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Swaggering Boney

[ Roud - ; Tune Archive Swaggering_Boney ; Mudcat 107687 ; trad.]

John Rose and Paul Hook played a set of Swaggering Boney and The Black Joke in 1971 on the Topic album of songs, Stories and tunes from the central countries, The Wide Midlands. Roy Palmer noted:

These Morris tunes were collected by Cecil Sharp at Bampton in Oxfordshire. The first is perhaps better known as Gee Ho Dobbin.

Martin Carthy played the tune Swaggering Boney on his 1979 album Because It’s There; it was reissued in 1993 on The Collection. A version recorded live in Switzerland in 1975 can be found on the double LP 4. Folk-Festival auf der Lenzburg. Steve Winick wrote in the The Collection sleeve notes:

Swaggering Boney was a flattering nickname given to Napoleon Bonaparte, a frequent character in English and Irish folklore (he’s often the hero in Irish songs and the villain in English ones). In the arrangement of this dance tune, Martin’s conviction that tunes should be subservient to dances determines the tempo. He says he learnt it “by osmosis.”

Magpie Lane played Swaggering Boney in 1994 on their Beautiful Jo CD Speed the Plough. They noted:

A Morris tune from Longborough in Gloucestershire, accompanying a handkerchief dance.

Chris Bartram and Keith Holloway played the Longborough Morris tune Swaggering Boney on their 1998 album The Traditional Morris Dance Music Album.

Simon Care, Bryony Griffith and Ken Nicol played and Dogrose Morris danced Swaggering Boney on the 2004 Talking Elephant album Great Grandson of Morris On.

Crucible played a set of the Morris tunes Bobbing Around, Banks of the Dee and Swaggering Boney in 2005 on their WildGoose album Crux. This track was also included in 2006 on the Talking Elephant compilation double CD The Magic of Morris 2. They noted on their album:

A Crucible set wouldn’t be right without a good dose of morris, so here’s three all at once for your delectation. Bobbing Around comes from the Bampton tradition. Banks of the Deefrom Fieldtown, and Swaggering Boney, Richard [Arrowsmith]’s most favourite morris tune ever, is in the Longborough style.

Ian Kearey, Pete Cooper, Dave Arthur and Glen Redman played Swaggering Boney on Shirley Collins’ 2023 Domino album Archangel Hill. She noted:

The song [The Bonny Labouring Boy] is followed by a Morris tune, ‘Boney’ being the demeaning nickname the English had for Napoleon Bonaparte.

Nick Hart and Tom Moore played a set of Swaggering Boney and Constant Billy in 2023 on their Slow Worm album The Colour of Amber. Tom Moore noted:

The first melody here is a Gloucestershire Morris tune; the tide referring to Napoleon Bonaparte dates it from the late 1700s to the early 1800s. However, a version of this melody predates the French emperor, appearing as early as 1686 in Playford’s Dancing Master as The Rummer. Constant Billy is now a ubiquitous standard, and may have emerged from a late 17th Century song tune popular with Morris dancers.

Will Allen and Becca Pamely played a set of Swaggering Boney and Trip to Barnard in 2026 on their Scribe album Great & Small. They noted:

A morris tune from the Cotswolds and an English country dance tune Will learned from Manny Grimsley.