Katy Cruel / Leaboy’s Lassie / Lichtbob’s Lassie

[ Roud 1645 ; G/D 4:725 ; Ballad Index SBoA050 ; DT KATYCRUL ; Mudcat 10886 , 172588 ; trad.]

Norman Buchan: 101 Scottish Songs Norman Buchan and Peter Hall: The Scottish Folksinger Alasdair Clayre: 100 Folk Songs and New Songs

Sandy Paton sang Katy Cruel in 1959 on his Elektra album The Many Sides of Sandy Paton. Kenneth S. Goldstein noted:

American soldiers are said to have marched to this sprightly tune during the Revolutionary War, although it’s hard to imagine tough New England fighting men singing “diddle lulley day” as they prepared to meet the Redcoats. The version sung here has been handed down through many generations of an old Massachusetts family.

Sandy and Caroline Paton also sang Katy Cruel in 1960 on their Topic EP of American songs and ballads sung as lullabies, Hush Little Baby. The latter album’s liner notes commented:

Like Tittery Nan, this song is extremely rarely found among traditional singers. However, since Eloise Linscott first published it in Folk Songs of Old New England in 1939, it has become widely popular among students and revival folk singers on America. Miss Linscott had the song from Lucy Allen of West Newton, Massachusetts. Its text seems to be made of fragments from other songs, including the well-known Irish song I Know Where I’m Going [Roud 5701]. The refrain “O That I Was Where I Would Be,” etc. was quoted in J.B. Ker’s Archaeology of Popular Phrases, published in Andover, Hants, in 1840.

Isabel Sutherland sang the song’s Scottish variant The Light Bob’s Lassie on the 1960 HMV anthology of broadside ballads old and new, A Jug of Punch.

Jean Redpath sang Licht Bob’s Lassie in 1962 on her Elektra album Scottish Ballad Book and in 1986 on her Philo album Lowlands. She noted on the first album:

I learned this beautiful version of the more commonly sung I Know Where I’m Going from Ella Ward. Ella’s text corresponds very closely with that reported by Gavin Greig from Miss Bell Robertson. Greig lists the song under the title The Lea-boy’s Lassie (or Lingboo’s Lassie, which he explains as a misreading of the former name), and as such it is still being heard in the North East. The song has come into the American tradition from both Scottish and Irish sources.

Gordeanna McCulloch sang The Lichtbob’s Lassie in 1965 on the Topic anthology New Voices From Scotland. This track was also included in 1997 on the Fellside CD reissue of her 1978 Topic album, Sheath and Knife. The liner notes commented:

This song is usually thought to be sung by a girl following a soldier lover and the first verses fit this idea. Sometimes, however, the title is given as Lea Boy’s Lassie, i.e. herdsman’s, and the latter part of the song seems more in keeping with a rural setting. There is no confusion about the tune as it is the well-known I Know Where I’m Going. Other tunes are sometimes used.

Cilla Fisher sang Leaboy’s Lassie in 1976 on her and Artie Trezise’s Trailer album Balcanquhal.

Pat Ryan sang Leaboy’s Lassie in 1977 as the title track of her Folk Heritage album Leaboy’s Lassie.

Mary Black sang Leaboy’s Lassie on her 1987 album By the Time It Gets Dark.

Sylvia Barnes sang Lichtbob’s Lassie on her and Jim Barnes’ 1991 album Mungo Jumbo.

Cordelia’s Dad sang Katy Cruel in 1995 on their CD Comet. The Demon Barbers learned this song from Cordelia’s Dad and sang in it 2002 on their CD Uncut.

Elspeth Cowie sang The Leaboy’s Lassie in 1998 on the CD Scottish Love Songs.

Elle Osborne sang Katy Cruel on her 1999 CD Testimony.

Heather Heywood sang The Lichtbob’s Lassie in 2000 on her Tradition Bearers album Lassies Fair and Laddies Braw. She noted:

The song is printed in Folk-Song of the North-East. A lightbob is a soldier—“he wears the red and yellow”. He has enough attraction to make life following a soldier seem a better option than home comforts. Is some versions ‘lightbob’ becomes ‘leaboy’.

Aileen Carr, Annie Grace, Maureen Jelks and Karine Polwart sang The Lichtbob’s Lassie at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in January 2001 as part of the Celtic Connections festival. The concert was released a year later on the Greentrax festival CD Scots Women.

Bert Jansch sang Katie Cruel on his 2006 album The Black Swan.

Linda Thompson sang Katy Cruel in 2007 on her Rounder CD Versatile Heart.

The Tuttles With A.J. Lee sang Katy Cruel on their 2010 CD Introducing The Tuttles With A.J. Lee.

Ewan McLennan sang Lichtbob’s Lassie in 2012 on his Fellside CD The Last Bird to Sing. He noted:

There are many close relatives of this Scottish song in the English language tradition, both in Britain and across the Atlantic. The narrative here seems to have woven together two versions, one telling the experience of a woman following infantrymen (Lichtbobs) and the second a woman who follows an itinerant farmer (Leaboy’s Lassie). To me there’s an air of melancholy in the words and in her plight. The beautiful, lilting tune is traditional Scottish and has been used in many other songs. I thought it seemed nice set as almost a lullaby.

