| Lyrics: | JACKSON
SOURCE: Bob Pfeffer
SOURCE'S SOURCE: Paul
Abramson
TEXT:
D G D
Jackson is on sea, Jackson
is on shore
D G D
Jackson's gone to Mexico to
fight the battles o'er
A7 D D7 G
"Welcome
home, dear Jackson. Oh welcome home," cried she.
G A7
D
"Last night my daughter Mary lay dreaming of thee."
"What news, Jackson?" "Very
poor," says he.
"I lost all my money while crossing of the sea.
Go fetch your daughter
Mary, and bring her here to me.
We'll drown our melancholy, and married we will
be."
"Oh Mary is not home, Jack, nor has she been today,
And if she were at home,
Jack, she would not let you stay.
For Mary's very rich now, and you are very poor,
And if
she were at home, Jack, she'd show you the door."
Jackson bein' weary, hung down his
head,
Called for a candle to light him up to bed.
"The beds are full of strangers, and
have been so this week,
And now for your lodging, poor Jack, you'll have to
seek."
Jack looked upon the strangers, upon them one and all
And then for his
reckoning he all at once did call
Twenty shillings of the new, and twenty of the old
He
took out from his pockets his two hands full of gold.
The sight of the money made the old
woman rue.
"Oh Mary is at home, Jack, and she's been true to you.
I hope you were not in
earnest, for I only spoke in jest.
Without any exception she loves you the best."
At
the sound of the money Mary came with a smiling face.
First a sweet kiss, and then a fond
embrace
"Oh welcome home, dear Jackson. Welcome home, my dear.
The big bed is empty, and
we shall lie there."
"Before I'd lie within your bed, I'd lie within the street,
For
when I had no money, my lodging I must seek,
But now I've plenty money, I'll make the taverns
whirl.
A bottle of good brandy, and on each arm a girl."
Recorded by Tom
Paley
NOTE: one of several variants; generically called GREEN BEDS
tune given is from a
variant published in Ozark Folksongs, Randolph
@sailor @courtship
filename[
JACKBEDS
play.exe JACKBEDS
RPf
===DOCUMENT BOUNDARY |
