The Foggy Foggy Dew
Composer:
Anon
Genre: World / Folk
Decade: before 1923
Submitted by: Russell Ambrose
Description:
Foggy, Foggy DewThe first song of this title was of English origin, sometimes called “Foggy, Foggy Dew”, and is a lamentful ballad of a young lover. It was published on a broadside around 1815, though there are very many versions: Cecil Sharp collected eight versions.[1] Burl Ives, who popularized the song in the United States in the 1940s, claimed that a version dated to colonial America. Ives was once jailed in Mona, Utah, for singing it in public, when authorities deemed it a bawdy song.[2] BBC Radio likewise restricted broadcast of the song to programmes covering folk tunes or the works of Benjamin Britten.[3] The tune is a late 18th or early 19th century revision of "When I First Came To Court", licensed in 1689.When I was a bachelor, I liv`d all aloneI worked at the weaver`s tradeAnd the only, only thing that I ever did wrongWas to woo a fair young maid.I wooed her in the wintertimeAnd in the summer, tooAnd the only, only thing that I did that was wrongWas to keep her from the foggy, foggy dew.One night she came to my bedsideWhen I was fast asleep.She laid her head upon my bedAnd she began to weep.She sighed, she cried, she damn near diedShe said what shall I do?So I hauled her into bed and covered up her headJust to keep her from the foggy foggy dew.So, I am a bachelor, I live with my sonand we work at the weaver`s trade.And every single time that I look into his eyesHe reminds me of that fair young maid.He reminds me of the wintertimeAnd of the summer, too,And of the many, many times that I held her in my arms
by: Russell Ambrose