Origins: Alison Cross / Allison Gross (Child #35)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Allison Gross
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 12 Oct 12 - 08:43 PM

Anyone have any indication how this song entered the revival?
From printed sources, or recordings?

Keefer lists publication: Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p128

There is a 1962 recording by John Laurie in a collection THE JUPITER
BOOK OF BALLADS (Jill Balcon; Isla Cameron; V.C. (Victor Clinton) Clinton-Baddeley ; Pauline Letts; John Laurie; Osian Ellis) released
by JUPITER Records (UK) and FOLKWAYS (US).

Parcel of Rugues is 1973.

Any revival recordings prior to the Jupiter?

Thanks, Thomas.

Subject: RE: Origins: Alison Cross / Allison Gross
From: Dave Rado
Date: 17 Apr 19 - 01:59 PM

I recently sang Steeleye Span's version of Alison Gros in public, and while researching it I contacted Bob Johnson, who brought the song to Steeleye Span and arranged it for them, to ask him why he had removed the original ending about the Queen of the Fairies rescuing the protagonist; why he'd written his chorus for it; why he'd translated it from the Scots dialect; and what was the origin of the tune he'd set it to. His reply is fascinating, and he has kindly given me permission to post it here.

One comment I'd like to make regarding his reply is that "Down in Yon Forest" is also supernatural, so was an appropriate choice to use for the melody. It was itself recorded by Steeleye Span many years later, in 2004.

Here's Bob's reply to me:

________________________________________

Hello Dave,

That's a lot of questions for something I did 46 years ago, but I'll do my best.

Firstly, I should say that Steeleye Span as a band did not find, or arrange this song, or any of the others which I brought in. This song and others such as Thomas the Rhymer, Long Lankin, King Henry etc. were songs which I researched and arranged and recorded at home on a professional tape recorder, including the songs structure, chords, and guitar riffs and in some cases, like long Lankin, chorus harmonies as well. I would bring the recording in to rehearsals and everyone would play them, apart from Peter who was free to improvise and compose his own violin parts. Only the songs which Maddy brought in were arranged in rehearsals as a joint effort. Maddy brought in general folk songs which she liked and I was on a mission to introduce the audience to the supernatural stories and murder ballads, but to place them in an electric 'rock' setting. To meet the listening audience halfway, as it were, I took a certain artistic licence with which versions of a song I would use, or collate and I didn't consider it advisable, or necessary to use any of the ballads in their entirety. I tried to get the feel and drama of the story across without expecting the listener to have endless concentration. I adopted the role of a storyteller, or film director, rather than a singer. This is why I gave most of my songs over to Maddy to sing, rather than just sing them because I brought them in. Such a beautiful singer!

Alison Gross was my second attempt to put across these stories, King Henry being the first. I decide to sing this one myself with a raw guitar sound to make it a very personal experience of the story.
I found the song in the Child Ballad Collection and roughly translated it. All the Child Ballads needed this. I can't remember how. In those days, all research was done in the library of the Cecil Sharp House. No internet. Much more real and exciting. I was aware of the songs academic origins, but I didn't know Ewan had recorded it.

I can't remember exactly why I omitted the last part of the story.
I would guess that I would have thought it to be too cluttered in getting the drama of the story across and, in looking again at the ballad this morning, I can see that Child expresses surprise at these verses. Given the cross pollination of the stories in the oral tradition, I suspect they found their way in from related ballads, such as ' The Laidly Worm' .

I added the line 'Alison Gross she must be......etc.', to give the listener a mental image to anchor the song and a chorus to join in with if they liked. Maddy and I were veterans of the early folk club days, when audiences loved and expected a chorus. An old 'music- hall' tradition.

There was no melody that I could find. I ended up using the tune of a carol called 'Down in Yon Forest'. I can't remember why, or how I found it. The carol is in slow 3/4 time, so yes, I did completely alter its time signature and tempo.

This process was not unusual at the time. Ewan, Bert Loyd and Martin Carthy all did it. So did the oral tradition itself. A constant flow. People started to sing my version in folk clubs and on recordings without realising that it was not an original tune, or chorus and it found its way into the oral repertoire.

I hope this was of some interest to you and I wish you the very best in your performance of a song which means a lot to me.

All the best

Bob Johnson

Subject: RE: Origins: Alison Cross / Allison Gross
From: Dave Rado
Date: 17 Apr 19 - 02:03 PM

Some additional notes of my own gleaned from my research:

The song was collected in Aberdeen in 1792 – and that seems to have been the only time it was ever collected from the oral tradition; although it does form one of the Child Ballads. By the 20th century it seems to have been pretty much forgotten – until in the 1970s it was independently revived, in England by Steeleye Span; and in Scotland by the great traditional singer and Traveller, Lizzie Higgins.

Lizzie Higgins set the original Scots dialect words to a traditional bagpipe tune called “The Bonnie Lass Gan’ to the Fair”. She turned one of the verses into a chorus, and recorded it twice: the first time under the title Alison Gross and the second time with the title Alison Cross. All the Scottish recordings of the song that have ever been made by other people have been based on hers – and several of them are called Alison Cross, because that’s what she called it.

And that’s how folk songs evolve!

Subject: RE: Origins: Alison Cross / Allison Gross (Child #35)
From: GUEST,Wm
Date: 18 Apr 19 - 10:48 AM

Dave, thanks for sharing. That's a great insight.