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Henry Lee

from Heading For Home by Peggy Seeger

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HENRY LEE

traditional USA

This glorious version of Child Ballad # 68, "Young Hunting." is one of Peggy's favorites. Her text is an amalgam from many sources; the tune is derived from that sung by Jane Gentry to Cecil Sharp at Hot Springs, NC, 1916. This in turn has been printed in Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (1932), vol. 1, p. 101; in Bertrand Harris Bronson's The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, vol. 2, p. 78; and in Betty Smith's Jane Hicks Gentry: A Singer Among Singers (1998), p. 146. For full notes and sources, see Tristram Potter Coffin and Roger deV. Renwick's The British Traditional Ballad in North America (1977), pp. 66-68. Peggy's version fits their Story Type A. She recorded it previously on Prestige 13005, The Best of Peggy Seeger. For comparative purposes, check out her rendition of the Dick Justice version of this ballad on Prestige 13029, Three Sisters. (Joe Hickerson, August 2003)

5-string BANJO TUNING sung in the key of F#; tuning: high F#, low C#, F#, C#, C#

lyrics

Light down, light down, love Henry Lee
And stay with me this night.
You will have my candle and coal
And my fire's burning bright,
My fire's burning bright.

I won't light down, I can't light down
Nor stay all night with thee;
There's a lady ten times fairer than you
In Lord Barnet's hall for me, (2)

He's leaned him o'er her soft pillow
For to give her a kiss so sweet;
With her little pen-knife held keen and sharp
She's wounded him full deep, (2)

I will light down, I must light down
I will come in, said he.
There is no lady in Barnet's hall
That I love more better than thee, (2)
O live, my love, Lord Henry, she said
For an hour or two or three -
And all these cards about my waist
I'd freely give to thee, (2)

All them cards about your waist
They'd do no good to me;
Love, don't you see my own heart's blood
Come twinkling at my knee, (2)

She took him by his long yellow hair,
She dragged him by his feet,
She threw him down her cool draw-well
Full fifty fathoms deep, (2)

Lie there, lie there, you Henry Lee
I know you will not swim;
That lady ten times fairer than me
She'll never see you again, (2)

Light down, light down, you pretty little bird
Light down all on my knee.
No, a girl who'd murder her own true love
Would kill a little bird like me, (2)

I wish I had my bending bow
My arrow and my string -
I'd shoot my dart so nigh your heart
That you'd no longer sing, (2)

I wish you had your bending bow
Your arrow and your string -
I'd fly away to Barnet's hall
You'd always hear me sing, (2)

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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