> Folk Music > Songs > After the Ball (Dismantled Bride)

After the Ball (Dismantled Bride)

[ Roud 4859 ; Ballad Index SRW169 ; MusTrad DB05 ; DT UNFORTU6 ; Mudcat 14366 ; trad.]

Emma Vickers from Burscough, Lancashire, sang After the Ball to Fred Hamer in August 1963. This recording was included in 1989 on the VWML cassette of Fred Hamer’s field recordings, The Leaves of Life.

Jon Boden sang After the Ball as the 6 June 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He commented in the blog:

I heard this off an old EFDSS cassette (same one I got I’d Like to Tell to You from). It’s another nice bit of folk surrealism.

Lyrics

Jon Boden sings After the Ball

After the ball was over
Suzie took out her glass eye,
Stood her false leg in the corner,
Corked up her bottle of dye.
Put her false teeth in the tumbler;
Stripped off her false nails and all.
And all that was left went to bye-bye,
After the ball.