Maggie May (folk song)

1757) is a traditional Liverpool folk song about a prostitute who robbed a "homeward bounder", a sailor coming home from a round trip.

In 1964, the composer and lyricist Lionel Bart used the song and its backstory as the basis of a musical set around the Liverpool Docks.

The Beatles' version, arranged by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, is as follows: Oh, dirty Maggie Mae they have taken her away And she'll never walk down Lime Street anymore Oh, the judge, he guilty found her For robbin' the homeward bounder That dirty, no good, robbin' Maggie Mae 'Tis the port of Liverpool They returned me to Two pounds ten a week, that was my pay.

British sea music historian Stan Hugill writes of an early reference to the song in the diary of Charles Picknell, a sailor on the female-convict ship Kains that sailed to Van Diemen's Land in 1830.

This indicates that versions of the song date back to the actual period of penal transportation mentioned in the lyrics as Maggie's fate.

In the earliest known version, the protagonist is "charming Nellie Ray", who may have been a real transported prostitute and thief.

my charming Nellie Ray, They have taken you away, You have gone to Van Dieman's cruel shore: For you've skinned so many tailors, And you've robbed so many sailors, That we'll look for you in Peter Street no more".

[1] A. L. Lloyd recorded it in 1956 on the album English Drinking Songs, describing it in the liner notes as "last fling of sailor balladry.

It is sung in the third person and Maggie is transformed into a heroine whose departure from the streets is lamented ("some rotten Homeward Bounder has got his grip around her").

A truncated version of it was included on the 1970 album drawn from those sessions, Let It Be, appearing as the last track on the LP's first side, immediately after the title song.

These instances demonstrate an important personal connection to the song for Lennon and may have contributed to the snippet being included on the album Let It Be.

The song is sung in the 2017 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, by a character named Uncle Jack, portrayed by McCartney.