The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #790   Message #2304
Posted By: LaMarca
17-Feb-97 - 10:34 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Pretty Peg (from The Bothy Band)
Subject: Lyr Add: PRETTY PEG
PRETTY PEG is a version of the Child ballad "The Keach in the Creel"; lyrics are approximately (with some Anglicization):

When Pretty Peg walked down the street some fresh fish for to buy,
The wee town clerk followed after her and he kissed her by and by.

CHORUS: With my tiddy right faladiddle daddy, etc.

"Oh, how can I get to your chamber, love? How can I get to your bed,
When your daddy goes to bed at night with a keen eye on his head?"

"Oh, go and get a ladder, love of thirty steps and three,
And a creel all on the top of that, And come down in the lum to me."

(Creel = a large basket; lum = chimney)

So he's went and got a ladder Of thirty steps and three...
***MEMORY LAPSE HERE***

No peace nor ease could the old wife get with dreams running through her head.
"I'll lay on me life," said the gay old wife, "there's a boy in our daughter's bed!"

The old man crept...*ANOTHER MEMORY LAPSE HERE*
Silence reigned throughout the house

"My curse attend thee, Father. What brought ye up so soon,
To put me through my evening prayers, and I just lying down?"

He's gone back to his gay old wife. He's gone back to she.
"She's got the prayer book in her hand and she's prayin' for you and me."

No peace nor ease could the old wife get till she's gone up to see...
*****(Damn; when your memory goes, forget it)
And into the creel went she.

"Oh, high I rocked her. Didn't I rock her? Didn't I rock her well?
For if any old dame begrudge me her daughter, I'll rock her into hell."

Hope you or someone else can fill in the asterisks; look for a similar but more detailed Scottish version called "The Blue Blanket" which describes the lovely young daughter hiding her boyfriend in a blue blanket while Daddy comes up to check on her, and the boyfriend's brother/accomplice waits on the roof for a tug on the rope to pull him back up. When Momma falls into the basket, of course the accomplice starts hauling, Momma starts screeching that the Devil has her and a fun time is had by all!