“John Anderson, My Jo (I)”

Description

Singer tells how, when she first saw John, he was young, handsome, and her first love; now his hair is white, but she loves him still. They've climbed the hill together and must now totter down, but they'll go hand in hand and "sleep together at the foot"

Notes

This sounds like a version of "John Anderson, My Jo, John" that's been so thoroughly bowdlerized that nothing remains but the aging motif. The overall mood of the two songs is so different that I've split them. - PJS

This is actually the Burns rewrite, published in the Scots Musical Museum (and fairly often reprinted, e.g. in Palgrave's _Golden Treasury,_ item CXCVII). Apparently Burns didn't dare publish the bawdy original, but liked the feeling of ths song.

Those who want to see an even stranger rewrite should examine "John Barleycorn, My Jo, John" (Logan, pp. 221-222), a parody in which grain is the singer's love. Another broadside parody is "My Bonnie Meg, My Jo" [NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(105), "My Bonnie Meg, My Jo," unknown, c. 1875], which deals with a man's problems with an elderly shrew of a wife.

NLScotland L.C.Fol.60(15b), "John Anderson, My Jo (A New Reading)," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890, is also a raspy dialog between husband and wife, in which they decide to go to bed and fight another day; it is probably a rewrite of the Burns version, though there might be some bawdry from the traditional version. - RBW

Cross references

Recordings

  • Henry Burr, "John Anderson, My Jo" (Victor 4557, 1906; Victor 16213, 1909)

References

  1. Silber-FSWB, p. 141, "John Anderson, My Jo (I)"
  2. DT, JOHNAND3*
  3. ST FSWB141B (Full)
  4. BI, FSWB141B

About

Author: Robert Burns
Earliest date: 1790
Keywords: love age death hair
Found in: Britain(Scotland)