Origin: I Loved a Lad

Subject: origin request : 'I loved a lad'
From: NickJ
Date: 10 Dec 96 - 09:45 AM

Can anyone help me with this request ? I'm looking for the origins (simply listed as 'Trad' - no date - on the album) of a track called 'I loved a lad'. It appears on Eddie Reader's (scottish) latest album : 'Canyfloss and Medicine'. The record label is Blanco y Negro (no web site that I can find), and it came out this year.

I'm doing research for a novel and I need : (a) to check that I have transcribed the lyrics correctly (b) to try and find something more than just 'Trad' by way of the song's origins.

Thanks. Nick

Subject: RE: origin request : 'I loved a lad'
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 10 Dec 96 - 08:16 PM

Hi- It's in the DT--also known as the Grey Hawk. I don't know how old it is, but it's been widely collected in England in the late nineteenth/early 20th century.

Subject: Lyr Add: I LOVED A LAD
From: Nick J
Date: 12 Dec 96 - 06:37 AM

Hi Dick,

Thanks for your suggestion, but unfortunately the 'grey hawk' is not the same song. I will include the lyrics to the song (hopefully I've transcribed them okay) in case this helps jog anyone's memory.

Thanks again,
Nick
______________________________________________________

I loved a lad, and I loved him so well.
But I hated all others who spoke of his ills.
But now he's rewarded, may well for my love.
Now he's gone to another.

And I sell my love, down by the corrach side
All bridesmaids and braid walk on down by his side.
I sat down beside him and I poured out the wine.
Now he's wed to another.

The lads in the forest, they ask of me.
"How many wild strawberries, grow in the deep sea?"
I ask them the same, I ask them quite plain,
"How many ships sail in the forest?"

Dig me a grave, both long and both deep.
And cover it over with flowers so sweet.
And maybe's a turning to take a long sleep?
And maybe's in time I'll forget him?

Subject: RE: origin request : 'I loved a lad'
From: Susan of DT
Date: 12 Dec 96 - 07:33 PM

It is usually I once {or ainse} loved a LASS and we have several in the DT There is a family of songs around the False Bride or The Week Before Easter. Find them in the DT with file names of FALS* or FLSE* (you can search for those). There are two common tunes to the false bride - one is also used for Ladies Go Dancing at Whitsun and the other is used for I once loved a lass and a variety of other songs, such as Birmingham Sunday. One interesting quirk is that whenever this tune is used, the ships in the forest verse is used, even tho it is usually irrelevent.

None of this answers you question. A quick look at a dozen or so books on my shelves did not yield an answer, so I will dig offline and tell you if I find anything definitive.

Dick - Why didn't we put a DT number on this??

Subject: RE: origin request : 'I loved a lad'
From: Susan of DT
Date: 12 Dec 96 - 09:09 PM

I found it. First I was wondering when I did not find the song under False Bride, Week Before Easter or I once loved a lass in about 40 books. Of course most of my books are ballads. Then I found it in Kennedy, Folksongs of Britain and Ireland.

First reference: c.1685 broadside by John White of Newcastle upon Tyne: The Forlorn Lover (I had forgotten that title)

also 1773 New Partheon Concert #14 The False Nymph 1871 Roxburghe 1881 Christie 1895 Baring Gould and so on with 9 more before 1920.

Is this what you wanted?

Subject: RE: origin request : 'I loved a lad'
From: Susan of DT
Date: 13 Dec 96 - 08:33 AM

There are 7 versions of the false bride in the DT with filenames of FLSEBRDE FLSEBRD2 FLSEBRD3 FLSEBRD4 FLSEBRD5 FLSEBRD6 FLSEBRD7. These can all be found by searching for FLSEBRD* It we had put a DT# on them, it would be easier in that you could just search for the number. We will enter your version next time (april) and will put a DT# on them. Check out the versions.

Subject: RE: origin request : 'I loved a lad'
From: NickJ
Date: 14 Dec 96 - 05:23 AM

Thanks a million -- that's just what I was looking for. I'm sure I'll be using DT a lot more in the next year or so. Keep up the good work,

Nick

Subject: RE: Origin: I Loved a Lad
From: GUEST,Phillip
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 06:37 AM

This is not exactly the right place, but I thought I could append it here?

I have recently heard on youtube a version of The Lambs on the Green Hills sung by "Sheila O'Donnell". It's very good, reminiscent of The Johnston's version. But I can find no such Irish singer anywhere else and so can't get a copy of the recording. Does anyone know any more about it or her? (There is a Chicago singer of that name, but wrong woman, I think.)

To find the recording search on youtube for

Interpretive Dance to "The Lambs on the Green Hills"

or go here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kOhg5lhazQ&t=114s

Thanks

Phillip

Subject: RE: Origin: I Loved a Lad
From: cnd
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 09:36 AM

Phillip, you can listen to the song you're looking for here: https://soundcloud.com/pristinerecording/four-green-fields. It is actually titled as "Four Green Hills" on the album.

It is from a 2000 album by Sheila O'Donnell titled "Come By the Hills"

Subject: RE: Origin: I Loved a Lad
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 09:37 AM

https://art-wkusa.ru/video/1Sa-jY8awbw/the-lambs-on-the-green-hills/

That's the voice you're looking for, Phillip.

Subject: RE: Origin: I Loved a Lad
From: Phillip
Date: 10 Apr 20 - 03:51 AM

Thank you both very much. So, is the youtube version an earlier, less refined version we might say, of the the soundcloud one? I put Sheila's name on the youtube one in case anyone else ever stumbles across it.

Subject: RE: Origin: I Loved a Lad
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 10 Apr 20 - 07:47 PM

I sing it thus, having learned it from a local fellow when I was doing project in Oxford in 1974.

Oh I loved a lad, and I loved him so well
And I hated all others that wished of him ill
And now he's rewarded me well for my love
For he's gone to be wed to another

When I saw my love to the church go
With his bride and her maidens , they made a fine show
And I followed on with a heart full of woe
For he's gone to be wed to another

The men in the forest ask=ed of me
"How many strawberries grow in the salt sea?"
I answered them back with a tear in my eye
"How many ships sail in the forest?"

Go dig my grave so wide and so deep
That I may lay me there down to sleep
With only the green gras to hear a I weep
"My love's gone to be wed to another."

The tune is modal and derivative of the Lambs on the green hills / week before Easter

Subject: RE: Origin: I Loved a Lad
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 10 Apr 20 - 07:50 PM

just remembered another verse

3) When I saw my love sit down to dine
I sat down beside him and poured out the wine
I drank to the lad that should have been mine
Now he's gone to be wed to another

Subject: RE: Origin: I Loved a Lad
From: RTim
Date: 10 Apr 20 - 09:48 PM

Way way back in 1979 - the English singer Dave Paskett made a recording (LP in those days...) called Pasketry...Much of it were songs he had written or adapted, many were Humorous...but the last song was - I Loved a Lass...it is great and one of the only serious songs on the recording.
Dave no longer sings and plays, but is one of the UK's best Painters/Artists.

Tim Radford
(who is going to steal his version to sing now I have been reminded of it!!)

Subject: RE: Origin: I Loved a Lad
From: Rumncoke
Date: 10 Apr 20 - 10:50 PM

I think this is one of the most beautiful tunes I sing.