Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 03:01 PM

I Am Eve

Words = Irish 11th Century - Anonymous

Music Katherine Blake, Mediaeval Baebes, The Rose cd

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 07:57 AM

Who wrote 'I am Eve'? someone in the Medaeval Babes?

Wondering if there are any other songs about Eve, surely the first anti-heroine and model of all subsequent.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 14 Feb 10 - 05:52 AM

I Am Eve

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

Ropa lem rigtheg dom réir
Olc in mithoga rom-thár
Olc in cosc cinad rom-chrin
For-ír! Ni hidan mo lám

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

Mé tuc in n-uball an-úas
Do-chúaid t ar cumang mo chraís
In céin marat-sam re lá
De ní scarat mná re bats

Ní bíad eigredd in cach dú
Ní bíad geimred gaethmar glé
Ní bíad iffern, ní bíad brón
Ní bíad oman, minbad mé

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

Mé Éva, ben Ádaim uill
Mé ro sáraig Ísu thall
Mé ro thall nem ar mo chloinn
Cóir is mé do-chóid sa crann

English translation

i am eve great adam's wife
it is i that outraged jesus of old
it is i that stole heaven from my children
by rights it is i that should have gone upon the tree

i had a kingly house at my command
grievous the evil choice that disgraced me grievous
the chastisement of the crime that has withered me
alas my hand is not clean

it is i that plucked the apple
it overcame the control of my greed
for that women will not cease from folly
as long as they live in the light of day

there would be no ice in any place
there would be no glistening windy winter
there would be no hell there would be no sorrow
there would be no fear were it not for me

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 14 Feb 10 - 05:43 AM

CS, thank you for that alternative Katy Cruel. I too always flick thru different versions offered on Utube; for this one, liked best the three unaccompanied unison ladies from Gloucester Hornpipe & Clog Society.

~ Michael ~

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Feb 10 - 05:07 AM

"Feher Anna" or "Feher Laszlo" (depending on which of them you want to name the song after) is one of the most widespread Hungarian ballads. There must be more variants of it than there are of "Barbara Allen". A quick YouTube search should come up with a few, with tunes related neither to each other nor to the usual English translated version.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 14 Feb 10 - 04:23 AM

The song is Laszlo Feyer. The song might be Hungarian trad translated and arranged MacColl - or it might be MacColl pretending that one of his originals is Hungarian trad.

Laszlo Feyer stole a stallion, and is tried and convicted and sentenced to be hanged. His sister (Anna Feyer) learns, and goes with gold and six white horses to buy her brother's freedom. The judge says that only "her sweet favour" will do. While the judge takes her virginity in his golden bed at midnight she hears the gallows groaning, and Laszlo's body is re-hanged in the pine forest to rot.

Then she produces the most magnificent curse on the judge

"Cursed be that judge so cruel
Thirteen years may he lie bleeding
Thirteen doctors cannot cure him
Thirteen shelves of drugs can't cure him".

We are not told of the effect of the curse - but you could always add a verse that did just that (folk process)!

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 14 Feb 10 - 03:04 AM

Thanks for Mary McKinnon Jack - she's definitely going on my list!

Sorry about Bert offending your sensibilities there MtheGM *smile*, this any better?
Cordelia's Dad
I think this is pretty good actually.
I like to rummage through YouTube and compare as many different interpretations of traditional songs as possible (as most of these songs are new to me).

As for Anna Freyer RB, can't seem to find her online bar a fragment of a lyric about a judge and some horses.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 13 Feb 10 - 10:34 PM

Sorry, I know tastes vary: but what a horrible fussy piddly-pom-pom Katy Cruel from that pseud Jansch! I have loved that song since Sandy Paton taught it to me at the Troubadour in Old Brompton Road in 1958, and, with all due modesty, I sing it a hell of a lot better than that: was always a fave among members when I ran a folk club near Cambridge 60s-70s.

Agree she will well qualify as anti-heroine tho ~ I am sure she well desrved the empty bottles...

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Feb 10 - 07:03 PM

The prostitute-murderess Mary McKinnon (in my Edinburgh songs collection):

McKinnon's Ghost

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 13 Feb 10 - 06:47 PM

There are some much nastier verses than that to "the False Bride".

What about Anna Feyer?

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 13 Feb 10 - 05:43 PM

Struck me, that the eponymous Katy of Katy Cruel, must be an anti-heroine of sorts. We don't know exactly why she's shunned and re-named 'cruel' by the town, but we can guess that she's a rebellious individual - perhaps a heartbeaker - who refuses to be pinned down and live according to conventional codes.

