How Come That Blood? Baird (NC) c1937 Burton
[My abbreviated title. From Some Ballad Folks by Thomas Burton, 1990. Following the song text is a short excerpt from Burton's book. The informant was 97 in the late 1980s, I've guestimated a date of c.1937 when she learned this from her step-mother, certainly it could be somewhat older.
R. Matteson 2014]
"How come That Blood on Your shirt sleeve?" ("Edward" Child 13) she learned from her stepmother:
1. "How come that blood on your shirt sleeve?
My son, pray tell me now."
" 'Tis the blood of my guinea-gray horse
that plowed the fields for me."
2. "Too red, too red for your guinea-gray horse,
My son, pray tell me now."
"It is the blood of my guinea-gray hound
that run that deer for me."
3. "Too red, too red for your guinea-gray hound.
My son, pray tell me now."
"Hit is the blood of my guinea-gray hog
that rooted the woods for me."
4. "Too red, too red for your guinea-gray hog.
My son, pray tell me now."
"Hit is the blood of my own dear brother
that walked the roads with me."
5. "And what was your falling out about?
My son, pray tell me now."
"Over a little hazel bush
that once a-might 'a' made a tree."
6. "What you goin' to do when it's found out on you?
My son, pray tell me now."
"I'll put my foot in a handsome boat
and sail across the sea."
7 . "what you goin' to do with your pretty little wife?
My son, pray tell me now."
"she'll put her foot in a handsome boat
and sail along with me."
8. "What you goin' to do with your pretty little babe?
My son, pray tell me now."
"I'll leave it hyere with my own dear father
for it'll long remember me."
9. "When do you reckon you'll ever come back?
My son, pray tell me now."
"When the moon and the sun both sets in the east,
and that will never be."
The lyrics as Mrs. Baird sings the song and the way her stepmother sang it are "a little different." Specifically, "somethin' about pray, son, tell me now,' or somethin', that verse, that words, was different when she'd sing it; but I forget what the words she used." Mrs. Baird adds: "Hit was all just like that except that 'son pray tell me now,; I got that out the book."
Using a printed text to complement her memory is characteristic of Mrs. Baird's approach to ballads. She doesn't have the purist's concern with oral tradition; she uses sources that are convenient, including books and newspapers. She learned her ballads originally in the oral tradition, but she feels no compunction to restrict herself in sustaining or reviving the old songs she's known over the years or in learning new songs.
There are other comments Mrs. Baird makes about "How come That Blood on Your shirt sleeve?" that seem indicative of general points of view she has toward ballads. Regarding whether or not the incidents described were real, she is indifferent. "I don't know, could somebody made a song about it--I don't know." About certain unfamiliar items in the song, she has an opinion, but laughs and is not really concerned. " 'Guinea gray,' I guess it'd be the name of the what-ever it was, horse or pig or dog-I know they used to be guinea pigs; I don't know about the dog."