Butcher's Boy- Virgie Bailey (KY) 1937 Lomax
[From Internet Archive's Collection of Alan Lomax's Kentucky Recordings, 1937-1942.
R. Matteson 2017]
The Butcher's Boy- sung by Virgie Bailey of Hyden, KY on September 29, 1937. Incomplete transcription
1. I used to be a butcher boy,
A butcher boy I used to be,
I used to love a pretty maid,
And I think she did love me.
2.
And spoke these words went away
3. Oh Willie dear, I love you so,
I love you more than I do know,
And if [love can ] say it's so
I'd give the world to let you know.
4. She sat down with her right hand
And wrote to Willie in the western land.
Receive these words oh Willie dear,
Read these lines from me to you.
5. He read these lines and he wept and cried
--[ ]
He read these lines and he wept and cried,
There's a time when I wish I'd die
6. She went upstairs to go to bed,
And not one word to her mother she said,
Her mother went upstairs too,
Says, "Dear Daughter what troubles you."
6. Oh dear mother I can tell,
That butcher boy I love so well
He courted me, my life away
And then with me, he will not stay.
7. Jewel's father came home that night,
Asking for Jewel, his heart's delight
He run upstairs the door he broke,
He found her hanging to her own bed-rope.
8. He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom this note he found
Go dig my grave both long and wide,
And bury sweet Willie by my side.
9. They dug her grave both deep and wide,
And buried Sweet Willie by her side.
And on her breast a snow-white dove,
To warn the world they died for love.