A rendering by Bert Jansch

Katy Cruel

When I first came to town
They called me the roving jewel
Now they've changed their tune
They call me Katy Cruel
Oh diddle day, oh diddle lie o day

    Oh that I was where I would be
    Then I would be where I am not
    Here I am where I must be
    Go where I would, I can not
    Oh diddle day, oh diddle lie o day

When I first came to town
They brought me the bottles plenty
Now they've changed their tune
They bring me the bottles empty
Oh diddle day, oh diddle lie o day

    CHORUS

I know who I love
And I know who does love me
I know where I'm going
And I know whose going with me
Oh diddle day, oh diddle lie o day

    CHORUS

Down the road I go
And through the boggy mire
Straight way cross the field
And to my heart's desire
Oh, diddle day, oh, diddle lie o day

    CHORUS

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 11:23 AM

Heartless girls dumps her longstanding boyfriend and marries another bloke:

The False Bride

Shirley Collins sings         

I courted a bonny girl for many's the day,
And hated all people who 'gainst her did say.
But now she's rewarded me well for my pains
For she's gone to get tied to another.

The week before Easter, the morn bright and clear,
When the sun it shone brightly and keen blew the air,
I went down to the forest to gather fine flowers
But the forest won't yield me no roses.

The first time I saw my love it was to the church go,
The bride and the bridegroom they caught a fine show.
While I followed after, my heart full of woe,
For to see my love tied to another.

The parson that married them aloud he did cry,
All you'd who'd forbid it, I'd have you draw nigh.
Well, thought I to myself, I'd a good reason why,
Though I had not the heart to forbid it.

The next time I saw my love, it was in the church stand,
A gold ring on her finger, white gloves on her hand.
Thought I to myself, I should have been that man,
Though I'd never once mentioned to have her.

And the last time I saw my love, she was all dressed in white,
Made my eyes fill with tears, they quite dazzled my sight.
So I picked up my hat and I wished her good night,
Here's adieu to all false-hearted true loves.

The ladies and gentlemen they are all asking me,
“How many lilies grow in the salt sea?â€쳌
But I'll ask them back with a tear in my eye,
“How many ships sail in the forest?â€쳌

Go dig my grave both long, wide and deep,
And strew it all over with roses so sweet.
So that I might lie down there and take a long sleep
And that's the best way to forget her.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 10:47 AM

Come to think of it, the Female Highwayman didn't do so bad either.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 10:46 AM

Dunno whether anyone's mentioned it, but Lady Isobel of Child 4 fame seems to me to be the perfect anti-heroine. First of all, she elopes with the elf knight, stealing her parents gold and money and two fine horses in the process. Then, when she discovers his real motives, she sweet talks him into turning his back while she strips naked, or else to bend perilously close to the water while he cuts the thistles so that they won't cut her lily white skin. Either way, she then pushes him in, tells him to get lost when he cries for help, rides home, returns the horses and the money, sweet talks the parrot into -covering for her, and climbs into bed as though nothing had happened.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 09:23 AM

Princess Janet, who not only gets herself pregnant by Willy o' Winsbury, but then has the cheek to tell bare-faced lies to her father: "I have not had any sore sickness, nor yet been sleeping with a man"

Shameless hussy: no heroine she.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Emma B
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 06:38 PM

Thanks Uncle DaveO Aunt Clara is indeed an 'anti heroine' role model for us all :)

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 06:33 PM

Surely that 'Crafty Maid' and the like are heroines, not anti-heroines. Suppose it all depends on your perspective.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 05:48 PM

what about undrentide? bout a queen who goes mad after sleeping too long under a fairy tree... I think

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 02:38 PM

And then Hannah, the wife in The German Musicianer

and

The unnamed wife in The Man Who Wrote the 'Home Sweet Home' Never was a Married Man

and

The Half Hitch

and

The wife in The Molecatcher

and

The wife of The Wee Cooper o' Fife

There's such a lot of them!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 02:29 PM

And there's Aunt Clara, whom "we never mention".

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 02:27 PM

Of course we have Frankie, of Frankie and Albert or Frankie and Johnnie, who killed her pimp, who done her wrong.

