Maggie May

DESCRIPTION: The sailor returns home and soon falls in with Maggie May. She takes him to her room, gets him drunk, and walks off with his money (and clothes). Maggie is arrested and transported to Australia
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1906 (recording, John W. Myers)
KEYWORDS: whore robbery sailor transportation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 404-408, "Maggie May" (4 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 307-311]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 68-69, "Maggie May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 30-31, "Maggie May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 6-7, "Maggie May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 6, "Maggy May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 94-95, "Maggie May" (1 text)
DT, MAGGIMAY*
Roud #1757
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Maggie May" (on LastDays)
A. L. Lloyd, "Maggie May" (on Lloyd12)
J. W. Myers, "Goodbye Maggie May" (Oxford 11582, c. 1906)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot) and references there
NOTES [463 words]: Not to be confused with "Little Maggie May," which is (ironically) about a very faithful love.
It has been suggested that this is of music hall origin, but I know of no proof. Hugill doesn't mention the hypothesis, and reports (second-hand, without listing his source, so I can't verify it as the EARLIEST DATE) that it was mentioned in a diary by Charles Picknel of the convict ship Kains, which sailed in 1830. Hugill also says that the girl was originally "Nelly Ray."
The song has seemingly become a cultural phenomenon; I heard somewhere that the Beatles recorded it, and they surely didn't record many other traditional songs! Also, Lionel Bart (who wrote the musical "Oliver!") wrote a musical called "Maggie May" that was reasonably popular. Bart apparently knew the song as a child, and sang it to the delight of the rowdy children in his poor London neighborhood (Stafford, p. 147).
Lamb, pp. 327-328, has this to say of the musical: "for his next piece, Bart abandon London settings for Liverpool's dockland. Maggie May (1964) was built by librettist Alun Owen around the old English ballad character of prostitute Maggie May (played by Rachel Roberts), though the central character was not Maggie herself but her childhood sweetheart, docker Casey (Kenneth Haigh). The son of a union worker, he opposes unthinking union action but ends up leading a wildcat strike and dies while seeking to ditch a cargo of arms for South American anti-riot police. The piece had a strong book and colourful characters, who were well served by numbers that ranged from a love song 'It's Yourself I Want' to a topical piece for a Beatles-replica pop group."
The name Maggie May is interesting for a prostitute. Maggie May could be a nickname for Magdalene Mary -- Mary Magdalene. And, yes, the story went that Mary Magdalene was a reformed prostitute -- although this is through a chain of equations that doesn't hold up. Mary of Magdala was a follower of Jesus, from whom he "cast seven demons" (Mark 16:9). There is no reason to think, based on the explicit references to her at the crucifixion and after, that she had formerly been a prostitute; if she had been, wouldn't someone have said so? Luke 7:37-50 describes a reformed prostitute wiping Jesus's feet with her hair, but never calls her Mary. John 12:1-8 has a woman named Mary wipe his feet -- but this is Mary of Bethany, not Mary of Magdala!
OxfordSaints, p. 357, reports that the identification of Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene was "propounded by Gregory the Great, but [is] now explicitly rejected by the Roman Missal." But while it is unlikely that Mary Magdalene was actually a prostitute, for a long time it was widely believed that she was. So the name "Maggie May" truly is a subtle one. Or might be.- RBW
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File: FaE030

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