I Gave My Love A Cherry- Johnson (NC) 1940 Brown B
[From The Brown Colection, version B. I've made changes to Version A to create B however it's likely that there are other small changes, not given by Brown editors. Only the first stanza is completely accurate (see music below).
R. Matteson 2014]
B. 'I Gave My Love a Cherry.' From the manuscript of Obadiah Johnson, Crossnore, Avery county, obtained in July 1940. The same set of riddles as in A, without A's misplacing of the opening line, and with "blooming" for "budding" in stanza 3.
1. I gave my love a cherry without any stone,
I gave my love a chicken without any bone,
1 gave my love a ring that had no end.
Oh, I gave my love a baby without crying.
2 Now where is there a cherry that has no stone?
And where is there a chicken that has no bone?
And where is there a ring that has no end?
Oh, who has seen a baby with no crying?
3 Oh, when a cherry's blooming it has no stone.
And when a chicken's pipping it has no bone,
And when a ring's a-rolling it has no end,
Oh, when a baby's sleeping there's no crying.
'I Gave My Love a Cherry.' Sung by Obadiah Johnson. Recorded at Crossnore, Avery county, July, 1940.
For melodic relationship of. ***FSSH 141, No. 31A; SharpK 11 190, No. 144A; and BT 175.
Scale: Mode I. Tonal Center: d. Structure: aa1a1a2 (2,2,2,2).