Henry Lee by Dick Justice [Anthology Revisited - Song 1]
TL;DR -- A 1929 murder ballad featuring a spurned lover, a talking bird, and a man who’ll never make it back to the Merry Green Land.
Welcome to Anthology Revisited! Each article will feature a song from Harry Smith’s legendary Anthology of American Folk Music. Today, we look at Henry Lee, a Scottish murder ballad that seems to have first appeared in the 1700’s.
Introduction
The first track on the Anthology is Henry Lee, and contrary to what Harry Smith wrote in the original liner notes, the song was recorded by Dick Justice on May 20, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois for Brunswick Records, not 1932.
Before we get to the song, I want to give a quick sidebar about Child ballads because they are key to Volume One of the Anthology’s construction. In the late 1800’s, folklorist and scholar Francis James Child published several volumes of English and Scottish ballads that he had collected. Each song in Child’s collection was assigned a number, and when variants of a particular ballad were cataloged, they were assigned a letter. Henry Lee, the song we’ll be discussing here, is a variant of the song “Young Hunting”, which is Child Ballad 68. Of the variants cataloged by Child, Henry Lee most closely resembles version 68F, but it’s not an exact match by any stretch, and one of the reasons I think Harry Smith started with these ballads was to point to the origins of some of the ballads and show how the American versions of each ballad differed from its foreign (usually English or Scottish) ancestor. Henry Lee was placed as the opening track of the Anthology of American Folk Music because it was the lowest numbered Child ballad to be included in the set.
Smith’s original liner notes (above) contained the following headline:
SCORNING OFFER OF COSTLY TRAPPINGS, BIRD REFUSES AID TO KNIGHT THROWN IN WELL BY LADY
The headline Smith provides might be fitting for early versions of the song, (like Child 68A for instance), but according to Smith himself, Justice’s recording of Henry Lee most closely resembles Young Hunting 68F, and in spite of what Harry’s headline indicates, the murdered man in the recording is never identified as a knight, and the bird is never asked to come to his aid.
I want to think Smith deceived readers/listeners in the hopes that they would explore the song’s history further, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
But let’s give the song a listen and check out the lyrics sung by Dick Justice.
Lyrics
So, here are the words Dick Justice sang, to the best my poor hearing can decipher.
Verse 1
Get down, get down, little Henry Lee
And stay all night with me
The very best lodging I can afford
Will be fair better’n theeI can't get down and I won't get down
And stay all night with thee
For the girl I have in that merry green land
I love fair better'n theeVerse 2
She leaned herself against a fence
Just for a kiss or two
With a little pen-knife held in her hand
She plugged him through and throughCome all you ladies in the town
A secret for me keep
With a diamond ring held on my hand
I’ll never will forsakeVerse 3
Some take him by his lily-white hand
Some take him by his feet
We'll throw him in this deep, deep well
More than one hundred feet
Lie there, lie there, loving Henry Lee
'Til the flesh drops from your bones
The girl you have in that merry green land
Still waits for your returnVerse 4
Fly down, fly down, you little bird
And alight on my right knee
Your cage will be of purest gold
In need of property.
I can't fly down there, I won't fly down
And alight on your right knee
A girl would murder her own true love
Would kill a little bird like meVerse 5
If I had my bend and bow
My arrow and my string
I'd pierce a dart so nigh your heart
Your wobble would be in vainIf you had your bend and bow
Your arrow and your string
I'd fly away to the merry green land
And tell what I have seen
There are a some spots where things don’t seem to make sense to me, most notably in verse four, when he sings what I hear as “in need of property”.
I’m not gonna lie, I have tried to shoehorn my brain into believing he’s singing “no need of poverty” or “in deed of property” (either of which would make a little sense), but all attempts at convincing myself of this have failed, and no other transcription I’ve read hears that either, so, I’m gonna stick with the nonsensical.
NOTE: I’ve tried similar mental gymnastics to convince myself he sings “bended bow” instead of “bend and bow”.
The Song
Henry Lee is a murder ballad, starring a nameless spurned woman who murders Henry Lee, a fellow who’d turned down her offer to stay the night because he preferred the company of another.
After the murder, she recruits some local ladies to help her dispose of Henry’s body. Thinking she’d gotten away with murder, the woman heads home feeling quite self-assured. Along the way, she spies a bird in a tree that she wants to take and keep for her own. She chats the bird up and offers it a golden cage, but the bird is having none of it. Spurned once more, our unnamed woman wishes aloud for a bow and arrow handy so she could set that bird straight just like she did old Henry Lee. Then the bird shows his hand, and says that if she whipped out a bow and arrow then, the bird would fly away to the Merry Green Land and rat her out.
