Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards

Subject: Lyr Req: game of all cards?
From: GUEST,kaaren
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 12:40 PM

Yo mates! I'm lookin' for the lyrics (and title-author) to a song that goes something like this...

As I was out walking one mornin' (in autumn)
I spied a young man and the lute he did play...
And there I did spy a beautiful maiden
As she was a-walkin' along the highway...
I said my fair maiden now where are ye goin'
May I come along in your sweet company?
(She said) I'm goin' on down to visit my neighbors
And goin' to work in the place I was born...
Then she turned her head and smiling right at me
Sayin' you may come with me kind sir if you please...
Well we hadn't been goin' but a few miles together
When this fair young maiden began to show green...
She sat down on a rock sayin' sit down beside me
And she took out her pack and began to cut cards...
And the game we shall play shall be one, two and three...
I said my fair lady I'm fond of the gamin'
But there's one game I know I would like you to learn
The game it is called the game of all cards... etc.

Bits and pieces anyway...any ideas? Can't wait to hear from yous...thanks! Kaaren...

And we'll play the game over and over and over again!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards?
From: DMcG
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 12:48 PM

Try here: The Game of All Fours

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards?
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 12:56 PM

As the link shows, June Tabor and Maddy Prior as Silly Sisters recorded 'The Game of Cards'.

A really excellent version of this song is done by Patterson Jordan Dipper on their Wild Goose recording Flat Earth (WG 5309CD).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 01:10 PM

It's in the DT, of course:

GAME OF CARDS

There's an odd error in one line, and no source of any kind is credited. I think someone probably has got it by ear (and memory) from the Silly Sisters recording. I'll come back to this one later.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards?
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 01:18 PM

Oh. On 'Bright Shiny Morning' Norma Waterson says she got it from Queen Caroline Hughes, the traveller.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards?
From: DMcG
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 01:18 PM

Thanks Malcolm - I missed the DT entry because I looked for 'all fours'.

The link I gave says it came from Queen Caroline Hughes.

Norma Waterson wrote, on 'Bright Shining Morning': Of all English Traditional singers I think that Queen Caroline Hughes is my favourite. I first heard of her from Ewan MacColl in the early 1960s after he had recorded her for the radio ballad "The Travelling People" (Topic TSCD 808). Lal, Mike and I had a tape from (I think) Ewan in the early 1960s.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 01:24 PM

Silly Sisters: The Game Of Cards (lyrics).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 01:27 PM

Norma Waterson: Game of All Four (lyrics).

Subject: origins: game of cards, all fours
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 01:32 PM

There's an entry in the Traditional Ballad Index:

Game of Cards, The

DESCRIPTION: A young man meets a girl by the highway. They walk together; she would play a game. He wants her to learn "the game of all fours." When the "cards" are "dealt," she takes his "jack." If he will return, she offers to "play the game over and over again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: cards sex bawdy seduction game
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy 175, "The Game of Cards" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 36, "All Fours" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, GAMECARD
Roud #232
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One-Two-and-Three
The Game of All Fours
As I Walked Out
Notes: The actual card-game of "All Fours" is also known, in the USA, as "Seven-Up", "Old Sledge", "High-Low-Jack," and "Pitch" -- but the use of the game as a sexual metaphor did not make it across the ocean. - PJS
File: K175

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions

The Ballad Index Copyright 2003 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: masato sakurai
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 01:45 PM

From Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

   game of all fours [title]

See also folktrax (Game of Cards).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: pavane
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 03:34 PM

Hey, that Steam Loom Weaver on the same page shows promise - I haven't seem it before, anyway.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 03:38 PM

Although Norma Waterson got her set from Caroline Hughes, she was not the source of the DT text I referred to.

Tabor and Prior didn't credit any source on their recording, but they used the exact text that Peter Kennedy recorded from Charlie Wills at Morecombelake, Bridport, Dorset, in 1952 (Kennedy, Folksongs of Britain and Ireland p 402) except that they altered his "Leicester" to "Warwick", and didn't repeat the second half of each verse as he had. They didn't use his tune, though; that appears to be the one that George Gardiner (and whichever of his chums was writing the music down on that occasion) had from William Randall at Hursley, Hampshire in June 1905 (Tune, with text from another singer: Purslow, Marrowbones, 35; text: Reeves, The Everlasting Circle, 43).

