|
Take Care/ Beware, Oh Take Care
Traditional Tune and Words by Longfellow from Hyperion, 1847.
ARTIST: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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).
TAKE CARE- Longfellow’s original lyrics:
"I KNOW a maiden fair to see,
Take care!
She can both false and friendly be,
Beware! Beware!
Trust her not,
She is fooling thee!
"She has two eyes, so soft and brown,
Take care!
She gives a side-glance and looks down,
Beware! Beware!
Trust her not,
She is fooling thee!
"And she has hair of a golden hue,
Take care!
And what she says, it is not true,
Beware! Beware!
Trust her not,
She is fooling thee!
"She has a bosom as white as snow,
Take care!
She knows how much it is best to show,
Beware! Beware!
Trust her not,
She is fooling thee!
"She gives thee a garland woven fair,
Take care!
It is a fool's cap for thee to wear,
Beware! Beware!
Trust her not,
She is fooling thee!"
|