Hi,

I'm looking for info and lyrics about the bawdy song, The Snoring Maid. Sharp I believe may have sanitized it and published a version titled "Sally My Dear" collected in 1906. Anyone have lyrics to this version?

The main version I'd like to see is James Iron Head Baker's version collected by Lomax. I belive it may be titled "Hallelu." The ballad index has it as:

Creeping and Crawling
DESCRIPTION: The young man, creeping and crawling, seduces the maid, taking a knife to cut the tie on her drawers. He leaves her to lament nine months later.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Sharp mss., a "Sally My Dear" version with the words bowdlerized)
KEYWORDS: bawdy childbirth sex seduction lament clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 33-39, "Creeping and Crawling" (7 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy 178, "The Knife in the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 89, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CRPCRAWL* KNIFWIND
Roud #12590
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Crawling and Creeping" (AFS 717 A1, 1936)
Harry Cox, "The Knife in the Window" (on FSB2CD)
A. L. Lloyd, "Pretty Polly" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
Asa Martin, "Crawling and Creeping" (Oriole 8452, 1935)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hares on the Mountain" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Polly
The Snoring Maid
Lay Your Leg over Me Do
Nancy and Johnny
The Young Doctor
Notes: In England, this song regularly mixes with "Hares on the Mountain," with which it shares a tune. But the plots are different; I happily keep them separate though Roud lumps them (while defining "Crawling and Creeping" as a separate item). - RBW
The Lloyd recording provocatively contains the chorus "Lay your leg over me, over me, do" And at least one recorded version of "Sally, My Dear" -- an American one -- contains the "cutting the trousers" motif. So if "Sally, My Dear" is truly part of the "Hares on the Mountain" family, then "Creeping and Crawling" (or the "Pretty Polly" variant of it) is another link to "Roll Your Leg Over." - PJS
File: RL033

There are some country lyrics and possibly a version by Dorsey. I post some version later.

Thanks,

Richie