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Beware, Oh Take Care
Traditional Tune and Words by Longfellow from Hyperion, 1847.
ARTIST: New Lost City Ramblers, "Beware, Oh Take Care" (on NLCR10).
Listen: Blind Alfred Reed "Beware"
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: Words- 1847, Longfellow; Music from around 1880;
RECORDING INFO: Blind Alfred Reed, "Beware" (Victor 23550, 1931; on TimesAint02) New Lost City Ramblers, "Beware, Oh Take Care" (on NLCR10). Falderal String Band. Step Right Up... Free Show Tonight!, Hen House, Cas (1996), cut#B.02 (Beware); New Lost City Ramblers. Sing Songs of the New Lost City Ramblers, Aravel AB-1005, LP, cut# 11; Petric, Faith. As We Were, Center 37, LP (1986), cut#A.01 Reed, Blind Alfred. How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live, Rounder 1001, LP (1972), cut# 8 (Beware)
OTHER NAMES: Take Care; Beware; Boys won’t Do To Trust; Bold and Free
SOURCES: Randolph 381, "Beware, Oh Beware"; New Lost City Ramblers. Old-Time String Band Songbook, Oak, Sof (1964/1976), p 70; Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 70-71, "Beware, Oh Take Care"; Silber-FSWB, p. 167, "Beware, Oh, Take Care"
NOTES: The lyrics are from a song, entitled “Take Care” by Longfellow’s Hyperion, 1847. The song has been in circulation since the mid- 1800’s with versions appearing as early as 1880’s.
Credited in the Digital Tradition to Blind Alfred Blake (which Paul Stamler points out should be "Blind Alfred Reed"), but -- since the piece has been in circulation since at least the 1880s -- it would appear that Reed, at most, retouched it into the "popular" form. Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes a scrap of the song in By the Shores of Silver Lake (chapter 6).
BEWARE OH TAKE CARE- New City Lost Ramblers
Listen: Blind Alfred Reed "Beware"
They say young men are bold and free
Beware, Oh take care.
They'll tell you they're friends, but they're false, you see
Beware, Oh take care.
CHORUS: Beware, young ladies, they're fooling you,
Trust them not, they're fooling you!
Beware, young ladies, they're fooling you,
Beware, Oh take care.
Around their necks they wear a guard
And in their pocket a deck of cards.
They smoke, they chew, they wear fine shoes
And in their pocket is a bottle of booze.
They hold their hands up to their hearts
They sigh, Oh they sigh,
They say they love no one but you
They lie, Oh they lie.
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