Hark Ye Hear The Lassies Cry- Aley (MO) 1969 Max Hunter
[From the Max Hunter Collection: Cat. #0677 (MFH #363). Minor editing done to text. This is listed as Child 81 by Hunter and also the Roud Index. This certainly isn't a version of Matty Groves but it is related textually though the question: How do you like your feather bed?
It could be listed as an Appendix to Child 81.
R. Matteson 2015]
Hark Ye Hear The Lassies Cry- As sung by Tom Aley, Ozark, Missouri on February 8, 1969
VERSE 1: Hark, ye hear the lassies cry
Down by the sea where the reeds grow high
Cryin' over the bones of a man who's dead
Who last night slept in my ain[1] bed
VERSE 2: I come home quite suddenly
He was lie'n in the bed where I ought'a be
Well, how do you like your featherbed
An' how d' you like your bein' dead?
VERSE 3: It's well, very well that I like your bed
But never would I like my bein' dead
He drew a knife an' sprang t' floor
I stabbed 'im an' he sprang no more
VERSE 4: Killed 'im with my bloody knife
An' now must kill my own true life
Hark, ye hear the lassies cry
Down by the sea where the reeds grow high
1. own