“Nottamun Town”, also known as “Nottingham Fair” or “Fair Nottamon Town”, is an American folk song. Although sometimes suggested to be an English song of medieval origin, and still described as such in some popular works, it is more likely derived from popular 18th and 19th century printed broadsides, with the most likely immediate precursor being the 19th century “Paddy’s Ramble to London”.
The British musicologist Cecil Sharp collected the best-known version of the song in 1917 in the area of the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield. Josiah Combs had previously collected it in the same area, and other versions were found later in the century by Creighton in Nova Scotia, by Randolph in Missouri, and even in New Jersey. However, very closely related songs, such as the stage comedy song “The Old Grey Mare”, were in fact well known in print form in America during the 19th century.
FAIRPORT CONVENTION’S VERSION
In 1969, the groundbreaking British folk-rock band Fairport Convention recorded Nottamun Town for their album What We Did on Our Holidays. Lead vocals were provided by the legendary Sandy Denny.
JEAN RITCHIE’S VERSION
A decade before Fairport covered the song, Jean Ritchie of Viper in Perry County, Kentucky, sang Nottamun Town on her 1954 album Kentucky Mountain Songs.
Jean Ritchie noted on the first album:
“Uncle Jason Ritchie, one of the “big singers” at play-parties and other social gatherings, passed on to us this song with its strange combination of nonsense words and ethereal tune. We never knew where it came from nor what it meant, but in England I found the same kind of magic, upside-down, inside-out song being sung as part of the ancient, ritualistic Mummers’ Plays. I am convinced that Nottamun Town had such an origin.”
Roger McGuinn and Jean Ritchie again recorded Nottamun Town in 2001 on Roger McGuinn’s Treasures From the Folk Den
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BOB DYLAN’S VERSION, RENAMED “MASTER OF WAR”
Bob Dylan borrowed the tune of Nottamun Town for his song Masters of War. The song had been in Ritchie’s family for generations, and Ritchie requested a writing credit for her arrangement. In a legal settlement, Dylan’s lawyers paid Ritchie $5,000 against any further claims.
Shirley Collins also borrowed Nottamun Town when the she was collecting folksongs in England with Alan Lomax. She recorded it with Davy Graham in 1964 for their album Folk Roots, New Routes.
Fairport bandmember Ashley Hutchings commented in his songbook A Little Music:
[Nottamun Town is more than a nonsense song,] probably an old magic song using the device of riddles. The “back-handed awk’ard talk” resembles the language of mummers plays. As an old Kentuckian told Jean Ritchie: “If ’twas understood, then the good luck and the magic be lost.” But who can resist a riddle? So, at the risk of losing good luck and magic, perhaps I could start the ball rolling by suggesting that the part which begins “Sat down on a hard, cold frozen stone” might refer to a cemetery?
Some explicitly sexual references are said to have been self-censored out of the song by the folk.
BERT JANSCH VERSION
Bert Jansch sang Nottamun Town in 1966 on his Transatlantic album Jack Orion. Bert’s version (below) hardly strays a note from the one which was produced in ’54, “enhanced” only by what sounds like some extra, superfluous, acoustic bass lines.
Theories abound as to the meaning of the song, but two are generally accepted as probable: i) That it derives from the Feast of Fools or Mummers’ Plays and their absurd topsy-turvy worlds. or ii) That it refers to the English Civil War. In this war, Charles I of England raised his first army around Nottingham and it may be a corruption of that city’s name that gives the song its title.
TRADITIONAL LYRICS
In fair Nottamun Town not a soul would look up
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down
To show me the way to fair Nottamun Town.
I rode a grey horse, a mule roany mare
Grey mane and grey tail, a green stripe down her back
Grey mane and grey tail, a green stripe down her back
There wa’nt a hair on her be-what was coal black.
She stood so still, she threw me to the dirt.
She tore my hide and bruised my shirt
From saddle to stirrup I mounted again
And on my ten toes I rode over the plain.
Met the King and the Queen, and a company more
A-Riding behind and a-marching before
Come a stark naked drummer a-beating the drum
With his heels in his bosom come a-marching along.
They laughed and they smiled, not a soul did look gay
They talked all the while, not a word did they say
I bought me a quart to drive gladness away
And to stifle the dust, for it rained the whole day.
Sat down on a hard, hot cold frozen stone,
Ten thousand stood ’round me, yet it’s alone
Took my hat in my hands for to keep my head warm,
Ten thousand got drownded that never was born.
Fairport Convention sing Nottamun Town
In Nottamun Town not a soul would look up,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down,
To show me the way to fair Nottamun Town.
Met the King and the Queen, and a company more
Come a-walking behind and a-riding before
Come a stark naked drummer a-beating the drum
With his hands on his bosom, come marching along.
Sat down on a hard, hot cold frozen stone,
Ten thousand stood ’round me, yet I was alone
Took my hat in my hands for to keep my head warm,
Ten thousand got drownded that never was born.
(repeat first verse)
Sources: Wikipedia; The Jukebox Rebel; Mainly Norfolk