What a Voice- Jeannie Robertson (Aber) 1953 REC
[School of Scottish Studies Track ID- 2771; Original Tape ID - SA1953.237. Listen: http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/2771/2. Also recorded with Jean Ritchie/Hamish Henderson in August 1953 as "I Wish, I Wish."
Truly one of the great recordings of this ballad. Note also the unusual first stanza with the "swallow" found only in a few variants. A similar stanza is found in "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies," another love song popular in the US (See also "She's like the swallow" from Canada).
Notes from Mainly Norfolk follow. Since Jeannie sang and recorded the song a number of times, I am editing her text so the text is best presented. Some corrections from Porter and Gower's, Jeannie Robertson, Emergent Singer, Formative Voice.
The first stanza of "What A Voice" is similar to (from a common source) or based on the broadside "A new song called William and Nancy or The two hearts"-- a version is in the Bodleian dated c. 1855 but it's also published in Belfast by Alex Mayne of High Street (no copy available but it's reprinted in Ulster Folklife).
A three stanza Irish version was collected from Maria Doherty of Clooney Magilligan (Sam Henry) and the stanza appears:
'What voice , what voice now is yon I hear?
It's like the voice of my Willie dear.
Oh, had I the wings, love, I'd feel no fear,
But fly forever till I knew thee near.'
R. Matteson 2017]
Jeannie Robertson sang What a Voice, in a recording made in 1955, on her 1957 Riverside album Songs of a Scots Tinker Lady. Another recording, made by Bill Leader in 1959, was released on her eponymous Topic album Jeannie Robertson. An earlier recording, made by Alan Lomax in London in November 1953, was included in 1998 as When My Apron Hung Low on her Rounder CD The Queen Among the Heather. Hamish Henderson commented in both the Riverside and the Topic album's sleeve notes:
The lament of the forsaken sweetheart whose baby is not yet born is found in various songs throughout the British Isles and America. The Scottish collector Gavin Greig called this song I Wish, I Wish, from the opening line of one of the verses which usually appears in it. The version current in Scotland seems to be descended from The Marchioness of Douglas’ Lament, otherwise known as O, Waly, Waly. Many of the lines are also commonly found in the Appalachian pregnancy ballad Careless Love.
Lizzie Higgins sang What a Voice, What a Voice as the title track of her 1985 Lismor album What a Voice. Another version, recorded by Peter Hall at the Jeannie Robertson Memorial Concert in 1977, was included on her Musical Traditions anthology of 2006, In Memory of Lizzie Higgins. Rod Stradling commented in the booklet:
A song found mostly in England, where it is generally known as I Wish, I Wish. Only Lizzie and her mother Jeannie have been recorded singing it in Scotland, and only they begin the song with the words “What a voice …” This was the first time Lizzie sang this—her mother's song—in public.
"What a Voice," sung by Jeannie Robertson of Aberdeen in October, 1953 for Hamish Henderson and J. Anthony (School of Scottish Studies). Jeannie learned it from her mother, Maria Stewart.
What a voice, what a voice, what a voice I hear,
For it's like the voice of my Willie dear.
But if I had wings like that swallow flyin',
For I would clasp in the arms of my Billie boy.
When my apron it hangs low
My true love followed through frost and snow.
But now my apron it is tae my shins,
And he passes me by and he'll ne'er speir[1] in.
It was up onto yon white hoose brae[2]
That he called a strange girlie to his knee,
And he tellt her a tale which he once told me.
O, I wish, I wish, O I wish in vain,
O, I wish I was a maid again.
But a maid again I will never be,
Till a aipple[3] grows on an orange tree.
O, I wish, I wish that my babe was born,
And smilin' on some nurse's knee.
And for mysel' to be dead and gone,
And the long green grass growin' over me.
For there's a blackbird sits on yon tree,
Some says it is blind and it cannae see.
Some says it is blind and it cannae see
And so is my-- true love tae me.
1. to ask; inquire
2. The second line is missing but it's clearly the way she learned it.
3. her pronunciation of 'apple'.