British & Other Versions 7F. My Blue-Eyed Boy Roud 18831, see also Roud 60 (Sailor Boy; The Willow Tree; Sailor Bold; My Love He Is A Sailor Bold)
[There are two main opening stanzas for this rare British folk song. The first opening is the "My love he is a sailor boy/bold" opening as sung by Miss Ross about 1907, Aberdeenshire, Scotland[1]:
My love he is a sailor bold
He ploughs the waves on the raging sea,
He wears a blue band on his arm
To tell how true he is to me.
This is usually titled "Sailor Boy" or "Sailor Bold" and is not related directly to 7A. Sailor Boy/Sweet William. The second opening was sung by Shandres Petulengro, a gypsy singer of Kendal, Westmorland[2]:
As I passed by a willow tree,
A leaf blew down and followed me;
I picked it up, it would not break;
My love passed by, he would not speak.
Both share a similar chorus:
Then give[bring] me back that one I love,
O! give, O! give him back to me;
If I only had that one I love,
How happy, happy should I be.
The "bring me back" chorus is usually repeated after every stanza, although in some versions it acts as a regular stanza. The version by Tom Willet segues in "Died for Love" but most UK versions don't have "Died for Love stanzas, except for one[3], but instead have "I wish" stanzas beginning: "I wish my heart" or "I feel he's like the weathercock." There's also a comparison stanza "My true love he's like a little bird."
The theme is very much part of the "Died for Love" songs: A young maid passes by a willow and a leaf falls down--she picks it up it will not break, her love goes by and does not speak. This obvious rejection of the maid by her lover is typical of the Died for Love songs. The maid thinks he has found another lover and wishes his heart was glass she could see if he loves her. In some versions since he's a sailor boy who left her and no longer cares for her.
Both the Sailor Boy/Willow tree versions are closely aligned to the 'Blue-Eyed Boy," the American counterpart which has a similar chorus with "blue eyed boy" added: "Bring me back my blue-eyed boy." The American versions are more diverse and have different "Died for Love" stanzas blended in.
The oldest extant version is Kidson's "Sailor Boy" broadside dated c.1890 (ref. Gardham[4]).
The Frank Kidson Broadside Collection [c.1890]
My love is but a sailor boy
That sails across the deep blue sea,
He wears a mark up on his arm
To bring his memory back to me.
CHORUS: Give me back the one I love,
Give oh, give him back to me,
Give me back the one I love,
Then happy, happy I will be.
My love is like a little bird
That flies across from tree to tree,
And when he gets so far away,
You'll find he thinks no more of me.
Think of me and bear in mind,
A constant love is hard to find;
And when you get one good and true,
Never change the old one for the new.
The last stanza which is used as a short poem by itself is commonly found in Maiden's prayer a variant of Died for Love with the suicide that was popular in the UK since World War I and is still sung today. The opening stanza of Maiden's Prayer often features a Sailor or Soldier:
A soldier came on leave one night,
He found his house without a light,
He went upstairs to go to bed,
When a sudden thought came to his head.
This is from one of the earliest version taken from a British World War I soldier by the father of Fred Cottenham, of Chiddingstone, Kent. It has the following common stanza with Blue-Eyed Boy/Sailor Boy/Willow tree:
Now, all you maidens, bear in mind,
A soldier's love is hard to find.
But if you find one good and true,
Never change the old love for the new.
This is the one clear association with Maiden's prayer a member of the Died for Love family that has the suicide which resembles Butcher Boy.
This short love song with the Willow Tree/Sailor Boy openings probably originated in the UK by the early 1800s since it's guestimated to have been found in the US about the same time. There are less that ten independent versions[5] in the UK and only a few that are more than the chorus and thee stanzas long. As Steve Gardham has pointed out[6], the melody sung to Maiden's Prayer is the same standard melody sung for "Blue-Eyed Boy." This, and the common stanza, show the close relationship of the two songs.
