ADD: Barb'ry Allen

Subject: Lyr Add: BARB'RY ALLEN
From:
Date: 28 Jan 98 - 11:54 AM

A slightly different version than the ones already in the database.

In Scarlet Town, where I was born
there lived a fair maid dwellin'.
Many a youth cried Well-a-day
For love of Barb'ry Allen.

Twas early in the month of May
When green buds were a-bloomin',
that Sir John Gray of the west country
Sent word for Barb'ry Allen.

He sent his servant unto her
To the place where she was dwellin',
Said, "My Master bid you come unto him,
Gin you be Barb'ry Allen".

Slowly, slowly got she up,
And slowly went she nigh him.
But all she said, as she passed his bed,
was "Young man, I think you're dyin'".

As she walked down the stone stairway,
The church bells were a tollin',
and each one cried as it tolled,
"Hard-hearted Barb'ry Allen".

"Mother, mother make my bed
Both make it long and narrow.
Sir John hath died for me today
I'll die for him tomorrow."

They carried Barb'ry to the old church yard
And buried John beside her.
From his grave grew a red, red rose
and out of hers a briar.

Up they climb-ed the flint church wall,
till they would grow no higher:
there at the top twined in a lover's knot
the red rose and the briar.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Bruce O.
Date: 28 Jan 98 - 12:43 PM

Let'd not get carried away. There are many hundreds of versions of "Barbara Allen"

Child at #84 quotes the entry from Samuel Pepys' diary of Jan 2. 1666, about hearing Mrs. Knipp singing "Barbary Allen". The earliest copy ever found is the broadside copy printed by Brooksby, Deacon, Blare and Back, which can't be earlier than 1689, and more likely July 1690 or later. [The ballad is ZN1459 in my internet broadside ballad index]

The song was printed in the 1740 edition of Allan Ramsay's 'Tea Table Miscellany' (not before) and the tune (for the 1st time) in the same year in James Oswald's 'A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes'. I can find no record of the tune in any of several Scots MSS known to me, c 1675 - 1740. The tune is conspicuous by its absence in C. M. Simpson's 'The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music', 1966.

Was this really a Scots song prior to 1740? Where in Scotland is Scarlet Town?

Murray S, ?

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From:
Date: 28 Jan 98 - 07:32 PM

I have a recording of a song in gaelic sung to the tune of Barbara Allen, but it is unclear (at least from the liner notes) when the words met the tune. In fact, the liner notes make no mention at all of the tune, which I would have thought would have been worthy of some slight comment. The gaelic words, as translated, have nothing to do with the usual storyline of Barbara Allen. (Another on the same CD is sung to the tune of The Girl I Left Behind Me.)

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From:
Date: 28 Jan 98 - 07:34 PM

Should have mentioned that I'll post them, if there is anyone out there interested in singing Scots gaelic words to the tune of Barbara Allen.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Bruce O.
Date: 29 Jan 98 - 12:16 PM

"The Girl I left behind me" is still a puzzle. Wm. Chappell's PMOT has many notes on song and tune, but nobody has ever been able to verify them (he avoids giving precise sources or dates) or show that song or tune were known in the 18th century. I finally found a tune direction 'To the tune of "The Girl I left behind me"' in a songbook of 1799, and I have a text of the song, c 1806, which seems to the earliest yet found. There's no Brighton Camp in this version.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: belter
Date: 30 Jan 98 - 07:24 AM

There is an african folk tail that has a suspicious
resemblance to the story of Barbra Allen. I had to
read it in a class.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 31 Jan 98 - 11:23 PM

I have heard at least one version of the traditional Georgian (Caucasus Mtn.) tale of Abesalom and Eteri that ends with the ill-fated lovers buried side-by-side with the briar and the rose sprouting from their graves. Then again, that version was retold by an Englishman...

