For Seven Long Years I've Been Married

DESCRIPTION: "For seven long years I've been married, I wish I had lived an old maid... My husband won't work at his trade." She complains about how hard her life is; her husband has broken his promises and wasted her wealth on drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: husband wife drink poverty hardtimes marriage warning technology
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 44, "Seven Long Years" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 29, "Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 29, "Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (3 tunes plus excerpts of text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 100, pp. 153-154, "Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 53, "Twenty Long Years Since I Married" (1 short text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 37-38, "Beautiful Light O'er the Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 190-191, "Seven Long Years" (1 text, mostly "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" but with two verses of "The Prisoner's Song (I)" or one of its various relatives)
ST RcFSLYBM (Full)
Roud #724
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (Victor 21069, 1927; on KHarrell02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "Sorry the Day I Was Married"
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" (theme)
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)" (theme)
cf. "Do You Love an Apple?" (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme)
NOTES [117 words]: Kelly Harrell's version of this song appears to be modernized (it mentions automobiles and their failings), and the whole thing may be an update of one or another of the songs in the cross-references -- but it doesn't follow the standard pattern of any that I recognize, so I am forced to file it separately.
The notes in Brown say that this piece is found in Randolph's Ozark Folksongs, II 417. It's not in the second edition, however. It is true that a song on that page has been deleted -- but the deleted song is "Beautiful Brown Eyes."
Some versions of this (Gardner and Chickering's, Bush's) appear to have picked up a bit of the hymn "Beautiful Light O'er the Sea," but this is not universal. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcFSLYBM

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