Bluegrass Messengers

Butcher's Boy- Dorothy Ross (MO) 1959 Hunter D

[From Max Hunter Collection; Cat. #0397 (MFH #37). Some minor editing.
Listen: https://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=0145

R. Matteson 2017]


The Butcher's Boy - As sung by Dorothy Ross, Rogers, Arkansas on August 19, 1959

VERSE 1
In London City, where I did dwell
A butcher's boy I loved so well
He courted me, my life away
An' with me then, he would not stay.

VERSE 2
There is a strange house in this town
Where he goes up an' sets right down
He takes another girl on his knee
He tells her things that he won't tell me.

VERSE 3
I'll have to grieve, I'll tell you why
Because she has more gold than I
Her gold will melt an' silver'll fly
An' in time of need be as poor as I

VERSE 4
I went upstairs to go to bed
And nothing to my Mother said
O, Mother she, did seem to say,
What is the trouble, my daughter dear?

VERSE 5
O, Mother dear, you need not know
Th pain and sorrow, grief that flow
Give me a chair an' set me down
With pen an' ink to write words down

VERSE 6
Go, dig my grave, both wide and deep
Place marble stone at my head and feet
Upon my breast, a snow white dove
To show to the world that I died for love

VERSE 7
An' when her Father, first came home
Where is my daughter, where has she gone?
He went upstairs an' the store[1] he broke
He found her hanging to a rope

VERSE 8
He took his knife an' cut her down
An' in her bosom, these words he found
A silly girl, I know I am
To hang myself for a butcher's boy

VERSE 9
Must I go bound, while he goes free
The style of a boy that don't love me
Alas, alas, t'will never be
Till oranges grow on apple trees

1. door