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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,Stevebury DTStudy: Molly Bawn (Polly Vaughn) (159* d) RE: DTStudy: Molly Bawn (Polly Vaughn) 07 Jun 16


This is a fascinating thread; may there be more such "Study" threads as time goes on!

My question concerns how common it is for Molly Ban/Polly Van to be collected or sung with a chorus or refrain after each verse. Most of the versions printed in this thread do not appear to have a chorus.

I first heard "Young Molly Ban" on a Riverside LP of "Irish Street Songs" sung by Patrick Galvin (RLP 12-613, n.d., notes by Kenneth S. Goldstein). The notes give no indication of the source of Galvin's version. But he sang it with a chorus, approximately as follows:
"She'd her apron wrapped around her, and her took her for a swan
But it's oh, and alas, it was she, Molly Ban."

Linscott (1939) published "Polly Van," a version from Lucy Allen from the Allen Family songbook (1899), which has a chorus after each verse:
"For she'd her apron about her and he took her for a swan;
But oh, and alas! it was she, Polly Van."

How common is it for Molly Ban/Polly Van to have a chorus? What other versions have been collected/published with a chorus?


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