Lyr Add: Molly, Come Back (George Ward)

Subject: Lyr Add: MOLLY COME BACK (George Ward)
From: Pelrad
Date: 25 Feb 00 - 12:12 AM

Okay, I've got one for the folk detectives...I haven't seen Barry Finn around lately, but this is one he might know.

At least ten years ago I transcribed a recording my father made at one of the Sea Music Fests at Mystic Seaport (I'd say 1984-7). The song stuck in my head so that I learned the tune and words forever; but I have never been able to figure out who the performer was. I know nothing about the song except that the performer introduced it by saying it was from the Mohawk River area. Normally, I would put my money on Dick Swain, even it's obviously a new construct and not a traditional bit, but I'd know his voice anywhere and this recording is NOT him. I'd be willing to bet that this mystery performer wrote the piece, but who the heck was he?

Here's how it goes; anyone got a background/history/author/performer?????

Molly, Come Back

CH: Oh, Molly, come back, have you no shame at all?
The women are different out on the canals;
They talk like the men and they think like the mules
And they don't give a damn for decorum and rules.

Oh, the day that flash captain came sauntering by,
With rum on his breath and a twinkling eye,
A-singing the glories of summers afloat,
You ripped open the mattress and you bought his damned boat.

Now the cows miss the lilt of your voice in their ears,
Our garden is a picnic for woodchucks and deer(s)
Our children run ragged through school, house and church
And my bed is as cold as the eyes on a perch.

Your letter says soon you'll be needing a man
I pleased you before and you know I still can.
I could give up this farm, hell, I'd give it away
But I won't drive your team for no dollar a day.

Subject: RE: Info Req: Molly, Come Back
From: georgeward
Date: 25 Feb 00 - 02:36 AM

Pelrad,

The mystery performer and writer of the song is me.

Maybe it WAS that long ago that I sang it at Mystic. Lord! Where does the time go ? You are missing the first verse.
To wit:

Sweet Molly, me darlin' has gone for a cook,
She's forsaken the springhouse, the kitchen and brook;
Set down her duster, deserted her pal,
And she's gone for a cook on the E-rye Canal.

I usually call the song a tribute to Capt. Michelle Brown, now retired from canalling, who was one of the first of the modern-day tour boat operators on the gradually-reviving Erie Canal (which lies - frozen over as I type this - about 300 yards from here). I sang on her boats for years. Rexford, NY, where I live, is on the eastern end of the canal, just east of Schenectady, NY in southern Saratoga County.

Fact is, the song didn't come to me on the Erie at all. I was wandering around the then-abandoned and now rebuilt old canal hotel/tavern at Smith's Basin on the Hudson-Champlain Canal on a balmy summer day some years ago (find Glens Falls, NY on a map. Smith's Basin is nearby). The song happened in about ten minutes. I've always thought she was just hanging around that old tavern waiting for a mouthpiece and decided I'd have to do!

Subject: RE: Info Req: Molly, Come Back
From: Pelrad
Date: 25 Feb 00 - 10:24 AM

Wow, I struck gold! George, thanks so much for answering. To be honest I don't remember what year the recording is from, but I can look it up next time I come across my files (we recently moved and they're still in boxes). I think the recorder probably got turned on just as you started the first chorus. Thanks for the first verse, it clarifies a lot.

And thanks for bringing the song into being in the first place. I for one have been enjoying it for years, and my little son (18 months) likes it too. It must have struck some chord inside, because I catch myself singing bits of it absentmindedly, and it's never been out of memory long enough to be forgotten.

Oh, just so you know, the family named a schipperke (little black flemish dog frequently used on canal boats; a spitz breed) after this song; we called her Molly but her full name was Molly-Come-Back. :-) (She's still alive and well, but we kids all left home and the parentals split up, and she went to live with a more together family)

I know your name; you've been to Mystic more than once, haven't you??

Subject: RE: Info Req: Molly, Come Back
From: georgeward
Date: 26 Feb 00 - 02:55 AM

I do believe I've never had a dog named after one of my songs before. Love it! I'm honored. Hmm... who else has had a dog named after a song ? Or had ANYTHING named after a song ? Could be a thread.

Yes, I have been on the Mystic Festival more than once, and much more recently (i.e. 2- 3 years ago). It is a favorite of mine, one of those places to catch up with folks I never seem to see anywhere else. And Geoff and company do great things with it.

It always makes my day to find that a song of mine has taken root somewhere. I think it was the poet William Meredith (whom I was greatly privileged to have as a teacher) who said that one's poems are like one's children. The time comes when they go forth on their own into the world, and you have to simply wish them well and hope they are kindly received where they go (I'm sure WM said it better - he always did - but it was a long time ago). Anyway, the same applies to one's songs.

Sounds as if Molly's found a good place.