The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #157044   Message #3704909
Posted By: MGM·Lion
28-Apr-15 - 01:53 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Barbara Allen
Subject: RE: Origins: Barbara Allen
Hi Richie: Indeed it certainly frequently occurs in #74 also. But it is surely, as I say, a "floater", which can furnish an appropriate coda to any of the several [or indeed many] ballads which end with the deaths of the two main protagonist lovers. I should think it a somewhat chimerical search to attempt to establish in which it made its first appearance!

I am always intrigued that Harry Cox, who was well aware of the existence of multiple versions ("Some people sing that different to what other people do. You might know a different tune") should nevertheless in this instance have accused those who included matter he knew in the context of another song, of getting "mixed up".

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