The Farmer's Curst Wife- Storey (TN) 1917 Sharp D
[I've kept Sharp's generic title.]
From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians II, 1932
Notes from 1917 edition:
Notes: No. 34. The Farmer's Curst Wife.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 278.
Texts with tunes:—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii., 184; iii., 131. Dick's Songs of
Robert Burns, No. 331. American variants:—Journal of American Folk-Lore, xix., 298; xxvii., 68.
Lomax's Cowboy Songs, p. no.
"Bell, blubs," stanza 10, version A, may be a corruption of "Beelzebubs." Most of the published versions of this song have whistling refrains
D. The Farmer's Curst Wife- Sung by Mr. SANDY STUART STOREY at Mt. Smoky Academy, Sevier Co., Tenn., April 19, 1917
Pentatonic. Mode 3.
1. There was an old man who lived under the hill,
If he ain't moved out he's living there still.
CHORUS: Sing dow, dow, diddle a diddle,
Sing dow a diddle, diddle a day.
2 He geared up his hogs and went out to plough,
And how he got along I hardly know how.
3 One day the old devil came down the field,
Said: One of your family I'm going to steal.
4 He got her up upon his back,
He looked like a pedlar with a pack on his back.
5 He carried her till he came to the road,
Get down, old lady, you're a terrible load.
6 He carried her till he came to the gate,
Get down, old lady, right here's the place.
7 As he was binding her down with chains,
She grabbed up a pick and split out his brains.
8 Seven little devils came out from the wall,
Saying: Take her back, daddy, she'll murder us all.
9 And now you see what a woman will do;
She can out the devil and her husband too.