The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #140911   Message #3246097
Posted By: Lighter
28-Oct-11 - 10:25 AM
Thread Name: Child Ballads: US Versions
Subject: RE: Child Ballads: US Versions
There's no disagreement. I'm suggeesting that Woofter knew the bawdy song and substituted those refrains. Oddly he didn't employ them all the way through.

What seems to me "suspicious" about Gainer's text, if anything, is the number of rural-American substitutions, like French grass, bullfrogs and toads, the West Fork, and the "old church land." It sounds almost too good to be true, but I haven't examined all the available texts.

Gainer's singing, at Richie's link, is worth listening to.