And A Maiden All the While
Those who know me are probably familiar with my love for cross-dressing ballads, and those who don't know me could probably guess. This is a mix I made back a long time ago, and I've been adding to it sporadically as I find more cross-dressing ballads to love. Download here: And A Maiden All the While. Tracklist under the cut...
And A Maiden All The While
Cross-Dressing for Fun and Profit!
Famous Flower of Serving Men - Martin Carthy
The Tam Lin of cross-dressing ballads. The longest, the greatest, and certainly the queerest, what with the king spending the better part of the song in love with his chamberlain, the eponymous Famous Flower of Serving Men. It’s an example of everything that ballads can do so beautifully, both in spite of and because of their form
The Black Freighter - Steeleye Span
“You know a lot of songs about lady pirates,” said Buban to me suspiciously, as I finished off a rendition of this in the car coming down from martial arts training. This song is also known as “Pirate Jenny”, but I like Steeleye Span’s title better. The song’s not just about a woman pirate; there’s something uncanny about that ship.
The Ballad of Mary Read
At least the songwriter is honest - he doesn’t even pretend to give a justification for this particular specimen of bloodthirsty buccaneering womanhood’s choice of mate. ‘Women love the strangest rogues, and so did Mary Read,’ says he, and leaves it at that.
The Grey Cocked Hat - Annie Lore
Not actually traditional, but it’s an amalgamation of a number of elements found in any number of traditional songs, most notably the female highwayman. (The most convolute cross-dressing ballad I ever found was about a female highwayman - or at least it started that way - and I would have included it, but I don’t think anyone was ever fool enough to record it.)
Female Drummer - Steeleye Span
The first song to mention that other great complication of a girl’s life in britches - other girls. Never let them get past the shirt, if you’ve got stuff in there you don’t want ‘em to see. Everyone loves a pretty boy, it seems - I detect more than a note of professional regret in the officer’s tone when he remarks ‘It’s a shame to lose a pretty drummer boy like you.’ One wonders how the subject of the song will bear her return to her parent’s house, after having taken so well to army life.
Sovay - Pentangle
The original from which many of "The Grey Cocked Hat"'s motifs were drawn, it's in some ways stronger for its simplicity. What puts it into Sovay's head to dress herself in men's array and rob her true love? What's really going on here? We can only guess.
There Was a Wealthy Merchant - Steeleye Span
The ending has always struck me as remarkably touching - the tune and the presentation both being somewhat melancholy, I was expecting the heroine’s bonny soldier boy to be dead when she reached him. But no! he lives, and “this couple they got married,” sings the narrator wistfully, “so why not you and me?”
Turncoat - Cynthia McQuillin
Is this song about a man or a woman? The final line would seem to point to the latter, but I can never tell whether than might not be a masculine narrator finally and completely embracing his role. Either way, it definitely involves cross-dressing.
The Banks of the Nile - Fairport Convention
There’s a song out there, which I would give a great deal to find, about a woman who dresses herself in men’s clothing and takes passage as a cabin boy on a ship to search for her dearest Willie - only to find that the captain and all the other sailors on the ship are also cross-dressing to search for their dearest Willies.
William Taylor - Bardic
This one’s got everything - lust, battles, cross-dressing, infidelity, and bloody revenge. A warning to all young men pressed into the Navy: just because you think you’ve left your girl behind you doesn’t mean you can fool around. Because she might have followed you into service, and if she has, she’s learned to shoot.
Canadee-I-O - Bob Dylan
And sometimes you don’t have to be looking for anybody when you set out, in order to end up doing very well for yourself by way of your expedition on the seas. As far as anyone can tell, the heroine of this particular piece took to the sea because she wanted to; whatever other reasons she might have had are left up to the listener to speculate.
The Female Sailor
But then, not all are so lucky. In this song we get to hear at last from that nebulous figure about whom so much revolves: the lover himself. Apparently he and his love had several weeks of contentment before the sea claimed her, and the lover is left to reflect sadly on the whole incident.
