"In a well-publicised interview, John Lennon dismissed the 1960s folk scene in his own country, dismissing it as 'College students with pints of beer going hay-nonny nonny', but in the same breath, he praised Dominic Behan" -
    --   from Wikipedia entry on Dominic Behan.

Isn't it funny how ignoramuses as to true folk, like, it would appear, Lennon, whatever his other manifold talents, always go on about "Hay Nonny Nonny, Hay Nonny No", as if that was a common folk chorus! In fact, the only standard song that I can think of in which this refrain appears is not a folksong at all, and doesn't claim to be: "It was a Lover & His Lass" from Will's As You Like It. & I remember a rather good Cambridge student revue cod folksong from my student days, about laying off the drink while studying:

Come all you young students who hang around here,
Beware of bad women, beware of good beer

[chorus]
For Greene King and Tolly-o
Will not seem so jolly-o
When three years are gone-y
Hay Nonny, Hay Nonny

But can anyone actually think of an actual folksong, as opposed to one of these sort of avowed fakes & pastiches, which do actually include this chorus or burden or refrain? Blowed if I can!

≈Michael≈