Lyr Req: Rose Connally / Rose Connelly

Subject: I need lyrics for ROSE CONNALLY
From: khandu
Date: 01 Nov 99 - 09:35 AM

I cannot find the lyrics on the web for Rose Connally. The only version I have heard was by Flatt and Scruggs, and a recent version by the Everely Brothers on an Irish CD called "Bringing it all back home, Vol 1", but I cannot understand the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I need lyrics for ROSE CONNALLY
From: Nathan in Texas
Date: 01 Nov 99 - 10:55 AM

It's in the data base under the title "Down in A Willow Garden."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I need lyrics for ROSE CONNALLY
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Nov 99 - 10:58 AM

Here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I need lyrics for ROSE CONNALLY
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 01 Nov 99 - 11:23 AM

I started a thread on this a long time ago. I didn't get the answer then, but there are a lot of new 'Catters. I found the lyrics to be unusual and felt that this song is probably based on actual events. Does anyone know more about the story line? Was there actually a Rose Connelly who was murdered in this fashion?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I need lyrics for ROSE CONNALLY
From: Allan S.
Date: 01 Nov 99 - 01:03 PM

I once heard referance to the line "If I would murder that sweet little girl that looked so much like me" Which would mean kill his own sister. Ah yes nothing like a little incest in the family

Subject: Lyr Add: ROSE CONLEY (from Grayson and Whitter)
From: Stewie
Date: 01 Nov 99 - 07:25 PM

Here is a transcription of what is probably the first recorded version of the song which was known either as 'Rose Conley' or 'Rose Connally'. It was recorded in 1927. It is close to the 'Down in the Willow Garden' version in DT. The story is also akin to 'Banks of the Ohio' and 'Knoxville Girl'. Grayson and Whitter also recorded a short version of 'Banks of the Ohio' under the title of 'I'll Never Be Yours'. The song is thought to have originated as an Irish stall ballad, but was mainly collected in the southern mountains of the United States. Along with Eck Robertson and Fiddlin' John Carson, Grayson and Whitter were the first rural recording artists. Grayson, who was blind, played fiddle and Whitter the guitar and harmonica. 'Rose Conley' became a standard and was later recorded by the likes of Doc Watson, Charlie Monroe etc.

ROSE CONLEY

Down in the willow garden
Where me and my love did meet
Oh there we sit a-courting
My love dropped off to sleep

I had a bottle of the burglar's wine
Which my true love did not know
And there I poisoned my own true love
Down under the banks below

I drew my sabre (pron 'saybree') through her
Which was a bloody knife
I threw her in the river
Which was a dreadful sight

My father always taught me
That money would set me free
If I'd murder that pretty little miss
Whose name is Rose Conley

He's sitting now in his own cottage door
A-wiping his weeping eyes
A-looking at his own dear son
Upon the scaffold high

My race is run beneath the sun
Though hell's now waiting for me
I did murder that pretty little miss
Whose name is Rose Conley

Source: G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter 'Rose Conley'. Recorded Atlanta GA 18 October 1927. Transcribed from 'The Recordings of Grayson & Whitter' County CD 3517. There are some spoken comments between the verses, such as 'poor little girl', but, as they are mainly indecipherable, I have omitted them.

Cheers, Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I need lyrics for ROSE CONNALLY
From: GUEST,boxcar mike
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 10:50 AM

Yes, the best known version of this must be the Everley's version.

In Stewie's lyrics, above, he has:
"I had a bottle of the burglar's wine",
but this should be, I'm sure:
"I had a bottle of Burgundy wine"
which makes more sense.
Best wishes to everyone.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I need lyrics for ROSE CONNALLY
From: GUEST,Steve Latimer
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 11:52 AM

Apparently it is Burglars Wine. This was discussed here a long time ago, and there was a description of Burglar's Wine given. If I recall correctly (and I may not) it was a form of poison. Having said that, I have only heard this by Charlie Monroe, and I'm pretty sure that he sings Burgundy Wine. The Folk Process at work.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I need lyrics for ROSE CONNALLY
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 06:31 PM

BM, this matter has been discussed at length also in various other sites on the Net. For example, try the old-time music archives [put 'burglar's wine' without quotes in the search box] HERE or in the 'search the archives' link in the ballad list HERE. It should keep you amused for some time with entries such as:

