Origins: Anathea (from Judy Collins)

Subject: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: lghriver
Date: 28 Jan 97 - 09:40 PM

I'm looking for the lyrics to a song that starts something like "Anathea, stole a stallion, stole it from the misty mountains, and they chased him and they caught him, and in iron chains they bound him." It goes on about how his sister goes to the judge to save him though he tells her not to, and "from his golden bed at midnight, she did hear the gallows groaning." Then she curses the judge, a most magnificent curse. This has been bugging me for years, last time I heard it was in Circle in the Square in N.Y., way pre-hippie days even. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From:
Date: 29 Jan 97 - 11:07 AM

lghriver: The song is on an old Judy Collins album- I believe it's titled Judy Collins - 3. I can dig up the lyrics if you'll e-mail me where to send them or if you prefer and Dick G agrees I'll put them in DT

Les Blank

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 29 Jan 97 - 08:25 PM

Hi- It's already in the database. Try searching for any phrase if you don't get a hit on the title. [Stole a stallion] works fine.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: belter
Date: 31 Jan 97 - 01:58 PM

I had the darndest time finding it. It was under the title Anna Thea.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 01 Feb 97 - 09:43 PM

Hi- As I"ve often said, song names are a snare and a delusion. The easiest search would be for "stallion", or "stole a stallion."

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: belter
Date: 03 Feb 97 - 01:01 PM

for some reason the computer didn't like stole a stallion or stallion and I didn't get any hits untill I tried stole

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 03 Feb 97 - 11:51 PM

Hi Belter- I just tried a search for stole a stallion and got a hit; then tried the phrase [stole a stallion] and got it again; then tried just stallion and got 8 hits, including Anna Thea.

Don't know what went wrong when you tried it.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: belter
Date: 04 Feb 97 - 09:29 AM

computers are funny that way. It could have been my computer or mabee the server was busy at the nanosecond I hit return. or who knows what.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From:
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 01:42 AM

Lazlo Faro stole a stallion Stole it from the misty mountain And they chased him and they caught him And in Iron chains they bound him. Word was brought to Anathea That her brother was in Prison etc

I'm looking for the verses about the judge Who dies of a nasty disease.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: MMario
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 01:45 AM

guest, have you checked in the Digital Tradition as mentioned above? The verses there do tell about the judge dying of a dreadful disease

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Pene Azul
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 02:03 AM

ANNA THEA

(also e-mailed)

PA

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Pene Azul
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 02:16 AM

Hmmm. The e-mail bounced back. Oh well, I tried.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: kendall
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 08:57 AM

I heard Gordon Bok sing this 40 years ago, and the guys name was LAZLO. It was also 7 years, not 13.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Anglo
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 09:18 AM

I've heard it as Lazlo Feher, and/or Anna Feher, (though I'm not sure of the spelling). I think Julie Felix recorded it in England and got the hit there, and maybe Judy Collins learned it from that, though I'm not sure. It's a translation from the Hungarian, by Bert Lloyd. I've heard Suzanne Szasz sing the original.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: celticblues5
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 10:23 PM

It's in the Judy Collins songbook. The verse about the judge dying (and this is off the top of my head, because I don't have access to the book at the moment) is -

Cursed be the judge so cruel/13 years may he lie bleeding/13 doctors cannot cure him/13 shelves of drugs can't heal him.

(Pronounce "cursed" as a 2-syllable word to fit the rhythm.)

There is another verse after this (in case you don't have it either)-

Anathea, Anathea/don't go out into the forest/there among the green pines standing/you will find your brother hanging.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 11:19 PM

I'm lobbying Dick to cross-reference songs in the database that have key words that can be spelled different ways. What are the common spellings of the name of the heroine in this song?
The only one I've heard is Anathea, as in the Judy Collins recording. Any other spellings that ought to be included?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: alison
Date: 07 Mar 01 - 11:20 PM

so where is the song from? is it Hungarian?

slainte

alison

Subject: Seven Curses (Bob Dylan)
From: jaze
Date: 07 Mar 01 - 11:51 PM

Is this the song Bob Dylan rewrote as "Seven Curses"? The lyrics and story sound similar.

