> Steeleye Span > Songs > Bonnets So Blue
Bonnets So Blue
[trad. dance tune]
Anglo concertina player William Kimber played the set of country dance tunes Step and Fetch Her, Pop Goes the Weasel, Over the Hills to Glory, Double Lead Through, The Quaker’s Wife, Bonnets So Blue, Hilly-Go, Filly-Go and Schottische to Peter Kennedy in November 1956. it was released in 1963 on his eponymous EFDSS album William Kimber.
Eddie Upton danced Bonnets So Blue, “a solo jig from Bucknell” played by John Rodd on concertina, Simon Nicol on guitar, Ashley Hutchings on bass and Dave Mattacks and Michael Gregory on drums, in 1976 on their Harvest album Son of Morris On.
The Old Swan Band played a set of Bonnets So Blue, Starry Night for a Randy, and Uncle’s Jig in 1977 on their Free Reed album No Reels. This track was also included in 1995 on their Free Reed compilation CD Still Swanning… After All These Years!. They noted:
Bonnets So Blue—while not a Morris tune—comes from William Kimber of Headington Quarry (as does the Curley Headed Ploughboy, Little Poly and Rigs of Marlow—to be heard later). A Starry Night for a Randy is from Herbert Smith of Norfolk, a splendid old-style fiddler with a (recorded) repertoire of uniformly striking tunes (the Heel & Toe polka, Varsoviarna and most of Dan Leno’s Boat are also his). Uncle’s Jig is from Bob Conn’s collection of family tunes.
Steeleye Span played Bonnets So Blue in 1978 on their farewell live album Live at Last!, recorded at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth on 7 March 1978. John Kirkpatrick introduced the tune:
I’m gonna do a dance which is called Bonnets So Blue and it’s a very old dance and it’s a fertility dance. You’ve seen it, yeah? In theory, the idea is that when you feel a bit sort of limp, your crops aren’t growing very well, you haven’t got enough children, oh you know, those sort of things, you got a leak in the roof, you do a dance like this, Bonnets So Blue. It actually comes from the days of the blue bonnet plague, when everyone used to wear blue bonnets. And you do this dance, all over your garden, flatten your crops, knacker yourself. That’s the theory, you’ll see it practised in a minute and you’ll see why it doesn’t work—Bonnets So Blue.
John Kirkpatrick played the set Over the Moon (Applecore) and Bonnets So Blue in 1988 on his Squeezer cassette Sheepskins. And he played the set of waltzes Brunswick, The Shrewsbury Waltz, Bonnets So Blue and Princess Caroline’s Waltz in 2003 on his album of English traditional tunes, Garrick’s Delight. The tunes from this and its sister CD Orlando’s Return are published in his book John Kirkpatrick’s English Choice.
Mally played Bonnets So Blue in 2001 on their Mally’s Cotswold Morris Book Volume 2. This track was also included in 2003 on Holmfirth Festival’s 25th anniversary double CD, Roots & Wings.
Bryony Griffith played Queen’s Delight and Bonnets So Blue in 2018 on her Selwyn album Hover. She noted:
Two Cotswold Morris tunes from the village of Bucknall, played for Dog Rose Morris. Queen’s Delight is a 6 man corner dance. Bonnets So Blue is Ross McKinlay’s solo jig. Both tunes were learnt from Lionel Bacon’s Black Book of Morris Dance.
Boss Morris played Bonnets So Blue on their eponymous 2024 album Boss Morris. They noted:
Bonnets So Blue (Bledington)—Rob [Harbron] learned this tune from Chris Wood who plays it in the minor key. It was collected from Charles Benfield (1841-1929), fiddle player for Bledington Morris Dancers, and although the transcription could be read in the minor, it’s usually played in the major.
Simon Care and Gareth Turner played Bonnets So Blue and Upton on Severn in 2024 on their Talking Elephant double CD Two’s Up Two.