HomeRegency LifeThe Shocking Lyrics of Lavender’s Blue

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The Shocking Lyrics of Lavender’s Blue — 15 Comments

  1. Oh dear. Luckily when I sang it to my children I only knew the first two verses!
    I don’t know your storyline but are you sure it wouldn’t have been appropriate ???

  2. We had a very different version around when I was a kid…I looked it up with what I remember and the lyrics are below. There was a Christian version too but I don’t remember it. I do find it very funny that diddle got changed to dilly….amongst other things. Oh the rabbit holes. I hope you did find some acceptable music though for your scene!

    Lavender blue, dilly dilly,
    Lavender green
    When you are king, dilly dilly,
    I shall be queen

    Who told you so, dilly dilly,
    Who told you so?
    ‘Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
    That told me so

    Call up your friends, dilly, dilly
    Set them to work
    Some to the plough, dilly dilly,
    Some to the fork

    Some to the hay, dilly dilly,
    Some to thresh corn
    Whilst you and I, dilly dilly,
    Keep ourselves warm

    Lavender blue, dilly dilly,
    Lavender green
    When you are king, dilly dilly,
    I shall be queen

    Who told you so, dilly dilly,
    Who told you so?
    ‘Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
    That told me so.

  3. An interesting aside, I used to play darts at my local bar in Chicago. To see who went first, one had to “diddle for the middle.” That meant that who ever shot their dart closest to the bullseye (the middle) went first. Hmmm.

  4. And I see Burl Ives in my head as he sang this song. I know of it but never sang it to my children. I did sing many other songs though: Thank Heaven for Little Girls, An Irish Lullaby, You are my Sunshine, Hush, Little Baby, Bye Baby Bunting and the Beatles’ Do You Want to Know a Secret, etc.

  5. Iv’e been trying to find the meaning of this song because i’ve heard a play on radio 4 that says every year a “king” was chosen,sacrificed,and buried in a field for fertility of the crops. I can’t however find any verification of this on the internet. One version of this song though says he will be buried beneath a tap so he can drink.

  6. ,Cor-blimey Burl Ives, I wonder what age you are and where you grew up? My dad used to sing these to me and my sisters and I’m seventy one now!

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  9. I discovered during a rabbit hole journey with a folksong expert that a great many “children’s” songs known today had an earlier connotation. I had to agree with him. My uncles used to half-sing songs, such as Sweet Betsy from Pike. All I learned from them was lyrics such as “Oh have you heard of sweet Betsy from Pike….” Then the lyrics would advise that Betsy “hummm-hum-de-hummed” the whole wagon train. They never did explain the activity but I assumed it was not nice. These were my uncles who fed me rock (candy) and rye whiskey as a cough syrup until Grandma caught them at it. Grandma would run them out of the house if she heard them singing. Another song involved a traveling man offering to roll up a maid’s little ball of twine. This one also had innocent lyrics but I don’t recall them. — Bjo

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