Johnny Todd
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English
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
Johnny Todd, he took a notion
For to cross the ocean wide
And he's left his own true love behind him
Walking by the Liverpool tide
For a week, she wept with sorrow
Tore her hair and wrung her hands
Till she met another handsome sailor
Walking by the Liverpool sands
Fair young maid are you a weeping
For your Johnny gone to sea
If you'll wed with me tomorrow
I will kind and constant be
I will buy you sheets and blankets
I'll buy you a wedding ring
You shall have a silver cradle
For to rock the baby in
Johnny Todd came home from sailing
Sailing on the ocean wide
And he's found his fair and false one
Was another sailor's bride
All young men who go a sailing
For to fight the foreign foe
Do not leave your own true love like johnny
Marry her before you go
"Johnny Todd" is included in the Roud Folk Song Index as #1102.<br> A. L. Lloyd commented in his album sleeve notes:<br> "A curiosity: a 19th century sailor ballad, that passed into the keeping of<br> Liverpool children who used it as a ball-bouncing song. It was first<br> published by the folk song collector Frank Kidson, in his Traditional Tunes (1891)."<br> It has been recorded by A. L. Lloyd, Ewan McColl, Bob Roberts, Louis Killen,<br> The Clancy Brothers, Gordon Bok and others.<br> I learned it from Gordon Bok's recording.<br>
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