When I Was Noo But Sweet Sixteen (The Bothy Lads, The Plooboy Lads)
DESCRIPTION: Singer complains that the ploughboys are "false and deceiving-o They say all and the gang awa'." At sixteen she was "just in blooming." At nineteen she's home with her baby with no idea where the father may be.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recording, Jeannie Robertson)
KEYWORDS: seduction sex nonballad baby abandonment loneliness courting infidelity love accusation warning beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #66, p. 233-234, "When I Was Nou But Sweet Sixteen" (1 text, 1 tune
DT, PLOOLAD*
Roud #5138
RECORDINGS:
Jeannie Robertson, "When I Was Noo But Sweet Sixteen" (on Voice10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peggy on the Banks o' Spey" (tune, some text)
NOTES [33 words]: The tradition seems strongest amongst Scottish Travellers, especially the Robertsons and Stewarts of Aberdeen. There is some occasional "contamination" with "Peggy on the Banks o' Spey" (GrD61131). - DGE
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