The Banks of Sweet Primroses

Last updated
"The Banks of Sweet Primroses"
English Folk Song
Other name"The Banks of the Sweet Primroses", etc.
Catalogue Roud 586
Published1800s: England
Publisher Broadside

"The Banks of Sweet Primroses", "The Banks of the Sweet Primroses", "Sweet Primroses", "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning", "As I Rode Out" or "Stand off, Stand Off" (Roud 586) is an English folk song. It was very popular with traditional singers in the south of England, and has been recorded by many singers and groups influenced by the folk revival that began in the 1950s. [1]

Contents

Synopsis

The narrator goes out into the countryside on a midsummer morning. He sees an attractive young woman "down by the banks of the sweet primroses". He asks her where she is going and why she is distressed. He tells her he will make her "as happy as any lady" if she will grant him "one small relief". She tells him to go further away and says he is false and deceitful. She says he is responsible for making her "poor heart to wander" and that it is pointless to comfort her. She says she will go to a desolate valley where no one will be able to find her. The narrator then offers this advice to romantically-inclined young men (or, in many versions, to young women): "There's many a dark and dusky morning, turns out to be a most sunshiney day". [2]

Versions

Versions collected from traditional singers

The Roud Folk Song Index contains 329 examples (though the same version may be reprinted or distributed in more than one publication or recording and therefore generate more than one entry in the index). 92 examples were collected in England, largely in Southern England (17 versions collected in Sussex in contrast with 2 in Yorkshire). 2 were collected from singers in Wales, 2 from Scotland, and the only examples from outside Britain were from 2 singers in the same part of Nova Scotia. The earliest recorded version was by the Welsh singer Phil Tanner, recorded in 1937.

Broadsides

In the nineteenth century many publishers of Broadside ballads printed versions of "The Banks of Sweet Primroses". [3]

Recordings

Peter Kennedy's recording of Gloucestershire singer Emily Bishop, made in 1952, is on the GlosTrad website. [4]

Two versions by Phil Tanner are available on the CD "The Gower Nightingale". [5] Several versions by traditional singers have been published by Topic Records in the Voice of the People series. Seamus Ennis recorded Bob, John, Jim and Ron Copper of the Copper Family of Rottingdean, Sussex singing their family version in April 1952. [6] The song has also been recorded by Shropshire singer Fred Jordan, [7] and the Suffolk singer Bob Hart. [8] A rendition by Bob Hart recorded by Reg Hall is available online at the British Library Sound Archive. [9]

Many singers involved in or inspired by the second [British Folk revival] have performed and recorded versions of "The Banks of Sweet Primroses", including Shirley Collins on her LP Sweet Primeroses, [10] The Dubliners [11] Fairport Convention, [12] Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, [13] June Tabor, [14] Martin Simpson, [15] and Eliza Carthy.

Discussion

Steve Roud writes that this song was so popular with traditional singers at the beginning of the 20th century that some collectors did not bother to note down every example. He also comments that the story seems incomplete and mysterious, in that we don't know what the narrator had done to so distress a young woman he doesn't appear to know, or why the ending is so upbeat. [16] Ralph Vaughan Williams and A. L. Lloyd make the observation that "Tune and text have shown remarkable constancy" through many collected versions, and conclude that "Clearly, singers have found the song unusually memorable and satisfactory, for the process of oral transmission seems to have worked little change on it". [17]

Literary Influence

The first line of the song was the inspiration for the title of Laurie Lee's autobiographical travel memoir As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning.

Related Research Articles

The Black Velvet Band 1967 traditional song performed by The Dubliners

"The Black Velvet Band" is a traditional folk song collected from singers in Ireland, Australia, England, Canada and the United States describing how a young man is tricked and then sentenced to transportation to Australia, a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century. Versions were also published on broadsides.

Matty Groves Traditional song

"Matty Groves", also known as "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" or "Little Musgrave", is a ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a young man and a noblewoman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. This song exists in many textual variants and has several variant names. The song dates to at least 1613, and under the title Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard is one of the Child Ballads collected by 19th-century American scholar Francis James Child.

"Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" is the English common name representative of a very large class of European ballads. The subject matter is frequently associated with the genre of the Halewyn legends circulating in Europe. There are a number of variants with different names.

"The Broomfield Hill", "The Broomfield Wager" "The Merry Broomfield", "The Green Broomfield", "A Wager, a Wager", or "The West Country Wager" (Child 43, Roud 34) is a traditional English folk ballad.

"Bonnie Annie" is a folk ballad recorded from the Scottish and English traditions. Scottish texts are often called Bonnie Annie or The Green Banks of Yarrow, English texts are most often called The Banks of Green Willow. Other titles include The Undutiful Daughter, The High Banks O Yarrow, The Watery Grave, Green Willow, There Was a Rich Merchant that Lived in Strathdinah and The Merchant's Daughter.

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".

"Jack Monroe", is a traditional ballad of uncertain origin. American broadsides of the song date back to around 1830. The song is a staple of the folk rock repertoire and has been performed by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and more commonly, The Grateful Dead. In 1931, Florence Reece used this tune for her song "Which Side Are You On?". Also performed by Melora Creager of Rasputina on Ancient Cross-Dressing Songs.