Subject: Lyr Add: COWBOY'S BARBARA ALLEN
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Feb 98 - 01:27 AM

In l962 a friend and I were heading west. Stopped in a bar in Cheyenne, Wyo where we met Del Bray, an older gent who had been a cowboy. He got a 6-pack (I was too young to drink legally then) and we went up to his room in his hotel and we swapped some songs. Mostly he knew Country songs---Hank Williams etc. I asked if he knew any older songs or ballads & he sang me a version of "B. Allen" that I scribbled down on the back of the proverbial envelope. It was a cowboy version of the song:

BARBARA ALLEN


Near Medicine Bow where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwellin',
Made all the boys ride saddle sore,
And her name was Barbara Allen.

(2) It was in the merry month of May,
The green buds they were swellin',
Billy come to the western range,
Come a-courtin' Barbara Allen.

(3)In the merry month of June,
The green leaves they were bloomin',
Billy on his death bed lay,
Just for courtin' Barbara Allen.

(4) He sent a message out to her,
To the place where she was dug in,
"Come and see young Billy quick,
For I fear that he is dying"

(5)(Slowly, slowly she got up,
Slowly she went to him,
And when she pulled the blanket back,
Said, "Bill, I guess you're dyin'"

(6)"Yes, I'm sick, I'm very sick,
And I never will be better,
Unless I get the love of you,
The love of Barbara Allen."

(7) As she went walkin' back through the brush,
She heard the cattle moanin',
And every moan they seemed to say,
Hard hearted Barbara Allen.

(8)"Mother, mother go make my bed,
Make it soft & narrow,
Young Billy died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow."

(9) "Father, father dig my grave,
Dig it deep and narrow,
Billy died for me today,
And I'll die for him tomorrow."

(10) We buried her in the old church yard,
Bill, his grave was nigh her,
And from his grave grew a red, red rose,
And from hers grew a briar.

(11) They tangled 'round the marker rocks,
They couldn't grow no higher,
And there they tied a true-love knot,
The rose and the thorny briar!

(SORRY,I AM JUST LEARNING THIS COMPUTER THING & HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO INDENT LINES & SEPARATE 'EM YET but you have a fine site here; glad I found it.)Art Thieme

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Barry
Date: 01 Feb 98 - 01:34 AM

Nice to have you on board Art & great version, Thanks. Barry

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Feb 98 - 02:02 AM

Forgot to mention I recorded Del Bray's "Cowboy's Barbara Allen" on Kicking Mule KM 150 (long out of print) A.T. Live At The Old Town School Of Folk Music--OUTRIGHT BOLDFACED LIES--1975 (or so) WHEN YOUR MEMORY GOES--FORGET IT!!!!! Art Thieme

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Bruce O.
Date: 01 Feb 98 - 11:44 AM

That's not on the one Art Thieme record I have, Folk Legacy C-105, and I don't recall him singing it at FSGW getaway or concerts.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Jon W.
Date: 02 Feb 98 - 06:05 PM

I found a tape made in 1979 by a couple of guys who must have been visiting my mother-in-law and her husband (this was long before I knew her) who sang a lot of cowboy songs and a couple of other ballads (including Greensleeves and Go Gently Sweet Afton) and in the middle are a couple of songs recorded off a record player. One is a version of Barbara Ellen where the guy (this time named Jimmy Groves) dies in a war and Barbara dies of a broken heart. Sort of an early 60's politically correct version. Sung by several voices, both men and women. Anyone ever heard this and know who did it?

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Feb 98 - 06:29 PM

I've heard that one, but a long time ago, and I've forgotten where.

If Samuel Pepys' diary hadn't mentioned the song, we would have to take "Barbara Allen" to be a reworked version of "The Ruined Lovers", of 1684-6, in my broadside index, ZN1756, which has the same (rather slight) story. This is a few years earlier than any known copy of "Barbara Allen"

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Feb 98 - 08:52 PM

Welcome aboard Art...lots of help available here on the tricks of posting..... not hard & lots of fun...(lots of bad jokes, too. *grin*...you oughta be right at home...) Last time I saw you, you were comparing notes with Craig Johnson in the DC area several years back..

