Origins: I Know Where I'm Going

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Gabriel
Date: 16 May 17 - 07:27 AM

This was one of two songs I learnt from my Grandfather when I was a very young boy in County Antrim in the 1950s. The words I learnt are just as noted above as being from Herbert Hughes in 1909 volume One of Irish Country Songs.
The phrase 'dear knows' was, and is, in common usage. It was always sung as it being a woman's words. It was entirely normal for men to sing songs where the words were written as coming from a woman. Indeed, it was sometimes thought inappropriate for women to be singing too passionate a song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Know Where I'm Going
From: GUEST
Date: 15 May 17 - 10:12 AM

"Spoiler alert" from rumncoke.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Thompson
Date: 13 May 17 - 09:45 PM

'Black' is used in Ireland to mean 'dark-haired' - at least it is in the Republic of Ireland. I well remember working in a place and admiring a handsome, winsome new worker with glossy black hair on the far side of the room, around 50 metres away. I turned to a colleague and said "What's the name of that little black fellow over there?" and a Northerner whipped around, astonished, and stared wildly (black people in the more usual sense being a rare novelty in Irish workplaces of the time). "Where? Where?" "Over by the window, there!" He was still staring back and forth, baffled, when there was a chorus from the colleagues around me naming the little black fellow.

In the song, "Some say he's black" suggests also that he was swarthy, which was out of fashion and considered ugly until the suntan craze that started in the 1920s and made those lucky people who tanned easily now be the beauties.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Rumncoke
Date: 13 May 17 - 06:42 PM

It is many years since I saw this film but the fate of the lovers, to drown when their strength gave out has caused me anguish.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Know Where I'm Going
From: GUEST,Norm Chumsky
Date: 13 May 17 - 08:56 AM

The film was directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger and is now widely available on DVD, often as a box set collection of their work (the other titles are as good, if not better masterpieces of British cinema).

Where do the additional lyrics come from, Joe?

Subject: ADD Version: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Apr 16 - 08:55 PM

I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING

I know where I'm goin';
And I know who's goin' with me,
I know who I love,
But the dear knows who I'll marry!

I have stockings of silk,
Shoes of fine green leather,
Combs to buckle my hair,
And a ring for every finger.

I have treasures of gold,
In my heart all hidden;
Only my grief untold,
And a trembling tear unbidden.

Feather beds are soft,
And painted rooms are bonny,
But I would leave them all
To go with my love Johnny.

Strangers pass me by
In this world I'm lonely,
For my Johnny I sigh,
For 'tis him that I love only.

Some say he is dark
But I say he's bonny,
The bravest of them all
My handsome winning Johnny.

I know where I'm goin'
And I know who's goin' with me,
I know who I love,
But the dear knows who I'll marry!



Walton's New Treasury of Irish Songs & Ballads 2 (1966) p.71

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Know Where I'm Going
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 11 Oct 14 - 11:10 PM

Yes, I remember seeing it way back also.

One thing that has stuck in my mind is that another folksong [also well-known march, a company march of the Scots Guards] which occurs in the film is "Ho Ro, My Nutbrown Maiden" [Gaelic "Ho Ro Mo Nighean Donn Bhoidheach", wonderfully sung on Youtube by The Rankin Family - google it]. This is also mentioned as one of the "Tunes Of Glory" in the great film of that name; one of the marches that Alec Guinness's Highland Colonel recommends to be played at his predecessor's (& great rival's) funeral.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Don Firth
Date: 11 Oct 14 - 09:18 PM

I believe this ("some say he's black") means that he's a Gypsy--a Traveler.

I've been kvetched at by the occasional ignoramus who thinks "black" refers to "Negro" and that somehow the song is insulting to "blacks."

As Pogo Possum used to say, "Ridicle dockle!!"

Good movie, by the way. I recall seeing it back in prehistoric times.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Know Where I'm Going
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Oct 14 - 07:48 PM

I first heard this sung by Barbara Mullen on BBC radio, sometime in the early forties I suppose. Eventually I found this on VK.com and as it was for study and educational purposes I downloaded it. It didn't sound right, so I lowered it a tone and a half, which sounded more like the original. "Some say he's black" she sings, the old word for dark-skinned.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Thompson
Date: 10 Mar 11 - 03:45 AM

Oh for goodness sake. "The dear knows" means "the dear Lord knows". Methody, like.

