Face or place?

When I first heard Tim Hardin perform this song at the Night Owl Cafe in New York City he would sing:

The lady came from Baltimore,
All she wore was lace,
She didn't know that I was poor,
She never saw my place.

Then Joan Baez recorded it and sang:

She never saw my face.

At first Tim resisted. After all, Susan Moore and the thief were lovers. Of course she would have seen his face, at least in the literal sense. What she had not seen was his place, either in terms of his social standing or his abode.

Alas, in time Joanie's lyrics won out. The last time I heard Tim Hardin, he, too, was singing face instead of place.

--- Steve