Butcher Boy- Oliver Jenness (ME) 1947 Flanders REC
[D52B, archival cassette dub from Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College Special Collections & Archives. The fourth stanza is missing in the 1947 performance. Stanza 5 is rare in versions of Butcher Boy.
R. Matteson 2017]
Butcher Boy - from two voice performances by Oliver Jenness at York (Maine). Classification #: LAP24. Dated 09-20-1947 and 09-23-1948.
1. In Jersey City there did dwell
A butcher boy and I loved him well
He courted me, my heart away
And then with me, he would not stay.
2. When I wore my dresses[1] low
He followed me through frost and snow
And now I wear them to my chin,
He rides right by and never comes in.
3. There is a house in this same town
Where he does go and set him down
He'll take another girl on his knee
And tell to her what that he told to me.
4. I'll tell to you the reason why,
Because she has more gold than I,
Her gold will melt and beauty fade[1],
[And in time of need she'll be poor as I.]
5. I wish to God my babe was born,
And sitting on his father's knee;
And I poor girl was dead and gone,
And the green green grass growing over me.
6. Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Put a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast a turtle dove,
To let the world know I died for love.
1. he sings fade but fly is the usual word- the next line I've filled in.