470. Banks of Red Roses (Traditional Scottish) video

A murder ballad, with a moral for girls who would rather "sport and play" with a young man than help with the housework. According to Stanley Robertson of Aberdeen, a nephew of Jeannie Robertson, "Many travellers used this song to teach their daughters the dangers and perils in breaking their moral standards, and that the aftermath could bring much suffering and heartbreak." Presumably the young man kills the girl because he can't deal with her pregnancy. The sexual imagery is fairly obvious and in some versions it is a "grinding-box" rather than a fiddle that the young man takes out, "grinder" being a slang term for a penis. Some versions allow for an interpretation that the girl is merely exhausted by love-making rather than actually dead. Certainly, in the Irish version of the song the girl only loses her virginity rather than her life, and it is generally sung in a more upbeat manner, as in The Dubliners' rendition, which you can find on YouTube. The song has been recorded by Jean Redpath and Buffy Sainte-Marie (on her album "Many a Mile"). It is obviously a close relative of "Pretty Polly", a murder ballad popular in Britain and America.