---

http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/seven-curses

Subject: Lyr Add: ANATHEA (from Judy Collins Songbook)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Mar 01 - 11:51 PM

I've never been completely satisfied with the lyrics in the database, so let me post what I found in the Judy Collins Songbook.
-Joe Offer-

---

ANATHEA
(words by Neil Roth, music by Lydia Wood)

Lazlo Feher stole a stallion,
Stole him from the misty mountain
And they chased him and they caught him,
And in iron chains they bound him.

Word was brought to Anathea
That her brother was in prison.
"Bring me gold and six fine horses,
I will buy my brother's freedom."

"Judge, oh, judge, please spare my brother,
I will give you gold and silver."
"I don't want your gold and silver,
All I want are your sweet favours."

"Anathea, oh, my sister,
Are you mad with grief and sorrow?
He will rob you of your flower,
And he'll hang me from the gallows."

Anathea did not heed him,
Straightway to the judge went running.
In his golden bed at midnight,
There she heard the gallows groaning.

"Cursed be that judge so cruel,
Thirteen years may he lie bleeding.
Thirteen doctors cannot cure him,
Thirteen shelves of drugs can't heal him."

"Anathea, Anathea,
Don't go out into the forest.
There among the green pines standing,
You will find your brother hanging."

© 1963, Fall River Music, Inc.

---

Interestingly, the Judy Collins "Live At Newport" album says the song is traditional, arranged by Judy Collins.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: alison
Date: 07 Mar 01 - 11:58 PM

thanks Joe,

those are the words I heard... I heard it done by an Irish group.... but it didn't sound like an Irish song..... just wondered...

slainte

alison

Subject: Lyr Add: SEVEN CURSES (Bob Dylan)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Mar 01 - 11:58 PM

Great minds think alike, Jaze. I was just about to post "Seven Curses." Seems to me these two songs must come from a common root.
-Joe Offer-

---

SEVEN CURSES
(Bob Dylan)

Old Reilly stole a stallion
But they caught him and they brought him back
And they laid him down on the jailhouse ground
With an iron chain around his neck.

Old Reilly's daughter got a message
That her father was goin' to hang.
She rode by night and came by morning
With gold and silver in her hand.

When the judge he saw Reilly's daughter
His old eyes deepened in his head,
Sayin', "Gold will never free your father,
The price, my dear, is you instead."

"Oh I'm as good as dead," cried Reilly,
"It's only you that he does crave
And my skin will surely crawl if he touches you at all.
Get on your horse and ride away."

"Oh father you will surely die
If I don't take the chance to try
And pay the price and not take your advice.
For that reason I will have to stay."

The gallows shadows shook the evening,
In the night a hound dog bayed,
In the night the grounds were groanin',
In the night the price was paid.

The next mornin' she had awoken
To know that the judge had never spoken.
She saw that hangin' branch a-bendin',
She saw her father's body broken.

These be seven curses on a judge so cruel:
That one doctor will not save him,
That two healers will not heal him,
That three eyes will not see him.

That four ears will not hear him,
That five walls will not hide him,
That six diggers will not bury him
And that seven deaths shall never kill him.

Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTivMIKqa4E

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 01:06 AM

I heard it on a cassette tape someone gave me of A.L. Lloyd back in the 60s and it was called 'Lazlo Faier' ('Faier' might have been spelled differently), but god only knows where that is now. It was one of my favourites back then. I was under the impression - but this is probably totally wrong - that Lloyd had translated it from the Hungarian.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 01:33 AM

I've always liked Judy Collins' rendition. Thanks for posting the words, Joe. Interesting that authors' names are given in the Songbook (I still have mine, too!) but it's "trad-arr" on the Live at Newport album. I'm not familiar with the Dylan song, but considering the similarities of the two songs, I would bet there's a common root, and I'd also bet that somebody out there in Mudcatland knows it.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: zander (inactive)
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 02:08 PM

Stewie is correct A L Lloyd translated it from the Hungarian [ as he did lots of other Easter European songs ] it is correctly called 'Lazlo Feher'. Cheers, Dave

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 02:19 PM

Some pedantic trivia: Anathea is Greek for flower which also symbolizes virginity. "He will rob you of your flower..."

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Snuffy
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 02:40 PM

So should her name be Anathea or Anna Feher?

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 02:42 PM

Gee, according to this page (click) Lazlo Feher was the "Real Man of the Month" for Playgirl Magazine in July, 1998. I also found information that leads me to believe there is or was an artist named Lazlo Feher. Can anybody come up with more information on the A.L. Lloyd translation?

