“The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)”

Description

"The wind, the wind, the wind blows high, The rain comes pouring from the sky." The girl says she will die if she doesn't get the boy she wants. The boys are fighting for her, but there is only one she will accept

Supplemental text

Wind, The (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)
  Complete text(s)

          *** A ***

The Wind

From Alice B. Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland,
and Ireland, Volume II, p. 387. Supplied by Miss Matthews and
found in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.

The wind, the wind, the wind blows high,
The rain comes pouring from the sky;
Miss So-and-so says she'll die
For the sake of the old man's eye.
She is handsome, she is pretty,
She is the lass of the golden city;
She goes courting one, two, three,
Please to tell me who they be.
A. B. says he loves her,
All the boys are fighting for her,
Let the boys say what they will
A. B. has got her still.

Notes

This item has a complicated story. The Clancy Brothers conflate this song with the "I"ll Tell My Ma" stanza. Roud lumps the two, and initial versions of the Index did as well. This is the more so as the versions are very unstable and localized -- e.g. Ben Schwartz describes the Nova Scotia version as follows: "'Rain rain the wind does blow ... Marie Richardson says she'll die If she don't get a fellow with a rolling eye.' She's from Halifax. 'All the boys are fighting for her ... Gordie Isnor will have her still.'"

Still, I've now seen enough versions which separate the two parts that I've split them. Best to check both, of course. - RBW

Hammond-Belfast and the Clancy Brothers version are almost the same song: one "I'll Tell My Ma" verse with the girl from Belfast City, and the rest of "The Wind(Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)."

Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "I'll Tell My Ma" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": .".. the polka rhythm is the basis of the tune which indicates that the song originated in the mid-nineteenth century."

NovaScotia1 notes: "Singing game ... the players formed up in couples and went around in a ring. A boy chose a girl, then the girl chose a boy and so on until they were all taken" - BS

Similarly the Scottish version in Montgomerie appears to be a skipping game. - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "I'll Tell My Ma" (lyrics)

Recordings

• Mrs Grant Covey, "Rain Rain the Wind Does Blow" (on NovaScotia1)

References

1. cf. Kinloch-BBook XIX, pp. 67-68, (no title) (1 text, a mishmash with some lines reminiscent of this)
2. Montgomerie-ScottishNR 56, "Skipping" ("The wind and the wind and the wind blows high") (1 text)
3. Hammond-Belfast, p. 18, "I'll Tell My Ma" (1 text, 1 tune)
4. ST RcRRtWDB (Full)
5. Roud #2649
6. BI, RcRRtWDB