songs where the woman comes out on top

Subject: songs where the woman comes out on top
From:
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 08:17 PM

I'm looking for songs where the woman comes out on top. Ballads are best. Any folk songs would be good. Where the woman doesn't end up pregnant, heart-broken, or dead.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: jaze
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 08:28 PM

How about "Jackaroe"? A wealthy merchants daughter who dresses as a man to find her true love in the war and actually does!

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: freightdawg
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 08:31 PM

Is the title of this thread a double entendre?

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: IvanB
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 08:42 PM

"Willy Taylor" He's pressed before they can marry, she signs on board a ship to go find him, finds he's married a rich young lady, shoots him and is rewarded with command of a ship.

"The Outlandish Knight" Child #4, also known by various other names. In most of them the maiden outwits the knight, leading to his death or to his looking the fool outside her father's gates.

"A Blacksmith Courted me" Another one where the man marries another. Her response, is, basically, "Well that was stupid of me, but the best revenge is a good life."

There's another one where the young lady is angered by the long lost lover's testing upon his return and tells him to get lost, but I can't remember the name.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,TJ
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 08:49 PM

"The Elf Knight", in which a young woman is lured into the woods by an unpleasant little fellow who turns out to be a serial murderer, but she successfully induces him to fall asleep and then stabs him with his own knife. Moral of the story: don't date elves.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Susan of DT
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 08:56 PM

Broomfield Wager
Maid on the Shore
Crafty Maid's Policy
Phoebe and Equinoxal/Old Grumble

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 08:58 PM

Yonder Stands Little Maggie is the only Bluegrass song that I know of where the woman comes out ahead.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Abby Sale
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 09:58 PM

Cherry Tree Coral
Bonnie Lass of Anglesee
Baffled Knight, #112 & all its varients - Shepherd L
Birken Tree (not the one in DT, the one where she tricks him - again)
Tailor's Breeches (in its way and all the other prostitute/beggar lass songs where he winds up with a std & she winds up with his money & clothes. Dozens of these.
The Half Hitch
Most songs that begin "The Female ..."
Get Up and Bar the Door (?)
Prince Heathen (Carthy's version, anyway)
Ned of the Hill
Devil And Feathery Wife
Farmer's Crust Wife

Oh, I think there's plenty

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: mrdux
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 10:13 PM

Sovay, about an apparently successful woman highwayperson, whose lover turns out to be faithful. A version is in the DT. Bert Lloyd's version adds this final verse (our heroine to her lover (and erstwhile robbery victim)):

"I only did it for to know
Whether you were a man or no;
If you would given me that ring", she said,
"I'd pull the trigger,
I'd pull the trigger and shot you dead!"

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Deckman
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 10:28 PM

I was going to mention "EQUINOXIAL AND PHOBE", but some else already did. So, I won't mention "EQINONIAL AND PHOBE" again ... tonight ... maybe. Bob

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Little Robyn
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:55 AM

Mike Waterson's song

A stitch in time.
Here in Digitrad.
Robyn

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:01 AM

The Friar And The Well.

eric

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: bfdk
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 10:20 AM

Bloke "hires" a bonny maid and refuses to pay. The song ends

"For I will hae the last laugh
For I've left ye wi' the pox.."

From "Fair Maid of London Town", to be found on this CD.

Best wishes,

Bente

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: nutty
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:03 PM

I would love the words to this song .... the chorus goes something like.......

So I'll go and I'll GET BLUE BLAZING BLIND DRUNK
JUST TO GIVE MICKEY A WARNING
AND THEN, JUST FOR SPITE,
I'LL STAY OUT ALL NIGHT
AND COME ROLLING HOME DRUNK IN THE MORNING

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:28 PM

"The Ten Dollar Bill"
a young serving woman at a 'gathering' is seduced by cad who gives her a $10 note for her trouble....so next year at the gathering, he settles back to smoke cigars with the boys, when the girl walks up and plops a baby in his lap...."What's this?", he cries...."do you not remember last year when you gave a girl a note for 'services'? Here's your change."

