Lyr Req: Ploughboy Lads / ...Noo but Sixteen Years

Subject: Please help...been searching for years!
From: MizzKyttie
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 02:19 AM

Hi there....

I'm a brand-new user here, and I'm hoping to the bone that someone may be able to help me find out about this. Lemme provide some backstory: When I was about eight years old, my father retired from the sea. He had spent 20 years altogether, between the Navy and the Merchant Marines. As a result, he'd travelled all over the world. When in Ireland, he'd gotten many tapes of folk music, which he brought home. From listening to these, I gained a love for folk music that's kept growing to this day. One tape that he had, had a song on it that I loved, yet I can only remember the first verse and bits of the chorus. I think the tape was of the Dubliners, but I've never been able to find out what the title was, or anything. This tape was lost maybe a year after he came home, (and this was 15 years ago) and I've been searching for this song's title and the rest of the words off and on for about five or so years now....Here's what I can remember of the words, maybe here knows the rest? (pleasepleaseplease!)

When she was only sixteen years
A beauty she was wearin', Oh little, little, did she think
That soon she'd be a widow.
But the ploughboy lad's a
(unknown line here)
He'll court you and decieve you.
Oh he'll take all,
And he'll (unknown bit)
And leave the lassies grieving, oh.

Thank you for your time!

--MizzKyttie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please help...been searching for yea
From: Pene Azul
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 02:29 AM

Is this it?

WHEN I WAS NOO BUT SWEET SIXTEEN

Jeff

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please help...been searching for yea
From: Pene Azul
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 02:31 AM

Here's another version.

Jeff

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please help...been searching for yea
From: Pene Azul
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 02:33 AM

And another: Ploughboy Lads with MIDI here.

Subject: Lyr Add: PLOUGHBOY LADS
From: Jeri
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 11:02 AM

From Douglas Clark's Dubliners Discography, the song was recorded by the Dubliners on:

15 Years On
1977   
Polydor   
2683 070

And yet another version, from this site, which more closely matches the lyrics MizzKyttie remembers:

PLOUGHBOY LADS

When she was only sixteen year
A beauty she was wearing
Ah little little did she think
That she'd be soon a grievin' oh oh

Chorus
For the Ploughboy lads are gay braw lads
They'll court you and decieve you
Oh they'll take all and they'll gang awa'
And leave the lasses grievin', oh oh

If she'd stayed home when she was told
And done her mammy's biddin', oh
She not be sitting by yon fireside
Singin' hush abye my baby oh oh

Hush abye, she's your ma,
But the Lord knows who's your daddy oh
So maids take care and be aware
Of the young man in the gloamin' oh oh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please help...been searching for yea
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 12:31 PM

When I Was Noo But Sweet Sixteen in the DT is Jeannie Robertson's set (perhaps as recorded by Jean Redpath?); somehow I missed it when I posted a transcription from Jeannie's singing in the thread in Jeff's third link, along with the lyric as modified by the Black family.  The set in Jeff's second link is a collated one; three verses from Jeannie again, with one verse (the second) taken from a late 18th century chapbook and changed a bit to fit the tune, which is not Jeannie's and was itself collated from two versions, in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (c. 1735) and the Caledonian Museum.  The collation was made by Stephen Sedley (who never knew when to leave well alone!), and published in his book The Seeds of Love (1967), which is where I got those details.

The site Jeri found is, unfortunately, riddled with inaccuracies; sources are not given, modern songs are not credited to their authors and, as usual, a good proportion of the "Irish" songs are really Scottish or English.  The text quoted is, I think, from the Dubliners, who also seem to have learned the song from Jeannie (as did almost everybody who sings it), but have unaccountably changed the song into the third person; perhaps they felt uncomfortable singing a song from a woman's perspective.  Traditional versions of this Scottish song are always sung in the first person.  That said, I think you've got the goods there, Jeri.  I have a feeling that someone posted that text here a while ago, but the search engine isn't finding it; perhaps it was too recently to have been indexed yet.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please help...been searching for yea
From: MizzKyttie
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 01:34 PM

Hah!! That's *it*!!

You guys are awesome, I've never been able to find it....Thank you, thank you, thank you. *Sighs happily*