Lyr ADD: Darling Annie (Peggy Seeger)

Subject: Lyr Req: if you marry me
From: GUEST,David Perasso
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 12:06 AM

Years ago I heard a library recording of Peggy Seeger and Ewan McColl singing a wonderful conversation song. I would love to find all the lyrics, or a recording.

The song went something like this:

Ewan singing: If you'll marry me I'll give you everything I have, you won't ever have to earn a penny. I will be your man and the ring upon your hand, will tell the world that you're my darling annine.

Peggy: Thank you love I'll be glad to add your wages onto mine, I can work and keep my self so handy.   ... don't remember.

chorus And it's love, love will hold us love is everything, who can think of anything that's better. .... more I don't remember.

anybody remember the song? know where/how to find it?

thanks
Dave Perassao

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: if you marry me
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 02:00 PM

I have a hunch the song you're looking might be on this album:

"On the Edge," Topic CD #806, a "radio ballad" originally recorded 1963, re-released 1999. There's a review here, and you can hear sound samples at allmusic.

The album, as far as I can tell from the sound samples, consists of documentary-style comments by British teenagers about their lives, interspersed with songs. (The description says "various artists," but it seems that most, if not all, of the songs are performed by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.) The songs are a curious blend of traditional musical style and modern verbal idiom. Below are the titles of the cuts, but they seem to be titles of the segments of the radio show rather than titles of songs, but they might be both.

1. I've Always Kept a Diary
2. A Tale of the Children of a Troubled World
3. What Is It Like, the World Outside?
4. I Find It Very Difficult to Talk to My Parents
5. Where Is the Child Who Would Climb on My Knees?
6. Yes Sir, No Sir, Goodbye
7. What Have You Got to Worry About?
8. I Got Me Tight Black Jeans
9. The World That I Know, It Has Vanished and Gone
10. I've Had Thoughts
11. Why Should You Be Lonely?
12. It Actually Gives Me a Thrill
13. Frankly, the Idea of Intercourse and Sex Revolts Me
14. I Think We Should Be Getting Married
15. In a World Like This, Everything Changes So Rapidly
16. The Tale of the Children of a Troubled World
17. Life Has Got Everything to Offer

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: if you marry me
From: Flash Company
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 09:52 AM

Didn't know this one, but it fits in with the Radio Ballads which Ewan McColl did in the late 50's-early 60's, things like 'The Ballad of John Axon' and 'Singing the Fishing'.
Most of the singing was Ewan, but various singers and musicians contributed accompaniments and choruses. Charles Chilton produced.

FC

Subject: ADD: Darling Annie (Peggy Seeger)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 03:32 AM

That was a tough one, Dave - but I think I've found it in The Peggy Seeger Songbook (1998).

DARLING ANNIE
(Peggy Seeger)


HE: If you'll marry me, I'll give you everything I have,
You won't ever need to earn a penny;
I will be your man, and the ring upon your hand
Will tell the world that you're my darling Annie.

SHE: Thank you love, I'll be glad to add your wages on to mine,
I can work and keep myself so handy;
You can be my man without a golden wedding-band,
And I'll tell the world that I'm your Annie.

CHORUS (after each of her verses):
For it's love, love will hold us, love is everything,
Who could dream of anything that's better?
Not the vow, not the string, not the golden wedding-ring,
Just you, love, you and me together.

HE: If you'll marry me, I will give to you my name,
It will shield you from idle talk and envy;
For when you play the game you're secure from any blame,
Not ashamed to be my darling Annie.

SHE: Thank you love, I'm grateful for the offer of your name,
But my own will serve as well as any;
I don't like the game and the rules would make me tame,
Not the same girl you married, not your Annie. (chorus)

HE: If you'll marry me, we'll get a house and settle down,
A place to call our own, so neat and canny;
With a family and a home, love, you'll never feel alone,
Left on the shelf, a spinster, darling Annie.

SHE: Dearest love, we could surely find a place to call our own,
All we need is influence and money.
But I don't need a ring, or a house or anything
To become a mother or a granny. (chorus)

HE: If you'll marry me, I will be faithful unto death,
You will have all my love and my attention;
We will care, we will share life in sickness and in health—
And when I die you can draw the widow's pension.

SHE: I will live with you, and I'll be faithful unto death,
We will share all the burdens we must carry;
We'll always be free, me for you and you for me—
But when we're old, love, maybe we should marry! (chorus)

© Peggy Seeger, 1992

On the 1998 Peggy Seeger CD, Period Pieces: Women's Songs for Men & Women