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I Live Not Where I Love

[ Roud 593 ; Master title: I Live Not Where I Love ; Ballad Index ChWI200 ; VWML HAM/2/9/22 , CJS2/9/1305 ; DT NOTWHERE , NOTWHER2 ; Mudcat 65094 ; trad.]

Frank Purslow: Marrow Bones James Reeves: The Everlasting Circle

I Live Not Where I Love is an Elizabethan madrigal printed in several broadsides in the 19th century. H.E.D. Hammond colleced it in September 1905 from master carter Robert Barratt (1834-1907) of Piddletown, Dorset [VWML HAM/2/9/22] . Frank Purslow printed it in his 1965 EFDSS book Marrow Bones and probably most of the recordings shown here are derived from this version.

Jon Rennard sang I Live Not Where I Love in 1970 on his Traditional Sound album Brimbledon Fair.

Tim Hart and Maddy Prior recorded I Live Not Where I Love in 1971 for their album Summer Solstice. They performed it live for the Steeleye Span BBC radio programme “Peel’s Sunday Concert” on 15 September 1971. This programme was included as a bonus CD on the 2006 reissue of Steeleye Span’s third album, Ten Man Mop or Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again.

Steeleye Span sang this song live on their 1982 Australian tour at the Royal Opera House in Adelaide with Tim Hart, Maddy Prior and Peter Knight singing. This recording was published in the following year on their Australian-only LP On Tour, and reissued in 1999 on the CD A Rare Collection 1972-1996. The latter version includes Maddy’s introduction which didn’t appear on the original On Tour album release.

Lea Nicholson sang I Live Not Where I Love in 1971 on his Trailer album Horsemusic.

Jean Redpath sang I Live Not Where I Love in 1975 on her eponymous album Jean Redpath. She noted:

A lengthy note in The British Broadside Ballad and its Music (Simpson—Rutgers U. Press, 1966, pp. 336-339) discusses the possible relationship of this song to two 17th century sources:

  1. The Constant Lover written by P.L. (Peter Lowberry) and licensed in 1638 (approx.), sung to “a Northerne tune called Share the absence of my Mistresse”.
  2. “A Paire of Turtle Doves: Or, a dainty new Scotch Dialogue between a Yong man and his Mistresse, both correspondent in affection, etc. To a pretty pleasant tune called ‘The Absence of My Mistresse, or I live not where I love’.” This gem was written by Martin Parker and published in 1640. It is hard to tell who borrowed from whom. The language has changed considerably since Elizabethan times—witness the first verse from a Reliquary of English Song:

    Loyal lovers, that are distant
    From your sweethearts many a mile
    Pray come and help me at this instant
    In mirth to spend away the while
    Singing sweetly and completely
    In commendation of my love
    Resolving to part never
    Though I live not where I love

In my own borrowings. Lea Nicholson, Jacqui McDonald and Jon Rennard have all played a part.

Sylvia Rogers sang I Live Not Where I Love in 1975 on the Forest Tracks album Folk Songs From Dorset of songs collected in 1905-07 by the Hammond Brothers. Frank Purslow noted:

Marrow Bones p. 52 from Robert Barrett, Piddletown, September 1905 [VWML HAM/2/9/22] .

A traditional survival of a broadside song entitled The Constant Lover written by P(eter) Howberry} and published about 1638. At about the same time Martin Parker wrote a song called A Paire of Turtle Doves and it is almost certain that the one Song inspired the other, but which came first is now impossible to say: they were both obviously written with the same tune in mind. Claude M. Simpson in The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music discusses the songs and their antecedents in his usual thorough manner. Even he, however, can only put forward a tune printed in 1662 as the possible vehicle for the texts. This tune is nevertheless interesting as it contains several musical phrases which appear in Barrett’s tune, and my own assumption is that the tune printed by Simpson is the correct tune, but that traditional use has reshuffled the phrases and made an altogether better tune of It. Another possibility is that, as Barrett’s tune and the printed tune can be harmonised almost identically (but not quite), the traditional tune has somehow resulted from a harmonisation of the printed tune. William Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time, 1855/9) prints a then current “West Country tune” with a “thoroughly Somersetshire ending” which is a close variant of Barrett’s tune; he also recounts how the famous early 19th century critic, William Hazlitt, used to entertain his friends with a West Country version of the song, the text of which he gives, and which is almost identical with Barrett’s of a century later.