Well, I know that several singers have altered "burglar's wine" to "Burgundy wine" (most notably Charlie Monroe in his influential late 40s recording). But the early versions are unanimous in saying the former. And frankly "burglar's wine"--i.e., wine that's been poisoned or spiked with a sedative to incapacitate someone you plan to victimize--makes much more sense to me. I think scholars too often patronise folksingers by emending "errors" they've made when the folk damn well know what they mean. There's a Jack Tale in which the hero steals a rich man's horses by offering the guards a drink from his wine bottle, which has been spiked with "cloryform" or some such. Also a cheerful Canterbury Tale where the would-be-burglar puts poison in the wine: but his would-be-victim has already planned to murder him first and then celebrates his crime by taking a swig from the bottle over his corpse....Would make a great end to a film noir. What the man did was knock Rose out with drugs and then finish her off by stabbing her and dump her body in the river. Standard M.O. in the British Isles in the 19th C. Personally, I found Burgundy wine very ineffective in murdering women I know. Most of them prefer white Zinfandel and can drink me under the table. [From the old-time music newsgroup].

Back in the days BP (before penicillin), everyone knew of the powers of herbs and minerals. Life often depended on use of purges, cordials and other concoctions. There was a famous concoction devised and employed by four theives in the plague years which allowed them to steal from plague victims without catching the plague. When captured, they won their freedom by revealing the recipe, which has since been known as the "four thieves vinegar." (Hmm. I ought to look it up again. Might prove useful if Sadam decides to let loose with what we think he might have concocted in his basement.) Another useful means for thieves and other devious persons was to drug the wine and have the household thoroughly asleep while they conducted their business in a leisurely manner. How either of these related to this song is pure fantasy, but a drugged person is undoubtedly easier to kill than an alert one.[From the ballad list].

Other texts quoted in the article by DK (he lists 71 in it - JAFL 92 (1979) pp172-195) have "burglar's" "the burglar's" (Grayson Whittier) "burgundy" (Charlie Munroe and his Kentucky Pardners, March 24 1947 released on RCA Victor 20-3416 and 48-0222) "bourbon" (Kentucky, 1961) "burglan's" (Kentucky, ca 1937). At one point Wilgus comments that aspects of the story, such as the weapon with which the deed was done, are too scattered to provide a coherence - he also indicates that there is wide variation in the description of the wine. [From the ballad list: 'DK' is Dr D.K. Wilgus].

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rose Connally / Rose Connelly
From: Taconicus
Date: 12 Jan 11 - 09:12 AM

Looking at the various sources, it could indeed be burglar's wine (doped wine supposedly used by dishonest innkeepers so they could more easily steal their patrons' valuables while they slept).

But since the song was originally collected in West Virginia (Folk Songs of the South, a collection of West Virginia songs edited by John Harrington Cox, prints a version collected in 1915, and says it was popular in the area in the 1890s), a persuasive argument is that burglar's wine, Burgundy wine, etc. are likely garbled forms of burgaloo wine, which was apparently (Dictionary of Americanisms, John Russell Bartlett, 4th ed., 1889) a type of pear wine, burgaloo being a variant spelling or mispronunciation of virgelieu, a popular pear variety of the 19th century in West Virginia. But the term burgaloo wine, having become obsolete, folk singers would substitute words that made more sense to them.

My information was gathered from various sources on the Internet, including from an article by Lyle Lofgren, listed as having been reprinted from Inside Bluegrass, May 2003.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rose Connally / Rose Connelly
From: Taconicus
Date: 12 Jan 11 - 10:13 AM

Incidentally, the initial recording was done by fiddle/guitar duo G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter in 1927. In that recording the sung lyrics sound like I had a bottle of the burg-a-lar's wine. That's consistent with both theories (burglar's wine and burgloo wine).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rose Connally / Rose Connelly
From: Mike Yates
Date: 12 Jan 11 - 11:46 AM

I was once told by a lady from Belfast that there was such a thing as "burglar's wine". It was cheap plonk that was left in the kitchen when the house was empty. Any burglar would have found the wine, drunk it and, being incapable, would not have been able to burgle the house. True or not? I have no idea.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rose Connally / Rose Connelly
From: Taconicus
Date: 12 Jan 11 - 12:03 PM

Urban myth, no doubt. In reality any drink drugged enough to incapacitate some burglars would also be strong enough to kill some of them. In the States, such a trap would be illegal, as would a deadfall or shotgun rigged to "get" an intruder without the owner's being there, and would result in a charge of murder against the homeowner regardless of the burglar's illegal intent and trespass.