Ballad+Lyrics+-+A

=Lyrics of the Ballads= Child ballad #93 Performed in Nova Scotia by Anita Best
 * Bold Lamkin **

Said the lord to the lady, "Now I'm going away. Beware of proud Lamkin for he's coming this way." "What do I care for Lamkin or any of his men, For my doors they are bolted and my windows brassed in."

They had not been sleeping for but an hour or more, When proud Lamkin he come and he knocked on the door. "Oh where is your mistress, your mistress," he cried. "She is up in her chamber," cried the false‑hearted maid.

“How can I get at her?” bold Lamkin did say “When she’s up in her chamber and her lord is away.” “You stick your silver bodkin in her son Johnson’s nose And the blood came ‘a trinkling down over his clothes "Oh mistress, dear mistress, how can you sleep so fast When your son young Johnson is crying his last?  He cannot be quieted with breast milk or pap  I pray you come downstairs, dandle him on your lap.”

"How can I come downstairs," she cried, "on this cold winter's night, no fire in to warm me or no candle to light?" "There are two holland blankets," she cried, "as white as the snow, And I pray you'll come down by the light of them so."

As she was coming down the stairs not thinking any harm Bold Lamkin he caught her and he held her by the arm. “I’ve got you, I’ve got you, bold Lamkin did say You were up in your chamber but your lord was away.”

“Oh spare me, oh spare me, this lady did cry Oh spare me Bold Lamkin, I am not fit to die I’ll give you as much money as you’ll carry on your back If you’ll only keep your knife from my lily white neck” “You can give me as much money as there’s sand in the sea It’ll not keep my knife from your white skin so free.”

"Oh spare me, oh spare me for just one half hour, I will give you my daughter Betsy  although she’s my flower." "Where is your daughter Betsy, go bring her to me. She may hold the silver basin  till your heart's blood runs free."

There was blood in the kitchen, there was blood in the hall, But the blood on the staircase was the worst blood of all. Bold Lamkin was then taken to his own country And the false‑hearted servant to the high gallows tree

Bold lamkin was hanged on the gallows so high and the false hearted servant, she was condemned to die. =** Things That Scare Me ** - Neko Case = Fluorescent lights engage Blackbirds frying on a wire Same birds that followed me to school When I was young Were they trying to tell me something Were they telling me to run

The hammer clicks in place The world's gonna pay Right down in the face of God and his saints Claim your soul's not for sale I'm a dying breed who still believes Haunted by American dreams Haunted by American dreams

= ** The Man in the Long Black Coat ** -Bob Dylan = Crickets are chirpin', the water is high, There's a soft cotton dress on the line hangin' dry, Window wide open, African trees Bent over backwards from a hurricane breeze. Not a word of goodbye, note even a note, She gone with the man In the long black coat.

Somebody seen him hanging around At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town, He looked into her eyes when she stopped to ask If he wanted to dance, he had a face like a mask. Somebody said from the Bible he'd quote There was dust on the man In the long black coat.

Preacher was a talkin' there's a sermon he gave, He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved, You cannot depend on it to be your guide When it's you who must keep it satisfied. It ain't easy to swallow, it sticks in the throat, She gave her heart to the man In the long black coat.

There are no mistakes in life some people say It is true sometimes you can see it that way. Bridge: But people don't live or die, people just float. She went with the man In the long black coat.

There's smoke on the water, it's been there since June, Tree trunks uprooted, 'neath the high crescent moon Feel the pulse and vibration and the rumbling force Somebody is out there beating the dead horse. She never said nothing there was nothing she wrote, She gone with the man In the long black coat.