trad
Mainly Norfolk: “collected only twice in South-West England both in 1908: from the singing of Mr. R. Bryant of Cowley, near Exeter, and from the singing of Ellen Carter of Cheddar Cliffs, Somerset.” Finest Kind wrote “This song comes to Ian via our good friend and frequent inspiration, Louis Killen, who in turn credits Cyril Tawney for finding it in the Baring-Gould collection from the south-west of England. It is a gorgeous and unmistakably English melody, coupled with a quite contemporary view on courtship and marriage, incongruously expressed in words only a Victorian could conceive.”
Finest Kind: https://ianrobb1.bandcamp.com/track/april-morning
https://ianrobb1.bandcamp.com/track/april-morning
‘Twas on one April morning, just as the sun was rising, ‘Twas on one April morning I heard the small birds sing. They were singing Lovely Nancy For love it is a fancy, So sweet were the notes that I heard the small birds sing. Young men are false and full of all deceiving Young men are false and seldom do prove true, For they’re roving and they’re ranging And their minds are always changing For they’re thinking for to find out some pretty girl that’s new. O if I had but my own heart in keeping, O if I had but my own heart back again. Close in my bosom I would lock it up for ever, And it should wander never so far from me again. Why would you spend all your long time in courting? Why would you spend all your long time again? For I don’t intend to marry, I’d rather longer tarry, So young man don’t you spend all your long time in vain.