> Folk Music > Songs > Johnny Be Fair
Johnny Be Fair
[Buffy Sainte-Marie]
Buffy Sainte-Marie wrote in an email posted to Mudcat in 2000:
When I was a kid, somebody told me a joke, which was essentially the story as retold in my song Johnny Be Fair song. I'm glad to see you wondering about the origins of the story. When I first wrote the song, so many people were taken by surprise, I realized that not everybody had “heard that one”. Very few people have ever told me that they'd heard it as a joke or story.
I've often heard that true folk songs are like antiques: they are preserved and reused because they continue to be useful and appreciated, generation after generation; and their themes are cross cultural and make a sort of “ring true” sense in lots of communities.
A similar plot line can be found in Harry Belafonte's song Shame and Scandal in the Family.
Debra Cowan sang Johnny Be Fair in 2001 on her CD The Long Grey Line. She noted:
I first heard this from the late folklorist David Ingle. This is an old Irish joke that somehow found it’s way into a song. Buffy Saint-Marie recorded a version of this long ago with a few more verses. This version gets right to the point.
Roth Notman sang Johnny Be Fair on her 2009 album The Life of Lilly.
The Norfolk Broads sang Johnny Be Fair on their 2017 CD In the Valley of the Flowers.
Lyrics
Debra Cowan sang Johnny Be Fair | The Norfolk Broads sing Johnny Be Fair |
---|---|
O Johnny be fair and Johnny be good |
O Johnny be good and Johnny be fair |
O Willie be fair and Willie be good |
O Willie be good and Willie be fair |
Jimmy be fair and Jimmy be good |
O Jimmy be good and Jimmy be fair |
So I went home to me mother |
So I went up to me mother |
O Johnny be good and Johnny be fair |
Links
See also the Mudcat Café threads Origins: songs about girl w/ promiscuous father and Origins: Johnny Be Fair.