A drinking ballad sung by miners in Cornwall, England, 1891.
words and music by F. J. Adams
Although the singer is a woman, this song is associated with drinking and carousing by males. It is also known as “The Drunkard Song.” It is a comic-tragedy because it is sung as a light-hearted, flippant march when the subject is infidelity and heartbreak. This gives it an odd feeling because the words and music don’t fit together. It came to the U.S. as a college song in 1883. It has been used in close-harmony barbershop quartets. It’s melody is also used for the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- There is a tavern in the town, in the town,
And there my dear love sits him down, sits him down
And drinks his wine ’mid laughter free,
And never, never thinks of me.
Chorus
Fare thee well, for I must leave thee,
Do not let the parting grieve thee,
And remember that the best of friends must part.
Adieu, adieu, kind friends adieu, adieu,
I can no longer stay with you, stay with you,
I’ll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree,
And may the world go well with thee.
- He left me for a damsel dark, damsel dark,
Each Friday night they used to spark, used to spark,
And now my love once true to me,
Take that dark damsel on his knee. - Oh! dig my grave both wide and deep, wide and deep,
Put tombstone at my head and feet, head and feet,
And on my breast carve a turtle dove,
To signify I died of love.
Sung here by Fred Feild: