The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3850   Message #33917
Posted By: JB3
02-Aug-98 - 02:52 AM
Thread Name: ADD: Barb'ry Allen
Subject: Lyr Add: JIMMY GROVE AND BARBARA ALLEN
My mother sang a Barb'ry Ellen version I used to beg for before going to bed a night. (some lullabye :) The newer version was on a New Christy Minstrels album I used to listen to, twenty years ago. Here's my recollection:

JIMMY GROVE AND BARBARA ALLEN

T'was in the merry month of May
When the green buds were swellin'
All the boys from miles around
Came to call on Barbara Allen

Don't want your land, don't want your gold
Nor all the sweet words you're tellin'
My heart belongs to Jimmy Grove
He's comin' home to Barbara Allen

He has no land, he has no gold
You'll have to work and slave beside him
I'd rather have my Jimmy Grove
Than all the world, cried Barbara Allen

As she was going o'er the hill
She heard the death bells a-knellin'
He's gone, he's gone, your Jimmy Grove
They've killed your love, sweet Barbara Allen

They buried them both in the old churchyard
In death he was beside her
And from her grave grew a red, red rose
And out of his, a fragrant briar

They grew and grew in the old church yard
Until they could grow no higher
And there they twined in a true-love's knot
For all true lovers to admire

Seems there should be a verse about her dying, or begging someone to dig her grave, in this version, but I don't remember it.