Artist: Joseph Taylor
Author: traditional
Label: Gramophone
Year: 1908
Percy Grainger wax cylinder recording in 1906 in Brigg, Lincolnshire (released in 1908). Re-issued on Leader lp Unto Brigg Fair in 1972 (see also Brigg Fair and Died For Love). Cecil Sharp scored a version in Somerset in 1905.
Covers:
Mr. Thomson [also from Lincolnshire, also recorded by Percy Grainger and saved up for that same Leader lp; he picked up the ballad's storyline where Joseph Taylor's version ended]
Thomas Moran & Jeannie Robertson [Seamus Ennis recording coupled with a Peter Kennedy recording on Rounder cd Classic Ballads Of Britain And Ireland Vol 1 in The Alan Lomax Collection (2000)]
Charlotte Higgins [as Susie Pirate (Lord Bateman)]
Isabel Sutherland [who'd recorded Charlotte Higgins]
John Reilly [as Lord Baker; re-issued on Voice Of The People series Vol 17]
DK Wilgus & Tom Munnelly [on The Bonny Green Tree, a collection of John Reilly songs]
Sandy Denny [outtake The North Star Grassman And The Ravens]
Campbell MacLean [as Young Betcham]
June Tabor [John Peel session]
Planxty [as Lord Baker; vocal: Christy Moore]
Susan McKeown [idem]
Sinéad O'Connor [idem; 12 minute version with Christy Moore]
Storyline of this ballad is supposed to trace the saga of crusader Gilbert Beket and his arabian bride, the parents of St. Thomas à Becket (1300s). Child ballad 53, Roud folksong index #40.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)