Oh, Willie- Rod Drake (TX) 1952 Owens
[From Texas Folk Songs by William Owens, 1976 edition. This is a rare version of B, The Cruel Father. In the original broadside version Willie is sent to sea and dies by a cannon ball. The first stanzas is similar to Nelly's Constancy, another early British broadside. Renwick titled these ballads "Oh Willie" possibly after this version. The corruption of bed rope in third stanza also indicates an archaic version.
R. Matteson 2017]
Oh, Willie- sung by Rod Drake of Silsbee, Texas in 1952.
Oh, Willie, oh, Willie, I love you well,
I love you more than tongue can tell;
I love you to my very soul;
I'd give this world if you did know.
When her old father came to know
That Willie and Jewel was loving so
He whipped and tore them one and all
And swore he'd use a cannon ball.
\When her old father came home at night
Inquiring of Jewel, his heart's delight,
Upstairs he went, a door he broke,
He found her hanging by her own dead[1] rope.
He out with his knife and he cut her down,
And on her breast this note was found,
"Go dig my grave both deep and wide,
And bury my darling by my side."
He read this note and wept and said,
"Lord, ain't it a pity that I was dead."
He read the note and wept and said,
"I wish ten times that I were dead."
1. bed rope