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The Grey Cock (Child 248)

from Blood & Roses Volume 3 by Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger

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about

Night-visiting has been a time-honoured custom in the northern countries. A number of night-visit songs contain elements in common and are often confused with one another. Our ballad is a modernised version of the highly dramatic old revenant ballad so widely spread throughout Europe. I cannot remember where I learned this, but its combination of the old story with the newer singing style and accompaniment has always fascinated me.

lyrics

Johnny he promised he'd marry me.
I fear he's with some fair one and gone;
There's something that ails him and I don't know what it is,
But I'm weary of lying alone.

Johnny he came at the appointed hour,
Knocked on her window so slow;
This young girl arose and she hurried on her clothes
And she bid her true love welcome home.

She took him by the hand and she laid him down,
Found he was as cold as the clay.
She said, My dearest dear, if I only had my wish,
This long night would never turn to day.

Where is your soft bed of down, my love?
Where are your white holland sheets?
And where is the fair girl that watches over you
As you lie every night in your sleep?

The sea is my soft bed of down, he said,
Sand be my white holland sheet;
The little hungry fishes they do feed off of me
As I lie every night in the deep.

Then, O, my little cock, my handsome little cock,
Don't crow till 'tis long after day;
Your cage it will be of the purest beaten gold
And your door of the sweet ivory.

But him a-being young, he crowed so very soon,
Crowed three long hours before day;
This young man arose, and he hurried on his clothes
Farewell, love, for I must go away.

When will you come back again, my love,
When will you come back again?
When little fishes fly and the seas they do run dry,
And the hard rocks do melt in the sun.

credits

from Blood & Roses Volume 3, released September 14, 1982
Peggy Seeger - vocals, autoharp

Produced by Neill MacColl
Engineered by Nick Godwin
Recorded at Pathway Studios, London

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Ewan MacColl London, UK

This site is maintained by the MacColl family, aiming to make Ewan's catalogue available to download.
Ewan MacColl is known to most as a songwriter and singer, but he was also of significant influence in the worlds of theatre and radio broadcasting. His art reached huge numbers through the folk clubs, greater numbers through his recordings and untold millions through the radio. ... more

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