Origins: Collier Lassie/Laddie

Subject: RE: Collier lassie
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Feb 22 - 09:54 PM

COLLIER LADDIE

I've traveled east and I've traveled west
And I've traveled pure Kirkaldy,
But the bonniest lass that e'er I spied
She was followin' her collier laddie.

cho: Laddie, O, laddie
But the bonniest lass that e'er I spied
She was followin' her collier laddie.
(final 2 lines of chorus change with verse.)

"O whaur live ye my bonnie lass?
Come tell me what they ca' ye. "
"Bonnie Jean Gordon is my name,
And I'm followin' a collier laddie."

cho:

"O would ye fancy ane that's black
And you sae fair and gaudy?
O fancy ane o' higher degree,
Than followin' a collier laddie."

cho:

"Ye see yon hills the sun shines on,
The sun shines on sae gaudy ;
They a' are mine and they shall be thine,
Gin ye'll leave your collier laddie. "

cho:

"Though ye had a' the sun shines on,
And the earth conceals sae lowly,
l wad turn my back on you and it a'
And follow my collier laddie."

cho:
Then he has gane to her faither dear,
To her faither gane sae brawly ;
Says: "Will ye gie me your bonnie, bonnie lass
That's followin' a collier laddie?"

cho:

"O would she marry a man that's black,
And me sea braw and gaudy?
I'll raise her up to a higher degree
Than followin' a collier laddie."

cho:

Her faither then he vowed and swore:
"Though he be black he's bonnie;
She's mair delight in him, I fear,
Than in you wi' a' your money."

cho:
"O, I can win my five pennies a day,
And spend't at nicht fu' brawly,
And I'll mak' my bed in the collier's neuk
And lie doon wi' my collier laddie."

cho:

"Love for love is the bargain for me,
Though the wee cot-hoose should haud me,
And the world before me to win my breid,
And fare for my collier laddie."

cho:

From Songs and Dances of Scotland, Thomson
Note: this, plus the first version (ÿCOLLADÿ), go together to make
a fairly complete picture. See also ÿFACTGIRLÿ, for a
similar bit of lower-class snobbishness.
@mining @love @Scottish
filename[ COLLAD2
TUNE FILE: COLLAD2
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

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Ballad Index:

Collier Laddie, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer (or someone) sees a bonnie lass, and steps up to court her. She rejects him; she loves a collier laddie. He goes to her father, offering land and wealth. She still says no. Years later, he turns up poor and begs at the door of girl and collier
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty rejection marriage begging
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #65, p. 1, "The Ploughman Laddie" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 991, "The Collier Laddie" (7 texts plus two fragments on pp. 607-608, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 40-42, "The Collier Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 60, "Laird of Johnstone and Miss Jean Macdowall" (1 fragment)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 29-30, "The Collier Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COLLAD COLLAD2*
Roud #3787
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird o' Drum" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Jeannie Gordon
The Ploughman's Lass
File: Ord040A

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Subject: RE: Collier lassie
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Feb 22 - 07:13 PM

Same song?

https://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=1253

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COLLIER LASS

My name's Polly Parker, I come o'er from Worsley
My mother and father work down the coal mine
Our family is large, we have got seven children
So I am obliged to work down that same mine
And as this is my fortune I know you'll feel sorry
That in such employment my days I must pass
But I keep up my spirits, I sing and look cheerful
Although I am but a poor collier lass

By the greatest of dangers each day I'm surrounded
I hang in the air by a rope or a chain
The mine may give in; I may be killed or wounded
Or perish by damp or the fire of a flame
But what would you do if it weren't for our labours
In greatest privation your days you would pass
For we would provide you with life's greatest blessing
So do not despise a poor collier lass

All the day long you may say we are buried
Deprived of the light and the warmth of the sun
And often at night from our beds we are hurried
The water is in and barefoot we run
And though we go ragged and black are our faces
As kind and as free as the best we'll be found
And our hearts are more white than your lords' in high places
Although we're poor colliers that work underground

I'm now growing up fast, somehow or another
There's a young collier laddie runs strange in my mind
And in spite of the talking of father and mother
I think I should marry if he is inclined
But should he prove surly and will not befriend me
Another and better chance may come to pass
And my friends here I know to him will recommend me
And I'll be no longer a poor collier lass

I heard this from Frankie Armstrong at McCabe's. JN
@mining @work
filename[ COLLLASS
TUNE FILE: COLLLASS
CLICK TO PLAY
JN

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I don't see a Traditional Ballad Index entry on Collier Lassie / Polly Parker, but there's a good entry at https://mainlynorfolk.info/frankie.armstrong/songs/thecollierlass.html.

Are there sources earlier than Frankie Armstrong?

"Lassie" and "Laddie" seem totally unrelated to me, but I'm open to being proved wrong.

Subject: RE: Collier lassie
From: Llewellyn
Date: 28 Nov 99 - 06:17 AM

Hi Susanne, I checked the version in the DT and it is similar enough so it looks as if 'Collier Laddie' and 'Collier Lassie' began as the same song and evolved to their present form. Llewellyn

Subject: RE: Collier lassie
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 27 Nov 99 - 07:52 PM

Could it be 'Collier Laddie' in the DT? It's similar to Llewellyn's line but there's no dancing in it. - Susanne

Subject: RE: Collier lassie
From: Llewellyn
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 09:48 PM

I have on tape somewhere a version by the Watersons which start "I've been East and I've been West and I've been to Saint Johnstone but the bonniest lassie ever I saw was a collier's lassis dancing" I'll try to find it and post the lyrics, if no one beats me to it.

Llewellyn

Subject: Collier lassie
From: Tom Davies
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 09:14 PM

Hi all, a bit of help required: There's lots of songs about colliers and collier laddies but can anyone fill in the lyrics to a song which contains the line: "the bonniest lassie ever I saw was a collier lassie dancing"?