Name: Phoebe to Phyllis
Duration: P00H04M31S
Description: Based on 'The Kissing Lasses of Yarmouth' (Roud Number: V8076, unknown print date) about women turning to prostitution in the face of poverty and worklessness. Taken from the Bodleian Broadside Ballad Archive.

Phoebe to Phyllis

from Neighbours and Sisters by Bird in the Belly

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about

Based on 'The Kissing Lasses of Yarmouth' (Roud Number: V8076, unknown print date) about women turning to prostitution in the face of poverty and worklessness. Taken from the Bodleian Broadside Ballad Archive.

lyrics

Come listen a while, a story I’ll tell
About lasses of pleasure that nearby do dwell
To tell our abode we are not ashamed
You’ll find us at Yarmouth right down to the lane

Says Phoebe to Phyllis “We’ll follow the game”
Although we are told it will bring us to shame
It’s hard to accept we’ll survive on our own
Why shouldn’t the lasses make cash of their own?

I can trust in my neighbours
I can trust in my sisters
When we’re down on our knees, with no-one to save us
We can trust in our neighbours and sisters

You’re welcome my gentlemen, pray now walk in
We’re from half a crown to a noggin of gin
We are not as stiff as the lasses in town
When trading is dead the price must come down

Old Colin, our favourite, a frolicsome spark
With Phoebe he played one night in the dark
He kissed her and hugged her and laid by her side
The spirit it moved her, she got up to ride

When our husbands come home and ask what we’ve done
To look at those cuckholds there will be some fun
We’ll plead for ourselves and make them believe
Our locks have grown rusty for want of a key

To Bridewell of late poor Phyllis was sent
And there for a while she was forced to repent
You have to admit that the whole thing’s a farce
Can’t work with her hands, and can’t live by her charms

credits

from Neighbours and Sisters, released October 18, 2019

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about

Bird in the Belly Brighton, UK

Bird in the Belly is a Brighton-based Folk group consisting of folk-duo Hickory Signals (Laura Ward and Adam Ronchetti), alt- folk singer-songwriter Ben Webb (Jinnwoo, Green Ribbons), and multi-instrumentalist and producer Tom Pryor. Together they collect little known and forgotten lyrics, poems and stories from around the UK, and set them to their own “hypnotically original compositions” (fRoots). ... more

birdinthebelly.com

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