Tommy Makem

Butcher Boy

Tommy Makem


Tom: C

          G7               C
In London city where I did dwell
          G7                 C
A butcher boy, I loved right well
           Am            Dm
He courted me, my life away
             G7              C
But now with me, he will not stay

[Chorus]
          G7              C
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
         G7           C
I wish I was a maid again
       Am                 Dm
A maid again I ne'er will be
               G7             C
'Till cherries grow on an ivy tree

          G7          C
I wish my baby it was born
            G7             C
And smiling on its daddy's knee
            Am                  Dm
And me poor girl to be dead and gone
                    G7                 C
With the long green grass growing over me

            G7             C
She went upstairs to go to bed
            G7            C
And calling to her mother said
            Am               Dm
"Give me a chair 'till I sit down
              G7                C
And a pen and ink 'till I write down"

         G7                 C
At every word she dropped a tear
             G7                 C
And at every line cried "Willie dear -
           Am               Dm
Oh, what a foolish girl was I
            G7                C
To be led astray by a butcher boy"

          G7                     C
He went upstairs and the door he broke
             G7             C
He found her hanging from a rope
             Am                  Dm
He took his knife and he cut her down
           G7                     C
And in her pocket, these words he found

            G7                    C
Oh, make my grave large, wide and deep
             G7                   C
Put a marble stone at my head and feet
           Am               Dm
And in the middle, a turtle dove
                   G7                    C
That the world may know, that I died for love.