Rawsberry Lane (OT2003-3014-016)

Rawsberry Lane (OT2003-3014-016)

Raspberry Lane

Song excerpted from audio recording OT2003-3014, part of VFC2003-0007 Margaret MacArthur Collection.

Margaret MacArthur Collection -- VFC2003-0007. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

1964-07-17

en

VFC2003-0007 OT2003-3014-015

Vermont Folklife Center

Rawsberry Lane

Home Dearie, Home

Folk Music Index (http://www.ibiblio.org/folkindex)

Once as I was walking
Through Raspberry Lane
I chanced for to meet
With a mistress of fame
The oak

One day [Atwood starts over] one

[Atwood sings to himself quietly, MacArthur suggests the version he is singing differs from that which he remembers]

Once as I was walking
Through Raspberry Lane
I chanced for to meet
With a mistress of fame
The oak

One day

[Atwood continues singing to self]

One day I was walking through Raspberry Lane
I chanced for to meet with a mistress of fame
For the oak [Atwood: "Now I get it"] is a pretty plant and tree
Are now growing green
In the North Amerikee

    'Tis home dearie home
    And home it shall be
    The oak [Atwood stumbles] the oak and the aloe
    In our own country

It was near midnight
And what could he want more
When she showed him the way
To the old tavern door
He called for a candle
To light him to bed
And likewise a napkin
To bind around his head

    'Tis home dearie home
    And home it shall be
    'Tis now growing green
    In North Amerikee

But earl

But early next morning
This sailor grew bold
And into her apron
Threw a handful of gold
The gold it did glitter
Which dazzled her eye
She said "Won't you marry me"
"Oh no" said he "not I"

    Home dearie home
    And home it shall be
    [Atwood stumbles over this line] The oak and the aloe
    In our own country

You [Atwood backtracks] so keep yourself single
Until the next spring
And hear the larks whistle
And the nightengale sing
My ship is now waiting
And in it I must go
To my own friend
And the friends that I know

Now here luck to the sailor
Who roam the [Atwood backtracks] who roam o'er the sea
Don't wed a foreign lady
But keep yourself free
With your sky [Atwood backtracks, slightly changing melody] with your sky blue jacket and wide tarpaulin on
You reign the salt sea
As I often have done

[MacArthur suggests that he might have sung an "expurgated version"]

References

• "Raspberry Lane" or "Home, Dearie, Home," typewritten Atwood family lyrics transcribed by Edith Sturgis, owned by Margaret MacArthur, archived at the Vermont Folklife Center.
  
  

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