> Folk music > Songs > I’ve Been a Wild Boy

I’ve Been a Wild Boy

[ Roud 3366 ; Mudcat 22973 , 156160 ; trad.]

Sally Sloane from Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia, sag I’ve Been a Wild Boy in a field recording collected by John Meredith in between 1954 and 1960 that was included in 1983 on her posthumous Larrikin anthology A Garland for Sally. Warren Fahey noted:

An excellent tear jerker this one! Sally learnt the sông from Harry Bartlett, a goldminer in Parkes who had worked with her father. It is not related to that other popular tear jerker The Wild Rover.

Will Duke and Dann Quinn sang I’ve Been a Wild Boy in 1996 on their Hebe album Wild Boys. They noted:

This is one of the many songs (and tunes) the Australian collector John Meredith had from Sally Sloane, a beautiful singer from New South Wales.

Lyrics

Sally Sloane sings I’ve Been a Wild Boy

O, my father he died and he left me his estate,
I married a lady whose fortune was great,
And through keeping bad company I’ve spent all my store.
I have been a wild boy, but I’ll be so no more.

O, there was Bill, Tom and Harry, and Betsy and Sue,
And two or three others belonged to our crew;
We sat up till midnight and made the town roar.
O, I’ve been a wild boy, but I’ll be so no more.

I was always too fond of treating ladies to wine,
Till my pockets grew empty too soon I would find;
Twenty pounds in one night, o, I’ve spent them and more.
O, I’ve been a wild boy, but I’ll be so no more.

O, it’s first down to Newgate a prisoner I went:
I had on cold irons, I had to lament,
And I had to find comfort as I lay on the floor.
O, I’ve been a wild boy, but I’ll be so no more.

O, the next down to Newgate a prisoner I stand,
And what I have longed for is now out of hand;
And if ever I gain my liberty as I’ve had before,
I will be a good boy, as I have been before.

O, bad luck to all married men who visit strange doors,
I’ve done so myself, but I’ll do so no more˛
I’ll go home to my family, I’ll go home to my wife,
And I’ll be a good boy all the rest of my life.