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Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses? (Not sweet)

25 Jan 02 - 10:09 AM (#635243)
Subject: lyrics wanted:
From: GUEST,jenny at princetown, devon, england

song with girl with basket, banks of primroses, young man courting, end up at church (not banks of sweet primroses, or sweet nightingale)


25 Jan 02 - 01:08 PM (#635366)
Subject: Banks of Primroses?
From: Allan C.

In another thread Jenny at Princetown asks for the lyrics for a:

"song with girl with basket, banks of primroses, young man courting, end up at church (not banks of sweet primroses, or sweet nightingale)"


    Threads combined, now that we can do that. -Joe Offer, January, 2009-


25 Jan 02 - 01:12 PM (#635374)
Subject: RE: lyrics wanted:
From: Allan C.

Jenny, you will get better response on such requests if some portion of what you know of the song is included in the subject line of the thread you create. With the hope that such a measure will help you to get the results you want, I have created a new thread for you:

Click here


25 Jan 02 - 09:31 PM (#635748)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Brían

Could it be BANKS OF THE ROSES?

Brían


26 Jan 02 - 04:08 AM (#635922)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: GUEST,jENNY, PRINCETOWN

THANKS TO ALLAN C AND BRIAN.

NOT BANKS OF ROSES. PLEASE, PLEASE KEEP TRYING, THIS SONG IS DRIVING ME MAD.


26 Jan 02 - 09:48 AM (#636006)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Dave Bryant

I found this on my own copy of DT, I don't know why it didn't show up on the online one (might be another one with a blank first line. You might be able to pick it up by the file name.


BANKS OF THE SWEET PRIMROSES

As I walked out on a midsummer's morning
For to view the fields and to take the air
Down by the banks of the sweet primroses
There I beheld a most love-lie fair.

Three short steps, I stepped up to her
Not knowing her as she passed me by
I stepped up to her, thinking for to view her
She appeared to be like some virtuous bride

I says "Fair maid, where are you going?
And what's the occasion of all your brief?
I will make you as happy as any lady
If you will grant to me one small relief"

"Stand off, stand off, you're a false deceiver
You are a false deceitful man, I know
'Tis you that has caused my poor heart to wander
And in your comfort lies no refrain"

So I'll go down to some lonesome valley
Where no man on earth shall there me find
Where the pretty little small birds do change their voices
And every moment blows blusterous wind

So come all young men who go a-sailing
Pray pay attention to what I say
For there's many a dark and a cloudy morning
Turns out to be a sunshiny day

Recorded by Fairport Convention on House Full and Angel Delight
@courting @rejection
filename[ SWTPRIM
play.exe_SWTPRIM
play.exe_SWTPRIM.2


26 Jan 02 - 09:51 AM (#636007)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Dave Bryant

Yes it does pick up be file name.
Try clicking HERE


26 Jan 02 - 01:37 PM (#636126)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Malcolm Douglas

You're better off using the "Digitrad and Forum Search", which I'm told generates URLs that will last longer.  The point, though, is not that Jenny couldn't find Banks of the (Sweet) Primroses, but that she wasn't looking for that song in the first place, as she said in her original question.

I've given this some thought, and can't at the moment put my finger on any traditional song that includes a basket, banks, primroses and marriage.  You can get quite close with a milking pail or with green mossy banks, but those wouldn't fit the bill.  Maybe something will pop into my head later on; meanwhile, this will at least keep the thread current.


26 Jan 02 - 01:50 PM (#636134)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

Entering "Banks of the Sweet Primroses" title in either the DT and Forum Search, or the Lyrics Search, yielded nothing. It did come up under @primroses.
No help to Jenny, but illustrating yet another of the peculiarities of the song files. Jenny, any idea of the age of the song, or the performer?


26 Jan 02 - 01:58 PM (#636140)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Matthew Edwards

Jenny, if this song is "driving you mad", does it have a tune you can identify? Are there any striking phrases, or words you remember? From what you've given us so far this sounds like a conflation of several songs, but like Malcolm I can't think of a song which combines all the elements you have mentioned, Can you remember where or when you came across it? Any clues you have would help.


26 Jan 02 - 02:06 PM (#636142)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Malcolm Douglas

Banks of the Sweet Primroses worked for me with both search engines; Dave and Dicho must just have been unlucky.


26 Jan 02 - 02:15 PM (#636149)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Brían

This might be too obvious, but might it be LAMBS ON THE GREEN HILLS?

There are no primroses or girls with baskets, but there is a young man courting and a church,

Brían


26 Jan 02 - 02:28 PM (#636159)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

Tried again- Message "not in" with DT and Forum, but it came up this time in the Lyrics search. This can be most frustrating unless you have a boxcar load of patience. I have taken to using the @ symbol with a word quite a bit. I don't blame guests or occasional users for posting directly and asking for help.


26 Jan 02 - 04:41 PM (#636242)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Malcolm Douglas

Well, now the DT&F doesn't find it for me anymore, either.  What can you do, eh?

Lambs on the Green Hills seems extremely unlikely.


26 Jan 02 - 06:41 PM (#636303)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: okthen

Jenny, can you tell us where you first heard this, could you be confusing more than one song. For instance "Basket of eggs" and "banks of the sweet primeroses" and "Claudy banks"


28 Jan 02 - 04:42 AM (#637040)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: NELLIE

Thanks to you all,it is none of the songs you mention. I saw it written down years ago, I have no idea of the tune, I was not particularly musical at that time!!. Not sure if I am now. I think it was in an English Song book of some sort. Possibly it was a school song book. Many thanks for your efforts. We have only just discovered Mudcat, it is great fun.

Jenny


28 Jan 02 - 11:43 AM (#637145)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: Matthew Edwards

Welcome to the Mudcat Jenny/NELLIE. Your mention of a school song book has stirred something in the old grey matter! I vaguely remember a singing game where everyone gathered in a circle while one person skipped around the circle singing something about a basket. This may just be a memory of A Tisket, A Tasket, but I seem to recall there were some exchanges which suggested courtship - but I don't think there were any primroses.

On the other hand, it is possible that somebody composed a song using elements from "Basket of Eggs", "Banks of Sweet Primroses" and perhaps "Claudy Banks" to make a song that was felt suitable for schoolchildren. Some of the folk songs that had been collected were bowdlerised so heavily for publication (especially for schools) that it is almost impossible to detect much trace of the original song. It came as quite a shock to me to discover that the old standard "The Oak and the Ash" comes from a very down-to-earth song!


28 Jan 02 - 12:53 PM (#637174)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: nutty

Banks of primroses here .....but no basket or church
It might help
Erin's Green Shore


29 Jan 02 - 03:23 AM (#637669)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: NELLIE

THANKS TO YOU ALL FOR SO MANY REPLIES. PLEASE KEEP TRYING.


29 Jan 02 - 04:07 AM (#637683)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: okthen

Jenny, where did you go to school, which country? how old were you when you saw this written down. The more details you can supply the less difficult it might be.


29 Jan 02 - 10:15 AM (#637878)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of Primroses?
From: NELLIE

Othken

I went to school in yorkshire, north of england, but I think I saw this written down after that. Have still got a lot of old school song books, but it is not in the ones that I have got. Called mainly Singing Together. Started singing in folk clubs around l970 when I met my husband, so it probably was around then. It was written on 2 pages at the back of the book, a small book, around the size of the penquin book of folk songs. On the left hand page (facing you) there was a black and white sketch of a girl tripping along with a basket, and a bank of flowers at the side of her, then 2 or 3 verses, then on the opposite page another sketch and 3 or 4 more verses. That is literally all I can remember

Thanks to you all.