Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 18 May 17 - 04:51 AM

There is a usage of "bob" at Eton School that is likely quite old.
Those who opt to be rowers are wet-bobs and other sports dry-bobs.

Civilian men did not where bright colours so the red and yellow suggests military not a herd boy.

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: GUEST,Violets 49
Date: 17 May 17 - 04:39 PM

Regarding the meaning of 'Lichtbob' may i suggest a possible origin. every line infantry regiment had a 'light' company of Skirmishers. In the Napoleonic wars, during the peninsular campaign, the idea came up to form 'Light' regiments of Skirmishers including two 'Rifle' regiments claad in green and armed with the Baker rifle. In about 1808, the 'Light division' was created by Major General Sir Robert Crawfurd. Known coloquially as 'Black Bob' I wonder if 'Lightbobs' (In Scots Lichtbob) was a now long defunct nickname for the light Division'created by Black Bob? Might i also suggest that the 'Lichtbobs Lassie variant of that song may have been popular during the period of the Napoleonic war?

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 12 Oct 12 - 05:54 PM

Should line three on verse three not read -sae weel I like the lad etc.

after the fifth verse we sing.

An' oh ma back's been sair
Wi' sheerin Craigie's corn,
I winna see him the nicht
but I'll see him the morn.

We also sing the chorus
Fur he's a bonny lad. an' he's a handsome fellow,
He's a bonny lad ,an' he wears the red and yellow.

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: GUEST,marie
Date: 05 Oct 12 - 04:30 AM

haha thanks thaat conjures up images that make the corners of my mouth curl

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: mikesamwild
Date: 06 May 12 - 07:26 AM

Both feature in versions of the same song so it will be a singer making apparent sense of a word that they haven't come across. It happens all the time .

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 09:49 AM

My unabridged dictionary has three meanings for lea:

pasture
scythe
a certain measure of thread or yarn, for linen, 300 yards.
========
Here are Mary Black's lyrics:

First when I came to the town
They called me young and bonny
Now they've changed my name
Called me the Leaboy's honey.

I'll dye my petticoats red
And I'll face them with a yellow
I'll tell the dyester lads
That the Leaboys I've to follow.

It's over hills and dales
And over dykes and ditches
Say will I like the lad
Who wears the moleskin breeches

The black horse draws the cart
And he's as proud as any
Say will I like the lad
That drives them on so canny

Feather beds are fine
And painted rooms are bonny
But I would leave them all
To jog away with Johnny

Oh, for Saturday night
It's I that'll see my dearie
He'll come whistlin' in
When I am tired and weary.

First when I came to the town
They called me proud and saucy
Now they've changed my name
Called me the Leaboy's lassie.
=======
We can conclude from this that both the lassie and the leaboy had trades that kept them on the move. And that the leaboy drives a horse and cart.

Frankly, I wonder if even the person who wrote the lyrics knew what a leaboy actually was.

(That leaboy is the same as lichtbob is not very convincing.)

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: mikesamwild
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 06:34 AM

Ewan McLennan sang it the other night in Sheffield and we wondered about the Lichtbobs. Thanks

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 03:19 AM

The main source of this song is the Greig-Duncan collection.
This is the relevant part of the note.
Hamish Henderson suggested that it was a soldier.
I think it was Isobel Sutherland who recorded it first,                                                                                                                                                                           
Jim Carroll

725 THE LEABOY'S LASSIE
Light Bobs were light infantrymen formerly part of the fighting establishment of all foot regiments but in the mid-nineteenth century re-grouped to form light infantry regiments.

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 10:47 PM

Spaw, thanks ever so much for your explanation.

I think that a leaboy was originally a lief boy, or dear boy. Rather like Dainty Davy, in fact.

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 09:24 PM

Try telling that to a mole!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 02:56 PM

Ah. Thank you.

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 02:42 PM

Sorry Mike, but moleskin is not the same as corduroy. Moleskin is a dense cotton fabric.

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 02:27 PM

... but Spaw doesn't know that ~ haven't you noticed?

Re query way above about 'moleskin trousers': an old name for what we now call corduroy ~~ "double-twilled fustian", according to Chambers. An inaccurate nomenclature, to be sure; but such often the case with fabrics &c. Camelhair paint brushes aren't made from camel hair, for that matter, but horse, goat, sheep &c; tho camel hair coats are, generally.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: Megan L
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 01:03 PM

Aye ye kin fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but ye canny fool all of the people all of the time

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: mikesamwild
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 10:23 AM

I've just quoted that erudite explanation ata fok club and been laughed at . I also used it in a last minurte plagiarised webessay and will be thrown off the folk music course. My parents have disowned me and I am in heavy debt. You should think before you play tricks on gullible young folk enthusiasts. It's just not funny!

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 10:09 AM

Actually a Lichtbob was the designated torch lighter for members of the Light Brigade. Sadly, they also stayed toward the front of the action and many were killed in the action against the Curley Pow warriors in the Crimea.