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 04:21 PM

Hi Joe, looking through my own database I see that I have a cassette of a BBC radio programme broadcast on the 19th August 1993, it's called 'Voices from Arcadia' and the presenter is Georgina Boyes, wife of an occasional visitor to Mudcat. According to my listing of the programme it takes THIS form:-
1 Marta Sebestyan sings 'Fly, Bird, Fly'.
2 Boyes talks about Hungarian song of the late 1890's.
3 Haye Lazlo - narrative song.
4 Dave and Toni Arthur sing Lazlo Feyer (my spelling) - song translated by A.L. Lloyd.
5 Bob Dylan sings 'Seven Curses'
6 Boyes talks about the development of Hungarian folkson scholarship.

All I have to do now is try and find the cassette and see if there's anything on it that adds to this discussion.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 05:43 PM

BigJ, when you whet my appetite with all that, I sure hope you can come through. I wonder if BBC might have it available online. Are there any A.M. Lloyd books that I ought to add to my library? Might this song be in one of them? -Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Lanfranc
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 06:58 PM

When I first heard this song in the 60s, it was introduced to me as a translation by A L Lloyd of a song collected by Bela Bartok.

Bartok and his contemporary Zoltan Kodaly were both active collectors of folksongs in the early 20th century in what was then Hungary. Today the boundaries have been redrawn to the extent that Bartok's birthplace Nagyszentmiklos in Hungary is now Sennicolau Mare in Romania.

Somewhere in my collection of tapes I have a recording of some of Bartok's collection sung in the original Hungarian, from a BBC radio broadcast many years ago. I think that Anna Thea (as I have always called it) may well be among them. The trouble is that I have never got round to cataloguing my tapes!

Anyway, I hope this contributes something, if only another line of enquiry.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: wes.w
Date: 09 Mar 01 - 09:09 AM

The Leader (or Trailer) label sampler LP circa 1970 had this track on as Lazlo Feher (my spelling), sung by a woman, but I can't remember who. Jim Lloyd (a radio presenter for the BBC) did a spoken intro for each track, and I think this is where I heard the 'Bert Lloyd translated it'.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: wes.w
Date: 09 Mar 01 - 12:10 PM

.. and I should add that Anna Feher rather than Anathea, makes sense in the 'O my sister' line above, which is how it sounded to my ears. It could have been Toni Arthur singing BTW, as it had a guitar accompaniment which could have been Dave.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Metchosin
Date: 09 Mar 01 - 09:32 PM

wes.w Annathea Feher, that would settle the surname problem.

I love this song, must cause my Magyar blood to stir I guess. I particularly prefer my brothers rendition of this song to Judy Collins' version, his is more up tempo with more gypsy flavour and intensity. This is a song you should perform while drinking Egri Bikavar not herbal teas.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 11:24 AM

Here you are Joe, this is as much as I have:-
Transcription of speech in programme 'Voices From Arcadia' presented by Georgina Boyes and broadcast on the 19th August 1993.

Intro:
The idea that music from the common people was worthy of notice arose at different times in different places. Throughout Europe translations of ballads collected in England and Scotland in the 18th century set a generation of romantic young writers attempting to copy them, and later, to find whether similar kinds of songs existed in their own countries.
This week we're going to look at the way this happened in a country whose music, through the performances of bands such as Makvirag and singers like Marta Sebestyan are becoming very familiar here.

Recording - Marta Sebestyan - Fly Bird, Fly.

Though a few enthusiast in Hungary were stirred by the emergence of English and Scottish ballad poetry in the late 18th century, it was the rise of nationalism leading up to the war of independence in 1848 that provoked the first attempts at collection in Hungary itself. The results of this earliest work were - later scholars have suggested rather sniffily - mixed.
The work contained all sorts of fabrications written by village notaries, priests, students and other amateur poets. (Hungarian name ?) the editor, had stuck various songs together, changed the order of verses in others, and made whole songs out of stanzas collected in different parts of Hungary. But among the newly written songs were several older ballads including 'Faye Lazlo'.

Recording - one verse in Hungarian.

Forms of the story told in 'Faye Lazlo', or 'Lazlo Faye' as it's sometimes known, have been collected across Europe. It'sa plot found in Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure' but it only seems to be known as a narrative song in Spain, Italy and Hungary.
It's introduction to the song in England can probably be traced to a translation by A.L. Lloyd.

Recording - Dave & Toni Arthur.