I had a neighbour many years ago who was a typical Irish working-class Protestant. Tidiness and a plain house were her ideals, and if she hit her thumb with a hammer, she'd let out a painful "Glory!!"

Incidentally, this song is always sung in Ireland. Start it up at any gathering and everyone will know it. But we sing "Some say he's dark, but I say he's bonny, the fairest of them all is my handsome, winsome Johnny".

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 05:20 AM

Bit o'history: though "I Know My Love" had a lengthy history in Ireland, the song was not widely known in the US, as far as I know, until it was introduced around 1950 by Burl Ives. Ives had a special place in his heart for Irish folk songs -- recorded many, and later issued a book of them.

This, "I Know Where I'm Goin'", "I Know My Love," "Gilgarry Mountain" and others were among the raft of traditional songs Ives introduced to Americans through his popular early recordings on Columbia and Decca at a time when these were among the few widely circulated folksong records in the US (along with those of Josh White, John Jacob Niles and one or two other concert artists). He made "I Know Where I'm Goin'" popular, and made it part of the American folk repertoire.

His role in unearthing and circulating traditional songs that had formerly been obscure is scarcely remembered nowadays. Most people think of him only in his later persona as a film actor and country/novelty singer.

Susan Reed was another early popularizer of "I Know My Love" on this side of the water. Apart from the Clancys, most of the later singers mentioned above were considerably in Ives' and Reed's debt. Bob

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 07:07 PM

There's always one more verse.


Dumbarton's drums
Play softly in the mornin'
Slowly love comes,
And leaves without a warnin'


CC

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Rog Peek
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 07:03 PM

I have it by Peg and Bobby Clancy.

Rog

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: henryclem
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 01:13 PM

If you want a different take on the song, there is a beautiful version on Jacqueline Sharp & Felix Byrne's Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/sharpbyrne

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 11:44 PM

"Dear knows..." was common usage both for my Ulster (mother's side) and Glasgow (father's side) aunts and uncles, none of whom would have dreamt of bringing either God or the De'il into the conversation. For people under age sixty, the expression has mostly fallen into disuse, though I still hear it on visits to those parts.

Ross

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 08:11 PM

Well, I don't know that I'd want to pick a fight with MacEdward Leach, even posthumously. Perhaps he knew something I don't. Mind you, Hughes had "the dear knows", and glossed it as "the Ulster equivalent of 'goodness knows'". If he had thought for a moment that fairies were involved, I'm sure he'd have said so.

It does seem to be one of those euphemisms, though. Maybe not "devil" after all. Do we have anyone who is familiar with late 19th / early 20th century Antrim usage who might be able to help?

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Den
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 12:33 PM

I have heard it sung and have sung it myself, combs to "bind" my hair. Much easier to sing than buckle in the context of the melody.

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 11:06 AM

It's OK, Joe. I just didn't get Blazing Saddles or The English Patient.

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 10:24 PM

Sinsull: I do seem to have missed a good deal, as I expected.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: The strong call their wishes justice; the weak call their wishes rights; the pious call their wishes truths. :||

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 09:36 AM

Joe F., a man without a soul!
"Several days of bad weather...."? She counts the beams and makes a wish that the wind should come and blow away the fog. She made the bad weather unwittingly.
And what about the true Laird and the castle and the curse????? And her wedding gown swallowed up by the whirlpool? And the young fisherman who is willing to risk his life to earn enough money to marry his sweetheart?
Her father disapproves because she is marrying an old man for money. She knows her mind but not her heart.

Caroline and I watched this one together one night. Pure magic.

Kendalls comment: "there's no way he could restart a wet engine by putting his coat over it!" SIGH...

