Child Ballad

John Renbourn “The Cuckoo”

by

“The Cuckoo” is a traditional English folk song, also sung in the United States, Canada, Scotland and Ireland. The song is known by many names, including “The Coo-Coo”, “The Coo-Coo Bird”, “The Cuckoo Bird”, “The Cuckoo Is a Pretty Bird”, “The Evening Meeting”, “The Unconstant Lover”, “Bunclody” and “Going to Georgia”. In the United States, the song is sometimes syncretized with the other traditional folk song “Jack of Diamonds”. Lyrics usually include the line (or a slight variation): “The cuckoo is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies; she brings us glad tidings, and she tells us no lies.”

This track is from singer/guitarist John Renbourn’s brilliant “Faro Annie” album, which often takes a folk-rock approach on American folk songs.

Donovan sings “Willie O’Winsbury” from 1970 demo

by

Donovan’s take on the traditional Willie O’Winsbury, Child Ballad 100 (Roud 64).

Willie O Winsbury is Child Ballad 100 (Roud 64). The song, which has numerous variants, is a traditional Scottish ballad that dates from at least 1775, and is known under several other names, including “Johnnie Barbour” and “Lord Thomas of Winesberry”.

Traditional lyrics

The king had been a prisoner

And a prisoner long in Spain

And Willy of the Winsbury

Has lain long with his daughter at home

“What ails you, what ails you, my daughter Janet?

Why you look so pale and wan?

Oh, have you had any sore sickness

Or yet been sleeping with a man?”

“I have not had any sore sickness

Nor yet been sleeping with a man

It is for you, my father dear

For biding so long in Spain”

“Cast off, cast off your berry-brown gown

You stand naked upon the stone

That I may know you by your shape

If you be a maiden or none”

And she cast off her berry-brown gown

She stood naked upon the stone

Her apron was low and her haunches were round

Her face was pale and wan

“Oh, was it with a lord or a duke or a knight

Or a man of birth and fame?

Or was it with one of my serving men

That’s lately come out of Spain?”

“No, it wasn’t with a lord or a duke or a knight

Nor a man of birth and fame

But it was with Willy of Winsbury

I could bide no longer alone”

And the king has called on his merry men all

By thirty and by three

Says, “Fetch me this Willy of Winsbury

For hanged he shall be”

But when he came the king before

He was clad all in the red silk

His hair was like the strands of gold

His skin was as white as the milk

“And it is no wonder”, said the king

“That my daughter’s love you did win

For if I was a woman as I am a man

My bedfellow you would have been

And will you marry my daughter Janet

By the truth of your right hand?

Oh, will you marry my daughter Janet?

I’ll make you the lord of my land”

“Oh yes, I will marry your daughter Janet

By the truth of my right hand

Oh yes, I will marry your daughter Janet

But I’ll not be the lord of your land”

And he’s mounted her on a milk-white steed

And himself on a dapple grey

He has made her the lady of as much land

As she shall ride in a long summer’s day

Sting “Cherry Tree Carol”

by

“The Cherry-Tree Carol” is a ballad with the rare distinction of being both a Christmas carol and one of the Child Ballads (no. 54).The song itself is very old, reportedly sung in some form at the Feast of Corpus Christi in the early 15th century.

The ballad relates an apocryphal story of the Virgin Mary, presumably while traveling to Bethlehem with Joseph for the census. In the most popular version, the two stop in a cherry orchard, and Mary asks her husband to pick cherries for her, citing her child. Joseph spitefully tells Mary to let the child’s father pick her cherries. – Wikipedia