> Folk Music > Songs > My Apron Now
My Apron Now
[ Roud 8700 ; trad.]
Apron Deary is a song about a seduced girl lamenting her pregnancy. It was printed in David Herd's 1776 book Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc., Second Volume.
Ewan MacColl sang My Apron Now in 1964 on his and Peggy Seeger's Folkways album Traditional Songs and Ballads. The album's booklet noted:
Captain Frazer in his Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles asserts that My Apron Now is a Lowland remake of a Gaelic song N't aparan goired—short apron. Allan Ramsay in the first volume of his Tea-Table Miscellany has a song beginning “Ah Chloe! thou treasure” which he directs to be sung to the tune of My Apron Deary; so the air must have been well known at that time. The earliest published version is in the Orpheus Caledonius, 1725.
Sophie Crawford sang My Apron Now on her 2018 album Silver Pin. She noted:
I heard a version of this sung by Ewan MacColl. I presume it is Scottish.
Lyrics
Apron Deary in Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs | Sophie Crawford sings My Apron Now |
---|---|
'Twas early in the morning, a morning of May, |
As I was a-walking one morning in May, |
Chorus (after each verse): |
Chorus (after each verse): |
O had I ta'en counsel o' father or mother, |
O had I ta'en counsel from father or mother, |
Your apron, deary, I must confess, |
Your apron, deary, I must confess, |
Last chorus: |
Last chorus: |
(repeat first verse) |