One Night as I Lay on My Bed

Last updated

"One Night As I Lay On My Bed" is a traditional folksong.

Contents

Synopsis

A young woman lies in bed thinking of her lover. She hears him tapping at her window, asking to be allowed in. She warns him that her parents will hear them. He replies that they are sound asleep. She lets him in.

Commentary

The theme of the song is so common in the UK, USA and Canada that the phrase "Night-visiting song" has been coined to cover all possible versions. This category is so huge that even minor variations are classed as being a different song. "Cold Haily Windy Night" has the same story but takes place in the rain. It is Roud 135. "Blow The Candle Out" has the same story but has the discussion taking place inside the bed rather than outside the house. It is classed as Roud 368. In addition there is "The Grey Cock" (Child 248, Roud 179) where the couple are woken by a cock, and "I'm A Rover" (Roud 3135) where alcohol is a significant element.

Historical background

A fragment of a song in Johnson's "Scots Musical Museum" inspired Robert Burns to write a fuller version, published in 1803.

Cultural relationships

Romeo and Juliet is the best-known story to contain the theme of a secret sexual liaison.

Standard references

Broadsides

"Drowsy sleeper" in Bodleian 1817.

Textual variants

The song exists under the titles:

The tune for "Darlin' Corey" (Roud 5723) is similar to one of the tunes for "Drowsy Sleeper". Most versions concern a hard-drinking woman who is fond of moonshine, and avoids hard work. One version, as sung by The Kingston Trio, has the chorus "Wake up, wake up, darlin' Corey. What makes you sleep so sound? The revenue officer's a comin', gonna tear your still house down." This might possibly be a relic of its origins in the song "Who's that Knocking on My Window". It could be considered as a female version of "I'm A Rover".


Literature

The opening paragraphs of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights might have been inspired by the song, but in this case the lover is a ghost.


Television and movie references

Sung by Dick Dewey (James Murray) and the rest of the church choir to Fancy Day (Keeley Hawes) in Nicholas Laughland's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Under the Greenwood Tree", 2005.


Recordings

Album/SinglePerformerYearVariantNotes
Blue Sky Boys1938Katie Dear
Carter Family 1938Who's That Knocking On My Window
At the Cafe de Paris Marlene Dietrich 1954Go 'Way from my Window
Singing Family of the Cumberlands Jean Ritchie 1955Awake Awake Ye Drowsy sleeper
I Wander As I WanderJohn Jacob Niles1958Go 'Way From My Window
Hedy West Hedy West 1963Awake Awake
Old Love Songs and BalladsDillard Chandler1963Awake Awake
Four Strong WindsIan and Sylvia1963Katie Dear
Joan Baez 5 Joan Baez 1964Go 'Way From My Window
Early Morning RainIan and Sylvia1965Awake Ye Drowsy Sleeper
Manchester Angel Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger 1966One Night As I Lay On My Bed
Esther Ofarim Esther Ofarim 1968Go 'way from my window
Hark! The Village Wait Steeleye Span 1970One Night As I Lay On My Bed
Adieu To Old England Shirley Collins 1974One Night As I Lay On My Bed
Abyssinians June Tabor 1983One Night As I Lay On My Bed
The Rose in June Louis Killen 1989One Night As I Lay On My Bed
Voices in Harmony Swan Arcade Go From My window
Lady Diamond Bryony Griffith & Will Hampson 2011Arise, arise

Musical variants


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at</span> Folk song from Yorkshire, England

"On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at" is a folk song from Yorkshire, England. It is sung in the Yorkshire dialect, and is considered the unofficial anthem of Yorkshire. According to Andrew Gant, the words were composed by members of Halifax Church Choir "some 50 years after Clark wrote his melody", on an outing to Ilkley Moor near Ilkley, West Yorkshire. It is classified as numbers 2143 and 19808 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Allen (song)</span> Traditional ballad

"Barbara Allen" is a traditional folk song that is popular throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. It tells of how the eponymous character denies a dying man's love, then dies of grief soon after his untimely death.

"The Daemon Lover" – also known as "James Harris", "A Warning for Married Women", "The Distressed Ship Carpenter", "James Herries", "The Carpenter’s Wife", "The Banks of Italy", or "The House-Carpenter" – is a popular ballad dating from the mid-seventeenth century, when the earliest known broadside version of the ballad was entered in the Stationers' Register on 21 February 1657.

