About the Song
HE: If you'll marry me, I'll give you everything I have
You won't ever need to earn a penny
I will be your man, and the ring upon your hand
Will tell the world that you're my darling Annie
D A7 G A7 / D A7 G - / 1st/ D G D -
SHE: Thank you love, I'll be glad to add your wages onto mine
I can work and keep myself so handy
You can be my man without a golden wedding-band
And I'll tell the world that I'm your Annie
For it's love, love will hold us, love is everything
Who could dream of anything that's better?
Not the vow, not the string, not the golden wedding-ring
Just you, love, you and me together
HE: If you'll marry me, I will give to you my name
It will shield you from idle talk and envy
For when you play the game you're secure from any blame
Not ashamed to be my darling Annie
SHE: Thank you love, I'm grateful for the offer of your name
But my own will serve as well as any
I don't like the game and the rules would make me tame
Not the same girl you married, not your Annie (chorus)
HE: If you'll marry me, we'll get a house and settle down
A place to call our own, so neat and canny
With a family and a home, love, you'll never feel alone
Left on the shelf, a spinster, darling Annie
SHE: Dearest love, we could surely find a place to call our own
All we need is influence and money
But I don't need a ring, or a house or anything
To become a mother or a granny (chorus)
HE: If you'll marry me, I will be faithful unto death
You will have all my love and my attention
We will care, we will share life in sickness and in health—
And when I die you can draw the widow's pension
SHE: I will live with you, and I'll be faithful unto death,
We will share all the burdens we must carry;
We'll always be free, me for you and you for me—
But when we're old, love, maybe we should marry! (chorus)
lyrics & music by Peggy Seeger, © 1992. All rights reserved.
On the 1998 Peggy Seeger CD "Period Pieces: Women's Songs for Men & Women". It is also included on "Folkways Record of Contemporary Songs" as written by Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger released on LP in 1973 and on CD in 2004.