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Pretty Polly

from Brian's Dream by Jemmy Joe

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This is an old song. Three hundred years old old. A traditional English murder ballad, you can find around three hundred different recordings of it, if not double that. I think I myself have recorded it on my first album, which I have intentionally scrubbed from the internet. I've played the song for maybe two decades and it's grown with me, musically. I wonder if I'll ever make a new version than this one, as its been very simple and poorly sung, its been a stylized banjo song, its been folk punk and now this. I love adapting old songs as I grow in ability and taste, but maybe this is it for this tune. Maybe?

Since I've been playing this song for long, I've been in many conversations about murder ballads. Being a part of the radical left, I've heard many people critique the genre as always painting women as victims. "Can't we hear some murder ballads about women killing men?"

Firstly, just so you know, you're in good company. Every feminist informed lover of folk music has said this. Maybe it's even a cliche.

Secondly, those songs exist and continue to be written. It's a cliche in pop country that men songs are about trucks, country and beer and women sing songs about killing their husbands. Though the people who make those jokes probably don't actually listen to modern country, but it's there. And it's there in the traditional songs if you want to look for it, though obviously more rare.

Lastly, I think this criticism ignores what these songs were written for. A folk song was not written to merely entertain, but to instruct. Songs are sung to teach and make cultural commentary today, and that was doubly true before our modern age. Songs were a way to tell news stories, to give guidance on how to live right and to warn of troubles that can happen in life. The fact there are so many songs about a man killing a woman he is sweet on is no coincidence. It was people saying to young ladies: don't go with Willie into the woods! That is still a lesson that is still being sung. If art is to instruct the new generation, time and time again, telling women that sweet talking men can be a great danger is a lesson that sadly needs to be repeated. Which is why I changed the last verse of the song.

lyrics

Polly, pretty Polly, come along with me
Polly, pretty Polly, come along with me
Before we get married/ some please to see

Jumped up behind him and away they go
Jumped up behind him and away they go
Down to the valley/ The forest below

Went a little further and what did they spy?
Went a little further and what did they spy?
But a new grave/ with a spade laying by

"Willie, oh Willie, I'm afraid of your ways.
Willie, oh Willie, I'm afraid of your ways.
I'm so afraid I have led you astray."

"Polly, pretty Polly, you guessed just about right.
Polly, pretty Polly, yo guessed justabout right.
I dug your grave for the most of last night."

Stabbed her in the heart and the blood it did flow
Stabbed her in the heart and the blood it did flow
And pretty Polly fell to her grave below

A debt to the devil we all must pay
A debt to the devil we all must pay
For killing pretty Polly and running away

credits

from Brian's Dream, released November 24, 2023

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Jemmy Joe Olympia, Washington

Jemmy Joe is a twin. An unreliable narrator. An acquired taste. Mixing traditional folk, jazz harmonic taste and a sardonic optimism, Jemmy Joe has been making music for no one his entire, god damn adult life. Though he has very little to show for it, it is the train he is on and will not be jumping off any time soon. ... more

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