Susannes Folksong-Notizen
[1967:] We have suggested the majority of English songs tell a story or at least purport to. But there are also songs that are simply expressions of mood and nothing more. They are not numerous but they are confusing in their variety because they make use of a stock of symbolic or epigrammatic verses that are combined and re-combined in song after song, so that often it is hard to tell one piece from another. This stock of common-place lyrical 'floaters' [...] is relatively restricted, comprising perhaps not many more than fifty tropes in all [...]. The verses are usually concerned with love, especially love betrayed or denied, and a repertory of such verses provides a handy kit for making countless songs almost at will. [...] Fluid as the use of these floating stanzas may be, sets of them sometimes show signs of crystallizing into specific songs [e.g. Love Is Teasing]. [...] Few of these floationg lyrics are datable. They are the product of some sentimental flowering of the spirit, but whether they were all produced at the same period or represent the accretion of centuries would be hard to say. (Lloyd, England 178ff)
[1972:] [This] has long been a standard in the folk clubs of Britain. The tune is almost certainly of Irish origin, varied over the years, but the words tend to be 'zippers and floaters', found in a multitude of other settings. (Notes Spinners, 'Love Is Teasing')
[1974:] This was the first song I ever heard the Dubliners sing back in 1959. (Notes Noel Murphy, 'Murf')
[1977:] Probably started out in the south of England but by now is a hybrid. (Notes Jean Redpath, 'Ballad Folk')
[1982:] [For instance, refrain and verse 1 of the Alex Campbell version are] typical floating verses. These are verses that occur in a number of songs without any apparent connection with the story. Old-time audiences tended to like a song with plenty of verses, partly because it gave them a better opportunity to learn the tune, and floating verses were a useful way of 'padding'. (Pollard, Folksong 31f)
Love is pleasing, collected in the West Country and well known in Scotland, has some verses in common with Waly waly, of which two versions exist. It is possible that all these variants spring from one original ballad which has not been identified. (Pollard, Folksong 37)
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