Well played, bird.... Well played.
In the song, the killer lady mentions that there’s a diamond ring on her hand, but we don’t get the scoop about that. Did Henry Lee try to break up with her? Could it be that prior to the events of this song, that our dear Henry was engaged to this lady, then headed off to the Merry Green Land for some business or another, met another girl, fell madly in love, headed back home, tried to call off the engagement, only to find himself stabbed and his corpse in the bottom of a well?
Well, kinda.. but it depends on who you ask.
In the variants of Young Hunting cataloged by Child, only variant 68E states that the two were to be married. This happens during an exchange between the killer and the bird in verse 8.
68E.8 Out up then spake a bonny bird,
Sat high upon a tree:
‘How could you kill that noble lord?
He came to marry thee.’Otherwise, there’s no mention of betrothal.
The Source
In spite of the lone marriage reference appearing in 68E, Harry Smith states that Justice’s version of Henry Lee most closely resembles variant 68F of Young Hunting., and I would agree. For the who are curious, I’ve included the text of both versions below. You’ll notice that in each case, the name of the victim is different. The archaic text can be a little difficult to decipher in places, but it is still the same story, talking bird and all.
68E: Young Hunting
68E.1 LORD WILLIAM was the bravest knight
That dwalt in fair Scotland,
And, though renowned in France and Spain,
Fell by a ladie’s hand.
68E.2 As she was walking maid alone,
Down by yon shady wood,
She heard a smit o bridle reins,
She wishd might be for good.
68E.3 ‘Come to my arms, my dear Willie,
You’re welcome hame to me;
To best o chear and charcoal red,
And candle burnin free.’
68E.4 ‘I winna light, I darena light,
Nor come to your arms at a’;
A fairer maid than ten o you
I’ll meet at Castle-law.’
68E.5 ‘A fairer maid than me, Willie?
A fairer maid than me?
A fairer maid than ten o me
Your eyes did never see.’
68E.6 He louted owr his saddle-lap
To kiss here ere they part,
And wi a little keen bodkin,
She pierced him to the heart.
68E.7 ‘Ride on, ride on, Lord William now,
As fast as ye can dree;
Your bonny lass at Castle-law
Will weary you to see.’
68E.8 Out up then spake a bonny bird,
Sat high upon a tree:
‘How could you kill that noble lord?
He came to marry thee.’
68E.9 ‘Come down, come down, my bonny bird,
And eat bread aff my hand;
Your cage shall be of wiry goud,
Whar now it’s but the wand.’
68E.10 ‘Keep ye your cage o goud, lady,
And I will keep my tree;
As ye hae done to Lord William,
Sae wad ye do to me.’
68E.11 She set her foot on her door-step,
A bonny marble stane,
And carried him to her chamber,
Oer him to make her mane.
68E.12 And she has kept that good lord’s corpse
Three quarters of a year,
Until that word began to spread;
Then she began to fear.
68E.13 Then she cryed on her waiting-maid,
Ay ready at her ca:
‘There is a knight into my bower,
’Tis time he were awa.’
68E.14 The ane has taen him by the head,
The ither by the feet,
And thrown him in the wan water,
That ran baith wide and deep.
68E.15 ‘Look back, look back, now, lady fair,
On him that loed ye weel;
A better man than that blue corpse
Neer drew a sword of steel.’
Source: https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch068.htm68F: Young Hunting
68F.1 EARL RICHARD is a hunting gone,
As fast as he can ride,
His hunting-horn hung about his neck,
And a small sword by his side.
68F.2 When he came to my lady’s gate
He tirled at the pin,
And wha was sae ready as the lady hersell
To open and let him in.
68F.3 ‘O light, O light, Earl Richard,’ she says,
‘O light and stay a’ night;
You shall have cheer wi charcoal clear,
And candles burning bright.’
68F.4 ‘I will not light, I cannot light,
I cannot light at all;
A fairer lady than ten of thee
Is waiting at Richard’s Wall.’
68F.5 He stooped from his milk-white steed,
To kiss her rosy cheek;
She had a pen-knife in her hand,
And wounded him so deep.
68F.6 ‘O lie ye there, Earl Richard,’ she says,
‘O lie ye there till morn;
A fairer lady than ten of me
Will think lang of your coming home.’
