''The Grey Cock'' or ''Saw You My Father'' (
Roud
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...
179) is one of the famous English/Scots
Child ballads
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...
(number 248) and is sometimes known as ''The Lover's Ghost''.
It has been recorded by many singers, including
Tim Hart
Tim Hart (9 January 1948 – 24 December 2009) was an English folk singer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a founding member of British folk rock band Steeleye Span.
Early years
Tim Hart was born in Lincoln, England, but moved to St ...
and
Maddy Prior
Madelaine Edith Prior MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the police ...
(on ''
Summer Solstice'', 1971) and
Eliza Carthy
Eliza Amy Forbes Carthy, MBE (born 23 August 1975) is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing the fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians singer/guitarist Martin Carthy and singer Norma Waterson.
Life and ca ...
.
Synopsis
A woman asks after her father, her mother, and her true-love John. Only John is there. He waits until all are abed and joins her. The woman tells the cock to crow when it is day; it crows an hour early, and she sends her love away before she needs to.
Versions
Two versions are printed in
James Reeves's ''The Everlasting Circle''. They were collected at Beaminster and Puddletown in Dorset. "Child assumes the ballad to be an ''aubade'', but in an article in the ''Journal of American Folklore'' (Vol. 67, No. 265, 1954) Dr Albert B. Friedman gives reasons for thinking that it concerns a ''revenant'' or lover's ghost, due to return to the world of the dead at cock-crow.—James Reeves. Popularly known and recorded as ''The Night Visiting Song'', the piece implies that the lover's death was from drowning at sea: he died because of the "tempest's rages" and must return to the "arms of the deep".
See also
*
Willie's Fatal Visit
References
External links
''The Grey Cock''
Child Ballads
Year of song unknown
Songwriter unknown
{{Folk-song-stub