> Folk Music > Songs > The Jolly Miller / The Miller of Dee / The Miller of Straloch
The Jolly Miller / The Miller of Dee / The Miller of Straloch
[
Roud 503
; G/D 3:452
; Ballad Index K229A
, K229M
; Bodleian
Roud 503
; Wiltshire
388
, 630
; DT JOLLMILR
, MILLDEE
; Mudcat 91892
; trad.]
Katherine Campbell: Songs From North-East Scotland David Herd: Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc., Second Volume
John Strachan of Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, sang The Jolly Millar on 16 July 1951 to Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson. This recording was released on the anthology Jack of All Trades (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 3; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1968). It was also included in 2002 with the title The Miller of Straloch on Strachan’s Rounder anthology Songs From Aberdeenshire. Hamish Henderson and Ewan McVicar noted:
The refrain line is taken from an older song, The Miller of Dee. The miller was powerful in any farming community. In a wealth of songs he is respected, made fun of, accused of giving short measure, or said to have sexual prowess. Some songs utilize the sexual innuendo opportunities offered by the rhythmic and grinding milling processes, but this ditty prefers to be rich in praise of tobacco snuff, which of course was also created by a milling process. The tune is Drumdelgie.
Belshazzar’s Feast sang The Millar of Dee in 1998 on their WildGoose album, Drop the Reed. They noted
Paul Sartin learned the song as ha child, he thinks, from his mother.
Jess and Richard Arrowsmith sang one verse of The Jolly Millar in 2014 on their socond album of nursery songs, rhymes and lullabies, Off We Go Again!.
GreenMatthews sang The Miller of Dee and Begone Dull Care on their 2019 album Roots & Branches. They noted
A medley of two songs. The first is a song that first appears in Isaac Bickerstaffe’s play Love in a Village (1762) and then appears in various versions in a variety of different sources over the next 100 years. Chris [Green] wrote the melody for our version. The second song is from the mid-17th century. Both songs extol the virtues of simple pleasures and constitute six verses of unalloyed joy—something of a rarity in English folk songs.
Lyrics
John Strachan sings The Jolly Miller
I am a jolly miller, come frae the Mill o Straloch,
And if ye do not know me, my name is Willie Sproth.
I play upon the bagpipes wi mickle mirth and glee,
And I care for nobody, no, not I, and nobody cares for me.
First when I cam here aboot, I’d too much for to do,
Wi grinding com and shearin grass, both late and early too.
But now the harvest’s over, and I’m in my milee,
And I care for nobody, no, not I, and nobody cares for me.
Wi cairryin heavy burdens ma back’s inclined tae boo,
Wi cairryin heavy burdens ma back near broke in two.
But Nature has formed the eemaist lip for a pinch o the sneeshin bree,
So I care for nobody, no, not I, and nobody cares for me.
Ma mill’s got new machinery, it’s somewhat strange to me,
It’s of a new construction as ever my eyes did see.
Gin I had twa three roons o her and a pinch o the broon drapee
I’d care for nobody, no, not I, and nobody cares for me.
I’m engaged wi Doctor Ramsay, he’s laird o aa oor land
And when that he does call on me I am at his command.
Some people say he’s quarrelsome, but he never quarrels me.
So I care for nobody, no, not I, and nobody cares for me.
Belshazzar’s Feast sing The Miller of Dee
There was a jolly miller once lived on the river Dee;
Well he worked and he sang from morn till night, no lark more blithe as he.
And this the burden of his song for ever used to be—
I care for nobody, no, not I, if nobody cares for me.
Well, I live by the mill, she is to me like parent, child, and wife;
I would not change my station for any other in life.
No lawyer, surgeon, or doctor, e’er had a groat from me—
I care for nobody, no, not I, if nobody cares for me.
Then like the miller, bold and free, let us rejoice and sing;
The days of youth were made for glee, and time is on the wing.
This song shall pass from me to thee, and evermore shall be—
I care for nobody, no, not I, if nobody cares for me.
Jess and Richard Arrowsmith sing The Jolly Millar
There was a jolly miller once lived on the river Dee;
He danced and he sang from morn till night, no lark so blithe as he.
And this the burden of his song for ever used to be—
I care for nobody, no, not I, if nobody cares for me.