Lyr Add: Child Ballad Brief (Jo Nell Bevington)

Subject: Lyr Add: Child Ballad Brief (Jo Nell Bevington)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Dec 23 - 07:16 PM

Mike Curtin sent me this classic, which Bev Praver also sings.

CHILD BALLAD BRIEF
(Jo Nell Bevington, nee Dart)

Peggy, Polly, Mary, Molly, Little Liza Jane.
Doesn't matter what she's called, it all turns out the same.
Strangled, stabbed or dismembered by Willy Johnny lad.
If it's a Child Ballad, it's bound to turn out sad.

First we have the setting, the grand idyllic scene.
Where two lovers stroll about, in May it always seems.
Wicked Willy Johnny gets Molly off alone.
By river or by mountainside it's always far from home.

Now after endless verses, where nothing much is said,
Willy Johnny takes a knife and stabs poor Polly dead.
Even though she sees the knife, she doesn't understand.
Keeps saying, "Please don't do this!" to a homicidal man.

Or sometimes in a twist of fate, Willy Johnny leaves,
stranding Liza with a case of gross fecundity.
Then she pines away, hangs herself or drowns instead.
Either way, it's still the same, she always ends up dead.

Now in the Child Ballad you have reached verse twenty two.
But don't put down the popcorn, there's thirty left to do.
You look at me astonished, and say, "Don't be absurd!"
I tell you Child Ballads were paid for by the word.

You wonder what could happen now that Mary Molly's dead?
They often plant some trees and bushes just above her head.
They grow so high, so quickly, like some green tidal wave.
Then Mary Molly Peggy Polly rises from the grave.

Just as Willy Johnny has settled down to rest,
Mary Molly's ghost appears in bloody half-undress.
She stands there by his bedside, and swears her love was true.
Says, "How ya doin', Sweety? Tell me what you're gonna do."

At this point Willy Johnny often has a fit.
Plunges deep into remorse and slashes both his wrists.
He's buried by his Liza Jane for all eternity.
The bushes tie a true-love knot, end of story.

But don't think that it's over, 'cause it's time to moralize.
True love conquers everything, though everybody dies.
The singer's gettin' thirsty, 'cause he's reached verse eighty four.
And everyone who listened is asleep and starts to snore.

So if you have the urge to become a balladeer,
think about your audience and have another beer.
Play something short and simple, like Mallet's Garden Song.
It's got a better tune and it's not so goddamned long.

Inch by inch, row by row....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Child Ballad Brief (Jo Nell Bevington)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Dec 23 - 07:17 PM

Anybody know a melody for this one?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Child Ballad Brief (Jo Nell Bevington)
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Dec 23 - 06:20 AM

There is a significant genre of "murdered sweetheart" ballads , but surely very few Child ballads along such lines.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Child Ballad Brief (Jo Nell Bevington)
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 23 Dec 23 - 06:51 AM

Melody? If I recall correctly, think "I Am My Own Grandpa" (the verse, anyway)...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Child Ballad Brief (Jo Nell Bevington)
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 23 Dec 23 - 07:27 AM

A guest wrote: There is a significant genre of "murdered sweetheart" ballads , but surely very few Child ballads along such lines.

You're right that murdered sweetheart ballads do not make up as large a fraction of the Child collection as of, say, the Laws collection, but they aren't rare. Two very popular examples: "Lord Randall" (Child #12) and "Young Hunting" (Child #68). And "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (Child #4) arguably qualifies, too, and "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" at least encroaches on the territory -- and the latter two are among the ten most popular Child Ballads in terms of number of collections and printed versions.

This particular whine, and some similar ones about long ballads, again raise a question that's worth thinking about: The long old ballads surviving in tradition only because people thought them worth singing, and there are some very long works that survived that way, starting with Homer, no less. Or the romance of "Sir Orfeo" (not the ballad "King Orfeo," but the source romance) must have survived in oral tradition, because the three manuscript copies vary dramatically, including the fact that the shortest version is about a sixth shorter than the longest version.

So people used to sit through, and remember, long pieces (600+ lines). What has changed that we no longer care for them? Are our memories worse? Our attention span? Or are we just more stupid? :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Child Ballad Brief (Jo Nell Bevington)
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Dec 23 - 12:42 PM

Hi Bob. definitely attention span, but short-term distractions have gradually accelerated over the last 5 centuries.