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Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl
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Subject: Lyr Add: GYPSY GIRL (from Highwoods String Band) From: harpgirl Date: 27 Aug 02 - 10:43 PM GYPSY GIRL as done by Highwoods String Band, No 3. Special, Rounder Records, 1976 Oh once I was a gypsy girl But now I'm a rich man's wife With servants to wait on me While in my carriage ride While in my carriage ride While in my carriage ride With servants to wait on me While in my carriage ride When I was a strollin' one day down London street A handsome young squire Was the first I chance to meet He bled [sic] my pretty brown cheeks which now he loves so well He said now my little gypsy girl Will you my fortune tell Will you my fortune tell He said my little gypsy girl Will you my fortune tell Oh yes, kind sir Please hold to me your hand You have many fine mansions In many a foreign land But all those fine young ladies You'll cast them all aside I am the gypsy girl Who is to be your bride Who is to be your bride Who is to be your bride I am the gypsy girlbr>Who is to be your bride He took me, he led me To a place on a quiet shore With servants to wait on me And open my door And open up my door With servants to wait on me And open my door Also didn't see this one anywhere. Did I miss it? hg |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: Stewie Date: 27 Aug 02 - 11:01 PM That is basically Charlie Poole's version - indeed, the Highwoods noted [sleeve notes 'No 3 Special'] that they got it from his recording. Poole called it 'My Gypsy Girl'. The word in the second stanza, as sung by Poole, is 'viewed' - 'he viewed my pretty ...' In the last stanza, it should be 'He took me, he led me to a pleasant quiet shore' and also 'open my own door'. Evidently, it is based on an English folksong, 'The Gypsy's Wedding Day', but how Poole came by it is unknown. --Stewie. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: harpgirl Date: 27 Aug 02 - 11:04 PM thanks Steiw. I was hoping someone would fix it up with the words I didn't get. Can sonmeone fix the words up? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 28 Aug 02 - 12:12 AM See also THE LITTLE GYPSY GIRL: the DT text is a slightly mis-remembered quote of the set from Peter Kennedy's Folksongs of Britain and Ireland (1975), which Kennedy recorded from Louise Holmes of Dinedor, Herefordshire, in 1952; the DT file does not credit her. No tune is given, but I sent in a midi for it some time ago, which can be found at the Mudcat Midi Pages. There are a number of broadside sets (mid-19th century) at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads; mostly as The Little Gipsy Girl. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: masato sakurai Date: 28 Aug 02 - 12:28 AM From: The Traditional Ballad Index:
Gypsy Maid, The (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4]
DESCRIPTION: The gypsy girl, left to fend for herself, meets a young lawyer who asks her to tell his fortune. She tells him that he has courted many fine ladies, but he is to marry a gypsy. He takes her to his home and marries her ~Masato
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE GYPSY'S WEDDING DAY (from Burl Ives) From: Gerard Date: 15 Jul 03 - 11:00 PM This is a variant of the Gypsy Girl, called the Gypsy's Wedding Day, I don't have all the lyrics, I've edited some that I copied from the Gypsy Girl, as heard on "Burl Ives Sings His Favorites (or Best)" Audio CD (April 23, 1996) Original Release Date: 1996 Number of Discs: 1 Label: Tko Coll. Blues ASIN: B000005IOK When I was a walkin' down a London street, A handsome young Gypsy Girl, the first I chance to meet, I saw her pretty brown eyes I knowed I loved her well, Says I "My little Gypsy Girl will you my fortune tell?" Will you my fortune tell, will you my fortune tell? Says I my little Gypsy Girl will you my fortune tell? Oh yes, sir, oh please sir, hold to me your hand You have many a fortunes in many a far-off lands You've courted many fine ladies, you've thrown them all aside It is a little Gypsy Girl that is to be your bride That is to be your bride, that is to be your bride It is a little Gypsy Girl that is to be your bride. I took her, and led her, to a place on a quiet shore With servants to wait on her, and open up her door *Oh once she was a gypsy girl, but now a band does play It was the celebration of the Gypsy's Wedding Day The Gypsy's Wedding Day, oh the Gypsy's Wedding Day It was the celebration of the Gypsy's Wedding Day. *Note: not sure about this line |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: GUEST Date: 16 Jul 03 - 03:14 PM Eyup, don't forget Joseph Taylor, "Little Gypsy Girl"-I got it on the Voice of the People, can't remember which volume. x eliza c |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: GUEST,Pete Peterson Date: 16 Jul 03 - 05:37 PM the Emry Arthur version (Vocalion 5234; my recording is by Bill Dillof and Dave Rice) has a couple extra verses; I'll post them if anybody is interested. The very first recording I ever heard ot this wasn't Poole; it was the Old Reliable String Band on one of those great big clunky Folkways recordes c. 1963. In the liner notes Roy Berkeley talked about how he and Tom Paley had argued over the same words that Ms. Harp and Stewie couldn't decide; Roy (who sang lead) won and sang "a pleasant quiet shore" while Paley held out for "pleasant white shore." I love this song; it's one of the Ten Happy Love Songs which I save for weddings. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: masato sakurai Date: 16 Jul 03 - 06:34 PM "The Gipsy's Wedding Day" (sung by Joseph Taylor; recorded in 1908) is on Unto Brigg Fair (Click here for his lyrics & note). |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: Snuffy Date: 16 Jul 03 - 07:20 PM "The Gipsy's Wedding Day" by Mr Taylor was phonographed by Grainger at Brigg on 28 July 1906. It was also one of 12 songs he recorded for HMV in 1908, but along with "Georgie" and "Rufford Park Poachers", it was never issued. According to O'Shaughnessy the master shells have been destroyed. So does "Unto Brigg Fair" give Grainger's 1906 version, or did an unauthorised copy of the 1908 HMV version miraculously survive? |
