> The Halliard > Songs > Going for a Soldier, Jenny / The Lancashire Fusiliers

Going for a Soldier, Jenny / The Lancashire Fusiliers

[ Roud V1224 ; VWML FK/15/288/2 ; Bodleian Roud V1224 ; Mudcat 24376 , 55695 ; words W.H. Bellamy, music S. Nelson]

This song was written by W.H. Bellamy and S. Nelson and published on broadsides by the F.D. Benteen Co., Baltimore in about 1840-1860. The National Library of Scotland shows a facsimile of another broadside probably published between 1860 and 1880.

Nic Jones sang Going for a Soldier, Jenny, with an additional chorus and to a tune of his own, on the Halliard’s album The Halliard : Jon Raven; originally released in 1968 and reissued on CD in 1997. Later, this recording was also included in the Halliard’s CD Broadside Songs.

The Blue Water Folk sang Lancashire Fusiliers in 1972 on their Folk Heritage album All the Good Times.

Dave Burland sang Lancashire Lads and Going for a Soldier, Jenny in 1996 on his CD Benchmark. He noted:

The Lancashire Lads and Going for a Soldier, Jenny were broadsides which were reworked by a group called The Halliard, which had in its members Dave Moran and Nic Jones. Nic wrote the tune to Going for a Soldier, Jenny and Dave wrote the tune to The Lancashire Lads.

John Doyle sang Going for a Soldier, Jenny in 2014 on The Alt’s eponymous first album The Alt. He noted:

1 first heard this song from an English band called The Halliard whose members were Nic Jones, Dave Moran, and Nigel Paterson. An argument between a young man going to war and his soon to be ex-girl, this song was written by W.H. Bellamy and S. Nelson and published on broadsides by the F.D. Benteen Co., Baltimore in about 1840-1860.

Lyrics

Nic Jones sings Going for a Soldier, Jenny

I’m going for a soldier, Jenny,
I’m going o’er the rolling sea.
They’ve given me a golden guinea
Which they say has enlisted me.

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
And I’m off to fight for the army
As a Lancashire Fusilier,
Rolling my musket in my arms
Instead of my Jenny dear.

It’s no use to fall a-crying
Give your senseless weeping o’er
Many a day you’ve heard me sigh
You should’ve been kind before

What if heart and spirit’s sinking?
What if I should come to shame?
Be as it may: I’m thinking
You alone will be to blame.

Long and dearly I have loved you;
You must full well have known.
If I had not faithless proved you
Then I never had reckless grown.

Fare you well, the hours are a-flying;
It’s time that I was gone.
When next another heart you’re trying,
Jenny, look unto your own.