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Abby Sale
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 09:03 AM

Wi' defference to Malcolm & Scotus:

Yeah, but maybe not. I have no evidence, only pointers. Youse guys would be right in dealing with Scottish sources but this is an Irish one. Back to the original post, Alice cites: Herbert Hughes in 1909 volume One of Irish Country Songs

I may be missing something but I read in Bruce that he agrees with Ballad Index (or it with him). That is, in SS1 he gives both songs and others as

'I know where I'm goin',' Herbert Hughes, Irish Country Songs, I, p. 22, 1909, and often reprinted. This well-known Irish lyric piece is a another relative to its own tune.

I agree it's a bit thin except for the one verse that could simply be a floater. But song families can be widely dverse, of course.

then, BTW

Play: S1, KATYCRL

For the chorus see the Opie's Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, p. 231. [A poetical piece commencing identically is in Bodleian MS Malone 19, p. 119, but unfortunately it is not available on microfilm.]

English: "Fancy Lad," eight verse broadside, c 1800?, text given below. Copy sent to me about 1969 by Frank Purslow, from Bodleian 2806 c 17 (123), formerly Douce 10. Nancy here evidently works as prostitute while her own fancy lad is in Quod (gaol).

I don't find his tune but it's pretty consistant every time I've heard it. His tunes for Katy Cruel and Hexamshire Lass are standard.

Now - I get my notion of "dee/Sidhe" from the sainted MacEdward Leach. I recall no attribution and have never seen a copy that used 'dee' in print but, you know, I take anything that Leach ever said as Gospel regardless of any scholarship in the next 40 years so let's not hear anything more about that.

Further, I don't know of any Scottish version that even uses the line. That's from the USian/Irish versions. So 'de'il' is a questionable take as well. Unfortunately, my only good Irish collection is "Sam Henry" and I don't see it in there.

Unrelated: while in Olson (I strongly advise any interested to d/l the whole site - his brother has loyally maintained the site but these things have a way of disappearing.) the previous tune was for:

There came a fiddler out of France,
I wat nae giff ye kend him,
And he did you wi' our good wife:
Geld him lasses, geld him!

From H. Hecht's Songs from David Herd's Manuscripts, #63. Hecht notes the tune in the MacFarlane MSS, c 1740, and in Oswald's CPC.

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Scotus
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 10:59 PM

Spot on Malcolm - 'the de'il kens' meaning 'I don't know'.

Jack

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 10:14 PM

The film (a favourite of mine, though it does have its failings as pointed out above) has been discussed here before. See the late Bruce Olson's comments here and on his (archived) website for decent information on the song in its varioua permutations. He devoted some time to it, and the Traditional Ballad Index would do well to take more of his conclusions on board.

"Dee" is certainly not "a form of Sidhe". It's "dear" to the ear, and more likely to be "deil" (devil) if we must look for something exotic.

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 09:56 PM

Joe, I know what you mean.

Last week I tried watching a supposedly hilarious movie called "Once Upon a Time in the Midlands." It wasn't supposed to bother me that it showed a grown man screaming with rage at a little girl one-third his size. I turned it off after 20 minutes and took it back to the video store. $2.49 shot, completely shot.

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 08:58 PM

FWIW, here is my review of the movie, written some years ago for an APA (reader-generated magazine). Perhaps some of its fans here can correct my misinterpretations.



_I Know Where I'm Going_. British, late '40s. Seen because Orwell mentions it a couple of times, and because I am fond of the song it is named after:



Featherbeds are soft,

And painted rooms are bonnie,

But I wad give them a'

For my handsome, winsome Johnnie.



Like the song, the movie is about a woman who knows what she wants, or anyway thinks she does. She is the daughter of a banker, and has made what she considers a good catch -- a rich industrialist. Her father disapproves (I suppose because it means marrying into trade?), but she stays her course. Her fiance has rented an island off the west coast of Scotland for the duration of W.W. II, and that is where the wedding is to be, but several days of bad weather keep her from making the last leg of the trip there, which has to be made in a small boat, past a dangerous whirlpool. So she is stuck on another island, where there is a handsome young man (a soldier? it was 3 weeks ago & I can't remember) whose intentions are honorable. She feels herself falling in love with him, and becomes desperate to get away from him and to her fiance. The owner of the boat will not try the passage until he judges it to be safe. However, he has a son, perhaps 16, who is engaged to a young lady on the island but expects it to be several years before he has saved up the money he needs to marry her. The banker's daughter offers him the whole sum at once if he will take her to the other island. He agrees. His fiancee hears about it & scolds her eloquently: I was willing to wait 4 years for my lover, while you are willing to risk his life so you can jump into bed with yours tonight. The honorable young man hears he is the cause of it all & insists on going too. They go out, but are beaten back by a squall & nearly drowned in the whirlpool; they make it home, and the boatman gives his son a sickening dressing-down.



