Blow the Candle Out (aka The London Apprentice)
Sung by Jimmy Gilhaney, a tinker of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Recorded by Peter Kennedy in the Orkney Isles, 1955.
There was a young apprenticewho went to meet his dear;
The moon was shinin' brightly
and the stars were viewin' clear,
He went to his love's window
and he called her by her name,
Then soon she rose and let him in,
went back to bed again.
Sayin' "Willie, dearest Willie, tonight will be your doom.
Strip off into your nightshirt and hear one night within.
The street they are to lonely for you to walk about,
So come roll me in your arms, love,
and we'll blow the candle out."
"My father and my mother, next bedroom they do lie,
Kissing and embracin', and why not you and I?
Kissing and embracin' without a fear or doubt,
So come roll me in your arms, love,
and we'll blow the candle out."
It was six months and after six, six months ago today,
He wrote to me a letter saying he was far away;
He wrote to me a letter without a fear or doubt,
And he never said when he'd come back
to blow the candle out.
Additional verse:
Come all you gallant highway girls,
pay heed to what I say,
Never court a young man that ploughs the angry sea;
For some day or another when walking out about,
He will do to you as he done to me
when he blew the candle out.