> Folk Music > Songs > Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can

[ Roud 1028 ; Master title: Catch Me If You Can ; Ballad Index ReCi020 ; VWML HAM/2/2/15 , HAM/4/23/24 , HAM/5/33/46 ; Wiltshire 750 ; trad.]

Frank Purslow: The Wanton Seed James Reeves: The Everlasting Circle

Queen Caroline Hughes sang a fragment of Catch Me If You Can to Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker in between 1963 and 1966. This recording was included in 20154 on her Musical Traditions anthology Sheep-Crook and Black Dog. Rod Stradling noted:

Although the lovely Legg Family version is extremely well-known in the Revival, this song was not found much in the oral tradition. Roud has but 12 entries, with only two recordings: the Sophie Legg one, and another Gypsy singer, Eddie Penfold from Sussex.

Sophie Legg sang Catch Me If You Can in a recording made by Pete Coe in 1978. This was included in 2003 as the title track on the Orchard Family’s Backshift/Veteran album Catch Me If You Can, and Viv Legg sang it in 2017 on her and Thomas McCarthy’s album Jauling the Green Tober. Mike Yates noted on the first album:

In the ballad The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter (Child 110) a knight rapes a girl in a field. She then asks him his name and he replies with a pseudonym. The knight then makes off, pursued by the girl who manages to confront him again, this time in front of the King. The knight confesses what he has done and is ordered by the King to marry the girl, apparently to her delight! Catch Me if You Can tells more or less the same story, except that the young man makes off before the girl can establish his true identity. Again, it is a song that has remained popular with west-country Gypsies, including Eddie Penfold, a singer who had moved to Sussex when I met him in the 1970’s.

Bill Price sang Catch Me If You Can in 1978 on his Autogram album I Sing As I Please. He noted:

I learned this song from Vic Ellis from Leeds.

Chris Coe sang Catch Me If You Can in 1979 on her and Pete Coe’s Highway album Game of All Fours, and they sang it in 2004 on Pete Coe’s album In Paper Houses. Pete Coe also sang Catch Me If You Can during the Fife Traditional Singing Festival, Collessie, Fife in May 2007. This recording was included in the following year on the festival anthology Nick-Knack on the Waa (Old Songs & Bothy Ballads Volume 4). Pete noted on the second album:

I collected this splendid song from Sophie Legg of Bodmin in 1978. Sophie and her sisters, Betsy and Charlotte Renals, were Cornish Travellers with a wealth of songs between them and my recordings of their singing can be found on the CD Catch Me If You Can—a joint release on [the] Backshift and Veteran labels.

Nick Dow recorded Catch Me If You Can for the BBC in 1989. This was included in 2020 on his Old House album Then As Now where he noted:

The Trees They Grow So High, The Broomfield Hill and Catch Me If You Can were all recorded for a radio documentary called “Marina”. This was the life story of Marina Russell of Upwey, Dorset, one of Hammond’s most prolific singers. The documentary was quite successful and was entered for a Sony award. (It did not win one though.) The songs are all in Mrs. Russell’s repertoire. The research and recording of the documentary was all done the hard way, before the option of the internet and digital recording, on miles of analogue tape. It later transpired there were several shortcomings in the research, and the record was put straight in the book Southern Harvest and also the magazine “Living Tradition”

Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman sang Catch Me If You Can in 2002 on their Old and New Tradition album Away From It All. They noted:

We learned this song from our friend Vic Legg of Bodmin who got it from his mother Sophie, of a Cornish Travellers family. Pete and Chris Coe collected Sophie’s songs in the 1970’s and Veteran have a CD of Sophie and her sister Charlotte on their label, which is titles after this track.

Mary Humphreys and Anahata sang The Cuckoo and the Nightingale in 2006 on their WildGoose album Fenlandia. They noted:

This is a version of Catch Me If You Can (Roud 1028), though the tune is quite different in style from that collected by Pete Coe from Sophie Legg of Cornwall, and the version collected by D. Hammond from Mrs  Russell, Upwey, Dorset, in 1907 [VWML HAM/5/33/46] printed in The Wanton Seed (ed. Purslow). I have used the William Farnham, South Perrot, Dorset, text as collected by Hammond in 1906 [VWML HAM/4/23/24] to augment Charlotte’s fragmentary text. I like the last verse—this is one that didn’t get away!

