Jon I've now looked at all of the oral versions I have access to and can make a few observations. There are 2 versions that form intermediate stages between the original in Charmer and the later 'All for me grog' versions. All but one of the oral versions commence with the catalogue of clothing items. The closest to the original is the one collected by Alfred Williams from Mrs E. Clark of Minety, Wiltshire, c1910. What is odd is that he didn't give her full version of the chorus in FSUT (p296). I am a roving blade, My fortune it is made, If ever I get rich it is a wonder; I've sported all my means Among the little queans, And now I've got permission for to plunder. Fol the rol the riddle rol, The riddle rol the rido, Ale, ale, good brown ale, Good brown ale and tobacco. Now this coat that I've got on, It's ragged and it's torn, And my boots they've been out in all weathers, And cursed are the soles, For they are full of holes, And so are the upper leathers. All of this is quite close to the original looking particularly at stanzas 1, 3 and 6. Now we have to bewail the fact that Williams did not note down any tunes. However the next version collected much more recently does have a tune; apart from which all of the versions I have looked at seem to be versions of the same tune and I see no reason to suppose that they are not of the original tune. Have you compared the tune in Oswald? I don't sight read music but I can usually tell if it's a version of a known tune. The second version is close to other modern versions but the chorus is of interest. It is called 'All through the Ale' and was collected by an old mate of mine, Roy Harris of Notts Alliance, sadly no longer with us, but he was a regular on Mudcat (Burl). He got it from a Mrs Smedley of Matlock, Derbyshire, in 1965. It has a similar boots stanza to Mrs Clark's version above. (upper leathers). Chorus runs: All through the ale, The confounded ale, All through the ale and tobacco, With a whack fol the day, Fol the diddle fol the day, All through the ale and tobacco. As you can see the 2 parts of the chorus have been exchanged in order in this version and this must surely be how the common later chorus has evolved, which very much leads me to believe the probability that the original chorus was something like Mrs Clark's. The 'I spent all my tin on the lasses drinking gin' must surely be a later addition.
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