The Banks of Claudy (George Allis)- Sullivan (VT) 1932 Flanders N1 and N2
[First is John Minear's info and the texts from Flanders' Ancient Ballads, versions N1 and N2, of Mrs. Ellen M. Sullivan of Springfield, Vermont. She learend her version in County Cork as a young girl. The title and first line are taken from different ballad The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (see Traditional Ballad Index info below). Barry printed the air to different stanzas of Sullivan's Irish version in BFSSNE 6 and 7 and included the following additional line in Volume 7:
They sailed so far and they sailed so fast.
Minear also points out after Barry that Sullivan's alternate title, George Allis is a corruption of James Harris, a name not found associated with The House Carpenter in the US or Canada. Barry calls this the oldest traditional version of The Daemon Lover, one that is independent of the familiar 'House Carpenter."
The commentary from Minear and also Heylin, who wrote an article on Bob Dylan's House Carpenter, is given with green text.
This version was printed twice with music in BFSSNE in Volume 6 (1933), and 7 (1944). The text varies slightly from that printed by Flanders N1 and N2 below.
R. Matteson 2013, 2016]
[From: John Minear
The Heylin material brought to my attention a version of "The House Carpenter" in the Flanders collection that I had overlooked. It was collected July 13, 1932 from Mrs. Ellen M. Sullivan of Springfield, Vermont, and was entitled "The Banks of Claudy." It is significantly different from all of the other versions collected by Flanders. Mrs. Sullivan gave two different accounts of her ballad. They are as follows, taken directly from ANCIENT BALLADS, by Helen Hartness Flanders. I think that the phrases in parentheses were spoken by Mrs Sullivan, and the phrases in brackets is commentary by Flanders.]
The Banks of Claudy (George Allis)- Sullivan (VT) 1932 Flanders N1
'Twas on the banks of Claudy
(Girl promises to marry a man who goes away, dies and as a ghost returns and says)
"Oh, come with me to the banks fo Claudy,
And perform those promises to me, me."
(Later in the song:)
When she came to the banks of Claudy,
Oh, sorry sore was she,
There was seven ships sailing to the brim.
They sunk to the bottom and was never seen no more.
When she came to the banks of Claudy,
Oh, sorry sore was she, she,
For the ships they were made of the yellow beaten gold
And the sails were of silk so fine.
[Mrs. Sullivan remembered August 23, 1932, more of "On the Banks of Claudy," which she called "George Allis."]
(She lay asleep and his ghost came to her.)
"Oh, begone, begone, young George Allis,
For I am a married wife,
Oh, begone, young George," she said,
"For fear there may be strife."
"That is not the promise you gave to me
To come in seven long years and a day,
So now come on to the salty seas
And perform your promises to me."
[Another time later, Mrs. Sullivan "broke out" with:]
"Oh, begone, begone, young George Allis,
For I am a married wife;
Oh, begone, young George," she said,
"For fear there may be strife, strife,
For fear there may be strife."
"Oh, that is not the promise you made to me
To come again in seven long years and a day
So now come on to the salty sea
And perform your promise to me, to me,
And perform your promise to me."
(She got up and dressed herself.)
When she came to the banks of Claudy
Oh, sorry, sore was she, she,
For there was seen ships floating to the brim
Which was never seen no more, more,
Which was never seen no more.
Then they sailed away for seven leagues;
then they sailed away for seven leagues.
She sank to the bottom of the sea, sea;
She sank to the bottom of the sea
And never was seen again.
[Mrs. Sullivan commented: "He was dead and came back as a ghost after seven years because of the oath that was between them."
---
Second Version N2
[As sung by Mrs. Ellen M. Sullivan of Springfield, Vermont. Mrs. Sullivan says this tells of a man who was dead who came back as a ghost after seven years, because of the oath that was between him and the girl.]
"O begone, begone, young George Allis,"
For I am a married wife;
O, begone, young George, " she said,
"For fear there may be strife."
"that is not the promise you made to me
To come in seven long years and a day,
So now come on to the salty sea
And perform your promises to me."
