Henry's Songbook

Chorus:
And they kissed so sweet and comforting as they clung to each other
They went arming along the road like sister and brother
They went arming along the road till they came to a stream
Then they both sat down together, love, to hear the nightingale sing

One morning, one morning, one morning in May
I spied a young couple a-making their way
One was a maiden so tender and fair
And the other was a soldier and a brave volunteer

They hadn't been sitting a moment or two
When out of his knapsack a fiddle he drew
And the tune that he played made the valleys all ring
Was sweeter than the music when the nightingale sing

The maid said, O soldier, will you marry me
Oh no, my dear lady, that never can be
I've a wife of my own in the north country
And she is the sweetest, fairest thing as you ever did see

I'll go back to London and stay there a year
Drinking wine and strong whisky instead of strong beer
And if ever he returns it will be in the spring
And they'll both sit down together for to hear the nightingale sing

(as sung by The Spinners)

[1964:] Another song that seems to come in all sizes and shapes. The Campbells were one of the first groups to adapt songs of this type to group treatment. (Notes 'Presenting The Ian Campbell Folk Group')

[1972:] [Called,] Bold Grenadier, or One Morning In May, or The Soldier and the Lady. The titles are many, the story stays pretty well the same. The great thing in this version is really the chorus. (Notes The Spinners, 'Love Is Teasing')

[1973:] In another song about an amorous musician, he pulls out a flute and plays her a pretty tune upon the banks of the roses - and the phallic symbolism wasn't lost on the folklorists, always happy when they recognise a symbol. (Dallas, Wars 70)

[1979:] An English song, although also widely recorded in Ireland, also known as The Bold Grenadier, from a broadsheet. (Loesberg II, 66)

See also http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=3646