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:31 PM

also...Unfortunate Miss Bailey in the DT.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:35 PM

Eggs and Marrowbone

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:41 PM

"The Fair Flower of Northumberland" - Maiden is jilted by her lover, upbraided for her foolishness by her father, but then welcomed home warmly by her mother who notes that she's not the first romantic girl who has been beguiled by young Scots, and she's still the fair flower of Northumberland regardless! This is a bit unusual in such songs, where such maidens normally end up tragically dead, to suit the style of the time. Evidently her mother had an extra measure of both common sense and compassion. She must have seen her own young self in her daughter.

Then there's "She Belongs To Me", by Bob Dylan. It's quite clear that that woman always comes out on top.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Scoville
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:48 PM

There's one I know as "Diddly-Aye" where the girl is the one who plays the field while her sailor boyfriend is away. Pretty humorous, really. I'll see if I can find the words somewhere.

I know there are others. I'll have to look through my old C&W stuff tonight.



This isn't really true of "Wagoner's Lad" (aka "Hard is the Fortune") but at least the girl has the satisfaction of the verse (as I learned it):

"Your parents don't like me because I am poor,
They say I'm not worthy of entering you door,
My work it is honest, my money's my own,
And if they don't like me they can leave us alone."

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Sooz
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:50 PM

The Fair Maid of Islington
The Widow's promise by Mick Ryan

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Cattail
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:08 PM

The willow tree
(this may have already been mentioned in other variations)

A stitch in time

Cheers

Cattail!

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:09 PM

A "maid errant" misleads several "solicitous" gentlemen and ends up a horse to the good in The Horse Thief. If you use a PC and Windows Media Player, you can hear an excerpt of Claudia Schmidt singing it here (first album, song no. 7).

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Scoville
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:15 PM

Here's a slightly different version:

Twiddles
Janie Meneely

When the boats all get to sailing
and the men are off and gone
What about the women
who are up and left alone?
Do you think they sit and twiddle thumbs
until their men come home?
Oh there's other things to twiddle
when a girl's left on her own.

Oh, it's twiddley ai dee ai dee o,
twiddley ai dee ay
Well it's lots of times a man will leave you
broken with dismay
Oh, it's twiddley ai dee ai dee o,
twiddley ai dee ay
There's others willin' to twiddle
when your man is gone away

I remember Nelly,
she was young and she was gay.
She won the heart of Captain Dan
but then he sailed away.
He left her high and dry
with just a kiss upon the chin
But as his ship went sailing out
another ship sailed in.

And then there was Lucinda Brown
as fair as any maid.
Her true love he went a voyaging,
a sailor man by trade.
"Keep the fire burning, love,"
those were the words he spoke.
So she found herself another man
to keep the fire stoked.

When Lucinda.s man came back
and knocked upon her door
She was as glad to see him
as she'd ever been before.
He left her sleeping in her bed
but Lucy didn't care
'Course the poor guy in the closet
sure could use a little air.

Oh you hear a lot of stories
'bout the sailors and their sport.
About how every sailor
has a girl in every port.
But if you'd added two and two
you'd figure out right quick
That it's just because the lassies
have a lad on every ship.

Oh, it's twiddley ai dee ai dee o,
twiddley ai dee ay
Well it's lots of times a man will leave you
broken with dismay
Oh, it's twiddley ai dee ai dee o,
twiddley ai dee ay
There's others willin' to twiddle
when your man is gone away

Oh, it's twiddley ai dee ai dee o,
twiddley ai dee ay
Well it's lots of times a man will leave you
broken with dismay
Oh, it's twiddley ai dee ai dee o,
twiddley ai dee ay
There's other Willie's willin' to twiddle
when your Willie's gone away.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 02:39 PM

Lovely Joan, where the heroine rips off her wood-be robber & ravager, riding away on his own horse with his (no doubt ill-gotten) bags of gold. You GO girl...

PS: I Freudianly mis-typed the above as his "bags of golf" -

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 02:40 PM

I meant "would-be". Double meanings are working overtime today -

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 02:43 PM

Stagger Lee.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 02:54 PM

Steve, is there a woman in the plot of Stagger Lee (apart from the offstage "very sickly wife")? The bulldog was barking at the two men who gambled in the dark, so I'm not clear how a woman triumphs in this story - ??? Unless I'm thinking of the wrong Stagger Lee.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 03:06 PM

On second thought, I like your take on it much better!

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 03:21 PM

Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret. After being chased out of an abusive relationship, Lady Margaret poisons Lord Thomas and promises to bury him, as he's dying.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 03:22 PM

Before or after?

