The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #44473   Message #1809249
Posted By: GUEST,Sandy Paton
14-Aug-06 - 12:11 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: The Rambling Man (Peggy Seeger)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Rambling Man
Peggy thoroughly Americanized the Scottish ballad - The Gaberlunzie Man, Child 279. Some claim the original was written by King James of Scotland who seemed to enjoy dressing as a common beggar and wandering through the countryside in search of pliant young milkmaids and the like.
    The texts of the Scottish versions differ from Peggy's American text, of course, but the plot remains the same. Read them and compare them. Here's the address of a Scottish version on the web: http://www.contemplator.com/child/gaberlunz.html.
I recorded Peggy's American rewrite on "New Harmony" (Folk-Legacy CD-100) and once recorded, many years ago, a lyrical version that I had learned from Jeannie Robertson when I visited her in Scotland in 1958. It's on the old LP I made for Elektra in 1959 ("The Many Sides of Sandy Paton" - Elektra 148).
    Sandy (sans cookie, apparently)