Butcher Boy

Album: various (1895)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Also known as "The Butcher's Boy" and "The Butcher Boy," this traditional English folk song is rather morbid: A young girl falls in love with the son of a butcher, who breaks her heart. Despondent, she kills herself, leaving a note asking that she be buried with a turtle dove so the world will know that she died for love.
  • The song has taken many forms over the years, sometimes told from the perspective of a man in a tavern. Alternate titles include "The Fatal Courtship," "In London City Where I Did Dwell" and Go Dig My Grave. It has also been altered to "The Railroad Boy," which is how Joan Baez performed it. She and Bob Dylan played this variation on the 1976 Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
  • Buell Kazee, a minister from Kentucky with in interest in Appalachian folk songs, recorded this in 1928, bringing the song to a wider audience.
  • Artists to record this song include Tommy Makem, Peggy Seeger, Kirsty MacColl and Dave Van Ronk. It has been done in the stylings of country (Roscoe Holcomb, The Blue Sky Boys), bluegrass (Dan Crary, The Lilly Brothers), and even polka (Frankie Yankovic).
  • Elvis Costello often performed this song in the '00s when dobro player Jerry Douglas was part of his band. In 2017, Douglas released his own version on his album What If.
  • The 1997 film The Butcher Boy features a version by Sinéad O'Connor on the soundtrack. She makes a brief appearance in the movie.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Kristian Bush of Sugarland

Kristian Bush of SugarlandSongwriter Interviews

Kristian talks songwriting technique, like how the chorus should redefine the story, and how to write a song backwards.

Christmas Songs

Christmas SongsFact or Fiction

Rudolf, Bob Dylan and the Singing Dogs all show up in this Fact or Fiction for seasonal favorites.

Alan Merrill of The Arrows

Alan Merrill of The ArrowsSongwriter Interviews

In her days with The Runaways, Joan Jett saw The Arrows perform "I Love Rock And Roll," which Alan Merrill co-wrote - that story and much more from this glam rock pioneer.

Gary Numan

Gary NumanSongwriter Interviews

An Electronic music pioneer with Asperger's Syndrome. This could be interesting.

The Fratellis

The FratellisSongwriter Interviews

Jon Fratelli talks about the band's third album, and the five-year break leading up to it.

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")Song Writing

Wes Edwards takes us behind the scenes of videos he shot for Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley and Chase Bryant. The train was real - the airplane was not.