The Butcher's Boy

Lyrics - Credits - Discography - Covers - Bootlegs - Chords

Lyrics She went upstairs to make her bed And not one word to her mother she said Her mother she went upstairs too Said, "Daughter, oh daughter, what troubles you?" "Oh mother, oh mother, I cannot tell That railroad boy I love so well He's courted me my life away And now at home he will not stay There is a place in London town Where that railroad boy goes and sits down And he takes that strange girl on his knee And he tells to her what he won't tell me" Father he came in from work He said, "Where's daughter, she looks so hurt" He went upstairs to give her hope But he found her hanging from a rope He took his knife and cut her down And in her bosom these words they found: "Dig my grave both wide and deep Put a marble slab at my head and feet And over my bones put a snow white dove So this world can see that I died for love"

Credits Written by: Traditional Produced by: Anthony Marinelli Recorded at Royce Hall, Los Angeles 2001-04-25 Musicians: Elvis Costello - vocal, acoustic guitar Bill Frisell - acoustic guitar Eliza Carthy - fiddle Don Byron - clarinet Discography Albums: none Singles: none Collections: none Soundtracks: none Various Artists collections: The Harry Smith Project: Anthology Of American Folk Music Revisited, 2006 Alternate Versions: none Recording by other artists Buell Kazee, 1928 (collected on Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music, 1952) Jeannie Robertson, on Songs Of A Scots Tinker Lady: Traditional Scots Ballads And Songs, 1960 Joan Baez, on Joan Baez Vol. 2, 1961 ("Railroad Boy") Tommy Makem, on Songs Of Tommy Makem, 1961 Frank Proffitt, on Frank Proffitt of Reese, North Carolina, 1962 Peggy Seeger, on 124 Folk Songs As Sung And Recorded On Folkways Records, 1965 Kirsty MacColl, on "Caroline" CD single, 1995 Sinéad O'Connor, on The Butcher Boy soundtrack, 1998

Internal links

• Lyrics

External links

• The Internet Archive: The Butcher's Boy (includes MP3 of Buell Kazee's 1928 recording)
• Smithsonian Folkways: The Butcher's Boy (Anthology Of American Folk Music liner notes)