Where's your version from, Balladeer?

I listened to versions by Susan Reid, by the Simon Sisters, and by Odetta - lyrics in all of them are a bit different from each other. I wish we had the exact lyrics from the Niles songbook. Leeneia, might you want to go back to the library???

-Joe Offer-

---

I'd disagree with JB3's version above, which she attributes to Susan Reid. Here's what I hear on the Susan Reed recording:

If I Had a Ribbon Bow
(as recorded by Susan Reed, 1957 - no songwriter attribution)

If I had a ribbon bow to bind my hair,
If I had a fancy sash, my own true love would think me fair;
Then he would go to Franklin, a-loggin' on the rise,
He'd bring me back with his two hands a very pretty prize.

If I was like the city-born, all fair and smart,
Not a lad in all these parts would know my heart.
Then I would go to Franklin where all the lawin'* goes,
I'd knock about in settlements a-wearin' foreign clothes

If I had a ribbon bow to bind my hair,
If I had a fancy sash, my own true love would think me fair.
My red heels would go a-flashin' where e'er my fancy should,
My love would see and wish that he had taken me when he could.

If I had a ribbon bow to bind my hair,
If I had a fancy sash, so fair.



transcribed by ear from the 1957 Elektra album, Susan Reed (CD reissue by Collectors' Choice, 2006)

*I'm not sure that's the word - Reed pronounces it "lawin'" - other transcriptions have "logging"
In the next line, she pronounces "foreign" more like "furrin'"

This is a terrific recording, by the way, one of two Susan Reed Elektra CD's that Collectors' Choice has reissued.-

---

Click to play