Blue-eyed Boy: Mrs Autherson (WS-MO) 1910 Belden B
[From Belden; "Ballads and Songs," 1940. His notes follow. Stanza 1 projects the theme of UK versions with the "My love he is a sailor boy" opening. This same stanza has been found in Died for Love versions with the "Must I Go Bound" stanza (see, for example, Tolman 1916).
R. Matteson 2017]
The Blue-Eyed Boy
Here divers images or motifs seem to have been gathered around a refrain stanza which gives the name to the song. I have found. it reported from else-where only in Nebraska (ABS 272-3). In A the refrain stanza is not marked as such and the other elements are the hand and lips image (vaguely remembered from The Lass of Roch Royal), the turtle dove, the green willow tree, and 'Must I go bound while he goes free?';[1] in B, the lover going to sea, the value of a true friend., the little bird, and the refrain stanza; in C, the harp hung on the willow tree (which here has thrust the 'blue-eyed boy' stanza from its place as refrain),'Must I go bound and you go free?', the value of a true friend, and the turtle dove. D lacks the 'blue-eyed boy' altogether, but I have included it here because of the 'Must I go bound' stanza; the other stanza belongs to the tradition of 'There is an Alehouse in Yonder Town,' for which see the headnote to The Butcher Boy.
B. 'The Blue-eyed Boy.' Secured by Miss Hamilton in 1910 from Grace Clemmons of the West Plains High School, who had it from a Mrs. Autherson, formerly of Wisconsin.
My lover told me last night
He'd take me across the deep blue sea;
And now he's gone and left me alone,
An orphant[1] girl without a home.
Chorus: Then bring me back the blue-eyed boy,
Go bring my darling back to me;
Then bring me back the blue-eyed boy
And oh! how happy I shall be.
Remember me and bear in mind,
A good true friend is hard to find;
And when you find one good and true
Don't change the old one for the new.
My love is like the little bird
That flits about from tree to tree,
And when he is with some other girl
He doesn't even think of me.
1. orphan