> Folk Music > Songs > Don’t Go Out Tonight, My Darling

Don’t Go Out Tonight, My Darling

[ Roud 3521 ; Ballad Index R339 ; trad.]

Max Hunter collected Don’t Go Out Tonight, My Darling from Ollie Gilbert of Mountain View, Arkansas, on 7 October 1969. Rachel Newton sang this version in 2016 on her CD Here’s My Heart Come Take It.

Lyrics

Rachel Newton sings Don’t Go Out Tonight, My Darling

Don’t go out tonight, my darling,
Please don’t leave me here alone.
Stay at home with me, my darling,
I’m so lonesome when you’re gone.

Though your wine cup may be tempted
And your friends are full of glee,
I will try my best to cheer you;
Darlin’, won’t you stay with me?

O dear Lord, he’s gone and left me
With a curse upon his lips.
No one knows how I have suffered
From that awful cup he drinks.

I can hear his heavy footsteps
And the rap upon the door.
They have brought home my darling,
There he is upon the floor.

O, how can I ever wake him,
All he cares is rum, rum, rum.
All my fondest hopes I cherished
They have faded one by one.