Subject: RE: Bachelor's Hall - clarification needed From: GUEST Date: 24 Nov 04 - 08:53 AM
The 1st verse of the version by Jean Ritchie seems identical to the first verse of "Wagoners Lad" (as sung by the Kossoy Sisters on an Audio CD of Appalachian Music which I have).
There appear to be 2 themes here: (a) The song is actually sung by a woman who laments the free and easy attitude some young men can adopt to love; this was obviously in the days before female contraception since some present day females can give the males a run for their money in this respect (b) A comment on the squalor of the typical "bachelor pad".
As P.J. O'Rourke once wrote when comparing the relative merits of private and public ownership, anything you own yourself is usually tidier and better organised than anything public (eg public buildings, lavatories, etc). However he issued a disclaimer: "If you're a typical bachelor under 30, please ignore the last bit." (or words to that effect).
I remember Steeleye Span also did a versuion of Bachelors Hall. The ony lines I can remember were I think at the end of the chorus: "Always stay single, Keep Bachelors Hall".
Well...maybe not. I looked up Kossoy Sisters and the Wagoner's Lad and found the following with a mention of Joan Baez also singing it. Looks like a different song:
Oh hard is the fortune of all womankind It's always controlled, it's always confined Controlled by her parents until she's a wife Then slave to her husband for the rest of her life
She is a poor girl, and her fortune is sad always been courted by the wagoner's lad He courted her truly both night and by day But now he is a-loaded and a-going away
Your parents don't like me they say I'm too poor They say I'm not worthy to enter your door But I work for a living, my money's my own And them that don't like it can leave me alone
My horses ain't hungry, and they don't need your hay Come sit down beside me for as long as you stay I'd go to Montana if the moon showed any light, But my pony can't travel this dark road tonight.
I once had a sweetheart and her age was sixteen She's the flower of Belton and the rose of Seline. But her parents was against me, now she is the same, If I'd writ on your book, love, you just blot out my name.
Hard is the fortune of all womankind It's always controlled, and it's always confined Controlled by her parents until she's a wife Then slave to her husband for the rest of her life.