Must I Go Bound

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "Must I go bound and you go free." (S)he hears someone sing "that marriage was a pleasant thing," but "My marriage day soon turned to woe." The singer's spouse has scorned/abused the singer; the singer hopes for revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage abuse betrayal
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H218a/b, p. 386, "Must I Go Bound" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 8, "Must I Be Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 195-196, "Must I Be Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18829
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Died for Love (I)" (theme)
cf. "Yon Green Valley" (lyrics)
cf. "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
NOTES [124 words]: This, like "My Blue-Eyed Boy," is so close to "The Butcher Boy" that I almost listed them as one song. But where "The Butcher Boy" is relatively coherent, this is little more than a lament composed of floating verses (e.g. from "Waly Waly") and the complaint "I heard (a shepherd//fair maid) sing That marriage was a pleasant thing, [but] My (marriage/wedding) day soon turned to woe." So I've listed them separately -- but there may well be intermediate versions.
For further discussion, see the notes to "The Butcher Boy."
Steve Roud's #18829 is a large family of sixty-odd versions. I would consider some of them to be "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" and others to be "Must I Go Bound" -- yet more evidence of how amorphous this family is. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH218

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