Lyr Add: The Wild Rover (from Sanderson broadside)

Subject: Sanderson broadside - The Wild Rover
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 06:47 PM

[From the Poet's Box broadsides, two boxes of sheets in the Edinburgh
Room at Edinburgh Public Library. Most were published by John and
Charles Sanderson, who between them kept a broadside business going
for most of the nineteenth century. They are all undated, so I've
given all the text on the sheet - the list of other songs in print
should imply an earliest-possible date. The latest song I could
identify in any of the sheets was Danny Deever, which is from 1898.
Punctuation, spelling and line breaks exactly as in the original.]


The Wild Rover

I've been a wild rover for many a year
I've spent all my money on whisky and beer;
But the time is come, boys, to take better care,
Unless poverty happens to fall to my share.

   CHORUS

   But I'll save all my money and put it in store
   And I never will play the wild rover no more;
   Nae, no, never, never no more,
   I never will play the wild rover no more.

I went to an ale house where I used to resort,
I began to tell them my money was short;
I asked them to trust me but their answer was nay,
Such customers as you we have every day.

Then my hands from my pockets I pulled out straightway
A handful of gold to hear what they'd say.
"O! here's ale, wine and brandy, enough of the best,
It was only to try you, I was but in jest."

Begone you proud landlords, I bid all adieu,
For the devil of a penny will I spend with you.
For the money I've got, boys, I ll put it in the store
And I never will play the wild rover no more.

Let nobody tempt me to pull out my gear,
There's ruin in tasting the weakest of beer,
And if you'd value health, soul, purse and mind,
Come to the pump, leave the alehouse behind.

So now I'll go home to my sweet loving wife,
In hopes to live happy all the days of my life;
From rambling and roving I'll take better care,
Unless poverty happens to fall to my share.

   --------

POPULAR OLD TIME BALLADS.

The Priest; or Deil o' Kilbogie.      Kelly-bank Brae.
Jock Tamson's tripe; or, Jock and the mutch.
The Thirnleebank cobbler.         The muslin.
My husband has no courage in him.    The Scotch
word Imph-m.    The miller o' Drone (price 2d.)
Pretty Nellie; or, Coming home from the wake.
The handsome cabin boy.   Blow the candle out.
Butcher and the chambermaid. Merry plough boy.

   --------

Sold by LOWDEN MACARTNEY, 207 Overgate,
            Dundee.

Subject: RE: Sanderson broadside - The Wild Rover
From: MartinRyan
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 06:57 PM

John Ashton's Modern Street Ballads (18888) has a version which is almost identical to Sanderson's - apart from lacking the second last verse.

Regards

Subject: RE: Sanderson broadside - The Wild Rover
From: MartinRyan
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 06:57 PM

That should be 1888 , of course.

Regards

Subject: RE: Sanderson broadside - The Wild Rover
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 07:03 PM

Sheesh. For a moment there you had us all thinking that songbook fell through a chronosynclastic infundibulum and showed they were still singing The Wild Rover 16,880 years from now.

Subject: RE: Sanderson broadside - The Wild Rover
From: MartinRyan
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 08:11 PM

... while drinking Guinness, of course...

Regards