Black Jack David

“Black Jack David”  is a traditional folk song that originated as a Scottish border ballad, and has been popular throughout Britain, Ireland and North America. It concerns a rich lady who runs off to join the gypsies (or one gypsy). Common alternative names are “Gypsy Davy”, “The Raggle Taggle Gypsies O”, “The Gypsy Laddie(s)”, (or “Davy”) and “Seven Yellow Gypsies”. In the folk tradition the song was extremely popular, spread all over the English-speaking world by broadsheets and oral tradition.   It went under a great many titles, including “Black Jack Davy”, “The Gypsy Laddie”, “The Draggletail Gypsies”, “Seven Yellow Gypsies” and “Johnnie Faa”. According to Roud and Bishop, “Definitely in the top five Child ballads in terms of widespread popularity, and possibly second only to ‘Barbara Allen’, the Gypsies stealing the lady, or, to put it the other way round, the lady running off with the sexy Gypsies, has caught singers’ attention all over the world for more than 200 years. For obvious reasons, the song has long been a favorite with members of the travelling community   One version, collected and set to piano accompaniment by Cecil Sharp, reached a much wider public. Under the title “The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies O!”, it was published in several collections, most notably one entitled English Folk Songs for Schools, leading the song to be taught to generations of English school children.   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).