The DT set is a bit of a puzzle. The tune with it is Charlie Wills' version right enough, but no repeats are indicated in the text, so it doesn't fit. The text seems to be a mixture of his and the example in Purslow (the text of which came from Fred Osman, Lower Bartley, Hampshire, November 1908; assuming, that is, that Purslow followed his usual practice of naming the source of the tune first); though if that's the case, some alterations have crept in somewhere along the line. Of course, there may be a genuinely traditional text in that form somewhere; the song was found a good few times by various collectors, at least into the 1970s. On the face of it, though, it looks like an unacknowledged collation which has become a little garbled in places. The line "Which made her High, Low, and Jack\(emand the Game" should read "Which made her High, Low, Jack and the Game."

The song appeared on broadsides both as Game of all fours (see above) and as The Cards. Further examples at  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

The Cards

Frank Purslow commented (1965) that the song was "probably only 140 years old at the most." Presumably he based this on the period when the card game of "all fours" was popular enough to have been used as an image.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 04:17 PM

Oh again.   Only thing I can add is that Queen Caroline Hughes was actually her name. The 'Queen' was no affectation.

And to confirm that in the PJD version I mentioned above, the line is "Which made her high, low, jack and the game". As a final line, James Patterson adds "and thats where a woman may conquer a man".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 04:52 AM

Sir Kenneth Johnston of Brampton sings it and a version was recorded by Robin Garside with an extra verse which concludes the song better

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 04:57 AM

Is that using the line I just mentioned or is it something else? If so, could you post the verse, please?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 05:18 AM

If my memory serves me right it's not that line. Will try and pinch it of Ken

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: GUEST,kaaren
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 07:29 PM

literally brought tears to me eyes to find this...you all have again far surpassed my expectation and desire...I shall now go me way singing merrily all the lyrics! thanks so much for all the kind responses! Kaaren

Subject: Lyr Add: GAME OF ALL FOURS (from Norma Waterson)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 12:33 AM

I don't see why we shouldn't have all available versions in the forum.

Copied from http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/watersons/songs/gameofallfours.html

GAME OF ALL FOURS
[Trad. arr. Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy, Ben Ivisky, Mary MacMaster]

As I was walking from Broadway to Glasgow,
As I was walking one fine summer's day,
Who should I meet but a fair pretty damsel
As we were walking all on the highway.

I said, "Where are you going, my fair pretty damsel?
Where are you going all on the highway?"
She said, "I'm a-going away up to Glasgow.
Can I walk with you along the highway?"

Well, we walked and we talked on together
Till we came to an old elder tree.
There we sat down and I sat down beside her
And that's how I come now Jack I love the game.

I said, "My young lady, now are you fond of gaming?
For I know a game I'm sure you could learn.
The game it is called, well, the game of all fours now."
I took out my pack and I played the first turn.

Well, she cut the cards and she dealt out the pack then.
I threw the deuce and then she threw the queen.
She led off her ace and she stole me jack from me,
And that's how she come now Jack I love the game.

She says, "Will you play a bit longer?"
"Oh, no! I am weary and tired as well."
But I said, "Young lady, well, I'll let you beat me
If we can play that game over again."

"Oh, will you be this way tomorrow?
Oh, will you be here, love, all on the highway?"
"I promise you that I will be here tomorrow
And so we can play the game over again."

As I was walking from Broadway to Glasgow,
As I was walking one fine summer's day,
'Twas there that I met with a fair pretty damsel
As we were walking all on the highway.

[As sung by Norma Waterson on "Bright Shiny Morning." She credits Queen Caroline Hughes.]

Subject: Lyr Add: GAME OF CARDS (from M Prior & J Tabor)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 12:35 AM

Copied from http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/steeleye.span/songs/thegameofcards.html

THE GAME OF CARDS
[Trad. arr. Prior / Tabor]

As I was a-walking one midsummer's morning,
I heard the birds whistle and the nightingales play,
And there did I spy a beautiful maiden
As I was a-walking all on the highway.

"Oh, where are you going, my fair pretty lady?
Oh, where are you going so early this morn?"
She said, "I'm going down to visit my neighbours.
I'm going down to Warwick, the place I was born."

