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Lyr Req: Jersey City (from Cordelia's Dad)

31 Jan 97 - 05:51 PM (#1794)
Subject: Jersey City lyrics request
From: Charlie Shaw, c.shaw@frimee.com

I discovered this song on the Cordelia's Dad "Comet" record. The chorus is Let me dig my grave Burrow (?) wide and deep put a marker stone at my head and feet and on my heart put a turtledove for to show the world that i died for love

any takers?


31 Jan 97 - 07:16 PM (#1798)
Subject: RE: Jersey City lyrics request
From: Les Blank

We used to (195 ----!!) sing this as a verse to There is a Tavern in the Town.

Les Blank


31 Jan 97 - 11:18 PM (#1808)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BUTCHER BOY (Clancy Brothers)
From: Ralph Butts

It sounds like "Butcher Boy", which has countless variants. But what's the Jersey City connection.

Done by the Weavers as "Wild Goose Grasses", this is "The Butcher Boy" as done by the Clancy Brothers.

...Tiger

-------------

THE BUTCHER BOY -- Clancy Brothers

In London city, where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved right well;
He courted me my life away,
But now with me he will not stay.

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
I wish I was a maid again;
A maid again I ne'er will be
'Till cherries grow on an ivy tree.

"I wish my baby it was born
And smiling on its daddy's knee;
And me, poor girl, to be dead and gone,
With the long green grass growing over me."

She went upstairs to go to bed,
And calling to her mother, said,
"Give me a chair till I sit down
And a pen and ink till I write down."

At every word she dropped a tear,
At every line cried, "Willie, dear,
Oh, what a foolish girl was I,
To be led astray by a butcher boy."

He went upstairs and the door he broke;
He found her hanging from a rope.
He took his knife and he cut her down,
And in her pocket these words he found:

"Oh, make my grave large, wide and deep.
Put a marble stone at my head and feet;
And in the middle, a turtledove,
That the world may know that I died for love."


01 Feb 97 - 10:04 PM (#1839)
Subject: RE: Jersey City lyrics request
From: dick greenhaus

Hi- Butcher's boy is probably what you're looking for. A lot of older books place it in Jersey City instead of London.


04 Mar 97 - 09:33 AM (#2792)
Subject: Lyr Add: JERSEY CITY (from Cordelia's Dad)
From: ERIN

I love the Cordelia's Dad version because it seems modern.
Comet is a great album, except for "The Frozen Girl."

In Jersey City, where I live now,
A butcher's boy I loved so well.
He courted me my life away
And then with me he would not stay.

There is a house in another town
Where my love goes and hangs around.
He takes strange girls all on his knee.
He tells them that he doesn't know me.

Gonna' dig my grave, make it wide and deep.
Put a marble stone at my head and feet
And on my breast (heart?) put a turtle dove
For to show the world that I died for love.

Oh mother dear how can you know
The pain and sorrow I have known
Go get me a chair to sit upon,
A pen and ink, I'll write it down.

At the end of each line she dropped a tear
For bringing back her Willy dear.
Her father came in and looking round
Said gee (?) where can my daughter be found?

Uh, I forget the last verse but I think there's one more. The words are fairly clear on the CD, I just figured them out from that.

ERIN


18 Mar 97 - 11:51 PM (#3229)
Subject: RE: Jersey City lyrics request
From: belter

I have an album with a variant of this song called The Railroad Boy. I'm not sure what town it's set in. The artist and album are Rick Linear and Trails and Bridges. This album is on adionet juckbox.