Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor

Subject: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: Flashmeister
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 10:37 AM

Would anyone know what the chords/tune for this song would roughly be?
the lyrics are below -
I know that there are many varients on the theme but it's more specifically these words i am looking to use.
Hopefully someone has an idea - if not I'll have to do my own tune or borrow one!

THE LOVER'S LAMENT FOR HER SAILOR

As I was walking along the seashore,
Where the breeze it blew cool, and the billows did round,
Where the wind and the waves and the waters run
I heard a shrill voice make a sorrowful sound.

Chorus:
Crying, O my love's gone, whom I do adore,
He's gone and I will never see him more.

I tarried awhile still listening near,
And heard her complain for the loss of her dear;
Which grieved me sadly to hear her complain
Crying, he is gone and I will never see him again.

She appeared like some goddess, and dressed like a queen,
She's the fairest of creatures that ever was seen.
I told her I'd marry her myself, if she pleas'd,
But the answer she made me, was my love is in the seas.

I never will marry nor be any man's bride,
I choose to live single, all the days of my life,
For the loss of my sailor I deeply deplore,
As he's lost in the seas I shall ne'er see him more.

I will go down to my dearest that lies in the deep
And with kind embraces I will him intreat,
I will kiss his cold lips like the coral so red,
I will close up his eyes that have been so long dead.

The shells of the oysters shall be my lover's bed,
And the shrimps of the sea shall swim over his head,
Then she plunged her fair body right into the deep,
And closed her fair eyes in the water to sleep

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 12:50 PM

This seems to be a variant of the one called in DT "I Never Will Marry", for which two closely related tunes are there provided for which the normal major 3-chord-sequence works well. It's from the singing of Texas Gladden, & I remember a Peggy Seeger recording from about the early·1960s.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: RTim
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 02:47 PM

This is a version of Roud 1004
- called My Love is Gone by the Copper family or The Drowned Sailor is other guises.
It can be found, sung by Mr. Lake in the Gardiner collection via the Take 6 website
See - http://library.efdss.org/archives/cgi-bin/search.cgi

Input the Roud number and you should be able to access the music.

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 04:50 PM

Lake's version is the one published in Purslow's 'The Wanton Seed' the new edition of which will be out later this year. The tune there seems to be the one I've heard in the folk clubs occasionally, which was also close to that sung as a burlesque (piss-take) by Sam Cowell c1850. I have a copy of the original sheet music for the burlesque. Before it was burlesqued it was a broadside song in its own right dating back to the 17th century.
IMHO the further developed ' I Never Will Marry' popularised by the Carter Family in America is a big improvement.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: Flashmeister
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 07:37 AM

Thanks for all you suggestions and assistance - I know of I Will Never Marry but much prefer these older words.
I do another similar song 'John Riley', popularized by Joan Baez, which is a similar sort of thing relating to a lost sailor (who returns in the end with a test of her fidelity) and there is a whole rake of these sort of songs out there - this version just appealled more to me lyrically.
I will certainly try the Roud number and root it out that way.
Failing all that I can't go far wrong with G, D and A!! :-)

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: RTim
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 03:08 PM

I just notice my very silly error on the Roud number for this song -
It should of course be Roud 1005!

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 03:55 PM

Something wrong here. Where did you get the number 1005 from, Tim?
'The Lover's Lament for her Sailor' is Roud 466, Laws K17.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: Flashmeister
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 03:58 PM

Was wondering why I couldn't find it!!

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: Flashmeister
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 04:05 PM

ah ha - have found music on folk info.com via VWML Online by Roud no. 466.
should be what i am looking for.
Lover's Lament...

getting hotter :-)

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 04:16 PM

I'd still like to know where Tim got his wrong number from.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: RTim
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 04:18 PM

Hi All,

I got Roud 1005 from The Lake entry for the song on the Take 6 Archive.
So I assumed that was correct - but I now see it is wrong.
Steve - Shall I tell them or are you in more regular contact with Malcolm et al?

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 04:52 PM

Hi Tim,
Thanks for this. It's actually SteveR who is in charge of this. I'll pass the message on. Please let me know if you spot any others.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: mikesamwild
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 03:02 PM

There's a nice version on LP Sea Songs by Robin Garside and Paul Gough, from the 70s

Subject: RE: Chord Req: lovers lament for her sailor
From: Little Robyn
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 03:07 PM

That looks like the version Liza Carthy sings.
Check out her recordings or Waterson Carthy CDs. I'm sure she recorded it.
Robyn