Early, Early All In The Spring- Hammond (Bel) 1958
[From the 1958 Tradition TLP 1028 LP recording, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man" Folk Songs of Ireland, by David Hammond. Reissued with Clancy Brothers and in 1997 -Tradition/Rykodisc TCD1052 CD and 2010 -Essential Media Group 942-31333-2 CD. Liner notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
EARLY, EARLY ALL IN THE SPRING: Perhaps the most wide spread of all English Ballads in Ireland. The words were often altered for political purposes especially in reference to the Rebellion of 1789. David's version gives the Irish rendering of the original ballad known to Cecil Sharp as "Died for Love."
Early, Early All In The Spring- sung by David Hammond of Belfast with guitar accompaniment, 1958.
It was early, early all in the Spring
When my love Willy went to serve the king,
The night blew dark, the wind blew high
It was there I lost my fine sailor boy.
"Oh Captain, Captain, come tell me true
Does my love Willy sail aboard with you?"
"What kind of clothes does your Willy dear?
And what's the colour of his hair?"
"He wears a coat all of the royal blue,
You'll know him surely for his heart so true."
His hair is wavy like the ripenin' corn,
That the wind blows over on a July morn.
“Your Willie dear alas he is not here,
On yonder island that does appear;
On yonder island that we passed by,
It was there we lost your fine sailor boy.
Oh dress my coffin in the deepest black,
And the headstone right above my head and neck
And on my breast place a turtle dove
To tell the world that I died for love.