Sportin' Bachelors



Come all you sportin' bachelors, take warning by me;

Don't never live as fast as I have.

I married me a wife, makes me tired of my life,

Let me strive and do all that I can, can, can

Let me strive and do all that I can.



She dresses me in rags, in the worst of old rags;

She dresses like a lady so fine.

She goes into town, both by day and by night

With a gentleman who drinks wine etc.



Six days of the week must I labor for my keep

She swears three of them must be hers.

She cries and she squalls, and she swears she'll have them all

And she swears that I'm obliged to mun-tain her etc.



And when I come home, I am just like one alone

She never says a word I can hear;

All fearful of my doom, I go marchn' to my room

With my bare joints all trem-ba-lin' with fear etc.



Come O gentle death, and take away her breath

Give me back my freedom once more.

I'll live out my days just a-hatin' of her ways

And I swear I'll never marry any more etc.



Learned from Margo Mayo, ca 1950. A similar song is printed in

American Ballads and Folk Songs, Lomax.

See also WHNYNGMN, ROCKCRAD

@marriage

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