The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9134   Message #58709
Posted By: Alice
15-Feb-99 - 01:02 PM
Thread Name: Origins: I Know Where I'm Going
Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
Here it is as collected by Herbert Hughes in 1909 volume One of Irish Country Songs. (note this is an old song)
The following is very close to what is in the database, but I have added Hughes' footnotes.

I Know Where I'm Goin'
old song collected in County Antrim

I know where I'm goin' and I know who's goin' with me
I know who I love,
But the dear* knows who I'll marry.

I have stockings of silk, shoes of fine green leather,
Combs to buckle my hair,
And a ring for every finger.

Some say he's black*, but I say he's bonny,
The fairest of them all,
My handsome, winsome Johnny.

Feather beds are soft, and painted rooms are bonny,
But I would leave them all,
To go with my love Johnny.

I know where I'm goin' she said, and I know who's goin' with me
I know who I love,
But the dear* knows who I'll marry.

*dear knows: The Ulster equivalent of "goodness knows"
*black: dour, ungracious

Hughes also notes regarding the old songs: 'Some have very doubtful ancestry, and may have emanated from Scotland, or from the border, or from purely English sources. Today, however, they are so far integrated into the consciousness of the people who sing them, that I am content to let them pass as Irish.....The constant migration between England and Scotland and Ireland during the harvesting season accounts in a very large measure for the continuous importation and exportation of ballads."

alice in montana