Garry Gillard > music > Joan Baez > songs
Sung by Joan Baez on Joan Baez [first album].
[Chorus]
Well I am a rake and ramblin' boy.
There's many a city I did enjoy,
And now I've married me a pretty little wife
And I love her dearer than I love my life.
Oh, she was pretty, both neat and gay
Caused me to rob the broad highway
Oh, yes, I robbed it, I do declare.
And I got myself ten thousand there.
[Chorus]
Oh when I die don't bury me at all
Place my bones in alcohol
And at my feet place a white snow dove
To tell the world that I died for love.
Well I'm a rake and a ramblin' boy.
There's many a city I did enjoy,
And now I've married me a pretty little wife
And I love her dearer than I love my life.
And I love her dearer than I love my life.
Mudcat:
This song, as sung by Joan Baez, is a shortened version of this song collected in 1930 from Emma L. Dusenbury, Mena, Arkansas, by Randolph. The song is English-Irish, part of the "Newry Highwayman" - "Jolly Blade" - "Rambling Boy" - "Wild and Wicked Youth" - "Irish Robber" cluster. This song cluster appeared in American printings of broadsides in mid-19th century; it may not have arrived with immigrants, but was rather learned from broadsides.
Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, vol. 2, # 148, "The Rambling Boy," pp. 83-85 with music.
I am a reek and a ramblin' one,
From Eastern shores I have lately come,
To learn my books an' to learn my trade,
Some call me the reek and ramblin' blade.
I come here a-spendin' money free,
A-spendin' money at balls and play,
At length my money did grow very low,
An' then to rovin' I did go.
I married me a handsome wife,
A girl I loved as dear as my life,
To keep her dressed so neat an' gay
Caused me to rob on this here highway.
I robbed old Nelson, I do declare,
I robbed him on St. James Square,
I robbed him of five thousand pounds,
Dividin' with my comrades round.
But now I am condemned to die,
An' many a lady will for me cry,
Pretty Nelly weeps, tears down her hair,
A lady alone, left in despair.
My father weeps, he makes his moan,
My mother cries my darlin' son,
But all their weepin' won't never save me,
Nor keep me from the gallows tree.
When I am dead, laid in my grave,
The final funeral preached over my head,
All round my grave play tunes of joy,
Away goes the reek an' ramblin' boy.
Mudcat Cafe thread for this song.
Garry Gillard | New: 29 July, 2021 | Now: 29 July, 2021