Yes, we may find her justified in a manner, but murder is a pretty strong reaction for the provocation.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 02:24 PM

Re Maudlin's profession ~ ref also to song sung by Frankie Armstrong:~

As I came in by Tansy's Wood and down by Geordie's Mill O,
Four and twenty of Geordie's men kissed me against my will O.

~ poignant tale of imprisoned prostitute who attributes her fall to having been gang-raped. It is called 'The Magdalene's Lament'.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 01:54 PM

MadAuntiesCat, yeah fabulous imagery in Tom/Maudlin - thanks for the extra illumination regards Maudlin's likely 'profession' too, she's by far and away one of the most engaging female figures I can think of in the traditional songs I know.

Otherwise, I think this is a great rendition of Greenwood Side by Ian and Sylvia.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 05:54 PM

The Crafty Maid's Policy is an absolute favourite of mine and I sing it at any session I can get to. The twist in the tale is superb!

CRAFTY MAID'S POLICY

Come listen a while and I'll sing you a song
Of three merry gentlemen riding along
They met a fair maid and to her did say
"I fear this cold morning will do you some harm"

"Oh no, kind sir," said the maid, "You're mistaken
To think this cold morning will do me some harm
There's one thing I crave, it lies twixt your legs
If you give me that, it will keep me warm"

"Since you crave it, my dear, you shall have it
If you'll come with me to yonder green tree
Then since you do crave it, my dear you shall have it
I'll make these two gentlemen witness to be"

So the gentleman lighted and straightway she mounted
And looking the gentleman hard in the face
Saying, "You knew not my meaning, you wrong understood me"
And away she went galloping down the long lane

"Oh gentlemen, lend me one of your horses
That I might ride after her down the long lane
If I overtake her, I'll warrant I'll make her
Return unto me my horse back again"

But soon as this fair maiden she saw him coming
She instantly then took her pistol in hand
Saying, "Doubt not my skill, it's you I would kill
I'd have you stand back or you are a dead man"

"Oh why do you spend your time here in talking
Why do you spend your time here in vain
Come give her a guinea, it's what she deserves
I'll warrant she'll give you your horse back again"

"Oh no, kind sir, you're vastly mistaken
If it is his loss, well it is my gain
And you are a witness that he give it to me"
And away she went galloping over the plain

And comes complete with midi file in the Digital Tradition.
here

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 05:43 PM

King Willy - Cloudstreet

Certainly this is traditional, as Crow Sister points out it is Child 6 Willie's Lady most famously recorded by Martin Carthy. However, the Breton tune he uses was brilliantly put to the ballad by Ray Fisher.

Surely the most notorious anti-heroine is the mother (or sometimes mother-in-law) in Famous Flower Of Serving Men as Tim points out.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: GUEST,MadAuntieCat
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 05:10 PM

CrowSister, THANKYOU for the extra verses for Tom/Maud, I'm going to use the ones I don't know along with the alternative chorus tomorrow night. (Starting and finishing with the original first and last verses, like I would for Tom).
Maudlin was from Magdalene, it was sometimes used as an euphemism for a prostitute. Hence Mad Maudlin being 'A mad tart' fighting invisible celestial foes, gypsies, sluts, doxies for the love of her madman.

I love this song.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 03:47 PM

"From: Tootler - PM
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 02:47 PM

I don't think I've seen the "Black Velvet Band" mentioned. There's an out and out femme fatale if ever there was one."

Yes, she's a fine bad 'un!

So, I thought I'd look up a few versions to contrast with the usual Dubliners stylee rendering (like this). I found the experience most illuminating, and in the spirit of sharing humbly proffer up these select offerings for your enjoyment pleasure:

Black Velvet Band #1
Black Velvet Band #2
Black Velvet Band #3

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 02:48 PM

Steve - it was Tom Lehrer: his "Irish Ballad".

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Tootler
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 02:47 PM

I don't think I've seen the "Black Velvet Band" mentioned. There's an out and out femme fatale if ever there was one.

I mentioned "The Well Below the Valley" earlier. It is a version of Child #21, "The Maid and the Palmer".

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 02:45 PM

Vague memories of a song from the 60s 'About a maiden is my song, sing rickety tickety tin....did great wrong...family....did every one of them in, them in, she did every one of them in.' Might have been Leon Rosselson or Tom Lehrer or suchlike.

Emma
'I robbed you for I wished to know if you my truelove was or no,
But now I have contented mind, my heart and hand are always thine'

More of a heroine than an anti-heroine really. We have no evidence she robbed anyone but her lover of his ring and that to test his love.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 02:43 PM

I wish I could get my ideas together.

