Lyr Req: They say that love's a pleasure

Subject: Lyr Req: They say that loves a pleasure
From: GUEST,Guest Amber
Date: 19 Jan 17 - 12:31 AM

I'm looking for the title and artist for this song that My Great Grandmother sang to us in the 70's

They say that loves a pleasure
What pleasure can it be?
For the one I loved most dearest
Has turned his back to me

I don't see why I loved him
For he never cared for me
But my heart will always linger
Wherever he may be

I wrote my love a letter
Saying I was very ill
But the answer that he gave me
Was he had another still

I wrote another letter
Saying I was well and strong
But he never more cared for me
Than the ground he walked upon

I took my blue eyed baby
And kissed him on his lips
In memory of my mother
Who said I'd come to this

I wish I had a mother
For I'd never be here today
But I was young and foolish
And easily led astray

Good bye sweetheart I leave you
Perhaps to meet no more
I go where duty calls me
Upon the foreign shore

Subject: ADD: They tell me love's a pleasure
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Jan 17 - 03:04 AM

Hmmm. I'm guessing here. I found a record of a 1930 recording titled They Tell Me Love's a Pleasure, by Harry Ayers and Grover Rann.

I also found this (click) in a book called Winston County, Alabama: Newspaper Clippings 1909-1914

The Winston New Era, 4 June 1909


They tell me love's a pleasure,
But what pleasure do I see?
For the girl I love so dearly,
Does not care for me.

I asked her if she'd have me,
And this is what she said:
"I would not have you, young man,
If all the rest were dead."

I went one night to see her,
And much to my surprise;
I saw a boy beside her,
Making goo-goo eyes.

Oh my, you should have seen me!
They say that I was pale.
I could not have felt much worse,
Had I been placed in jail.

I thought that I'd play even,
And go with another girl;
So, when I asked for her company,
She said "NO!" with a snarl.

Now I will end my story,
For I am feeling sad -
If love had been a pleasure,
Much pleasure could I have had.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: They say that love's a pleasure
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Jan 17 - 03:16 AM

I found a book called Singing About It: Folk Song in Southern Indiana. I ordered the book and should have it in about a week. If you don't have an answer by then, post a new message to this thread and remind me, or contact me by email, [e-mail]

-Joe Offer, Mudcat Music Editor-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: They say that love's a pleasure
From: Richie
Date: 19 Jan 17 - 09:34 AM

Hi,

I'm studying the "Died for Love" songs. This is a variant theme with floating verses. The last stanza sounds like it's sung by the young man who didn't lover her had a child with her and is now leaving.

The only song the opening reminds me of is an old song maybe Irish that was sung in the US- it begins:

They say that love it is a killing thing,
And it's only brought me pain,

It's somewhat similar I can't remember anymore of it or where I've heard it right now,

Richie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: They say that love's a pleasure
From: Lighter
Date: 19 Jan 17 - 11:23 AM

A brief, rude parody beginning "Some say that love is a blessing," and ending, "She'll never find a sucker like me," was sung by U.S. Marines in France in 1918.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: They say that love's a pleasure
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Mar 20 - 09:15 AM

Hi was They say that loves a pleasure in singing about it folk songs from indiama?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: They say that love's a pleasure
From: GUEST,Amber
Date: 28 Mar 20 - 09:20 AM

Do you have more info. On the Marine song? My grandmother would end it with "sucker like me"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: They say that love's a pleasure
From: cnd
Date: 28 Mar 20 - 04:49 PM

Lighter is still active on here, so he may come around with more. If he doesn't soon I'll shoot him a PM. Here's what I found though.

Stallings quotes a soldier song of the war in which "Sam Browne" [a specific style of belt reserved for officers] is a verb and the noun "love" is a euphemism:

They say that love is a blessing,
A blessing I could never see,
For the only girl I ever loved
Has gone and made a sucker out of me.
She can Sam Browne out of Bordeaux,
She can Sam Browne all over Paree,
She can love herself to death in the A.E.F.
But she'll never find a sucker like me.

From War Slang: American Fighting Words & Phrases Since the Civil War, Third Edition, by Paul Dickson, pp. 92-93

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: They say that love's a pleasure
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Mar 20 - 01:31 PM

You beat me to it, cnd. Stallings, a Marine lieutenant in World War I, printed the verses, as above, in his 1964 history, "The Doughboys."

He was co-scenarist (with Maxwell Anderson) of the 1924 Broadway hit, "What Price Glory?" and the script writer of the 1925 motion picture, "The Big Parade."

Stallings also wrote "Plumes," one of the very first novels about a wounded veteran's readjustment to civilian society.

Like the protagonist, Stallings had lost a leg in 1918.