Lady Maisery sang Katy Cruel in 2013 on their CD Mayday. They noted:

A welcome character that unites many of the themes on this album is Katy Cruel, a woman who has faced adversity and hostility in her time, but has a powerful sense of her own identity. We were inspired by Karen Dalton’s gritty delivery of this song, and added some verses from other versions along with a new refrain by Rowan [Rheingans]. We never find out why Katy is outcast from society but she remains defiant and assured, and committed to following her own heart.

This video shows Lady Maisery at the Acoustic Sessions at Stanley Halls on 27 March 2018:

Salt House sang Katy Cruel in 2013 on their CD Lay Your Dark Low. Ths track was also included in the following year on the third edition of the anthology The Rough Guide to Scottish Music.

Kate Burke and Ruth Hazleton sang Katy Cruel on their 2015 CD Declaration. They noted:

Inspired by versions from both Karen Dalton and Linda Thompson, Katy Cruel is widely known as an American folk song but is believed to have Scottish origins and contains fragments of Irish traditional songs. It is said that the American version dates back to the colonial period and was sung by marching soldiers during the American War of Independence. First collected from Miss Lucy Allen and published by Eloise Linscott in Folk Songs of Old New England (1939), Miss Allen described Katy Cruel being sung: “As evening came, the children were put to bed upstairs, and around the great fireplace the men sang the haunting song with deep emotion.” Despite being an outcast, Katy is a wonderfully inspiring picture of a defiant and self-assured woman who refuses to conform to social expectations to be with the man she loves.

Barbara Dymock sang Katy Cruel on her 2016 CD Leaf an’ Thorn. She noted:

Katy Cruel is an American version of The Lichtbob’s Lassie, and reportedly a marching song from the War of Independence.

Catherine Earnshaw and Storywheel sang Katy Cruel in a live recordings from Jon Bickley’s Invisible Folk Club podcasts that was included in 2018 on the album Live at the Invisible Folk Club No 9.

Richard Thompson sang The Light Bob’s Lassie in 2019 on Topic’s 80^th year anthology, Vision & Revision. The liner notes give no Topic source for Richard’s version; it may be Sandy Paton who also sang the “I know where I’m going” verse.

Lankum sang Katie Cruel on their 2019 CD The Livelong Day. They noted:

Katie Cruel was originally arranged for a film, which was to be set in post-apocalyptic Ireland. The film unfortunately never saw the light of day. It was learned from the singing of Karen Dalton, who included it on her album In My Own Time [PAS 6008]. An Appalachian song, it is reputed to date from at least the American War of Independence, when soldiers were said to have marched to its tune. The song appears to be related to the Scottish Licht Bob’s Lassie, in which it is made clear that the protagonist is a sex worker. The song also shares some similarities with a broadside ballad entitled A New Song, Called Harry Newall which is set in Belfast.

Alasdair Roberts sang The Lichtbob’s Lassie on his 2023 album Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall. He noted:

I learnt this from the singing of Ella Ward of Edinburgh.

Josienne Clarke sang Katie Cruel, with two verses of her own, on a March 2026 download single. Her Bandcamp website noted:

A reimagining of a traditional folksong, long associated with themes of exile, rejection and endurance, Katie Cruel has appeared in many guises having travelled anonymously through centuries of oral tradition, shaped and reshaped as it passed from voice to voice. Its most famous version is Karen Dalton’s 1971 recording, which was itself reinterpreted by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on 1992’s Henry’s Dream. More recently, artists such as Agnes Obel and Lankum have covered it too.

Its mutability is central to Clarke’s devastating approach. Rather than preserving the song as an artefact, she has extended it by writing two illuminating new verses. “I needed to have a point of personal connection,” Clarke says, “to be able to imagine the song in my own voice and canon, or to be able to place myself in the narrative.” Her additions reflect what she describes as “a fall from favour in parallel with my own”, aligning the song’s estrangement with the realities of an uncompromising artistic life.

The result is an understated and robustly declarative song. Built around an electric guitar figure and recorders, Clarke’s arrangement is spartan and resolute, allowing the song’s emotional weight to settle. The melody expands subtly, lending a sense of simple majesty. Clarke’s voice—long admired for its clarity and surely now deserving its own place in the English folk canon—carries the marks of experience: scarred, steady, and unmistakably that of a survivor.

Yet the narrative is of agency, one that makes peace with loss. Despite prior versions plaintively yearning for better circumstances, Clarke flips the mood in her redoubtable style, which she acknowledges may have hindered her career. “The industry loves an ingénue and I can’t be that anymore by virtue of age and circumstance,” she explains. “My self-possession—and speaking out against the misogyny of the music industry, for instance—did not win me universal popularity. I have less of a career because of the decisions I made; the things I said and did. But I am clearer than I have ever been about who I am, what I can do and what it is I want to say artistically. I would make all the same choices again.”

