The Butcher's Boy
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ballad
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
In yonder city, there did dwell
A butcher's boy, I loved him well
He courted me my life away
And then with me would no more stay.
She went upstairs to make her bed
And not one word to her mother said
Her mother she went upstairs too
Saying, "Daughter, oh daughter, what troubles you?"
"Oh mother, oh mother, I cannot tell
That butcher's boy I love so well
He courted me my life away
And now at home he will not stay"
"There is a place in London town
Where that butcher's boy goes and sits down
He takes that strange girl on his knee
And tells to her what he won't tell me"
Her father he came up from work
Saying, "Where is my daughter, she seems so hurt"
He went upstairs to give her hope
And found her hanging from a rope
He took his knife and cut her down
And in her bosom these words were found
"Go dig my grave both wide and deep
Place a marble slab at my head and feet
And over my coffin, place a snow white dove
To tell the world that I died of love.
"The Butcher’s Boy", also known as "The Butcher Boy", "The Railroad Boy" or "Snow<br> Dove" is an American folk song derived from traditional English ballads.<br> Folklorists consider it to be a conglomeration<br> of several English broadside ballads, tracing its stanzas to<br> "Sheffield Park", "The Squire's Daughter", "A Brisk Young Soldier",<br> "A Brisk Young Sailor" and "Sweet William (The Sailor Boy)".<br> It is in the Roud Folk Song Index as #409.<br> Steve Roud describes it as:<br> "One of the most widely-known 'forsaken girl' songs in the American tradition,<br> which is often particularly moving in its stark telling of an age-old story."<br> It was recorded by:<br> Kelly Harrell (1925),<br> Henry Whitter (1925),<br> Vernon Dalhart (1927),<br> Buell Kazee ("The Butcher's Boy" and "The Railroad Boy") (1928),<br> The Blue Sky Boys (1940),<br> Peggy Seeger ("The Butcher Boy") (1955),<br> Joan Baez ("The Railroad Boy") on Joan Baez Volume 2 (1961),<br> Tommy Makem ("The Butcher Boy")( 1961),<br> Tommy Makem with The Clancy Brothers ("The Butcher Boy") (1965),<br> Dave Van Ronk ("The Butcher Boy") (2005),<br> I first learned this from the Joan Baez recording. I next learned the<br> "Snow Dove" version from the New Lost City Ramblers Song Book.<br> The New Dimension String Band sang this with two guitars, one played low in A minor<br> and the other capoed up 5 frets and fingered in E minor.<br>
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