Common Bill

DESCRIPTION: The singer says Bill "isn't charming," and is "altogether green." He courts her relentlessly, to her scorn. At last he says that he will kill himself if she does not wed him. Citing the Bible's injunction against killing, she consents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Dime-Song-Book #9)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 891, "I Will Tell You of a Fellow" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 52-53, "I'll Tell You of a Fellow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 119, "Common Bill" (2 texts)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 57, "Common Bill" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 178, "Common Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 66, p. 90, "Common Bill" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 187-188, "Common Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 195, "Common Bill" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 195, "Common Bill" (4 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #199, "Common Bill" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 80, "Common Bill" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 57, pp. 173-174, "Common Bill" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 308-310, "Common Bill" (2 texts, 1 tune on pp. 437-438)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 62-63, "Common Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 325-326, "Hardly Think I Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 76, "Silly Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 104, pp. 214-215, "I Will Tell You of a Fellow" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 172, "Common Bill" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 48, "Woman's Resolution" (1 text)
DT, CMMNBILL*
Roud #442
RECORDINGS:
I. G. Greer w. Mrs. I. G. Greer, "Common Bill" (AFS; on LC14)
Arthur Fields, "Common Bill" (Grey Gull 4232/Radiex 4232, 1928)
Hill Billies, "Silly Bill" (OKeh 40294, 1925)
McGee Brothers, "Charming Bill" (Vocalion 5166, 1927)
McGee Brothers & Todd, "Common Bill" (on CrowTold02)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Common Bill" (on NLCR10)
Ernest Thompson & Connie Sides, "Silly Bill" (Columbia 15002-D, rec. 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Barney O'Hea" (theme)
File: R119

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