The Handsome Cabin Boy
All right, who impregnated the cabin boy this time?
Sister Josephine - The Clancy Brothers - Bonus Track
And A Maiden All The While
Cross-Dressing for Fun and Profit!
Famous Flower of Serving Men - Martin Carthy
The Tam Lin of cross-dressing ballads. The longest, the greatest, and certainly the queerest, what with the king spending the better part of the song in love with his chamberlain, the eponymous Famous Flower of Serving Men. It’s an example of everything that ballads can do so beautifully, both in spite of and because of their form
The Black Freighter - Steeleye Span
“You know a lot of songs about lady pirates,” said Buban to me suspiciously, as I finished off a rendition of this in the car coming down from martial arts training. This song is also known as “Pirate Jenny”, but I like Steeleye Span’s title better. The song’s not just about a woman pirate; there’s something uncanny about that ship.
The Ballad of Mary Read
At least the songwriter is honest - he doesn’t even pretend to give a justification for this particular specimen of bloodthirsty buccaneering womanhood’s choice of mate. ‘Women love the strangest rogues, and so did Mary Read,’ says he, and leaves it at that.
The Grey Cocked Hat - Annie Lore
Not actually traditional, but it’s an amalgamation of a number of elements found in any number of traditional songs, most notably the female highwayman. (The most convolute cross-dressing ballad I ever found was about a female highwayman - or at least it started that way - and I would have included it, but I don’t think anyone was ever fool enough to record it.)
Female Drummer - Steeleye Span
The first song to mention that other great complication of a girl’s life in britches - other girls. Never let them get past the shirt, if you’ve got stuff in there you don’t want ‘em to see. Everyone loves a pretty boy, it seems - I detect more than a note of professional regret in the officer’s tone when he remarks ‘It’s a shame to lose a pretty drummer boy like you.’ One wonders how the subject of the song will bear her return to her parent’s house, after having taken so well to army life.
Sovay - Pentangle
The original from which many of "The Grey Cocked Hat"'s motifs were drawn, it's in some ways stronger for its simplicity. What puts it into Sovay's head to dress herself in men's array and rob her true love? What's really going on here? We can only guess.
There Was a Wealthy Merchant - Steeleye Span
The ending has always struck me as remarkably touching - the tune and the presentation both being somewhat melancholy, I was expecting the heroine’s bonny soldier boy to be dead when she reached him. But no! he lives, and “this couple they got married,” sings the narrator wistfully, “so why not you and me?”
Turncoat - Cynthia McQuillin
Is this song about a man or a woman? The final line would seem to point to the latter, but I can never tell whether than might not be a masculine narrator finally and completely embracing his role. Either way, it definitely involves cross-dressing.
The Banks of the Nile - Fairport Convention
There’s a song out there, which I would give a great deal to find, about a woman who dresses herself in men’s clothing and takes passage as a cabin boy on a ship to search for her dearest Willie - only to find that the captain and all the other sailors on the ship are also cross-dressing to search for their dearest Willies.
William Taylor - Bardic
This one’s got everything - lust, battles, cross-dressing, infidelity, and bloody revenge. A warning to all young men pressed into the Navy: just because you think you’ve left your girl behind you doesn’t mean you can fool around. Because she might have followed you into service, and if she has, she’s learned to shoot.
Canadee-I-O - Bob Dylan
And sometimes you don’t have to be looking for anybody when you set out, in order to end up doing very well for yourself by way of your expedition on the seas. As far as anyone can tell, the heroine of this particular piece took to the sea because she wanted to; whatever other reasons she might have had are left up to the listener to speculate.
The Female Sailor
But then, not all are so lucky. In this song we get to hear at last from that nebulous figure about whom so much revolves: the lover himself. Apparently he and his love had several weeks of contentment before the sea claimed her, and the lover is left to reflect sadly on the whole incident.
The Handsome Cabin Boy
All right, who impregnated the cabin boy this time?
Sister Josephine - The Clancy Brothers - Bonus Track