R. Matteson 2017]
___________________________________
Footnotes:
1. "My Love He Is A Sailor Bold," sung by Miss Ross about 1907, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. (Grieg-Duncan 1085) The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection - Volume 8, page 424, by Patrick N. Shuldham-Shaw, Emily B. Lyle - 2002. Nothing is known of the informant who I assume is from Aberdeenshire as most of the informants of Greig and Duncan were.
2. This version sung by Shandres, a gypsy singer of Kendal Westmorland, was published in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, July, 1909 from Christmas Eve and After by Thomas William Thompson. The MS is in the Broadwood Collection online and has been titled, "Willow Tree." Roud makes it clear that the four versions in Broadwood's MS are collected by Thompson, however Broadwood has been attributed in some notes as the collector. Three of the versions are from Shandres Petulengro family and have minor differences. The version published by Thompson in 1909 is a composite.
3. The Maiden's Prayer has one stanza in common with Willow Tree/Sailor Boy which will be covered near the end of the British & Other Versions headnotes.
4. Frank Kidson's broadside "The Sailor Boy," has been given a date of c.1890 by Gardham but it certainly could be twenty years older.
5. Three are, for example, three versions by Shandres Petulengro's family members and another version from the same gypsy group that is also similar- these four versions constitute one independent version.
6. Steve Gardham has collected a number of versions of "Maiden's Prayer," including two from his family. He made the observation about the melody in an email but probably has posted it online as well. I assume the UK melody is also similar.
_______________________
CONTENTS: (To access individual versions click on blue highlighted title below or on the title attached to this page on the left-hand column)
1) Sailor Boy- (York) c.1890 Kidson Broadside
2) My Love He Is A Sailor Bold- Ross (Aber) 1907
3) Willow Tree- Shandres Petulengro (Westmorland) 1909 Thompson A
Sailor Boy- A Gorgio (West) 1909 Thompson C
Willow Tree- V. Petulengro (West) 1909 Thompson B
Willow Tree- Mrs Petulengro (Westmorland) 1909 Thompson D
Bring Me Back- (Ulster) 1933 Sam Henry
Bring Me Back- Anon (Ulster) 1937 Henry B
Sailor Bold- Tom Willett (Sur) 1960 REC
If I Only Had the One I Love- Hughes (Dors) 1963
Willow Tree- May Bradley (Shrop) 1965 Hamer
Willow Tree- Bill Smith (Shrop) 1981 REC
----------------------
[See May Bradley] Musical Traditions Records' third CD release of 2005: Songs from the Golden Fleece: A song tradition today (MTCD335-6).
Danny Stradling - 'I first sang publicly at the age of thirteen, and meandered my way from jazz to traditional music in the following 10 years - ie. from Bessie Smith to Phoebe Smith (and taking in Lal Smith on the way!). The most interesting and illuminating times, musically and socially, were the late '60s and early '70s when I spent a lot of time in the company of older singers and musicians, but in the '80s as I sang less my enthusiasm and confidence seemed to dry up. Singing at the Fleece, with a small group of friends who share my love and understanding of the music, has rekindled my interest and passion.'
16 - The Willow Tree (Roud 60, Laws P25)
Sung by Danny Stradling
As I walked past the willow tree
A willow leaf fell down on me.
I picked it up, it would not break.
I passed my love, he would not speak.
Speak, young man, and you don't be shy,
For I'm the one can pass you by,
And friends we've met, and friends we'll part,
You take my hand but not my heart.
I wish your bosom were of glass, of glass,
That I could view it through and through,
And see the secrets of your heart,
If you love one you can't love two.
So fetch me back the one I love, dearly love,
And fetch, oh you fetch him back to me,
And if I only had the one I love, dearly love,
How happy, happy would I be.
My true love's a sailor boy,
He sails the ocean through and through,
And when he gets so far away
He hardly ever thinks of me.
So fetch me back the one I love, dearly love,
And fetch, oh you fetch him back to me,
And if I only had the one I love, dearly love,
How happy, happy would I be.