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: bfdk
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 04:12 PM

Nutty,

Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk is in the database.

Best wishes,

Bente

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Jacqui
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 04:46 PM

Martinmas Time! (it's on the Digitrad)

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 04:50 PM

I'm shocked! How can a thread like this come this far without mentioning The Devil & the Farmer's Wife? Also known as The Farmer's Curst Wife.

Or We Never Mention Aunt Clara" (who lives on the French Riviera)?

Or The Lonely Willow Tree?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 04:59 PM

Oyster girl.

She picked both his pockets and then down the stairs she went and left him with a basket of oysters...

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 05:24 PM

Isn't there a song on a simiar theme in The English Book Of Singing Penguins called The Basket Of Eggs?

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 06:17 PM

I'd say the women come out on top a lot more often than not, in folksongs anyway.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Carol Francis
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 06:23 PM

Fair Annie, at least in Martin Simpson's exquisite version.

Carol

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 07:13 PM

"The Ten Dollar Bill"

is a modern update of an old English one...

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Teribus
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 07:33 PM

"Maids when you're young never wed an old man"

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 07:47 PM

Uncle Dave, Abby mentioned the Farmer's CRUST Wife in post number 8. I wonder if she's related to the cherry-pie baker who was engaged to Billy Boy Billy Boy?

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 08:52 PM

A personal favorite is Fairport Convention's "Naked Highwayman". The title character finds himself wooed, then stripped of clothes and guns by his female rival. Who then goes on to rob the coach and is last seen riding the poor highwayman's horse into the sunset...

-- Gary

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Dave Ruch
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 08:59 PM

Wisconsin
The Brisk Young Butcher

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 09:02 PM

That's the same plotline as Lovely Joan, though I haven't heard (or else can't remember) Fairport's version, so don't know if it has a different melody or words. Great story, though.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 09:04 PM

The 19th-century English original of "Ten-Dollar Bill" is called "Christmas Goose".

Eppie Morrie (Child 223). Woman abducted by a gang, one of whose members wants to marry her, wrestles with him all night & does not let him deflower her. In the morning, the man she has in mind happens by & gives her a ride home.

The False Lover Won Back (Child 218). Man who has gotten a woman in trouble announces that he is deserting her, as usual. She follows him and persists in her entreaties. He tries for a while to buy her off with gifts, but at length realizes that he has been behaving badly, professes his love for her, and turns his horse around. (A Child ballad without a single felony! MacColl & Seeger sing it beautifully.)

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: The distinction between qualitative and quantitative differences is one of degree. :||

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 11:10 PM

Bonnie, In Lord Thomas & Lady Margaret, she comments as Lord Thomas is saying: I"m weary, Lady Margaret, He said,I'm weary drinking with thee, and so was I Lady Margaret said, when you hunted your hounds after me. But, I'll bury you Lord Thomas She said, just as if you were one of my own, and when my good lord comes home, I'll claim you were my sister's son.

Last two verses, so I guess she waits till he's dead to bury him. I wonder what he did to get banished, even by the aristocracy.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 11:41 PM

My favorite of these is the "Maid on the shore"
last verse goes
And yonder she stands all alone on the sand
A-waving her handkerchief fair-o
Saying "you are the Captain who plows the salt sea
And I'm still the maid on the shore (oh shore)
I'm still the maid on the shore

And how about "Sauvey" where the girl dresses as a robber and tests her lover by trying to rob him of the ring she has given him?

The Gardner Child is another where she tells him to take his paidle and....

Great stuff
Julia

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Tootler
Date: 10 Jun 06 - 06:59 AM

"The Highwayman Outwitted"

Girl on the way home from market is held up by a highwayman. He gets her to hold his horse which she promptly jumps on and rides home to find that not only she has she escaped, but she has acquired a substantial fortune in his saddlebags.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 10 Jun 06 - 07:31 AM

In "The Dreadful Ghost" she is driven to suicide but her ghost gets him in the end...

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 Jun 06 - 07:50 AM

ooooo, painful...

