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Catch Me If You Can
Pete Coe of Ripponden, West Yorkshire: On Autumn Harvest ah006: Old Songs & Bothy Ballads: Nick-knack on the Waa. Live from the Fife Traditional Singing Festival May 2007.
In 1978 Pete Coe recorded the 60-year-old Sophie Legg, a romany traveller of Bodmin in Cornwall, for Veteran Records on her only album, Catch Me If You Can: Songs from Cornish Travellers, with her sisters Charlotte and Betsy Renals (then 78 and 77 respectively). It included her favourite song Down By the Old Riverside and others from the repertoire that had become a staple diet of the folk-club movement, including Jim the Carter Lad and this song Catch Me If You Can. Pete has also recorded the song on one of his CDs Pete Coe: In Paper Houses.
1 It was early, early all in the Spring,
Down in those meadows all so green;
There a pretty maiden I chanced to meet,
And I asked her if she would walk with me.
2 I asked if she would walk with me,
Down in those meadows oh so green;
I'd show her flowers and pretty things,
And I'd show what she had never seen.
3 Now it's this young couple they were strolling along,
He sang to her some sweet pretty songs;
He sang to her some sweet pretty songs,
And soon he gained her favour.
4 "Now that you've had your will of me,
You have stolen away my sweet liberty;
You have stolen away my sweet liberty,
Won't you please tell me your name sir?"
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5 "My name is catch me that's if you can,
I'll marry you when I return;
I'll marry you when I return,
But I'm going over the ocean."
6 Well three long months were gone and past,
And six long months he never returned;
And nine long months were come at last,
But the child has got no father.
7 I'll search this wide world all round and round,
And I'll find that young man that's if I can;
I'll find that young man that's if I can,
If I catch him at his leisure.
8 "My name is catch me that's if you can,
I'll marry you when I return;
I'll marry you when I return,
But I'm going over the ocean."
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c p 2008 Autumn Harvest : www.springthyme.co.uk
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