> 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 ; DT FLYCOCK , FLYCOCK2 ; Mudcat 2758 ; trad.]

Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann, John Moulden: Sam Henry’s Songs of the People Stephen Sedley: The Seeds of Love

Sam Henry collected The Bonny Bushes Bright. on 17 April 1937 from Frank Thompson of Priestland, Co Antrim. It is printed in Sam Henry’s Songs of the People, p. 383.

Robert Cinnamond sang an abbreviated version of this as Fly Up My Cock in August 1955 to Sean O’Boyle, probably in Co Antrim. It was published in 1975 on his Topic album You Rambling Boys of Pleasure. Proinsias Ó Conluain noted:

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).

Tim Hart and Maddy Prior sang Fly Up My Cock in 1971 on their third duo album, Summer Solstice.

Joe Holmes on Ballymoney, Co Antrim, and Len Graham of Portstewart, Co Derry 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. It was also included in 1985 with the title The Pretty Little Cock on the Folk Music Society of Ireland anthology Early Ballads in Ireland 1968-1985, reissued on CD in 2015 by An Goílín. The Free Reed liner notes commented tersely:

The ‘night-visit’ theme enacted in a Co Antrim version of this ballad which, again, Joe learned from his mother.

Len Graham also sang True Lover John in 1984 on his Claddagh album Ye Lovers All, and in 2019 on Malinky’s 20^th anniversary album Handsel. The notes on the last album commented:

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.

Virgie Wallin from Sodom Laurel, North Carolina sang The Worrisome Woman to Mike Yates on 24 May 1983. This recording was released in the same year on Yates’s Home-Made Music album of Blue Ridge Mountain music from Virginia and North Carolina, Appalachia – The Old Traditions Volume 2, and in 2002 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs, tunes and stories from Yates’ Appalachian collections, Far in the Mountains Volume 3. The recording transcribed below ended with this dialogue:

MY: I’m just going to leave the tape on. Can you tell me when you first heard that song.

VW: I heard his brother sing it, Jeeter, oh (h)it bin… he’d stayed with us an he’d sing a lot— and get him a songbook and set down and sing and sing. I’d just wish for him to quit… it worried me, you know. I told Cas; Cas said, told me some time ago when I got to liking to sing, he’d guessed I’d wished he was back here now (so) I’d sing somewith him.

MY: How long ago was that?

VW: Oh, it’s along when we first married… he stayed with us. We’ve bin married about, going on 47 years.

And Mike Yates noted:

Virgie, the wife of Cas Wallin, loved to sing, although her tendency to let her songs merge together, coupled with the fact that she would sometimes sing at breakneck speed, meant that it was often difficult to make out quite what she was singing! She knew a large number of ballads, including a fine version of The Merry Golden Tree (Child 286), as well as lyrical songs. One oddity was a song that she called The Cold Professor which I have been unable to trace elsewhere.

[This is] a version of the ballad usually known as The Grey Cock or Saw You My Father?. In 1916 Cecil Sharp found a single set in the repertoire of Jane Hicks Gentry of Hot Springs, a few miles away from Sodom Laurel. When I first visited the area in 1981 I tried to find the ballad, but without success. Imagine my surprise two years later when Vergie began to sing it one afternoon as I was helping her cut down some weeds behind her home. As she explains on the album, she had heard the piece fifty years before, sung by her brother-in-law, Jeeter Wallin, who had since moved to Kentucky.

Jane Hicks Gentry was originally from Beech Mountain, a good way to the north-east of Hot Springs. The late Frank Proffitt of Vilas, Watauga County, North Carolina, sings a version on Rounder CD 0028. Vilas is next to Beech Mountain and Frank’s text is very similar to that sung by Mrs Gentry, as is the version recorded by Hattie Presnell, also of Beech Mountain (Folk-Legacy FSA 22).

Despite being widely collected in the British Isles, it appears that only versions from Cecilia Costello (Rounder CD1776), Nora Cleary (Topic TSCD653) and Róisín White (Veteran VT126CD) can be found on CD.

Frank Harte sang True Lover John, in a 1984 recording that was included in 2016 on his posthumous album When Adam Was in Paradise.

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 noted:

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.

Roisín White sang True Lover John on her 1992 Veteran Tapes cassette The First of My Rambles.

Pilgrims’ Way learned True Lover John from the singing of Peta Webb and sang it in 2016 on their Fellside CD Red Diesel.

Nick Dow sang True Lover John on his 2016 album The Devil in the Chest. He noted:

From Joe Holmes who learned it from his mother. I heard the song sung by Hammy Hamilton and decided to put a guitar arrangment to it. True Lover John is a version of The Grey Cock.

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.

Cooper and Toller sang Fly Up My Cock on their 2023 album A Number of Work. They noted:

Roud 179, Child 248. Vicky [Cooper] learned this night-visiting song from the 1971 recording by Maddy Prior on the Tim Hart and Maddy Prior album Summer Solstice. Variants exist with different titles and this short version is perhaps a fragment of a longer song. There’s also a 1955 recording in the BBC sound archives (and released on a Topic album) of Irish singer Robert Cinnamond doing it (You Rambling Boys of Pleasure. It’s not available to buy now, but is on Spotify).

Lyrics

Frank Thompson sings The Bonny Bushes Bright

By the bonny bushes bright on a dark winter’s night.
I heard a fair maid making moan.
She was sighing for her father, lamenting for her brother,
And grieving for her true lover John.

