Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)

Subject: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: GUEST,James Phillips
Date: 18 Dec 21 - 06:20 PM

I couldn't seem to find any lyrics for this song recorded by Artie Trezise so I thought I'd take a stab at adding them.
I think I have most of it although I wasn't sure about a word in the third verse, "and the onward ??? do roll."
It sounds like it should be obvious but I'm drawing a blank.

NANCY BELL
As sung by Artie Trezise

A sailor and his ain true love went out one day to walk
To view the fields and valleys and to have a pleasant talk
To hear the wee birds whistle and the lark in the air soar high
For it is so nice and charming for to hear the young ones cry

And for every sigh that Nancy gave it was for her Jimmy dear
And on her red and rosy cheek shone mony's the sorrowful tear
For I hear you're going to leave me love and it grieves my heart fu' sair
For I hear that you're bound for the West in days, and ne'er to return again

Oh my Nancy, oh my Nancy, I'm sorry to complain
But who has put in your fancy love, that I'll never return again?
For when I'm on the ocean wide and the onward ??? do roll
I will crown ye queen o' my Nancy Bell, you're the girl I do adore

So she's tain the ring frae off her finger and gaed it to her true love
Saying "Tak ye this my Jimmy as a token o' true love"
Saying "Tak ye this my Jimmy and wear it on your right hand,
"It will keep ye in mind o'a broken heart when you're oot in a foreign land"

So he's lifted up his anchor, the ship being ready to sail
Doon the Firth and awa' he went wi' a soothing pleasant gale
Aye doon the Firth and awa' he went, the water being cauld and clear
And it's there that he's tain his last fare weel to the girl he loves sae dear

Sae fair thee weel until bonny Dundee for it is my native shore
And thrice fare weel tae Nancy Bell, she's the girl I do adore
And if I should return again, as I hope someday that I will
I will mak' ye my ain sweet wedded wife, and me charming Nancy Bell

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: GUEST,James Phillips
Date: 18 Dec 21 - 06:23 PM

Just occurred to me that "Firth" is probably more likely "Forth."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: Reinhard
Date: 18 Dec 21 - 06:43 PM

The Roud Index has three entries for Nancy Bell as Roud 5289, from Co. Clare and Co. Donegal, but none from Scotland.

Kevin Mitchell sang Nancy Bell on his 1977 Topic album of Irish songs and ballads, "Free and Easy". In this version the ship's not sailing from the Forth but from Loch Foyle.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: GUEST,James Phillips
Date: 18 Dec 21 - 06:55 PM

Yes the Kevin Mitchell version is the closest to this. I wonder if Artie Trezise has refashioned the words himself from a Scottish perspective. I found this transcription of the sleeve notes for the Kevin Mitchell version:

>>This refashioning of the English song Pleasant and Delightful, in its turn a fragment of Farewell Nancy (see Topic 12T110 and Collinson and Dillon, “Songs from the Countryside”), comes from Cornie McDaid, sexton of Cockhill Church, Buncrana. It’s not so economical as the English versions, it tells less story in more verses and the last two are additions in the characteristic form for the end of emigration or leave-taking songs, but in itself it’s an engaging song. It’s less emotionally intense and more reflective than its “foreign” counterparts. Farewell Nancy is sung, in one shape or another, moderately commonly in Ireland but I’ve never heard it as thoroughly remade as in this case. Despite temptation and the name “Nancy Bell” there is no connection between this song and Lord Lovel (Child 75).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: Reinhard
Date: 19 Dec 21 - 05:35 AM

James, the very terse sleeve notes on Cilla Fisher & Artie Trezise's album "Balcanquhal" say: "Thanks to [...] George Wishart of Flisk for Nancy Bell", so the song was possibly/probably already localised to East Scotland when Artie Trezise learned it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: Reinhard
Date: 19 Dec 21 - 05:41 AM

I think it's "and the onward billows do roll".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: GUEST,James Phillips
Date: 19 Dec 21 - 09:00 AM

Thanks for that sleeve note Reinhard. I had tried squinting at a very low resolution image of the back of the album but couldn't make out the words.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: GUEST,James Phillips
Date: 19 Dec 21 - 09:05 AM

And yes you're probably right about "billows." I found a couple of instances of nautical references to rolling billows in obscure old poems online.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: Reinhard
Date: 19 Dec 21 - 10:41 AM

According to my empirical dataset (lyrics on MN), billows do roar, preferably loudly or thundering, much more often (19 times) than they do roll (just one time, in Will Your Anchor Hold) ;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: Jim McLean
Date: 20 Dec 21 - 02:58 AM

Obviously not “West in days”. West Indies.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: GUEST,James Phillips
Date: 21 Dec 21 - 05:55 PM

Ha ha yes, obviously. Amazing how easy it is to hear it as something completely different. Also, a minor correction but "crown ye Queen o' my Nancy" should be "crown ye Queen oh my Nancy"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: leeneia
Date: 22 Dec 21 - 01:02 PM

Thank you very much, James Phillips, for posting this song PLUS a source for the melody. This is the kind of post that puts a song back into circulation.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nancy Bell (as sung by Artie Trezise)
From: GUEST,James Phillips
Date: 22 Dec 21 - 02:50 PM

Thanks, Leeneia. That was my intention, since the rendition in question stood out as an absolute gem when I heard it.