The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #1153 Message #4073589
Posted By: Nigel Parsons
29-Sep-20 - 08:12 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Johnny Todd
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Johnny Todd
Guest Ann Hinchliffe asks for the Singing Together version. That's my cue I think. This is the version (with time change) from Singing Together which appeared in Autumn 1968 & Spring 1980 The words differ slightly from those already in the DT
JOHNNY TODD Trad (English)
Johnny Todd, he took a notion For to sail the ocean wide And he left his true love behind him Weeping by the Liverpool tide
For a week, she wept full sorely Tore her hair and wrung her hands Then she met with another sailor Walking on the Liverpool sands
‘O fair young maid are you a weeping For your Johnny gone to sea? If you wed with me tomorrow I will kind and constant be.’
‘I will buy you sheets and blankets I'll buy you a wedding ring You shall have a gilded cradle For to rock your baby in.’
Johnny Todd came back from sailing Sailing o’er the ocean wide, But he found that his fair and false one Was another sailor's bride
All young men who go a-sailing Or to fight the foreign foe, Don’t you leave your love like Johnny Marry her before you go.
X: 1 T: Johnny Todd M: 2/4 L: 1/8 C: Trad (England) Z: NP 29/09/2020 K: G d2B2| d2B2| GB dd\ ee dB| GA d3/d/| cB A2| GB d2|[M:3/4] G3/B/ AG FD| [M:2/4] GB d3/A/| c/c/B G2|| w: | | John-ny Todd, he took a no-tion For to sail the o-cean wide And he left his true love be-hind him Weep-ing by the Li-ver-pool tide
Sourced from Singing Together. The words & music in both issues containing this song are the same (not always the case with Singing Together). The music, with first verse, can be viewed by copy/pasting from "X:1" to "Li-ver-pool tide" into an ABC converter such as the one here: Mandolintab.net NP