The ballad was traditionally sung across the English speaking world, particularly in England, Scotland and North America, and was performed with many different melodies and lyrics.
An old man suggests the king accept money for Geordie's release, and a large and sufficient sum is gathered from the crowd.
She pleads that Geordie's crimes weren't serious, in that he only stole some of the king's deer and sold them (in Bohenny, Davy,[4] Kilkenny and so on), and says she would give up a variable number of children to save his life.
The ballad is accompanied by the following text:'A lamentable new ditty, made upon the death of a worthy gentleman, named George Stoole: dwelling sometime on Gate-side Moore, and sometime at Newcastle in Northumberland: with his penitent end.
To a delicate Scottish tune' It is different in many ways to newer versions of the ballad, but its rhythm and rhyming scheme are familiar, as well some of the text "I never stole no oxe nor cow Nor never murdered any But fifty horse I did receive Of a merchant's man of Gory."
The first verses go as follows:There was a battle in the north, And nobles there was many, And they hae killd Sir Charlie Hay, And they laid the wyte on Geordie.
A version recorded by Keith Summers of the Nottinghamshire singer Alec Bloomfield singing "Young George Oxbury" in the British Library Sound Archive'.
[4] The traditional singer Harry Cox sang a complete version to Mervyn Plunkett c.1959 which is available on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.
[13] A version in the "Carroll Mackenzie Collection", "Clare County Library" recorded from Mrs. Casey contains this verse: My Georgie never killed a man, No, nor neither robbed a lady.
[14] There are three versions, all called "Georgie", in the "Max Hunter Folk Song Collection" at Missouri State University: from Rhonnda Hayes of Irving, Texas;[15] Joan O'Bryant of Wichita, Kansas[16] and Charles Strayer Jr. of Sarcoxie, Missouri;[17] in all these versions, either "the oldest lawyer at the bar" or "Georgie's own lawyer", says that he is condemned by his own confession, an interesting local variant.
The Roud Folk Song Index lists about 129 distinct versions – 40 from England, 27 from Scotland, 2 from Ireland, 52 from the United States and 8 from Canada.
[2] Joan Baez released one of the first popular versions of the song on her first live album in 1962,[18] which took the tune from the traditional 1942 recording of Louisa "Louie" Hooper (1860–1946) of Langport, Somerset, England.
[11] It is possible that the tune came to Baez via Paul Clayton, who recorded a cover of Hooper's version of the song in 1957 on the album British Broadside Ballads in Popular Tradition.
The version sung by Baez, Clayton and Hooper makes it clear that Geordie's crime was poaching the King's deer, and that he shall be hanged with a "golden chain".
Sandy Denny, the British folk rock band Trees, Anaïs Mitchell / Jefferson Hamer, and Emilie Autumn all recorded or performed this version of the song, presumably inspired by Joan Baez.
[20][21] The ballad became very popular in Italy thanks to Fabrizio de André who translated the Joan Baez recording into Italian, and this version was later reinterpreted by the folk band Mercanti di Liquore, Angelo Branduardi and the DJ Gabry Ponte.
[1] Different versions of the song have also been recorded by famous named such as Shirley Collins, Silly Sisters (Maddie Prior and June Tabor), John Jacob Niles, Doc Watson,[22] and Ewan MacColl.
In fact, there are not good grounds for presuming that this is a historical ballad at all; it may well be simply a romantic fiction that was already delighting singers and audiences well before the day of the robber Stoole or the dissident Earl of Huntly.
Perhaps the story really belongs to the period when the Middle Ages were drawing to a close and the greenwoods were full of outlaws, some high-born, but mostly otherwise, all of them on the run from oppressive feudal authority.