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From:
Date: 05 Feb 98 - 05:10 PM

you never know who's going to show up!

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: stan
Date: 06 Feb 98 - 12:10 PM

In reponse to the post by Jon W. about the politically correct version of Barb'y Allen, it was the New Christy Minstrels on their album "The Quiet side of the New Christy Minstrels", on Columbia CL 2280

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From:
Date: 18 Feb 98 - 10:22 AM

To reconnect with 'Barbara Allen Info'

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From:
Date: 27 Jul 98 - 09:13 PM

I would like the words in gaelic to Barbra Allen please e-mail them to me

Subject: Lyr Add: O, TEANNAIBH DLUTH IS TOGAIBH FONN
From:
Date: 29 Jul 98 - 08:44 PM

I'll post it here instead. I didn't say that it was a Gaelic version of Barbara Allen, BTW, I said it was a song in Gaelic sung to the tune of Barbara Allen.

There is no translation given with this, but is from the singing of a man named Alexander Kerr, North River Ridge, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada The note says:

"The bard of this song re-visits the island of Mull where he was brought up, and finds only empty and desolate homes, evidence that the people have been cleared from the land to make way for English sheep. His final verse asks the younger generation of Gaels not to let their language decline further, even though the old Gaels have gone."

No indication if the words met the tune in Scotland or in Cape Breton.

I hope that I have typed it correctly. Chorus the same tune as the verses. Anyone want to have a bash at translating, feel free.)

O, TEANNAIBH DLUTH IS TOGAIBH FONN

CHORUS: O, teannaibh dluth is togaibh fonn,
Mo chridhe trom air m'aineol;
'S mi fad o eilean nan damh donn,
'S bho thir nan glean 's nan gallan

1. O, bheir an t-soiridh so nis bhuam
Thar chuan is cruach is beannaibh
A dh'ionnsaidh Muile nam beann fuar
O, eilean uaine bharraich.

2. Sud a Righ, nach mi bha thall
An tir nan gleann's nam bealach
Tir nan craobh, sud tir mo ghaoil
Nan lagan fraoich is rannaich

3. Sud na glinn's am faighte 'n aoidh
Gach roinn chum taobh na mara
Tha luchd mo ghaoil an diugh na sgaoil
'S nan aite caoraich Shasunn.

4. Tha 'n diugh gun tigh, gun sgrath, gun chruib
Gun cloich o's cionn na starsnaich
Tha leac-an-teinntein air fas fuar
Le coinntich ruaidh tighinn thairis.

5. Is truagh a'Ghaidhlig bhi na cas
O'n dh'fhalbh na Gaidheil a bh'againn
A ghineil oig tha tighinn nan ait
O togaigh ard a bratach

Subject: Lyr Add: JIMMY GROVE AND BARBARA ALLEN
From: JB3
Date: 02 Aug 98 - 02:52 AM

My mother sang a Barb'ry Ellen version I used to beg for before going to bed a night. (some lullabye :) The newer version was on a New Christy Minstrels album I used to listen to, twenty years ago. Here's my recollection:

JIMMY GROVE AND BARBARA ALLEN

T'was in the merry month of May
When the green buds were swellin'
All the boys from miles around
Came to call on Barbara Allen

Don't want your land, don't want your gold
Nor all the sweet words you're tellin'
My heart belongs to Jimmy Grove
He's comin' home to Barbara Allen

He has no land, he has no gold
You'll have to work and slave beside him
I'd rather have my Jimmy Grove
Than all the world, cried Barbara Allen

As she was going o'er the hill
She heard the death bells a-knellin'
He's gone, he's gone, your Jimmy Grove
They've killed your love, sweet Barbara Allen

They buried them both in the old churchyard
In death he was beside her
And from her grave grew a red, red rose
And out of his, a fragrant briar

They grew and grew in the old church yard
Until they could grow no higher
And there they twined in a true-love's knot
For all true lovers to admire

Seems there should be a verse about her dying, or begging someone to dig her grave, in this version, but I don't remember it.

