WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THE DAY (MY BOY WILLIE)
(learned from Toby Lighthizer in 1964)
Where have you been all the day, my boy Willie?
Can she brew and can she bake, my boy Willie?
Can she cook a plate of fish?...
Can she make up a bed?...
Why, how old can she be?...
Did you ask her to wed?...
(from miriam berg's folksong collection)
Where have you been all the day, Willie, will you tell me now?
I have been all the day courting up a lady gay
But she is too young to be taken from her mammy.
Can she brew and can she bake, Willie, will you tell me now?
She can brew and she can bake, she can bake a wedding cake,
But she is too young...
She can cook a plate of fish, wish her fingers in the dish,
But she is too young...
She can make up a bed, forty feet above her head...
She is two, she is seven, she is twenty and eleven...
Yes, I asked her to wed, and these are the words she said,
I am MUCH too young to be taken from my mammy!