Origins: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: GUEST,Bman
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 04:37 AM

Looking for a song I heard once, a long time ago. I can remember two verses:

1) Before two weeks time were over and past
This pretty young Nancy, she grew sick at last
Her dress wouldn't pin, nor her apron strings tie
It was clear that she'd been with young Ramble Away.

Refrain: Ramble away, ramble away
It was clear that she'd been with young Ramble Away.

2) Come all you young ladies, take warning by me
When courting the boys, don't be easy and free
Just dress yourselves up when you go out to play
And take care if you meet with young Ramble Away. (refrain)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 02:02 PM

That seems to be the version of   rambleaway in the DT.
I'll be there by and by,
Keith.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 11:38 PM

Editions at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads are:

Young Ramble Away

Young Ramble-Away

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: DonMeixner
Date: 14 Jun 03 - 12:01 AM

Sounds like the John Roberts and Tony Barrand version from their album
"Spencer the Rover" on Swallowtail Records from Ithaca NY.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 14 Jun 03 - 12:30 AM

Two versions on Folk-Legacy:   JOE HICKERSON sings one on CD-58 (Drive Dull Care Away, Volume 1) and GORDON BOK sings one on CD-94 (Rogue's Gallery of Songs for 12-String). The quoted verses seem to be from the Bok text.
       Support small labels and their artists when possible.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Jun 03 - 01:19 PM

Not a whole lot of information on this one in the Traditional Ballad Index. I really like Hickerson's recording of the song, the recording that Sandy mentioned.
-Joe Offer-

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Rambleaway

DESCRIPTION: Young man meets young woman. He says he's known as "Rambleaway" (after his wandering habit). In some versions the last verse cautions girls about men like him; in others the woman slips away, and he rambles around searching for her in vain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3575))
KEYWORDS: courting rambling warning pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,North),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1485, "Ramble Away" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 31, "Sweet Kitty" ; 75, "Brimbledon Fair, or, Young Ramble-Away" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 166, "Ramble-away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 683, "Rambleaway" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 32, "Derry Down Fair" (2 texts)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 150-151, "Brocklesby Fair" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #89, "Young Ramble Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 184-186, "Ramble Away" (1 text, 1 tune, with an odd opening set in "Verdun")
DT, RAMBLAWA
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 48-49, "Young Ramble-away" (1 text)
Roud #171
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3575), "Young Ramble Away" ("As I was a walking down Birmingham street"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth b.34(247), Firth c.18(245), Harding B 11(4385), Harding B 25(2144)[some words illegible], Firth c.18(289), Harding B 15(149b)[torn; some lines missing], "Young Ramble Away"; Harding B 13(20), Harding B 13(19), "Young Ramble-away"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All You Fair and Tender Girls" (theme)
cf. "When I Was Young (Don't Never Trust a Sailor)" (plot)
cf. "Yon Green Valley" (plot)
cf. "The Courting Coat" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Roving Shantyboy" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Derry Down Fair
Brimbledown Fair
Burlington Fair
Brocklesby Fair
File: ShH31

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Subject: Lyr Add: RAMBLEAWAY (from Roberts & Barrand)
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 14 Jun 03 - 03:04 PM

I think Don's right, it's very close to the John Roberts and Tony Barrand version, from "Spencer the Rover is Alive and Well and Living in Ithaca" (Swallowtail Records, 1971 -- you can probably get it through CAMSCO, and it's worth it.) Here are the words I copied down from the record back then (finally found them!)

RAMBLEAWAY

As I was walking down Birmingham Street
In my new scarlet jacket all neat and complete
The young girls they smiled as they passes me by
Saying one to another, there goes Rambleaway

And as I was walking through Birmingham Fair
I spied pretty Nancy combing her hair
She smiled to my face and to me did say
Ain't you the young lad they call Rambleaway

I said, Pretty Nancy, don't you smile in my face
I do not intend to stay long in this place
Then where are you going? Come tell me my dear
I told her I'd ramble, the devil knows where

When twenty-four weeks were over and past
This pretty young wench she grew thick round the waist
And her gown wouldn't meet nor her apron strings tie
And she longed for the sight of young Rambleaway

So come all you young maidens, take a warning from me
When you're courting your fellows don't be easy or free
Don't dress yourselves up and go out on the play
For it's there you might meet with young Rambleaway

Here are John's notes from the album cover:

"Very common in the English tradition, especially in the South. I learned this version at the Manchester University Folk Song Club, from a singer whose name I am afraid I don't recall."

Hope this helps.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jun 03 - 07:22 PM

Quite a bit more information on this thread

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 16 Jun 03 - 11:15 PM

Right you are, Mark. And if Camsco doesn't have it in stock, Folk-Legacy does. We carry ALL of John and Tony's CDs, which they now control on their own "Golden Hind" label. So folks now have at least three recordings from which to learn the song. An embarrassment of riches!
    Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: GUEST,Keith A o Hertford
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 02:49 AM

Interesting how it starts in first person as Rambleaway, drifts into third person, and then finishes in first person as the girl.