This comes from Fred Hamer’s recordings of May Bradley, a Gypsy from the Welsh borders. From the same source come The Leaves of Life and On Christmas Day, songs relating how God treats man, and the wonderful Sweet Swansea which relates how man treats man. The 'chorus' was taken from Queen Caroline Hughes.
---------------------------
My love he's but a sailor lad
NEVER CHANGE THE OLD LOVE FOR THE NEW - GO AND LEAVE ME IF YOU WISH IT
DESCRIPTION: "My love he is a sailor lad He's on the ocean blue." The singer says her sailor's heart is "the compass true" that points to her. She turns her head aside when landsmen smile at her and wishes for a safe breeze to bring him home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan5)
MY LOVE HE IS A SAILEUR BOY
From: Q (Frank Staplin) - PM
Date: 12 Jul 04 - 05:15 PM
"My Love He Is a Sailor Boy" was popular during the Civil War, and several follow-up were composed, including "My Love he Is a Zou-Zu," referring to the Zouves. Could not find any sheet music, and only this version (I don't know if it has a relationship to current versions):
Lyr. Add: MY LOVE HE IS A SAILEUR BOY
Oh my love he is a saileur, so gallient and bold,
He's as straight as a flag-staff and just nineteen years old,
For to cruise the wide world he has left his own dear,
And my heart it is a bustin because he is not here.
Oh my buzzum it is tosted just like the rollin' sea,
For fear that his affecshins don't still pint to me;
For a sweet-heart can be found in each port I am told,
Eckspecially for a young man on'y nineteen years old.
Oh, I would not a tin-smith revile or despise,
Providing no other hadn't first met my eyes;
But fifty-five years tho' bedizend with gold
Ain't equal to a saileur boy on'y nineteen years old.
Encore verses
In vain does his rival my true heart to assail,
And beg me my lovier no more to bewail;
Oh it ain't to grey 'airs my young 'air I'll unfold
While there's 'opes of my saileur boy on'y nineteen years old.
Oh my friends they have besot me by night and day,
But I tells them no viddiver with me can make way;
For first love is warm, while the second is cold,
Si I sticks to my saileur boy, on'y nineteen years old.
And if my dear husband he never shall be,
But lays a stiff corpus in the bottom of the sea;
The weeds of a vidder so dismal to behold,
I'll wear for my saileur boy on'y nineteen years old.
Printed by Thomas G. Doyle, Baltimore (no date, but 1860s). Spellings not changed.
There are several versions of the "Battle of Alma" in the Bodleian Collection, but none has the line "My love he is a sailor boy." Nor does the modern version by Copper and Dudley, or the older one by McGonigal. It is possible that "My Love Is a Saileur Boy" is based on an older poem.
Guest, where did you find the version by Glyde?
KEYWORDS: love nonballad sailor separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 939, "My Love He Is a Sailor Lad" (1 text)
Roud #6754
My love he is a sailor boy and ploughs the raging sea
I know he will be true to me wherever he may be
He says when the robins nest again love I'll be true to thee
And as we stood in fond embrace these words he said to me :
Do not forget me when I'm far away
Do not forget your sailor boy upon the sea
Though seas may divide us faithful I will be
So in your prayers love remember me
Last night I dreamt my sailor boy was standing by my side
He says I have returned to claim you as my bride
Although I knew it was a dream it filled my heart with joy
For I knew I very soon would see my bonny sailor boy.
Subject: Lyr Add: THE YOUNG MAN BRED A CARPENTIER
From: Jim Dixon - PM
Date: 17 Jul 04 - 09:39 AM
From Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads Firth c.12(217).
London: H.P. Such, Machine Printer and Publisher, 177, Union-street, Boro'., S.E.
between 1863 and 1885
THE YOUNG MAN BRED A CARPENTIER [sic]
My love he is a sailor boy gallant and bold.
He's as tall as a flag-staff, scarcely nineteen years old.
For to cruise around this wide world he has left his own dear,
And my heart it is a-bursting because he's not here.
CHORUS: For his spirit was tremendous, and fierce to behold
In a young man bred a carpentier only nineteen years old.
