This past summer at Folkworks Summer School, Claire Mann taught us a version of the Wild Rover which used a different tune to the one we all came to know and love.

It was in a minor mode and gave the song a whole different feel; more contemplative and less "in your face". Here is an mp3 of the tune. Was this the tune or something like the tune that Jim Carroll heard?

The verses were the same as in the recordings mentioned above but the chorus was different;

Wild roving I'll give over,
Wild roving I'll give o'er
And I'll ne'er be called the Wild Rover no more.

I also had a look at the Broadsides on the Bodleian Library website. They were interesting. There seemed to be two main variants of the song but neither was really that different from what we know now.

I think the two tunes provide an interesting example of how a tune can affect the "feel" of a song.