The Folk Process - Charles of Sweden to House of the Rising Sun

 

I often wonder with old folk songs what the "original" tune sounded like. In many cases the song was already very old before anyone bothered to copy down a version of the tune, and in cases like Long Lankin there might be multiple versions floating around by the time anyone became interested. Folk songs were traditionally transmitted orally to people who didn't read music, and by slight misremembering of the tune or by altering it a little to suit one's own performance style, the so called Folk Process would transpire and alter the song, sometimes just in the tune or sometimes in the lyrics as well.

I was editing a 17th century commedia dell'arte inspired play and it included lyrics for a song, but had no tune provided. I went out searching for suitable tunes that might fit the lyrics (since it's easier for folks to perform a play when they don't have to write the songs anew) and in digging around I heard this tune, assigned to a 1680s Broadside, here called The English Courage. Nice enough, performed in a somewhat operatic style. Said to be to the tune of Charles of Sweden, which is clearly a folk tune with a lot of variants already.

But I'm listening to it and I realize... it's this song. 

Other variants include  The Cheat, Come Jolly Bacchus, Devil to Pay, The First of August, Frisky Jenny, The Tenth of June, and The Weaver's March. 

Or if you just want to hear them because you can't read music either, here's some from YouTube.

And finally perhaps my least favorite version (in part because they mess up the lyric "rambling man" into "gambling man" and the rest of the verse makes no sense then) but basically the only version anyone seems to know these days...