Lyr Add: Devilish Mary (lyrics not in database)

Subject: Lyr Add: DEVILISH MARY (lyrics not in database)
From: Blackcatter
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 11:14 PM

Hello all.

A coon's age since I posted here. Hope everyone's doing well.

I'm working up some new material for gigs and a friend who's playing with me does a version of Devilish Mary. While I sort of know the song, I dropped by the Mudcat to see what has been said about it. Not much, apparently. Also, both versions in the database are not the lyrics that he performs. Certainly have similarities, but different enough I wanted to post the different lyrics here.

The interesting thing is I know the version that my friend does is more similar to the way I learned as a kid - by going to Disneyland and watching the Country Bear Jamboree. (yeah, I know). They don't do the entire song, but it's closer to the following version than either in the db.

Any more info on the song? Are there alternate titles, or does anyone know where it comes from? I'm having trouble getting info on it. My friend doesn't know anything about it, he learned it from a friend in the 60s or 70s.

DEVILISH MARY (Version 3?)

When I was a young man in my prime
And I vowed I never would marry,
I fell in love with a pretty little girl
Her name was Devilish Mary.

(Chorus)
Sing a ring-tim-a-ting-tim-a-tarry-o
Her hair was brown and her eyes were blue
And her name was Devilish Mary

We were so young and foolish,
We got in an awful big hurry
She decided in about two words
We'd be married come Thursday    (Chorus)

Well we'd been married about two weeks
when she got mean as the devil
every time I'd turn around
she'd hit me with a shovel    (Chorus)

We we'd been married about two months
When she said we'd be parted
so she packed up my roving duds
and down the road I started    (Chorus)

Well if I marry a second time
it'll be for love, not riches
I'll marry a little girl about two feet
so she can't wear my britches    (Chorus)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Devilish Mary (lyrics not in database)
From: Susan of DT
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 09:48 AM

This is not very different from out first version.
It is Laws Q4. Our second version is from the Max Hunter Collection. Both of ours were collected in Arkansas, if that helps any.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Devilish Mary (lyrics not in database
From: Blackcatter
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 10:36 AM

Yes - it's similar, but the chorus is different - the one in the DB just has the:

It's tararinktum, tararinktum ,
Tararinktum ready!

Which isn't really a chorus in my mind.

Thanks.

Subject: Lyr Add: DEVILISH MARY
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 12:50 PM

Devilish Mary

I once dressed up and went to town
to court a fair young lady
I inquired about her name
Her name was Dev'lish Mary!
Come a fala ling, come a ling, come a ling
Fala ling come a dairy!
Fala ling, come a ling, come a ling
Fala ling come a dairy!

_________________
_________________ she got started
We hadn't been married about two weeks
Before we oughta been parted!
Come a fala ling, come a ling, come a ling
Fala ling come a dairy!
Fala ling, come a ling, come a ling
Fala ling come a dairy!

She washed my clothes in old soap suds
Filled my bath with switches
She let me know right out from the start
That she was gonna wear my britches!
Come a fala ling, come a ling, come a ling
Fala ling come a dairy!
Fala ling, come a ling, come a ling
Fala ling come a dairy!

Now if I ever marry again
It'll be for love, not for riches.
I'll marry a little girl about two foot high
So she can't wear my britches!
Come a fala ling, come a ling, come a ling
Fala ling come a dairy!
Fala ling, come a ling, come a ling
Fala ling come a dairy!

From Pete Seeger's singing, late 40s or early 50s
DRO

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Devilish Mary (lyrics not in database
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 04:53 PM

There's a band in Australia going by the name Dev'lish Mary. They have recorded the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Devilish Mary (lyrics not in database)
From: GUEST,Seonaid
Date: 07 Jun 12 - 07:02 PM

This was recorded by the Beers family (Robert "Fiddler" Beers and kinfolk) sometime in the 60's, I believe. Better lyrics than I've heard elsewhere -- give me a couple of days and I'll get them.

Subject: Lyr Add: DEVILISH MARY
From: GUEST,Seonaid
Date: 07 Jun 12 - 07:41 PM

Here are the Beers family's lyrics, as best I can remember (my recording is in a box somewhere -- sorry). The Beers family included Robert ("Fiddler"), Evelyne, & their daughter Martha.
Here's the LP data, if someone wants to look it up:
"Introducing the Beers Family," Columbia MS 6705, LP (1965).

