I first heard, and subsequently learned, the Wild Rover in about 1962 from a recording by John Runge. It was a simple narrative song with no enthusiastic affronts. About twenty years ago, when I first met Lou Killen, he sang a very close variant and prefaced his presentation with a comment that he wished he'd never taught to "some friends."

A similar text is in "The Singing Island," MacColl-Seeger .

I rarely perform this song as the average audience will try to give it the clap -- Tom