His parents they bound him for to be a carpentier,
But a seafaring life he did very much prefer,
For his spirit was tremendous and fierce to behold
In a young man bred a carpentier, only nineteen years old. CHORUS
My buzzum it is tossing just like the rolling sea,
For fear that his affections don't still point upon me;
For a sweetheart can be found in any port I am told,
Especially for a young man only nineteen years old. CHORUS
And it's oh for my lover I grieve and repine
For fear this young man can never be mine.
All the wealth of the Indies in silver and gold
I would give for my sailor boy, only nineteen years old. CHORUS
---------------------
My love he is a sailor boy, 19 years old. : As sung with unbounded applause, by that inimitable delineator of Ethiopian characteristics, Dan Bryant.
Author: Charles Melton Walcot; Dan Bryant; Horace Partridge
Publisher: [Boston, Mass.] : Sold at wholesale by Horace Partridge, importer, and wholesale dealer in fancy goods, soaps, buttons, toys, Smith & Wesson's seven shooters, &c. No. 27 Hanover St.,
Boston., [between 1860 and 1870]
--------------
My Johnny is a Sailor Bold: Air:--My Love He is a Sailor Boy
https://books.google.com/books?id=vk8-YAAACAAJ
William P. Ferris - 1861 - No preview
My India: Recollections of Fifty Years - Page 200
https://books.google.com/books?id=QIdCAAAAIAAJ
Lillian Luker Ashby, Roger Whately - 1937 - Snippet view
So give me back the man I luv Oh, give, oh, give him back to me-ee! I luv him mo than the stars can tell, And happee happee shall I be-ee. And give me a pen and som pa-pur To write my luv a luv la-ttur." Plentiful refreshments in large thalis
-----------------
The Illustrated London News - Volume 73 - Page 187
https://books.google.com/books?id=fptQAAAAYAAJ
1878 - Read - More editions
There is much of interest and marked character in each of these pieces; which, moreover, afford excellent practice in various forms of mechanism. “ My Love is but a Sailor Boy," by (Enoch and Sons), is a telling song, with a. bold and effective melody
-------------
The Oxford Book of English Traditional Verse
Front Cover
Fredrick Woods
Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1983
Willow Tree
How happy, happy should I be.
My love he is a sailor boy,
He sails the ocean through and through,
And when he gets so far away,
He hardly thinks of me no more.
Now give me back to the one I love,
Oh give, oh give him back to me,
take my hand and not my heart.
I wish your bosom was of glass,
That I could view it through and through, Just view those secrets of your heart, If I love one I can't love two. Then give me back to the one I love, Oh give, oh give him back to me
-------
Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society
T.W Thompson(1888-1968)
Thomas William Thompson was a collector of Romany folklore mainly from theNorth of England and Midlands area.
He began collecting tales when a schoolmaster at Repton. In the early twentieth century he carefully recorded stories in his notebooks from the English Gypsy families of Gray, Smith and Boswell ,as well as also drawing up genealogical family trees of some of the Gypsies he became friendly with.
A collection of his works is held at the University of Leeds, Brotherton Library.
Thompson's work was also published in the Journal of the Gypsy lore Society, one such work which has helped many Smith researchers is the Smith family tree of Ambrose Smith who was made famous by George Borrow's book's Lavengro and the Romany Rye and better known as the character "Jasper Petulengro".
George Borrow befriended Ambrose when they were just lads and they became "blood brothers" .
-------------
Bazaar Exchange and Mart, and Journal of the Household
https://books.google.com/books?id=10o2AQAAMAAJ
1878 - Read - More editions
A charming little sentimental song in E flat is given us by Mr. Alfred Scott-Gatty, entitled “My Love is but a Sailor Boy” (Enoch and Sons), the words by Edward Oxenford. The music is of moderate difficulty, and intended for a soprano voice.
____________________
The Willow Tree
[ Roud 18831 ; Ballad Index RcTWilTr ; trad.]
