The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #64416 Message #1054007
Posted By: Kevin Sheils
15-Nov-03 - 04:59 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: The Croppy Boy (from Barbara Dickson)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Barbara Dickson (version of Croppy Bo
Yes. I see the version in the other thread is fuller and has the steps up the ladder... lines, but there is even more in the Sarah Makem version. Before the verse about the clergyman she also has verses about stepping up the ladder and, first his aged mother is standing by and then his aged father, which links it closer to the Hangman/Pricklie Bush family than the DT verses.
Which, incidentally is why I used Sarah Makem's version as the opening track on my first Resonance 104.4FM programme followed by Ledbelly's Gallows Pole as I themed the show on comparing similar or related songs from both sides of the Pond and those two were as far apart but still connected as I could easily pull out of my collection.
I'm sure it must be the song referred to in the thread although Barbara Dickson doesn't appear to have recorded it (according to the web site) but it does fit in with her "traditional" style material so she may well have sung it way back.