Last Carter Songs Titled with Letter L

Hi,

My last Carter family post was so long it wouldn't let me include the last two L songs: Lover's Return and Lulu Walls.

Lover's Return is a tradtional folk song usually called "Too Late" or "Too Late You Have to Come Back to Me." It was recorded by the Carters in 1934 after ten previous recordings including one by Ernest Stoneman in 1928. The song is known in ballad index as The Last Farewell (The Lover's Return):

"So at last you have come back Since time at last has set you free...." The singer recalls his old love for the other -- but concludes that it is all over now: "No, no, you must not take my hand; God never gives us back our youth...."

Versions include: Randolph 761, "The Last Farewell" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 495,496 "The Last Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 761A)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 152-153, "And So You Have Come Back to Me" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 33-34, "Too Late" (1 text, 1 tune)

Lover's Return- Carter Family

And so you have come back to me
And say the old love's growing yet
You've tried through all these weary years
You've tried too vainly to forget.

CHORUS: No, no I cannot take your hand
God never gives us back our youth
The loving heart you slighted then
Was yours my friend in perfect truth

Farewell farewell now we must part
You never meant to do me wrong
God sent this anguish to my heart
To teach me to be brave and strong

Farewell I think I love you yet
As friend to friend God bless you dear
And guide you through these weary years
To where the skies are always clear

Lulu Walls is a song I included in my book, Bluegrass Picker's Song Book. I combinend the Carter's version with Bascom Lamar Lunsford's. The song is from the 1800s bu an unknown author ( Meade). It appears in the Jan. 1888 edition of Wehman's Collection of Songs. It was recorded by the Carters in 1929 and 1935.

Lulu Walls- Carter Family

One evening getting dark, we first met at the park
Sitting by the fountain all alone;
I lifted up my hat, and then began to chat
She said she'd love to see me at her home

Such a star I've never seen, she's as pretty as a queen
She's as perfect as an angel from above, I
f she'll only be my wife, I'll live happy all my life
With that aggravating beauty, Lulu Walls

If she were only mine, I would build a house so fine
Around it so many fences tall,
It would make me jealous free, that no one else but me
Could gaze on that beauty, Lulu Walls

One evening getting late, I met her at the gate
I asked her if she'd wed me in the fall,
She only turned away, and nothing would she say
That aggravating beauty, Lulu Walls

That's about it. We'll eventually go through all the orginal Carters songs,

Richard