Fine Flowers in the Valley

Mother killed and buried her baby and is haunted by its ghost.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 02:36 PM

Doh! I forgot The Gay Green Gown! You have heard, maybe even sung that.

Not really a baddie, but she is ruined due to her pride.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 02:31 PM

The Jealous Woman - Graham & Eileen Pratt

Dialogue between woman drowning and the jealous woman who will not rescue her, because she desires drownee's husband, and by the sound of it, her 3 brothers as well.

Pretty cool. I have not sung it in a long time. I should do that again soon.

I daren't post the lyrics here as they would still be under copyright.

But you could go to their website and maybe contact them about using it.

http://www.grahamandeileenpratt.co.uk/music.html

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Young Buchan
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 04:50 AM

This doesn't seem to be in DT although it is on a very old thread. Bits of these got assimilated into Dogger Bank.

My love she is a tailoress - a tailoress by trade
And many a fancy waistcoat for me my love has made,
She gets up in the morning and stitches away till nine
Then her high-heeled boots go clattering down the Knickerbocker line.

Chorus:
Watch her, trail her, pipe her as she goes
High heeled boots - and patent leather toes,
That she was one of those flash-girls I soon found out in time
When her high-heeled boots went clattering down the Knickerbocker line.

When first I saw this pretty girl in High Street she did dwell,
She really took my breath away - she was such a swell
She'd a dandy hat with feathers and couldn't she cut a shine
When her high-heeled boots went clattering down that Knickerbocker line.

I took my love to London - to the Theatre we did go,
To see them all a-staring at her - you'd think she was the show.
Comin' out she stopped me - And partickiller asked the time
Then skiddaddled with my ticker down the Knickerbocker line.

When I found my ticker gone - I raised a hue and cry,
I called out to a Bobby - there was one standin' by.
He says to her - Now come with me - and marched her off so fine
It's three months you must shuffle off this 'ere Knickerbocker Line.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 04:34 AM

The Oyster Girl

Poor lad ends up with no money and not even a nibble of her whelks!

Has Maggie May been mentioned? Not Rod the Mods version of course.

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 04:23 AM

"From: MtheGM - PM
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 04:00 AM

Crow Sister - Magdalene College Cambridge & Magdalen College Oxford are both always pronounced 'Maudlin' within their universities,"

Tsk is me, yes of course Mike - I really should have known that already!

Otherwise, thoroughly enjoying this thread - keep the murderesses, witches and mad-women coming.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 04:03 AM

"From: Joe_F - PM
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 11:31 PM

I second Fred McCormick's nomination of the lady in Child Owlet, whose villainy (framing a man for attempted rape in revenge for his refusal to commit incest) goes, IMO, well beyond mere meanness."

Cor blimey, you're not kidding there folks! Lady Erskine is quite a one isn't she? What an 'orrible gory song ..gotta learn this one! *smile*

Maddy Prior sings it here in a somewhat rocked up arrangement: Child Owlet

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 04:00 AM

Crow Sister - Magdalene College Cambridge & Magdalen College Oxford are both always pronounced 'Maudlin' within their universities, so your discovery is no news to us Bluesers. In the song Magdalene Green, however, about the open space in Dundee, it is pronounced 'Madeleine', like a French cake.

Kitty - surely the Feathery Wife a real heroine: no 'anti-' about it?

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 02:58 AM

Ollaimh, from here: Tom O' Bedlam . Though after a bit more browsing, I think verses from the two songs (ie: 'Tom of Bedlam's Song', and 'Mad Maudlin's Search for her Tom of Bedlam') might be a bit overlapped here, and require a little sifting. In fact I think what most people think of as 'Tom of Bedlam', is in fact more rightly 'Mad Maudlins Search' - as such the alternate chorus I posted above, probably belongs to Tom's Song & not Maudlin's Search! Eh oh!

Interesting factet from Wiki I found about Ms. Maudlin though, apparently "Maudlin" was a form of "Mary Magdalaine" - as the equivalent of the all male 'Bedlam' for women, was the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 02:33 AM

Mary Hamilton, the feathery wife....

Kitty

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 11:31 PM

I second Fred McCormick's nomination of the lady in Child Owlet, whose villainy (framing a man for attempted rape in revenge for his refusal to commit incest) goes, IMO, well beyond mere meanness.

