Since uploading this video, I have found some information about the first singer, William Short. He was born in Binbrook, Lincolnshire in 1828, and as of 1881 was working as a miller and baker, employing 3 men! www.findmypast.co.uk/1881-census/william-short-0014788055 If you enjoyed this video, I'd recommend watching these videos I uploaded: The songs of Joseph Taylor (1907) | Historic recordings of nineteen traditional English folk songs ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3PxQ37K3rQs.html Traditional English fiddling and Morris dance (1928) | Sam Bennett ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4G1IRgUzCKM.html Traditional English folk singing (1962) | Sam Larner and Harry Cox ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WQVfPXFgO10.html
I like the little twist in the lyrics of that last version. The drunkard used him worst of all for he smashed him against the wall. In every other version becoming whisky is where he finally finds peace, but not with a mean drunk!
In one of the appendices of Peter Kennedy's 'Folk Songs of and Britain and Ireland' (I think), he quotes the following verse: Of all the troubles I've been through, Sure this was the worst of all, When a big man swallowed me down his throat, And he pissed me against the wall. I suspect the word 'lashed' here is being used euphemistically?
It really is! I recommend watching this video I uploaded with recordings of a man born in 1833: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3PxQ37K3rQs.html
Thank you for this compilation. This song is a good teacher. It is at least many centuries old in English. Variations on it might indeed be thousands of years old, easily predating the English language. For millennia, in western culture the primary food was bread. [For my fellow Americans, “corn” in British English translates to “wheat” in American English (or more generally, any grain with a kernel). Barley remains barley.] This song wonderfully illustrates some of the main themes of mythology: sustenance, the sacrifice required for sustenance, the death required for life, the cycle of life, rebirth. Since the agricultural revolution, that has meant grain crops.
The original version of the song was registered with the Stationers Company of London on 14th December 1624 with the title 'Sir John Barleycorne'. It was radically re-written in the 1700's and transformed into the version of the song we are familiar with. Lots of nonsense about pagan links - the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs describes it as 'a very clever allegory' about the making of booze.
I heard a little fragment of it sung to the tune of Dives and Lazarus, it was quite beautiful. Peter Kennedy recorded it in 1957 from George "Shep" Hawkins (aged 86) of Ebrington, Warwickshire. "They sowed, they ploughed, they harrowed him in, throwed clods upon his head, And the miller he used him worst of all, he bound him to the cart" Another version I quite enjoy is Duncan Williamson's, although it really is just the Robert Burns text and not traditional, I assume. Duncan said he learned it at school, and it has a chorus: "Oh, ho, poor Barley, poor John Barleycorn, It would grat the heart of a dying man, to hear John Barley groan."
Here is the George Hawkins recording for anyone who wants to hear it sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Peter-Kennedy-Collection/025M-C0604X0977XX-0001V0 (go to 10:20) Turns out George "Shep" Hawkins was Shadrach "Shepherd" Hayden's great-grandson (his daughter's son's son), and Harry Wiltshire (at 02:55 in this video) was Hayden's grandson (another daughter's son?)... Both of these Dives and Lazarus versions seem to come from Shadrach Hayden! I decided not to include Duncan Williamson's version in this video for a couple of reasons, that being one!
@@TheFolkRevivalProject What are the other reasons you decided not to include Duncan's version? It makes perfect sense to leave it out, but now I'm curious. I find it interesting that this song is not at all common in the USA or Canada. Apart from O.J. Abbott's version of presumably Irish origin I only know of a fragment recorded from Thomas Armstrong of Mooers Forks, NY by Helen Hartness Flanders in 1935.
@@Liederfuchs One reason was that he only knew a fragment in an earlier recording, then sang the long version years later. This made me even more certain he learnt it entirely from print. Also, the full version is extremely long (7 minutes)! Here is the complete version, for anyone reading this: www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/38856?l=en
@@TheFolkRevivalProject Oh yes, I agree. This holds true for several of his ballads. Hind Horn and Tam Lin were also fragments when George McIntyre recorded Duncan in the 1960s. For Tam Lin the completion process has been explained by Linda Williamson, and I don't doubt that Hind Horn is traditional too. John Barleycorn must be learned from print or his later contact with the folk revival. It certainly wasn't one of his family songs.
An old Suffolk boy I knew sang this too me. He'd learnt it off his father. He knew a lot of old songs. I sing it now when I'm driving the pony round the lanes of Suffolk, and others besides. The pony is my only audience these days.
@@charlierumoldboi3939 I'm certainly interested and so are the people who watch the videos on this channel! If you want, you could always record yourself singing the version you know and I would be happy to feature you in one of my videos :)
I think the first version is orally transmitted and the other versions may be learned from printed music sheets. It sounds archaic compare to the other versions because of its apparent pentatonic characteristics, that it actually sounds like some traditional Appalachian tunes.
I found the recordings in different places, and I edited most of them to remove background noise. Three of the recordings were from online archives: William Short recording: sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Percy-Grainger-Collection/025M-1LL0010291XX-0101V0 Michael Flannagan www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/songs/cmc/the_barley_grain_mflanagan.htm The Harry Wiltshire recording was from another online archive, but I had to splice two recordings together and heavily edit the result. The Fred Jordan and OJ Abbott recordings were released commercially. You can find them on RU-vid.
Very good question! It didn't survive in the oral tradition like John Barleycorn, but there are a few old written versions, such as this one from the 17th century: ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/31631/image (You can click on the different tabs to see a transcription of the text and even hear a recording of what it might've sounded like)
@@TheFolkRevivalProject It's a shame that it didn't survive oral tradition. Thanks for the link and thanks for the Folk Revival Project, keep up the good work!
The first time I heard of John Barleycorn was in 1967 where he is mentioned in a song called “Let It All Hang Out” by The Hombres. The singer, imitating a preacher, begins the song with “A preachment many a friends you’re about to receive on John Barleycorn, nicotine, and the temptations of Eve…”
A bit of the folk process even here: Hombres singer BB Cunningham jr was copying the opening of Red Ingle’s “Cigareets, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women” from 1947.
