Subscribe to our Newsletter

Rambling Sailor, The

Back to browse page
Performer: Fry, John
Place Collected: thormarton
Date collected: 1909 (3 Apr)
Collector: Sharp, Cecil
Roud Number: 518

The notion of a free and easy sailor breezing into port and bedding pretty women must have had its appeal to at least half the population. The song appears on 19th century broadsides and has been collected fairly regularly in England but rarely elsewhere. Its jaunty Mixolydian tune has been picked up by many revival performers and is played regularly at music sessions in England.

Notes by Gwilym Davies 25 March 2015