When she came to the salty seas,
O sorry sore was she,
There were seven ships floating (sailing) to the brim,
they were sunk to the bottom and was never seen again.
When she came to the banks of Claudy
O sorry sore as she,
For the ships they were made of the yellow beaten gold
And the sails of the silk so fine.
Then they sailed away for seven leagues
She sank to the bottom of the sea, sea,
And never was seen again.
[Another time Mrs. Sullivan changed the verses slightly:}
"O, that is not the promise you gave to me
To be gone for a year and a day,
To come again in seven long years and a day;
So now come on to the salty sea
And perform your promises to me, to me."
When she came to the banks of Claudy
For the ship was made of the yellow beaten gold
And the sails were of silk so fine, fine,
And the sails were of silk so fine.
(He was dead and came back as a ghost. She was asleep; she dreamt he came back. She begged to go back to her husband and baby.)
And she sank to the bottom of the sea, sea,
And she sank to the bottom of the sea
And was never seen again,
There was seven ships a-floated to the brim.
They sank to the bottom and were never seen no more.
-----------------
Heylin says in Dylan’s Daemon Lover: The Story of a 450-Year Old Pop Ballad. Helter Skelter, 1998:
"The importance of the "former vows" to the original tale of 'The Dæmon Lover' cannot be underestimated. ... Though these "former vows" are rarely encountered in American tradition, another Stateside text, collected in Eastern Tennessee by Charles Morrow Wilson, reveals the subtext of these vows that irked the dæmon lover so:
Well met, well met, my own true love,
Well met, well met, said he.
Now that the span of years is done
I'm returnin' to marry thee.
Have you wedded any other man?
I'm shore I've wed no other woman.
Yes, I'm wedded to a house carpenter,
And I think he's a very nice man.
You better leave your house carpenter
And come along with me;
We'll go till we come to the old salt sea,
And married we will be.2
So these vows were almost certainly secret vows of marriage, exchanged by two lovers before the male partner took to sea....
Just one other American version preserves these "former vows." ...the rendition in question, uncovered in Springfield, Vermont, not only survived uncontaminated by De Marsan and his various proxys but by any derivative from Diverting Songs. The female repository, one Ellen M. Sullivan, first recollected the song to collector Helen Hartness Flanders on July 13, 1932. All that she remembered was that a, "girl promises to marry a man who goes away, dies and as a ghost returns and says,"
Oh come with me to the banks of Claudy,
And perform those promises to me, me.
...
Mrs. Sullivan also commented to Flanders that, "He was dead and came back as a ghost after seven years because of the oath that was between them, "making explicit the revenant nature of the dæmon lover and recognizing the 'broken vows' as the song's key motif. This sort of explication is not repeated in American tradition until Mr. Dylan's highly unusual rendition, which also 'reveals' the revenant nature of the 'man' at the outset (though not the "former vows")....
Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of the Sullivan text, though, is that she has a name for the revenant, George Allis, seemingly a simple phonetic corruption of the only name ever assigned to the mysterious ex-lover, James Harris (or as Peter Buchan would have it, James Herries). Though it was under this title that the song came to be assigned in Child's English & Scottish Popular Ballads, only Buchan called the song by this name."
Heylin discusses a Virginia text from Miss Tyrah Lam of Elkton, VA (1935) in the Wilkinson Collection at UVA (actually he has discussed this text in detail in the previous section along with the fine version from Kentucky by Clay Walters). And then he mentions an East Tennessee text from Charles Morrow Wilson. His question in all of this is the role of "the vows", which in fact are "broken vows". This theme does not show up in the De Marsan broadside tradition, but they are in the older Scottish traditions. And it is in this context that Heylin finds the Sullivan text of the "Banks of Claudy" important, since the Sullivan text begins with:
Oh come with me to the banks of Claudy,
And perform those promises to me, me.
And:
That is not the promise you gave to me
To come in seven long years and a day,
So now come on to the salty seas
And perform your promises to me.
Heylin says:
"Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of the Sullivan text, though, is that she has a name for the revenant, George Allis, seemingly a simple phonetic corruption of the only name ever assigned to the mysterious ex-lover, James Harris (or as Peter Buchan would have it, James Herries). Though it was under this title that the song came to be assigned in Child's English & Scottish Popular Ballads, only Buchan called the song by this name."
