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When I Was a Young Girl Lyrics

when I was a young girl I used to seek pleasure
when I was a young girl I used to drink ale
out of the ale house down into the jail house
my body's salvated and hell is my doom

come mama come papa and sit you down by me
come sit you down by me and pity my case
my poor head is aching my sad heart in breaking
my body's salvating and hell is my doom

please send for the preacher to come and pray for me
and send for the doctor to heal all my wounds
my poor head is aching my sad heart in breaking
my body's salvating and I'm bound to die

one morning one morning one morning in may
I saw this young lady all wrapped in white linen
all wrapped in white linen and called out "the plague"
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Cover art for When I Was a Young Girl lyrics by Feist

This is one of the more subtle songs on the "Let it die" album, in that you find yourself pretty much ignoring it when it's playing, but then humming it to yourself later. After listening to the lyrics, it's now one of my favorite songs on the album. It seems to be about a girl's teenage years when she went a bit wild and later regretted it. The last verse has me stumped though. Any ideas?

i think its about a girl whos a whore and end up having AIDS ( all wrap in white linen abd call out the plague)

Cover art for When I Was a Young Girl lyrics by Feist

That is completely true... it's a shame too... it really is a great song. The last verse has me a bit perplexed as well...

Cover art for When I Was a Young Girl lyrics by Feist

In various cultures (Muslim, and Jewish, for instance), an individual is wrapped in a white linen shroud at their death and buried. So maybe she's calling the doctor, preacher, etc to save her so she wouldn't end up dead and buried like the other lady.

Cover art for When I Was a Young Girl lyrics by Feist

I don't know what CD jacket you have, but in mine it says Plague.

Cover art for When I Was a Young Girl lyrics by Feist

It says plague in mine as well.

Cover art for When I Was a Young Girl lyrics by Feist

Yeah, I heard on a radio interview that Feist said this song was about dying from syphilis.

Cover art for When I Was a Young Girl lyrics by Feist

i love this song, but what does salvated mean? is it related to save?

Cover art for When I Was a Young Girl lyrics by Feist

This is a great great song, It brings up images of someone on Death Row or someone sentenced to death from a disease or otherwise.

A woman wrapped in white linen who calls out the plague. This makes me think of a Sin Eater. The Sin Eater's job is to free one who is dying of their sins by eating usually a piece of bread if I recall correctly symbolizing the sins of the condemned so they do not go to hell.

Cover art for When I Was a Young Girl lyrics by Feist

The last line should be "all wrapped in white linen and cold as the clay." It's a line from an old cowboy song called Streets of Laredo.

Then again, it does sound an awful lot like "called out the plague," so I'm going to guess Feist just misheard the lyrics when she incorporated them into this song.

Cover art for When I Was a Young Girl lyrics by Feist

I really love this song, but not this version of it. I like Barbara Dane's rendition a lot more, but cheers to Feist for making a somewhat obscure folk song about syphilis more popular.

 
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