Lyr Req: Oh, Katie Dear

Subject: Lyr Add: ANNIE GIRL
From: harpgirl
Date: 05 Jun 05 - 09:03 PM

Here is a Mississippi variant.

Annie Girl

Annie girl, Annie girl, go ask your mother
If you can be my bride today.
If she says yes, come quick and tell me;
If she says no we'll run away.

My momma says that she's not willin
my papa says twill never do
For me to leave a world of pleasure
And run away with a man like you.

Annie girl, Annie girl, I've gold and silver
Annie girl, Annie girl I've house and land
Annie girl, Annie girl I've a world of pleasure
That you can have at your command

It's what do I care for your gold and silver
It's what do I care for your house and land
What do I care for your world of pleasure
When all I want is a handsome man?

Annie girl, Annie girl don't marry for beauty
For beauty is a deceiving [fay]
Beauty is the stars on a summer morning
When the stars all fade away

I have a true lover out on the ocean
For seven long years he's on the sea
If he lives single for seven years longer
Not a man on earth shall marry me

Perhaps your ture lover he is dronwed
Perhaps he's on some battle-field slain
Perhaps he's to some pretty girl married
And his face you'll never see again

If he's drowned, I hope he is happy
Or if he is slain in battle
And if he is to some pretty girl ismarried
I'll love the girl that married him.


Communicated by Mrs. GV Easley, Tula who stated in 1921 that it was one of the most popular songs in her girlhood in Calhoun County. This is a compound of three songs "The Drowsy Sleeper, The Spanish Lady, and A Pretty Fair Maid

AP Hudson, Folksongs of Mississippi. 1936 UNC Press

Subject: Lyr Add: KATIE DEAR
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Aug 02 - 03:31 AM

This is a variant of "The Silver Dagger" (Laws #G21). See The Traditional Ballad Index: Silver Dagger. Another version from Alabama (Byron Arnold, Folksongs of Alabama, University of Alabama Press, 1950, p. 75; with music).

KATIE DEAR

1 "Oh, Katie, dear, go ask your mother,
Ask her if you my bride may be,
And if she denies you, love, come and tell me
Then that'll be the last I'll trouble thee."

2 "Oh, Willie, dear, that would be useless.
She's in her room taking her rest
And by her side lies a silver dagger
To plunge into my true love's breast."

3 "Oh, Katie, dear, go ask your father,
Ask him if you my bride may be,
And if he denies you, love, come and tell me,
And that'll be the last I'll trouble thee."

4 "Oh, Willie, dear, that would be folly;
He's in his room taking his rest,
And by his side lies a golden dagger
To plunge into my true love's breast."

5 "Then don't you see that cloud a rising
To shield us from the rising sun;
Oh, won't you be glad my own true lover
When you and I become as one?"

~Masato

Subject: Lyr Add: KATIE DEAR
From: Mudlark
Date: 04 Aug 02 - 02:47 AM

Oh Katie dear, go ask your Mother, if you might be a bride of mine...
If she says yes, then come and tell me if she says no we'll run away.

I cannot go and ask my M., for she lies on her bed of rest...
And in her hand is a silver dagger, to pierce the heart I love the best.

...Repeat for Father....

Then he picked up that silver dagger, he pierced it thru his milk white breast...
Saying Goodbye Katie, goodbye darling, I'll die for the one I love the best.

They she picked up the bloody weapon, she pierced it thru her own sweet breast
Saying Goodby Ma and goodbye Pa, I'll die for the one I love the best.

......Sorry, no happy ending!.....

Subject: Oh, Katie Dear
From: GUEST,john john
Date: 03 Aug 02 - 06:25 PM

Heard the tune many years ago by Ian & Sylvia. Very much like "Silver Dagger" in that the girl's parents are on their respective beds of rest each with a silver dagger "to pierce the heart I love the best". What bugs me is i can't remember what happens .. how it ends. Any help?? Thanks in advance

---

Also see:
• Age of East Virginia TWO
• Ian & Sylvia Katy Dear, et al.
• Ian & Sylvia Katy Dear & Renegade