Died for Love (I)

DESCRIPTION: A song of a woman in pain. The woman says that the man loved her when her apron was low, but now it's high. She may wish she were a maid again, recall the alehouse where she drinks, or wish her parents had never met
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: seduction pregnancy betrayal abandonment floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 5, "Died for Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 53, "I Wish, I Wish" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 55, "Died for Love" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the second having a wide variety of imported verses not usually associated with this family)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 273, "I wish I was a Child again" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 56, "I Wish I Was a Maid Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #495
RECORDINGS:
Isla Cameron, "Died For Love" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Walter Pardon, "I Wish, I Wish" (on Voice15)
Pete Seeger, "Tarrytown" (on PeteSeeger46)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "In Tarrytown" (on SeegerTerry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (theme)
cf. "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
cf. "The Effects of Love" (theme)
NOTES [225 words]: This piece is almost "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] without the suicide. The mention of the apron riding high is a strong indicator; the girl is definitely pregnant and regrets her folly.
For further details on the family, see the notes to "The Butcher Boy." - RBW
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 15" - 13.9.02, cite as a possible source "song 'The Effects of Love - A New Song' which was issued by an anonymous broadside printer in the 18th century." The note quotes the text, which includes the "when my apron it hung low" and "I wish that my dear babe was born" verses. The reference seems to be to "The effects of love. A new song. [London]. [1780?]. 1 sheet; 1/80. British Library 11621.k.4(158). A slip song. "O! Love is hot, and Love is cold,." REFERENCE: ESTCT32452 x." (source: Eighteenth Century (1701-1790) Cheap Print: A Finding Aid produced by Richard C. Simmons, University of Birmingham, Dec 2000, on the University of Birmingham site); this is not at all the Bodleian broadside set "The Effects of Love [by a young lady who drowned herself]" ("Young lovers all I pray draw near").
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "I Wish I Was a Maid Again" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: McST055

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography