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Going for a Soldier, Jenny
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Going for a Soldier, Jenny
Going for a Soldier, Jenny
[words W.H. Bellamy, music S. Nelson]
This song was written by W.H. Bellamy and S. Nelson and published on broadsides by the F.D. Benteen Co., Baltimore in about 1840-1860. The National Library of Scotland shows a facsimile of another broadside probably published between 1860 and 1880.
Nic Jones sang this song with an additional chorus on the Halliard's album The Halliard : Jon Raven; originally published in 1968 and reissued on CD in 1997. Later, this recording was also included in the Halliard's CD Broadside Songs.
Lyrics
I'm going for a soldier, Jenny,
I'm going o'er the rolling sea.
They've given me a golden guinea
Which they say has enlisted me.
- Chorus (after each verse):
- And I'm off to fight for the army
As a Lancashire Fusilier,
Rolling my musket in my arms
Instead of my Jenny dear.
It's no use to fall a-crying
Give your senseless weeping o'er
Many a day you've heard me sigh
You should've been kind before
What if heart and spirit's sinking?
What if I should come to shame?
Be as it may: I'm thinking
You alone will be to blame.
Long and dearly I have loved you;
You must full well have known.
If I had not faithless proved you
Then I never had reckless grown.
Fare you well, the hours are a-flying;
It's time that I was gone.
When next another heart you're trying,
Jenny, look unto your own.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Garry Gillard for transcribing the lyrics. He based it on The Lancashire Fusilier at the Mudcat Café.