BONNIE BLACK HARE [ BLACKHAR Tunefile BLACKHAR.mid -Tune and text from The Constant Lovers (ed. Frank Purslow, EFDS Publications, 1972).  Collected by Dr. Gardiner;tune and first verse from Thomas Jones of Portsmouth, Hampshire, in 1907.  Remainder of text from a broadside in the Bodleian Collection.  In verse 5 line 3, somebody has changed "put his balls in her ear" to "his balls he put near", which is more sensible, if less amusing.  There's also another verse not given, which fits between verses 3 and 4:

"I think you are deceitful, young maid", he did say,
"My bonny black hare I am told pass'd this way;
And you have decoy'd me, I vow and declare,
You shall go with me for to hunt the black hare."

BONNY BLACK HARE (2) filename[ BLACKHR2  No source named, but it appears to be A.L. Lloyd's version, which Martin Carthy later recorded and, after him, Fairport Convention.  The final verse is a little different, though; Carthy had:

My powder is wasted and my bullets all gone
My ramrod is limp and I cannot fire on

The tune (almost certainly "adapted" by Lloyd) is very different from Thomas Jones'.  Midi made from Carthy's recording.

TWO BROTHERS filename[ TWOBROS  Transcribed from a Jean Redpath record.  It's been remarked that this version fits ROLLING OF THE STONES filename[ ROLLSTON; both tunes given with it, ROLLSTON.mid and ROLLSTON2.mid, are indeed close to Redpath's version, which she learned from Jeannie Robertson.  Midi made from the transcription in Jeannie Robertson: Emergent Singer, Transformative Voice (James Porter & Herschel Gower, 1995) with most of the gracenotes omitted.  Generally I leave decorations in, as it gives a better idea of the Source Singer's approach to interpretation, but I think that in this case it might have been a bit confusing for the casual listener.

THE UPS AND DOWNS filename[ UPSNDOWN  Text from the recording by Steeleye Span.  They got it from Marrowbones (Frank Purslow, EFDS, 1965); midi made from the notation in that book.  The song was collected by Dr. Gardiner from Mr. E. Frankham of Petersfield, Hampshire, in 1908.  Purslow remarks, "It has been suggested by James Reeves that the Ups and Downs represent the 69th. Foot Regiment, 69 being a number that reads the same when written upside down."

BLACK, WHITE, YELLOW AND GREEN filename[ BLWHYGR  From a recording by Roy Harris, with no indication as to what tune he may have used.  Midi made from a recording by Shirley Collins, who sung it to a version of The Black Joke, a Morris tune.  It should be noted that what looks like the second verse in the DT version is in fact the chorus.

RANTIN` ROVIN` ROBIN filename[ RRROBIN  No source named.  But for a few altered words, this is Robert Burns' poem, written in 1787 and set originally to the tune of Dainty Davie; see DAINTY DAVIE, filename[ DNTDAVE (DNTDAVE.mid).  According to John & Angus MacPherson (The Poetical Works of Robert Burns, date unknown) it was later more generally sung to Oh Gin Ye Were Dead, Gudeman.  I've made a midi of that from the notation in Burns: Poems & Songs (ed. James Kinsley, 1969), as an alternative.  Kinsley gives a final verse not in the DT file:

Guid faith quo' scho I doubt you Stir,
Ye'll gar the lasses lie aspar;
But twenty fauts ye may hae waur-
So blessins on thee, Robin.

It should be noted that what looks like the second verse in the DT is in fact the chorus.

In verse 2, "Oor Monarch's hindmost year but ane, Was five and twenty days begun'" refers to Jan. 25th 1759, the date of Burns' birth.

BONNY FARDAY filename[ BONFARDY  A version of Babylon (The Bonny Banks o Fordie, Child #14); the notes mention several sources, but this is the version noted by John Jacob Niles in 1932 from the singing of Preston Little (prompted by Roscoe Phipps) of Hazard, Kentucky, and published in The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles (1961).  Two midis made made from the notation in that book; [a] melody line only, and [b] Niles' rather dramatic harmonisation.

THE SMART SCHOOLBOY filename[ FALSKNT5  Version collected by John Jacob Niles in 1935 from Preston Wolford at Dot, Va., USA, and published in The Ballad Book (1961).

WILLIE'S LADY filename[ WILILAD2  Presumably transcribed from Ray Fisher's recording.  The tune to which she set it, Son Ar Chiste, is at WILLIE'S LADY filename[ WILILADY, which is a transcription of Martin Carthy's English re-write (WILILADY.mid).  Ray Fisher's text, so far as I know, is a shortened re-write of the only text in Child; this came from Anna Brown (around 1783) with a melody transcribed by her nephew, whose musical theory wasn't much better than mine.  Midi made from Bronson's conjectural reading of it; the interpretation of the two trills is my own guess.  It's not an unattractive melody, but is only two lines long; the repetition involved in singing the whole ballad to it would bore the modern listener quite quickly, so I can see why Ray Fisher would set it to a longer, more dramatic tune, not dis-similar in essence but more developed.  Bronson thought that it was probably sung with an interleaved refrain (Mrs. Brown & the Ballad, California Folklore Quarterly, vol.IV, no.2 [1945]), but there is no record of any.

FLOWERS IN THE VALLEY filename[ FINEFLW2  Taken from a record by Finbar and Eddie Furey, who have garbled the lyrics so badly that the song doesn't make very much sense.  Of course, they may have learnt it that way.  There may be traditional Irish versions for all I know, but this one looks as if it derives from the version that Baring Gould found in Cornwall, and published (in A Garland of Country Song, 1895) set to a tune that he had heard Mr. Gilbert of The Falcon Inn at Mawgan in Pyder, Cornwall, sing to a different -though perhaps related- song.  This is the tune that the Fureys use, though they have loosened the rhythm quite a bit.  I've made a midi from Baring Gould's transcription, and will post the full text he gives in a separate thread.  The transcriber of the DT text has laid out the stanzas in a way that gives little indication of where the refrain (not chorus in this case) goes; see  Flowers in the Valley  for clarification.

Malcolm