Derek Sarjeant and Hazel King sang I Live Not Where I Love on their 1976 album Hills & Dales.

Mary Black sang I Live Not Where I Love on her 1984 album Collected.

Tim Laycock sang I Live Not Where I Love in 1984 on his Dingle’s album Giant at Cerne. He noted:

[…] Upstream from Tolpuddle is Puddledown, formerly the home of Robert Barratt, who sang some fine songs for the Hammond Brothers, including I Live Not Where I Love [VWML HAM/2/9/22] , which first appeared on broadsheets just before the start of the English Civil War.

Richard Digance played the tune I Live Not Where I Love on guitar in 1985 on Buttons & Bows Volume 2: A Further Celebration of British Tunes.

Seannachie sang Though I Live Not Where I Love on their 1986 album Within the Fire.

Strawhead sang I Live Not Where I Love in 1987 on their album of songs of the English Civil War, Law Lies Bleeding. Their words are from an original in the Roxburghe Ballads and their tune is from Chappell’s Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859).

Ship of Fools (John Renbourn, Maggie Boyle, Steve Tilston and Tony Roberts) recorded I Live Not Where I Love in 1988 for their eponymous Run River album John Renbourn’s Ship of Fools. This YouTube video shows them at the Thekla, Bristol on 20 September 1989:

Linda Thompson sang I Live Not Where I Love in 1987 on Simon Nicol’s album Before Your Time; this track was included in 1996 on her anthology Dreams Fly Away: A History of Linda Thompson.

Vocal trio Artisan (Brian and Jacey Bedford and Hilary Spencer) sang Though I Live Not Where I Love on their 1989 album Driving Home.

Cherrington & Ward sang I Live Not Where I Love on their 1989 Brewhouse album Hand of Fate; this recording was included in 2018 on the Fellside anthology Destination: Fellside Recordings 1976-2018.

Chris Robson sang Though I Live Not Where I Love at a concert at the Hardy Hall, Dorchester, that was released in 1990 on Nick Dow’s CD An Evening of Traditional Songs From Dorset.

Jo Freya sang Though I Live Not Where I Love in 1992 on her Saydisc album Traditional Songs of England. The liner notes commented:

This beautiful song is unusual in that it is effectively a pure love song rather than a lament. Our version is a composite of a number of variants collected in the south of England and a printed broadside.

Jane Threlfall and Carl Hogsden sang Though I Live Not Where I Love on their 1995 CD Who?.

Kitty Vernon sang I Live Not Where I Love (You Soldiers All) in 1998 on her and Mick Pearce’s WildGoose CD Dark the Day. She noted:

This version of I Live Not Where I Love was given to us by an Irish traditional singer who had got it from her sister in Ireland, who had learned it locally, believing it to be a different traditional version from the one more commonly heard. Only later did we find out it was actually Strawhead’s Gregg Butler’s reworking of the song for a Civil War set. The song provided us with the album title, although ironic to tell, the actual line did not appear in Gregg’s original! Such is the folk process.

The New Scorpion Band sang I Live Not Where I Love in 2004 on their CD The Downfall of Pears. They noted:

Collected by the Hammond Brothers from Mr Robert Barratt at Puddletown in Dorset in 1905 [VWML HAM/2/9/22] , and also by Cecil Sharp from Mr Robert Parish at Exford in Somerset [VWML CJS2/9/1305, CJS2/10/1420] . The song seems to be related to, and perhaps directly descended from, Thomas Morley’s With My Love My Life Was Nestled, published in his First Book of Ayres of 1600.

Jon Boden sang I Live Not Where I Love as the 16 August 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Nancy Wallace sang I Live Not Where I Love on the anthology Folk Awards 2010.

Mark Block sang I Live Not Where I Love on his 2014 CD The Hawthorn Spring. He noted:

There are lots of recordings of this song, which I first heard sung by the vocal harmony trio Artisan, and the world doesn’t really need another one, but here’s mine anyway. I hope you like it.

