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Dear Companion

from Heading For Home by Peggy Seeger

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DEAR COMPANION

traditional USA
tune by Bob Coltman?

Peggy recalls learning this song from Bonnie Dobson at a Canadian folk club in 1960. In her notes to her Prestige LP (issued with three prefixes, 13031, 14007 and 7801!) Bonnie comments that she learned the song from Dr. James Butler of Vancouver, British Columbia, with the text derived from Sharp and the tune the work of Bob Coltman. Bob Coltman's melody sounded a bit familiar ("Jealous Brothers"?), and when I played it to some friends, the following possible cognates also came to mind: "Adieu False Heart," "Going To the West," and "Silver Dagger."

Cecil Sharp's lone version (vol. 2, p. 109 in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians [1932]) was obtained in 1916 from Mrs. Rosie Hensley of Carmen, NC. It has four verses and a tune closely resembling "Wondrous Love." This version also appeared in the widely distributed pocket songbook Songs of All Time, which was published in 1957 for the Council of the Southern Mountains by the Co-operative Recreation Service of Delaware, Ohio.

The verses of "Dear Companion" have traveled widely through a number of related southern U.S. lyric folksongs, most notably "Fond Affection." In Scotland it was called "Go and Leave Me (If You Wish It)." Titles in American folksong collections include "Broken Vow(s)," "The Broken Heart," and "Thou Hast Learned To Love Another." Guthrie Meade in his vast 2002 compendium, Country Music Sources: A Biblio-Discography of Commercially Recorded Traditional Music, divides the "Dear Companion" family and its relations as follows: "Fond Affection" (including "Goodbye Booze," "When the Cold, Cold Clay Is Laid Around Me," "If You Ever Learn To Love Me," "Lay Me Where the Sweet Flowers Blossom," "Fair Young Lover," "Pretty Little Girls Are Made To Marry"); "Go and Leave Me If You Wish To;" "Many Times With You I've Wandered;" "Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me" (dating from 1884); "The Railway (Railroad) Flagman's Sweetheart;" "Broken Hearted Lover;" "Darling Do You Know Who Loves You;" "Little Darling Pal of Mine;" and "Columbus Stockade Blues." Meade follows this grouping with a similar one which includes "Thou Hast Learned To Love Another" (dating from ca. 1849); "We Have Met & We Have Parted" (dating from ca. 1870); and "Lover's Farewell." (Joe Hickerson, August 2003)

lyrics

Once I had a dear companion
Indeed I thought his love my own
But then a dark-eyed girl persuaded
Now he cares for me no more.

O, go and leave me if you want to
That will never trouble me.
If it's in your heart to love another
Then in my grave I would rather be.

Many a night while you lie sleeping
Dreaming in your sweet repose.
There's me, poor girl, lies here a-weeping
Listening to the wind that blows.

When I see your baby laughing
It makes me think of your sweet face.
But when I hear your baby crying
It makes me think on my disgrace.

I am writing you a letter
Telling you that you are free.
From this moment and forever
I will care no more for thee.

credits

from Heading For Home, released October 7, 2003

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Peggy Seeger Oxford, UK

Peggy is one of the most influential folk singers on either side of the Atlantic. She is Pete Seeger’s half-sister and Ruth Crawford Seeger’s daughter; her first life partner was the English songwriter Ewan MacColl, who wrote First Time Ever I Saw Your Face for her. She has made more than 22 solo recordings to date. Please check ewanmaccoll.bandcamp.com for other albums featuring Peggy. ... more

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