Lyr Req: Must I Go Bound

Subject: Must I Go Bound
From: balladeer
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 09:04 PM

I have a scant three verses for this song that John Jacob Niles recorded a thousand years ago:

Must I go bound and you so free?
Must I love a lad who doesn't love me?
Must I be born with so little art
As to love a lad who would break my heart?

I put my hand into a bush etc.


Anyone have more?

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 09:34 PM

Hopefully, this page will give you some clickies to things in the DT that use the phrase........

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: Alice
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 09:44 PM

I thought I had posted the lyrics to Must I Go Bound to the forum some time long ago. I also recorded it recently as an mp3 and it's on this page: Alice Flynn I learned it from Herbert Hughes Irish Country Songs Volume I, 1909, where Hughes labels it as "fragment of an old song" from County Derry. In the lyrics Hughes writes, it is "must I love the lass", but I change it when I sing to "must I love the lad". The lyrics are also at my mp3 page.

Alice

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: Alice
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 09:51 PM

Here's a direct link to the lyrics and music Must I Go Bound. (hope this works).

Subject: Lyr Add: MUST I GO BOUND AND YOU GO FREE
From: Alice
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 10:07 PM

Well, I thought I had added it to Mudcat, but a forum search doesn't bring it up. Here are the lyrics as printed in Herbert Hughes Irish Country Songs Volume I.

MUST I GO BOUND AND YOU GO FREE
Fragment of an old song from County Derry

Must I go bound and you go free,
Must I love the lass who wouldn't love me,
Was e'er I taught so poor a wit,
As to love the lass would break my heart.

I put my finger to the bush,
To pluck the fairest rose,
I pricked my finger to the bone,
Ah, but then I left the rose behind.

So must I go bound and you go free,
Must I love the lass who wouldn't love me,
Was e'er I taught so poor a wit,
As to love the lass would break my heart.

The tune as it is printed in Hughes' book is not the same as Waly Waly, although there are other threads that refer to that song.

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: balladeer
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 10:49 PM

Thanks, Sorcha. The data base didn't cough up the lyric earlier today. That's why I posted a direct query.

Thanks, Alice. I already have your verses and one more. You can have my extra one if you like. And I'm sure there are more words to be found....

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: Alice
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 10:56 PM

balladeer, post the other verse, please. Is it "I leaned my back against an oak..."? How does Hughes melody (the one I sing on the mp3) compare to the one you know?

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: Amos
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 11:01 PM

Lovely lark you are, Alive. Many thanks for a new song!

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 08:26 AM

The version I sing (from a Peggy Seeger book, but I can't remember the title), is:

Must I be bound and you go free?
Must I love one who ne'er loved me?
Why should I act such a childish part,
To love a lad who would break my heart?

The first thing that my love gave me,
It was a cap well lined with lead.
The longer that I wore that cap,
It grew the heavier on my head.

And next he bought me a gown to wear,
With sorrow stitched and lined with fear.
And the drink he gave me was bitter gall,
But the blows he gave me wer4 worse than all.

The third thing that my lad gave me,
it was a belt with colours three.
The first was sorrow, the next was shame,
And the third it was sweet misery.

But I shall gain my liberty,
And I shall climb a higher tree
And I shall find a richer nest,
And be with one I may love best.

Can't do ABC format, but it's in G, and the notes are (Those in lower case are below middle C)
bCDCbafaabb bCDCDEFEF bCDCDEDEFEF FEDCbafaabb

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 08:40 AM

Alice the verses

"I put my hand into some soft bush
thinking the sweetest flower to find,
I pricked my finger to the bone,
and left the sweetest flower behind.
I leaned my back against an oak,
thinking it was a mighty tree,
but first it bent, and then it broke,
as my false love deserted me",

are also in "The Water is Wide (Waley Waley)

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: Alice
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 12:12 PM

Yes, I am aware of that, Willa. The "back against an oak" verse finds its way into many, many songs. Thanks for the Peggy Seeger version. That doesn't look like the melody that Herbert Hughes collected in Ireland and published in 1909. I sing the tune Hughes published on the mp3 linked above. This version about being battered is very interesting to me. It's worth noting that the song Hughes collected in Derry was written as a man singing it.

Alice

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 12:31 PM

This is one of those lyric songs which is made of "floating" verses, which turn up all over the place.  It doesn't mean that songs which share a verse or two are necessarily related.  The verses quoted from Peggy Seeger, for example, are a quite separate song called The Belt Wi' Colours Three; Alison MacMorland recorded the best-known set of it, having adapted it from the version in Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs From the North of Scotland; Seeger's words are rather cut-down, simplified and anglicised by comparison.  Do you happen to know if she recorded a traditional version, or is it her own modification of one?  There's an even longer one with a more coherent narrative in Ord's Bothy Songs and Ballads, without a melody.  There have been a number of discussions about "floaters" here in the past, and I put in a number of links to similar songs in this thread:  I Wish, I Wish

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: Giac
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 12:34 PM

My favorite version is by Buffy St. Marie. I think it was on "It's My Way."

Subject: RE: Must I Go Bound
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 03:39 PM

From Martin Parker's "Distressed Virgin", 1629, ZN2602

I put my finger to the bush,
thinking the sweetest Rose to find,
I prickt my finger to the bone,
and yet I left the rose behind

From "The Maiden's Complaint", 1633-4, ZN3062

Shall I be bound, that may be free?
Shall I love them that love not me?
Why should I thus seeme to complaine?
I see that I cannot him obtain.

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I closed this thread in an attempt to avoid splitting the discussion. Please post here (click) or in one of the related threads listed in the crosslinks toward the top of this page.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-