> The Watersons > Songs > The Khaki and the Blue / The Ploughboy

The Khaki and the Blue / The Old Militia Drum / The Ploughboy

[ Roud 163 ; TYG 32 ; Ballad Index Beha051 ; trad.]

Songs of the Ridings: The Cruel Wars

There are two completely different songs called The Ploughboy sung by the Watersons. This one, also called The Khaki and the Blue after the first line of the chorus, is on their 1966 album A Yorkshire Garland. Like most of the tracks from this LP, it was re-released in 1994 on the CD Early Days. A live recording of The Khaki and the Blue from Tithe Barn, Laycock, during the Chippenham Folk Festival in July 1977, was published in 2004 on the Watersons' 4 CD anthology Mighty River of Song.

A.L. Lloyd noted on the original album:

So poor was the existence of oldtime farm labourers, even army life and army pay seemed a golden prospect. The race of treacle-tongued and bloody-minded recruiting sergeants from Farquhar's Sergeant Kite onward exploited the situation by deception and sharp practise, depicting a life of ease, wenching, plunder and quick promotion, to the gullible yokels. The young ploughboy of this song has swallowed the bait readily enough. Yet songs of this sort are rare compared with the large repertory of songs about the farm boys who desert when they realise the realities of military life. This is another song that the Watersons got from Mick Taylor of Hawes in 1965.

Ralph Noble of Malton, Yorkshire, sang The Scarlet and the Blue in 1962 to Colin Wharton. This recording was included in 2019 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs from the 1962 Colin Wharton Collection, Songs of the North Riding.

Oak sang this song as The Scarlet and the Blue in 1971 on their Topic LP Welcome to Our Fair; This track was also included on their Musical Traditions anthology Country Songs and Music. A.L. Lloyd noted on the original album:

Alfie Ainger, landlord of the Royal Oak, Hooks Way, Sussex, used to sing this song, waving a false leg in the air like a rifle. His tune was a bit erratic and he had lost some of the words, but Oak were able to make up the complete song from a Suffolk singer, Bob Hart. The song is the work of John J. Blockley, “composer of the Volunteer Rifles Polka”, and was published in the late eighteen-seventies (with a stirring lithographic cover) about the time of the Zulu War. It is still popular with country singers in the South.

But according to Steve Gardham in the Mudcat Café thread Lyr Add: The Scarlet and the Blue, the reference to Blockley as the author can't be verified and there is no known original of the song.

Bob Hart sang The Scarlet and the Blue at home in Snape, Suffolk, to Tony Engle in July 1972. This recording was published a year later on his Topic album Songs from Suffolk. An earlier recording by Rod and Danny Stradling from 8 July 1969 was included in 1998 on his Musical Traditions anthology A Broadside. Rod Stradling noted in the latter's booklet:

Written by John J. Blockley in the late 1870s, this song does not seem particularly well-known, if the total of only 17 Roud entries is to be believed. However, we encountered many singers who knew it, either under this title or as The Warwickshire R.H.A., and it was apparently popularised on both sides of the Atlantic by Irish Comedians Ed Harrigan and Tony Hart, who specialised in ‘Conquer or Die’ songs.

There are only five known published sound recordings from the oral tradition, the other four being—Freda Palmer (Oxon), George Spicer (Sussex) on MTCD309-10, Fred Whiting (Suffolk) on Veteran VT102, and Gordon Syrett (Suffolk) on Vintage 001.

Freda Palmer of Witney, Oxfordshire, sang The Warwickshire R.H.A. to by Mike Yates in 1972-1974. This recording was published in 1975 on the Topic anthology of countryside songs from Southern England, When Sheepshearing's Done.

George Spicer sang this song as The Old Militia Drum in 1974 in his home in Selsfield, West Hoathly, Sussex, recorded by Mike Yates. This recording was released in the same year on his Topic album of traditional songs and ballads, Blackberry Fold. An earlier recording made by Brian Matthews at The Oak Tree, Addingley, on 12 November 1959 is on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs from Sussex country pubs, Just Another Saturday Night.

Roy Harris sang The Scarlet and the Blue in 1979 on his Fellside album The Rambling Soldier.

Roy Last of Mendlesham Green, Suffolk, sang The Scarlet and the Blue in 1983 to John Howson. This recording was published on the Veteran cassette and CD of traditional music-making from Mid-Suffolk, Many a Good Horseman.

Fred Whiting of Kenton, Suffolk, sang The Jolly Ploughboy on the Veteran cassette Songs Sung in Suffolk 2 (1989) and CD Sungs Sung in Suffolk (2000).

Jossy ‘Pop’ Mainprize sang The Jolly Old Ploughboy at BBC Radio Humberside in April 1989. This recording was included in 2018 on the Musical Traditions album of Robert Leng and Jossy ‘Pop’ Mainprize with Jim Eldon, Songs and Tales from Flamborough Head. Jim Eldon noted:

The Jolly Old Ploughboy, Jossy's solo, was a favourite with farm workers and much sung by the East Yorkshire Regiment in the first world war.

Bob Fox sang Scarlet and the Blue in 2015 on his album The Song Man and in 2017 on his and John Tams' War Horse Songbook, A Garland for Joey.

A related song is the Irish The Merry Ploughboy where the ploughboy joins the IRA instead of the British army, which Dominic Behan sang in 1959 on the Topic album Easter Week and After, on which he also seems to have based Off to Dublin in the Green. This was also recorded by the Halliard on their 1967 Saga album, It's the Irish in Me, by the Dubliners and by Wolfe Tones.

The Watersons sang a completely different The Ploughboy [Roud 346] at an EFDSS concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London on 4 June 1965, which was released on the LP Folksound of Britain. This recording has also been included in 2004 on the Watersons' 4 CD anthology Mighty River of Song.

Lyrics

Acknowledgements

Transcribed from the singing of the Watersons by Garry Gillard, with significant assistance from Steve Willis.