Help: Can you identify this song?

Subject: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: pismotality
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 05:05 AM

This is a long shot, but around the mid sixties I heard a song on the radio which included the lyrics:

Oh, the fools, the silly fools [possibly singular]
Oh [or how] I wish I were a maid again

and it has haunted me on and off ever since. Does anyone know of it? Now, it obviously sounds folky but I'm fairly certain it's not one of those "Till cherries grow on an apple tree" variants. Possibly from some vaguely folk-derived musical?

Subject: RE: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email)
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 05:15 AM

It's a great song. It's called "Will Ye Gang Love"
        

My love, he stands in yon chaumer door
Combin' doon his yella hair
His curly locks I like tae see
I wonder if my love minds on me

Chorus (after each verse):
Will ye gang, love, and leave me noo?
Will ye gang, love, and leave me noo?
Wid ye forsake yer ain love true
And gang wi' a lass that ye never knew?

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
I wish I were a maid again
But a maid again I'll never be
'Til an apple grows on an orange tree

I wish, I wish my babe was born
I wish it lay in daddie's arms
And I masel were deid and gone
And the wavin' grass all ower me growin'

As lang's my apron did bide doon
He followed me frae toon tae toon
But noo it's up and abune my knee
My love gaes by but he kens na me

Mak my grave baith lang and deep
And put a rose at my head and feet
And in the middle a turtle dove
Let the people know I died for love

Subject: RE: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 05:21 AM

It wasn't Dusty Springfield: Silly, Silly Fool was it?

or was it

Steeleye Span - Four Nights Drunk

Now as I come home so drunk I couldn't see, oh
There I saw a horse, no horse should be there
I says unto me wife, tell this to me, oh
How come the horse there, no horse should be there
You old fool, you silly fool, can't you plainly see, oh
Nothing but a milk cow me mother sent to me, oh
Miles I have travelled a thousand miles and more, oh
Saddle on a milk cow I've never seen before

And as I come home so drunk I couldn't see, oh
There I saw boots, no boots should be there
I says unto me wife, tell this to me, oh
How come the boots there, no boots should be there
You old fool, you silly fool, can't you plainly see, oh
Nothing but a flower pot me mother sent to me, oh
Miles I have travelled a thousand miles and more, oh
Laces on a flower pot I've never seen before

And as I come home so drunk I couldn't see, oh
There I saw a hat, no hat should be there
I says unto me wife, tell this to me, oh
How come the hat there, no hat should be there
You old fool, you silly fool, can't you plainly see, oh
Nothing but a chamber pot me mother sent to me, oh
Miles I have travelled a thousand miles and more, oh
Sweat-band on a chamber pot I've never seen before

And as I come home so drunk I couldn't see, oh
There I saw a man, no man should be there
I says unto me wife, tell this to me, oh
How come the man there, no man should be there
You old fool, you silly fool, can't you plainly see, oh
Nothing but a baby me mother sent to me, oh
Miles I have travelled a thousand miles and more, oh
Whiskers on a baby I've never seen before

Subject: RE: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 05:22 AM

I knew it in the 60's in English as "Love is Teasing" with a chorus as follows;

O love is teasing and love is pleasing
Love is a pleasure when first it's new
But as you grow older then love grows colder
Then fades away like the mornin dew


Hoot

Subject: RE: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: pismotality
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 06:46 AM

Many thanks for suggestions but no, it definitely isn't one of those I Wish, I Wish, or Butcher Boy or Love Is Teasing songs. I'm wondering whether it might have been an "authored" song in a folk style which plucked the "I wish I were a maid again" from one of those sources to give it an air of authenticity. But the two lines I quoted -

Oh, the fools, the silly fools [possibly singular]
Oh [or how] I wish I were a maid again

definitely went together. So not Four Nights Drunk or Seven Drunken Nights or whatever either. Had a quick listen to Dusty Springfield's Silly, Silly Fool, and it's not that either. Also had a quick listen to Lionel Bart's vaguely folky musical Lock Up Your Daughters - no joy.

Subject: RE: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 08:50 AM

ISAAC BICKERSTAFFE (1735?-1812 or later)
Songs from "Love in a Village"

III

How happy were my days, till now!
I ne'er did sorrow feel,
I rose with joy to milk my cow,
Or take my spinning-wheel.

My heart was lighter than a fly,
Like any bird I sung,
Till he pretended love, and I
Believ'd his flatt'ring tongue.

Oh! the fool, the silly, silly fool. [comma intended?]
Who trusts what man may be;
I wish I were a maid again,
And in my own country.

Source: Williams, Iolo Aneurin, 1890-1962, "The shorter poems of the eighteenth century; an anthology selected & edited with an introduction" (1923), see here.

Any irony is obviously unintentional. To be honest, I prefer "Will Ye Gang Love".

Grishka, a newly-created expert thanks to Google

Subject: RE: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 08:59 AM

Sounds a lot like

"I wish I was single again, again and again and again, when I was single my pockets would jingle, Oh I wish I was single again"

see this thread

Subject: RE: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 09:11 AM

The music to the ballad opera Love in a Village (1762) is by Thomas Arne. The title "Comic Opera" refers to the spoken dialogues and the happy ending, most other comic elements a probably unintentional.

Subject: RE: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 09:19 AM

Mr Red: Note that "maid" means a physiological rather than a juridical status. Bickerstaffe's heroine would actually prefer to be married, although she would not have been the first or last to regret it afterwards.

Subject: RE: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: GUEST,pismotality
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 01:33 PM

Thanks, Grishka, I suppose it must be that. I will check out what recordings exist.

Subject: RE: Help: Can you identify this song?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 03:02 PM

Nice one, Grishka!