The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #69419 Message #1176964
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
03-May-04 - 01:04 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Six Sweethearts / Six Girls
Subject: Lyr Add: SIX SWEETHEARTS (from Sam Henry)
Not sure what you want. Here are the lyrics from Sam Henry.
SIX SWEETHEARTS
I've had a grand experience I'm going to tell you now, By courting six girls all at once; they served me anyhow. My mother said, "You're wicked." I laughed at her advice, She said that I was naughty, but I was very nice.
So I fell in love with Mary Ann and then with Mary Jane, And then with pretty Miss M'Cann and then with Kate M'Clean, And then with Betty Hopsican and then with Nellie Small, I stayed at home on Sunday night for fear I'd meet them all.
But oh dear me, I mixed their names, and at the garden gate I bid good-night to Betty, but I called her darling Kate. I wrote a note to Nellie, but I called her Mary Jane, And then, to make the matter worse, addressed it 'Kate M'Clean.'
I never will forget the day I met the blessed six, Mary Ann says, "You will pay for all your little tricks,' And then she caught me by the hair, and Mary Jane my coat, And Miss M'Cann brought some young man who caught me by the throat.
Mary Jane she clawed my face until it ran with blood, And as for Betty Hopsican, she smothered me with mud. And then to make the thing complete, sure, pretty Nellie Small Bashed my hat till it was flat against the garden wall.
I tossed about in bed that night, I had such dreadful dreams, I dreamt they were pursuing me with horrid scraighs and screams, I dreamt they punched me black and blue and stuck me full of pins, I dreamt they put on big nailed boots and kicked me on the shins, I dreamt they roasted me alive and I was quite a-hot, I dreamt that I became a Turk and married all the lot.
Notes- Lines 5 and 6 of the last verse are to be sung to lines 3 and 4 of the air. Music given, key D, 2/4. Other title: 'Six Girls.' Source not given. "Sam Henry's Songs of the People," p. 340, original reference 6 July 1935 H605.
I remember this or a similar song or story from school days, so it is known in some form in the States.