Lyr Req: Jersey City (from Cordelia's Dad)

Subject: Jersey City lyrics request
From:
Date: 31 Jan 97 - 05:51 PM

I discovered this song on the Cordelia's Dad "Comet" record. The chorus is Let me dig my grave Burrow (?) wide and deep put a marker stone at my head and feet and on my heart put a turtledove for to show the world that i died for love

any takers?

Subject: RE: Jersey City lyrics request
From: Les Blank
Date: 31 Jan 97 - 07:16 PM

We used to (195 ----!!) sing this as a verse to There is a Tavern in the Town.

Les Blank

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BUTCHER BOY (Clancy Brothers)
From: Ralph Butts
Date: 31 Jan 97 - 11:18 PM

It sounds like "Butcher Boy", which has countless variants. But what's the Jersey City connection.

Done by the Weavers as "Wild Goose Grasses", this is "The Butcher Boy" as done by the Clancy Brothers.

...Tiger

-------------

THE BUTCHER BOY -- Clancy Brothers

In London city, where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved right well;
He courted me my life away,
But now with me he will not stay.

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
I wish I was a maid again;
A maid again I ne'er will be
'Till cherries grow on an ivy tree.

"I wish my baby it was born
And smiling on its daddy's knee;
And me, poor girl, to be dead and gone,
With the long green grass growing over me."

She went upstairs to go to bed,
And calling to her mother, said,
"Give me a chair till I sit down
And a pen and ink till I write down."

At every word she dropped a tear,
At every line cried, "Willie, dear,
Oh, what a foolish girl was I,
To be led astray by a butcher boy."

He went upstairs and the door he broke;
He found her hanging from a rope.
He took his knife and he cut her down,
And in her pocket these words he found:

"Oh, make my grave large, wide and deep.
Put a marble stone at my head and feet;
And in the middle, a turtledove,
That the world may know that I died for love."

Subject: RE: Jersey City lyrics request
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 01 Feb 97 - 10:04 PM

Hi- Butcher's boy is probably what you're looking for. A lot of older books place it in Jersey City instead of London.

Subject: Lyr Add: JERSEY CITY (from Cordelia's Dad)
From: ERIN
Date: 04 Mar 97 - 09:33 AM

I love the Cordelia's Dad version because it seems modern.
Comet is a great album, except for "The Frozen Girl."

In Jersey City, where I live now,
A butcher's boy I loved so well.
He courted me my life away
And then with me he would not stay.

There is a house in another town
Where my love goes and hangs around.
He takes strange girls all on his knee.
He tells them that he doesn't know me.

Gonna' dig my grave, make it wide and deep.
Put a marble stone at my head and feet
And on my breast (heart?) put a turtle dove
For to show the world that I died for love.

Oh mother dear how can you know
The pain and sorrow I have known
Go get me a chair to sit upon,
A pen and ink, I'll write it down.

At the end of each line she dropped a tear
For bringing back her Willy dear.
Her father came in and looking round
Said gee (?) where can my daughter be found?

Uh, I forget the last verse but I think there's one more. The words are fairly clear on the CD, I just figured them out from that.

ERIN

Subject: RE: Jersey City lyrics request
From: belter
Date: 18 Mar 97 - 11:51 PM

I have an album with a variant of this song called The Railroad Boy. I'm not sure what town it's set in. The artist and album are Rick Linear and Trails and Bridges. This album is on adionet juckbox.