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Yorkshire Couple

[ Roud - ; Jim Mackie]

Kate Rusby sang the cheeky Yorkshire Couple (to the tune of the Female Drummer) unaccompanied in the Andy Kershaw Show on BBC Radio 1, broadcast on 1 December 1997. She also sang it live at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall in September 2002. This concert was published on her DVD Live From Leeds.

Jim Mackie from Pontefract, the song’s author, is in his 70’s and attends the OpenMind Acoustic night at the Grove Inn on Wednesday nights in Leeds. Maybe Kate Rusby learnt the song there? Jim Mackie’s own version of Yorkshire Couple can be found on his 2007 CD Sailing Home.

Jon Boden learnt Yorkshire Couple from Kate’s Andy Kershaw Show and recorded it years later as the 29 August 2010 entry of his A Folk Song a Day project.

Lyrics

Kate Rusby sings Yorkshire Couple

It’s of a Yorkshire couple, this story I’ll relate,
Who waited on retirement with apprehension great.
In their little mill tied cottage said Amos, feeling low,
“We have to leave this place tomorrow, wherever shall we go?
Wherever shall we go, wherever shall we go,
We have to leave this place tomorrow, wherever shall we go?”

Said Martha unto Amos, “Well don’t you fret, old lad,
The thought of your retirement, it ought to make you glad.
Since the minute we were married I’ve saved for a rainy day,
Each time we made love I’ve put half a crown away.
Half a crown away, half a crown away,
Oh, each time we made love I’ve put half a crown away.

“Do you see that row of cottages down by Dog and Gun,
We hadn’t been married but a year before I’d bought first one,
The second two years later, the third it brought me tears,
The fourth it took much longer, all the twenty years.
All the twenty years, all the twenty years,
The fourth one took much longer, all the twenty years.”

Said Amos unto Martha, “Well, you know I love you so,
And now I see the wisdom of reaping what you sow.
But one thing vexes me though, why did you never tell,
If I hadn’t played away, I’d have had Dog and Gun as well.
Dog and Gun as well, Dog and Gun as well,
If I hadn’t played away, I’d have had Dog and Gun as well.”

Said Martha unto Amos, “Well, you know I love you dear,
But when you said you were working late, well I knew where you were.
D’ye remember our old milkman, the one that were such fun,
Well I did the same wi’ him, and I bought him Dog and Gun.
I bought him Dog and Gun, I bought him Dog and Gun,
Oh, well I did the same wi’ him, and I bought him Dog and Gun.”