Thereupon the banker's daughter walks off into the sunset with the handsome young man, because God damn! this is a *comedy*. None of the misery she has caused counts. We are not supposed to care about the invisible industrialist's disappointment, because (I guess) he is rich (& a draft dodger?) & therefore wicked. We are not supposed to care about the boy's humiliation, because (I guess) he is poor & therefore inconsequential. We are supposed to pay attention to the middle-class lady's hormones, and be amused at how they & all those other props conspire to prove that a woman cannot, after all, know what she wants.



The song is actually sung now & then during the movie, as background music, without much art or conviction. It tells a different story:



Some say he's black,

But I say he's bonnie.

Fairest of them a'

Is my handsome, winsome Johnnie.



In this, as in many other Scottish songs (cf. "Eppie Morrie", "The False Lover Won Back"), the heroine is shown to know what she wants & how to get it.



Orwell mentioned the movie in a couple of letters because he was nearly done in by the same whirlpool. He does not say what he thought of it, but I imagine he was entertained by the class angle.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: The human species is gregarious but not social. :||

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 08:29 PM

I agree with Paul Stamler that this is an example of where the Ballad Index should split instead of lumping.

~ B in T

Subject: RE: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 05:10 PM

The Traditional Ballad Index lumps this song with "Katie Cruel." Don't know if I agree:

Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)

DESCRIPTION: "When first I came to the town, They called me the roving jewel; Now they've changed my name; They call me Katie Cruel." The ending varies; the girl sets her heart on someone, but she may or may not get him and he may or may not rule over her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1611 (quoted by Beaumont & Fletcher)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig #138, pp. 1-2, "The Leaboy's Lassie"; Greig #140, pp. 2-3, "The Leaboy's Lassie"; Greig #143, p. 3, "The Lea-boy's Lassie"; Greig #145, p. 2, "The Leaboy's Lassie (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
GreigDuncan4 725, "The Leaboy's Lassie," GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "The Leaboy's Lassie" (10 texts plus a fragment, 7 tunes)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 123-124, "Regimental Song," "Katie Cruel" (2 short texts, the first one having lost all references to Katie, the Leeboy, or any other proper noun)
Linscott, pp. 225-227, "Katy Cruel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 50-52, "Katie Cruel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 153, "I Know Where I'm Going" (1 text); p. 194 ,"Katy Cruel" (1 text)
DT, KATYCRUL KNOWHERE* LEABOYSL* LICHTBOB
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 267, "I Know Where I'm Going" (1 text)
Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, pp. 148-149, "(Aye for Saturday night, Sunday is a-coming)" (1 text)
Roud #5701
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(610), "Fancy Lad" ("When first I came to town"), C. Croshaw (York), 1814-1850; also 2806 c.17(123), "Fancy Lad"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hexhamshire Lass" (lyrics)
cf. "Aye Wauking, O" (some verses)
cf. " I'm A'Deen, Johnnie" (lyrics, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lichtbob's Lassie
The Ploughboy's Lassie
Lingboo's Lammie
Rob's Lassie
NOTES: The forms and endings of this song are extremely diverse, although I've only heard three tunes, two of them clearly related. I might be tempted to break the piece up into separate entries, except that there is simply no way to draw the boundaries.
Paul Stamler observes, "I think ['I Know Where I'm Going'] may need its own entry, being as how it's only overlap with 'Katie Cruel' is the 'I know where I'm going' verse. On the other hand, it's a distinct nonballad, so maybe not." As usual, there is truth in this; the two basic families are "Katie Cruel" and "Leaboy's Lassie" (the latter clearly the forerunner of "I Know Where I'm Going"). However, there is much more in common between these two than just the "I know where...." verse.
My guess is that the original is Scottish, but I could well be wrong. Don Duncan points out a broadside, "A New Song, Called Harry Newell," which is clearly a form of the same thing and printed probably in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It is English or Irish, not Scottish.
Child alluded to this piece in his appendix of fragments, quoting a stanza from Beaumont and Fletcher's "Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act II, Scene viiii:
She cares not for her daddy,
Nor she cares not for her mammy;
For she is, she is, she is, she is
My lord of Lowgrave's lassy.
(This, incidentally, is the part of the play densest in traditional song; in my edition -- p. 335 of M. L. Wine's Drama of the English Renaissance -- five songs are quoted in the space of thirty lines.)
Based on the date, this may well be very close to the original of this piece.
Linscott claims it "is a marching song used by the American troops in the Revolutionary War" (compare the Flanders/Brown title). But she was ignorant of most of the other versions.
Ritson printed the chorus, "O that I was where I would be, Then would I be where I am not, But where I am I must be, And where I would be I cannot," in Gammer Gurton's Garland, 1784 (see Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #80, p. 82; see also Ben Schwartz's note below) .
One chorus is the same as Opie-Oxford2 246, "Oh that I were I would be" (earliest date in Opie-Oxford2 is 1784).
GreigDuncan4: "Light Bobs were light infantrymen formerly part of the fighting establishment of all foot regiments but in the mid-nineteenth century re-grouped to form light infantry regiments. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: SBoA050

