Lyr Req/Add: Single Girl, Married Girl (Carter)

Subject: single girl
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 12:31 PM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 12:37 PM

Which one????

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: masato sakurai
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 04:16 PM

There're several songs with this title. Some are in the DT. Click on "S" section in the box above.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: Dani
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:45 PM

I didn't see the one I know in the DT, though they have similarities.

A piece:

"Single girl, single girl, goin' anywhere she please

Married girl, married girl got a baby on her knee,

and I wish I was a single girl again.

Yes, I wish I was a single girl again."

Need the rest?

Dani

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: irishajo
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:56 PM

I'm not guest above, but I have been looking for the lyrics and chords to the Carter Family version of this song if anyone has them.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: Brían
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 09:47 PM

No chords, but: SINGLE GIRL

Brían

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: Brían
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 09:50 PM

There's a great version of this song on THE BRISTOL SESSIONS

Brían

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: irishajo
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 10:01 PM

Thanks Brian! Maybe I can figure out the chords on my own.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 10:37 PM

Zo, ver is da gest?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: GUEST,Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 02:54 PM

Just seeing the title, the first thing I thought of was a record from the late 60s or early 70s by Sandy Posey.

I'm a single girl
All alone in this
Great big world.

We once had a small flat in a large house and the girl in the flat adjoining had a habit of playing the Sandy Posey record over and over again, seven or eight times on the trot.

So you can understand why seeing the title would remind me of that!

Shoh slaynt,

Bobby Bob

Subject: Lyr Add: SINGLE GIRL, MARRIED GIRL (Carter Family)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 09:44 AM

Copied from http://www.icdc.com/~fmoore/carterfamily/single_girl.htm

SINGLE GIRL, MARRIED GIRL
As recorded by the Carter Family

Single girl, single girl, she's going dressed so fine,
Oh, she's going dressed so fine.
Married girl, married girl, she wears just any kind,
Oh, she wears just any kind.

Single girl, single girl, she goes to the store and buys,
Oh, she goes to the store and buys.
Married girl, married girl, she rocks the cradle and cries,
Oh, she rocks the cradle and cries.

Single girl, single girl, she's going where she please,
Oh, she's going where she please.
Married girl, married girl, a baby on her knees,
Oh, a baby on her knees.

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Attributed to A.P. Carter

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 09:56 AM

I immediately thought of the Sandy Posey song as well. She had another one which went "The town that I come from is lonely and small, we played in the meadow where the grass grew so tall..."

Nice songs, not in the league of the one above, don't know what happened to her.

Pete

Subject: Lyr Add: SINGLE LIFE (sung by Roba Stanley)
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 09:01 PM

Roba Stanley recorded a song with a similar theme some 3 years before the Sara Carter's famous recording at the Bristol Sessions. It was titled 'Single Life'. It reflects a strongly feminine point of view that rejects the role that many southern girls of Roba's generation were forced into. Oddly, Roba broke the tone by inserting a seemingly inappropriate stanza from the well-known, nagging wife song 'Bald-Headed End of a Broom'.

SINGLE LIFE

Do not care for pretty little things
Always felt like dancing
Streets all lined with one dollar bills
Girls all sweet and dainty

Chorus:
Single life is a happy life
Single life is lovely
I am single and no man's wife
And no man shall control me

Some will come on Saturday night
Some will come on Sunday
And if you give them half a chance
They will stay behind till Monday

Chorus

Cupid came last Saturday night
Took him in my parlour
Every time he'd hug my neck
He'd say now don't you holler

Chorus

Boy fall in love with a pretty little girl
He'll talk as gentle as a dove
He'll call her his honey and spend all his money
And show 'er he's solid on his love

Chorus

Would not marry a red-headed boy
Would not marry for money
All I want is a brown-eyed boy
To kiss and call me honey

Chorus

Boys keep away from the girls I say
And give them plenty of room
For when you're wed they'll bang you till you're dead
With the bald-headed end of a broom

Chorus

Recorded by Roba Stanley in Atlanta, Georgia, in July 1925 and issued as OK 40436. She was accompanied on harmonica and guitar by Henry Whitter.

The recording was reissued on Various Artists 'Banjo Picking Girl: Women in Early County Music Vol 1' Rounder 1029. I don't kow whether it has made it to CD as yet.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 09:14 PM

I am not responding to this one again until Guest comes back and identifies itsself and the specific request.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: single girl, married girl (Carter Fam
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 May 05 - 05:51 PM

This song certainly related to I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again, but it's very different from the traditional song. Is this version an A.P. Carter original, or does it come from an earlier source?

I found two Carter Family recordings of this song. the first was on the second day of the famous recording session at Bristol, Tennessee (August 1 & 2, 1927), recorded by Ralph Peer for Victor. I think it's Sara's voice on the vocal on this cut. At the time, A.P. Carter was 35 years old, his wife Sara was 29, and Maybelle was 18. The tempo on this recording is rather quick.

The second recording, recorded by Ralph Peer for ARC in New York City May 8, 1935, had a much slower tempo. I guess that's A.P. on the vocal, but I can't say that for sure. If not, then Sara's voice dropped a bit in the 8 years between recordings.

Jim Dixon's post above is an accurate transcription - same lyrics and same three verses were used for both recordings.

The version in the Digital Tradition (click) has two additional verses, written by Mickey Miller - who's he?

-Joe Offer-

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Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry for this song, which identifies no source earlier than the 1927 Carter recording:

Single Girl, Married Girl

DESCRIPTION: "Single girl, single girl, go and dress so fine... Married girl, married girl goes ragged all the time...." The lives of single and married women compared: The single girl can go out (and perhaps even spend); the married girl must care for the baby; etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: marriage wife
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warner 128, "Single Girl, Married Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 87 "Single Girl, Married Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 84, "Single Girl, Married Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 185, "Single Girl" (1 text)
DT, SINGLGRL
Roud #436
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Single Girl, Married Girl" (Victor 20937A, 1927; on AAFM3) (Conqueror 8733, 1936; Melotone 7-04-53, 1937)
Ruby Vass, "Single Girl" (on LomaxCD1702)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again"
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)"
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "Sorry the Day I Was Married"
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme)
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
Notes: Roud lumps "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" and "Single Girl, Married Girl" (and perhaps others). Definitely a stretch, though the songs can easily cross-fertilize. - RBW
File: Wa128

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Subject: RE: Req/ADD: single girl, married girl (Carter Family)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 May 05 - 06:14 PM

"Mickey Miller Sings American Folk Songs" on a Folkways record, but I haven't heard him.