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Lyr Req: False Young Man (kentucky)

09 Dec 02 - 09:46 PM (#844249)
Subject: Lyr Req: False Young Man (kentucky)
From: GUEST,odell

I encountered a lovely verse in josiah h. combs' "folk songs of te southern united states" but cannot find the rest of the song
anywhere:

            "I never will believe what another boy says
             let his eyes be dark or brown
             unless he's upon a high gallows top
             saying, "love, i'd rather come down."

what are the rest of the words?

09 Dec 02 - 10:40 PM (#844274)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: False Young Man (kentucky)
From: Richie

I have the book with lyrics somewhere. I looked for it but no luck. I'll try to find it tomorrow.

-Richie

10 Dec 02 - 12:38 AM (#844320)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE FALSE YOUNG MAN
From: masato sakurai

Seemingly it was quoted from Cecil J. Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (1932, vol. 2, No. 94-D, pp. 54-55), where the same verse appears.

          THE FALSE YOUNG MAN
                      Sung by Mrs. Sophia A. Hensley
                      at Clay Co., Ky., 1908

1. I walked out one bright May morning
    To hear the birds sing sweet,
    I seated myself in a green shady grove
    To see two lovers meet.

2. To see two lovers meet, my dear,
    And to hear what they might say,
    For I wanted to know a piece of their mind
    Before I went away.

3. Come sit you down, my own true love,
    Come sit you down by me,
    For it has been three-fourths of a long, long year
    Since together we have been.

4. I can't sit down and I won't sit down,
    For I have not a moment of time,
    And perhaps you have another true love
    And your heart's no longer mine.

5. You know what you told me, love,
    You know what you said,
    You know what you promised me
    When another true love was dead.

6. You made me believe by the faults you swore
    With your arms all around my waist,
    You made me belive by the faults you swore,
    That the sun did rise in the west.

7. That the sun did arise in the west, my dear,
    And turns square back to the east;
    But once again I've come to myself
    And I find you are a thief.

8. I never will believe what another boy says,
    Let his eyes be dark or brown,
    Unless he's upon a high gallows top,
    Saying: Love, I'd rather come down.

9. I'd rather not be hung;
    For the words of a young boy
    Are too hard to believe,
    For they li-ee to every one.

~Masato

10 Dec 02 - 02:55 PM (#844765)
Subject: Tune Add: THE FALSE YOUNG MAN (Kentucky)
From: Malcolm Douglas

And here is the tune:

X:1
T:THE FALSE YOUNG MAN
S:Mrs. Sophie A. Hensley, Clay County, Kentucky, 1908.
Z:Noted by Cecil Sharp.
B:English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, vol.II p.53. Ed. Maud Karpeles, 1932.
N:Roud 419
N:Hexatonic. Mode 3, b.
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
M:4/4
K:C
E2|G2 (ED) C2 G2|A2 c2 e e2 (e/d/)|c3 d c2 E2|G6 G2|
w:* I walked_ out one bright May morn-ing To_ hear the birds sing sweet, I
c c c2 G2 E E|G2 E D C2 (CD)|E2 (EF) G2 (ED)|C6|]
w:seat-ed my-self in a green sha-dy grove To_ see two_ lov-ers_ meet.

10 Dec 02 - 06:19 PM (#844936)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: False Young Man (kentucky)
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)

Isn't it funny (a coincidence-funny)that this song was just mentioned in another thread (my birthday thread I think-KYTRAD)...someone wrote, "...loved your "Deep Shady Grove, Jean." This is what we called this song. It's on my CD, "Mountain Born- Jean Ritchie & Sons,' and is one of my very favorites.

13 Dec 02 - 03:53 PM (#846883)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: False Young Man (kentucky)
From: GUEST,odell

hmmm, interesting words. sounds like a pastiche of "henry lee", "black waterside", and some broken token song. no matter. thank you for your help.
odell

14 Dec 02 - 01:40 AM (#847179)
Subject: Lyr Add: BLUE-EYED BOY
From: Desert Dancer

I love that verse, but I've only encountered it in the song "Blue-Eyed Boy," as performed by Julie Henigan on her fine cd, American Stranger. She ways she got it from her friend Anne MacFie, who got it from "the late, great Lily May Ledford".

Here's the text:

BLUE-EYED BOY

Oh, do you remember that rocky hillside
Where we sat down to rest?
You promised to be my blue-eyed boy
While the sun rolled around in the west.

Oh, Mary, don't you weep. Don't you go, little gal.
Come to me one more time.
Oh, Mary, don't you weep. Don't you go, little gal.
Come to me one more time.

I wish to the Lord that I never had been born,
Or died when I was young,
Before I'd-a seen them pretty blue eyes
Or heared (sic) your lying tongue.

I never will believe what another man says
Though his eyes be blue or brown,
Unless he is on some scaffold to be hung
And he says that he wants to come down.

The False Young Man is usually said to be a fragment of Young Hunting (Child #68). Blue-Eyed Boy looks like a fragment of a fragment. :-)

~ Becky in Tucson

Link fixed (quotation mark added). --JoeClone, 28-Jan-03.

14 Dec 02 - 01:49 AM (#847180)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: False Young Man (kentucky)
From: Desert Dancer

Preview before submitting, Becky, that's what that nice little checkbox is for!

A stray " and/or < lost me part of the first paragraph. It should read:

I love that verse, but I've only encountered it in the song "Blue Eyed Boy," as performed by Julie Henigan on her fine cd, American Stranger. She ways she got it from her friend Anne MacFie, who got it from "the late, great Lily May Ledford".

~ Becky