Lyr Req: The Trees They Grow High (from Pentangle)

Subject: moonbeam
From: moonbeam
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 08:00 AM

Does anyone out there have the lyrics for the trees they grow high by the Pentangle. I had them once but lost them. Many thanks

Subject: RE: moonbeam
From: DMcG
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 08:04 AM

Here's one version from the DT

Subject: pentangle, the trees they grow high
From: moonbeam
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 08:04 AM

Does anyone have the lyrics to this song. I would be very gratefull.

---

Thread title changed to reflect name of song. --JoeClone

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: Jeri
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 10:18 AM

There are different versions and links to others in this thread. I don't know if any are the same as what Pentangle sing, though.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 10:44 AM

It's on Sweet Child. I think I have their lyrics (probably accompanying the Japanese edition of the LP). I'll check them tomorrow.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 02:07 PM

My Sweet Child album (Transatlantic) came without printed lyrics Masato. I've not got a turntable set up at present so I can't play it right now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: michaelr
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 04:06 PM

Altan recorded a nice version on their latest CD, "The Blue Idol".

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TREES THEY GROW HIGH (from Pentangle)
From: GUEST,Marie
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 05:59 PM

Dear Moonbeam,(Masato and Fionn)...

I think the version you are looking for, is this one :

Trees they grow high, and the leaves they do grow green
Many is the time my true love I've seen
Many an hour I've watched him all alone
He's young but he's daily growin'.

Father, dear father, you've done me great wrong
You've married me to a boy who is too young
I'm twice twelve and he is but fourteen
He's young but he's daily growin'.

Daughter, dear daughter, I've done you no wrong
I've married you to a great lord's son
He'll be a man to you when I'm dead and gone
He's young but he's daily growin'.

Father, dear father, if you see fit
We'll send my love to college for one year yet
Tie blue ribbons all around his head
To let the ladies know that he's married.

One day I was looking o'er my father's castle wall
I saw all the boys a-playing at the ball
My own true love was the flower of them all
He's young but he's daily growin'.

The age of fourteen, he was a married man
Age of fifteen, the father of a son
Age of sixteen, on his grave the grass was green
Cruel Death had put an end to his growin'.

I'll make my love a shroud of the holland so fine
Every stitch I put in it, the tears come tricklin' down
Once I had a true love, but now I've ne'er one
But I'll watch o'er his son while he's growin'.

---

Line breaks - <br> - added. --JoeClone

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: GUEST,Marie
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 06:16 PM

(Sorry for the presentation above, it doesn't look very neat!...)

Anyway, while I was writing this, I was listening to some singing performed by Terry Cox (Pentangle's drummer) ...and I think he's got a gorgeous sexy voice in a kind of way!!!...Well, maybe not on "Moon Dog" (Sweet Child album)...but definitely on the "Helping Hand" song of their Reflection album!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: andymac
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 06:22 PM

Dear Marie, Maybe I'm being obvious here, but isn't that just a version of several other ballads, such as "The college Boy" or "Lang Lang a growin'". I even heard an Irish singer doing a fine version of it at the Inishowen seminar weekend in March. I believe there are several of these versions on the Topic "Voice of the People" series, certainly one by Lizzie Higgins and another by an English travelling woman. I'd go look them up but I'm at work so can't.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: GUEST,Marie
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 06:40 PM

Dear andymac,

Well, of course you're right, this is just one of the many versions in existence... In fact, even Pentangle did another one on their album "Think of Tomorrow" where it's called "The Bonny Boy"!... But the one I'm referring to can definitely be heard in the Sweet Child album of the aforementioned band !

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 10:21 PM

Thanks, Marie, for posting the lyrics.
Fionn, the lyrics sheet which was made in Japan is inserted in Sweet Child LP (Nippon Columbia YW-7061/62-LA) re-released in Japan in 1980.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 11:51 PM

The text printed abouv wouls appear to be derived from that collected from James Atwood in Vermont -- at least it is extremely close to his text as it was collected and published by Sturgis and Hughes. I recorded the Atwood version on my 1959 Elektra album titled The many Sides of Sandy Paton and sporting a cover photograph by Jean Ritchie's husband, George Pickow. Joan Baez later recorded it (including my slight variation of the melody which can be blamed on either my faulty memory or my poor music reading skills).

The version of the ballad sung by Lizzie Higgins (daughter of Jeannie Robertson) can be heard on Songs and Ballads of Tradition - from the Folk-Legacy Archives (CD-125), selections from some forty years of field collecting. I recorded Lizzie at her home in Aberdeen, Scotland, in September of 1958.

I'm afraid I can't help with the lyrics as sung by Pentangle. I've never heard their recording of the ballad.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 18 Aug 02 - 05:19 AM

Sandy, I've also got the Joan Baez version (JB Vol 2, Vanguard). It's my preferred version, though her voice tends to wear on me a little. In particular I like her version of the melody, so many thanks for that!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: Bruce
Date: 18 Aug 02 - 06:40 AM

A very nice version, The Trees They Do Grow High, was recorded by Robin and Barry Dransfield in the early 1970s on their album Rout of the Blues (Trailer LER 2011) and reissued in 1997 in a two CD set titled, Up To Now (Free Reed, FRDCD 18.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: moonbeam
Date: 19 Aug 02 - 05:18 AM

Thanks for the lyrics. I am learning the guitar and this one is a fantastic one to pick at. Cheers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: GUEST,Marie
Date: 19 Aug 02 - 01:19 PM

You're welcome!... Just want to add that I also made a wee mistake:

Read "At the age of fourteen" instead of "The age of fourteen" !... oOops! :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From:
Date: 19 Aug 02 - 02:12 PM

Can you give me a good web site where I can find the lyrics to songs from the 1920s to current? Please reply Thank you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 19 Aug 02 - 08:12 PM

guest [e-mail], the Digitrad Tradition (which can be accessed at the top of most mudcat pages, has quite a few, as well as many that are much older, and there are many other sources, covering many genres.

But your query goes so far beyond the subject of this thread that you would have a better chance of a good response by starting a new thread, and giving it a title that gives some idea of what you're looking for.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: GUEST,Bob H
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 08:41 PM

Moonbeam, if you're looking for good guitar licks to learn from, "Sweet Child" has a bunch; Jansch and Renbourn are wonderful fingerstylists. I haven't played that album in years but the deep voice of (I think Renbourn on "Trees" is still stuck in my mind; I absolutely love that accompaniment. Learn that piece and you've got something.
Bob H

Subject: Trees, They Grow High
From: Genie
Date: 01 Sep 09 - 09:14 PM

I always kind of conjured up rather comical images upon hearing the line
"We'll tie blue ribbons all around his head to let the ladies know he's married."

But recently I found one of the other variations on the lyrics and saw the line as
"We'll tie blue ribbons all around his hat ... "

That makes a lot more sense to me and conjures up a far less silly image.   
Dare I assume that the "head" version was originally a mondegreen?
Or was there really a British Isles tradition of tying a lot of blue (or green) ribbons around a guy's head as a sign he had a wife?


I also like the verse about the young woman and her barely pubescent husband finally getting some 'alone time' (the specifics vary from version to version) and her "never more complain(ing) of his growing."   Not sure who all includes that verse, but one version of it is:

Now down into the college park
They walked about till it was dark,
Then he lifted up her fine Holland sark,
And she had no reason to complain
Of his growing, growing, &c.

Not the first version of this verse I heard, but basically the same concept.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pentangle, The Trees They Grow High
From: masato sakurai
Date: 01 Sep 09 - 09:28 PM

Pentangle - The Trees They Do Grow High is on YouTube.