Lyr Add: May No More (Andrew McKay)

Subject: Lyr Add: MAY NO MORE (McKay)
From: Crane Driver
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 02:53 PM

Carole sang this song of mine at the Getaway, and several people, including Charlie Noble, asked for the words, so here they are.

The song came about after we listened to a version of the trad sailors' song "Maggie May", about a dockside "purveyor of horizontal refreshment" who gets transported to New South Wales for robbing her clients. Carole said it was a typical man's view of the story, and that Maggie herself would tell it very differently from her side. So I thought I'd try to rewrite the story for the ladies.

The tune is basically the traditional one, except that I've changed the second line of both the verse and chorus to accommodate extra syllables.

May No More
© Andrew McKay 2004

My father was a fisherman who drowned beneath the tide
My mother's heart was broken, in another year she died,
So I made my way to Sailortown from my home upon the shore,
You can call me Maggie though I'm May no more.
Oh Maggie, Maggie May, that's what they used to say,
As I took my evening promenade along beside the bay,
But now I'm growing older on Australia's convict shore,
You can call me Maggie though I'm May no more.

I met up with a soldier boy who said he loved me true,
He'd guard me and he'd care for me, and I believed him too,
But he knocked the young girl out of me, and pushed me out the door,
You can call me Maggie though I'm May no more.
Oh Maggie, Maggie May etc.

An innkeeper then told me of a room where I could stay,
If I did some 'little favours' there'd be no rent to pay,
His clientele abused me well, and despised me as a whore,
You can call me Maggie though I'm May no more.
Oh Maggie, Maggie May etc.

A topsailman awash with rum passed out upon my bed,
I found his watch and moneybox in a pouch beneath his head,
I took them both in payment for the life that I'd endured,
You can call me Maggie though I'm May no more.
Oh Maggie, Maggie May etc.

So they took me to a courtroom with a judge in robes of red,
Though he'd never worn that long wig when he'd rumbled me in bed,
He said I was a danger both to virtue and the law,
You can call me Maggie though I'm May no more.
Oh Maggie, Maggie May etc.

And he sent me here to New South Wales, to prove crime doesn't pay,
And that those who break society's rules must suffer every day,
While he sits at home in Sailortown with his whisky and his whores,
You can call me Maggie though I'm May no more.
Oh Maggie, Maggie May, that's what they used to say,
As I took my evening promenade along beside the bay,
But now I'm growing older on Australia's convict shore,
You can call me Maggie though I'm May no more.

As with all my songs, I'm happy for people to sing this, but please give me credit. Also, I'd like to know that you're singing it (and one day I'd really like to hear your version!)

Andrew

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'May No More' (McKay)
From: Janie
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 03:15 PM

Andrew,

Thank you very much.

Janie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'May No More' (McKay)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 05:43 PM

Andrew-

Thanks for posting this one. I only had a fragment recorded from the Getaway.

It's a keeper!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble