False Young Man, The (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)

DESCRIPTION: The young man greets the girl after a long separation and asks her to sit down with him. She will not; "You've given your heart to another one...." She remembers his strange oaths, and says young men will prove true when fish fly like birds.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (collected by Olive Dame Campbell; in Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians); +1876 (Christie, _Traditional Ballad Airs I_)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation infidelity lie rejection lyric
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland) Ireland US(Ap,MA,SE,So)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 83, "As I Stepped Out Last Sunday Morning" (2 texts); 162, "The One Forsaken" (1 text, entirely of floating lyrics, but some of them, and the theme, are this song)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 29, "The Cottage Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 51, "T Stands for Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 174, "The Fause Young Man" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 8, "The Verdant Braes of Skreen" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 2, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 68-69, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune, which starts with verses typical of "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" and ends with the "Rocky Mountain Top/White Oak Mountain" verses of "The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)"
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #18, "Who Will Shoe Your Foot?" (1 text, primarily this but with the "Pretty Little Foot" stanzas)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 94, "The False Young Man" (10 texts, 10 tunes)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 41, "Come Along, My Own True Love" (1 text, with a first verse that might have floated in from "Young Hunting" or the like); pp. 270-272, "The False Young Man" (3 short texts plus an excerpt, with local titles "Come Along, My Own True Love," "Set You Down, My Own True Love," "As I Walked Out One May Morning"; 1 tune on p. 428 )
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 15, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 7, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 166-168, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 50, "As I Walked Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 58-59, "As I Walked Out on a Fair May Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 342, "T Stands for Thomas" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 143, "T Stands for Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 153, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #20, "The Old Garden Gate" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H593, pp. 389-390, "My Love John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 41-42, "The Verdant Braes o' Skreen" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 198-199, "The Fause Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ166 (Partial)
Roud #419
RECORDINGS:
Frank & Francis McPeake, "The False Young Man" (on FSB01)
Mary Murphy, "The False Young Man" (on FSBFTX15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "False, False Hae Ye Been To Me, My Love" (theme)
cf. "Rocky Mountain Top" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny's The Lad I Love
Rocky Mountain Side
NOTES [134 words]: In America, this has become almost purely lyric (consider "White Oak Mountain":
"I will never believe a young man any more
Let his eyes be blue, black, or brown
Save he were on the top of a high gallows tree
A-swearing he wished to come down!") -- so much so that I originally classified the versions separately. Then the common lyrics convinced me to lump them. But Steve Roud put Sharp's "Rocky Mountain Top" a separate song (#3608), so I have done the same. Nonetheless there are enough intermediate forms to prove identity.
The song also mixes somewhat with "Foggy Mountain Top," itself a largely mixed and incoherent piece. Short lyric texts might perhaps go with either. - RBW
Also see Planxty, "'P' Stands for Paddy, I Suppose" (on Planxty, "Cold Blow on the Rainy Night," Shanachie 79011 (1979)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FJ166

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