LYRICAL REWRITES: THE BLACK VELVET BAND
December 23, 2020
[NOTE: This is a new version of a traditional folk song collected from singers in Ireland, Australia, England, Canada and the United States and recorded many times over the years, perhaps most famously in the 1960s by the Irish Rovers as the B-side of their hit single “The Unicorn.” The original version described how a young man was tricked into committing a crime then sentenced for transportation to Australia, a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century; this new version is a partially fictionalized account of someone I knew as a teenager, whose first experience with love wasn't quite what he'd hoped it would be.]
The Black Velvet Band
(Traditional; new lyrics by John Allen Small)
Chorus:
Her eyes, they shone just like diamonds;
You'd think she was queen of the land.
And her hair hung over her shoulder,
Tied up with a black velvet band.
In a Illinois village called Bradley
Is where as a lad I’d be found,
And days of both sorrow and happiness
I spent in that odd little town.
I was loved by my friends and relations,
But I spent much of my time alone
Reading my books and writing poetry
And dreaming of a girl of my own.
(Repeat Chorus)
I met her when I started high school…
The prettiest girl there, by far.
She was a full three years older than me,
And she had her very own car.
Her pa was a retired preacher,
Her ma was a sickly housewife…
Her family had secrets great and dark
That had pretty well messed up her life.
(Repeat Chorus)
When she smiled at me I was smitten;
I fell deep in love then and there,
But when I told her she merely laughed
And acted like she didn't care.
She let me hold her and kiss her;
She taught me how to be a man.
But when I pledged my heart she laughed again
And went off to bed with my friend.
(Repeat Chorus)
My friend nearly cried when he told me;
He claimed she'd betrayed him as well.
I just walked away - but as I left
I said they could both go to hell.
I felt like my heart had been ripped out;
I thought I'd be alone all my days.
But Fate, he had other plans for me
And my one true love soon came my way.
(Repeat Chorus)
So my story has a happy ending:
My one true love became my wife.
We’ve been together for all these years
And it's been a jolly good life.
But if I can make a confession:
My thoughts stray back there now and then,
And sometimes I still see her in my dreams
Wearing only that black velvet band.
(Repeat Chorus twice)
Posted by John Allen Small. Posted In : Song Lyrics
John A. Small is an award-winning newspaper journalist, columnist and broadcaster whose work has been honored by the Oklahoma Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, the National Newspaper Association, and the Oklahoma Education Association. He and his wife Melissa were married in 1986; they have two sons, Joshua Orrin (born 1991) and William Ian (born 1996).
Mr. Small is the News Editor and columnist for the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, a weekly newspaper headquartered in Tishomingo, OK. He obtained his nickname, "Bard of the Lesser Boulevards," from a journalism colleague - the late Phil Byrum - in recognition of the success of his popular newspaper column, "Small Talk." (In addition to the many awards the column itself has received over the years, a radio version of "Small Talk" earned an award for "Best Small Market Commentary" from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1998.)
John was born in Oklahoma City in 1963; lived in the Bradley-Bourbonnais-Kankakee area of Illinois for most of the next 28 years (with brief sojourns in Texas and Athens, Greece, thrown in to break up the monotony); then returned to his native state in 1991, where he currently resides in the Tishomingo/Ravia area. He graduated from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in 1981, and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais in 1991. The years between high school and college were a period frought with numerous exploits and misadventures, some of which have become the stuff of legend; nobody was hurt along the way, however, which should count for something.
In addition to his professional career as a journalist he has published two short story collections: "Days Gone By: Legends And Tales Of Sipokni West" (2007), a collection of western stories; and "Something In The Air" (2011), a more eclectic collection. He was also a contributor to the 2005 Locus Award-nominated science fiction anthology "Myths For The Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe," edited by Win Scott Eckert. In additon he has written a stage play and a self-published cookbook; served as project editor for a book about the JFK assassination entitled "The Men On The Sixth Floor"; and has either published or posted on the Internet a number of essays, stories and poems.
He has also won writing awards from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the National Library of Poetry. He is a past president of the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce in Tishomingo; was a charter member and past president of the Johnston County Reading Council, the local literacy advocacy and "friends of the library" organization; served as Johnston County's first-ever Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator in 1994-95; served two terms as chairman of the Johnston County (OK) Democratic Party; and has taught journalism classes for local Boy Scout Merit Badge Fairs. He is a member of the New Wold Newton Meteorics Society.