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Kenny B Sans Kuki
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 02:50 PM

Jock o Hazeldean
Monongaheela Sal

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:28 PM

Is it acceptable for the victorious woman to be wicked? If so, then Child Owlet (Child 291) should be included. Lady makes a pass at her husband's nephew, who indignantly refuses. She stabs herself with the usual penknife, and tells her husband that she has incurred the injury defending herself against the nephew's attempted rape. The family resolves to have him torn apart by wild horses, but in the end makes do with tame ones.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: April is the cruellest month, Breeding lilacs out of the dead land, :||

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:28 PM

The Sands o' the Shore - well, she's dumped but she reckons she can get a better boyfriend any time.

The Cauldrife Wooer - not wooing enough, in fact, so she dumps him.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: muppitz
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 08:21 AM

I can't remember what the song is called but Isambarde do a song about a girl who's mother makes her marry an older man who can't satisfy her so she basically tells him to sod off because she's going to find a younger man who can.
Same sort of theme as "Maids when you're young...."

muppitz x

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 09:14 AM

The Fair maid of Fyvie reverses the usual trooper and the maid scenario.
She jilts the soldier who dies of a broken heart.

The False Bride leaves a broken hearted swain when she goes to be wed to another.
Keith.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: JennyO
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 10:30 AM

This is a rather spooky one, where you could say the woman comes out on top, although it could be argued that by the time that happens, she isn't actually a woman. It's in the DT The Griesly Bride

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Layla
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 04:36 PM

Keith are you speaking about Charlotte here !

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 09:21 AM

How about King Henry-the old hag in the haunted hall turns out to be not so bad when he "gives her all her will". I think this may be related to the Arthurian Loathly Bride where Gawaine marries the incredibly ugly woman to defend Arthur's honor.
Am enjoying this thread- thanks fols

Julia

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Carol
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 09:50 AM

One of my favourites
Daughters of the Revolution
by Berni Armstrong

The great wooden latch closed upon

The men marched away, their guns slung over their shoulders
They looked far too few to stop the British in their stride
Some kissed them farewell, some looked on with their babies
Most turned away and took their children back inside
But what could we do? The men had made the decision
What could we say as they marched out of the glen
No tears stained our eyes, we had too many chores to attend to
For we were 16 unarmed women and they a platoon of fighting men

No sooner had they gone than the Redcoats had us surrounded
Said they'd hold us hostage 'til our men gave up the fight
'We'll billet in the church', their captain gave out the order
But we knew far too well where his men planned to stay the night.
But what could we do? Their captain had given the order
What could we say to hold off these English men?
No tears stainedvour eyes we had too many plans to attend to,
For we were 16 unarmed women and they a platoon of fighting men

Well, Bertha brought them beer and spilled it over their powder.
Mary let the bullocks loose and laughed as they gave chase
Sara, Ruth and Ann seduced two guns from the soldiers
'Twas worth a slimey kiss to see the look upon their face
But what could we do but make our own decisions?
What could we say that would aid us in our fight?
No tears stained our eyes; we had too many plots to attend to
For we were 16 unarmed women and they a platoon of fighting men

Suitably prepared, Kate went to visit their captain.
What a shock he got when she lifted up her skirt
And pulled from underneath his seargent's dueling pistol
Saying, 'Order your men into the church and no-one will get hurt.'
So what could we do but make our own decisions?
What could we say? There could be no turning back.
No tears stained our eyes, we hd prisonrs now to attend to.
For we were 16 armed women and they a platoon of beaten men.

The great wooden latch closed upon the church door.
'We'll burn it to the ground', we said, 'if you try to escape.'
We stood guard 'til dawn 'til our men came back to the valley
Expecting to be heroes who would rescue us from rape
But what could they do? We had made the decision.
What could they say of our bravery that day?
No tears stained our eyes except for tears of laughter,
For we were 16 fighting women and they a platoon of fighting men

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: frogprince
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 02:02 PM

"Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy"





(I'll get my stetson....)

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 05:44 PM

Most of my initial thoughts have come up already, but what about Tam Lin - child # 39- In any version I can think of, the heroine comes out on top.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Barry Finn
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 08:41 PM

No one has mentioned the version of Geordie where the maid buys his life back but "the blood would've flowed upon the green before I lost my dearie".
This one the woman is on top & comes out on top.

'She's The Lass I Do Adore'.

