Lyr Req: I Am a Rover (MacColl)

Subject: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: GUEST,Konrad
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 05:39 PM

For his 90 th birthday we like to have the words of this song.
Thank you from the northern sea.

Subject: Lyr Add: I AM A ROVER
From: susu
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 05:47 PM

Is this it? Susu

CHORUS (AFTER EACH VERSE):
I am a rover, and that's well known:
I am a-bound for to leave my home;
Leaving my friends and my dear to mourn;
My bonny lass, till I return.

She drew a chair, and bade me sit down,
And soon she'd told me her heart I'd won:
She turned her head when I took my leave -
Farewell my lass, for me don't grieve.

Oh, am I bound or am I free?
Oh, am I bound for to marry thee?
A married life you soon shall see,
A contented mind's no jealousy.

I sat me down for to write a song,
I wrote it wide and I wrote it long,
At every line I cried "My dear"
At every word, I shed a tear.

As I rode over yon dreary moor,
Ere I lost sight of my true love's door,
My legs were lame and my eyes were blind -
I'd left my bonny lass behind.

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: GUEST,Konrad
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:26 PM

Hi Susu, thank you for your love songs.
your "I`m a rover" is a different one, which I am searching.
What I can hear from the (bad quality radio tape) is the chorus:

I m a rover, seldom.....
.................
...................
.................
................
................ company

Its in scotish akzent, I have difficalties to unterstand.
ciao Konrad

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: curmudgeon
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:34 PM

Look here.
-- Tom

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:34 PM

Hi, Konrad - I'm betting it's I'm a Rover and Seldom Sober (click), which we have in our Digital Tradition Folk Song Database. It comes from MacColl's book, Folksongs and Ballads of Scotland.

Am I right?

-Joe Offer-

We have the lyrics to a good number of Ewan MacColl songs. Before you request any more, see what you can find using our search engines and the crosslinks at the top of many of our Ewan MacColl threads.

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: GUEST,Konrad
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:46 PM

1489 thanks to you joe and curmudgeon!!!!

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:47 PM

Konrad, you ought to use the search box in the right hand top corner! If you enter the title or any phrase from the song (as titles can be deceptive), it will come up with the lyrics' location in the DT (if the song is in the DT which 'I'm a rover' is bound to be) and of threads where the phrase can be found. That way re-posting lyrics which are already in the DT and overload of Mudcat space can be avoided.

Also, you may consider becoming a member (free, but enables you e.g. to post other members individually), and also reading through the FAQ thread which shows up in the search box at the top if you go back to the threadlist. It contains a lot of info that will help you to find your way around and allow you to make full use of the Mudcat facilities.

BTW, why do you say 'I'm A Rover' is in the Scottish accent? Do you have Alex Campbell's recording rather than The Dubliners'?

Anyway, good luck to you and I hope you'll stay with us!

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:45 PM

G'day Susanne / Konrad,

Well, ignoring the current "authenticity" sniping, you would probably describe Ewan MacColl's recordings of this song (one he remembered his parents singing) as being "in the Scottish accent".

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 06:09 PM

Thanks for clearing this up for me, Bob! I sometimes miss details, and I only noticed the thread title again when I looked in tonight and thought, Yes - done it again ...

Apologies!

(And yes, I do know Ewan was perfectly capable of singing in standard English, and the Scottish accent he used probably wasn't what he'd learned at his mother's knee in Salford.)

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Leadfingers
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 08:10 PM

NOT really thread creep , but I have heard MacColl's Manchester Rambler ( the first song he ever wrote , I believe) sung with that first line in the chorus rather than the I'm a rover(twice) from manchester way.

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 09:41 PM

G'day Leadfingers,

I must admit I can hear that variant in my mind ... but I couldn't see it written down in any of the printed versions. I certainly crossed my mind that Konrad might well be after a version of the Manchester Rambler.

Susanne (skw): I specifically remember Ewan commenting on the fact that his parents had sung traditional songs, as a sort of "party piece" at family gatherings, because it came up during a Master Class he and Peggy Seeger presented in Sydney ... back in the '80s ... then he repeated the story at a concert that night.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: GUEST,JB
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 03:25 AM

While we are on the topic of Ewan McColl, does anybody know how I can get a copy of the Ewan McColl Songbook. I believe it`s called "The Complete Ewan McColl Songbook".

Best regards

JB

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 04:52 PM

Bob, I know that, but the accent he uses on 'Jacobite Songs, for instance, still seems somewhat mannered in places!

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 01:56 AM

G'day Susanne,

Ah well ... he did grow up in Salford - his attempt to recapture his parent's accents was coloured by different locales ... and the "Lallans movement", which led him to adopt the new name Ewan MacColl!

I think he's trying to be honest ... but he is a different person.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 02:16 AM

JB, the Ewan MacColl songbook is available at http://www.peggyseeger.com/ or http://www.ewanmaccoll.com/. You can get used copies at amazon.com - and Mudcat gets a cut if you go through our Support the Mudcat page.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 06:39 PM

Bob, Joan Littlewood has an entirely different theory on why he changed his name in the early 1940s ... (Apologies for thread creep, but I couldn't resist.)

Subject: RE: lyr.requ. I`am a rover, MacColl
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 08:11 PM

G'day Susanne,

I was also aware of that ... and I admit that I wrote recently with the perspective of having just read Peggy Seeger's site's version (having just bought the Complete Ewan MacColl Songbook from her site)! I realise that many aspects of Joan Littlewood's reminiscences are irreconcilable with Peggy Seeger's ... and have to accept that I'm not ever likely to know all the "real" details.

(Erk ... I just read Joe Offer's note above - Perhaps I should have followed that path for the book, not Peggy's link, to buy online. Perhaps that would not have converted the book's US$18 price to Australian$68 [= US$52.50 ... plus airfreight] ..., at least, given part of the rake-off back to Mudcat!)

Regards,

Bob