Lyr Req: Lady Mary (closed)

Subject: anybody know this beauty
From: GUEST,dan evergreen
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 09:45 AM

I once knew a song that started with this verse:

"He came to my garden gate; he came to my cottage door.
His words were few but his looks will linger forevermore.
The look in his sad dark eyes, more tender than words can be.
But I was nothing to him; though he was the world to me."

Do any of you know the rest of this song or anything about it?

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Lady Mary in the Digital Tradition

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Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 09:49 AM

Lady Mary. Carl Sandberg is reported to have called it "The Sad Song." I learned it from a Joan Baez recording. Still one of my favorites after all these years.

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: kendall
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 09:59 AM

you may find it on a tape called "Beginners luck" by catter Kendall

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 10:12 AM

You can also find it in DigiTrad as Lady Mary. To search, if you don't happen to know the title, enter a phrase from the song in the search box, such as [I was nothing to him] and you'll find it. The square brackets indicate a phrase, rather than disconnected words.

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: SINSULL
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 10:26 AM

Didn't WyoWoman sing this at her concert? Made me weepy.

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: sophocleese
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 11:06 AM

Okay what's happening here? Coincidence? I'm not sure. I just found this song myself on the DT and on Lesley Nielson's Contemplator site. The tunes are different. Clearly variations of each other (or one of the other or both of another). Its a nice song but I don't know where the tune that is on Lesley's site came from.

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: Catrin
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 11:14 AM

Dan,

click here for the words

Yes, its so beautiful. I had been singing it for years before I found this in the DT and realised I had been missing off the last verse. Unforgiveable!

Cheers,

Catrin

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: kendall
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 12:48 PM

Dont feel bad, I realized after it was too late that I left out a verse on my recording!

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 01:14 PM

The song was collected from Missouri singer May Kennedy McCord by, I believe, Vance Randolph and Max Hunter and popularized by Joan Baez. It is certainly a beautiful song. As far as I know Ms McCord did not claim to write it, but there is no other source. The last verse, "How will it be with our souls", is supposedly a later addition to the song. Does anyone know of any other sources or regions in the country where the song was sung in tradition? The only versions I have ever heard were in debt to Randolph, Hunter, and Baez who were in return in debt to May Kennedy McCord.

Nice to see mention of this. Hope the discussion turns up more information.

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 01:39 PM

I have no additional info about the source of the song, BUT it sounds Victorian and composed to me.

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: kendall
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 02:44 PM

Dont know who wrote it, but, I got it from Kathy Barton on her tape "On a day like today" Folk Legacy of course.

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: GUEST,Barry T not at home
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 03:22 PM

Lyrics and my midi are over here.

I first heard this song performed by the New Seekers (superb rendition by the way). In trying to find the genealogy for the tune I, too, was surprised to find that it had an American origin. As I recall, it was collected in Kentucky.

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: bbc
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 08:17 PM

Ah, kendall, when we heard it on your "Beginner's Luck" cassette, we knew we'd heard it elsewhere. We searched our collection till we found it on Cathy Barton & Dave Para's recording. (We recently also heard them sing it in concert--nice!) They call it "Palace Grand" but their liner notes say it is also called "Lady Mary" & "The Sad Song." They say it is "often associated w/ Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, a popular Ozarks ballad singer who learned many of her songs from her friends & family in Galena, Missouri." They learned it from Kay Blair of Mountain View, Arkansas. Lovely song!

bbc

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: WyoWoman
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 08:27 PM

This IS cosmic. I just did it on my Mudcat concert. I've loved it for a long time and knew the Hunter/Baez/McCord connection, but nothing more.

ww

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 08:34 PM

Yes WW, my first hearing of it that I know of, was your beautiful rendition at the Mudcat Concert. I'll always remember that one!

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 11:11 PM

I misread the thread title. I thought you were asking if anyone knows p.j. Yeah, her and Dave are good friends. Why, I was over at their house this last......oh, yeah, that's not what this thread's about. Sorry.

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: Hollowfox
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 11:23 AM

Evelyn Beesr did it on one of the Beers Family recordings, Columbia Records, pre-1970.

Subject: RE: anybody know this beauty
From: WyoWoman
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 06:01 PM

F'anks, Mary. I actually learned to fingerpick my guitar for that one ... Whoo-hoo!

And C.R., I think P.J. should plant a big, smooshy kiss right on the top of your head for that. Tell'er I said so.

ww

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To avoid confusion, this thread is closed to additional posts. Please post in the Lady Mary thread.
-Joe Offer-