Lyr Req: I'll be true unto my love

Subject: I'll be true unto my love
From: Wordwitch
Date: 26 Oct 99 - 01:51 PM

Many years ago (like, about 15) I listened to a recording of Irish tunes my best friend had checked out of the library. There was a chorus of one song that struck me:

"I'll be true unto my love If he'll be true to me."

It was a tale of two sisters that were after the same guy. I checked through the versions of "Twa Sisters" that are here, but I didn't find this song; and besides, this one didn't include the instrumentation of one sister. I believe it dealt with carnage to one of the sheep ... (although that could be a second song on the same record!) and I think the guy got killed?

Help?

Subject: Lyr Add: TWO SISTERS (Clannad's version)
From: lamarca
Date: 26 Oct 99 - 02:49 PM

Here's 2 threads with some variants on this song: Two Sisters (Child #10) Variants dulaman/two sisters

Here's the version of "The Two Sisters" that I learned from Touchstone; it sounds American, but someone told me that Claudine and Triona got it from Clannad...This may be the one you're looking for.

There were two sisters, side by side
Sing aye-dum, sing aye-day
There were two sisters, side by side
The boys are bound for me
There were two sisters side by side,
The eldest one to Johnny cried

I'll be true unto my love,
If he'll be true to me

Johnny gave the youngest a beaver hat
Sing aye-dum, etc.
Johnny gave the youngest a beaver hat
The boys are bound...etc.
Johnny gave the youngest a beaver hat
The eldest didn't think much of that, oh

I'll be true...etc

(repeat all lines in italics for each verse)

Johnny gave the youngest a gay gold ring...
He didn't give the eldest anything.

As they went a-walking by the foaming brim
The eldest pushed the youngest in.

Oh, sister, give to me your hand
And you can have Johnny and all his lands.

Oh, no, I'll not give you my hand
And I'll take Johnny and all his lands.

So down she sank and away she swam
Until she came to the miller's dam.

The miller, he took her gay gold ring
And then he pushed her in again.

The miller was hanged by the mountain stead
The eldest sister was boiled in lead.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll be true unto my love
From: Wordwitch
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 10:55 AM

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

That is exactly what I was looking for!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll be true unto my love
From: GUEST,Allan A Dale
Date: 17 Jun 04 - 12:36 PM

Anyone have a chord structure for this?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll be true unto my love
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 17 Jun 04 - 08:20 PM

If you're using it, Allan, please note that this is an American version, though popularised by Clannad and other Irish folks. See this thread.

(Sorry, can't help on the chords.)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll be true unto my love
From: Gurney
Date: 18 Jun 04 - 03:33 AM

Cyril Tawney used to sing that. Don't know if he ever recorded it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll be true unto my love
From: IanC
Date: 21 Jun 04 - 08:41 AM

Might be worth noting (as it's not mentioned anywhere here) that the song is often called "The Berkshire Tragedy".

:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll be true unto my love
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 21 Jun 04 - 01:01 PM

IanC - The Berkshire Tragedy looks like a completely different murder broadside. See many references in this thread.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll be true unto my love
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 23 Feb 14 - 12:16 PM

Way Out Yonder by Andy Irvine

They'll never believe it's true / Froggy's Jig
(Andy Irvine, Steve Cooney) (Andy Irvine)

This was meant to be a song called "The Two Sisters" that I found in a Cecil Sharpe collection many years ago. I'd always been a bit irked that some people, who recorded it subsequently, had seemingly not known that the tune - and some of the words - were mine. The bit about "boiled in lead" for instance.

From china2galway

The best of the songs is Irvine's original "They'll Never Believe it's True," a surreal faery-story reminiscent of Christy Moore's "The Reel in the Flickering Light."

The tune Irvine used for the song is one he composed years ago for the ballad "The Two Sisters"; his setting was subsequently recorded by Clannad, and thence became a folk standard.

Many bands today sing this version of the song (which carries the chorus "I'll be true unto my love, if he'll be true to me") without knowing of Irvine's role in bringing it about, which he says has always irked him.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BARKSHIRE TRAGEDY
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 Feb 14 - 12:38 PM

"The Berkshire Tragedy"
There is a version of The two sisters under the title 'The Barkshire Tragedy'
From Broadwood and Maitland's English County songs
Jim Carroll


THE BARKSHIRE TRAGEDY.

A varmer he lived in the West Countree,
(With a hey down, bow down:)
And he had daughters, one, two, and three,
'And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me).

As they were walking by the river's brim
(With a hey down, bow down:)
The eldest pushed the youngest in,
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me),

" O sister, O sister, pray gee me thy hand,
(With a hey down, bow down :)
And I'll gee thee both house and land,"
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me).

"I'll neither gee thee hand nor glove,
(With a hey down, bow down:)
Unless thou'lt gee me thine own true love,"
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me).

So down she sank, and away she swam,
(With a hey down, bow down :)
Until she came to the miller's dam,
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me),

The miller's daughter stood by the door,
(With a hey down, bow down :)
As fair as any gilly-flower,
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me).

"O vather, O vather, here swims a swan,
(With a hey down, bow down :)
Very much like a drownded gentlewoman,"
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me).

The miller he got his pole and hook,
(With a hey down, bow down :)
And he fished the fair maid out of the brook,
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me).

" O miller, I'll gee thee guineas ten,
(With a hey down, bow down :)
If thou'll fetch me back to my vather again,"
(And I'll be true to my love if my love'll be true to ms).

The miller he took her guineas ten,
(With a hey down, bow down :)
And he pushed the fair maid in again,
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me).

But the Crowner he came, and the Justice too,
(With a hey down, bow down :)
With a hue and a cry and a hullabaloo,
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me).

Tbey hanged the miller beside his own gate,
(With a hey down, bow down :)
For drowning the varmer's daughter Kate,
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me).

The sister she fled beyond the seas,
(With a hey down, bow down:)
And died an old maid among black savagees,
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me).

So I've ended my tale of the West Countree,
(With a hey down, bow down:)
And they calls it the Barkshire Tragedee,
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me). (The tune from G. K.

Fortescue, Esq.; the words from The Scouring of the White Horse.)
This is one of the very many variants of the ballad usually known as " Binnorie," which appears in different forms in many countries. The peculiarities o. the English ballad are the presence of a third sister, not required by the story; the fact that the maiden was alive when she reached the mill; the brutal cruelty of the miller; the Crowner; the fate of the miller, and the horrible ending of the elder sister. In The Scouring of the White Horse,. there is another ballad, which takes up the story at the point where the harper discovers the body and strings his harp with the maiden's hair. In this instance, the instrument is a " fiddoll," and the process of stringing is described,most realistically, A Lancashire version is given in Ballads and Songs of Lancashire, by John Harland; another occurs in a broadsheet of 1656, and is said to be by Dr. James Smith (1604-1667); it is called " The King and the Miller's Daughter."   See also Child's Ballads.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll be true unto my love
From: Gurney
Date: 23 Feb 14 - 02:49 PM

Yes, Cyril sang that one too. He sang three verses to start it which are explanatory.

First verse as above. 'A farmer he lived in the West Country...'

then
A fine young man came a courting them, (hey down etc.)
The oldest one got stuck on him. (and I'll be true..)

He gave the youngest a beaver hat
The oldest one got mad at that

O sister, sister, lets walk the seashore
And watch the waves as they roll o'er

Then the river's brim verse. The rest was pretty much word-for-word as above. Don't know who added the verses, but they do give a motive to the sister, if not the miller.