> Shirley Collins > Songs > Love Is Teasing / Love Is Pleasing

Love Is Teasing / Love Is Pleasing

[ Roud 1049 ; Ballad Index Rits024 ; trad.]

Shirley Collins learned Love Is Teasing from the singing of Jean Ritchie. She recorded it it 1958/59 for her Collector EP Shirley Sings Irish and in 1964 as Love Is Pleasin' with Davy Graham for their album Folk Roots, New Routes.

Bill Ellson played the tune Love Is Pleasing on his mouth organ at his home in Broomsmead near Edenbridge, Kent, c. 1975; This recording my Mike Yates was included on the Topic anthologies Songs of the Open Road (1975) and My Father's the King of the Gypsies (The Voice of the People Volume 11; 1998). He also played in on accordion on the Topic anthology Travellers: Songs, Stories and Tunes from English Gypsies (1975).

Lyrics

Shirley Collins sings Love Is Pleasin'

Oh love is teasin' and love is pleasin'
And love’s a treasure when first it's new.
But as love grows older and then grows colder
And fades away like the morning dew.

I left my mother and I left my father,
I left my brothers and my sisters too.
I left my home and my fond relations,
I left them all for the love of you.

Now if I had known before I courted
That love had been so hard to hold,
I'd have locked my heart in a box of silver
And bound it fast with a key of gold.

(repeat first verse)