Subject: Lyr Add: BARB'RA ALLEN
From: jake
Date: 07 Mar 99 - 03:58 PM

The first Barbra Allen version I ever heard was this:


An Eagle from the mountain came
tryin' hard to be human
for he had seen the fairest gal
a gal named Barbra Allen

Oh conjure-man oh conjure-man
please do this thing I'm wantin'
please change me to a human man
for Barbra I'll be courtin'

You can be a man, a man
if Barbra she'll be true
if she be faithful fer a year
then ever more be true (with you ???)

now Barbra she had copper hair
and she had eyes of blue
and she was faithful fer a year
and evermore was true

Not very much like the other versions, huh? Its probably some Indian tale put to the tune of Barbra Allen.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 07 Mar 99 - 09:12 PM

This last text seems to be the one written for the stage play -- was it "Dark of the Moon?" -- that had Barbara courted by her "witch boy." Anyone remember better than I?

Sandy

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: GUEST,Renee
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 02:44 PM

If anyone has the guitar sheet music to Barbra Allen could you e mail it to me? [e-mail]

Thanks

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 01:11 AM

This thread began right after I bought my first computer. Really nice to see it again.

Art

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: GUEST,Roberto
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 01:06 PM

Could someone post the lyrics of Nic Jones' version? Thank you. Roberto

Subject: Lyr Add: JIMMY GROVE AND BARBARA ELLEN (New...
From:
Date: 06 May 03 - 07:10 PM

JIMMY GROVE AND BARBARA ELLEN
As recorded by The New Christy Minstrels on "Tell Tall Tales! Legends and Nonsense" (1963)

In Scarlet Town, long time ago
There was a fair maid dwellin'
She was the fairest of them all
And her name was Barbara Ellen

All in the merry month of May
When the green buds were swellin'
Then all the boys for miles around
Came to call on Barbara Ellen

Don't want your land, don't want your gold
Nor all the sweet words you're tellin'
My heart belongs to Jimmy Grove
He's comin' home to Barbara Ellen

Don't be a fool; don't waste your life
You know that fortune has denied him
He has no land, he has no gold
You'll have to work and slave beside him

I love him more than words can tell
And it's true love that's more compellin'
I'd rather have my Jimmy Grove
Than all the world, cried Barbara Ellen

And when the war was almost done
They heard the steeple bells a-knellin'
He's gone, he's gone, your Jimmy Grove
They've killed your love, dear Barbara Ellen

Sweet Barbara died of a broken heart
And Jimmy Grove was buried nigh her
And from her grave grew a red, red rose
And from his grave, a fragrant briar

They grew to the top of the old white church
To the very top of the steeple spire
They twined and tied in a true love knot
The red, red rose around the briar

If you have loved with a love that's true
You must believe the tale we're tellin'
True love will last till the end of time
For Jimmy Grove and Barbara Ellen.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 06 May 03 - 08:30 PM

I'm drifting but Sandy, I have nightmares over what I think was the Dark Of The Moon. I got "drafted in" after a friend (who at the time was also my manager at Hotpoint) backed out.

I don't remember too much about it but I remember the UK (and we were in N Wales) accents never really sounding American and me being asked to play the Winster Gallop (English tune) on melodeon for some short dance bit. The thing went on stage in some local competition and we were all (rightly IMO) slammed!

I seem to remember having to learn something that my memory suggests went a bit like this. Something about a poor old boy... miles away from home... picture of dark side? My memory is gone and I've had no joy with Google.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: GUEST,alinact
Date: 07 May 03 - 01:24 PM

This may raise a few hackles on the back of some necks, but one of my favourite versions of Barbara Allen is by Art Garfunkel on his Angel Clare album.

Allan

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Art Thieme
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 05:54 PM

Alinact from May 3, 2003,
No hackles from me!

