Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid

Subject: ADD Version: The Amsterdam Maid
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Feb 17 - 04:37 AM

THE AMSTERDAM MAID

In Louisville I met a maid,
Mark well what I do say,
An' she was mistress of her trade,
It was diddle, diddle, diddle alla day.

I put my hand upon her toe,
Mark well what I do say,
She says, Young man, you're rather low,
For to diddle, diddle, diddle alla day.

I put my finger on her knee,
Mark well what I do say,
She says, Young man, you're rather free,
For it's diddle, diddle, diddle alla day

I put my arm around her waist,
Mark well what I do say,
She says, Young man, you're in great haste
For to diddle, diddle, diddle alla day.

I put my hand upon her thigh,
Mark well what I do say,
She says, You're getting pretty nigh
To my diddle, diddle, diddle alla day.

I put my hand upon her ass,
Mark well what I do say,
She says, Let's lay down on the grass
An' diddle, diddle, diddle alla day.


Sung as above by Mr. L. B., Joplin, Missouri, April 14, 1933. He learned it about 1890, in southwest Missouri. Randolph notes: "This is 'The Amsterdam Maid,' found in many songbooks. See: Finger, Frontier Ballads (1927) pp. 156—57; Johnson, Bawdy Ballads and Lusty Lyrics (1935) pp. 32—33; Joanna Colcord, Songs of American Seamen (1938) p. 87; Burl Ives, Song Book (1953) pp. 114—15." Again, this is a world-famous song, with half a dozen fine melodies—that given here not being one of them—which would require the space of a monograph properly to display and discuss. Numerous older British country versions exist, the usual bawdy nautical form being a recent development, with its usual title "A-Rovin'," and probably the best tunes, in Hugill, Shanties from the Seven Seas, pp. 46—51 and 101 with four tunes. See a few further references in Cray, Erotic Muse, pp. 18—19 and 152, the most valuable being to the still unpublished Robert Gordon manuscripts.

Source: Roll Me In Your Arms: 'Unprintable' Ozark Folksongs and Folklore, Volume 1 (collected by Vance Randolph, edited by G. Legman, University of Arkansas Press, 1992) - #20, page 124

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: doc.tom
Date: 15 Feb 17 - 05:40 AM

The 'Bless you young women' second line (A-roving 2 above) comes from [only?] John Short - but the rest of the verses above are not his. What isn't in any of the verses quoted above is Short's 'I lift this fair maid over the stile... and nine months after she had a little child' verse - go on, you can work it out!

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Mar 20 - 07:47 PM

The way I heard it, the progression is well preserved.

In Amsterdam there lived a maid, etc.
In Amsterdam there lived a maid and she was mistress of her trade.

I"ll go no more a-rovin with you, fair maid.

I took this fair maid for a walk, etc.
And we had such a loving talk.

I put my hand upon her knee, etc.
She said young man you're very free

I put my hand around her waist, etc.
She said young man you're in great haste.

I put my hand upon her patch, etc.
She said young man that's my main hatch.

In six weeks' time I was badly bent, etc.
And off to see I sadly went.

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 Mar 20 - 03:58 AM

Other bawdy songs that use this common progression can be found in Cray.
Yo ho, yo ho and Billy go leary

And I remember from 60s folk clubs a version of 'Bound for Baltimore' that had it.

'Yo ho' I remember from the 50s. It went to the tune of 'Johnny I hardly knew ye'

I put me hand upon her toe, yo ho, yo ho,
I put me hand upon her toe, yo ho, yo ho
I put me hand upon her toe
She said young man you're rather low,
Stick it in, stick it out, stop muckin about,
Yo ho, yo ho.

Vaguely remember the progression was 'calf, knee, thigh, (Can't remember the last one.) but there's a version in Rugby Songs

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: GUEST,lamarca's OM
Date: 03 Apr 20 - 01:18 AM

I "...acquired a certain measure of... renown" in, maybe, 8th grade? when I learned this from Oscar Brand's "Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads". He sings the "...Secret Agent 'Enry 'Yde" as the last verse, as mentioned above by Snuffy.

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Apr 20 - 05:51 AM

Just remembered. I think it was 3 'yoho's on the end.