In that light, Katie Cruel is less a lament than a monument to positive fatalism: dignified and undramatic yet deeply assured. The accompanying video, directed by Alec Bowman_Clarke, mirrors this duality. Clarke appears as two figures in the same stark landscape on a cold stone promontory under grey, glowering skies. Buffeted by the wind, she is cloaked in a black Victorian-era mourning dress and a sheer, ghostly white veil. The imagery is a dialogue between past and present—the twin selves not opposites but coexisting—as reversed footage of waves retreating over rocks suggests time collapsing in on itself, memory and experience occupying the same ground.

“I’ve always loved this song, but a personal version eluded me for years,” Clarke continues. “Since turning 40 and entering a new phase of my life and career I’ve enjoyed rediscovering it.”

Released without confirmation of a wider project, Katie Cruel stands alone by design. It is a song about being cast aside, sung by an artist who has chosen her own path regardless of consequence. In continuing the active folk tradition, Clarke reminds us that songs endure because they can communicate uncomfortable truths—and they need voices brave enough to carry them forward.

Lyrics

Jean Redpath sings The Licht Bob’s Lassie

First when I cam’ tae the toon
They ca’d me young and bonnie,
Noo they’ve changed my name,
Ca’ me the licht bob’s honey.

First when I cam’ tae the toon
They ca’d me young and sonsie,
Noo they’ve changed my name,
Ca’ me the licht bob’s lassie.

I’ll dye my petticoats red
And face them wi’ the yellow,
I’ll tell the dyster lad
That the licht bob I’m tae follow.

Feather beds are saft
And painted rooms are bonnie,
I wud leave them a’
And jog along wi’ Johnny.

Oh, my back’s been sair
Shearin’ Craigie’s corn,
I winna see him the nicht
But I’ll see him the morn.

Oh, for Seturday nicht
It’s then I’ll see my dearie,
He’ll come whistlin’ in
When I am sad and weary.

Ewan McLennan sings Lichtbob’s Lassie

First when I cam’ to the toon
They ca’d me young and bonnie
Noo I’ve changed my name
They ca’ me the lichtbob’s lassie.

First when I cam’ to the toon
They ca’d me prood and sonsie
Noo I’ve changed my name
They ca’ me the lichtbob’s honey.

Feather beds are soft
And painted rooms are bonnie
But I would leave them a’
And jog along wi’ my Johnny.

I’ll dye my pettycoat red
And tie it wi’ a yellow
I’l tell the dyster lads
That the lichtbob I’m tae follow.

Oh my back’s been sair
Shearin’ Craigie’s corn
I winnae see him the nicht
But I’ll see him the morn.

For this Saturday nicht
Syne I’ll see my dearie
He’ll come whistlin’ in
When I’m so tired and weary.

Lady Maisery sing Katy Cruel

When first I came to town,
They called me the rowing jewel,
Now they’ve changed their tune,
They call me Katy Cruel.

Chorus (after each verse):
Day-a doo-tin da dee day

When first I came to town,
They brought me drinks a-plenty,
Now they’ve changed their tune,
They bring me the bottles empty.

Oh that I was what I would be,
Then I would be I be what I am not,
But am I where I must be,
What I would be I cannot.

Through the woods I’ll go,
Through the boggy mire,
Straightway down the road
And to my hearts desire.

Oh that I was what I would be,
Then I would be I be what I am not,
But am I where I must be,
What I would be I cannot.

I know who I am,
I know who’s going with me.
I know who I love
But Lord knows if I’ll marry.

Oh that I was what I would be,
Then I would be I be what I am not,
But am I where I must be,
What I would be I cannot.

I’ll dye my petticoats red,
Face them with the yellow,
And I’ll tell all the lads
My own heart I will follow.

Richard Thompson sings Light Bob’s Lassie

I know where I’m going
And I know who’s going with me
I know who I love
But the de’il knows who I’ll marry

First when I came to town
They called me young and bonny
Now they’ve changed my name
They call me the light bob’s honey

First when I came to town
They called me young and saucy
Now they’ve changed my name
They call me the light bob’s lassie

I’ll dye my petticoats red
And I’ll face them with a yellow
I’ll tell the dyer lad
That the light bob I’m to follow

Oh feather beds are soft
And painted rooms are bonnie
But I would leave them all
And walk along with Johnny

Oh my heart’s been sore
Shearin’ Craigie’s corn
Won’t see him tonight
But I’ll see him in the dawn

I know where I’m going
And I know who’s going with me
I know who I love
But the de’il knows who I’ll marry

Josienne Clark sings Katie Cruel (Verses 2, 4 by Josienne Clarke)

When I first came to town
They call me the roving jewel
Now they’ve changed their tune
Call me Katie Cruel

Oh the tongue is sharp
And the words so strong
All the changing notes
Of a different song

If I was where I would be
Then I would be where I am not
Here I am where I must be
Where I would be, I cannot

Swim and swam
O’er the briny sea
’Til the freezing deep
nearly drowned me

All through the woods
On the marshy moor
Down a long dark road
To a different door

If I was who I would be
Then I would be who I am not
Here I am where I must be
Who I would be, I cannot