Lyr Add: Wild Rover (Tom Paley)

Subject: Lyr Add: WILD ROVER (Tom Paley)
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 09:23 AM

Courtesy of David Bowen, now Sydney but originally Nottingham, I have some lyrics to a version of this song I'd not heard before. Dave sang it recently at a session in Cairns, North Queensland and believes that he first heard it sung by Tom Paley.

The first verse starts:

"Oh Johnny been on sea, Oh Johnny been on shore,
He went to a tavern where he had been before,
Well how do you do Johnny, how do you do?
Last night my daughter was dreaming of you,
It was luck Johnny what luck to see, ...

I (more or less) have the rest of the lyrics, but thought I'd check if anyone can identify this before possibly duplicating the work.

Any clues please?

Subject: RE: Lyrics - Wild Rover (Tom Paley)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 09:51 AM

Young Johnny, I think (under which name Tom Paley recorded it); also called The Green Bed, The Liverpool Landlady etc. A quite separate song from The Wild Rover, though the stories are broadly similar.

There are two sets in the DT. One is from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs: The Green Bed

Also: Jackson - apparently an American variant. Tom Paley is mentioned, but I don't think it's the set he recorded.

See also thread Penguin: The Green Bed. Includes links to broadside editions. At the time I quoted A L Lloyd's reference to The Wild Rover as "a fairly close relative", but nowadays I'd think any relationship to be considerably more distant than that remark might imply.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wild Rover (Tom Paley)
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 09:44 PM

Thanks Malcolm for your erudite reply. It's fascinating that none of the searches I did came up trumps. Dave's version refers to 'clean beds' for instance. When I get the chance I'll post the alternative lyrics.

Many Thanks, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wild Rover (Tom Paley)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 10:11 PM

A search here for last night my daughter would get you both the DT sets; but it certainly isn't obvious.

The song was a pretty popular one in its day, reported in oral currency most commonly in America, it appears. Wild Rover, incidentally, is a fair bit older, having started out as an English broadside song, The Good Fellow's Resolution, written by Thomas Lanfiere in the later part of the 17th century; but that's another story.