Also, what is meant by her smiling in his face, which he seems to take exception to ?

The devil knows where,
Keith.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: nutty
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 08:15 AM

This broadside version in the Bodleian has more verses and makes more sense.

Young Ramble-away

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 02:57 PM

GUEST Keith, the change in person is quite common--even maybe the rule--in the traditional ballads. This is not one of them, but it's not (to broaden what I said) uncommon in folk song.

"Smiling in his face" I take to mean that he took her to be making fun of him.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 03:49 PM

Norma Waterson does it on something or other, with that chorus bit.
I personally like the "Albion Band" version, can't remember what albumn that is on either, it's sung by Phil Beers though.
JohnB

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ramble Away (not the one in DigiTrad)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 07:34 PM

From folktrax:

RAMBLE-AWAY - "As I was a-going to Birmingham Fair" - ROUD#0171 - BSs "Young R" incl SBG 5:109/ 8:101/ 9:65 - KIDSON TT 1891 p150 Yorksh 1v/m "Brocklesby F (Lincs)" - BARING GOULD Ms 1891#151 "Young Ramble-away" ("Tavistock Street") - SHARP-MARSON FSS 1904 3 #78 James Bishop "Brimbledon Fair" (words adapted) - SHARP Sel Ed 2 #23 pp56-7 (modal air) "Brimbledon F" - SHARP Cf 2 p267 - SHARP-KARPELES CSC 1974 #281 2 pp269-270 James Bishop, Priddy, Somerset 1905 2v/m/ Jim Woodland, Stocklinch, Somerset 1904 1v/m "Brimbledown F" - JFSS 8:31 1927 pp22-23 Sharp: Jim Woodland 1v/m rec Mike Yates rec Mike Yates - WILLIAMS #683 (w/o) - REEVES EC 1960 p93 SBG: James Parsons, Devon 1891/ Hammond: Robert Barratt, Puddletown, Dorset 1905 (w/o) "Derry Down Fair" - ED&S New Year 1961 p9 Sharp: 'Soldier Jim' Woodland "Young R" - SEDLEY 1967 p81 Hammond & Sharp - KENNEDY FSBI 1975 #166 p366 Alec Bloomfield 1952 - RICHARDS-STUBBS EFS 1979 p113 Baring Gould - Broadsides by Jackson, Birmingham & Such "Birmingham Street" -- Alec BLOOMFIELD rec by PK, Framlingham, Suffolk 1950 & 1952: 099 "Burlington Fair" - Cyril TAWNEY rec Festival Hall: EMI CLP-1910 1965/ LEADER LER- 2095 1976 (from Baring Gould) - Shirley COLLINS (voc/gtr): TOPIC 12- TPS-145 1966 - Al O DONNELL: LEADER LER-2073 1972 - Jumbo BRIGHTWELL rec by Tony Engle Eastbridge, Suffolk: TOPIC 12-TS-261 1975

Subject: Lyr Add: YOUNG RAMBLE AWAY (from Bodleian)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Dec 03 - 07:41 PM

Transcribed from the image at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, Firth c.18(245) "between 1858 and 1885."

YOUNG RAMBLE AWAY

As I was walking down Birmingham Street,
With my scarlet cloak and all complete,
Enough to entice all the all the young girls I see,
With jovial companions called Ramble Away.

As I was a walking to Birmingham fair,
I saw pretty Nancy a combing her hair;
I tip'd her the wink, and she rolled her black eye,
Says I to myself, I'll be with you by and by.

As I was a walking one night in the dark,
I took pretty Nancy to be my sweetheart,
She smiled in my face and this to me did say,
An't you the young man they call Ramble Away.

I says pretty Nancy, don't smile in my face,
For I do not intend to stop long in this place;
I tip'd her the double to fair Yorkshire,
I told her I'd ramble the d---l knows where.

When twenty-four long weeks was over and past,
This pretty fair maid she fell sick at last;
Her gown would not meet nor her apron string tie,
And she longed for the sight of Young Ramble Away.

My dad and my mam they are both gone from home,
and when they return I will sing them a song;
I'll sing them a song and leave them to say,
No doubt you've been playing with Ramble Away.

So come all you pretty maids wheresoever you be,
A courting the young men, don't be quite so free;
But dress yourself u,p and set off to the play,
No doubt but you'll meet with young Ramble Away.

London : Printed at the "Catnach Press," by W. S. FORTEY, Monmouth Court, Seven Dials. The Oldest and Cheapest House in the World for Ballads (4,000 sorts), Children's Books, Song Books, &c.