George Sansome and Matt Quinn sang I Live Not Where I Love in 2023 on their duo album Sheffield Park. George Sansome noted:

This is one of those songs I feel I’ve known for as long as I’ve been into folk music but have never sung—until now. Based on the song as sung by Robert Barratt (1834-1907) of Piddletown, Dorset, to Henry Hammond in 1905 [VWML HAM/2/9/22] .

Lyrics

Tim Hart & Maddy Prior sing I Live Not Where I Love

Come all ye maids that live at a distance,
Many miles from off your swain,
Come and assist me this very moment
For to pass away some time.
Singing sweetly and completely
Songs of pleasure and of love,
For my heart is with him all together
Though I live not where I love.

When I sleep I dream about you,
When I wake I find no rest,
For every moment thinking of you
My heart e’er fixed in your breast.
Although far distance may be assistance
From my mind his love to remove,
Yet my heart is with him all together
Though I live not where I love.

All the world shall be one religion,
Living things shall cease to die,
Before that I prove false to my jewel
Or any way my love deny.
The world shall change and be most strange
If ever I my mind remove,
For my heart is with him all together
Though I live not where I love.

So farewell lads and farewell lasses,
Now I think I’ve got my choice.
I will away to yonder mountain
Where I think I hear his voice.
And if he calls then I will follow
Through the world though it is so wide,
For my heart is with him all together
Though I live not where I love.

(repeat first verse)

Jean Redpath sings I Live Not Where I Love

Come all ye maids who live at a distance,
Many a mile from off your love;
Come and assist me this very moment
For to pass away some time.
Singing sweetly and completely
Songs of pleasure and of love,
My heart is with you all together
Though I live not where I love.

When I sleep I dream about you,
When I wake I find no rest,
Every moment thinking of you,
My heart fixed within your breast.
Though great distance may prove assistance
From my mind your love to remove,
My heart is with you all together
Though I live not where I love.

All the world should be one religion,
All living things should cease to die.
If ever I prove false to my jewel
Any way my love deny,
The world would change and be most strange
If ever I inconstant prove.
My heart is with you all together
Though I live not where I love.

So farewell lads and farewell lasses,
Now I think I’ve got my choice.
I’ll away to yonder island
Where I think I hear your voice.
If you call then I will follow,
Though the ocean be so wide;
My heart is with you all together
Though I live not where I love.

Maggie Boyle sings I Live Not Where I Love

Come all you maids who live at a distance,
Many miles from off your swain,
Come and assist me this very moment
For to pass away some time,
Singing sweetly and completely
Songs of pleasure and of love,
For my heart is with him all together
Though I live not where I love.

All the world shall be one religion,
Living things shall cease to die
Before that I prove false to my jewel
Or any way my love deny.
The world shall change and be most strange
If ever I my mind remove,
For my heart is with him all together
Though I live not where I love.

So farewell lads and farewell lasses,
Now I think I’ve got my choice.
I will away to yonder mountains
Where I think I hear his voice.
And if he goes there I will follow
Through the world though it is so wide,
For my heart is with him all together
Though I live not where I love.

(repeat first verse)

George Sansome and Matt Quinn sing I Live Not Where I Love

Come all you maids that live at a distance,
Many a mile from off your swain,
Come and assist me this very moment
For to pass away some time,
Singing sweetly and completely
Songs of pleasure and of love,
For my heart is with him all together
Though I live not where I love.

When I sleep I dream about him,
When I wake I take no rest,
For every instance thinking of him
My heart e’er fixed in his breast.
And though far distance may be assistance
From my mind his love to remove,
But my heart is with him all together
Though I live not where I love.

All the world shall be one religion,
Living things shall cease to die
Before I prove false to my jewel
Or any way my love deny.
The world may change and be most strange
If ever I my mind remove,
My heart is with him all together
Though I live not where I love.

So farewell lads and farewell lasses,
Now I think I’ve got my choice.
I will away to yonder mountains
Where I think I hear his voice.
And if he holler then I will follow
Around the world though it is so wide,
𝄆 For young Thomas he did promise
I would be forever by his side. 𝄇