The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #60570 Message #1000689
Posted By: IanC
12-Aug-03 - 04:24 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Black Velvet Band (variations)
Subject: Lyr Add: BLACK VELVET BAND (from Peter Kennedy)
B - Kennedy, Peter "Folksongs of Britain and Ireland " (1975) page 695 (no. 313) (Collected from Bill Cameron of St Mary's, Scilly Isles, 1956. Bill learned the song from Tommy Crocker, a fireman on board the "Lioness", a mail ship which ran from Penzance to Scilly, before World War I)
In Belfast's famous city, An apprentice boy I was bound And many's the happy hour Have I spent in that neat little town. Till my future prospects belated, Which gave me to understand, Then by me, young man, take a warning; Beware of the black velvet band.
O, one evening as I rambled, Not thinking of long for to stay, Till I met with a gay young deceiver Came a tripping across the pathway. O her eyes they shone like diamonds And I thought her pride of the land, And her hair it hung down o'er her shoulders, And tied in a black velvet band.
O one evening a flash-man a watchman, She happened to meet on the sly; I could tell that her mind it was altered By the roll of her dark eye. O that watch she took from his pocket, She slipped it right into my hand Then she gave me in charge to a policeman Bad luck to the black velvet band.
Now before the Lord Mayor I was taken, My "Guilty" they prov-ed quite plain, And he said if I was not mistaken, I should have to cross the salt main. Now it's sixteen long years they have gave me To plough on Van Diemens Land, And it's far from my friends and relations; My curse to the black velvet band.