This song is based on Stephen Foster's "Gentle Annie." Foster took the tune from somewhere else, an Irish tune I believe. His song was a lament and I've been told it was inspired by the death of a friend's daughter in an accident.Lyrics for the Australian version are in the DT. It's a matter-of-fact sounding song full of homely details, quite cheery, but somehow it feels like a metaphor song, you know the kind, where a fiddle isn't really a fiddle, etc. - "Your mutton's very sweet, Gentle Annie" just brings other things than farming to mind. Also the first verse refers to wild oats, a symbol of promiscuity. When he says "You'll be anxious to know, G.A., how your little crop of oats is going to yield," it brings up tongue-in-cheek pictures of Annie, nine months later, bouncing a daughter or son on her knee.
Does anyone know where the song came from and when, etc? And is it perfectly innocent after all?
GENTLE ANNIE 2 (DT Version)
(G) G D7 G C / G D7 / G D7 G C / G D7 G
The harvest time's come, gentle Annie,
And your wild oats are all scattered round the field.
You'll be anxious to know, gentle Annie,
How your little crop of oats is going to yield.
C G / G D7 / G D7 G C / G D7 G
We'll say farewell, gentle Annie,
For you know with you I can no longer stay.
Yes, I'll bid you adieu, gentle Annie,
Till we meet you on another threshing day.
Your mutton's very sweet, gentle Annie,
And I'm sure it can't be packed in New South Wales,
But you'd better put a fence around the cabbage,
Or they'll all get eaten up by the snails.
CHORUS
You'll take my advice, gentle Annie,
And you'd better watch your chappie goin' away
With his packbag flung over his shoulder,
And he stole some knives and forks the other day.
CHORUS
The bullocks they are yoked, gentle Annie,
For you know with you I can no longer stay.
So I'll bid you adieu, gentle Annie,
Till we meet you on another threshing day.
CHORUS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The original song, "Gentle Annie," seems to have been written by
Stephen Foster in 1856. Like many good songs, it found it way to
Australia, where it took on local references and, perhaps, a more
ambiguously sensual flavor. This version appeared in print in
Vol. ITUNE FILE: 1964) of Australian Tradition, and was recorded by
CLICK TO PLAY
Martyn Wyndham-Read. Thence via Joe Hickerson to Ed Trickett to
me.
Recorded on Side 2 Band 4 of "Turning Toward the Morning"
@Australian
filename[ GENTLAN2
DC