'Lazlo Faye' as Dave and Toni Arthur learned it from A.L. Lloyd.
The song's recently been collected in the shorter form of a cursing song in Northern Hungary, and it's as Seven Curses that Bob Dylan reworked it.

Recording - Bob Dylan.

The appearance of (Hungarian Name above) caused some controversy but nowhere near as much as the next lengthy publication ................................

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 01:58 AM

Thank you, BigJ. I really get a kick out of delving into the history of a song like this.
I'm wondering if there are any commentaries about Dylan's "Seven Curses." You would think every one of his songs would have been studied to death.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: wes.w
Date: 19 Mar 01 - 08:28 AM

I've since looked at my record sleeve where this song is credited as tune trad, translation A.L.Lloyd. I don't think Bert Lloyd would have claimed this song to be his translation if it wasn't. Which leaves me in a quandry with 'words by Neil Roth, music by Lydia Wood'. Do we need to 'name and shame' someone over this?

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: oggie
Date: 19 Mar 01 - 11:47 AM

Tony Capstick recorded it back in the early 1970's, I think that's the version on the Leader Records sampler. In his version it was Anna Fehar and he credited it to A L Lloyd.

All the best

Steve

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Mar 01 - 07:59 PM

Another clue:
http://liber.ithaca.edu/MARION/ACS-1415 indicates "Lazlo Feher stole a stallion" came from a 1906 Bela Bartok collection called "Hungarian Folk Songs."
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: wes.w
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 08:12 AM

Does anyone know who Neill Roth and Lydia Wood are?

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 09:51 AM

If truly Hungarian, as it seems, the most likely name is Lászlo Fehér - Les White.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 09:53 AM

And there is no reason for a sister to have the same last name as a brother, unless she was still single. Anathea is most likely just her first name, no last name mentioned. I'll ask my Mom about this one, and if she can come up with the original Hungarian song, as is likely, I'll post those too...

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Mar 02 - 08:07 PM

The title used by Bartok in his "Magyar népdalok" is "Fehér László lovay lopoll." According to this site, the song was taken by Bartok from Child # 15, The Briary Bush (Not in Bronson; help please!) See this website: Fehér

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Mar 02 - 08:15 PM

The Contemplator has "The Briery Bush." Not much of a resemblance in the lyrics. Briery Bush

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 16 Mar 02 - 08:55 PM

I have it in the Hungarian as "Ladislav Feher" (with an acute accent on the "e" of Feher). I have the text as from Csanadi-Vargyas, "Ropulj", no. 70, with a translation of 16 verses commencing:

Ladislav Feher stole a horse/At the bottom of the black hill./His leather whip cracked noisily,/It was heard in the town of Gonc.

'Come on, come on, citizens of Gonc,/Ladislav Feher has been caught!:/Anna Feher has heard it,/She runs down into the stable:/

etc. etc. (I'll run all the words if someone asks me)

Last verse: "May thirteen rows of medecines/Be emptied for you,/May you be carried to the churchyard/At the end of the thirteenth year!"

So clearly we're talking about the same song. My source is a book of Hungarian ballads, the title for which I'll search and get back to this thread.

Curiously, Child did not connect this ballad with No. 209 Geordie. Though the modern versions one hears of Geordie all have to do with the same set of characters and circumstances as the Feher ballad: (1: a horse thief, 2: a capture, 3: a sister/wife asking a judge for mercy and 4: the mercy not forthcoming.), the Geordie story encapsulated in most of the Child sets have to do with a successful ransom-payment for an errant husband charged most often with a murder. Child suggests that this original story was adulterated with a later broadside "George of Oxford" who stole horses, sold them in Bohemia and was hanged (this set is printed as an appendix in Child IV pp. 141-142). The opening couplet connects strongly with modern versions of Geordie: "As I went over London Bridge,/All in a misty morning,/There did I see one weep and mourn/Lamenting for her Georgy." The words "Balleny" (Child G) "Bohemia" (Child F), and "Bevany" (Child J) are the markers as it were of this adulteration.

I too have read that Feher is translated by Lloyd out of the Hungarian, but cannot find the source of this.

Subject: Lyr Add: GEORGIE
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Mar 02 - 10:17 PM

Jon Bartlett is correct, the relationship with Child # 209 is certainly clearer than to # 15 (as suggested in the website I posted), especially Group C, based on a version collected in Arkansas by Randolph. For those lacking Randolph, Bronson or Child:

GEORGIE

As I went over London's bridge,
'Twas early in the morning,
There I spied a pretty fair maid
pleading for the life of Georgie.

