Barbara Allen

I learned this from the singing of Johnny Moynihan.

You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Allen_(song)

Mike Scott of the Waterboys does a great version of this song in a bar in Galway. You can find it here on You Tube


BARBARA ALLAN

It being late all in the year
The green leaves they were fallin'
When young Johnny rose from his own country
Fell in love with Barbara Allan

Get up, get up, her mother said
Get up and go and see him
Oh mother dear, do you not mind the time
That you told me how to slight him

Get up, get up, her father said
Get up and go and see him
Oh father dear, do you not mind the time
That you told me how to shun him

Slowly, slowly she got up
And did slowly she put on her
Slowly she went to his bedside
And slowly looked upon him

You're lyin' low young man, she said
And almost near a dyin'
One word from you would bring me to
If you be Barbara Allan

One word from me you never will get
Nor any young man breathin'
For the better of me you never will be
Though your heart's blood was a spillin'

Look down, look down at my bed foot
It's there you'll find them lyin'
Bloody sheets and bloody shirts
I sweat them for you Allan

Look up, look up to my bed-head
And there you'll find them hangin'
My gold watch and my gold chain
I bestow them to you Allan

As she was goin' home to her father's hall
She heard the death bell ringin'
And every clap that the death bell gave
It was woe be to you Allan

As she was goin' home to her mother's hall
She saw the funeral comin'
Lay down, lay down that weary corpse
Till I get lookin' on him

She lifted the lid up off of the corpse
And bursted out with laughin'
And all his weary friends around
Cried hard-hearted Barbara Allan

She went into her mother's house
Make my bed long and narrow
For the death bell did ring for my true love today
It will ring for me tomorrow

Out of one grave there grew a red rose
Out of the other a brier
And they both twisted into a true lover's knot
And there remained forever

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Traditional
• Unrequited love

[houseconcerts]

@CORC1300 thanks my pleasure

[CORC1300]

Best version Ive heard, you sing this moving ballad beautifully. Thanks.