The Daemon Lover

Mother has HUNDREDS of badges, lanyards, name tags, and buttons from her many performances and travels.

The Daemon Lover (No. 35; page 244 i)

I learned The Daemon Lover as The Little Farmer Boy.  It is also widely known as The House Carpenter.  During my Master’s program, I discovered that this ballad is one of the most well known and has MANY versions and variations.  Cecil Sharp collected 22 versions of this song alone.  The internet absolutely TEEMS with different versions, including ones from Joan Baez and Doc Watson.  How fabulous that there is a version from my very own family thanks to Cecil Sharp…but how daunting that I have to relearn it given how different it is than the version I became familiar with as a child.  Mother learned Little Farmer Boy from Dellie Chandler Norton and I have decided to keep the first couple of verses because I think it sets the story up better and, to me, the story within the ballad is the most important thing.

Every ballad I learn, or relearn as the case may be, always has a hook…one verse that stands out from the rest. I absolutely love the poetry in the ballads, the way the words fit together so musically and sometimes even inspire such a physical response as goosebumps or the hair raising up on the back of the neck. In both of the versions that I know, my favorite verse is the same: “O take me back, O take me back, O take me back cried she, For I’m to young and lovely by far, To rot in the salt water sea!” That verse rolls around in my mind like the waves of the ocean. I can smell the salt water and feel the lurch of the ship. For me, this song’s story is about a girl who chooses the wrong man and is destined for an eternity of torment because she was lured away with promises of wealth and privilege. The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?