of Hartlake Bridge so thanks for that. If you're not familiar with Blossom's song it's worth seeking out.

Subject: RE: Death by drowning in traditional songs
From: GUEST,Uncle_DaveO
Date: 18 Nov 11 - 04:02 PM