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> Martin Carthy > Songs > He Called for a Candle

Rosemary Lane / Bell Bottom Trousers / He Called for a Candle

[ Roud 269 ; Laws K43 ; Ballad Index LK43 ; trad.]

Anne Briggs sang Rosemary Lane in 1964 on her Topic Records EP The Hazards of Love. This recording was reissued on her Fellside and Topic compilation CDs, Classic Anne Briggs and A Collection. A.L. Lloyd wrote in the album's sleeve notes:

Though nowadays it seems amiable enough, earlier in this century the text of this widespread and popular song was considered unfit for printing. Many collectors found it but preferred to fit its tune to other words. Thus, the Rev. Baring-Gould wrote a fakelore text for it, called The Blue Flame (the soul after death appearing as a blue flame) and Cecil Sharp adapted the words of another ballad, The Councillor's Daughter, to the Rosemary Lane melody. The text Anne Briggs sings is the one obtained by Sharp from Mrs Overd, of Langport, Somerset, but never published by him. To another tune, and to rather coarser words, Rosemary Lane has remained the most popular of all folk songs among seaman (indeed it's one of the very few traditional songs to have survived in merchant ships). A few years ago, a sadly weakened version had a brief vogue as a pop song, Bell Bottom Trousers.

Bruce Laurenson of Lerwick, Shetland sang Rosemary Lane on the anthology Sailormen and Servingmaids (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 6; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970).

Martin Carthy sang this song unaccompanied as He Called for a Candle on his 1972 album Shearwater. He commented in the record's sleeve notes:

Bruce Laurenson, the Shetland singer, first sang He Called for a Candle to Patrick Shuldham-Shaw, and it was subsequently released on the epic Caedmon series, now re-released by Topic, at last. More usually known as Rosemary Lane, it's still sung in various forms, and when I was part of Steeleye Span, one of our roadies, Dennis Jordan, knew a version which he learned in the orphanage when he was a child, ending up with the immortal couplet

She picked the piss-pot and banged him on the head
Take that you dirty bugger for doing me in bed.

Bert Jasch sang Rosemary Lane in 1971 as title track of his album Rosemary Lane.

Liz Jefferies was recorded singing Rosemary Lane by Barry and Chris Morgan in their own home in Bristol in September 1976. This recording can be found on the anthology As Me and My Love Sat Courting (The Voice of the People Series Volume 15; Topic 1998).

Bob Roberts sang this song as Bell Bottom Trousers on his 1978 Topic LP Songs from the Sailing Barges.

James Yorkston sang Rosemary Lane in 2003 on his promotional EP Someplace Simple.

Mike Boswoth sang Rosemary Lane in 2004 on his CD By Chance It Was: Songs from the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould Collection.

Lyrics

Anne Briggs' Rosemary Lane

I lived in service in Rosemary Lane,
I kept the good will of my master and dame.
Till a sailor came there one night for to lay,
And that was the beginning of my misery.

He called for a candle to light him to bed,
And likewise a silk handkerchief for to tie up his head.
To tie up his head as he used for to do,
Says he, “Pretty Polly, Won't you come to bed too?”

This girl, feeling young and foolish, she thought it no harm
To jump into bed for to keep herself warm.
But what what done next I'll never declare,
But I wish that short night had been seven long year.

It was early next morning the sailor arose
And into her lap he threw handfuls of gold,
Saying, “This I will give, and more I will do
If you'll be my Polly wherever I go.”

“And when your baby is born, you put it to nurse,
And sit like a lady with gold in your purse.
With gold in your purse and milk in your breast,
Saying, that's what you've got by your sailor in the west.”

“And if it's a boy, he shall fight for the king,
And if it's a girl, she shall wear the gold ring.
She shall wear the gold ring and her top knot shall blow,
Saying, that's what you've got by your sailor true blue.”

Martin Carthy's He Called for a Candle

He called for a candle to light his way to bed,
And likewise a handkerchief to tie around his head,
To tie around his head like the sailors often do
And he says, “Me pretty fair maid, will you go too?”

And Maggie was a young girl, she thought it was no harm,
She laid her down beside him for to keep his bosom warm.
In the middle of the night when the sailor he grew bold
He throwed into her apron five hundred pounds in gold.

And it was early the next morning when Maggie's mother rose,
Saying, “Daughter, dearest daughter, you have thrown yourself away,
You have thrown yourself away and you've birthed a baby,
And you'll pass for a young girl in a foreign country.”

“Oh mother, dearest mother, oh, I've done nothing wrong
For I've gold in me pocket and silver in me purse.
And when me baby's born we will pay the nurse a fee,
And I'll pass for a young girl in a foreign country.”

“And if it bes a girl child, she'll stay at home with me,
And if it bes a boy he will plough the dark blue sea.
He'll plough the dark blue sea like his daddy done before
And he'll skip about the deck like a young sailor boy.”

“And it is God bless the ocean that my love sails upon
And likewise the bonny ship that carries him along.
I'll write me love a letter and I'll seal it with a ring
And I never will be happy till me love returns again.”

Acknowledgements

Martin Carthy's version was transcribed by Garry Gillard.