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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Scotus
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 12:40 PM

Actually I recall many of my older family members often saying 'dear knows' meaning 'who knows?' but dear knows what the origin of the phrase is :-)

Jack

Subject: Lyr Add: I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING
From: Abby Sale
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 12:11 PM

I Know Where I'm Going

I know where I'm going
And I know who's going with me
I know who I love
But the dee know who I'll marry.

I have stockings of silk
And shoes of bright green leather
Combs to buckle my hair
And a ring for every finger.

Feather beds are soft
And painted rooms are bonnie
But I would trade them all
For my handsome, winsome Johnny.

Some say he's bad
But I believe he's bonnie
Fairest of them all
Is my handsome, winsome Johnny.



Dee= variously rendered; often 'the dear' which makes little sense. Often 'my dear' which makes a little more.

Dee is apparently a form of Sidhe ("shee" - the Irish old gods, ergo, 'God knows who...'), however, which does make sense.

"Some say that he's bad" was always traditionally "Some say he's black." Often 'he's poor' in commercial recordings. I sing 'bad' as holding the early meaning. Silber uses that as well. Oddly, for such a well-known song, I find practically nothing in print or on the web. Kalb gives "from County Antrim" and that 'the dear knows' equates to 'Goodness knows.'

I'd appreciate any additional info. Obviously, see "Leaboy's Lassie" (Lichtbob's Lassie") first.

See http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6586

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=25006#449573
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=37501#1485719

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Penny
Date: 22 Feb 99 - 05:07 PM

There's a Kathleen Ferrier recording of this song - I thought it might be a bit formal for Mudcatters, but if you are all so keen on that lovely old film, you might like that, too. She sings the version Alice gives above, along with some other old Irish and British songs, and she sings so clearly that I've had no problems learning the words from her. Not the folksongs, anyway. There's a bit of Tennyson on the record my Dad has which had a line about a goldfin winking in a porphry bowl which had me foxed for a long time.

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Shannon
Date: 22 Feb 99 - 11:25 AM

Thankyou all for your kind advice, it is very much appreciated. Love Shannon

Subject: RE: I know where I'm goin' / database
From: Philippa
Date: 17 Feb 99 - 05:32 PM

by the way I didn't write " [I know where l'm] " when I sought the song (see my entry at the top of this thread and Barbara's comment above); I wouldn't have found it if I'd typed an 'l' instead of an 'I'. But that's an example of the sort of pitfalls that can lead you to miss a song that is on the database
Is it safe to assume that few readers won't recognise the purple phrases as clickable links (the few who think it's just a way of adding emphasis)?

