Comments on: With A Brace of Pistols All At Her Side: Kickass Women in Folk Songs /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/ A feminist pop culture adventure Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:26:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6 By: Jim Macdonald /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/#comment-1317 Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:26:43 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=4868#comment-1317 Late to the party, but:

Before you write off Nick Cave, there’s Henry Lee: Young man tells his girlfriend that he loves someone else. She kills the guy and throws his body in a well.

Lie there, lie there, little Henry Lee
Till the flesh drops from your bones
For the girl you have in that merry green land
Can wait forever for you to come home

Or, the rather obscure Jellon Grame: Wicked Jellon Grame gets a young lady pregnant, then, like many another ballad villain, kills her. In the course of this he performs a field-expedient caesarian on her. The child, a little girl, lives. Jellon Grame raises her. When she turns 18, she asks Dad, “How come I never hear from mom?” or words to that effect. He tells her that he killed mom. The young lady goes all action-adventure on him:

With that the girl has bent her bow
It was both stout and long
And though and through this Jellon Grame
She’s made an arrow go.

Then there’s Little Duke Arthur’s Nurse. A young man tells his girlfriend that he’s dumping her. She isn’t too thrilled by this, but tells him to go down to the tavern for a drink, and she’ll come, give him some nookie, and settle his account. Imagine the look of surprise on his face when, rather than the young lady, her brothers turn up “with their naked swords all adrawn-o.” There’s lots of cross-dressing goodness after that.

“If I have your heart but another has your hand
The news has fair undone me;
Come let’s make a time when we’ll meet again
And then in love you can twine me.

“O go ye down to yon public house
Where the welcoming light is beckoning
And sure as I’m a woman true
I’ll come, love, and pay you your reckoning.”

]]> By: Miranda /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/#comment-1316 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:15:49 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=4868#comment-1316 In reply to Lee.

Yeah, I think when we wrote this, Spotify was …less Borgy? I’m not sure. Sorry about that!

]]> By: Lee /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/#comment-1315 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:11:54 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=4868#comment-1315 May Colvin (aka “False Sir John”) seems to be a variant on “The Cruel Youth”. I like the version by Sileas, but it’s not up on YouTube. The one I’ve linked, though, has both a verse that the Sileas version is missing and some truly nice illustration work.

Can you use something other than Spotify for putting these things together? I will never be able to have a Spotify account because they now demand that you register via Facebook. Facebook is the Borg and I absolutely refuse to let it have access to any of my other accounts anywhere.

]]> By: Sarah Jackson /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/#comment-1314 Sun, 29 May 2011 16:57:35 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=4868#comment-1314 Right, have finally updated the Spotify playlist with as many of these as I could find (and some suggestions that came through other channels) Feel free to add your own! http://open.spotify.com/user/sajarina/playlist/3HNBKRwCGTqGMVKHko3PG4

]]> By: Brave Sir Robin /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/#comment-1313 Fri, 20 May 2011 11:44:39 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=4868#comment-1313 Late to the party a bit, but I just wanted to mention House of the Rising Sun.

The opening line ‘There is a house in New Orleans / They call the rising sun / And it’s been the ruin of many poor girl / And me I know I’m one’

Is often sung as ‘poor boy’ by male vocalists, and it always makes me happy to the listen to the Bob Dylan version (on his first album, before he started writing his own music) when he sings girl. And letter asks his ‘baby sister / Not to do what I have done’. I also think it’s ridiculous for it to be a tale of a man, since it’s about a brothel.

]]> By: Sarah Jackson /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/#comment-1312 Wed, 18 May 2011 21:06:27 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=4868#comment-1312 Thank you everyone (and especially Aisling Kenny – amazing!) for the recommendations, going to have fun listening to them all and I’ll add any I can find to the Spotify playlist.

]]> By: Sarah Jackson /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/#comment-1311 Wed, 18 May 2011 21:04:58 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=4868#comment-1311 In reply to Hannah_Chutzpah.

Brilliant! :-D

]]> By: Hannah_Chutzpah /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/#comment-1310 Wed, 18 May 2011 09:23:10 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=4868#comment-1310 one of my favourite badass women in folk songs comes from Jim Kweskin’s Jug Band (Newport Folk Festival ’64 album). It’s called ‘My Girl’

well arich girl will drive an automobile
a poor gal will drive much the same
but my girl, she’ll ride wild horses
and y’know she’s getting by just the same

CHORUS
and I’ll be there in the morning if I live
I’ll be there if I don’t get killed
and if I never see you again
be sure to remember me

well a rich girl will drink fine whiskey
a poor gal will drink much the same
but my girl, she eats peyote
and you know she’s getting high just the same

CHORUS

well a rich girl will give you a peck on the cheek
a poor gal will do much the same
but my girl she’ll run up to you and slobber all over your face
you know she’s loving you just the same

CHORUS

well a rich girl will slap you if you hurt her
a poor gal will do much the same
but my girl, she’ll get a rusty Wilkinson and run y’all over town
you know she’s raising hell just the same

Sort of fell in love with this the first time I heard it & regularly sing it at folk nights. It’s the final verse that makes it.

]]> By: Aisling Kenny /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/#comment-1309 Tue, 17 May 2011 20:56:17 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=4868#comment-1309 In reply to Sarah Jackson.

Augh, sorry, I meant to get back again sooner, but real life happened. Like, ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was crazy.

Anyway though, let the balladspamming resume.

Lass of Rochroyall, which is a sort of genderflip ballad. Storywise, pretty unremarkable, but it’s the fair lass doing all the traditional derring knight jazz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T6eEnt20i0

Eppie Morrie, a Scots ballad about a girl who gets kidnapped, forcibly married and then manages to threaten her new husband/kidnapper into not raping her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56vm2Y48PNQ

Mary and the Soldier, in which Mary goes window-shopping for sexy militia. Not really feminist, but I <3 this song. Also, young Paul Brady is kind of adorable. :3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjOaKb-Z5bQ

Pavanne, which strictly speaking isn't trad folk, but folk revival, but what kind of folky mix would this be if Richard & Linda Thompson didn't feature somewhere? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5bKju0SiJk

And FINALLY: The Two Sisters/The Cruel Sister/Wind and Rain. Man! This song has so many versions, I could spend forever listening to all the wonderful little variations. Because, y'know, I don't have a social life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5DeY3H1oaU&feature=related

]]> By: Sarah Jackson /2011/05/12/with-a-brace-of-pistols-all-at-her-side-kickass-women-in-folk-songs/#comment-1308 Sat, 14 May 2011 13:55:44 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=4868#comment-1308 In reply to supatyp.

Thank you! :-) Love Nina…

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