It's "May I come with you, my sweet pretty darling?
May I go along in your sweet company?"
Then she turned her head and smiling all at me
Saying, "You may come with me, kind sir, if you please."

We hadn't been walking but a few miles together
Before this young damsel began to show free.
She sat herself down, saying, "Sit down beside me,
And the games we shall play shall be one, two and three."

I said, "My dear lady, if you're fond of the gaming,
There's one game I know I would like you to learn.
The game it is called The Game of All Fours."
So I took out my pack and began the first turn.

She cut the cards first and I fell a-dealing.
I dealt her a trump and myself the poor jack.
She led off her ace and stole my jack from me,
Saying, "Jack is the card I like best in your pack."

"Since I dealt them last time, it's your turn to shuffle
And my turn to show the best card in the pack."
Once more, she'd the ace and the deuce for to beat me.
Once again, I had lost when I laid down poor Jack.

So I took up my hat and I bid her good morning.
I said, "You're the best that I know at this game."
She answered, "Young man, if you'll come back tomorrow,
We'll play the game over and over again."

[As sung by Maddy Prior and June Tabor on their album "Silly Sisters."]

Subject: Lyr Add: GAME OF ALL FOURS (from Bodleian)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 12:40 AM

Transcribed from the broadside at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads Firth b.34(120)

GAME OF ALL FOURS

As I was walking one Midsummer morning,
The trees and the meadows they look'd so gay,
And there did I meet a pretty fair damsel,
As she was walking all on the highway.

I said fair maid where are you going,
All so early in the morn?
She said, kind sir, I'm going to Windsor,
That pretty place where I was born.

He said, fair maid, shall I go along with you,
All for to bear your sweet company?
She turn'd her head, and smiling, said,
You may do just as you please with me.

They had not walk'd above two miles together,
Before the couple well acquainted became,
He said fair dame come sit down by me,
And I will show you a pleasant game.

She said, kind sir, I am not given to gaming,
But a game of you I'm willing to learn,
The game that I play shall be at all fours,
And there I will hold you three to one.

Then she cuts the cards, 'twas his turn to deal them,
Dealing himself never a trump but a jack,
While she had the ace and the deuce for to beat him,
Which are commonly called the best cards in the pack.

She played the ace, and took the jack from me,
Which made her high, low, jack, and the game,
She said, you must own I've fairly beat you,
Unless you will play the game over again.

He took up his hat, and bid her good morning,
Still she was high, low, jack, and the game,
He said, fair maid, I'll be this road to-morrow,
And then we'll play the game over again.

[I find the shifting point of view in this version rather disconcerting. First the young man in the story is the narrator, then he is not. It makes me suspect there is an older version somewhere that doesn't have this flaw. Is this wishful thinking on my part? Anyway, the Bodleian has several copies, by different printers, that are remarkably alike—except sometimes the song is called THE CARDS. –JTD.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 01:12 AM

Norma Waterson sings an unaccompanied set on Bright Shiny Morning; the inclusion of Eliza Carthy, Ben Ivisky and Mary MacMaster as co-arrangers seems to be a mistake (they are not so credited on the record). There are one or two small errors of transcription, but nothing of great importance. The text is rather different from the only transcription I've seen of Caroline Hughes' version, but doubtless she sang it differently on different occasions.
"Queen" was not her given name, incidentally, as Diane states; though it was what she was generally called. In her case it was a family honorific as well as a nickname (older people will know that Carolines were commonly called "Queenie").

I've already detailed the sources of the Tabor/Prior arrangement, and named the traditional singers (and the collectors) that they failed to acknowledge.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 04:58 AM

Oops, that's the last time I'll believe anything Martin Carthy says...

;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: game of all cards? / Game of Cards
From: Joybell
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 04:23 PM

Thank you Malcolm Douglas. I've been singing this song for over 40 years and have never been able to give credit where it's due. It's always bothered me.
As a side-note - I once sang it while walking around among my audience. At the line "I'm going down to Warwick...." I found myself meeting the eyes of a young man sitting nearby. I sang it right at him. He and his companion fell about laughing. Seems his name was Warwick, although he hated it and no one ever dared to use it around him. The name is almost unheard of here in Australia. Funny business. Joy