Butcher's Boy- G. McCarty (AR) 1941 Randolph F
[Only 1st stanza given in Ozark Folksongs Vol. 1 British Ballads and Songs; 1946 by Vance Randolph. His notes follow and his four early sources are from Belden.
R. Matteson 2017]
45. THE BUTCHER BOY
The "Butcher Boy" song is made up of modified extracts from at least four English pieces: see Cox (Folk-Songs of the South, 1925, p. 430) for a discussion of this matter. For American texts see Pound (American Ballads and, Songs, 1922, p. 60), Sandburg (American Songbag, 1927, p. 324), Spaeth (Weep Some More, My Lady, 1927, p. 128), Lunsford (Asheville Times, Asheville, N. C., Oct. 30, 1927, Bradley Kincaid (My Favorite Mountain Ballads, 1928, p. 43), Lomax (Cowboy Songs, 1916, p.397), Robison (Hill Country Songs and Ballads, 1929, p. 15), JAFL (29, 1916, p. 169; 31, 1918, p.73; 35, 1922, p. 360), Combs (Folk-Songs from the Kentucky Highlands, 1939, pp.30-31), Eddy (Ballad's and Songs from Ohio, 1939, pp. 129-131), Gardner (Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan, 1939, pp. 117-119), Linscott (Folk Songs of Old, New England, 1939, pp. 179-181), Brewster (Ballads and Songs of Indiana, 1940, pp. 198-201) and the forthcoming Brown (North Carolina Folk-Lore Society) collection.
Compare Buell Kazee's phonograph record (Brunswick 213). A closely related piece called "There Is a Tavern in the Town" appeared in the Ditson College Song Book of 1885, with copyright credited to William H. Hillis, as of 1883. As Spaeth (Life, June, 1935, p. 21) points out, the authorship of "There Is a Tavern in the Town" has recently been claimed by Rudy Vallee and others. For full information about the history of "The Butcher Boy" see Belden's headnote (Ballads and Songs, 1940, pp. 201-203).
F. [Butcher's Boy] Mrs. Gladys McCarty, Farmington, Ark., Dec. 13, 1941, contributes a long and confused version beginning:
In the Londers City where I may dwell
The butcher's boy I loved so well,
He courted me my life away,
Then with me but he wouldn't stay.