"One Morning in May" is a folk song which has been collected from traditional singers in England and the USA and has also been recorded by revival singers. Through the use of double-entendre, at least in the English versions, it tells of a sexual encounter between a grenadier and a lady.

George Barnet Gardiner (1852–1910) was a Scottish-born folk-song collector who collected songs from traditional singers in Southern England, chiefly in Hampshire, but also in Surrey, Sussex, Somerset and other counties. He collected over 1,400 songs in a six-year period between 1904 and his death in 1910.

"All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough" or The Ploughman's Song is an English folk song about the working life of horsemen on an English farm in the days before petrol-driven machinery. Variants have been collected from many traditional singers - Cecil Sharp observed that "almost every singer knows it: the bad singers often know but little else". It has been recorded by many singers influenced by the second British folk revival.

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

Van Diemen's Land or Henry the Poacher, Young Henry's Downfall, Beware Young Men. is an English transportation ballad. It was widely published in broadsides during the 19th century, and was collected from traditional singers in England during the twentieth century. It has been recorded by many singers influenced by the British folk revival.

Transportation Ballads are a genre of broadside ballad some of which became an important part of the folk song traditions of Britain and Ireland. They concern the transportation of convicted criminals firstly to the American colonies and then to penal colonies in Australia. Transportation ballads were published as broadsides,. Many have passed into the folk tradition and have been collected subsequently from traditional singers.

The Bold Fisherman is an English folk song popular with traditional singers and widely collected in the early and mid 20th century CE. It has been frequently performed and recorded by contemporary folk singers and groups.

"The Miller's Three Sons" is an English folk song. It was published as a broadside in the middle of the 18th century CE, but no more recent printings are known. It was "reasonably widespread in England but hugely popular in North America".

The Lark in the Morning is an English folk song. It was moderately popular with traditional singers in England, less so in Scotland, Ireland and the United States. It starts as a hymn to the ploughboy's life, and often goes on to recount a sexual encounter between a ploughboy and a maiden resulting in pregnancy.

The Golden Glove is an English folk song also popular in Scotland, Ireland and North America. It tells the tale of a young woman who falls in love with a farmer and devises a somewhat far-fetched ruse to win his love. This song is also known as Dog and Gun and The Squire of Tamworth

The Banks of Sweet Dundee is a folk song very popular with and frequently collected from traditional singers in Britain and Ireland, fairly common in North America, and also performed by revival singers and groups. A young woman escapes a forced marriage by shooting dead both the squire who is her intended husband and her uncle who attacks her.

"Early, Early in the Spring" is a British folk song that has been collected from traditional singers in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the United States. It tells the story of a sailor gone to sea whose beloved promises to wait for him. When he returns she has married a rich man and he goes back to sea with a broken heart and a bitter attitude. In a few American versions the betrayed lover is a cowboy.

The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was one of the musicians who participated in the first English Folk Song revival, as well as using folk song tunes in his compositions. He collected his first song, Bushes and Briars, from Mr Charles Pottipher, a seventy-year-old labourer from Ingrave, Essex in 1903, and went on to collect over 800 songs, as well as some singing games and dance tunes. For 10 years he devoted up to 30 days a year to collecting folk songs from singers in 21 English counties, though Essex, Norfolk, Herefordshire and Sussex account for over two thirds of the songs in his collection. He recorded a small number of songs using a phonograph but the vast majority were recorded by hand. He was a regular contributor to the Folk Song Society's Journal, a member of the society's committee from 1904 to 1946, and when in that year the society amalgamated with the English Folk Dance Society he became president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, a position he held until his death.

References

  1. ↑ Roud Folk Song Index/Vaughan Williams Memorial Library http://www.vwml.org/search?ts=1485029107580&collectionfilter=RoudFS;RoudBS&advqtext=0%7Crn%7C586#record=49 Retrieved 2017/03/06
  2. ↑ Bob Copper, A Song for Every Season, London, 1971
  3. ↑ Roud Folk Song Index/Vaughan Williams Memorial Library http://www.vwml.org/search?ts=1485043512486&collectionfilter=RoudFS;RoudBS&advqtext=0%7Crn%7C586# Retrieved 2017/03/06
  4. ↑ Gloucestershire Traditions http://glostrad.com/banks-of-sweet-primroses-the/ Retrieved 2017/03/06
  5. ↑ Phil Tanner "The Gower Nightingale" Veteran VT145CD
  6. ↑ "Come Write Me Down", Topic CD TSCD534
  7. ↑ VTD148CD
  8. ↑ 12TS225
  9. ↑ British Library Sound Archive Shelf mark 2CDR0007004 (copy of C903/10) http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Reg-Hall-Archive/025M-C0903X0010XX-1100V0 Retrieved 2017/03/06
  10. ↑ Topic Records – 12T170
  11. ↑ Chyme CH 1025
  12. ↑ Island Records ILPS 9162
  13. ↑ Topic Records 12TS343
  14. ↑ TSCD557
  15. ↑ TSCD513
  16. ↑ Roud, Steve; The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs p405; London; 2012
  17. ↑ The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Harmondsworth, 1959
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.