4286. I’m a Rover, Seldom Sober (Child #248) Mission to Seafarers, Melbourne

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We went to a session of Shanties and folk songs at the Melbourne Mission to Seamen. I was asked to sing a song so I chose this one because a. the whole session is a capella and b. I had just sung this a few days earlier at our Valentine's Day Concert at Fawkner Park. That still didn't stop me from making a mess of the first verse. Not only did my voice strain because I started in too high a key, but somehow I managed to substitute the word "star" with "cloud", which doesn't make much sense!

Child has only one version of this song, "The Grey Cock", which is rarely sung – for good reason. There are much better versions, including "The Night Visit" or "The Night Visiting Song", in which the lover turns out to be a ghost. There is some debate about whether the supernatural element was there from the start and taken out in some later versions of the song, or whether it was actually borrowed from other ballads and added to this one. The evidence seems to suggest that the latter is most likely. The supernatural sections in the usual version of "The Grey Cock" appear to have been borrowed from an unrelated 19th century Irish broadside, "Willy O", which, in turn, is based on "Sweet William’s Ghost".

Lyrics and chords:
G ....................... C ......... G
I'm a rover and seldom sober.
..................................... D7
I'm a rover of high degree.
....................... G ............... D7 ............. G
It's when I'm drinking, I'm always thinking
...................................... D7 ..... G
How to gain my love's company.

Though the night be as dark as dungeon,
Not a star to be seen above,
I will be guided without a stumble
Into the arms of my own true love.

Chorus

I crept up to her bedroom window,
Kneeling gently upon a stone.
I rapped at her bedroom window.
"Darling dear, do you lie alone?"

"It's only me, your own true lover.
Open the door and let me in,
For I have come on a long journey
And I'm near drenched to the skin."

Chorus

She opened the door with the greatest pleasure.
She opened the door and she let me in.
We both clasped hands and embraced each other.
Until the morning we lay as one.

The cocks were crowing, the birds were whistling.
The streams ran free about the brae.
"Remember lass, I'm a ploughman laddie
And the farmer I must obey."

Chorus

"Now my love, I must go and leave thee
And, though the hills they are high above,
I will climb them with greater pleasure,
Since I've been in the arms of my love."

You can watch a playlist of my renditions of the Child ballads here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=PLB2D0D5657EA394E4

For a playlist of all my a capella songs:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=PLE81659B9EA983BB2

I am now posting lyrics to the information panels on all my videos. Any that are too long to post in full will be found on my website: https://raymondsfolkpage.wordpress.com