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: mg
Date: 03 Apr 20 - 08:11 PM

kipling wrote a poem to this...in lowestoft a boat was made and she was made for the herring
trade
The Lowestoft Boat

(East Coast Patrols)

1914–18

IN Lowestoft a boat was laid,        
    Mark well what I do say!        
And she was built for the herring trade,        
    But she has gone a-rovin’, a-rovin’, a-rovin’,        
    The Lord knows where!               5

They gave her Government coal to burn,        
And a Q. F. gun at bow and stern,        
And sent her out a-rovin’, etc.        

Her skipper was mate of a bucko ship        
Which always killed one man per trip,               10
So he is used to rovin’, etc.        

Her mate was skipper of a chapel in Wales,        
And so he fights in topper and tails—        
Religi-ous tho’ rovin’, etc.        

Her engineer is fifty-eight,               15
So he’s prepared to meet his fate,        
Which ain’t unlikely rovin’, etc.        

Her leading-stoker’s seventeen,        
So he don’t know what the Judgments mean,        
Unless he cops ’em rovin’, etc.               20

Her cook was chef in the Lost Dogs’ Home,        
    Mark well what I do say!        
And I’m sorry for Fritz when they all come        
A-rovin’, a-rovin’, a-roarin’ and a-rovin’,        
Round the North Sea rovin’,               25
The Lord knows where!

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: GUEST,sailon
Date: 27 Nov 20 - 12:19 AM

I the movie "Mayflower: The Pilgrims' Adventure" (1979)(starring Anthony Hopkins), near the beginning, the sailors sing A-Rovin'. The religious pilgrims shut their ears to the lewd lyrics.

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Feb 21 - 01:57 PM

At an 1888 reunion of Yankee Civil War veterans in Boston, "Miller...sang 'A Roaming I Will Go With You, Fair Maid." --National Tribune (Washington, D.C.) (Dec. 6, 1888).

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 09:31 AM

Oscar Brand's note to "Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads," vol. 4 (1957):

“I learned the ending published herein [“It was secret agent Henry Hyde!”] at a house party at Vassar. It has supplanted in my esteem the older, ‘She was true to me, true to you, true to the rest of the navy, too.’”

The "true to the navy" lines are also claimed by "Hinky Dinky Parley-Voo."

Subject: Lyr Add: A ROVING
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 10:06 AM

Sung at Harvard during or immediately after the Civil War.

[William Allen Hayes, ed.] Selected Songs Sung at Harvard College: From 1862 to 1866. (Cambridge: pvtly. ptd., June, 1866), pp.30-31. (With a number of other folk songs, incl. a "Golden Vanity" in which the captain is thrown overboard!)
                              
                     
                               A-ROVING

I.
At number three Old England Square,
Mark well what I do say,
At number three Old England Square,
My Nancy does'nt she live there ;                                        [sic
I'll go no more a roving with you, fair maid.

CHORUS.
A roving, a roving,
Since roving's been my ru-i-n,
I'll go no more a roving with you, fair maid.

II.
With love for her my heart did burn,
Mark well what I do say,
With love for her my heart did burn,
And I thought she loved me in return ;
I'll go no more a roving with you, fair maid.

CHORUS.—A roving, a roving, etc.

III.
But when my money was gone and spent,
Mark well what I do say,
But when my money was gone and spent,
Then off on her ear away she went ;
I'll go no more a roving with you, fair maid.

CHORUS.—A roving, a roving, etc.

IV.
She was a girl a-passing fair,
Mark well what I do say,
She was a girl a-passing fair,
With dark blue eyes and curly hair ;
I'll go no more a roving with you, fair maid.

CHORUS.—A roving, a roving, etc.

V.
By this I have a lesson learnt,
Mark well what I do say,
By this I have a lesson learnt,
I'll keep the money that I've earnt,
And go no more a roving with any fair maid.

CHORUS.—A roving, a roving, etc.

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 10:09 AM

That's the earliest version known - a college song. It was reprinted in various college song books over the next few decades.

"On her ear": indignantly.

Subject: RE: Origins:A-Rovin/Maid from Amsterdam/Amsterdam Maid
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 10:34 AM

What is very obvious about the song in general is there is absolutely nothing in the song itself that says it is a chanty, or even to mark it out as a chanty. So the earliest version, if that is what it is, is very much a shore-based song!