>
A.L. Lloyd >
Songs >
Jack Orion
>
Martin Carthy >
Songs >
Jack Orion
Glasgerion / Jack Orion
[
Roud 145
; Child 67
; Ballad Index C067
; trad.]
A.L. Lloyd sang Jack Orion, accompanied on fiddle by Dave Swarbrick, on his 1966 LP First Person. this recording was later included on the Fellside anthology CD Classic A.L. Lloyd and in 2003 on the Dave Swarbrick anthology Swarb!. Lloyd commented in the original album's sleeve notes:
In the roll call of famous musicians the sonorous name of the Bardd Glas Geraint—Geraint, the Blue Bard—occurs. He was a ninth century Welsh harper of such legendary eminence that when Chaucer wrote his House of Fame he set “the Bret Clascurion” up in the minstrels' gallery alongside Orpheus and similar well known string-pickers. That was in the 1380s, some five hundred years after the harper's time, but his fame endured for much longer in the English folk ballad named Glasgerion, that by chance came to be called Glenkindie when it spread to Scotland. The ballad of Glasgerion dropped out of tradition long ago, but the story it tells is an engaging one (a modern and more democratic parallel is the well-liked Do Me Ama) and it seemed to me too good a song to be shut away in books, so I took it out and dusted it off a bit and set a tune to it and, I hope, started it on a new lease of life. Farm boys, tailors' apprentices, stable-grooms and other tricksters who overhear assignations and forestall the lover are standard stuff in folklore, but they don't usually come to such an unjustly sticky end as opportunistic Tom, the apprentice minstrel of our ballad. The fiddler Dave Swarbrick likes this one: does he see himself as Jack or Tom?
Martin Carthy sang Jack Orion on his 1968 album with Dave Swarbrick, But Two Came By, and it was included on both the compilation album This Is... Martin Carthy and on the definitive Martin Carthy anthology, The Carthy Chronicles. He commented in the original album's sleeve notes:
A.L. Lloyd has done exceptional work in many fields, especially, to my mind, in knocking into singable shape songs that were lost in tradition, but have attractive and not to say very powerful story lines: Jack Orion is such a one. It is a reworking of the ballad Glasgerion or Glenkindie, and has a story not unlike the sea song Domeama, but more detailed and with an exceedingly violent end. The song in its traditional form was, according to evidence at our disposal, not very widespread, which serves to highlight one of the curious features of the folk revival, that is, the many songs which were not at all common in tradition are very commonly sung in the revival and vice versa.
Further versions were sung by Bert Jansch as title track of his Transatlantic album of 1966, Jack Orion, and in 1970 on Pentangle's Transatlantic album Cruel Sister.
Sandra Kerr sang Jack Orion in 1969 on John Faulkner's and her Argo record John & Sandra, and Nancy Kerr and James Fagan recorded it for their 1997 album Starry Gazy Pie. They commented in their liner notes:
A.L. Lloyd's re-working of Glasgerion (Child 67). An illustration of inter-class conflict in sexual and musical terms. Tragically the better fiddle player meets a violent end after his master's mistress, whom he seduces, spots his mucky attire and gets suspicious.
Trees sang Glasgerion in 1970 on their CBS album The Garden of Jane Delawney.
Fairport Convention sang Jack Orion in 1978 on their Vertigo album Tipplers Tales. A live recording from Home Farm, Cropredy, on 13 August 1983 was released a year later on their Woodworm cassette The Boot.
Barry Lister sang Jack Orion in 2006 on his WildGoose album Ghosts & Greasepaint.
Danny Spooner sang Jack Orion live in June 2007 in concerts with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. A recording of these concerts was released in 2017 on his download album Enchanted: Live in Concert.
Paul Davenport sang Glasgerion in 2011 on his and Liz Davenport's Hallamshire Traditions CD Spring Tide Rising. They commented in their liner notes:
This is a ballad which is based on the archaic and repellent notion that once a woman has lost her virginity she is somewhat ‘soiled’. The story is very old and is believed to be from a Welsh original, hence the protagonists name which translates as ‘Geriant the Blue Bard’ or in Welsh , ‘Bard Glas Geraint’. The notion of musical ability as being somehow ‘magical’ is at the core of this story of betrayal and suicide. This is basically Child's A text with the stanzas re-arranged to fit Child's initial verse. The tune is by Paul.
Jon Boden sang Jack Orion as the 18 March 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He noted in his blog:
Learnt from Bert Lloyd but the best version I've heard is Swarb and Carthy on The Carthy Chronicles. Mighty stuff.
Fay Hield learned Jack Orion, “a dramatic romp around the countryside”, from A.L. Lloyd's album too and sang it in 2016 on her CD Old Adam.
Lyrics
A.L. Lloyd sings Jack Orion | Martin Carthy sings Jack Orion |
---|---|
Jack Orion was as good fiddler |
Jack Orion was as good fiddler |
He could fiddle the fish out of salt water |
But he would fiddle the fish out of salt water, |
So he sat and played in the castle hall |
And there he played in the castle hall |
And first he played a slow, slow air |
And first he played there a slow, slow air |
“Ere the day has dawned and the cocks have crown |
“Ere the day has dawned and the cocks have crown |
So he lapped his fiddle in a cloth of green |
So he lapped his fiddle in a cloth of green |
“Ere the day has dawned and the cocks have crown |
“Ere the day has dawned and the cocks have crown |
“Well lie down, rest you, my good master, |
“Lie down, lie down, me good master |
And Tom took the fiddle into his hand, |
So Tom took the fiddle into his hand |
And when he come to the countess' door |
And when he come to the countess' door |
Well he didn't take that lady gay |
Well he did not take that lady gay |
And he neither kissed her when he came |
And neither did he kiss her when he came |
“Oh ragged are your stockings, love, |
“Oh ragged are your stockings, love, |
“My stockings belong to my boy Tom |
“My stockings belong to my boy Tom |
He took his fiddle into his hand, |
Tom took the fiddle into his hand |
“Well up, well, my master dear, |
“Then up, then up, my good master, |
Jack Orion took the fiddle into his hand |
Jack Orion took the fiddle into his hand |
Well, when he come to the lady's door |
And when he come to the lady's door |
She says,“Surely you didn't leave behind |
She said “Surely you didn't leave behind |
Jack Orion swore a bloody oath, |
Jack Orion he swore a bloody oath, |
“Oh then it was your little foot page |
“Oh then it was your own boy Tom |
And home then went Jack Orion, crying, |
Jack Orion took off to his own house saying, |
Acknowledgements
Transcribed by Garry Gillard. Thanks for suggestions to Wolfgang Hell and Susanne Kalweit. There are still a few small guesses and/or assumptions here. And then still more changes, thanks to Malcolm Douglas, from the Mudcat Café threads Lyr/Chords Req: Jack Orion - Bert Jansch and Lyr Req: Jack O'Rian the Fiddler.