The Raggle Taggle Gypsy

"The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" (Roud 1, Child 200), is a traditional folk song that originated as a Scottish border ballad, and has been popular throughout Britain, Ireland and North America.

The first two verses of this version are as follows:There was seven gypsies all in a gang, They were brisk and bonny, O; They rode till they came to the Earl of Casstle's house, And there they sang most sweetly, O.

[3] Nick Tosches, in his Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'N' Roll, spends part of his first chapter examining the song's history.

Due to the Romanichal origins of the main protagonist Davie or Johnny Faa, the ballad was translated into Anglo-Romany in 1890 by the Gypsy Lore Society.

[17] Some traditional recordings were made in Scotland, including by the Scottish traveller Jeannie Robertson[18] and her daughter Lizzie Higgins, whose version can be heard online via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

American performers include the Appalachian musicians Jean Ritchie,[20] Buell Kazee,[21] Bascom Lamar Lunsford,[22] Dillard Chandler[23] and Texas Gladden;[24] James Madison Carpenter recorded a woman singing a version in Boone, North Carolina in the early 1930s, which can be heard on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.

[25] Many traditional Ozark singers including Almeda Riddle[26] and Ollie Gilbert[27] whose recording can be heard via the Max Hunter collection.

At the start of the twentieth century, one version, collected and set to piano accompaniment by Cecil Sharp, reached a much wider public.

It was later occasionally used by jazz musicians, for example the instrumental "Raggle Taggle" by the Territory band Boots and His Buddies, and the vocal recording by Maxine Sullivan.

In America, the country music recording industry spread versions of the song by such notable musicians as Cliff Carlisle and the Carter Family, and later by the rockabilly singer Warren Smith, under the title "Black Jack David".

In the American folk music revival, Woody Guthrie sang and copyrighted a version he called "Gypsy Davy" (which was later also sung by his son Arlo).

The Bob Dylan song "Tin Angel" from 2012's album Tempest is derived from "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy".

There is also a children's version by Elizabeth Mitchell which has lyrical content changed to be about a young girl "charming hearts of the ladies", and sailing "across the deep blue sea, where the skies are always sunny".