> Folk Music > Songs > Before the Daylight in the Morning

Before the Daylight in the Morning

[ Roud 5714 ; Ballad Index RcBTDITM ; Mudcat 40720 ; trad.]

Sam Larner sang Before Daylight in the Morning in a recording made by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker in 1958-60. It was included in 2014 on his Musical Traditions anthology Cruising Round Yarmouth. Rod Stradling noted:

Sam Larner: He used to sing that … old man, old Larpin Smith …

We think that Sam mis-spoke here, and should have said Larpin Sutton; we can’t imagine there were two ‘Larpins’ in the area, and remember that he was of a considerable age when recorded. Chris Holderness doesn’t know of anyone called Smith who sang locally, and so believes it was simply a mistake.

And the song is a strange one, too—never before found in the UK—Roud has just two entries, one from the US and one from Canada.

Sara Cleveland of Brant Lake, New York, sang Before the Daylight in the Morning to Sandy Paton in 1965. This recording was included in 1968 on her Folk-Legacy album Ballads & Songs of the Upper Hudson Valley. Kenneth S. Goldstein noted:

Though there are numerous complaints-in-song directed by men against the fairer sex, rarely is the complaint about her slovenly habits as protracted as in this piece. Usually the complaints are the rationalisations of bachelor types concerning their single status; the married man is less brave in protesting and when he does it is usually to complain about the manner in which he has been physically manhandled by his spouse, or to cry about his mother-in-law.

The ‘dirty wife’ theme, best exemplified in this lyric complaint, is little known in America. The only previous report of this particular piece, and then only in jumbled and fragmentary form has been from the lower Labrador coast where MacEdward Leach collected it under the title Dirty Nell in 1960. Though the song was known by both her parents, Sara reports having learned it from her father’s singing. She believes he sang it to tease her mother.

Lyrics

Sam Larner sings Before Daylight in the Morning

… I wish I got killed on the banks of the Nile
Just before the daylight in the morning.

Now, when I come home from work, it make me so wild,
There’s a mound of blue stockings or a nasty young child,
I wish I got killed on the banks of the Nile
Just before the daylight in the morning.

Now, she’d a beard on her lip, like a wandering Jew,
Not a tooth in her head that was round, all but two,
A smock she had on was neither black, white nor blue,
For it had never been wet with the washing.

Now, to kindle a fire, it is my first job.
And (if I fail) to do it i get a smack on the gob.
A hit, or a kick, or a smack on the gob,
I surely would get from my darling.

Sara Cleveland sings Before the Daylight in the Morning

Full eighteen pound pension I have in a year,
Which causes my wife to drink whisky and beer.
Her tongue like a cannon doth sound in my ear
Before the daylight in the morning.

Her praises and beauty I mean to expose;
She’s dirty and filthy with her old snuffy nose.
She’s a shame to all women wherever she goes,
With her clothes all in tatters a-hanging.

Not a shoe or a stocking I have to my feet;
My bed is without wither blanket or sheet.
I’m ashamed of myself when I walk on the street.
Pray, what do you think of my darling?

My shirt without washing it sticks to my back,
While Nell is out sporting with Paddy or Jack,
Or running in score for every knick-knack
While I must pay out my last farthing.

Not a tooth in her head with which she can chew;
God pity the poor man who’s married a shrew.
Not a shift to her back, wither white, black, or blue,
That ever was hit with the water.

Her hair without combing is matted and rough;
Her skin is like leather, all crusted and tough.
And I’m getting tired; I’ve sure had enough.
O why did I wed such a darling?

And then when her cronies they come in for tay,
While I in the corner have nothing to say.
Or out in the garden a-digging away,
While Nell in her cups is a-storming.

When in for the leavings I happen to pop,
While Nell and her gossips are gone to the shop,
Back-biting their neighbours and swallowing their drops,
And I must pay out my last farthing.

To finish my ditty, I fervently pray,
Before she can ever drink whisky or tay,
That God or the devil will whip her away
Before the daylight in the morning.