> Folk Music > Songs > I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue

I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue / My Young Man

[ Roud 8212 ; Ballad Index Pea060 ; DT BONETBLU ; Mudcat 26592 ; trad.]

Dáibhí Ó Cróinín: The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin

I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue is a children’s singing game and a tune that, played as a polka, has been popular in Scotland, Ireland and England; it also turns up as an Old Time tune in America. In Ireland it is also known as Tá Boinéad Agam.

Elizabeth Cronin sang I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue to Jean Ritchie and George Pickow in Macroom, Co. Cork on 24 November 1952. This recording was included in 2000 on the second CD accompanying her son Dáibhí Ó Cróinín’s book The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin.

Jean Ritchie sang Open the Window in 1968 on her Ash/Folkways album Marching Across the Green Grass and Other American Children Game Songs. She noted:

I heard the first verse of this song from a lovely Irish grandmother, Mrs. Elisabeth Cronin, who lived in County Cork, near Macroom. She called it “a dandling song”, meaning a bit of nonsense sung to a baby being dandled on the knee. When I took the song home, we added verses and made the “open the window” part the chorus, and if we felt like it, the boys and girls could divide up on the verses. It’s a good performance song, too; if any child likes to blow a whistle, or beat a drum, or anything else special, he can play a solo (or they can all play together) after each chorus, where the song says: “Open the window, do, Love, do, Listen to the music playing for you.”

Bernard O’Sullivan and Tommy McMahon played the polkas I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue and The Rakes of Mallow in a 1974 recording made by Neil Wayne that was released in 1976 on their Topic/Free Reed album Irish Traditional Music of County Clare. Neil Wayne noted:

The polka is an interesting example of a folk dance becoming stylised as a ballroom dance in the cities and then becoming refolklorized in rather different form on its return to country tradition. The polka began as a Czech folk dance. It entered the ballrooms and salons of Prague about 1835, and by 1840 it was established in fashionable Vienna and Paris. From London and Dublin it spread in the Irish countryside in the 1860s. Our two examples belong to a type of tune that was especially designed to provide a well-marked fast tempo for noisy lively dancers in a crowded kitchen or hall. These are excellently constructed tunes of enduring quality that have stood the test of years and here the two musicians do them full justice and exemplify the unique quality of these old favourites.

Alison McMorland sang I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue in 1977 on her Big Ben album of songs, rhymes and games for children, The Funny Family. She noted:

What a sweet song this is and one which is also good for clapping to, which is what it was used for. Clap in time to the rhyme with a partner in this order: clap your hands—clap right hands—clap your own hands—clap left hands—clap your own hands—and clap both hands together. Repeat this sequence.

The Oyster Band sang My Young Man in 1983 on their Pukka album Lie Back and Think of England. They noted:

My Young Man was originally a children’s song; John [Jones] heard Alison McMorland singing it one day and and found he had memorised it on the spot.

Bursledon Village Band played the 32 bar polka I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue in 1997 on their WildGoose album of traditional dance tunes, The South Wind. Dave Ingledew noted:

This is a gloriously Polkary tune. I first heard it recorded by the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, they called it the Liberton Pipe Band, maybe after a dance of that name. It’s got a very odd length, which makes it unsuitable for most country dances. We use it as a polka out tune at the end of an evening. For Melodeon players who want to try and learn it by ear. It starts in the key of D then goes to A, back to D then to G for 32 bars before returning to D at the beginning. We found this version in a book of Scottish Ceilidh tunes.

Bob Davenport and The Rakes played I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue in 1997 on their Fellside album The Red Haired Lad.

The Lark Rise Band played I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue in 2008 on their Talking Elephant album Lark Rise Revisited.

Lyrics

Elizabeth Cronin sings I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue

I have a bonnet trimmed with blue;
Why don’t you wear it? So I do,
I have a bonnet trimmed with blue;
Why don’t you wear it? So I do.

I will wear it where I can,
When I go away with my fair-haired man.
I will wear it where I can,
When I go away with my fair-haired man.

Open the window, do, love, do!
Listen to the music playing for you!
Open the window, do, love, do!
Listen to the music playing for you!

Jean Ritchie sings Open the Window

I have a bonnet trimmed in blue.
Why don’t you wear it? So I do.
I have a bonnet trimmed in blue.
Why don’t you wear it? So I do.

Chorus:
Open the window, do love do,
Listen to the music playing for you!
Open the window, do love do,
Listen to the music playing for you!

I have a jacket trimmed in brown,
I’ll put it on when the sun goes down.
I have a jacket trimmed in brown,
I’ll put it on when the sun goes down.

I have a dress all trimmed in green,
Prettiest thing you’ve ever seen.
I have a dress all trimmed in green,
Prettiest thing you’ve ever seen.

I have a tall hat trimmed in red,
Madam, would you like to wed?
I have a tall hat trimmed in red,
Madam, would you like to wed?

I have shoes all trimmed in white,
I’ll get married on Saturday night.
I have shoes all trimmed in white,
I’ll get married on Saturday night.

I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue in Iona & Pete Opie: The Singing Game

“I have a bonnet trimmed with blue.”
“Why don’t you wear it?” “So I do.”
“When do you wear it?” “When I can –
When I go out with my young man.

“My young man’s away at sea,
When he comes back he’ll marry me;
Buy me a biscuit, buy a tart,
What do you think of my sweetheart?”