- Willie o Winsbury
Willie O Winsbury is Child Ballad #100, existing in several variants. [
Francis James Child , "English and Scottish Popular Ballads", [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch100.htm "Willie o Winesberry"] ] It is a traditional Scottish ballad that dates from at least 1775, and is known under a number of different names, including "Lord Thomas of Winesberry."ynopsis
A king is away for a long time. His daughter becomes pregnant by the hero, William or Thomas. The king threatens to hang him, but is struck by his beauty and offers him the heroine and gold. The hero accepts the lady but declares that he has both gold and lands enough of his own.
Commentary
This ballad closely parallels Child ballad 99, "
Johnie Scot ". [Francis James Child, "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads", v 2, p 377, Dover Publications, New York 1965] .In one variants, the lands are specifically described: he will be king when he returns to Scotland. It may, in fact, be based on
James V 's courtship of and marriage toMadeleine de Valois of France; James came to see the woman he was betrothed to in disguise, and went on to meet the princess, who fell in love with him. [Francis James Child, "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads", v 2, p 398-9, Dover Publications, New York 1965]Nowadays the song is often sung to the tune of
Fause Foodrage , rather than its own traditional tune.Recordings
This song was recorded by
Sweeney's Men on their debut albumSweeney's Men (album) in 1968.Andy Irvine performs the vocal on the track.Anne Briggs recorded this song in 1971, accompanied byJohnny Moynihan , for her album "Anne Briggs".The song was recorded by Pentangle in 1972, on their album Solomon's Seal.
The
Great Big Sea song "John Barbour", on theirSomething Beautiful* CD, is based on this ballad.The Song "Farewell Farewell" recorded by
Fairport Convention onLiege and Lief is actually new lyrics (written by Richard Thompson) set to theFause Foodrage tune now commonly used for Willie O Winsbury. A recording of Willie O Winsbury played and sung by Thompson was included in his compilation boxset "RT".Maps sampled the Sweeney's Men version on their song "To The Sky", from their album
We Can Create Meg Baird of Espers recorded the song for her 2007 album "Dear Companion." [http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/42834/meg-baird-dear-companion/ Meg Baird: Dear Companion - PopMatters Music Review ] ]
This song was sung by
Connie Dover and is found on her album The Wishing Well.References
External links
* [http://www.contemplator.com/child/winebery.html Willie O Winsbury]
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