Origins: I'm a Romany Rai

Subject: Origins: I'm a Romany Rai
From: GUEST,BlackAcornUK
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 04:38 AM

Can anyone shed any light on the origins of this song?

I believe it's a music hall number romanticising the gypsy lifestyle, rather than trad; despite subsequently being taken up by many Gypsy & Traveller singers, including Phoebe Smith's tour-de-force.

Does anyone know who wrote it, when, if it was part of a particular performance etc?

It's difficult to Google, as most hits return the excellent Shirley Collins/Topic/Voice of the People compilation by the same name.

The lyric that I know, from Smith, is:


I was borned in an old Gypsy's wagon
Out there on the Commons, you know
And our troubles began in the winter
That's when we've nowhere to go

But I'm intermined (determined) to marry the girl that I love
Take a wagon and horse on my own

I'm a Romany rai
Just a poor diddakoi
Born in a tent underneath the blue sky
I want no gilded mansion
That life would not suit me
You give to me the open sky
And the song of the lark
As it flies so high

Roaming around the country
That life would just suit me
For I am a Romany
Everyone knows
And a Romany I shall be


Thanks for any/all pointers!

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm a Romany Rai
From: Reinhard
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 08:28 AM

It's on the Musical Traditions anthologies of Wiggy Smith, "Band of Gold", and the Willett Family, "Adieu to Old England". The first album's booklet noted:

The song was originally written for the turn-of-the-century music halls by C Bellamy and G Weeks and - unusually - has been hijacked by Travellers as a sort of an anthem. Little of the Victorian composition remains except Wiggy’s first and final stanzas - the chorus to the original.

I’m a Romani Rai (I’m a Romany Gent) (sung by Wiggy Smith) (Roud 4844)
(Recorded by Gwilym Davies at the English Country Music Weekend, Postlip Tithe Barn, Glos, 27 June, 1998)

I’m a Romani Rai, I’m a poor didikai
I live in a mansion beneath the blue sky
I live in a tent, and I don’t pay no rent
That’s the reason they call me some Romani Rai.

Now I’m roaming around the country
And this is the life that just suits me
I’m a Romani Rai, and a poor didikai
And a Romani I’ll remain.

Now I live in an old gypsy’s wagon,
With the rooftop all civvered in gold [covered]
Now I’m soon think about getting married
And having a wagon and tent of my own.

Now I’m some Romani Rai, I’m some poor didikai
I live in a mansion beneath the blue sky
And I live in a tent, and I don’t pay no rent
That’s the reason they call me a Romani Rai.

[rai - Romani for gent or lord; didikai - a person of mixed-race, Romani/Gorgio]

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm a Romany Rai
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 09:53 AM

The Gypsy Gentleman may be it's 'official' title.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm a Romany Rai
From: Tradsinger
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 10:15 AM

There is another version doing the rounds:

I’m a Romany Rai, I’m a true didikai
I travel the drom with me dogs and me grai
I’ll never be rich, I was born in a ditch
And that’s why they call me the Romany Rai

Chorus
Dika chavi, dik akai
Kaka chavi dik akai
Daddy’s trying to sell the mush a kushti grai
Dika chavi dik akai, kaka chavi, dik akai
That’s why they call me the Romany Rai

I’m a Romany Rom, and I travel the drom,
I make wicker creels, on the bosh play the reels
I’ll sing you a sing before the gavvers move me on
And that’s why they call me the Romany Rai

I’m a Romany Rom and I travel the drom
I hawk all the day and dance all the night
I don’t pay no rent,’cos I live in a tent
And that’s why they call me the Romany Rai

It has been recorded by Pat and Susie Darling. Not sure if they wrote some of it.

Tradsinger

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm a Romany Rai
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 02:36 PM

Kilgarriff has plenty of Gipsy titles but none of the above suggestions. The nearest he gives is 'Romany Rye' which might be based on Borrow's books. It is in the repertoire of Roland Oliver of the Mohawk Minstrels. No dates are given but Mohawk Minstrels were 1880s.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm a Romany Rai
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 09 Oct 20 - 08:21 PM

Just a couple of words about the above. Mic and Susie (not Pat) Darling, learned the song from a book. Neither of them are Gypsies. My wife and I have nothing to do with them, and that's all I need to say.
Returning to the thread, the Romany verse above has a few mistakes. It should be
Kaka (Stop talking) Chavvie (Child) dik akai (look here)
Dadrus (Father) is trying to sell a mush (man) a Kushti Grai (good horse). I am not convinced that this verse has any great age to it.
This is a sort of pigeon Romany with a mixture of English and Romanus, it is spoken this way, but not by the old families (that I tend to mix with) who speak the language correctly.
The Song is an old Music Hall song, and Tom Walsh researched it, and recorded it on one of the late Gordon Boswell's CD's together with 'The decent Vanner' which you may have heard me sing.
My wife remembers the song being sung as a courting ritual when she was a young girl. The girls would gently dance round the camp fire and a young man would ask to join her in the dance, then they would swap partners until the young folk had paired off. The Romany Rai would be sung either just the chorus, or maybe with a few verses.
Unlike the above which as Tradsinger suggests has been partially re-written, Mally remembers the chorus as-
I'm a Romany Rai a true Didikai
My home is a castle beneath the blue sky,
I don't pay no rent, 'cos I live in a tent,
and that's why they call me a Romany Rai.

The song contains a hidden Joke, in the first line. You cannot be a Romany and a Didikai. A Didikai is a half blood Gypsy. This makes me wonder if the song was always pro-Gypsy. It's a bit like saying I'm English, but half German.
The words above are a mixture of some original lines, and some modern interventions that seem to be taken from other sources, the allusion to playing the Bosh (fiddle) the reference to 'Gavvers' (Police) and especially being born in a ditch, which is one big insult. I would suggest that this version of the song was produced to portray the singer and something he is not; i.e. a Romany Rai, a Gypsy Gentleman, and IMHO the song should be treated on it's own merits if you feel there are any, and not necessarily as a part of Gypsy culture.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm a Romany Rai
From: GUEST,Gypsy Lee Singh
Date: 30 May 22 - 10:02 AM

Well I am a Didikay and proud to be a Romany.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm a Romany Rai
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 30 May 22 - 11:01 AM

I Am a Romany · Phoebe Smith    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmKWeTZoLaQ