Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For Love

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For Love
From: leeneia
Date: 30 May 17 - 12:58 AM

Let's see if I have this right.

Boy meets girl.
Girl gets pregnant.
Boy leaves girl.
Girl's family reacts with blame, rejection, greed.
Girl commits suicide.

And then we sing that she died for LOVE?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For Love
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 29 May 17 - 10:43 AM

She sings it again while cleaning the grate at about 7.30 into the episode.
Hope this helps even if it is a long time after the original post.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For Love
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 29 May 17 - 10:36 AM

The girl doing the washing up at about 1.08 into this YouTube video of the Upstairs Downstairs episode, hums and sings a bit of the song, |I think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpgBotjJO9Y

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For
From: Mudlark
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 11:24 PM

In the version my Gran sang (she was partly raised by an Irish family) it was the father that found the daughter...slightly different verses than the one above...

Her mother then left her alone
In sadness there to weep and moan
And when her Daddy he came home
He said, "Now where has my daughter gone?"

He rushed upstairs, knocked down the door
And found her hanging to the floor
He took his knife and cut her down
And in her pocket this note he found.

My Gran always sang this with a dramatic quaver in her voice, quite unlike the voice she used to sing Ta Ra Ra Boomp De Ay!

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For
From: Kent Davis
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 10:43 PM

There's a rock version, "Jersey City", on a cd by Cordelia's Dad, "Comet". The lyrics are already posted. (Enter "Jersey City" in the 'Lyrics and Knowledge search' on this page.)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BUTCHER BOY
From: Red and White Rabbit
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 04:08 AM

This is the version I sing

In yonder city there did dwell
A butchers boy,I loved him well
He courted me m life away
And then with me no more would stay

She went upstairs to make her bed
And not one word to her mother said
Her mother she went upstairs too
Saying daughter daughter what troubles you

Oh mother mother I cannot tel
That butchers boy I love so well
He courted me my life away
And now at home he will not stay

There is a place in London town
Where the butchers boy goes and sits down
He takes a strange girl on his knee
And tells to her what he wont tell me

Her father came home from his work
Saying where is my daughter she seems so hurt
He went upstairs to give her hope
And found her hanging from a rope

He took a knife and cut her down
And in her bosom these words found
Go dig my grave both wide and deep
Place a marble slab at my head and feet

He dug her grave both wide and deep
A marble slab at her head and feet
And on the coffin placed a snow white dove
To warn the world that she died for love

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For
From: Joybell
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 02:51 AM

There are so many. "Jamie Douglas" Child Ballad 204 - from Scotland, seems to be one of them and the earliest I've come across. The much more recent "Love is Pleasin'" is the version usually thought of as the Irish one.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 02:34 AM

Hello, My Mom use to sing this song to me...A verse I remember is:

There is a house in the same town
Where he goes right in and he sits right down,
He takes another girl on his knee
And he tells her things that he want tell me.

Then I remember the last verse of:

Oh dig my grave both wide and deep
And on grave place a snow-white dove
To prove to the world I died for love...

Does anyone have these lyrics?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For
From: GUEST,Jill B.
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 10:40 PM

Hi, just an update that I finished my MIDI file for "The Butcher Boy" or "I Died For Love", and it can be enjoyed here: http://www.melodylane.net/butcherboy.html

Thanks for all your help! - Jill, Melody Lane

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For
From:
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 05:58 PM

The song has many variants which usually has a change in the location of the community as well as other minor details.

Usually known as The Butcher Boy, there are variants collected all over the English Speaking world.

I recently heard Eleanor Shanley do a great version.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For
From: GUEST,Jill B.
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 11:16 AM

The one MIDI file I heard for The Butcher Boy had just the melody line. It matches up with what I heard on the Upstairs, Downstairs episode "I Dies For Love", which was made in 1971 or 72 (available on video, I got mine at my local library), so the music obviously must be available from some obscure source. :)

I am presently working on a MIDI file for it with both bass and treble clef, so it is a little more interesting and effective to listen to, for my website Melody Lane at http://www.melodylane.net. It should be up online in the folk music section, in a day or two.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 07:25 AM

Is anyone in a position to post the tunes for these two versions?  Is there any information on where Kirsty McColl and Ryan's Fancy got them from?

Malcolm

Subject: ADD: The Butcher Boy ^^^
From: mg
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 10:19 PM

here are the words I know as remembered from Ryans' Fancy

In Dublin town where I did dwell
Lived a butcher boy I loved right well
He courted me my life away
And still with me he would not stay

I wish I wish I wish in vain
I wish I was a maid again
A made again I'll never be
Till apples grow on an ivy tree

She went upstairs to go to bed
And calling to her mother said
Give me a chair till I sit down
And a pen and ink till I write down

At every word she shed a tear
At every line cried Willie dear
Oh what a foolish girl was I
To be led astray by the butcher boy

He went upstairs the door he broke
He found her hanging from a rope
And with his penknife he cut her down
And in her pocket these words he found

Oh dig my grave dark wide and deep
Place a marble stone at my head and feet
And in the middle a turtle dove
So the world may know
That I died for love.^^^

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For
From: GUEST,Jill B.
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 10:05 PM

Thanks Zeb and Malcolm, you've given me quite a bit to work on. I think the version sung in Upstairs, Downstairs was slightly different, but the storyline is basically the same: the girl hangs herself, which is what happened to Emily in the story. I suppose the Upstairs, Downstairs writers probably had the money and access to find an old vintage sheet music of it from somewhere to base their lyrics on. - Jill

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 08:26 PM

It's a very large family of songs, and examples are found in tradition on both sides of the Atlantic; quite a few are available here if you look around for them.  You might like to check out the links on this thread:  I Wish, I Wish

Malcolm

Subject: ADD: The Butcher Boy ^^^
From: Zebedee
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 07:45 PM

This may be what you're looking for (taken from this page)

Talk about floating verses...

The Butcher Boy

In More Street where I did dwell
A butcher boy I loved right well
He courted me my life away
And now with me he will not stay

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
I wish I was a maid again
But a maid again I'll never be
Till cherries grow on an apple tree

I wish my baby it was born
And smiling on its daddy's knee
And me poor girl to be dead and gone
With the long green grass growing over me

He went upstairs and the door he broke
He found her hanging from a rope
He took his knife and he cut her down
And in her pocket these words he found

"Oh make my grave large, wide and deep
Put a marble stone at my head and feet
And in the middle a turtle dove
So the world may know I died of love"

Is this the song you want?

Zeb ^^^

Subject: The Butcher Boy - I Dies For Love
From: GUEST,Jill B.
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 07:30 PM

Hi, I am trying to find the music and lyrics to a song that was sung by the character of Emily, in a first season episode of BBC's "Upstairs, Downstairs" called "I Dies For Love". She was an Irish Catholic maid who fell in love with a coachman, and ended up committing suicide at the end when their love was thwarted. So I suspect this folk song, which I've been told was called The Butcher Boy, is originally from Ireland. It was sung in the background several times as the episode drew to its sad close, and the music and words were very haunting. If anyone knows anything, please post it or email it to [e-mail], and I would be most grateful. Thanks! - Jill