Billy Boy, Lyric Variant 02

This item is part of the I. G. Greer Folksong Collection which consists of more than 300 individual song titles and their variants as collected by Isaac Garfield Greer (1881-1967) from informants, primarily in Ashe, Wilkes and Watauga counties. The collection includes manuscripts, typescript transcriptions produced by Dr. Greer’s clerical staff, and handwritten musical notations. Songs range from traditional Child Ballads, traditional English and Scottish ballads as well as their American variants, to 19th century popular music to musical compositions of local origin.

Folk songs

Wives--Songs and music

Cookery--Songs and music

Charming Billy, Billie Boy

AC.113 Isaac Garfield (I.G.) Greer Papers and Recordings

W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University

Greer, I. G. (Isaac Garfield), 1881-1967

PDF

English

Text

Billy Boy.

O where have you been, Billy boy, Billy boy?
O where have you been, charming Billy?
I have been to seek a wife, she's the joy of my life.
She's a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

Did she ask you to come in, Billy boy, Billy boy,
Did she ask you to come in, charming Billy?
She asked me to come in,
With a dimple in her chin.
She's a young thing and cannot leave her Mother.

Did she give you for to eat, Billy boy, Billy boy,
Did she ask you for to eat, charming Billy?
She asked me for to eat,
She had plenty of bread and meat,
She's a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy boy, Billy boy,
Can she bake a cherry pie, charming Billy?
She can bake a cherry pie,
Quick as a cat can wink its eye.
She's a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

How tall is she, Billy boy, Billy Boy,
How tall is she, charming Billy?
She's as tall as any pine,
Slim as a pumpkin vine.
She's a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

How old is she, Billy boy, Billy boy,
How old is she, charming Billy?
She's twice six, twice seven,
Twenty and eleven,
She's a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

Brown, Lullabies and Nursery Rhymes - 121 Randolph, 104 Cox, 168

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