Digital Tradition Mirror

Pretty Little Bird

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Pretty Little Bird

If I was a pretty little bird,
I would never build my nest on the ground;
I would build my nest in the highest oak tree*
Where the wild boys couldn't tear it down.

cho: Take me home, boys, tonight, take me home
     Take me home, boys, tonight, take me home
     Take me home, boys, tonight, for my head is gettin' light
     Take me home, boys, tonight, take me home

If I was a little honey-bee
All out through the fields I would roam;
I would steal one kiss from my true-love's lips
To sweeten the honey in the comb.

If I was a pretty little star
A-smiling down on the world,
I would shine my light on my true-love bright
And play on her beautiful curls.

I'm as free a little bird as I can be
I'm as free a little bird as I can be
Sittin' on the roadside, mournin' all my days
For nobody cares for me.

*or, I would build my nest in my true love's breast
alternative chorus:

     Take me home, little bird, take me home.
     Take me home, little bird, take me home.
     Take me home to my mother, she is sweeter than the other
     Take me home, little bird, take me home.

From Folk Songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Shellans
Collected from Ruby Vass, 1959

Note: There may be an Appalachian banjo picker that doesn't sing
this one, but I've never met him. RG

Recorded by Cousin Emmy
RG

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!