Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?

Subject: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 01:47 AM

I recently heard a very appealing version of the song Blackjack Davy
by Carlene Carter ( of the Carter family) along with Kris Kristopherson - two great voices
and nice guitar work too. When she talks about the song, she says
she learned it from her grandmother, and it was sung as an Appalachian ballad.The
folk process is really at work here, as I first heard it years ago as an English
folk ballad. The melody and general story of the song are the same, but
I recall the English folk song as having a lot more verses. And in the old time
ballad this lady forsakes her baby, not so in this newer country version. I remember a
version of it, dating back probably to the seventies , maybe eighties, that I really
liked, but can't remember who did it. ( It was not the Steeleye Span version)
Maybe one of you catters can help me find it again :

I believe the final verse went:
Last night I slept on a fine feather bed
Besides my husband and baby
Tonight I'll sleep on the cold cold ground
In the arms of blackjack Davy.
Also, that version may have been called The Gypsy Davy. I believe it was
on an album that has been lost in transit years ago.


I 'm also interested in what your favorite version of the song might be, and
any other information you have about it. Seems that it goes back a long way,
but has been embraced - and modified and/or evolved- by many popular singers and groups.


Thanks in advance for anything you can tell me.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: DaveRo
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 02:43 AM

Mainly Norfolk has a page about this song:
https://mainlynorfolk.info/sandy.denny/songs/gypsydavey.html

I have two favourite versions, both quite different . One by Bob Fox and Stu Luckly on the LP 'Now't so Good'll Pass' and a a lively version by the Incredible String Band on, I think, 'I Looked Up' . The girl is only 15 in the ISB version.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,Erich
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 02:51 AM

Hard to tell, there are so many great recordings of this song. I have more than 50 in my collection. At the moment I prefer Gavin Davenports version.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 03:49 AM

Lefty, the last verse you quoted was performed by outlaw country singer Waylon Jennings for one. His old roommate was Johnny Cash who married into the Carter Family, so perhaps there is some connection there.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 04:22 AM

The ISB version's always been a favourite - prefer their first studio recording (on I Looked Up) for its great arrangement and joie de vivre. (The remake on Earthspan doesn't come close.)

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 02:53 PM

Steeleye Span. B side of "All around my hat" if I remember rightly as well as on the album of the same name.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: peteglasgow
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 02:58 PM

incredibles for me - i have it (somewhere?) as a 45

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 23 Jan 19 - 12:54 PM

Black Jack Davey by Steeleye Span.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 23 Jan 19 - 01:14 PM

Well, it's hard to beat any version that Nic Jones comes up with.

Nic's away with the gypsies

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jan 19 - 01:58 PM

For the edification of a certain cretinous "mod" THE BLACK COUNTRY is the official designation of an industrial part of middle England.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Jan 19 - 02:51 PM

I went to a Black Country evening in Dudley (pronounced Duddel eye) once and could not understand most of what was sung!

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,Bob Schwarer
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 02:05 AM

I vote for Incredible String Band as the version I like best.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 10:14 AM

Honours shared between Nic Jones and Incredible String Band.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: DaveRo
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 10:31 AM

Here's Bob Fox & Stu Luckley live, which sounds pretty much the same as on the record I have:

Bob Fox & Stu Luckley - The Gypsy Davey

It's odd that some versions hve 'Gypsum Davey'. Makes me think of an itinerant plasterer.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 02:08 PM

Hedy West did a ridiculously good version on her Fontana album "Serves 'Em Fine"(1970)
Amazingly, I think I'm correct in saying that this wonderful album has never had a cd release!

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,ceol beag
Date: 03 Feb 22 - 05:37 AM

https://youtu.be/luOAgo4zsaM

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 22 - 02:27 AM

Harry Jackson's cowboy version's my favourite
Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Oct 23 - 06:13 AM

great

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,Wendy M. Grossman
Date: 13 Oct 23 - 08:11 AM

There ae *so many* great versions of this. Ed Trickett had two great ones he learned from Harry Tuft, who had it from Bob Jones. One was called Black Jack Davy; the other was Clayton Boone. Both American. The Putnam String Country and had a version they did with harmony singing backed by a cello drone. The one I sing most, SEven Gypsies, which I learned from Gordon Tyrrall you can find at https://www.pelicancrossing.net/roseville.htm.

wg

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Oct 23 - 03:16 PM

Pete Coe : Seven Gypsies

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,coronatone
Date: 15 Oct 23 - 05:49 PM

Blackjack David by Dave Alvin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILUb1JbVyJ4

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,lefthanded guitar
Date: 22 Oct 23 - 05:03 AM

Wow ! Can't believe that after I posted this thread several years ago asking about a version of this song - it looks like I finally found the answer right here. Posted just this month. Wendy got it right! The version that I was thinking of was from the Putnam String County Band. It was done in harmony singing that was plaintive and humbly elegant, with a cello as the only instrument.Just found it on youtube and replayed the album as well. So nice to find it again. It was a long time coming, but better late than never I say, and Thank You Wendy and to all you mudcats as well.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 24 Oct 23 - 03:14 AM

A lot of information is given in this Wikipedia post on The Raggle Taggle Gypsy     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raggle_Taggle_Gypsy

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Oct 23 - 06:13 AM

great

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,Wendy M. Grossman
Date: 13 Oct 23 - 08:11 AM

There ae *so many* great versions of this. Ed Trickett had two great ones he learned from Harry Tuft, who had it from Bob Jones. One was called Black Jack Davy; the other was Clayton Boone. Both American. The Putnam String Country and had a version they did with harmony singing backed by a cello drone. The one I sing most, SEven Gypsies, which I learned from Gordon Tyrrall you can find at https://www.pelicancrossing.net/roseville.htm.

wg

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Oct 23 - 03:16 PM

Pete Coe : Seven Gypsies

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,coronatone
Date: 15 Oct 23 - 05:49 PM

Blackjack David by Dave Alvin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILUb1JbVyJ4

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,lefthanded guitar
Date: 22 Oct 23 - 05:03 AM

Wow ! Can't believe that after I posted this thread several years ago asking about a version of this song - it looks like I finally found the answer right here. Posted just this month. Wendy got it right! The version that I was thinking of was from the Putnam String County Band. It was done in harmony singing that was plaintive and humbly elegant, with a cello as the only instrument.Just found it on youtube and replayed the album as well. So nice to find it again. It was a long time coming, but better late than never I say, and Thank You Wendy and to all you mudcats as well.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 24 Oct 23 - 03:14 AM

A lot of information is given in this Wikipedia post on The Raggle Taggle Gypsy     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raggle_Taggle_Gypsy

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: gillymor
Date: 11 Feb 24 - 02:59 PM

Chesapeake, with the late great Mike Auldridge on Dobro, did a fine version and I still love hearing The Carter Family doing Blackjack David.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: GUEST,Alan Kearns
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 11:36 AM

So many versions play up the jolly or jaunty or saucy side of it, but Chris Foster on 'Traces' does a wonderful version which, right from the first verse, is all about the loneliness and sadness of the lady.

Subject: RE: Origins: What is your favorite Blackjack Davy?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 12:12 PM

My dad (John Dwyer) sang Blackjack Davy, but he learned the parody by Miles Wootton called "Hippies and the Beatnicks" from friends in the Vancouver Song Circle and often performed that one in later years. It is linked at the top of this thread. There are a couple of performances on YouTube here and here.