Farmer's Boy - J. Ralph Vass (VA) 1959 Shellans
[From: Folk Songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains by Herbert Shellans; 1968. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
The Farmer's Boy
This song of tragic romance has had a long and interesting history, having appeared in England as a broadside and then circulated in the United States as a penny song sheet. More commonly known as "The Butcher Boy," it has borrowed liberally from a variety of other songs, both British and American. The disloyal lover, if not pictured as a farmer's boy or butcher boy, is
presented as a rambling boy, a gambling man, or just Sweet Willie. Although the action of our song takes place in an unspecified "yonder city," other American versions set the scene variously in London City, Jersey City, Johnson City, Jefferson City, New York City, or Boston Town.
The Farmer's Boy - Sung by Mr. J. Ralph Vass, with guitar, Hillsville, Virginia, March 27, 1959.
In yonder city, where I did dwell,
A farmer boy I loved so well.
He courted me my life away,
And then with me he would not stay.
There is a strange place in this town,
Where he goes up, sits himself down;
He takes a strange girl on his knee,
And tells her things he won't tell me.
I must grieve, I'll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I;
But her gold will melt, her silver fly,
And time will come be poor as I.
I went upstairs to make my bed,
And nothing to my mama said;
She came up sayin' unto me,
"Oh, child, what is the matter with thee?"
"Oh, mother dear, you'll never know
The pain and sorrow, the grief and woe,
But get me a chair to sit me down,
With a pen and ink to write it down."
And on each line she dropped her tear,
Callin' back her Willie dear;
And on each line she dropped her tear,
Callin' back her Willie dear.
When her father came in, her father said,
"Where is my daughter, is she in bed?"
He went upstairs and the lock he broke,
And he found her swingin' by a rope.
And with his knife he cut her down,
And on her breast these words he found:
"What a foolish girl am I, you know,
To hang myself for a farmer boy.
"Go dig my grave so wide and deep,
Put a marble slab at my head and feet,
And on my breast a snow-white dove,
To prove to the world I died for love."