The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #107032   Message #2216103
Posted By: Newport Boy
15-Dec-07 - 05:09 PM
Thread Name: Chords Req: freeborn man of the travelling people
Subject: RE: Chord Req: freeborn man of the travelling peop
The chords linked to above are rather disappointing. I've always sung this to chords published in "100 Folk and New Songs" by Alasdair Clayre - I think about 1968. I only have about 20 pages left of the 180 or so original. The rest have been lost stolen over the years.

I'm a (A)freeborn man of the (Bm)travelling people
Got no (E7)fixed address with nomads I am (A)numbered.
Country (E)lanes and byways were (A)always (D)my (A)way
(Bm)Never fancied being (G)lum- (A)bered.

I usually drop it a tone to G.

Listening again to the original Radio Ballad, I realise that I (and most other singers I have heard) take the song much more slowly than the original. The tune in the DT is even slower, but taking that as 100, a tempo of about 150 is close to the original.

For the first time, I noticed that the beat is that of a trotting horse, and Peggy Seeger's banjo accompaniment has just that feeling.

Phil