Favorite Betrayal Songs

Subject: Lyr Add: TWA CORBIES
From: Pogo
Date: 17 May 04 - 12:57 PM

Fah...who needs all these warm sweet fuzzy songs of true and constant adoration? Give me a good bitter song of betrayal and murder any day ;oP

One of my personal favorites: The Twa Corbies. Pardon the terrible attempts at the accent and getting any words wrong this is from memory.

As I was walkin' all alane
I heard twa corbies mak a mane
An' one a'them tae the other did say-o
Where will we gang an' dine the day-o
Where will we gang an' dine the day?

On 'ahind o' a long fail dike
I wot there lies a new slain knight
Nabody kens that he lies there-o
But his hawk an' hound and his lady fair-o
His hawk and hound an' his lady fair

His hawk is tae the hunt an' gone
His hound tae bring a wild fowl hame
His wife ha' taken another mate
Sae we can mak our dinna sweet-o
We can mak our dinna sweet

An' you can sit on his white breast-bone
An' I'll pick out his bonny blue een
An' with a lock of his yella hair-o
We'll theek our nest when it grows bare-o
We'll theek our nest when it grows bare

An' many's a one for him maks mane
Naebody kens where he is gane
Through his white bones when they grow bare-o
The wind shall blow forever mair-o
The wind shall blow forever mair

She's Like The Swallow comes in a very close second. And there was another song...or perhaps it was a poem? *puzzled* Something like An' where ha' ye been Lord Roland my son?/An' where ha' ye been my handsome young man?/I have been to the wild woods Mother make my bed soon/For I'm weary with huntin' an' fain wald lie down.

Subject: Lyr Add: AS I ROVED OUT
From: Fergie
Date: 17 May 04 - 05:27 PM

This is my favourite, recorded by Planxty beautiful arrangment, beautifully sung

AS I ROVED OUT

As I roved out on a bright May morning
To view the meadows and the flowers gay
Whom should I meet but my own true lover
As she sat under yon willow tree

I took off my hat and I did salute her
I did salute her most courageously
When she turned around sure the tears fell from her
Sayin' "False young man, you have deluded me

A diamond ring I owned I gave you
A diamond ring to wear on your right hand
But the vows you made, love, you went and broke them
And married the lassie that had the land"

"If I'd married the lassie that had the land, my love
It's that I'll rue till the day I die
When misfortune falls sure no man can shun it
I was blindfolded I'll ne'er deny"

Now at nights when I go to my bed of slumber
The thoughts of my true love run in my mind
But when I turn around to embrace my darling
Instead of gold sure it's brass I find

Now I wish the Queen would call home her armies
From the West Indies, Amerikay and Spain
And every man to his wedded woman
In hopes that you and I would meet again.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 17 May 04 - 05:28 PM

That last one is Lord Randal, also going by a lot of other titles. You might find it by searching for ' make my bed soon '. If you type @betrayal into the search box I bet you'll find many more songs on your favourite topic in the DT. Have fun!

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 17 May 04 - 06:23 PM

Croppie Boy (the version where the English soldier disquises himself as a priest) and Golden Vanity come to mind immediately.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: Abby Sale
Date: 17 May 04 - 06:52 PM

Well, there's vast numbers of them. From mild & humorous to disasterous to really mournful. But if you like good sock-it-to-me stuff, here's two of my favorite rarely sung ones:

Around the Corner

Chylde Owlet

Part of the issue, surely, is how the betrayee reacts to it all.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Aug 23 - 10:52 PM

Need a good one for betrayal of hard-earned, grudging trust?

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: gillymor
Date: 07 Aug 23 - 05:12 AM

Me and my Uncle
A John Phillips song performed here by The Grateful Dead.
Also Canadeeio by Nick Jones.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: gillymor
Date: 07 Aug 23 - 05:13 AM

Oh, and Dylan's 7 Curses.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: gillymor
Date: 07 Aug 23 - 05:29 AM

Lily of the West

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: gillymor
Date: 07 Aug 23 - 07:57 AM

The Great Compromise by John Prine.

All that Glitters is Not Gold by Dan Seals. Not sure who wrote it.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: gillymor
Date: 07 Aug 23 - 08:00 AM

and Pound a Week Rise written by Ed Pickford. Siobhan Miller does a good version.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Aug 23 - 05:52 PM

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 08 Aug 23 - 06:37 AM

Pound a Week Rise · Siobhan Miller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_S6Sh8Ouj0

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: StephenR
Date: 08 Aug 23 - 03:40 PM

Dink's Song is a definite favorite for me. When there is a song of betrayal and/or unrequited love, I like it good and mournful. In the Pines, and Twa Sisters / The Wind and Rain are good in the same vein.

On the flip side, deception also makes for a great humorous song, like New York Girl's, Can't You Dance the Polka.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: gillymor
Date: 08 Aug 23 - 07:13 PM

Goodbye Again by Rosie Flores and Dave Alvin.

Feel a Whole Lot Better by The Byrds.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: gillymor
Date: 08 Aug 23 - 09:11 PM

...and, of course, Matty Groves, performed here by Billy Ross.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 08 Aug 23 - 09:25 PM

You love her; she loves him; he loves somebody else or the thirty pieces of silver:
Lyr ADD: Pancho and Lefty (Townes Van Zandt)
Lyr/Tune Req: Samson and Delilah (Rev. Gary Davis)
Lyr ADD: Choucoune
I Heard it Through the Grapevine
Back Stabbers
Funny How Time Slips Away
Delilah
I'll Never Fall in Love Again
Hey Joe
My Old School
When the Bullet Hits the Bone

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Aug 23 - 08:59 AM

How about betrayals that weren't sexual?

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: gillymor
Date: 09 Aug 23 - 09:15 AM

Dylan's Positively 4th Street.

It's hard to think of one that doesn't involve a lecherous rounder or a lying Jezebel.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Aug 23 - 01:02 PM

Long Black Veil.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Aug 23 - 08:41 PM

Still about lovers.

Benedict Arnold?

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 10 Aug 23 - 03:02 AM

Mrzy: Do you know something about Pancho and Lefty you're not sharing? Was the Mac Odell (Odell MacLeod) reference too: obscure, nasal, New Testament?

Mining the same vein, everybody on the original release of Tupac's Snitches is a homicide statistic today.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: Sol
Date: 11 Aug 23 - 07:21 PM

Two that come to mind are
1) Jenny the snitch in "Whiskey In The Jar".
2) the scoundrel of a Scotsman that abandoned the Flo'er of Northumberland after she'd help him escape from captivity.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: PHJim
Date: 12 Aug 23 - 08:31 AM

Miss Otis Regrets - Cole Porter
Down By The Willow Garden - P.D.
Banks Of The Ohio - P.D.
Frankie and Albert/Johnny - P.D.
Live Free Or Die - Bill Morrissey & Trigger Cook
Little Sadie (Bad Lee Brown)- P.D.
Seven Drunken Nights (You old Fool) - P.D.
Delia - P.D.

Delia, Oh Delia,
How could it be?
You loved all those rounders
But you never really did love me,
Delia's gone, one more round,
Delia's gone.

Subject: RE: Favorite Betrayal Songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Aug 23 - 09:14 AM

Maybe betrayal isn't the right word. Treason?