I'm Drunk Since Ever I Seen Your Face

Original Track ID

SA1956.126.B6

Original Tape ID

SA1956.126

Summary

A short song fragment:

I'm drunk since ever I seen your face,
I'm drunk since ever I met ye,
I'm drunk since ever I seen your face,
An' a' the time I lent[?] ye.

Item Notes

1 verse of 4 lines.

cf. 'Drunk since ever I saw your face' sung by Jean Redpath on SA1971.193.8b

'The Reivers' (Enoch Kent, Josh MacRae, Rena Swankie) released a song called 'Jock Since Ever I Saw Your Face' on their 1960 EP 'The Work of The Reivers - Vol. 2' (TOP RANK JKP 2062); Norman Buchan wrote the sleevenotes, including this note on the above song:

"This is a new version of an old piece of Lowland mouth music, i.e., a song used to accompany a dance when no instruments were present. This version was written by Enoch Kent for a nation-wide TV programme on the Gorbals."

The Reivers' song was later printed in 'The Scottish Folksinger' (edited by Norman Buchan), listed as 'traditional with additional verses by Enoch Kent':

Chorus: Oh, Jock since ever I seen your face
Jock since ever I kent ye
Jock since ever I seen your face
Dae ye mind o' the shillin' I lent ye?

Verse 1: I lost my love and I dinna ken hoo
I lost my love and I care na
The losin' o' ane's the gainin' o' twa
I'll soon get anither I fear na.

Verse 2: Oh some fell on their bended knees
Some ladies fell a-fainting
I fell tae my bread and cheese
I always wanted the main thing

In the case of SA1956.126.B6, it is easy to imagine how an oral variant of 'Jock since ever...' could become the similar sounding 'Drunk since ever...', with the word 'lent' retained in the last line, without apparent meaning.

The other two verses listed in 'The Scottish Folksinger' appear to be floating verses; 'I lost my love and I dinna ken hoo' (Roud 2075) is a common piece of mouth music, itself derived from a longer traditional song, an example of which was collected by Rev. James B. Duncan (Greig-Duncan vol. 6, no. 1147); the verse beginning 'Oh some fell on their bended knees' appears in versions of 'Billy O'Rourke' (Roud 2101, Greig-Duncan vol. 2, no. 262).

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 6, p. 192, no. 1147
Greig-Duncan vol. 2, pp. 270-271, no. 262
'The Scottish Folksinger' (N. Buchan & P. Hall, 1973) p. 37

Recording Location

Language

English

Genre

Song

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good