> June Tabor > Songs > Johnny o' Bredislee
Johnie Cock / Johnny the Brine / Johnny o' Bredislee
[
Roud 69
; Child 114
; G/D 2:250
; Ballad Index C114
; trad.]
John Strachan sang Johnny o' Braideslee in Fyvie, Aberdeenshire in 1951. This recording collected by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson was included in 1961 on the Tradition album Heather and Glen and (as Johnie Cock) on the anthology The Child Ballads 2 (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 5; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1968).
Ewan MacColl sang Johnnie o' Breadisley in 1956 on A.L. Lloyd and his Riverside anthology The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) Volume II. This track was also included in 2009 on the Topic reissue of his ballads from this series, Ballads: Murder·Intrigue·Love·Discord. He recorded this ballad again in 1960 accompanied by Peggy Seeger on guitar on their Topic album Chorus from the Gallows. This track was also included in 1993 on his Topic anthology The Real MacColl. Kenneth S. Goldstein commented in the first album's booklet:
This fine ballad, which Child referred to as a “precious specimen of the unspoiled traditional ballad”, had not been reported before the end of the 18th century; an examination of early texts with their interesting examples of primitive beliefs suggests a greater antiquity.
Various attempts have been made to identify the specific localities in which the action took place. Tradition and local pride, however, have served to confuse the issue. That it is a ‘Border Ballad’, there is no doubt; here we have a prime example of the lawlessness and heroics which made the Scottish-English ‘no man's land’ fertile ground for the creation of some of the greatest popular ballads.
MacColl's version, learned from John Strachan of Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, ends on a note of defiance, very much like the Child “D” text in which anti-climatic details concerning the sending of a message to Johnnie's mother have been deleted.
The ballad has been reported only once in America (in Virginia).
Jeannie Robertson sang this ballad as Johnny the Brine in 1960 on her Prestige album Scottish Ballads and Folk Songs. Another version titled Johnnie Cock (Johnnie o' Breadislee) was included in 2012 on the Topic anthology Good People, Take Warning (The Voice of the People Series Volume 23). A version sung by Stanley Robertson in Aberdeen in 2002 was printed in 2006 in Mike Yates' book Traveller's Joy.
Andy Irvine sang Johnny of Brady's Lea in 1980 on Planxty's Tara album The Woman I Loved So Well. He commented in the album's sleeve notes:
This is a famous traditional ballad from Scotland that I've known for years. Johnny is evidently an outlaw or at least a man who pays little regard to the game-laws. Despite his mother's warning, he sets out one day to ‘bring the dun deer down’. His dogs & himself feast on the deer to such an extent that they all fall asleep. The foresters are tipped off by an interfering old codger and wound Johnny mortally as he sleeps. Johnny wakes in a rage and kills six of them. The seventh one suffers multiple injuries and is put on his horse to ride out of the forest and tell the news. Johnny Moynihan sings a version called Johnny O'Cocklesmuir where the hero kills six, wounds one and rides off unscathed.
Old Blind Dogs sang Johnny o' Braidislee on their 1997 album Five.
June Tabor sang Johnny o' Bredislee in 1997 on her album Aleyn. A live recording from Germanstown Academy, Philadelphia, on 30 March 1996 was included in 2005 on her Topic anthology Always.
Siobhan Miller and Jeana Leslie sang Johnnie o' Braidisleys in 2010 on their Greentrax CD Shadows Tall. They commented:
One of the most cinematic or our narrative ballads—almost a complete screenplay. Collated from various versions, originally from the Greig-Duncan collection.
Peter Shepheard sang Johnnie o' Graidie at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival, Collessie, Fife in May 2010. This recording was included a year later on the festival anthology Hurrah Boys Hurrah! (Old Songs & Bothy Ballads Volume 7). The liner notes commented:
The hero of this fine old ballad is known by various names—Johnny Cock in the borders, Johnnie o' Braidislee, Johnie o' Cocklesmuir and in Jeannie Robertson's Aberdeenshire version as Johnnie the Brine. Francis James Child was particularly keen on the ballad for which he includes 13 texts and two tunes in his English and Scottish Popular Ballads and he refers to it as this precious specimen of the unspoiled traditional ballad. Bronson includes 15 versions. Almost all the known versions have been collected in Scotland (all of Bronson's 15 versions) and it is still part of the living tradition with traditional singers from Fife to Aberdeenshire and to the Borders continuing to provide fresh variants. The version sung here is more or less as collected by Pete in 1968 near Cupar, Fife from Willie Stewart, a traveller aged around 25 at the time, who learned the song from his father Dights (David) Stewart.
Danny Spooner sang Johnnie o' Braideslie in 2011 on his CD The Fox, The Hare and the Poacher's Fate.
Top Floor Taivers sang Johnny o' Braidieslee on their 2017 CD A Delicate Game. They commented:
Versions of the traditional ballad exist all over Scotland, but there is a speculation that it originally came from South West Scotland. ‘Johnny’ is said to have been an outlaw and deer stealer who owned Morton Castle near Durisdeer.
Alasdair Roberts sang Johnny o' the Brine on his, Amble Skuse and David McGuinness' 2018 CD What News. They noted:
Johnny o’ the Brine is one of the titles by which the Scottish travellers knew/know the ballad often known as Johnnie o’ Braidesley, Johnie o' Cocklesmuir or Johnie Cock. The original source for our version was Jock Duncan, formerly of New Deer, Aberdeenshire and now of Pitlochry, Perthshire, but it has also been influenced by versions from John Strachan and Willie Matheson of Aberdeenshire and the late traveller storyteller Duncan Williamson. According to Child, the first notice in print of this ballad is in Scotish Song, 1794.
Iona Five sang Johnnie o' Breadislie unaccompanied in 2020 on her download album Ballads Vol. I. This video shows her on 17 November 2018 at The Cellar Upstairs near Kings Cross Station in London:
Lyrics
Jeannie Robertson sings Johnny the Brine | June Tabor sings Johnny o' Bredislee |
---|---|
Johnny he raised one May morning, |
Johnny arose on a May morning, |
His auld wife she rung her hands, |
When Johnny's mother she heard of this |
“For we have plenty of the white bread | |
But Johnny has breskit his good benbow, | |
But Johnny went up through Monymusk |
As they gaed down by Merriemoss |
The first arrow he fired at her, |
Now Johnny shot and the dun deer lap |
Johnny and his twa greyhounds |
Now they ate so much of the good venison |
By came a silly auld man |
And by and came a silly old man |
“O as I came down by Merriemoss, | |
“And the coat he wore upon his back | |
“And the buttons he wore upon his coat | |
Then up spoke the first forester, | |
“If that be the young Johnny the Brine |
Then up spoke the second forester, |
He went up and telt the seventh forester, |
Then up spoke the seventh forester, |
The first arrow they fired at him, |
And the first shot that the foresters fired |
But Johnny rose up wi a angry growl |
When Johnny awoke from out of his sleep, |
“But if my bow prove true as it used to do | |
He placed his fit upon a stone |
Then he's set his back against an oak, |
Johnny broke his back in three |
Johnny's good benbow is broke, |