Rob Williams sang Catch Me If You Can in 2012 on his album of Jane Gulliford’s songs, Outstanding Natural Beauty. Henry and Robert Hammond collected this version in June 1905 from Jane Gulliford (Gulliver) of Combe Florey [VWML HAM/2/2/15] . Henry Hammond noted:

Mrs Gulliver learned this from a niece of Mary Stevens of Creech. Mrs Stevens was very old at the time.

Jackie Oates sang Catch Me If You Can in 2018 on her ECC album The Joy of Living. She noted:

From the singing of Marina Russell of Upwey in Dorset, 1908, and found in the newly reissued book The Wanton Seed. Marina Russell had some very, very fine versions of traditional songs. Whilst I had known of different tunes to this song, this one leapt out at me whilst I was researching some songs to include in a show curated by Bryony Griffith during early 2017.

Lyrics

Queen Caroline Hughes sings Catch Me If You Can

Oh, I pick you flowers, love, and purty too
And I’ll show you what you have never seen.

Oh ‘tis nine long months, now, ‘tis gone and past
Oh nine long months is this poor child was born.

Well I’ll catch the young man all if I can
Yes, and he shall pay, love, for my bastard.

Sophie Legg sings Catch Me If You Can

It was early, early all in the spring,
Down in those meadows growing green;
A fair young lady I chanced to see,
And I ask if she would walk with me.

I ask her if she would walk with me,
Down in those meadows oh so green;
I’d show her flowers and pretty things,
And I’d show her what she had never seen.

As that young couple went strolling along
He sang to her some sweet, pretty songs;
He sang to her some sweet, pretty songs,
And soon he gained her favour.

Now since you had your will of me,
And stolen away my sweet liberty;
You have stolen away my sweet liberty,
Will you please tell me your name, sir.

My name is catch me that’s if you can,
I’ll marry you when I return;
I’ll marry you when I return,
I’m going across the wide ocean.

Now three long months they had gone and passed,
And six long months he never returned;
Nine long months it had come at last,
And the child has got no father.

Now I’ll search this wide world around and round,
And I’ll find that young man if I can;
I’ll find that young man if I can,
If I catch him at his pleasure.

Bill Price sings Catch Me If You Can

Chorus (after each verse):
My name is Catch-me-if-you-can
I’ll marry you when I return,
I’ll marry you when I return
For I’m bound to cross the ocean.

As I roved out one May morning,
It was there I met with a Fairy Queen,
It was there I met with a Fairy Queen,
She was taking of the air-o.

I said, “ fair maid will you come with me,
I’ll show you round the country,
I’ll show you plants, I’ll show you flowers,
I’ll show you things you’ve never seen.”

So this young couple they walked along,
And this young man he sang his song,
And this young man he sang his song
Thinking to gain her favour.

“Since you have gained your will of me,
You’ve robbed me of my liberty,
You’ve robbed me of my liberty,
Pray grant to me your name, Sir.”

They sent six men all on horseback
For to fetch this false young soldier back,
For to fetch this false young soldier back,
But the search was all in vain you know.

When nine long months had gone and past,
This fair young maid had a child at last,
This fair young maid had a child at last,
But the baby had no father.

Rob William sings Catch Me If You Can

I was walking out one May morning,
There I beheld a fairy queen,
There I beheld a fairy queen,
She was taking of the air, oh!

I said “My dear, will you go with me?
I will show you round the counteree,
I will show you the plants, I will show you the flowers,
I will show you things you never have seen.”

Then this young couple they walked along,
And this young man he sang a song,
And this young man he sang a song,
Thinking to gain a favour.

“Since you have gained your will of me,
And stole away my liberty,
And stole away my liberty,
Pray, grant to me your name, sir.”

“Oh! My name is Catch-me-if-you-can,
I’ll marry you when I return,
I’ll marry you when I return,
For I’m bound across the ocean wide.”

They sent six men all on horseback,
For to fetch this false young soldier back,
For to fetch this false young soldier back,
But the search was all in vain you know.

For his name was Catch-me-if-you-can,
He’ll marry you when he return,
He’ll marry you when he return,
For he’s bound to cross the ocean wide

When nine long months was over and past,
This poor young girl had a child at last,
This poor young girl had a child at last,
But the child it had no father.

For his name was Catch-me-if-you-can,
He’ll marry you when he return,
He’ll marry you when he return,
For he’s bound to cross the ocean wide.