> Tim Hart & Maddy Prior > Songs > Fly Up My Cock
Fly Up My Cock / True Lover John
[
Roud 179
; Child 248
; Henry H699
; Ballad Index C248
; trad.]
In Sam Henry's Songs of the People, p. 383, this song is called The Bonny Bushes Bright. Henry collected it on 17 April 1937 from Frank Thompson of Priestland, Co Antrim.
Joe Holmes and Len Graham sang this song as True Lover John to Neil Wayne and Lyn Murfin in 1975 in the north of Ireland. This recording was released a year later on their Free Reed album of traditional songs, ballads, lilts and fiddle tunes from the North of Ireland, Chaste Muses, Bards and Sages. The liner notes commented tersely:
The ‘night-visit’ theme enacted in a Co Antrim version of this ballad which, again, Joe learned from his mother.
Peta Webb and Ken Hall sang True Lover John, recorded by Mike Harding on 18 February 1999, on their 2000 Fellside album As Close As Close Can Be. They commented in their liner notes:
True Lover John, the old tale of betrayal in love but where the young woman picks up her life again with pride, is from the inspirational duo Joe Holmes and Len Graham, Co. Antrim. The first we learned together.
Tim Hart and Maddy Prior sang an abbreviated version of this as Fly Up My Cock in 1971 on their third duo album, Summer Solstice.
Robert Cinnamond sang the abbreviated Fly Up My Cock in August 1955 to Sean O'Boyle, probably in Co. Antrim. This was published in 1975 on his Topic album You Rambling Boys of Pleasure. Proinsias Ó Conluain commented in the liner notes:
Known also as The Grey Cock or Saw You My Father? (Child 248), this piece derives from the medieval aubade, the lovers' song of “night visiting” and parting at dawn with the crowing of the cock. The song is incomplete but it has affinities with The Lover's Ghost, no. 408 in Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, in which the second stanza parallels the beginning of this. There is no mention in our song, however, of a revenant or ghostly lover. For a full discussion of this song and its genre, see Hugh Shields: “The Dead Lover Returns” in Modern English Ballad Tradition (Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung, no. 17, Berlin, 1972).
Pilgrims' Way learned True Lover John from the singing of Peta Webb and sang it in 2016 on their Fellside CD Red Diesel.
Helen Diamond sang True Lover John on her 2018 eponymous first album Helen Diamond. She noted:
I picked up this song when I was very young from my Father singing it around the house. He learned it from a tape made by Len Graham and Joe Holmes: Chaste Muses, Bards and Sages. A beautiful recording and one of my favourites to this day.
Len Graham sang True Lover John in 2019 on Malinky's 20th anniversary album Handsel. They noted:
This is the first song Len Graham heard in the early 1960s from his old friend, the renowned tradition bearer Joe Holmes (1906-78). Joe in turn learned it from his mother at their home in Killyrammer, near Ballymoney in Co. Antrim. It’s a version of Child ballad 248, The Grey Cock. The crowing of the cock at dawn brings an untimely end to the lover's ‘night visit’ and may also contain, by some authorities, the ‘lover’s ghost’ supernatural element.
Lyrics
Joe Holmes and Len Graham sing True Lover John | Pilgrims' Way sing True Lover John |
---|---|
It happened for to be on a cold winter's evening, |
It happened for to be on a cold and winter's evening, |
Young Johnny he was sweet and he promised her to meet, |
Young Johnny he was sweet and he promised her to meet, |
Young Johnny came at last and he found the door was fast, |
Young Johnny came at last and he found the door so fast, |
He took her in his arms and off to bed they went |
And it's round the waist he's caught her and onto bed he's brought her, |
“Fly on, o fly on, my pretty little cock, |
“Fly up, fly up, my pretty little cock, |
But this pretty little cock, so cruel as he was, |
But this pretty little cock, so cruel as he was, |
This fair maid she arose and quickly followed after, |
This fair maid she arose, she's quickly followed after, |
There was once I thought my love was as constant unto me |
Well it was once I thought my love was as constant unto me |
Tim Hart and Maddy Prior sing Fly Up My Cock
“Fly up my cock,
You're my well-feathered cock,
But don't crow till the break of day.
“And your red rosy comb
Shall it be of the beaten gold
And your neck of the silvery grey.”
My cock he flew up
And my cock he flew down,
But he crowed one hour too soon.
And this young man arose
And he hurried on his clothes,
But it was only the light of the moon.
“Oh when will ye come back
My dear Jimmy,” she said,
“For to wed with a gay golden ring?”
“Seven moons,” said he,
“Shining over the lea
And the sky to yield up no more rain.”
For now I do see
Of the contrary way,
And I am forced to live single or be bound.