68F.7 She called her servants ane by ane,
She called them twa by twa:
‘I have got a dead man in my bower,
I wish he were awa.’
68F.8 The one has taen [him] by the hand,
And the other by the feet,
And they’ve thrown him in a deep draw-well,
Full fifty fathom deep.
68F.9 Then up bespake a little bird,
That sat upon a tree:
‘Gae hame, gae hame, ye false lady,
And pay your maids their fee.’
68F.10 ‘Come down, come down, my pretty bird,
That sits upon the tree;
I have a cage of beaten gold,
I’ll gie it unto thee.’
68F.11 ‘Gae hame, gae hame, ye fause lady,
And pay your maids their fee;
As ye have done to Earl Richard,
Sae wud ye do to me.’
68F.12 ‘If I had an arrow in my hand,
And a bow bent on a string,
I’d shoot a dart at thy proud heart,
Amang the leaves sae green.’
Source: https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch068.htmThe Performance
The performance is a straight up, no-frills guitar and vocal number by Dick Justice. The guitar playing is a simple but effective "hit the bass note, strum the chord" style, in 3/4 time or waltz time. This recording predates the establishment of country music as a distinct genre of music, but it is definitely in the vein. Not only does Justice’s voice have a bit of mountain twang to it, he’s singing exclusively in the upper register, so the country vibe is in there, and the vibe extends a little further once you realize that the melody is a lot like "The Storms Are on the Ocean" by The Carter Family.
Since the Carter Family is the only group to appear on all four volumes of the Anthology, I highly doubt that this musical similarity escaped Smith’s notice, even if he didn’t mention it in the liner notes.
The Performer
Henry Franklin "Dick" Justice, born April 2, 1903, was a West Virginia native who lived in Logan County most of his life. In West Virginia, Justice was known to play with various musicians, including Frank Hutchison, as well as the Williamson Brothers and Curry, all of whom appear later in the Anthology.
Justice’s only recording sessions took place in Chicago on May 20 and 21, 1929. Brunswick released six sides (Brown Skin Blues/Little Lulie, Henry Lee/One Cold December Day, Cocaine/Old Black Dog) from these two sessions, and there were two other songs recorded: K.C. Brown, which was unissued, and West Virginia Girl, which was rejected by Brunswick).
While in Chicago, Justice also played guitar on four tracks recorded by Reese Jarvis, a fiddler from Clendenin, West Virginia (Guian Valley Waltz, Poor Girl’s Waltz, Poca River Blues, and Muskrat Rag. The latter two were also released with French titles and credited to Les Deux Gaspesiens). The Illustrated Dick Justice discography contains links to each of the existing recordings on which he appeared.
After his lone recording session, Justice went back to Logan County and worked as a coal miner. His WWII draft card indicates he worked at The Eagle Mines, Inc. in Logan, and the 1940 U.S. Census lists his occupation as ‘mine motorman’. From that same Census data, we learn that Dick was married to Marie Justice and they had three children: Ernestine, Gary, and Dallas. In 1955, 10 year old Dallas died in a fire. After Justice died in 1962 from bladder cancer, he was buried next to his son in Yolyn Cemetery in Logan County, West Virginia.
If you want to hear more from Dick Justice, check out this animated video for his cover of Luke Jordan’s “Cocaine”, which he recorded in Chicago the day before he recorded “Henry Lee”.
Connections
The Connections section of each article will be used to discuss how the song connects with the song that immediately precedes it as well as other songs already discussed.
With Henry Lee, that’s not gonna work, so instead, I wanna use the next couple of paragraphs to set the stage for future discussions and help you understand the bigger picture I’m trying to paint with all of this. So here goes…
Harry Smith is on record saying that Henry Lee wasn’t the finest performance in the set, even though he used it to open the collection.
Why would he do this? To open such a massive collection with a song that is less than mind-blowing would fly in the face of the modern marketing mindset. Fortunately, Harry didn’t give a damn about modern marketing mindsets. He had to do it this way. Henry Lee had to open the Anthology. Why?
Simply put, Henry Lee was the lowest numbered Child ballad in the collection, and in Harry’s mind, the Anthology needed to have a logical organization structure, and the lowest numbered Child ballad seemed like the appropriate starting point. It’s a simple enough explanation, and everything does have to start somewhere.
Other Interpretations
In this section, I’ll feature links to recordings mentioned in Smith’s original Discography as well as selected recordings of the song or related songs.
