Garry Gillard > music > Joan Baez > songs
Sung by Joan Baez on Joan Baez [first album].
I will twine with my mingles of raven black hair
with the roses so red and the lilies so fair
the myrtle so bright with its emerald hue
and the pale and the leader and eyes look like so blue
I will dance I will sing and my life shall be gay
I will charm every heart in its crown I will sway
I woke from my dream and all idols was clay
and all portions of loving had all flown away
He taught me to love him and promised to love
And cherish me over all others above
My poor heart is wondering no misery can tell
He left me no warning no words of farewell
He taught me to love him and called me his flower
That was blooming to cheer him through life's weary hour
How I long to see him and regret the dark hour
He's gone and neglected his frail wildwood flower
Best known from the Carter Family's 1928 recording. Joan Baez sings the same lyrics as Maybelle Carter.
Wikipedia:
"Wildwood Flower" is a variant of the song "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets", published in 1860 by composer Joseph Philbrick Webster, who wrote the music, with lyrics attributed to Maud Irving. Other versions of the song have evolved, including "The Pale Amaranthus" (collected in Kentucky and North Carolina, reported in 1911), "Raven Black Hair" and "The Pale Wildwood Flower" (collected 1915–1919), and "The Frail Wildwood Flower".
The original Carter Family first recorded "Wildwood Flower" in 1928 on the Victor label. Maybelle Carter leads a rendition of the song on the 1972 album Will the Circle be Unbroken, and frequently performed the song in concert with Johnny Cash and on his The Johnny Cash Show. The Carter version of the song is considered the premier example of "the Carter Scratch", a form of acoustic guitar playing in which the musician (in the case of the Carters, most notably Maybelle herself) plays both the melody and rhythm lines simultaneously.
Woody Guthrie used the tune of "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets" for the verses of his song "The Sinking of the Reuben James", although he added a chorus to the song.
The original poem (if any) from which the lyrics derived has been lost. Other poems attributed to the reputed author of the lyrics, Maud Irving, may be found in periodicals of the time, including Godey's Lady's Book and Home Monthly. Several of the poems in the latter periodical carry bylines indicating that the Maud Irving of those poems was a pseudonym for poet and spiritualist J. William Van Namee.
Wikipedia entry (as above)
Wikipedia:Talk page, with information about the flowers in the first stanza
Wildwood Flower versions - my file
Garry Gillard | New: 18 July, 2021 | Now: 19 July, 2021