The Old Maid's Song
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The Old Maid's Song is an American
folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
. It recounts the story of a woman whose younger sisters have married, while she has remained a
spinster Spinster or old maid is a term referring to an unmarried woman who is older than what is perceived as the prime age range during which women usually marry. It can also indicate that a woman is considered unlikely to ever marry. The term origin ...
into middle age. During the chorus of the song, the narrator defines a loose criterion for a husband. The song is derived from the
broadside ballad A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between the ...
"The Wooing Maid," a song which dates to the seventeenth century.


Variations

The chorus lyrics vary between different versions of the song. In a version collected in
Dover, Vermont Dover is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,798 at the 2020 census. It is famed for being the location of the Mount Snow ski area. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total ...
in 1919, the chorus is sung: :A linman, a tinman, a tinker, a tailor, :A fiddler, a peddler, a plough-man, a sailor; :Come gentle, come simple, come foolish, come witty, :Don't let me die an old maid, but take me out of pity! In another variation heard in
Pulaski County, Kentucky Pulaski County is a county in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,034. Its county seat is Somerset. The county was founded in December 1798 from land given by Lincoln and Green Counties and named ...
and published in 1917 differs slightly: :Come a landsman, a pinsman, a tinker or a tailor, :A fiddler or a dancer, a ploughboy or a sailor, :A gentleman or a poor man, a fool or a witty, :Don't you let me die an old maid, but take me out of pity. In "The Wooing Maid," the ballad from which the song is derived, the first two lines of the chorus belong instead to the first verse: : ..:Come tinker, come broomman: :She will refuse no man. ::Come gentle, come simple, come foolish, come witty, ::Oh! if you lack a maid, take me for pitty. The song is known by many titles, including "Sister Susan", and "The Spinster's Lament", "Old Maid's Complaint", "Old Maid's Lament," and "Old Maid's Petition".
Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
recorded a rendition of the song for the
Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was f ...
label.
The Kingston Trio The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
's "Take Her Out of Pity", included on their 1961 album ''
Close-Up A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, s ...
'', is based on the song.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Maid's Song American folk songs Year of song unknown