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Length: 6:19
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Their fortunes for to try,
And these three men made a solemn vow:
John Barleycorn must die.
They've ploughed, they've sown, they've harrowed him in,
Threw clods upon his head,
And these three men made a solemn vow:
John Barleycorn was dead.
They've let him lie for a very long time,
Till the rains from heaven did fall,
And little Sir John sprung up his head,
And so amazed them all.
They've let him stand till midsummer's day,
Till he looked both pale and wan,
And little Sir John's grown a long, long beard,
And so become a man.
They've hired men with the scythes so sharp,
To cut him off at the knee,
They've rolled him and tied him by the way,
Serving him most barbarously.
They've hired men with the sharp pitchforks,
Who pricked him to the heart,
And the loader he has served him worse than that,
For he's bound him to the cart
They've wheeled him around and around the field,
Till they came unto a barn,
And there they made a solemn oath,
On poor John Barleycorn.
They've hired men with the crab-tree sticks,
To cut him skin from bone,
And the miller he has served him worse than that,
For he's ground him between two stones.
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl,
And he's brandy in the glass;
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl,
Proved the strongest man at last.
The huntsman, he can't hunt the fox,
Nor so loudly to blow his horn,
And the tinker he can't mend kettle nor pot,
Without a little Barleycorn
Am I the only one who thought Cat Stevens sang this song?
Very likely, yes.
I absolutely HATE this song......................It SO depresses me.
Listen, think about, understand, or not, then speak.
There was so little mediocrity and so much crazy good stuff. Kind of like the 1970s Columbian.
how many songs do you hear these days on the radio are about harvesting grain?
I take it you're not a listener to the local Country Music station? I wouldn't say harvesting songs are common, but they do exist. Every time I hear John Barleycorn, I think of the (less clever but nonetheless fun)
Corn makes whiskey
Whiskey makes my baby
Get a little bit frisky
gártha!
Loved this song at first, then got so tired of the exact same melodies and rhythms over barely discernible but earnest lyrics
Dumb as dirt.
Funny - I´ve been singing this song for years, and never followed it through - my god, it´s WHISKEY!
![biggrin](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_biggrin.gif)
Its about planting, growing , harvesting, threshing and grinding Barley to make whisky (Whiskey if its Irish not Scotch). (Followed today 13/3/2024 by John Martyn, "He's got all the Whiskey" )
![drunk](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_drunk.gif)
John Barleycorn is "whiskey"! This is a traditional tune by an anonymous composer!!
Whisky or beer. Wikipedia has more about this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
John Barleycorn is "whiskey"! This is a traditional tune by an anonymous composer!!
Funny - I´ve been singing this song for years, and never followed it through - my god, it´s WHISKEY!
![biggrin](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_biggrin.gif)
John Barleycorn is "whiskey"! This is a very old traditional tune by an anonymous composer!!
And it was quite common for all kinds of bands in the 1970s to experiment. Pushing boundaries. It was a "buffet" of all types of musical genres and bands. Your choice was huge.
Today: no buffet. it's more like a big long table, with one bowl of boiled potatoes and a plastic bucket of water and a ladle. But you'll eat and drink it, because that's all there is (e.g., Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire) and exalt how great it is!!!! HuzzahI
If you're a vegan, does this song give you the creeps?
It shouldn't do...its a song about grain.
John Barleycorn is "whiskey"! This is a traditional tune by an anonymous composer!!
O now I get it, thanks
![smile](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/smiley-smile.gif)
Am I the only one who thought Cat Stevens sang this song?
Only one yes.
![salud](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_cheers.gif)
I'm not a music pro or anything close to it but I like this one!
You do not need to be a "pro"! The ONLY important thing, is that you LIKE IT!
![clap](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/eusa_clap.gif)
![angel](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/eusa_angel.gif)
This song is gross if you listen to the words. IDN what Traffic was thinking?
John Barleycorn is "whiskey"! This is a traditional tune by an anonymous composer!!
This should have been the theme song for Midsomer Murders.
This song is gross if you listen to the words. IDN what Traffic was thinking?
If it helps, they didn't write it (it's written by trad. anon.)
The Wikipedia entry for this song has several surprises and historical allusions that I wasn't aware of. But I still don't know what a crab-tree stick is.
A crab tree stick is a cane or cudgel made from the wood from a crab apple tree. Also called a flailing stick or beater, part of a thresher.
Just ran into this thing and now there's a glass of whiskey by my side.
Shouldn´t it be brandy in the glass?
This song, at least in the beginning, reminds me of Donovan.
Winwood was so versatile. Was a fan of Steve Winwood back then, even more so now.
Utopia vs Apocalypse is the main event.
Plague vs Hubris is just the opening act.
perfect comment on the "drivel", thanks!
Utopia vs Apocalypse is the main event.
Plague vs Hubris is just the opening act.
As does The Imagined Village, with Paul Weller on vocals. Nicely punchy re-work
![cheesygrin](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_cheesygrin.gif)
Ooh, i'll have to look for that. Paul Weller's voice
![cheers](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_cheers.gif)
As does The Imagined Village, with Paul Weller on vocals. Nicely punchy re-work
![cheesygrin](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_cheesygrin.gif)
![{#Drunk} {#Drunk}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_drunk.gif)
Because there is a flute? Please.
I too thought it was not the original off that album because I remembered it being more forceful.. so I checked two different 'videos' on YouTube and they are both the same as this one.
Until I ever get to hear my friend's original vinyl album then I will never be 100% sure.
So until then... we will just have to accept that our memories are false.
Monday morning.... grey.... working from home, just turned the puter on, clicked on RP and this was playing.... the day will go well!
