Hangman! Hangman! (2)- Mrs. Gilley (Child 95)
[This is Child ballad, No. 95, popularized by Leadbelly and a cover version by Led Zepplin in the 1970s. This second version is almost the same as the first, the changes being given by McDowell.
R. Matteson 2014]
HANGMAN! HANGMAN!
Hangman, hangman, slack your rope,
Slack it for a while;
I think I see my father coming;
He's coming for many a mile.
"O Father, did you bring me the gold--
The gold to set me free?
0r have you come to see me hung,
Here on this willow tree?
No, Son No, Son, I brought you no gold--
No gold to set you free:
For I have come to see you hung,
Here on this willow tree.
The song is continued by repeating the entire triple verse, substituting the word, "Mother" for the word, "Father," throughout. For a third verse, it's again repeated, using the word "Brother," and changing the word "son," also, to "Brother." The fourth verse is like the third, with the "Sister" for the word "Brother," except in the last four-line stanza of the triplet. Then, the fifth and last time , the entire song is again repeated, using the words "True Love,"; but this time the last four lines are changed to read thus:
Yes, True Love, yes, True Love,
I've brought you the gold
The gold to set you free:
I have not come to see you hung
Here on this willow tree.
This version was furnished by Mrs. Walter Gilley, who learned it at the Tennessee Industrial School, where she remained several years. she says the other young people of the school taught it to her.