Hay guys, Y U no like Sarah?

September 12, 2011 2:02 PM

Music filter: Just what is wrong with sister Sarah?

I can't believe I'm actually asking this question, but it has bugged me for a really long time...

In the song "Take Her Out of Pity" (mp3 link above by the Kingston Trio, lyrics below), why doesn't anyone like Sarah? Sally got married off just fine, even though she's apparently funny-looking. So why not Sarah? What's wrong with Sarah?

Either the answer is nothing, and it's just a song about nothing, or there's some hidden meaning in the lyrics that eludes me. Is there a hidden meaning? What is it?

Here are the lyrics:

I had a sister Sally, she was younger than I am.
Had so many sweethearts, she had to deny them.
But as for sister Sarah, you know she hasn't many.
And if you knew her heart, she'd be grateful for any.

Come a lands man, a pins man, a tinker or a tailor;
doctor, a lawyer, soldier, or sailor.
A rich man, a poor man, a fool or a witty,
don't let her die an old maid but take her out of pity.

We had a sister Sally, she was ugly and misshapen.
By the time she was sixteen years old she was taken.
By the time she was eighteen, a son and a daughter.
Sarah's almost twenty-nine, never had an offer.

Come a lands man...

She never would be scoldin'. She never would be jealous.
Her husband would have money to go to the alehouse.
He'd be there a-spendin', she'd be home a-savin'.
And I leave it up to you if she is not worth havin'.

The way I see it, Sarah's really nice. Why won't anyone love her?

The only questionable line is "and if you knew her heart, she'd be grateful for any," which for a while I interpreted as, "actually, Sarah's kind of a bitch, so she should be grateful for anyone to marry her," but that's not what it's saying. It's saying that she's really sweet and just wants to get married, doesn't matter to whom. (Which fits with the not scoldin' bit in the last stanza.) ...Just putting that out there in case any of you were going to point that line out as the reason.

posted by phunniemee to Media & Arts (18 answers total)

i see that line you pull out differently - i think it's saying she's desperate and not picky, which is a turn off. she doesn't care who likes her as long as someone does. but sally knows what she wants and so she's found it.
posted by nadawi at 2:10 PM on September 12, 2011

If Sarah were married there wouldn't be a song about her.
posted by 2bucksplus at 2:16 PM on September 12, 2011

Best answer: The way I see it, Sarah's really nice. Why won't anyone love her?

There are a lot of real-life women for whom this is also the case, too. Maybe Sarah - like us -- is just plain unlucky.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:17 PM on September 12, 2011

I think "Why don't guys like Sarah, what's wrong with her?" is simply the wrong question to ask. There's nothing wrong with her. The song's about the cruel whims of fate. If you've ever asked yourself, "How did she find love so quickly? How come I'm the perpetually single one?" then you might relate to this song. It's a lament in song form that sometimes perfectly good, desireable people just aren't lucky with love.
posted by naju at 2:21 PM on September 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Because, per the title line, she's desperate? When you'll take anyone, fool or wit, there's nothing special about anyone who does say Yes. The men are basically interchangeable.

But that might be a really modern interpretation, and if so, I'd go with EmpressCallipygos's interpretation -- just unlucky.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:22 PM on September 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I read it as Sister Sarah is the narrator of the song. With that view, the song is about her jealousy toward her little sister Sally, who probably isn't ugly at all. The narrator is asking the same question you are: "Why not me?"

But also the last line is such crap that it alone is probably the reason no one likes her. I've been around those types of people, and I didn't like them.
posted by rhapsodie at 2:28 PM on September 12, 2011

It seems like a fairly random lyric to me. That Sally in the first verse "Had so many sweethearts, she had to deny them" and yet in the next verse "was ugly and misshapen" doesn't seem especially likely, and doesn't imply a whole lot of lyrical consistency. So yeah, maybe just bad luck or just because it made a good story.
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:38 PM on September 12, 2011

Or else there is something horribly wrong with Sarah that is being hidden, and the narrator is serving as a dishonest "sleazy used-car salesman" for his sister.
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:39 PM on September 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I found out recently that Sally used to be a well-known nickname for girls named Sarah (although recently it has become a formal name by itself). Maybe they're the same person and it's one of those topsy-turvy folk song things (like the lyrics to Oh, Suzanna).
posted by muddgirl at 2:52 PM on September 12, 2011

Response by poster: Or else there is something horribly wrong with Sarah that is being hidden, and the narrator is serving as a dishonest "sleazy used-car salesman" for his sister.

