I'm a Young Man Cut Down in my Prime

Original Track ID

SA1952.06.A10 (A20)

Original Tape ID

SA1952.006

Summary

The singer sees one of his comrades wrapped in sheets, and dying. He laments that the city girl he had been with had not told him she was suffering from venereal disease and that he has been cut down in his prime.

Willie Mathieson learned the song from John Innes, second horseman at Boghead and Logie, and it was the only song he heard him singing when Carpenter was collecting. Hamish Henderson says Carpenter was interested because versions of the song are known in America.

Item Notes

Text and music transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 4 verses. The Carpenter mentioned is James Madison Carpenter of Harvard, which suggests the date was c. 1930 and possibly 1933.

Variants in Scotland and England include 'The Dying Sailor', 'The Pills of White Mercury', 'The Sailor Cut Down In His Prime', 'The Royal Albion'. Variants in North America include 'The Dying Cowboy', 'St James Hospital' and 'The Streets of Laredo'.

See:
'English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians' vol. 2 (Cecil Sharp)
p. 164
Willie Mathieson's MSS III:56

Item Subject/Person

Carpenter, James Madison

Recording Location

Language

English

Genre

Song Information

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R2 GD1404 LB1 LQ26

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good