Hangman- Jean Ritchie (KY) 1949 REC
[First recording as "The Hangman Song" Alan Lomax's apartment, 3rd Street, Greenwich Village (New York, N.Y.)
1949-05-13. Listen: http://digital.berea.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p16020coll7/id/75
Recording (LC-AFS 10,089), 1951. Recording LP 1201 (B 10) Gordon-Pickow Collector. Also on Singing Family of the Cumberlands by Jean Ritchie, 1955; Bronson 36. In her Child Ballads recording she said she learned this from her father Balis Ritchie. He was born in 1869 in Clear Creek, Perry, Kentucky and died in 1958 in Viper, Perry, Kentucky.
Ritchie adapted ballad versions from many sources. The first, of course, would be her family (sisters, mother , father and Uncle Jason). Although this may have been learned originally from her father, it may have changed several times. Obviously by 1951 she had changed the text.
Peggy Seeger's recording (1957) is nearly identical to Jean's and is a cover song or from the same source.
R. Matteson 2015]
"Hangman, Slack Up Your Rope" Sung by Jean Ritchie, 1949 (footnoted) and 1951.
1. Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope,
O slack it for awhile;
I looked down yonder and I seen Paw coming
He's walked for a many long mile.
2. O Paw, say Paw, have you brung me any gold?
Any gold to pay my fee[1]?
Or have you walked these many long miles
To see me on the hanging tree[2]?
3. No son, no son, ain't brung you no gold,
No gold for to pay your fee,
And I have walked these many long miles
To see you on the hanging tree.
4. Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope
O slack it for a while;
I looked down yonder and seen Maw a-coming,
She's walked for a many long mile.
5. O Maw, say Maw, have you brung me any gold,
Any gold for to pay my fee?
Or have you walked these many long miles
To see me on the hanging tree?
6. No son, no son, ain't brung you no gold,
No gold for to pay your fee,
And I have walked these many long miles
To see you on the hanging tree.
7. Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope,
O slack it for a while;
I looked down yonder and seen my truelove coming
She s walked for a many long mile.
8. O Love, Truelove, have you brung me any gold,
Any gold for to pay my fee?
Or have you walked these many long miles
To see me on the hanging tree?
9 Yes Love, O Love, I have brung you some gold,
Gold for to pay your fee,
And it's I have come for to take you home[3]
So you can marry me.
1. 1949 recording has "fine"
2. 1949 recording has "gallows line"
3. 1949: And I wouldn't walk so many long miles,
To see you on the gallow's line.