> Joseph Taylor > Songs > Died for Love
> Shirley Collins > Songs > Died for Love
> Martin Carthy > Songs > Died for Love

Died for Love / There Is a Tavern / A Brisk Young Sailor

[ Roud 60 ; Laws P25 ; Ballad Index LP25 ; trad.]

Joseph Taylor sang Died for Love on a wax cylinder recording made by Percy Grainger in 1908; this was published in 1972 on the LP Unto Brigg Fair. It was also sung unaccompanied and with an additional verse by Martin Carthy on his 1969 album with Dave Swarbrick, Prince Heathen. Martin Carthy commented in their record's sleeve notes:

It has been suggested that this is a fragment of a much longer ballad but this is really immaterial when what you have stands perfectly well on its own. Taken from the Grainger collection of Lincolnshire songs, from the singing of Joseph Taylor.

Isla Cameron's version of Died for Love on the Alan Lomax Collection CD World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: England and Martin Carthy's both have one verse the other is missing and a different verse order.

Shirley Collins sang Died for Love on her 1960 album False True Lovers. Strangely, she left out the Died for Love stanza. Alan Lomax commented in the album's sleeve notes:

From Traditional Tunes by Frank Kidson. Died for Love is perhaps the most beautiful of the many variants of the important British folk song, most familiar to us as The Butcher's Boy or There Is a Tavern in the Town, or in Woody Guthrie's Hard, Ain't It Hard. This Northern English variant points to one of the most important differences between British and American love-songs. Typically in the English love song there is an amorous encounter between a young man and the young woman, and though the girl is often betrayed, she expresses in her song a trace of the real pleasure that she experienced. Even more importantly, she has a baby; and, through her melancholy, there lingers note of procreative joy. Very frequently in these songs the boy returns to marry her when he discovers that she is about to bear him a child. American singers were more prudish; they censored out the pregnancy theme; and the betrayed girl was left to brood over the transiency of love and sigh for death to heal her heartbreak.

Died for Love is also on John Roberts & Tony Barrand's Heartoutbursts: English Folksongs collected by Percy Grainger. This song was also recorded on Many a Good Horseman: Traditional Music Making from Mid-Suffolk, Recorded 1958-1993 (Vintage Series VTVS01/02), by one or more of these people: Doddy Thorndyke, Reg Pyett, 'Lubidy' Rice, Gordon Syrett, Charlie Carver,Tom Williams, Emily Sparkes, Stan Steggles, Bill Smith, Andy Austin, Jimmy Gladwell's Band, 'Tinker' Parker, Bert Allen, Glynn Griffiths, Hubert Smith, Tom Smith.

Linda and Susan Adams sang this as A Brisk Young Sailor on the 2001 Fellside anthology Voices in Harmony. The sleeve notes commented:

A very widespread song with a number of titles: I Wish I Wish; Died for Love; The Alehouse in the Town. There is a school of thought which believes that this is a fragment of another song. It is worth noting, but loses importance at it makes a good song on its own. This version was collected by Ann Gilchrist from a 70 year old carpenter, Mr James Bayliff of Bardon, Westmorland in 1909. It posesses a fine Dorian Mode tune.

Rachel Unthank & The Winterset recorded this song as I Wish for their second CD, The Bairns.

Lyrics

Joseph Taylor sings Died for Love	Martin Carthy sings Died for Love
I wish my baby it-e-was born Lying smiling on its father's knee And I was dead and in my grave And green grass growing all over me	I wish my baby it was born And smiling on his daddy's knee And I poor girl was in my grave With the long green grass a-growing all over me O grief, o grief and I'll tell you why Because she has more gold than I He takes this young girl on his knee And he tells her tales that he won't tell me
I wish, I wish, but it's all in vain I wish I was a maid again But a maid again that never can be Since that-e-young farmer sat wooing me	I wish, I wish, but it's all in vain I wish I was a sweet maid again But a maid again I never shall be Till apples grow on an orange tree
Dig me my grave long wide and deep Put a marble stone at my head and feet But a turtle dove put over above For to let the world know that I died for love	Dig me my grave long wide and deep Put a marble stone at my head and feet And at my breast place a white snow dove For to let the world know that I died for love
Isla Cameron sings Died for Love	Shirley Collins sings Died for Love
A bold young farmer courted me He gained my heart and my liberty. He's gained my heart with a free good will And I must confess that I love him still.	Oh, once my true love courted me And stole away my liberty. He gained my heart with a free good will And I'll confess I love him still. Oh, there's an ale-house in this town, Where my love goes and sits him down; He takes this strange girl on his knee And isn't that a grief to me. Oh, there's a bird in yon churchyard, They say he's blind and cannot see; I wish it had been the same with me Before I kept my love's company.
I wish, I wish, but it's all in vain, I wish I was a maid again. But a maid again, that never can be Since that young farmer lay still with me.	I wish, I wish, but it's all in vain, I wish I was but free again. But free again I'll never be Since I have kept my love's company.
I wish my baby little was born And smiling on his father's knee; And I was dead and in my grave And the green grass growing all over me. Dig me my grave long wide and deep, Put a marble stone at my head and feet. But a turtle white dove put over above For to let the world know that I died for love.
Linda & Susan Adams sing A Brisk Young Sailor
A brisk young sailor courted me, He robbed me of my liberty, My liberty and my right good will I must confess I love him still.
There's an ale-house in the town, Where my love goes and sits him down; And he pulls a strange girl all on his knee And isn't that a grief to me.
A grief to me, and I'll tell you why: Because she has more gold than I, But the gold it will waste and the beauty blast And he'll come to a poor girl like me at last.
I wish my baby it was born Sat smiling on its nurse's knee; And I myself was in my grave With the green grass growing over me.
I wish, I wish, but it's all in vain, I wish I was a maid again. But a maid again I never will be Till an apple grows on an orange tree.

Acknowledgements

The verses sung by Joseph Taylor and Martin Carthy were transcribed by Garry Gillard, Isla Cameron's and Shirley Collins' version by Reinhard Zierke.