A minor mondagreen

[Baker, John]

I think you're overlooking the fact that the entire song, with its repeated references to the sought/seen wife being too young to leave her mother, is a setup for the final question as to her age, which varies by version but always turns out to be quite substantial.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of David A. Daniel
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2011 5:07 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: A minor mondagreen

I learned this as a child with the only lyrics that make sense: "I have been to see my wife, she's the joy of my life, she's a young thing and cannot leave her mother." So, either these two are betrothed, and the girl is, like, 12 or less, and Billy Boy considers her his wife (because they are betrothed) but has "to go and see her" because she's a young thing and still lives with her mother, or they are actually married, but the child-wife has to stay at home with her mother until age X (whatever that might be), so Billy Boy still has to go and see her even though she is his wife and she "bids him enter" and "makes him cherry pie". Or, Billy Boy is fantasizing the whole deal and has actually been out behind the barn with his goat, but that seems a bit too sophisticated for the genre. I suspect (but of course can't prove and think it would be interesting for someone - but not me - to try) that the "seek a wife" has snuck in fairly recently because: How can Billy Boy already h!
 ave a wife who is too young to leave her mother? OMG there is some nasty perversion, or some unspeakable hillbilly practice, being hinted at here, so we'd better change the lyrics so that he is a kid in love with someone who is also a kid and he is "seeking a wife" but of course they haven't done anything yet, heaven forbid. Personally, I always thought Billy Boy was probably, like, 30 years old or more, and had gone ahead and married someone he couldn't legally do, sort of like Elvis and Priscilla...
DAD







-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is anyone else familiar with the children's song, "Billy Boy"? There's
a verse in which Billy Boy states that he has

… been to see Coowife(?)
She's the joy of my life
But she's a young thing
And cannot leave her mother

For about 65 years, I've assumed that "Coowife" was one of those
fairy-tale names, like "Gawain," that simply exists. On a whim, I
googled it and W:pedia'd it and found nothing. Then it struck me that,
perhaps, I could find the song.

I did find the song, with almost no effort. And there it was:

Oh, where have you been,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Oh, where have you been,
Charming Billy?

I have been to _seek a wife_,

She's the joy of my life,
But she's a young thing
And cannot leave her mother.

The song no longer makes sense. A guy goes to see a girlfriend named
"Coowife" too young to leave home and get married? So what? This kind
of thing happens all the time.

But now, he's merely "*seeking* a wife," presumably some random woman
that he has yet to find. Nevertheless, somehow, he *already* knows her
well enough to consider her "the joy of [his] life," even though she's
too young to get married!

Let well-enough alone.

 --
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org