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Barbara
Date: 17 Feb 99 - 04:55 PM

The other thing, Shannon, that you may have missed in Philippa's post (the second one) is where the name of the song is in blue and underlined? That's a clickable link. When you click on it, it will take you to the song in the database.
Blessings, ,
Barbara

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 17 Feb 99 - 03:50 PM

Shannon- The folk have a way of droppin' the final g in "ng" endings. TRy searches for {I know where I'm goin*] or the like, which covers either eventuality.

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Shannon
Date: 17 Feb 99 - 10:51 AM

Hmmm, I did try the DT first but...oh well, thanks very much to everyone who wrote in(I'll now have to see if I can track down this movie!). Thanks again, love Shannon

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Cuilionn
Date: 17 Feb 99 - 09:21 AM

Aye, BRILLIANT movie... an auld expat Scot brocht in his ain pirated copy o' it for ma Gaelic class tae watch ane nicht. Our assignment wis tae mak oot th' Scots Gaelic bits in a few o' th' scenes, an' tho' it wis hard gaein' we had a muckle guid time.

Ane o' ma favorite exchanges is th' followin' ane: "Taming a woman must be even harder than taming a hawk." "Nay, can't be done, old boy. Can't be done."

Daes onyane ken how tae get ma hands on a copy o' this film? Is there a source for videos o' obscure but wonderfu' auld films?

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Ferrara
Date: 17 Feb 99 - 09:18 AM

Just a footnote. I've always believed the original line was "but the de'il knows who I'll marry," which made it easy to change it into "the dear knows," meaning, as said above, "the dear Lord knows...." I once read that it was changed so it could be printed in school books, but I suspect it was changed by people who sang it who weren't comfortable with invoking the de'il.

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From:
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 10:44 PM

Phillipa! Yes, that is the title of the movie: I Know Where I'm Going

Sandy, yes, Livesay as far as I remember it. And definitely one of the MOST romantic movies ever. Daring the familiy curse to see his lady love!

Caroline, No they don't! Which is REALLY too bad.

Oh yeah! I hope they NEVER do a re-make of it!

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 08:35 PM

Right. I Know Where I'm Going with Roger Livesay (is that how he spells it?), Wendy Hiller, Pamela Brown (the lady with the dogs and the rabbit dinner) and Petula as a spoiled ten-year-old snot. Folklore, folk music (a bit too formal in the singing, but...), romance, drama, humor, the whole nine yards. As Caroline says, "They don't make 'em like that anymore!"

Sandy

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Philippa
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 05:09 PM

I think that IS the name of the film - "I know where I'm going"

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Alice
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 03:21 PM

Yes, I was wondering that, too. George, Sandy, Art? Movie title?

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Eric_Storm
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 12:25 PM

What's the name of the movie?

E.

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Alice
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 10:32 AM

Actually the Clancy version (their dad's favorite song) is:

I know who is sick
I know who is sorry
I know who I'll kiss
But the Lord (or Devil) knows who I'll marry.
Too-ree-oo-ree-ay ah,
Too-ree-oo-ree laddy-o.

alice in montana

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Art Thieme
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 10:09 AM

One of the most romantic films ever made. Managed to tape it off WTTW in Chicago a while back and we watch it (& cuddle)often.

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: michaelo
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 09:10 AM

Clancys...."I know who is sick, I know who is dying, I know who I'll kiss but the devil knows who I'll marry"...the rest is the same

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From:
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 02:14 AM

Hmmm. I don't remember the name. Was this the young lady who was toting the shotgun?

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 12:09 AM

Caroline's favorite movie, bar none! Pamela Brown, whose eyes could melt a heart of stone (mine), is in it, too.

Sandy

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From:
Date: 15 Feb 99 - 10:45 PM

That song is also used in a British movie from the 1950s which is a classic. Many people seem to remember the show or some part of it. The movie was set in the War Years, circa 1940/1941. This young lady, played by Wendy Hillier (later Dame) as an ambitious young woman of the Modern Age. She was on her way to Scotland where she was to meet and marry her fiance, who was a rich industrialist. He was living on a small island off the coast of Scotland, owned by a Scotsman. As she arrived she happened to meet a young pilot, who happened to be this fellow who owned the island the fiance lived on.

I won't tell the end of the story, but if you HAPPEN to see this movie, watch for a young (non-singing role) Petula Clark in her movie debut.

And a special note, while the show was set in Scotland, the male lead NEVER left London as he was appearing in a stage production at the time. All location shots were done with a double.

One of my favourite movies of all time.

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Bruce O.
Date: 15 Feb 99 - 01:14 PM

I take the song to be one of the "Ay Waukin, O" complex, and have given several of these (Jess Macpharlane, Katie Cruel, Aye for Saturday Night, Lass of Hexamshire, Flash Lad, Harry Newel, Licht Bob's Lassie, etc.) in the Scarce Songs 1 file on my website. www.erols.com/olsonw

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Alice
Date: 15 Feb 99 - 01:02 PM

Here it is as collected by Herbert Hughes in 1909 volume One of Irish Country Songs. (note this is an old song)
The following is very close to what is in the database, but I have added Hughes' footnotes.

I Know Where I'm Goin'
old song collected in County Antrim

I know where I'm goin' and I know who's goin' with me
I know who I love,
But the dear* knows who I'll marry.

I have stockings of silk, shoes of fine green leather,
Combs to buckle my hair,
And a ring for every finger.

Some say he's black*, but I say he's bonny,
The fairest of them all,
My handsome, winsome Johnny.

Feather beds are soft, and painted rooms are bonny,
But I would leave them all,
To go with my love Johnny.

I know where I'm goin' she said, and I know who's goin' with me
I know who I love,
But the dear* knows who I'll marry.

*dear knows: The Ulster equivalent of "goodness knows"
*black: dour, ungracious

Hughes also notes regarding the old songs: 'Some have very doubtful ancestry, and may have emanated from Scotland, or from the border, or from purely English sources. Today, however, they are so far integrated into the consciousness of the people who sing them, that I am content to let them pass as Irish.....The constant migration between England and Scotland and Ireland during the harvesting season accounts in a very large measure for the continuous importation and exportation of ballads."

alice in montana

Subject: ADD Version: I Know Where I'm Going
From: Beeswing
Date: 15 Feb 99 - 11:34 AM

Here it is... I learned it from the Robbie O'connell C.D.- Close to the bone. It begins with the chorus

(Chorus)
I know where I'm going,
I know who's going with me
I know who I love
But the devil knows who I'll marry

Feathered beds are soft
Painted rooms are bonnie
But I would leave them all
to go with my love Mary

(Chorus)

She'll have stockings of silk
shoes of fine green leather
combs to buckle her hair
and a ring for every finger

(chorus)

Some say she's dark
I say she's bonnie
She's the flower among them all
IT's my handsome, winsome, Mary

(Chorus)


Hope that helps you out

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From: Philippa
Date: 15 Feb 99 - 11:10 AM

Sharon, If you're looking for the lyrics quoted by Jon, they're in the database asI KNOW WHERE I'M GOIN'
The words there,as sung by Judy Collins, are substantially the same as I know them. I have two different tunes; I think Jean Redpath recorded the slower one and Tommy Makem the faster one.
It's worth everyone's while to learn how to look up songs in the Digital Tradition database and to try searching it before posting a lyrics request. I wrote [I know where I'm]because I didn't know whether the DT would have "goin'" or "going".

Subject: RE: I know where I'm going
From:
Date: 15 Feb 99 - 09:38 AM

Are you thinking of the song that begins "I know where I'm going/And I know who's going with me/I know who I love/But the dear (devil) knows who I'll marry." If it is, there are many recordings of this, including one by Barbara Dane which I listened to just this weekend. The song is available, I believe, on a reissue CD of Barara Dane on Tradition records. They Have a web page. Also, try the music threads here. Good Luck--John

Subject: I know where I'm going
From:
Date: 15 Feb 99 - 09:21 AM

I think this may be a Scottish song...anyway it has been covered by the Fureys and I would love to have the words if anyone can help. Thanks heaps, love Shannon