Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?

Subject: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: GUEST,Andy
Date: 11 Apr 19 - 09:38 AM

I recall many years ago hearing a song which began

'Hae ye seen owt o my bonny lad
And are ye sure he's weel'o
He's awa oer the land wi' a stick in his hand,
He's awa to mow the keel'o
Hope that bit's right and would like to hear if anyone knows of this song and can give me the words.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Andy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 11 Apr 19 - 10:28 AM

Andy

This is the other verse from memory:

Yes I have seen your bonny lad
It's on the seas you'll find him
His grave is green but not with grass
And you'll never lie beside him

See also this page for information on the song Maa Bonny Lad (mainlynorfolk site).

I think there's only the 2 verses. I think Johnny Handle recorded used to sing it. It might have been on Along The Coaly Tyne or The Bonnie Pit Laddie records (I'll check in a little while - I haven't got the vinyl on the computer). It's also on Tomorrow's Tide by Salt of The Earth (Barry/Ingrid Temple + Danny/Joyce McLeod) (and does Anni Fentiman sing it too?).

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 11 Apr 19 - 10:50 AM

Just checked the vinyl it wasn't on either of the 2 I suggested, but I'm sure I have some version of it before the Salt of the Earth recording. (That may mean it's on cassette. Even worse to check than the vinyl!)

I thought it would have been posted here at Mudcat, but I can't find it at a quick search, but that nice Joe Offer has a copy on his site from the folkinfo archive: Maa Bonny Lad.

Roud No. 204 lists only 2 sources: Whittaker: North Countrie Ballads Songs & Pipe-Tunes 2 (1922) (the version at Joe Offer's site) and Walton: Songs & Ballads of Northern England (1950?)

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Apr 19 - 05:00 PM

He's awa tae row the keel'o
row pronounced with same vowel sound as mow ( ow as in ow that hurts)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 12 Apr 19 - 04:57 AM

From Mainly Norfolk;

Isla Cameron sang My Bonny Lad on Alan Lomax's 1955 anthology The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music - Volume III: England. Isla Cameron and Bob Davenport sang My Bonny Lad in 1964 on their album Northumbrian Minstrelsy, and Bob Davenport sang it in 1997 on the Fellside CD The Red Haired Lad.

In 1971, Anne Briggs sang Maa Bonny Lad unaccompanied on her first solo album Anne Briggs. This recording was reissued on her Fellside and Topic compilation CDs, Classic Anne Briggs and A Collection. A.L. Lloyd commented in the original album's sleeve notes:

Sir Richard Runciman Terry, member of a Northumbrian shipping family and a good collector of sailing-ship shanties dredged up this song from childhood memory and gave it to W.G. Whittaker who published it in North Countrie Ballads, Songs and Pipe-Tunes in 1922. In the song, “keel” means a sea-going boat, not the flat-bottomed coal-barges usually associated with the Tyne.

Have you seen ought of my bonny lad?
Are you sure he's well-o?
He's gone o'er land with a stick in his hand,
He's gone to row the keel-o.

Yes I have seen your bonny lad,
'Twas on the sea I spied him.
His grave is green but not wi' grass
And you'll never lie beside him.

Have you seen ought of my bonny lad?
And are you sure he's well-o?
He's gone o'er land with a stick in his hand,
He's gone to row the keel-o.

Anne Briggs

TOPIC RECORDS CELEBRATES ITS 80th ANNIVERSARY IN 2019 AS THE OLDEST INDEPENDENT RECORD LABEL IN THE WORLD A long overdue reissue of the classic first album from Anne Briggs on Topic. Widely regarded as a long-lost treasure and recorded in 1971 by Sean Davies and featuring Johnny Moynihan from Sweeny’s Men on bouzouki.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: GUEST,Andy
Date: 13 Apr 19 - 11:22 AM

Thanks to all who have contributed an answer to my question. Much appreciated.

Andy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Apr 19 - 05:36 AM

I think it was recorded by Owen Brannigan around 1960 & the notes said that four verses had been lost...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 14 Apr 19 - 12:41 PM

You can hear the Owen Brannigan record on youtube.

Here's the bass singer Owen Brannigan singing three folk songs from his native Northumbria north East of England "Three North Countrie Folk Songs" Billy Boy - My Bonny Lad - Bobby Shaftoe - from a 78 rpm shellac record released in 1948. Owen Brannigan OBE (10 March 1908 – 9 May 1973) was an English bass, known in opera for buffo roles.

Just two verses of My Bonny Lad.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Apr 19 - 11:06 AM

We in this part of Northumberland sing the line
He's gan ower lang wi his stick in his hand. Which would make more sense to the cause for worry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 19 Apr 19 - 05:47 AM

Yes, that's more convincing to me.

We've had this discussion before, in Bonny at Morn;

"The sheep's in the meadows, The kye's in the corn,
Thou's ower lang in thy bed, Bonny at morn."

"He's gan ower lang/land wi' his stick/stake in his hand."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My bonny Lad, lost at sea?
From: Reinhard
Date: 19 Apr 19 - 08:22 AM

Thank you Henry, I've fixed that 'lang' on Mainly Norfolk.

Another question: On Nancy Whiskey's 1957 Topic EP "Nancy Whiskey Sings" she sings a song "Bonny Lad" that is described in the sleeve notes as "a lengthy ballad from the great Child collection". Which Child Ballad is this? It's one of the few Topic albums I don't have so I can't listen to it myself.