"Go saddle up my milkwhite steeds,
And bridle them so gaily,
That I may ride to the king's castle town
And plead for the life of Georgie."

She rode all day and she rode all night
'Till she was weak and weary;
While throwing back her fine yellow hair
She pleads for the life of Georgie.

She pulled from her pocket a purse of gold,
Saying, "Here is money a-plenty;
Lawyers, lawyers, fee yourselves,
And spare me the life of Georgie."

Up stepped George then unto the lawyer,
Saying, "I have not murdered any,
But I stole sixteen of the king's white steeds
And sold them in Boheeny."

Up stepped the lawyer then to George,
Saying, "George, I'm sorry for you,
But your own confession has condemmed you to die,
May the Lord have mercy on you."

George walking up and down the street
A-bidding adieu to many,
A-bidding adieu to his own dear girl,
Which grieved him the most of any.

George shall be hung with a golden cord,
For of such there is not many,
Because he came from a royal race,
And he courted a handsome lady.

I wish I were over on yon hillside
Where kisses are a-plenty;
With a sword and a pistol by my side
I would fight for the life of Georgie.

Sung by Georgia Dunaway (learned ca. 1898 from her father). Vance Randolph, Ozark Folk Songs, ed. Norm Cohen, pp. 52-53 with music. Related to the English songs going back to the 17th century.
It would be interesting to know the age of the Hungarian version and if it had been translated from English broadsides.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Hrothgar
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 04:46 AM

Does anybody have an answer to the Neil Roth and Lydia Wood "mystery?"

Subject: Lyr Add: LAZLO FEYER
From: vectis
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 09:08 AM

This is the version I first heard in the late 1960's. I was told it was a Hungarian song.
I used to sing it a lot and finally found a local flamenco guitarist who could sing it better than me and gave him the tune and lyrics.


LAZLO FEYER

Lazlo Feyer stole a stallion,
Stole him from the misty mountains
And they chased him and they caught him
And in iron chains they bound him.

Word has come to Annas Feyer
That her brother was in prison
"Bring me gold and six white horses
I will buy my brothers freedom."

"Judge. Oh! Judge please free my brother
I will give you gold and silver."
"I don't want your gold and silver
All I want are your sweet favours."

"Annas Feyer. Oh! My sister,
Are you mad with grief and sorrow?
He will rob you of your favours
Then He'll hang me from the gallows."

Annas Fever did not heed him,
Straight way to the judge went running.
In his golden bed at midnight
She could hear the gallows creaking.

Annas Feyer. Annas Feyer.
Don't go out into the forest
There amongst the pine trees swaying
You will find your brother hanging.

Curse be on that judge so cruel!
Thirteen years may he lie bleeding!
Thirteen doctors cannot cure him!
Thirteen shelves of drugs won't heal him!

Lazlo Feyer stole a stallion
Stole him from the misty mountains,
And they chased him and they caught him
And in iron chains they bound him
And they hung him from the gallows.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 02:58 PM

Well that's more or less the version that Dave and Toni Arthur sang. I'm just wondering if the woman singer on the sampler mentioned by Wes.w was Frankie Armstrong.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 03:36 PM

And then there is the Robert Burns version, a few verses below:

Gar get to me my gude grey steed,
My menzie a' gae wi' me;
For I shall neither eat nor drink,
'Till Enburgh town shall see me.

And she has mountit her gude grey steed,
Her menzie a' gaed wi' her;
And she did neither eat nor drink
Till Enburgh town did see her.

And first appear'd the fatal block,
And syne the aix to head him;
And Geordie cumlh down the stair,
And bands o' airn upon him.

But tho' he was chain'd in fetters strang,
O' airn and steel sae heavy,
There was na ane in a' the court,
Sae bra' a man as Geordie.

etc. Taken from Bronson. In other versions he was sentenced for poaching deer and roe.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Anathea stole a stallion
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 04:22 PM

My trouble and strife and I have been trying to agree how to arrange the song for about 10 years!

Her first husband Barry worked a lot with Lloyd on the Idiot (a/k/a "the idiom of the people"). Our earliest written set of the lyrics are in his handwriting, but they also knew Dave and Tony Arthur quite well. She's asleep or I'd ask her more details.