While we are delving into Child (always a likely source for wickedness in either sex), we might well retrieve Queen Eleanor's Confession.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: GUEST,ollaimh
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 03:43 PM

crowsister where did you get those lyrics? they are great!!!

i nominate lady musgrave of musgrave as an anti heroine. she suduces the little musgrave and when caought this leads to both their deaths. she even ignores the warnings and poor musgraves misgivings.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Young Buchan
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 02:56 PM

Henry Higgins would like to point out that you haven't mentioned Fanny Blair yet.

Tony Blair would like to point out that she is no relation and that there is absolutely no history of lying to get people killed in his family.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Peter the Squeezer
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 02:46 PM

Not traditional - but I've always found the character (un-named) in "The Irish Ballad", by Tom Lehrer decidedly scary!

Don't know whether this is a "Cruel Child" Ballad, or a Cruel "Child Ballad", though.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Cuilionn
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 02:34 PM

How about "The Proud Girl" from the eponymous ballad (not sure which Child #), who in the end is tied to a stake and "burns like the holly green"? Proud, aye...and supremely creepy in her vengeful actions.

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 02:17 PM

Doh! How could I omit Mad Maudlin's Search [for her Tom of Bedlam]? The best trad. lyrics for an anti-heroine I've seen. I prefer the alternate chorus as printed below, for providing the addition of Tom's voice describing their mutual passionate devotion. A few more verses here than is usual for good measure too.


To find my Tom of Bedlam
Ten thousand years I'll travel,
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes
To save her shoe from gravel.

CHO: But I will find Bonny Maud, merry mad Maud
    And seek whate'er betides her
    Yet I will love beneath or above
    The dirty earth that hides her.

I now reprent that ever
Poor Tom was so disdain-ed
My wits are lost since him I crossed
Which makes me thus go chained

I went down to Satan's kitchen
To break my fast one morning
And there I got souls piping hot
All on the spit a-turning.

There I took a cauldron
Where boiled ten thousand harlots
Though full of flame I drank the same
To the health of all such varlets.

My staff has murdered giants
My bag a long knife carries
To cut mince pies from children's thighs
For which to feed the fairies.

No gypsy, slut or doxy
Shall win my mad Tom from me
I'll weep all night, with stars I'll fight
The fray shall well become me.

From the hag and hungry goblin
That into rags would rend ye,
All the sprites that stand by the naked man
In the book of moons, defend ye.

The moon's my constant mistress,
And the lonely owl my marrow;
The flaming drake and the night crow make
Me music to my sorrow.

The spirits white as lightening
Would on my travels guide me
The stars would shake and the moon would quake
Whenever they espied me.

And then that I'll be murdering
The Man in the Moon to the powder
His staff I'll break, his dog I'll shake
And there'll howl no demon louder.

With a host of furious fancies,
Whereof I am commander,
With a burning spear and a horse of air
To the wilderness I wander.

I'll bark against the Dog-Star
I'll crow away the morning
I'll chase the Moon till it be noon
And I'll make her leave her horning.

So drink to Tom of Bedlam
Go fill the seas in barrels
I'll drink it all, well brewed with gall
And maudlin drunk I'll quarrel

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: mousethief
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 02:05 PM

Isn't it the greatest? I think the way the two voices work together, with the harmony being so sepulchral, hugely magnifies the eeriness of the lyrics.

(But if you listen really closely to the second voice -- does he not sound just a little like Huckleberry Hound?)

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 01:56 PM

"From: mousethief - PM
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 12:36 PM

Fatal Flower Garden (from Child Ballad 155, Little Sir Hugh)"

Ooh, positively the most eerie song I ever did here! Shiver..

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: RTim
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 01:26 PM

The Mother in The Famous Flower and The Flower of Serving Men!

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
From: Emma B
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 01:14 PM

Solvay, or the Female Highwayman.

"Another girl who dressed in men's clothes, high-spirited this time to a dangerous degree. The heroine of this piece has been called "the kinkiest girl in folk song". It's not quite clear whether her name is really Sylvie or Sophie, but of her fortright and adventurous character there can be no doubt.
Lucy Broadwood found this "an exceedingly favourite ballad with country singers", and every collector of prominence has found versions of it. The good Dorian tune here is akin to the one Sharp published to the words of The Flash Lad (he called it The Robber) in his Somerset series, Vol. V, and is substantially the same as H.E.D. Hammond's Sovie tune from Long Burton, Dorset." Bert Lloyd's sleeve notes