"The Unfortunate Lad" is the correct title of a song printed without a tune on a number of 19th century ballad sheets by Such of London and Carrots and possibly others.
[1] Sometimes incorrectly [2] termed The Unfortunate Rake, it is believed to be the ancestor of many variants collected in England and elsewhere, as well as of the American songs The Cowboy’s Lament, Streets of Laredo, and, more controversially, St James’ Infirmary.
For example, Lodewick commented that the “story” connecting variants "...provides a good example of environmental changes that take place in a song.” [5] In the 2018 Katharine Briggs Memorial Lecture, Professor Richard Jenkins discusses several aspects of what he calls the "folkloristic narrative" relating to these songs.
He asserts that several aspects of this narrative may be shown to be "dubious, if not incorrect", and suggests that the way in which a "misleading tale" became accepted as "conventional knowledge" has implications for those engaged in the study of folklore.
Get six jolly fellows to carry my coffin, And six pretty maidens to bear up my pall, And give to each of them bunches of roses, That they may not smell me as they go along.
[12] For example, the words provided for the air "The Unfortunate Rake" by Crosby are about a wandering harpist from Connaught, who is seeking pity and hospitality from his listeners.
In 1915, yet another tune was published in the Journal of the Folk Song Society; this time stated to be similar to one used for rush-cart Morris dancing at Moston, near Manchester, England.
[16] In 1918, English folk song collector Cecil Sharp, who was visiting the US, collected a version which used the phrase "St James' Hospital" in Dewey, Virginia.
Introductory Summary In the early 20th century, the American folklorist Phillips Barry published two articles that alluded to the Such printing, but incorrectly gave the title as "The Unfortunate Rake".
[20] In the 1940s and 50s, English journalist, folk enthusiast and recording artist A L Lloyd published an article believed to be the first to link The Unfortunate Lad/Rake with the blues song St James' Infirmary.
The 1960s album ‘The Unfortunate Rake’,[24] which anthologised a collection of supposedly related songs, was produced by Kenneth Goldstein, who wrote liner notes to accompany it.
This recording played an important part in bringing the genealogical story and the incorrect title to a wider audience.
[25] “By the end of this long, and sometimes indirect, conversation between folk music scholars and collectors, a musical genealogy was in place and widely accepted… A ‘song of the camp’ known generically as ‘The Unfortunate Rake’, apparently of eighteenth century Irish provenance (if not actual origin), evolved into a host of other British variants, and travelled across the Atlantic, eventually to give rise to ‘The Streets of Laredo’ and, perhaps more distantly, ‘St.