> Folk Music > Songs > Poor Wee Jockie Clarke

Poor Wee Jockie Clarke / Faither’s Old Coat

[ Roud 2135 ; Ballad Index K236 ; Mudcat 5784 ; trad.]

Peter Kennedy: Folksongs of Britain and Ireland Ewan MacColl: Scotland Sings Elizabeth Stewart, Alison McMorland: Up Yon Wide and Lonely Glen

Richard Thompson sang Poor Wee Jockey Clarke, accompanying himself on hurda-gurdy, on 26 August 1992 at Towie Barclay Castle, Aberdeenshire. This recording was included in 1993 on his Hannibal triple CD anthology Watching the Dark.

Elizabeth Stewart sang Peer Wee Jockie Clark on her 2004 Elphinstone Institute album Binnorie. Thomas A. McKean noted:

Peer Wee Jockie Clark, also known as Fairther’s Old Coat, probably originated in Glasgow, judging from the newspapers mentioned. It comes from a genre of temperance songs which includes Johnnie ma Man, also well-known and sung among the Stewarts and in Traveller circles in general, although the alcoholic-reformed verses commonly sung at the end are a Victorian interpolation. Jockie, or Johnnie Clark is found in the north-eastern areas of both England and Scotland, regions which have a great deal in common: fishing traditions, dialect features, and also a nineteenth-century history of frequent and widespread evangelical revivals, often allied with temperance movements. Lucy Stewart’s version appears in Kennedy [Folksongs of Britain and Ireland], p. 522. (Roud 2135)

Lyrics

Richard Thompson sings Poor Wee Jockey Clarke

O poor wee Jockey Clarke
He sells the News and Star
He whistles and he sings
As he paddles through the glaur
Of all newspaper sellers
He’s the best of all the lot
If he’d only make a jacket
Out his father’s old coat

Well, Jockey’s father took a dram
As you may understand
He was a tyrant to his wife
And a plague unto the land
And oft times by the neighbours
He was called a drunken sot
For his little bitter bairnies
Are neglected and forgot

Yes, says Jockey to his mother
Lord, woman, I do think shame
You’d think I’d ne’er a father
Nor a mother or a hame
My clothes they are so ragged
Not a hale stitch have I got
Would you try and make a jacket
Of my father’s old coat?

O the jacket it was made
And it was uncommon braw
It was a grand protection
Against the rain and snow
The pouches in particular
O Jockey’s mind did please
They would hold a stane of tatties
With the greatest of ease

O, says Jockey to his mother
Lord, woman, I do think shame
You’d think I’d both a father
And a mother and a hame
My clothes they are so neatly
Not a ragged stitch I’ve got
Since you’ve made me up the jacket
Of my father’s old coat

Elizabeth Stewart sings Peer Wee Jockie Clar

O peer wee Jockie Clark
He sells the Evening Star
He whistles an he sings
As he traivels near an far
And be aa the paper sellers
He’s the best een o the lot
If they’d only mak a jaicket
Oot his faither’s aul coat.

Noo Jockie’s faither took a dram
As ye may understand
He wis a tyrant tae his wife and bairns
And a pageant tae the land
An off times by his neighbours
He wis caaed a drunken lot
For his little bits of bairnies
Were neglected and forgot.

O says Jockie tae his mither
O Lord woman I dee think shame
Ye’d think I hidna a faither
A mither and a hame
My claes they are sae ragged
Nae a hale stitch hae I got
Wid ye try and mak a jaicket
Oot my faither’s aul coat.

Noo Jockie’s mither lookit doon
On her bairnie wi a smile
She said, O my little cannie
It’s hardly worth my while
Bit gae awa and sell yeer papers
And be sure an sell the lot
An I’ll try and mak a jaicket
Oot yer faither’s aul coat.

Noo the jaicket it wis made
And a jaicket ne’er sae braw
It wis a grand protection
Against the wind and snaa
And the pooches in particular
It’s Jockie’s mind did please
They wid haud a steen o tatties
Wi the greatest o ease.

O says Jockie tae his mither
O Lord woman I dinna think shame
For ye’d think I hid a faither
A mither and a hame
My claes they are sae tidy
Nae a ragged stitch I’ve got
Since you made me this jaicket
Oot my faither’s aul coat.