Discography
First, Harry Smith referenced this recording of Lowe Bonnie by Jimmy Tarlton. If you listen to the recording (below), you can tell that the song is telling the same story, and while this murder didn’t happen outdoors, Lowe Bonnie met the same fate as Henry Lee, Earl Richard, and Lord William.
As to why Smith chose Henry Lee over Lowe Bonnie to represent Child Ballad 68 on the Anthology, it is a matter of speculation. One part of me thinks that it happened because Justice’s recording of the song predates Tarlton’s 1930 recording, but since Smith inaccurately indicates that Henry Lee was recorded in 1932, that theory flies right out the window.
I personally prefer Dick Justice’s version over Jimmy Tarlton’s, but that’s just my own opinion, which most certainly carried no weight in Smith’s decision-making process.
Another Version of Henry Lee
In 1996, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, with the help of PJ Harvey, added a chorus to Henry Lee and transformed the song into a duet for the album Murder Ballads. The video is well worth checking out.
Two Versions of “Love Henry”, another Young Hunting variant
Another variant of Young Hunting called “Love Henry” was collected in 1916 from Orilla Keeton in Mountfair, Virginia, by folk song collector Cecil Sharp. The storyline of the songs are basically interchangeable, although in Love Henry, the murder takes place in a bed instead of by the fence.
Judy Henske released a version of Love Henry on her 1963 debut album.
Bob Dylan’s 1993 album World Gone Wrong contains his take on the song, and in the liner notes, (which are quite entertaining), Dylan says,
LOVE HENRY is a "traditionalist" ballad. Tom Paley used to do it. a perverse tale. Henry -- modern corporate man off some foreign boat, unable to handle his "psychosis" responsible for organizing the Intelligentsia, disarming the people, an infantile sensualist -- white teeth, wide smile, lotza money, kowtow to fairy queen exploiters & corrupt religious establishments, career minded, limousine double parked, imposing his will & dishonest garbage in popular magazines. he lays his head on a pillow of down & falls asleep. he shoulda known better, he must've had a hearing problem.
Now, you’re not gonna get all that insight from Justice’s version of the song, because Dylan was working from a different variant. In Justice’s version, Henry never fell asleep. In Justice’s world, Henry stood outdoors, thinking he might get a kiss then be on his way, but when he leaned in, he found himself quite surprised by the outcome just the same. Maybe not a hearing problem, but he surely shoulda thought it through.
And I guess that’s the big takeaway from the song, ya really gotta think it through….
And watch yourself when you’re around talking birds.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading. This is the beginning of a great adventure, but I couldn’t have it this without the work of many other people over the years. Links to the resources I consulted when writing this analysis are below.
If you’ve got corrections, suggestions, or additional information I didn’t cover, share it in the comments. If you appreciate what I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with folks you think might enjoy it.
Next time, we’ll be covering “Fatal Flower Garden” by Nelstone’s Hawaiians.
It’s a murder ballad.
It’s a Child ballad.
It’s a Child murder ballad.
It’s a Child murder ballad about a murdered Child.
----------------------
SOURCES
Henry Lee - Old Songs - by Lyle Lofgren - Originally published: Inside Bluegrass, October 1996 (https://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-HenryLee.html)
Where Dead Voices Gather: Life at 78RPM (http://theanthologyofamericanfolkmusic.blogspot.com/)
1 “Henry Lee” by Dick Justice | My Old Weird America - (https://oldweirdamerica.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/1-henry-lee-by-dick-justice/)
The Anthology of American Folk Music: Hanging Out in the Ozone with HARRY SMITH | San Diego Troubadour (https://sandiegotroubadour.com/the-anthology-of-american-folk-music-hanging-out-in-the-ozone-with-harry-smith/ )wherein Harry is quoted as saying Justice’s version of Henry Lee wasn’t the best performance, but it had to be first because of the Child number.
Anthology of American Folk Music – Harry Smith Archives - (https://harrysmitharchives.com/media/anthology/) the magnificent original liner notes to the Anthology are on this page. While you’re there, check out some of the other cool stuff about Harry Smith.
World Gone Wrong | The Official Bob Dylan Site (https://www.bobdylan.com/albums/world-gone-wrong/)
Hillbilly-Music.com - Dick Justice - (http://www.hillbilly-music.com/artists/story/index.php?id=10389) Biographical info
Illustrated Dick Justice discography (https://www.wirz.de/music/justice.htm)
The Child Ballads: 68. Young Hunting - (https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch068.htm) Child Ballad transcriptions - Version F is the one used in this article.
Record label - https://www.wirz.de/music/justice/grafik/br367a4.jpg