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Subject: Lyr Add: GIPSY'S WEDDING DAY (from Joseph Taylor) From: GUEST,Q Date: 16 Jul 03 - 08:13 PM The version of "The Gipsy's Wedding Day" sung by Taylor on the Unto Briggs Fair LP does not seem to be in the DT or Forum. I have added a verse from the Bodleian between 3 and 4 that fills the song out; the rest of the Bodleian verses being very close to the Taylor version. Lyr. Add: THE GIPSY'S WEDDING DAY My father is the king of the gipsies that is true, My mother she learn-ed me some camping for to do; They put the pack upon me back, they all did wish me well, So I set out for London town, some fortunes for to tell. Now as I was a-walking up fair London street, A handsome young squi-er I chanc-ed for to meet; He view-ed my brown cheeks and lik-ed them so well, He said, "Me little gipsy girl, can you me fortune tell?" "Why yes, kind sir, give me hold of your hand, Why you have got houses, you've got riches and you've land, But all those pretty ladies, you mun put them to one side, For I'm the little gipsy girl that is to be your bride." [Added from Bodleian Coll., Johnson Ballads 3361, nd, "The Little Gipsy Girl," (another printing ca. 1840-1866): He led me through the woods and valleys deep, I'm sure, Where I had got servants to open me the door; On a rich bed of down he pleased me well, And in nine months after, his fortune I did tell.] Now once I was a gipsy girl but now a squi-er's bride, I've got servants for to wait on me and in me carriage ride, The bells they rung so merrily and the sweet music did play, And a jolly time we had upon the gipsy's wedding day. From the site linked by Masato, above, http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/joseph.taylor/gipsy.html |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: open mike Date: 17 Jul 03 - 01:55 AM i love that high woods string band album-- ws thinking of one of the songs yesaterday as i passed by acres and acres of onions... the tune was called "feed you babies onions so you can find them in the dark..." i was near hte Oregon'Idaho border... they grow onions in oregon and potatoes in idaho.. the french (freedom?) fry and onion ring industries are being well supplied by the looks of the fields...also made me think of Cheryl Wheeler's song potato which is to the tune of the mexican hat dance...and which ends on "TOE" as opposed to "TA" or "PO". |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: harpgirl Date: 17 Jul 03 - 01:07 PM ...what makes the lyric attractive to me is the raucous, choppy, sing song style of the HSB version. It sounds to me the way it should sound, carefree and slightly naughty! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: GUEST,Pete Peterson Date: 17 Jul 03 - 01:41 PM If you think THAT version is raucous, choppy, carefree and naughty, have you ever heard Charlie Poole's? (Highwood's source) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: harpgirl Date: 17 Jul 03 - 01:48 PM Hello, Dr! I would like to hear it! And how are you and yours? Going to Clifftop? I like your websit by the way....hg |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: GUEST,Clint Keller Date: 17 Jul 03 - 02:31 PM Thanks everybody-- I've been looking for this -- the Taylor version -- for years but was never smart enough to look for it as "The Gipsy's Wedding Day". My grandmother (who was born in 1885) used to sing it almost exactly this way; she sang "He saw my pretty brown cheeks, he loved them so well," for instance... but she never sang that verse from the Bodleian. l, of course, never wrote it down when she was around to give it to me & could only remember part of it.. All I could find was the Carter Family version which doesn't quite make it. Her tune wasn't "raucous, choppy, carefree and naughty" though -- I'd like to hear that one. thanks again Clint |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: Snuffy Date: 17 Jul 03 - 07:57 PM Grainger's tempo marking was "Jauntily" |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: harpgirl Date: 17 Jul 05 - 09:12 PM |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE GYPSY GIRL From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie) Date: 18 Jul 05 - 07:08 PM I think this is on my, "Precious Memories" album (Folkways, in the 60s or so). We sang it in our family. My father's the captain of a gypsy tribe you know, My mother she gave me some counting to do. Some counting to do,some counting to do; My Mother she gave me some counting to do. As I was a-walking all down the London streets, A handome young lawyer was the first I chanced to meet. Was the first I chanced to