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Originally, B2 from Shearwater
UK 1972
PEG ‎– PEG 12

More information about the release and how to get new copies: https://carthyonline.wordpress.com/discography/1972-shearwater/

More about the song's history: https://mainlynorfolk.info/joseph.taylor/songs/boldwilliamtaylor.html

Picture: Sumiko Kiyooka, from the photobook Natsuko And Silvia, 1970.

Lyrics:

I'll sing you a song of two young lovers,
Oh from Lichfield town they came.
Oh the young man's name was William Taylor,
Sarah Gray was the maiden's name.

William Taylor he has enlisted,
For a soldier he has gone.
And he's gone and he's left his own true lover
For to sigh and for to moan.

Sally's parents they abused her,
Filled her heart with much grief and woe;
And for to seek young William Taylor
For a soldier she would go.

She dressed herself in man's apparel,
Man's apparel she's put on;
And for to seek young William Taylor
For a soldier she has gone.

One day as she was exercising,
Exercising one, two, three, all with the rest,
Oh a silver chain fell down from her waistcoat
And exposed her lily-white breast.

The sergeant he stepped up to her,
He asked her, “Young lady, what brings you here?”
“Oh I've come in search of William Taylor
Who was pressed from me last year.”

“Oh if you come in search of William Taylor,
William Taylor he's not here;
For I do hear that he's to be married
To some lovely lady fair.”

“And if you rise early in the morning,
Early at the break of day,
Oh it's there you'll see your William Taylor
Walking out with the ladies gay.”

So she rose early in the morning,
Early at the break of the very next day;
And it's there she's seen her William Taylor
Walking out with the ladies gay.

She has called for a brace of pistols,
A brace of pistols was brought all there to her hand;
And she's shot William Taylor
With his bride at his right hand.

#MurderBallad #Folk #MartinCarthy

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