Garfunkel has a fine voice -- better on this song than I ever thought him capable of, but hearing him do this really blew me away. It's one of my favorites----even if there was an instrumental sour note hit toward the end by a keyboard player I think it was. The track I heard must've been just too perfect, otherwise, not to issue it.-----I was glad they did.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Paul Burke
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 03:49 PM

For Monty Python fans:

Slowly, slowly got she up,
And slowly went she nigh him.
But all she said, as she passed his bed,
was "Young man, I think you're Brian".

Subject: RE: ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 08 Aug 10 - 11:56 AM

Johnny Cash sings his revised version of Barbara Allen on this
UTUBE VIDEO.

The Ballad Of Barbara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD8N-SzrXjQ

G

Subject: RE: ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Richie
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 04:13 PM

Hi,

Recently did a version on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX6PE80W4Pw

Richie

Subject: Lyr Add: BALLAD OF BARBARA (Johnny Cash)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Sep 19 - 11:45 PM

Here’s the song that Gene posted a link to, back on 08-Aug-2010. The tune is “Barbara Allen” but the story is much different.


BALLAD OF BARBARA
Words and music by Johnny Cash
As recorded by Johnny Cash on “The Last Gunfighter Ballad” (1977)

In a southern town where I was born,
That’s where I got my education.
I worked in the fields and I walked in the woods
And I wondered at creation.

I recall the sun in a sky of blue
And the smell of green things growin’,
And I lived ev’ry day and I lived any way,
Any way the wind was blowin’.

But then I heard of a cultured city life,
Breathtaking lofty steeples,
And the day I called myself a man,
I left my land and my people.

And I rambled north and I rambled east,
And I tested and I tasted,
And a girl or two took me round and round,
But always left me wasted.

In a world that’s all concrete and steel,
With nothin’ green ever growin’,
Where the buildings hide the risin’ sun,
And stop the free wind blowin’,

Where they sleep all day and they wake all night
To a world of freak and laughter,
I met the girl that I thought would be
The one that I was after.

In a soft blue gown and a formal tux,
Beneath that lofty steeple,
He said: “Do you, Barbara, take this man?
Will you be one of his people?”

And she said: “I will,” and she said: “I do,”
And the world looked mighty pretty,
And we lived in a fancy downtown flat,
‘Cause she loved the noisy city.

Then the days grew cold beneath a yellow sky,
And I longed for green things growin’,
And I talked of home and my people there,
But she’d not agree to goin’.

Then her hazel eyes turned away from me
With a look that wasn’t very pretty,
And she turned into concrete and steel,
And she said: “I’ll take the city.”

Now the cars go by on the interstate,
And my pack is on my shoulder,
And I’m goin’ home where I belong,
Much wiser now and older.

Subject: RE: ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Sep 19 - 07:44 AM

Diction and style real different too.

Subject: RE: ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Felipa
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 06:17 PM

I've heard versions of Barbry Allen to a few different tunes. Tim Jacques posted lyrics here ro a very different Gaelic song that is most often sung to one of the airs most associated with Barbara Allen. But I didn't really think it fits in this discussion, so I've give Teannaibh Dlùth 's Togaibh Fonn its own thread: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=169470

Subject: RE: ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 08:35 AM

I'm pretty convinced even as early as the late 17th century the 2 main versions of the ballad had different tunes. Bronson would verify but even today the overwhelming selection of tunes gives us the 2 main tunes for most versions. With such a widespread ballad it would be astounding if there wasn't a wide variety of tunes as well. We also need to take into account that from early stages long before the tunes were being recorded the ballad was available with sheet music in both main versions. The 'Scotch' version tune is much more arty and that is one of the reasons I think this is most likely the version that Pepys heard being sung by Mrs Knipp in the 1660s.

Subject: RE: ADD: Barb'ry Allen
From: GUEST,Fred
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 10:26 AM

Tom Rush did an interesting slide guitar version of on his first Elektra album Blues, Songs and Ballads (1963). Well worth a listen.