Butcher's Boy- Kelly Harrell (VA) 1925 Victor REC
[From Victor 19563
Listen: http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/10214
Born in 1889, Harrell is from the Wythe County, Virginia area, south of the Shenandoah Valley.
R. Matteson 2017]
Butcher's Boy- sung by Kelly Harrell on January 7, 1925 Victor REC, NYC.
[fiddle intro]
In London City where I did dwell,
A butcher's boy I loved so well.
He courted me my life away
And with me then he would not stay.
There is a strange house in this town,
Where he goes up and sits right down,
He takes another girl on his knee,
He tells to her things that he won't tell me.
I have to grieve, I'll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I,
Her gold will melt and silver fly,
In time of need she'll be poor as I.
I went upstairs to go to bed,
And nothing to my mother said,
Oh mother, she did seem to say,
What is the trouble with my daughter dear?
Oh mother dear, you need not know,
The pain and sorrow, grief and woe[1],
Give me a chair and sit me down,
With pen and ink to write words down.
[fiddle]
Go dig my grave both wide and deep.
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
Upon my breast, a snow white dove,
To show the world that I died for love.
And when her father first came home,
“Where is my daughter, where has she gone?”
He went upstairs and the door he broke
He found her hanging to a rope.
He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom these words he found,
A silly girl I am you know
To hang myself for the butcher's boy.
Must I go bound while he he goes free?
Must I love a boy that don't love me?
Alas, alas, it'll never be,
Till oranges grow on apple trees.
1. grief that flows?