The Traditional Ballad Index lists two songs with this name.
Bachelor's Hall (I)
DESCRIPTION: About the sad life of a bachelor: "Bachelor's Hall, what a queer looking place it is, Keep me from such all the days of my life." The singer describes the mess and squalor of the place, and the pitiful lives of its inhabitants.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942
KEYWORDS: bachelor loneliness
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 475, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text)
Notes: There is another "Bachelor's Hall" which describes the good life in the Hall: "No woman to scold you, No children to bawl, Always stay single, keep Bachelor's Hall."
As I have only one version of this text, I cannot really determine the relationship between the two -- but the present text is not in the same meter as the other.
Charles Dibdin wrote a piece called "Batchelor's Hall" in 1794, but I haven't found a text of that, either. - RBW
File: R475
Bachelor's Hall (II)
DESCRIPTION: "When young men go courting they'll dress up so fine," meet the girls, dress up -- and end up worn out, (broke), and claiming, "I believe it's the best to court none at all, And live by myself and keep bachelor's hall," where neither wife nor children nag
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: courting bachelor
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Abrahams/Foss, p. 120, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 273, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text)
DT, BACHHALL
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Batchelor's Hall" (OKeh 45056, 1925; on TimesAint04 as "Bachelor's Hall")
Notes: There is another "Bachelor's Hall" which describes the difficult life in the Hall: "Sure when I think what a burning disgrace it is, Never at all to be getting a wife, See the old bachelor gloomy and sad enough...."
As I have only one version of #1, I cannot really determine the relationship between the two -- but the present text is not in the same meter as the other.
Charles Dibdin wrote a piece called "Batchelor's Hall" in 1794, but I haven't found a text of that, either. - RBW
File: AF120Go to the Ballad Search form
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