Oh, begone, begone, young George Allis,
For I am a married wife,
Oh, begone, young George, she said,
For fear there may be strife.
"Just one other American version preserves these "former vows." Unlike Wilkinson's and Wilson's collected texts, the rendition in question, uncovered in Springfield, Vermont, not only survived uncontaminated by De Marsan and his various proxys but by any derivative from Diverting Songs. The female repository, one Ellen M. Sullivan, first recollected the song to collector Helen Hartness Flanders on July 13, 1932. All that she remembered was that a, "girl promises to marry a man who goes away, dies and as a ghost returns and says,"
Oh come with me to the banks of Claudy,
And perform those promises to me, me.
later in the song:
When she came to the banks of Claudy,
Oh, sorry sore was she.
There were seven ships sailing to the brim.
They sunk to the bottom and was never seen no more.
When she came to the banks of Claudy,
Oh, sorry sore was she, she,
For the ships they were made of the yellow beaten gold
And the sails were of silk so fine.
A month later Flanders returned and managed to glean some additional verses. Mrs. Sullivan called the song 'George Allis', and recalled that the girl in the song, "lay asleep and his ghost came to her." She then recalled much the same verse as Miss Lam:
Oh, begone, begone, young George Allis,
For I am a married wife,
Oh, begone, young George, she said,
For fear there may be strife.
as well as a verse not replicated in any other traditional text, though the second couplet approximates to Morrow Wilson's third verse:
That is not the promise you gave to me
To come in seven long years and a day,
So now come on to the salty seas
And perform your promises to me.
At last we encounter the evidence that Dylan's "ghost come back from out in the sea" once existed in American tradition. Indeed, in Sullivan's text the ghost came to her in her sleep, placing it in the long-established tradition of revenant ("one who returns after a long absence, esp. the dead") ballads. The hugely popular "Well met, well met" opening, though, does not fit easily with such a night visitation.
As an intriguing addendum, the version that Mrs. Sullivan sang to Flanders carried a burden, the final line of each verse repeating the final word and then the entire line, thus:
For fear there may be strife, strife,
For fear there may be strife.7
This rare verse-ending also appears in the version collected by Wilkinson from Miss Lam, this time as a three-word repeat, thus:
And I think he's a nice young man, man, man,
And I think he's a nice young man.8
perhaps suggesting a connection somewhere down the stream of tradition. Mrs. Sullivan also commented to Flanders that, "He was dead and came back as a ghost after seven years because of the oath that was between them," making explicit the revenant nature of the dæmon lover and recognizing the 'broken vows' as the song's key motif. This sort of explication is not repeated in American tradition until Mr. Dylan's highly unusual rendition, which also 'reveals' the revenant nature of the 'man' at the outset (though not the "former vows").
Comparison with A Collection Of Diverting Songs makes it plain that the 'blame' for a form of rationalization that turned the former lover from revenant to flesh and blood should not be placed at any Yankee's door. It had already occured within the (perhaps exclusively) English strain from which the American broadside largely came. In this rationalized 'English' derivative, the lady does not leave her husband and children without some considerable persuasion on her lover's part; and does so only because of the obligation (and, perhaps, love) she still felt for her former dear. As we shall see, in Scottish oral tradition (and the two American texts that best reflect that tradition) the lady is taken to her death not because she elected to take her lover's proferred escape route - "dying from guilt far from her children,"10 as Alan Lomax chose to put it - but because she had proved untrue to her former love, having broken the solemn vows she swore some (seven) years before.
The broken vows may be implicit in some twentieth century texts - "I have returned from the salt, salt sea/ And all for the sake of thee" does imply at least some debt of honour ("the love of thee" makes for an inferior reading) - but more traditional texts, of which the renditions collected by Wilkinson, Wilson and Flanders are rare vestiges, make the vow not only explicit, but the veritable crux of our tale.
Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of the Sullivan text, though, is that she has a name for the revenant, George Allis, seemingly a simple phonetic corruption of the only name ever assigned to the mysterious ex-lover, James Harris (or as Peter Buchan would have it, James Herries). Though it was under this title that the song came to be assigned in Child's English & Scottish Popular Ballads, only Buchan called the song by this name."
---------------------
Tradtional Ballad Index: Banks of Claudy, The [Laws N40]
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl on the banks of Claudy. She is seeking her lover. He tells her Johnny is false, she rejects this. He tells her Johnny is shipwrecked; she is distressed. He tells her he is Johnny. She rejoices
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1847))
KEYWORDS: separation reunion trick love
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(South)) Australia Ireland
REFERENCES: (26 citations)
Laws N40, "The Banks of Claudy"
O'Conor, p. 39, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 317-319, "The Banks o' Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #48, p. 1, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 1036, "The Banks of Claudy" (12 texts, 11 tunes)
Reeves-Sharp 8, "Banks of Claudy" (1 text)
Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 61, "Clowdy Banks" (1 text)
Belden, pp. 154-155, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 69, "Molly, I'm the Man" (1 text); 78, "On the Banks of Claudy" (1 fragment, which doesn't look much like this song, but it mentions the banks of Claudy, so it files here)
Randolph 47, "The Banks of Cloddy" (1 text plus 1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Hudson 38, p. 152, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 266-267, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, with local title "The Soldier's Return"; tune on p. 426)
Eddy 55, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 71, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 166-167, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H5+H693, p. 313, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Ulster 2, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 44, pp. 134-135,172-173, "The Banks of Clady" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 58, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 30, pp., "The Lover's Return" (1 text)
JHCox 321, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Ord, p. 130, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 65, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 19, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 text, 1 tune); 20, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 70, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 text)
DT 465, BCLAUDIE CLAUDYBK
ST LN40 (Full)
Roud #266
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Banks of Claudy" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Bob & Ron Copper, "Claudy Banks" (on LastDays)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Where Are You Going, Alice?" (Victor V-40135, 1929; rec. 1928)
George Maynard, "The Banks of Claudy" (on Maynard1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1847), "The Banks of Claudy", J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also 2806 c.15(164), Harding B 11(2261), 2806 b.9(257), Harding B 19(110), 2806 c.14(91), Firth b.26(281), 2806 c.18(12), 2806 c.17(15), Harding B 18(24), Firth b.25(188), Firth b.25(296), "The Banks of Claudy"; Harding B 16(22c), Harding B 11(266), "The Banks of Cludy" [only the title is spelled "Cludy"; else "Claudy"]
LOCSinging, as100610, "The Banks of Claudy!", Horace Partridge (Philadelphia), 19C; also as100600, as200200, "Banks of Claudy"
NLScotland, RB.m.143(129), "The Banks of Claudy," Lowdon McCartney/Poet's Box (Dundee), after 1905
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away (On the Banks of Lonely River)" (references to the Banks of Claudy in some versions)
cf. "The Woods of Rickarton" (tune, per GreigDuncan5)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Claudy Banks
The Banks of Cloudy
The Banks of Clyde
NOTES: Date for Grayson and Whitter is from _Country Music Sources_ by Guthrie T Meade Jr with Dick Spottswood and Douglas S. Meade (Chapel Hill, 2002), p. 10.
Meade, Spottswood and Meade, page 10 has the comment that "Although no mention of the banks of Claudie is made on this recording, I feel it is closer to N40 than any other classification." I would make a stronger statement than that. Every line of "Where Are You Going Alice?" is substantially the same as, or clearly derived from a Bodleian broadside or some traditional version of "The Banks of Claudy" (such as Morton-Ulster). For example, "green lands" replaces the banks of Claudy for Grayson and Whitter ("Just stay with me in green lands, no danger need you fear.") where Morton-Ulster has "green woods" ("Oh tarry with me to yon green woods, no danger need you fear").
The matrix number for the Grayson and Whitter's "Where Are You Going Alice?" is V40135B; Meade, Spottswood and Meade has BVE 46636-2. The tune is close to, but not the same as, "Charles Guiteau." - BS