DEVILISH MARY

When I was a young and a foolish lad,
I thought that I would marry,
I fell in love with a pretty little gal,
Her name was Devilish Mary.

   Chorus:
   Doo diddle-oo diddle-oo doo-doo,
   Diddle doodle-oodle-oo-doo doo-doo.
   Doo diddle-oo diddle-oo doo-doo,
   Diddle-oot-doot-doot-doot doo.

We had been married but a day
When all the trouble started,
She combed my hair with a rolling pin
To make sure it was parted.

Said I, "I think it's very nice
To have this fond relation."
"Shut up," she said, "you do the work,
I'll do the conversation."

She washed my pants in old soap suds
And sewed them up in stitches,
She gave to me her prettiest dress,
Said she, "I'll wear the britches."

"By God!" said I, "This is the end,
I cannot stand no more!"
"That's right," she said, "You've had enough!"
And she threw me out the door.

If ever I marry again at all
I'll marry just for riches,
I'll get a little girl about two foot tall
That can't put on my britches.

Subject: Lyr Add: DEVILISH MARY
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 12:03 PM

Lyr. Add: DEVILISH MARY
Coll. Kentucky

1
When I was young and in my prime,
I thought I never could marry,
I fell in love with a pretty little girl,
Tune of "She Got Married."

Chorus-
Rinktum-dinktum-tarry,
Prettiest little girl in all this world,
Her name was Devilish Mary.

2
She washed my clothes in live sop suds,
She peeled my back with switches,
She let me know right up to date
She's gonna wear my britches.
3
We'd been married about two weeks,
We thought we'd better be parted,
She bundled her up a little bundle of clothes
And down the road she started.
4
If ever I marry the second time,
It'll be for love nor [not] riches,
I'll marry one about two feet high,
So she can't wear my britches.

".... recorded by Artus M. Moser from the singing of Paul Rogers of Paint Lick, KY, ....1946. Library of Congress record LP14. Laws, Q4"
Duncan Emrich, 1974, American Folk Poetry, An Anthology, Little, Brown and Company.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Devilish Mary (lyrics not in database)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 12:27 PM

Wow, I love it when there is a song found not in the trad and it's one I've known all my life...

And the version I know is different from all of the above!

My chorus goes something like this here:

Coy, (malinkum?) Mary
Prettiest gal that you ever did see
But her name was Devilish Mary.

We had it by Oscar Brand and Jean Richie, I think. The line about So she can't wear my britches is there. I'll see what I can scare up from the lyrics in my brain...

Subject: Lyr Add: DEVILISH MARY
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 12:35 PM

A similar version to "Devilish Mary" in the DT (the London-Londonderry version) was collected in Arkansas, 1930, with the chorus-
It's tararinktum, tararinktum, tararinktum ready.
Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, volume 3, no. 437, pp. 186-190.
Randolph notes a version sung in Texas in 1897.

"Edna Ferber, in her novel Cimarron.... prints part of another version, as sung by Oklahoma cowpunchers in the 80's."

Randolph collected a version, sung in MO ("1900") in 1941, with a verse:

The first pretty girl that I came across,
It's dear oh won't you have me,
Hair all curled and a-wavin' back,
And they called her devilish Mary!

From another version, coll. in Arkansas-

Oh she tried to break my neck with the broom,
And fill my side with stitches,
She popped her fist right into my face
And swore she'd wear the britches.

She tried to break my head with the broom
And called me the very devil,
She said if I said three words to her
She'd bust my head with the shovel.
Cho.-
To my rye, rye, rye,
To my row, row, row,
To my rock and rye oh dandy!

Another chorus, from Mo:

Try de ma rink dink toddy rinka day,
Try de ma rink dink derry,
Try de ma rink dink toddy rinka day,
Called her devilish Mary.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Devilish Mary (lyrics not in database)
From: GUEST,Walden
Date: 25 Mar 14 - 07:11 AM

Moonshine Kate recorded it in a reversed version under the name "Raggedy Riley" with her father Fiddlin' John Carson.