And tickets for Van the Man tonight to round things off
Wow... four years older (less a day) since I posted the above, but the song is still as good as ever.....
Still raining, though.
![{#Drunk} {#Drunk}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_drunk.gif)
I concur!
![{#Cheers} {#Cheers}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_cheers.gif)
I concur also
![{#Notworthy} {#Notworthy}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_notworthy.gif)
I concur!
![{#Cheers} {#Cheers}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_cheers.gif)
Fuerza natural!
Thought it sounded like the Strawbs.
Oh, do behave.
I guess after this song we will hear some Led, or Dead, or Dylan, or Hendrix, or The Band, or Yes, or Floyd, or Allmans, or Stones or Steely Dan, or Fleetwood Mac, or CSNY?
It's only RnR, but I like it.
This is a very, VERY old song with many variations and references to vegetation deity traditions, some of which became incorporated into the story of Jesus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barleycorn:
John Barleycorn is a British folksong. The character of John Barleycorn in the song is a personification of the important cereal crop barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it, beer and whisky. In the song, John Barleycorn is represented as suffering attacks, death and indignities that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting.
Kathleen Herbert draws a link between the mythical figure Beowa (a figure stemming from Anglo-Saxon paganism that appears in early Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies whose name means "barley") and the figure of John Barleycorn. Herbert says that Beowa and Barleycorn are one and the same, noting that the folksong details the suffering, death, and resurrection of Barleycorn, yet also celebrates the "reviving effects of drinking his blood."
A Scottish poem with a similar theme, "Quhy Sowld Nocht Allane Honorit Be", is included in the Bannatyne Manuscript of 1568 and English broadside versions from the 17th century are common. Robert Burns published his own version in 1782, and modern versions abound.
I was thinking the exact same thing.
![{#Roflol} {#Roflol}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_roflol.gif)
Sonic Bliss! Aural euphoria! Multi-sensory delight!
hmmm... looks like it's time to empty the ashtray and refill the pint glass.
I remember buying Traffic albums back when it was unheard of to have only 3 or 4 songs on a side. It was heretical. It was polarizing. It was also mind opening and wonderful.
Days were when major groups took major chances. Now . . .
don't ask.
![{#Moon} {#Moon}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_moon.gif)
Dave_Mack wrote:
And Jim Capaldi.
Stevie Winwood.
And Jim Capaldi.
Stevie Winwood.
Steve Winwood.
![{#Daisy} {#Daisy}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/daisy.gif)
das haben jetzt wieder alle verstanden!
![{#Daisy} {#Daisy}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/daisy.gif)
When my son was little, probably 4 or 5, he really loved this song. I'll have to play it to him and see if he remembers it.
Monday morning.... grey.... working from home, just turned the puter on, clicked on RP and this was playing.... the day will go well!
And tickets for Van the Man tonight to round things off
saddle me harse i'm on down to the lion rose for a pint
![{#Chef} {#Chef}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/chef.gif)
![{#Daisy} {#Daisy}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/daisy.gif)
OK, we get it, you're a dick.
![{#Lol} {#Lol}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_lol.gif)
wait for it
wait for it
okay
![{#Puke} {#Puke}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_puke.gif)
OK, we get it, you're a dick.
wait for it
wait for it
okay
![{#Puke} {#Puke}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_puke.gif)
![{#Clap} {#Clap}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_clap.gif)
Here's the John Barleycorn lyrics:
There were three men come from the West
Their fortunes for to try,
And these three made a solemn vow:
"John Barleycorn must die."
They plowed, they sowed, they harrowed him in,
Threw clods upon his head,
'Til these three men were satisfied
John Barleycorn was dead.
They let him lie for a very long time,
'Til the rains from heaven did fall,
When little Sir John raised up his head
And so amazed them all.
They let him stand 'til Mid-Summer's Day
When he looked both pale and wan;
Then little Sir John grew a long, long beard
And so became a man.
They hired men with their scythes so sharp
To cut him off at the knee;
They rolled him and tied him around the waist,
And served him barbarously.
They hired men with their sharp pitchforks
To pierce him to the heart,
But the loader did serve him worse than that,
For he bound him to the cart.
They wheeled him 'round and around the field
'Til they came unto a barn,
And there they took a solemn oath
On poor John Barleycorn.
They hired men with their crab-tree sticks
To split him skin from bone,
But the miller did serve him worse than that,
For he ground him between two stones.
There's little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl,
And there's brandy in the glass,
And little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl
Proved the strongest man at last.
The huntsman cannot hunt the fox
Nor loudly blow his horn
And the tinker cannot mend his pots
Without John Barleycorn.
Now the green blade rises
from the buried grain,
wheat that in the dark earth
many days has lain;
love lives again,
that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springs up green.
In the grave they laid him,
Love whom hate had slain,
thinking that never
he would wake again,
laid in the earth
like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again like wheat that springs up green.
Forth he came in quiet,
like the risen grain,
he that for three days
in the grave had lain,
quick from the dead
the risen Christ is seen:
Love is come again like wheat that springs up green.
When our hearts are wintry,
grieving, or in pain,
Christ's touch can call us
back to life again,
fields of our hearts
that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again like wheat that springs up green.
Ain't gonna happen.
It's a "nut-brown bowl" from which they drink the ale. Personally, I prefer a pint glass.
...but of course there are other interpretations as well...
One of the funniest sequences of comments for any song on RP. You guys have ruined a perfectly nice song for me - can't take it seriously now. What the hell is a "nut-brown boy" anyway?
Jethro Tull does a rather nice cover of this.
When? Where?