PRETTY MARY
(Traditional - Driftwood)

Jimmie Driftwood - 1958


At the foot of yonder mountain
There runs a clear stream
At the foot of yonder mountain
There lives a fair queen

She's handsome, she's proper
And her ways are complete
And I ask no better pastime
Than to kneel at her feet

Her father don't like me
And I understand
He's promised Lord Randall
Her lily white hand

Lord Randall has silver
Lord Randall has gold
But she'd rather shiver
With me in the cold

Pretty Mary, pretty Mary
I'd give all I own
If I had pretty Mary
In the moonlight alone

Her father declares
I shall see her no more
Her mother forbids me
To knock on her door

They've locked her in a strong room
Where I've never been
And only Lord Randall
Is allowed to go in

I wish I was an eagle
Like an eagle I'd fly
I'd fly over the ocean
And the mountains tops high

I'd fly to her window
With a wild eagle scream
And take my pretty Mary
To the land of my dreams

Pretty Mary, pretty Mary
I'd give all I own
If I had Pretty Mary
In the moonlight alone

I'd take her to a cabin
On a mountain top wild
And care for Pretty Mary
Like she was my child

I'd fight the Lord Randall
If he ever came nie
For the love of pretty Mary
I gladly would die

Pretty Mary, pretty Mary
I'd give all I own
If I had Pretty Mary
In a home of my own


(Transcribed by Monique Adriaansen & Mel Priddle - December 2005)