Light Brigades were specially trained in night fighting and carried torches into battle. After encountering initial successes against Buddhist Monks they were assigned to battalions fighting against the Curley Pow Warriors in Crimea. On the night of September 15th they devastated the entire Daintey Davey Division, setting fire to their curley pows and sending them running in flaming retreat across the battlefield with the Light Brigade in chase. The "blunder" oft referred to was that the Light Brigade followed too closely. When the flaming Curley Pow Warriors stumbled through an unseen fourth dimensional time warp encountering a future supply dump of the Nazis in WWII, the whole place blew up killing the remaining Daveys but also a goodly number of the Light Brigade as well.

Hope that helps.


Spaw

Subject: RE: Meaning: Leaboy's Lassie
From: mikesamwild
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 09:46 AM

Was a lichtbob a soldier in The Light Brigade. If you google it you get lightbox or lightbulb!

Subject: RE: Help: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: WyoWoman
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 12:01 AM

Sounds a lot like being a freelance writer ...

ww

Subject: RE: Help: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: GUEST,Jackie B
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 10:20 PM

WW. To follow a soldier into battle was not considered as being a 'mean task' Wives and children were not to be shot (or targeted) during battle. Most soldiers, especially in the service of Napoleon (if Irish) were not paid, but lived by the spoils of war. So at times it could be quite profitable (if you lived)

Subject: RE: Help: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: WyoWoman
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 02:19 PM

Thank you, all.

I thought the dyeing of the petticoats meant such, but I never would have thought "Leaboy" would be a soldier. Was this considered tantamount to being a whore, to be a soldier's lassie?

ww

Subject: RE: Help: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 12:01 PM

"Licht Bob" was a 'Light Bob', a special type of infantryman. This is the apparent origin of all, licht bob, lingboo and leaboy.

Subject: RE: Help: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: GUEST,Jackie B
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 08:32 AM

Patricia Flynn from Mullaghbawn, South Armagh sings this song on her album 'Stray Leaves' She explains on her sleeve notes that the song comes in two forms, the 'Lea Boy's lassie or in other words the 'herd boy's lassie, while the other is the 'Lichtbob's lassie' (Lichtbob, meaning a regiment of soldiers) Patricia also explains that to dye your petticoat red (and yellow) indicates that she was intending to follow a soldier. this would also explain the same intention in 'Shule Aroon'. Hope this is of some help WyoWoman.< BK > slan Jackie

Subject: RE: Help: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: GUEST,Kathy Westra
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 06:27 PM

Great song. Another good recording of it has been done by Cilla Fisher, who as I recall did explain the dyeing of the petticoats in her album notes (and, unfortunately, I'm not in a place where I can pull it out and read the liner notes...sorry). Maybe someone who's closer to their collections of recordings can help out... Kathy

Subject: RE: Help: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 06:22 PM

That song Noreen mentions is from a translation of "Shule Agrah" into Gaelic made about 1890. It's already been discussed in this forum. There are earlier versions of the song on my website and in this forum ("Johnny has gone for a solder/ Shule Aroon, etc.)

Subject: RE: Help: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 06:15 PM

Since "lea" means "pasture" I assume a "leaboy" is a boy who tends the livestock in the pasture.

Subject: RE: Help: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 06:07 PM

Usual title is "The Leaboy's Lassie". Titles are those the singer gave it. Also known as "The Licht Bobs Honey", "Lingboo's Lammie", "Rob's Lassie". 9 texts and/or tunes are in 'The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection', IV, #725, 1990. As I noted on my homepage I will not reprint songs from that collection (as long as it remains in print, now from Mercat Press). There are many relatives of it in the Scarce Songs 1 file on my website collected under the general title of "Ay, Waukin, O". (www.erols.com/olsonw or click on it from Mudcat's Links)

Subject: RE: Help: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: Noreen
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 06:03 PM

Interesting, WW- I'll have to get that CD. I'd like to know the answer to Q3 as well; 'I'll dye my petticoats, I'll dye them red' appears in another song -Siubhail a Ruín and I've assumed some significance.

Noreen

Subject: LEABOYS' Lassie
From: WyoWoman
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 05:43 PM

Three questions:

When I was listening to the Black Family CD and heard this song, I thought it was the "Lee boy's lassie." Now that I've finally gotten out the words from the CD cover, I see that it's "Leaboys Lassie." Is there such a thing as a "leaboy" and if so, what is it?

And, in this and another song (Schooldays Over) it refers to "moleskin trousers" and I'm assuming that to symbolize the job of a physical laborer, as saying "khaki uniform" does now. Is this accurate?

And it the Leaboys song, the girl says that she will dye her petticoats red and face them all with yellow. Does this symbolize something -- other than a young lady trying to look snazzy for her young man?

Thanks, WW