Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan-songbook

A Collection of 200+ traditional songs & variations with commentaries including Lyrics & Sheet music

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	460         Ballads and Songs of Michigan 190 THE DARBY RAM This "lying-song" is widely distributed in the British Isles and America. For English and American references see a note by G. L. Kittredge, p. 173 of the article by Hudson, "Notes on a Lying-Song," JAFL, XXXIX. Phillips Barry, "Some Traditional Songs," JAFL, XVIII, 51-54, mentions the tradition that George Washington sang this song to the children of Chief Justice Ellsworth (see Michigan B). Ford (First Series, 1899), p. 125, suggests that the song was composed in the time of the feudal laws by a prisoner who had been con­demned to death and who was promised a pardon should he compose a song without a grain of truth in it For other texts see Joanna Colcord, Roll and Go (Indianapolis, 1924), pp. 68-69, Eddy, No. 69; Flanders and Brown, pp. 100-101; Fuson, p. 58; Henry, JAFL, XLV, 44-46; Sharp, II, 184-187; and Truitt, JAFL, XXXVI, 377. Version A was sung in 1934 by Mrs. Charles Muchler, Kalkaska. Idf.T ? IT f J * ' J J J "Jl There was           a          ram          in           Dar - by town, Most if. r r J j |J » J' r r J ''
	fol. lol, link - turn, Di - de fol, lol, link - tarn day. A 1 There was a ram in Darby town, Most wondrous to behold; If he is worth a cent, they say, He is worth a ton of gold. Chorus Tommy fol, lol, linktum, Di-de fol, lol, linktum day.
	2 This ram he had wool on his back That reached up to the sky;