O, Johnnie he was sweet and had promised her to meet,
But he tarried on the way an hour too long.
He has met with some delay which has caused him to stay.
And I’m weary, weary waiting all alone.

Johnny comes at last and he found the door was fast,
And he slowly, slowly tinkled to get in.
Then up this maid arose and hurried on her clothes
In order to let young Johnny in.

His sweetheart gave consent and into the room they went,
And these lovers they sat talking of their plan;
Oh John my love, said she, I wish this night to be
As long as when this world first began.

Fly up; fly up, my pretty little cock,
And do not crow ’till the break of day,
And your cage shall become of the very brightest gold,
And your wings of the silvery grey.

This cunning little cock, so cruel as he was,
Flew down and crowed an hour too soon;
You have sent my love away all before the break of day,
And it’s all by the light of the moon.

Then up this maid arose and hurried after him
Saying when will you come back to me?
When the fishes they do fly and the seas they do run dry
And seven moons shine briefly o’er the lea.

Once I thought my love was as constant unto me
As the stones that lie under the ground
But now that I see that his mind has changed to me
I would rather far live single than be bound.

Robert Cinnamond sings Fly Up My Cock

“Fly up my cock,
You’re my well-feathered cock,
And don’t crow till the break of day.

“Your red rosy comb
Will it be of the beaten gold
And your neck of a silvery grey.”

Oh, my cock flew up
And my cock flew down,
And he then crowed one hour too soon.

This young man he arose
And hurried on his clothes,
But it was only the light of the moon.

“When will you be back
My dear Jimmy,” she said,
“For to wed with a gay gold ring?”

“Seven moons,” said he,
“Shining over the lea
And the skies to yield up no more rain.”

For now I do see
The contrary way,
And I am forced to live single or be bound.

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.

Joe Holmes and Len Graham sing True Lover John

It happened for to be on a cold winter’s evening,
A fair maid sat waiting alone,
She was thinking on her father, likewise her aged mother,
And also her true lover John.

Young Johnny he was sweet and he promised her to meet,
But he tarried an hour too long.
He met with great delay which has caused him for to stray,
And I’m weary waiting all alone.

Young Johnny came at last and he found the door was fast,
And he slowly, slowly tinkled at the pin.
This fair maid she arose and hurried on her clothes
In order to let young Johnny in.

He took her in his arms and off to bed they went
And it’s there they laid talking of their plan;
“I wish,” this maid says she, “this night would prove to be
As long since the world first began.

“Fly on, o fly on, my pretty little cock,
And don’t crow until it breaks day,
And your cage it shall become of the very shining gold,
And your wings of the silvery grey.”

But this pretty little cock, so cruel as he was,
He crowd-ed an hour too soon;
And he sent my love away before the break of day,
It being only the light of the moon.

This fair maid she arose and quickly followed after,
“When will you come to see me?”
“When the fishes they do fly, the seas they all run dry,
And seven moons shine brightly o’er yon lea.”

There was once I thought my love was as constant unto me
As the stones that lie under yon ground.
But now since I do find he’s altered his mind
I would rather live single as be bound.

Virgie Wallin from sings The Worrisome Woman

It was all on one summer evening I heard a pretty fair maid
She was mourning she was weeping for her father
And a-grieving for her mother, thinking all on her true-love John.

At last John he came he found the doors all shut
He ringed at the (ding?) he ringed so low
The pretty fair maid rose and hurried on her clothes
To make haste to let Johnny come in.

Johnny come in, all around the waist he caught her
And into the bed he brought her
They laid there a-talking awhile.
She said, “My pretty feathered fowl
You are the prettiest feathered fowl I ever saw
If you won’t crow until it’s almost day
Your comb will be of the pure ivory
And your wings of the silver grey, the silver grey.”

But him a-being very young
He crowed two hours before it was day
And she sent her love away by the light of the moon
Before it was day.
She sent her love away by the light of the moon
And thought it was almost day.

Says, “Oh dear Johnny when will you be back to see me again?”
Says, “When the seventh moon is past and shines on yonders lea
And you know that will never be.”

Said, “Oh what a foolish girl was I when I thought my love was as true
As the rocks grow to the ground
But since I’ve found he’s altered in mind
It’s better to live single than bound.”

Pilgrims’ Way sing True Lover John

It happened for to be on a cold and winter’s evening,
A fair maid sat waiting all alone,
She was thinking on her father, likewise her aged mother,
And also her true lover John.

Young Johnny he was sweet and he promised her to meet,
But he tarried an hour too long.
And he’s met with great delay which has caused him for to stray,
And her weary waiting all alone.

Young Johnny came at last and he found the door so fast,
And slowly, slowly, slowly rattled at the pin.
This fair maid she arose, she’s hurried on her clothes
In haste for to let young Johnny in.

And it’s round the waist he’s caught her and onto bed he’s brought her,
And he laid there a-talking of their plans;
“I wish,” this maid says she, “this night would prove to be
As long since the earth first began.

“Fly up, fly up, my pretty little cock,
And don’t crow until it breaks day,
And your cage it shall be made of the very shining gold,
And your wings of the silvery grey.”

But this pretty little cock, so cruel as he was,
He crowed a full hour too soon;
And he sent her love away before the break of day,
It being only the light of the moon.

This fair maid she arose, she’s quickly followed after,
“When will you come to see me?”
“When the fishes they do fly, the seas they all run dry,
And sun and moon shine brightly o’er yon lea.”

Well it was once I thought my love was as constant unto me
As the rocks they are true unto the ground.
But since then I do find he’s altered in his mind
I would rather live single than be bound.