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(note by Elisabeth Higgins Null with Charles H. Baum)
Hangman, Hangman (Maid Free From The Gallows, Child #95)

Peggy first recorded this song in 1957 on Peggy Seeger: Folksongs and Ballads (RLP12-655, 1957), and she remains remarkably faithful to that version almost fifty years later, retaining the same C G D G B E guitar tuning and a similar rolling riff on the guitar. Here she has added the verse:

True love, I stretch my hand to thee
No other help I know
If you withdraw your hand from me
O whither shall I go?

Peggy says she doesn't remember where she got the song but the tune and lyrical structure are similar to a version found on Jean Ritchie: Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW40145, 2003). Ritchie learned the song from her father, Balis W. Ritchie, who was born in Knott County, Kentucky in 1869. The lyrics Peggy sings are widespread and make use of incremental repetitions to expand or compress the story at the singer's discretion. In verse after verse, the main character, who is about to be hanged, asks relatives if they have brought the money needed to pay off the executioner or judge:

'Hey Pa (Ma, Brother, Sister, etc.), did you bring me any gold?
Gold to pay my fee?

Each in turn answers that they have brought no money but have come to see the main character executed. At the end, a lover arrives with gold to pay the fee. We cannot always be sure how the story concludes, but this version seems headed for a happy ending, with a final verse tacked on to serve as a wry commentary:

'Its hard to love, hard to be loved
Hard to make up your mind
You've broke the heart of many poor girl
True love, but you won't break mine.'

In Peggy's song, the condemned person is a man, although the narrator's voice shifts for that last verse into that of a woman. Shifting narrative voices are quite common in the older ballads, as are dialogues and incremental repetitions such as those used here. This particular ballad, widespread throughout Europe and present in America from the colonial period onward, is certainly old. Its narrative can be traced back as far as the 'Distressed Handmaid,' an Irish tale from the ninth century. (1) A West-Indian cante-fable bears a strong narrative resemblance to that ancestral version. (2) Other versions had probably appeared in America by the seventeenth century and eventually found a place not only among British-Americans but among African-American singers.

(1) Ingeborg Urcia, "The Gallows and the Golden Ball: An Analysis of 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' (Child 95)," The Journal of American Folklore, 79 (1966), p. 466
(2) Ibid, p. 466

In early versions from England and Scotland, a woman usually takes on the leading role as in the 'Maid Freed From the Gallows,' whose title the nineteenth-century ballad scholar Francis James Child uses as the generic name for all permutations of this sung narrative. He describes versions from continental Europe in which the maid is captured by corsairs; her family refuses to pay the ransom, but her sweetheart eventually comes up with the money. In one family of versions sometimes titled the 'The Golden Ball,' a maid (often a servant girl) is about to be executed for stealing or losing a golden ball from her mistress. In yet another cluster of versions, the central figure is caught in either a 'prickly' or a 'briery' bush. This latter group is uncommon in America.

Contemporary updates of the ballad include Led Zeppelin's revision of Leadbelly's 'Gallows Pole.' In their rendition, the hangman takes everything offered by the family members, including the sister's sexual favors, and then laughs as the condemned man swings (lyrics: www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=7760).

'The Maid Freed From The Gallows' has been given a dramatic rendition among African-Americans in the southern United States and there is some indication of its use as a play-party game.

For a partial listing of written and recorded versions consult The Traditional Ballad Index:
www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ballads/C095.html

For more recorded versions go to:
Masato Sakurai's compendium of recorded materials from the Folk Music Index posted on the online forum, 'Mudcat Café':
www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=62077 - 812665

lyrics

03 HANGMAN

words and music: USA traditional
The Hangman Song, © 1965 Jean Ritchie for the Ritchie Family, KY
guitar tuning: key of C#major; 6:low C#; 5: low G#; 4-1, as in normal
guitar tuning; play as if in C

Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope
Slack it for awhile
I look over yonder and I seen Pa coming
Coming for many a mile.

Say Pa, say Pa, have you brung me no gold,
Gold to pay my fine?
No sir, no sir, brung you no gold,
Gold to pay your fine,
I've just come for to see you hanged
All on the gallows line.

Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope
Slack it for awhile
I look over yonder and I see Ma coming
Coming for many a mile.

Say Ma, say Ma, have you brung me no gold,
Gold to pay my fine?
No sir, no sir, brung you no gold,
Gold to pay your fine,
I've just come for to see you hanged
All on the gallows line.

Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope
Slack it for awhile
I look over yonder, seen my true love coming
Coming for many a mile.

True love, I stretch my hand to thee
No other help I know;
If you withdraw your hand from me
O whither shall I go?

True love, true love, have you brung me no gold,
Gold to pay my fine?
Yes sir, yes sir, brung you some gold,
Gold to pay your fine,
I've not come for to see you hanged
All on the gallows line.

It's hard to love, hard to be loved,
Hard to make up your mind;
You've broke the heart of many poor girl
True love, but you won't break mine.

credits

from Love Call Me Home, released April 26, 2005

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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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