“Farewell to Old Bedford”

Description

"Farewell to old Bedford, I'm bound for to leave you. Likewise those pretty girls I nevermore shall see." The singer has been forced away by his parents, and intends to "drown away sorrows in a bottle of wine" and ignore his troubles

Supplemental text

Farewell to Old Bedford
  Complete text(s)

          *** A ***

From Anne Warner, Traditional American Folk Songs from the Anne &
Frank Warner Collection, #99, pp. 244-245. From the singing of
Lee Monroe Presnell of Beech Mountain, North Carolina. Collected 1951.

Farewell to old Bedford,
I'm bound for to leave you.
Likewise those pretty girls
I nevermore shall see.
My portion is small,
But I truly confess it,
What little I have
It is all my own.

Well I might have enjoyed it,
All in pleasure,
If my cruel parents
Had left me alone.
I will drown away sorrow
In a full-flowing bumper.
I will drown all my sorrow
In a bottle of wine.

Eight drams a bottle is,
And I don't care for folly.
Now never let trouble
Come into your mind.
I will drown her away
In a full-flowing bumper.
I will drown her away
In a bottle of wine.

Eight drams a bottle is,
And I don't care for folly.
I play on my fiddle
And dance all the time.
My fingers are frozen,
My bow it needs rosin,
My soundpost is down,
And my bridge it won't stand.

Notes

I have to suspect that this is a worn-down, possibly reworked, version of something else (e.g. "Farewell, Charming Nancy") -- but I can't identify with any real probability what the original song was. It may well go back to the same ancestor as "Adieu to Bon County," but there has been a lot of drift in between. - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "Farewell Lovely Nancy" (meter)
• cf. "Adieu to Bon County" (floating lyrics)

Recordings

• Lee Monroe Presnell, "Farewell to Old Bedford" (on USWarnerColl01)

References

1. Warner 99, "Farewell to Old Bedford" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. DT, OLDBDFRD*
3. ST Wa099 (Full)
4. Roud #16399
5. BI, Wa099