"The Cherry-Tree Carol" is a ballad with the rare distinction of being both a Christmas carol and one of the Child Ballads. The song itself is very old, reportedly sung in some form at the Feast of Corpus Christi in the early 15th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seven Drunken Nights</span> 1967 single by The Dubliners

"Seven Drunken Nights" is a humorous Irish folk song most famously performed by The Dubliners. It is a variation of the English/Scottish folk song "Our Goodman". It tells the story of a gullible drunkard returning night after night to see new evidence of his wife's lover, only to be taken in by increasingly implausible explanations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver Dagger (song)</span> Traditional song performed by Joan Baez

"Silver Dagger", with variants such as "Katy Dear", "Molly Dear", "The Green Fields and Meadows", "Awake, Awake, Ye Drowsy Sleepers" and others, is an American folk ballad, whose origins lie possibly in Britain. These songs of different titles are closely related, and two strands in particular became popular in commercial Country music and Folk music recordings of the twentieth century: the "Silver Dagger" version popularised by Joan Baez, and the "Katy Dear" versions popularised by close harmony brother duets such as The Callahan Brothers, The Blue Sky Boys and The Louvin Brothers.

"The Wild Rover" is a very popular and well-travelled folk song. Many territories have laid claim to having the original version.

"Geordie" is an English language folk song concerning the trial of the eponymous hero whose lover pleads for his life. It is listed as Child ballad 209 and Number 90 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The ballad was traditionally sung across the English speaking world, particularly in England, Scotland and North America, and was performed with many different melodies and lyrics. In recent times, popular versions have been performed and recorded by numerous artists and groups in different languages, mostly inspired by Joan Baez's 1962 recording based on a traditional version from Somerset, England.

"Fair Margaret and Sweet William" is a traditional English ballad which tells of two lovers, of whom either one or both die from heartbreak. Thomas Percy included it in his folio and said that it was quoted as early as 1611 in the Knight of the Burning Pestle. In the United States, variations of Fair Margaret have been regarded as folk song as early as 1823.

The Grey Cock or Saw You My Father is one of the famous English/Scots Child ballads and is sometimes known as The Lover's Ghost.

"Darlin' Cory" is a well-known American folk song about love, loss, and moonshine. It is similar in theme to "Little Maggie" and "The Gambling Man" but is not considered the same as those songs.

"The Riddle Song", also known as "I Gave My Love a Cherry", is an English folk song, a lullaby carried over by settlers to the American Appalachians.

"The Trees They Grow So High" is a British folk song. The song is known by many titles, including "The Trees They Do Grow High", "Daily Growing", "Long A-Growing" and "Lady Mary Ann".

The Suffolk Miracle is Child ballad 272 and is listed as #246 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Versions of the ballad have been collected from traditional singers in England, Ireland and North America. The song is also known as "The Holland Handkerchief" and sometimes as "The Lover's Ghost".

The song "All Around my Hat" is of nineteenth-century English origin. In an early version, dating from the 1820s, a Cockney costermonger vowed to be true to his fiancée, who had been sentenced to seven years' transportation to Australia for theft and to mourn his loss of her by wearing green willow sprigs in his hatband for "a twelve-month and a day", the willow being a traditional symbol of mourning. The song was made famous by Steeleye Span in 1975, whose rendition may have been based on a more traditional version sung by John Langstaff.

"Jack Monroe", also known as "Jack Munro", "Jack-A-Roe", "Jackaro", "Jacky Robinson", "Jackie Frazier" and "Jack the Sailor", is a traditional ballad which describes the journey of a woman who disguises herself as the eponymous character to board a sailing ship and save her lover, a soldier.

"The Cuckoo" is a traditional English folk song, also sung in the United States, Canada, Scotland and Ireland. The song is known by many names, including "The Coo-Coo", "The Coo-Coo Bird", "The Cuckoo Bird", "The Cuckoo Is a Pretty Bird", "The Evening Meeting", "The Unconstant Lover", "Bunclody" and "Going to Georgia". Lyrics usually include the line : "The cuckoo is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies; she brings us glad tidings, and she tells us no lies."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Butcher's Boy (folk song)</span> Song

"The Butcher’s Boy" or "The Butcher Boy" is an American folk song derived from traditional English ballads. Folklorists of the early 20th century considered it to be a conglomeration of several English broadside ballads, tracing its stanzas to "Sheffield Park", "The Squire's Daughter", "A Brisk Young Soldier", "A Brisk Young Sailor" and "Sweet William " and "Died for Love".

"Hares on the Mountain" is an English folk song. Versions of this song have been collected from traditional singers in England, Canada and the US, and have been recorded by modern folk artists.

References