Frank Munn - Lady Divine

Lady Divine is the theme song for 1929 silent film "The Divine Lady". Composed by Nat Shilkret and sung by tenor Frank Munn. There's not much information available on Frank Munn but I managed to find Frank's obituary on Time magazine online, which helps getting a better picture of who he was.


Visit the blog Vitaphone Varieties for plenty of information on old movie soundtracks.

Years of desire and wanting
Days that no pleasure knew
Love, dreams and fancy taunting
And then at last I found you

The rose of love soft caressing
Your lips, oh lady divine
My heart ? confessing
With hope is whispering today

Your eyes, your smile find me longing
To draw your breast to mine
?
And hear you saying you are my lady divine

Tonight You Belong To Me

This popular american song, written in 1926 by Billy Rose and Lee David, was a hit for Gene Austin in 1927.




In 1956, a new version with shorter lyrics was recorded by Lawrence Welk and The Lennon Sisters, reaching #15 on the Billboard charts in September.




Another delightful cover was made in the same year, by sister singing duo Patience and Prudence, who were, respectively, 14 and 11 years old. It charted #4, also in September.




I know (I know)
You belong to somebody new
But Tonight you belong to me
Although (although) we're apart
You're part of my heart
And tonight you belong to me

Way down by the stream
How sweet it will seem
Once more just to dream
In the moonlight
My honey I know (I know)
With the dawn that you will be gone
But tonight you belong to me

Way down, way down along the stream
How very, very sweet it will seem
Once more just to dream
In the silvery moonlight
My honey, I know (I know)
With the dawn that you will be gone
But tonight you belong to me
Just to little old me

Dick Justice - Henry Lee

Another song from the Anthology of American Folk Music;  another tragic story. 
Typical "if I don't get you, nobody else will" twisted situation.

Interesting fact:

In case you wonder how a pen-knife could be so fatal, it was originally a "weapon knife," pronounced "weepin' knife," from whence "wee pen-knife," and an easy verbal jump to "little pen-knife."

(from this page, which has more information on the song :
 Remembering the Old Songs )

there is a well known version by Nick Cave and PJ Harvey. I find the lalala, lalali part rather irritating, but that's just my personal opinion. It can be viewed here.


"Get down, get down, little Henry Lee, and stay all night with me.
The very best lodging I can afford will be fare better'n thee."
"I can't get down, and I won't get down, and stay all night with thee,
For the girl I have in that merry green land, I love far better'n thee."

She leaned herself against a fence, just for a kiss or two;
With a little pen-knife held in her hand, she plugged him through and through.
"Come all you ladies in the town, a secret for me keep,
With a diamond ring held on my hand I'll never will forsake."

"Some take him by his lily-white hand, some take him by his feet.
We'll throw him in this deep, deep well, more than one hundred feet.
Lie there, lie there, loving Henry Lee, till the flesh drops from your bones.
The girl you have in that merry green land still waits for your return."

"Fly down, fly down, you little bird, and alight on my right knee.
Your cage will be of purest gold, in deed of property."
"I can't fly down, or I won't fly down, and alight on your right knee.
A girl would murder her own true love would kill a little bird like me."

"If I had my bend and bow, my arrow and my string,
I'd pierce a dart so nigh your heart your wobble would be in vain."
"If you had your bend and bow, your arrow and your string,
I'd fly away to the merry green land and tell what I have seen."

Buell Kazee - The Butcher's boy/ The Railroad Boy

This song appeared on the influential Anthology of American Folk Music (1952)

And over my coffin, place a snow white dove
To warn this world that I died for love

sad; sad
 
sung by Buell Kazee (1900-1976)

and also by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan




Too bad I can't find the one I heard the other night, by this band. It was better than this one above. I think.


Lyrics as performed by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, Hughes Stadium, Colorado
University, Fort Collins, CO, 23 May 1976,
transcribed by Manfred Helfert.

She went upstairs to make her bed
And not one word to her mother said.
Her mother she went upstairs too
Saying, 'Daughter, oh daughter, what's troublin' you?':

'Oh mother, oh mother, I cannot tell
That railroad boy that I love so well.
He courted me my life away
And now at home will no longer stay.'
'There is a place in yonder town
Where my love goes and he sits him down.
And he takes that strange girl on his knee
And he tells to her what he won't tell me.'
Her father he came home from work
Sayin', 'Where is my daughter, she seems so hurt'
He went upstairs to give her hope
An' he found her hangin' by a rope.
He took his knife and he cut her down

And on her bosom these words he found:
'Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Put a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast, put a snow white dove
To warn the world that I died of love.