Butcher's Boy- Lillian Short (MO) 1941 Randolph E
[From: 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. Hills, 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).
E. [Butcher's Boy]. Sung by Mrs. Lillian Short, Galena, Mo., Sept. 17, 1941. She learned it years ago from Mrs. Lucy Short Dillard, Crane, Mo.
In Jersey City where I did dwell
Lived a butcher boy that I loved so well
He courted me my heart away
And now with me he will not stay,
There is another house in this here town
Where he goes right in and he sits right down,
He takes a pretty girl upon his knee
And he tells to her what he won't tell me.
Oh yes, oh yes, I'll tell you why,
It's because she has more gold than I,
But her gold will melt and her silver fly,
An' she'll see the day she's as poor as I.
Oh me, oh my, how can this be?
Shall I love a boy that don't love me?
Oh no, oh no, that'll never be
Till apples grow on the hickory tree.
I went upstairs to make my bed,
And nothing to my mother said,
But she clumb up, she follered me,
Says daughter dear, what's a-ailin' thee.
And when her father he came home,
Says, daughter dear, where has she gone?
He went upstairs and the door he broke,
And found her a-hanging by a rope.
He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom these words he found:
Oh what a foolish maid am I,
To hang myself for the butcher's boy.
Oh dig my grave both wide and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my bosom a snow-white dove
To show to the world that I died for love.