Garry Gillard > music > Joan Baez > songs
Sung by Joan Baez on Joan Baez [first album].
I was born in East Virginia
North Carolina I did roam
There I met a pretty fair maiden
Her name and age I do not know
Her hair it was of a brightsome color
And her lips of a ruby red
On her breast she wore white lilies
There I longed to lay my head
Well in my heart you are my darling
And at my door you're welcome in
At my gate I'll meet you my darling
If your love I could only win
I'd rather be in some dark holler
Where the sun refused to shine
Than to see you another man's darling
And to know that you'll never be mine
Well in the night I'm dreaming about you
In the day I find no rest
Just the thought of you my darling
Sends aching pains all through my breast
Well when I'm dead and in my coffin
With my feet turned toward the sun
Come and sit beside me darling
Come and think on the way you done
Also known as: Virginny.
Sung by Buell Kazee in Harry White's 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, vol 3, Songs: 'East Virginia', 1929. Joan Baez might have learnt six songs from this collection: Sail Away Ladies, John Hardy, East Virginia, Little Moses, Engine 143, and Old Blue. Three of those came from the Carter Family.
Notes:
One of the most characteristic products of the Appalachian song tradition is that of the lament which comprises any number of so-called ‘floating’ verses. Similar versions of Old Virginia will be found in volume 3 of Frank Brown's North Carolina Folklore (1952), p.327, and Cecil Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (1932), vol. 2, pp.232-4. Dan's verse 4 has also turned up as far away as Mississippi where it forms part of the song Wild Bill Jones (see Arthur Palmer Hudson's Folksongs of Mississippi (1936), p.240). Roscoe Holcomb sings a fine version on Mountain Music of Kentucky (Smithsonian Folkways SFCD 40077), and Lee Monroe Presnell, of Beech Mountain, NC, has his version on Nothing Seems Better to Me (Appleseed APR CD 1036). Other versions include those by Art Stamper (County CD 2729), Lily Mae Ledford (June Appal 0078), Morgan Sexton (June Appal 0066) and Buell Kazee (Smithsonian Folkways' Anthology of American Folk Music, SFW CD 40090). There are also a number of early 78rpm recordings, usually bearing the title Greenback Dollar (from the lines “I don't want your greenback dollar/ I don't want your watch and chain/ All I want is your love, darling/ Won't you take me back again?”). Liner notes from Dan Yates' Appalachian collection, Far in the Mountains Volume 2.
Once I lived in old Virginia,
To North Carolina I did go.
There I spied a beautiful damsel,
Her name I never did know.
Her hair was black as any charcoal,
Her eyes were of some diamond blue.
On her bosom she wore white lilies,
Oh my poor heart most broke in two.
Every day I'm a-thinking about her,
Every night 'till I can't rest.
Every moment seems like an hour,
Oh what a pain across my breast.
Oh bring me a razor and a pan of cold water,
Bring me a hammer to beat out my brain.
For the old corn liquor has got me surrounded,
And the women have run me deranged.
Shall I go to Alleghany?
Shall I go for loving you?
Or shall I go to some far country,
And bid a sad adieu?
Mainly Norfolk: [ Roud 3396 ; Ballad Index JRSF134 ; trad.]
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