Annotation:Fisher Lad

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FISHER LAD. English, Air and Reel. England, Northumberland. D Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune is given with two sharps in William Vickers' 1770 Northumbrian music manuscript collection [1], which makes little musical sense. The correct key of 'D' minor is given at the beginning of the tune in Northumbrian musician John Bell's [2] (1783-1864) music manuscript collection (c.1812). The title ("Fisher Lad") appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes, which he published c. 1800. The lyric, as it appears in Bells manuscript, goes:

On Bamboroughshire's rocky shore,
Just as you enter Bowmer Raw,
There lives the Bonny fisher lad,
The fisher that bangs them a'.

Chorus:
O the bonny fisher lad,
That brings the fishes fra' the sea;
O the bonny fisher lad,
The fisher lad got had of me.

My mother sent me out one day,
To gather cockles fra' the sea;
But I had not been long away,
When the fisher lad got had of me.

Chorus

A sailor I will never marry,
Nor soldier, for he's got no brass;
But I will have a fhisher lad,
Because I am a fisher's lass.

Source for notated version: William Vickers' music manuscript collection (Norhumberland, 1770)

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