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The Bonny Cuckoo

[ Roud 24351 ; Ballad Index TobiMBC ; Mudcat 59741 ; trad.]

The Bonny Cuckoo as sung in 1793 by Henry Joy of Ballinascreen, Co. Londonderry, was printed by Edward Bunting in his 1840 book Ancient Music of Ireland.

Shirley Collins recorded The Bonny Cuckoo several times. Two BBC archive recordings made by Alan Lomax on 20 October 1957 (one unaccompanied, the other accompanied by herself on banjo) were released on the occasion of her 80^th birthday in July 2015 on her 7" EP The Bonny Cuckoo. Her earliest published recording of The Bonny Cuckoo is on her 1960 album False True Lovers. A 1966 demo recording was included in March 2006 on her CD Snapshots. Finally, she sang Bonny Cuckoo in 1969 on her and her sister Dolly’s album Anthems in Eden. This recording was also included in her anthology Within Sound. Shirley Collins commented in its booklet:

We sang this at home, in three-part harmony—Mum, Dolly and me. When Alan Lomax visited us in Hastings back in the 1950s he had tears in his eyes as he listened to this song.

And Alan Lomax commented in the 1960 album’s notes:

Published in The Clarendon Song Book, Oxford University Press, and learnt by the Misses Collins in their school choir in Hastings. My Bonny Cuckoo is perhaps the most charming of the many songs which celebrate the cuckoo, the harbinger of spring and the natural symbol of cuckolds.

You Are Wolf (Kerry Andrew) sang both My Bonny Cuckoo and The Cuckoo in 2014 on their album Hawk to the Hunting Gone. They noted:

A combination of two traditional English cuckoo songs: the lyrics to My Bonny Cuckoo from the Shirley Collins version, and some lyrics from the oft-recorded The Cuckoo or The Coo-Coo Bird. The cuckoo, with its distinctive appearance and striking nest-usurping behaviour, features heavily in folklore, and is seen as the bringer of spring.

Some of the vocal sounds on the album are inspired by the sounds of a regional word for particular birds, as gleaned from the book All the Birds of the Air by Francesca Greenoak; a cuckoo used to sometimes be called a ‘Welsh ambassador’!

The girls at the beginning were a Norwegian school group that I, along with composers, Larry Goves, Adam Gorb and Björn Eriksson, came upon in the nature reserve of Saltögården in Sweden in 2010. I asked them if I knew any songs, and this is what they sang… as recorded by Björn in the woods, and then expanded with my vocals by Larry.

Lisa Knapp sang My Bonny Cuckoo on her EP supporting the 2017/18 Save fRoots crowdfunding campaign, The Loss of the Ramillies. She noted:

I first heard this song from the recording by the mighty Shirley Collins, folk singer from Sussex, who says she used to sing it in harmony with members of her family whilst growing up in Hastings. It was collected from Henry Joy of Ballinascreen, Co Londonderry, in 1793 and printed in 1840 by Edward Bunting in his book Ancient Music of Ireland. The cuckoo, with its predatory nesting habits and distinctive call, has always had a tonne of folk lore symbolism attached to it. Apparently, in the middle ages people believed the cuckoos actually brought the spring with them and I think that aspect of the cuckoo is what this song is exalting here.

Angeline Morrison sang Bonny Cuckoo on her 2022 album The Brown Girl and Other Folk Songs. She noted:

This song first leapt out at me from the wonderful Shirley and Dolly Collins’ Anthems in Eden album. I love the brightness of the melody, the way it echoes the cuckoo’s call. This little song apparently brought Alan Lomax to tears, as he listened to Shirley, Dolly and their mother singing it in three-part harmony at home in Hastings in the 1950s.

Lyrics

Henry Joy sings The Bonny Cuckoo

My bonny cuckoo, I tell thee true
That through the groves I’ll rove with you;
I’ll rove with you until the next spring
And then my cuckoo shall sweetly sing.
Cuckoo, cuckoo, until the next spring,
And then my cuckoo shall sweetly sing.

The ash and the hazel shall mourning say,
My bonny cuckoo, don’t go away;
Don’t go away, but tarry here,
And make the season last all the year.

Shirley Collins sings The Bonny Cuckoo

My bonny cuckoo, I tell thee true
That through the groves I’ll rove with you;
I’ll rove with you until the next spring
And then my cuckoo shall sweetly sing.

The ash and the hazel shall mourning say,
O bonny cuckoo, don’t go away;
Don’t go away, but tarry here,
And sing for us throughout the year.

Cuckoo, cuckoo, pray tarry here,
And make the spring last all the year.

Angeline Morrison sings Bonny Cuckoo

My bonny cuckoo, I tell thee true
That through the groves I’ll rove with you.
I’ll rove with you until the next spring,
And then my cuckoo shall sweetly sing.

The ash and the hazel shall mourning say,
O bonny cuckoo, don’t go away!
Don’t go away, but tarry here
And sing for us another year.

Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Pray tarry here,
And make the spring last all the year.