This is one of the many variants of the Died for Love theme, originally clustered by Steve Roud as Roud 60.
May Bradley, gypsy singer from Ludlow in Shropshire, sang The Willow Tree in a 1965 recording made by Fred Hamer. It was included in 1998 on the Topic anthology We've Received Orders to Sail: Jackie Tar at Sea & on Shore (The Voice of the People Series Volume 12) and in 2010 on her Musical Traditions anthology Sweet Swansea.
Bill Smith of Shropshire sang the first two verses of The Willow Tree to his son Andrew Smith in Spring 1981. This recording was included in 2011 on his Musical Traditions anthology A Country Life: Songs and Stories of a Shropshire Man. The accompanying booklet noted:
Lines in italics from the singing of May Bradley, who lived nearby. Bill didn't know her, but when shown a photograph of May and her husband published in the Fred Hamer collection Garners Gay, said, “No, I don't know her, but 'im! He owes me a pint!”
Roud has 14 versions of this lovely song, four of which are from North America. The earliest entry is Lucy Broadwood's 1909 collection of it from Shadres Petulengro, in Kendal, Westmorland. The others are from May Bradley, plus Sam Richards collected it from Bill ‘Pop’ Hingston, of Dittisham, Devon, in the 1970s, as did Gavin Greig from a Miss Ross, in Scotland.
Umps and Dumps learned The Willow Tree from the singing of May Bradley and sang it in 1980 on their Topic album The Moon's in a Fit.
Eliza Carthy sang and played Willow Tree in 2002 on her CD Anglicana, She commented in the album's sleeve notes:
This song is dedicated to Danny Stradling, because she thought that she had put it together as she sang it and I knew when I heard May Bradley sing it that it felt very familiar, and neither of us could place it! I remember Danny singing this through staying with the Stradlings over the years. Being on the end of their fabulous hospitality and working with their son has been a lovely and big part of my life. She is also a monster tambourine player.
This track was also included in 2013 on her Topic anthology Wayward Daughter. And Eliza sang Willow Tree live on April 24, 2013 in Mark Radcliffe's BBC Radio 2 programme The Folk Show. This is available on the digital download album The Mark Radcliffe Folk Sessions.
Eliza Carthy sings Willow Tree
As I pass by a willow tree, willow tree
That willow leaf blew down on me
I picked it up, it would not break
I've passed my love, he would not speak
O, speak, young man, and don't be shy, be shy
For I'm the girl can't pass you by
For friends we've met and friends will part
You'll take my hand but not my heart
I wished your bosom were of glass, of glass
So I could view it through and through
Just to view those secrets of your heart
If I'd love one, I can't love two
Oh, give me back to the one I love, I love
Oh, give, oh, give him back to me
If I only have that one I love
How happy, happy more I'd be
My love he is a sailor boy, sailor boy
He sails the ocean through and through
And when he gets so far away
He hardly thinks no more of me
So give, oh, give him back to me, to me
Oh, give, oh, give him back to me
If I only have that one I love
How happy, happy more I'd be
-------------
Eliza Carthy recorded an arrangement of the song as recorded by Fred Hamer from May Bradley of Ludlow, Shropshire, on 28 July 1965; though Eliza originally learned it via Danny Stradling.
-----------
Missing versions:
Bring Me Back the One I Love
Roud Folksong Index (S170669)
First Line: Of bring me back the one I love
Source: Peoples Stage 03 (`Hingston's Half Hour')
Performer: Hingston, Bill `Pop'
Date: 1970s?
Place: England : Devon : Dittisham
Collector: Richards, Sam / Tish Stubbs
Roud No: 18831
As I Walked By a Willow Tree
Roud Folksong Index (S341101)
First Line: As I walked by a willow tree
Source: Mike Yates Collection: British Library National Sound Archive C 796/92 (VWML 27 CDA Yates)
Performer: Jordan, Fred
Date:
Place: England : Shropshire
Collector: Yates, Mike
Roud No: 18831
Subjects: Willow branch : Would not break : Met my love : She would not speak