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Folk Songs From Somerset
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Folk Songs From Somerset is the third movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite. It consists of several different English folk songs that originated in Somerset
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John Barleycorn (or The Ballad Of John Barleycorn) is a 16th century folk song which depicts the process of making ale.[1] There are many different versions of the lyrics.
There was three men come out of the West
Their fortunes for to try
And these three men made a solemn vow
John Barleycorn must die.
They ploughed, they sowed, they harrowed him in
Throwing clods all on his head
And these three men made a solemn vow
John Barleycorn was Dead.
They've left him in the ground for a very long time
Till the rains from heaven did fall
Then little Sir John's sprung up his head
And so amazed them all
They've left him in the ground till the Midsummer
Till he's grown both pale and wan
Then little Sir John's grown a long, long beard
And so become a man.
They hire'd men with their scythes so sharp
To cut him off at the knee.
They've bound him and tied him around the waist
Serving him most barb'rously.
They hire'd men with their sharp pitch-forks
To prick him to the heart
But the drover he served him worse than that
For he's bound him to the cart.
They've rolled him around and around the field
Till they came unto a barn
And there they made a solemn mow
Of Little Sir John Barleycorn
They've hire'd men with their crab-tree sticks
To strip him skin from bone
But the miller, he served him worse than that,
For he's ground him between two stones.
Here's Little sir John in the nut-brown bowl
And brandy in the glass
But Little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl's
Proved the stronger man at last
For the hunts man he can't hunt the fox
Nor so loudly blow his horn
And the tinker, he can't mend Kettles or pots
Without a little of Sir John Barleycorn.