We Americans learned the song on the Folk-Legacy Fashioned in the Clay album by Gordon Bok, Ann Mayo Muir, and Ed Trickett. Here's their recording and my transcription of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFH_mhiUpwI

JOHN O' DREAMS
(Bill Caddick)

When midnight comes, good people homeward tread,
Seek now your blankets and your feather bed;
Home is the rover, his journey's over.
Yield up the darkness to old John o' Dreams,
Yield up the darkness to old John o' Dreams.

Across the hills the sun has gone astray,
Tomorrow's cares are many dreams away;
Home is the rover, her journey's over.
Yield up the nighttime to old John o' Dreams,
Yield up the nighttime to old John o' Dreams.

Both man and master in the night are one,
All things are equal when the day is done;
The Prince and the Plowman, the slave and the freeman,
All find their comfort in old John o' Dreams,
All find their comfort in old John o' Dreams.

Now as you sleep the dreams come winging clear;
The hawks of morning cannot harm you here.
Sleep is a river, flows on forever,
And for your boatman choose old John o' Dreams,
And for your boatman choose old John o' Dreams.


Almost the same as what's in the Digital Tradition. I guess we must have gotten the DT lyrics from Bok-Muir-Trickett.

Still, does anyone have the definitive Bill Caddick lyrics?

While we're waiting for definitive Bill Caddick lyrics, here's a nice performance by Rachel Ries & Anaïs Mitchell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm3ofBThXP8