See, that is more what I was hoping for. I've never tried to look at it from a modern angle, because that doesn't always work so well with folk songs. I mean, we don't have a lot of people piloting steamships down the Mississippi these days anymore, either.

I guess EmpressCallipygos' interpretation makes the most sense. (Still holding out for "she'd be home a-savin'" to be slang for "Sarah is actually a brain-sucking alien," though.)
posted by phunniemee at 2:57 PM on September 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The song is a version of the folk tune The Old Maid's Song. In many versions there are three sisters, and it is sung by Sarah in the first person. Sort of reinforces the idea that Sarah is simply unlucky in love. Her pretty sister and her ugly sister both taken long ago and for no apparent reason she remains single.
posted by Lorin at 3:12 PM on September 12, 2011

Maybe Sarah - like us -- is just plain unlucky.

The song's about the cruel whims of fate.

What they said. I've never heard this song before, but one quick glance at the lyrics and it was obvious to me that's what it is. (Unless there's some back story with the songwriter, and it's really about some specific person with some really weird habit or problem that they knew growing up, and she was this old spinster in their small town who was rumored to...whatever. But it's probably just the unlucky thing.)
posted by DestinationUnknown at 3:13 PM on September 12, 2011

_{Whoops, there might be music on that link...didn't even notice the popup for Quicktime. Sorry!}
posted by Lorin at 3:15 PM on September 12, 2011

Response by poster: Lorin: yaaay! Oh man, this is why I love folk songs so much. It's a whole turtles all the way down thing. It seems like there's always an earlier version of everything.

I think it was the fact that the only versions of the song I've ever heard have been sung by men that led me to think there was a hidden meaning in there. Used car salesman-like. But if the song was meant to be sung from Sarah's perspective, just being unlucky in love makes much more sense. The most obvious answer never even occurred to me before.

Thanks, guys. You have no idea how long this stupid song has nagged at me.
posted by phunniemee at 3:24 PM on September 12, 2011

Best answer: Well this is too cool not to add. This thread on mudcat.org links to a version published in 1880, some of which is definitely familiar:

[8] My sister, that's nothing so handsome as I am,
Had sixe or seven suters, and she did deny them;
Yet she before sixteene was luckily marry'd:
O Fates! why are things so unequally carry'd?

[9] My kinswoman Sisly, in all parts mis-shapen,
Yet she on a husband by fortune did happen
Before she was nineteene years old, at the furthest;
Among all my linage am I the unworthiest?
posted by Lorin at 3:46 PM on September 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Sweeeet!
posted by phunniemee at 3:49 PM on September 12, 2011

Yeah, this definitely sounds like the song is just a folk-tale precursor to "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me" -- the person in question complaining about their own luck.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:24 PM on September 12, 2011

I just had to pay the $5.00 and register to put in my two cents about this song, which has intrigued me also since my parents played the Kingston Trio version in the mid-60s... I think the answer is in the third verse, where the singing gets very expressive and intense and the guys says "She never would be scolding, she never would be jealous, her husband would have money to go to the alehouse - he'd be there a-spendin' and she'd be home a-savin', and I leave it up to you if she'd be not worth havin' " I think he's comparing the sisters and saying men would rather have the ugly sister since she a) doesn't scold; b) is never jealous; c) gives the husband money; d) lets him spend it in the alehouse; e) stays home; and f) saves money. By implication, the prettier sister doesn't do these things and that's why she's "almost 29 and never had an offer". I think it's only half serious, tongue-in-cheek, but tries to get the message out that no matter how pretty you may be, if you're not accomodating no-one will want to be with you. The "she" in the third verse is really referring to Sally, the pretty one, but since the guy is both sisters' brother, he's trying to sell Sarah by saying she has Sally's 'good' qualities also, though he knows it isn't true and in fact he has just nailed exactly why Sarah hasn't found anyone. It's a message to Sarah too, to try to be more accomodating, i.e. not such a bitch.
posted by Ivartshiva at 6:59 AM on October 8, 2011