meet, was the first, etc. He gazed upon my pretty brown cheeks, the ones he loves so well, Sayin, you're a little gypsy girl, won't you my fortune tell? Won't you my, etc. O kind sir, O please sir, come give to me your hand, You have many fine fortunes in a far-off distant land, In a far-off, etc. You've courted many fine ladies and put them all aside, I am a little gypsy girl and the one to be your bride! And the one, etc. He took me, he led me to his home on yonder's shore, Where servants stood waiting to open wide the door. To open wide, etc. O once I was a poor man's girl but now I'm a rich man's bride, With servants to wait on me and in my carriage ride. And in my, etc. One amusing departure from this format was that we always, when we got to the last line of the chorus in the next-to-last verse, would add, using the same melody line, the phrase, "...and there were carpets on the floor!" So, that one chorus would go To open wide the door, to open wide the door, Where servants stood waiting to open wide the door- And there were carpets on the floor! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: harpgirl Date: 18 Jul 05 - 09:40 PM gee, kytrad, where did that unusual first verse come from? Q's "camping and taking a pack to London" makes more sense...but I like the additions. I'm going to try to expand my own, which I play on banjo. thanks harpgirl |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Date: 01 Nov 06 - 04:43 PM Nothing like reviving a conversation over a year later. About that mysterious line: "Counting" seems more likely to be traditional than "camping," if only because the very notion of "camping" most likely wasn't familiar to those likely to have originated the song -- urban broadside writers sometime in the 19th century. (Though its earliest known date is 1897, I'd guess it is 20-30 years older than that, if not pre-Civil War). Nor would Joseph Taylor's Gypsy Girl have needed to be given "camping" to do on her road to London -- she would already have been doing that in the gypsy camp. Besides, that's not the word used for it in most older accounts of the Rom -- "camp" is usually a noun; the verb, despite being 16th-cent. origin, is unusual in that context. But I'm wondering if either "counting" or "camping" is right. Yes, gypsies do count -- money, cards and other games of chance, among other things. Yes, gypsies certainly also "camp" in a camp -- it's their way of life, when not grounded by the authorities. But I always wondered instead whether the task the Gypsy Girl's mother gave her was "courting." That, at least, points directly to the plot of the song, which is devoted to getting her married to a rich man. (Gold-digging, in short, though a charming example of it.) "My mother she gave me some courting to do ... " Just a guess, could easily be wrong. Wish we could turn up the original broadside and see. Bob |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 01 Nov 06 - 07:48 PM The question would be which of many broadside editions is the earliest, I suppose. "Some camping" doesn't sound right. Actually it sounds silly, and is likely a mis-hearing or rationalisation (broadside printers pirated each others material constantly; sometimes via an oral route). "Some counting" makes better sense in context, but doesn't, I think, occur in the broadsides. What does occur in a couple of prints (neither are dated, but one -'The Fortune Teller'- appears, superficially at least, to be of greater age than most; the typeface is older, and the title different) has: "My mother she learned me some canting words too". That would be my bet until a better proposition comes up (bearing in mind that I haven't looked at any variants from oral currency not mentioned here. That would be a job for another day). Here is a full list of broadside editions at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads: The Fortune Teller / Little Gypsy Girl |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Date: 02 Nov 06 - 04:58 AM Hooray, Malcolm. Yes, "canting" must be it. At last, a word that credibly fits the context. Good to know about those Bodleian versions, too. Thanks! Bob |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: Arkie Date: 02 Nov 06 - 09:43 AM Eliza Carthy credits Joseph Taylor for the version she performs on the CD Anglicana. We also had a local singer in Stone County, Arkansas, Georgia Perry Irvine who sang a version of this song that was different from the Poole and Highwoods version but I never learned her source. Georgia's daughter and other singers in community learned it from her. Since this has been a favorite of mine since hearing a Charlie Poole recording ages ago, its nice to see this discussion. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gypsy Girl From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Date: 03 Nov 06 - 08:29 AM Ozark connections: Vance Randolph, Ozark Folk Songs, V1 p 437, gives a version of "The Gypsy Maid" not very different from Charlie Poole's. But he collected it from a Mr. Price Payne in Noel, MO, in 1924, well before Poole recorded it. Could Ms. Irvine have gotten the song from a collateral source? By the way Cox's Folk-Songs of the South also has a version pre-1925, from West Virginia, so the song seems fairly established in oral tradition in diverse parts of the American South before the oldtime country recording era spread the song around electrically. |
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