It fell all on a clear spring morn
As the sun rose or'e the bloom
The geese & woodcock shook the dew
The fish flew through the foam
I spied a lass that struck my heart
My eyes saw nothing more
It was then that I was lost in love
For she's the lass I do adore

I approached this fair maid for a word
But no words could I speak
The drops of sweat rolled from my brow
My arms & legs did quake
My heart was pierced, I could not speak
Sound gone for ever more
I knew she had my heart & soul
For she's the lass I do adore

She asked if I would walk with her
Through the foggy morn
She led me past the ancient oaks
O're the hills & far beyond
She lightly took me by the hand
My feet felt no forest floor
My heart it soared o're the land
For she's the lass I do adore

Among the purple heather we sat down
The ground did seem to moan
Branch & bough all seemed to bend
As bluebells blew like horns
She left me there upon my back
Till the stars they brightly shone
So amazed in wonder there I lay
For she's the lass I do adore

The years have past before my eyes
Since that day in early spring
Still the view is freah & fair
And still the smell so keen
I've wondered far & traveled wide
In the hopes to see once more
The lovely maid that laid me down
For she's the lass I do adore

copywrite Barry Finn 2000

Barry

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: HuwG
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 03:23 AM

A slightly rude one: Courting in the Kitchen

And a very rude one: Eskimo Nell

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 04:19 AM

Martinmas Time.
The girl is forcced to agree to come alone at night the the dragoon barracks.
She keeps her word but comes disguised as a dragoon, and is given cash to go and find lodging in the town.

(and no Layla, I don't think that Charlotte could be that cunning)

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: ard mhacha
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 04:49 AM

Killyburn Brae, The husband makes a pact with the Devil to take his nagging wife, in the end the wife has the last laugh,

`Says the Devil here`s your wife safe and well

she wouldn`t be kept not even in hell,

For i`ve been a Devil the most of my life

but I was never in hell `til I met with your wife,

So it`s true that the women are worse than the men

when the are sent down to hell they are kicked out again.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Pelrad
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 08:29 AM

Short Jacket and White Trousers (from A.L. Lloyd and Louis Killen):

Short jacket and white trousers this young girl she put on
And like some handsome sailor bold went rambling 'round the town,
And she did engage with our Captain Ross a sailor for to be
All for to seek her own true love across the raging sea.

One night as she sat drowsing, she was ready for her bed
When our captain heaved a sigh and said, "Oh, I wish you were a maid.
With your rosy cheeks and your curly hair you have beguiled me,
And I've often wished with all me heart you could me sweetheart be."

"Oh hold your tongue, dear Captain! Such talk is all in vain,
And if our shipmates came to know, they would make sport and game.
And when that we do reach the shore, some pretty girls we'll find
To ramble along with us bold lads, if we're that way inclined."

It was a few days after we docked in Baltimore
And that maid she appeared in her petticoats, which made our Captain roar.
"Oh, a sailor I have been on board, but a maiden I'm going ashore,
And you missed your chance, dear Captain! Adieu forevermore!"



Also, much more dramatically, the heroine of Fairest Flower of Serving Men.

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 09:14 AM

Woo woo Barry!! Nice!!
A bit like "The Queen among the Heather"
Another modern one is Willy- O by Steve Sellors

Girl disguises self as sailor seeking runaway lover,
signs on bark
secret is discovered
turns out the whole crew and captain are also women looking for the same guy

They opened their vests
and out fell their breasts
and who would have guessed
they're all on a quest
for their Willy- O

All the BEST
Julia

Subject: RE: songs where the woman comes out on top
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 10:30 AM

A belated response to muppitz's post. The song's called 'Whirly Whorl' and the lyrics go like this...

Oh the very first wedding I's bridesmaid at was on a Saturday
There was plenty of lively fun and likewise sporting and play
The bells were rung and us girls we sung and it's to the church went all
And the bride's off to bed with the silly old groom to play at the whirly whorl

Well first she modestly turned her back, and then she turned her front
And long she wished for kindliness, but kindness she got none
At last she took him all in her arms and threw him against the wall
Saying "Are you there, you silly old bugger, you've lost your whirly whorl."

"Oh, woe be to my mother," she said, "she's done to me much ill,
She's married me to this silly old bugger, it's all against my will
But I'll dress myself in my coat of green, my feathery bonnet and all
I'll find a young man all of my own to play at the whirly whorl."

If you need a tune we have a free streamed version on our site.

Chris