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HARVEST

Smallholder 41August 2010

AASS I ponder on this time of year, of thegathering of the harvest, John Barleycorn, oneof the most popular folk songs of the Englishspeaking world comes to mind.

In the song the cereal crop barley ispersonified and each verse explores a differentaspect of the barley cultivation and the effectson the barley as it is turned from seed tobread or beer. John Barleycorn has to die sowe can eat or drink of him.

It is not known exactly how old the songJohn Barleycorn is, but it isbelieved to have derivedfrom the Scots balladAllan-a-Maut (Alan ofthe malt) whichdates back atleast to thereign of JamesI, when it wasincluded in theBannatyneManuscript of1568. The firstactual mention ofJohn Barleycorn wasin a 1624 broadsideballad from London, descibedas “A pleasant new ballad to singev'ning and morn, of the bloody murder of SirJohn Barleycorn.”

This ballad included all the elements of thesong we know today. including an oath to killhim sworn by knights, sun following the rain,the growing of a beard and the miller grindinghim between two stones.

The editors of the Penguin Book of EnglishFolk Songs, A L Lloyd and Ralph VaughanWilliams acknowledged that the song JohnBarleycorn was popular across the countrysideof England and Scotland but also recordedtheir uncertainty about its origins.

They speculated that it was either an“unusually coherent folklore survival” or “thecreation of an antiquarian revivalist” which hadbecome “folklorized.” They noted that in thetwentieth century versions had been collectedin many counties of southern England.

Contrary to the view of the English Folk-Songs editors, Reginald Nettel in theintroduction to his Sing a Song of England – ASocial History of Traditional Song, consideredthe contents of John Barleycorn as anexample of the survival of paganism.

He believed that John Barleycornrepresented the Corn Spirit, the essence oflife. He theorised that it was for the Corn Spiritthat the White Horse was cut at Uffington andthe giant at Cerne Abbas, and it was also for

him that the stone circles were constructed.Corn Dollies were also made in his honour.

Nettel also noted that John Barleycorn was,and still is, a good drinking song. Modernresearch seems to show that, it is mainlythrough this kind of oral transmission, that theoriginal Allan-a-Maut song evolved to producea family of seven “Barleycorn” songs .

These variants are sung to at least fourdifferent tunes and whilst some retain theearlier ending of “And it will cause a man to

drink till he can neither go nor stand”,more common is the inclusion

of “barleycorn in the nutbrown bowl for he

proved thestrongest man.”

Other versionsare based ontheadaptation ofthe song by

Robbie Burnsin which the

three men arereplaced by the

kings and west witheast.

In modern times the song JohnBarleycorn has proven popular with many folkperformers including Martin Carthy, Jethro Tull,Fairport Convention, the Watersons andSteeleye Span.

The group Traffic even named an album JohnBarleycorn must die. However my personalfavourite is by Chris Wood on his album LarkDescending. Chris' guitar arrangement givesthe song a really haunting quality that fits themood of his vocal style and the lyrics, andthough his version may not be as easy to singin a pub setting it helps this old song appeal toa modern audience.

Chris Wood is a folk singer with attitude whobelieves passionately in exploring the unofficialhistory of the English speaking people and inkeeping the old traditions alive, but not somuch that he cannot embrace modernmulticulturalism. For Chris, along with Martinand Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg, Paul Weller andothers, is involved in the Imagined Villageproject.

Inspired by the book by Georgina Boyes andfounded by Simon Emmerson of the Afro CeltSound System, its intention is to producemodern folk music that reflects the UnitedKingdom of today.

The contribution by Chris to the projects CDis a version of Cold, Haily, Rainy, Night,another traditional song with a long history. Butlet us stop there shall we? ■

John Barleycorn must dieMaureen James pulls up the roots of a popular harvest and drinking song

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John Barleycorn lyricsThere were three men came out of the West,Their fortune for to try,And these three men made a solemn vow:John Barleycorn should die.

They ploughed, they sewed,they harrowed him in,Threw clods upon his head,These three men made a solemn vow:John Barleycorn was dead.

They let him lie for a very long time'Till rain from heaven did fall,And little Sir John put up his head,It so amazed them all.

So they made him stand 'till longmidsummer'Till he looked both pale and wan,And little Sir John's grew a long, long beard,And so became a man.

So they hired men with the scythesso sharp,To cut him off at the knee,They rolled him and tied him by the waist,and they served him barbarously.

They hired men with the sharp pitchforks,To prick him to the heart,But the loader he served him worsethan that,He bound him to the cart

And they wheeled him and wheeled himaround the field,'Till they came down to the barn,And these three men made a solemn oath,On poor John Barleycorn.

They hired men with the crab-tree sticks,To cut him skin from bone,The miller he served him worse than that,He ground him between two stones.

Here's little Sir John in his nut-brown bowl,Here's brandy in the glass;Little Sir John in his nut-brown bowl,Proved the strongest man at last.

Because the huntsman, he can't hunt the fox,Nor loudly blow his horn,The tinker can't mend kettles nor pots,Without John Barleycorn ■