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Sally Free and Easy

[Cyril Tawney]

Cyril Tawney wrote one of his best known songs more than 50 years ago in 1958. His own recording from the Argo LP In Port (1970) was included on the compilation New Electric Muse II. He also sang it as title track of his Neptune cassette Sally Free and Easy (1989) which was reissued in 2003 with two bonus tracks as the CD Navy Cuts: The Songs of Cyril Tawney. He commented in the latter album's sleeve notes:

As well as breaking hearts, sailors also have them broken, and my output contains several in that vein. Inspiration came from various shipmates as well as my vulnerable young self. Submariners seemed particularly prone, and the accompaniment mimics a submarine's diesel engine. Probably my most successful song. I've heard Bob Dylan, Marianne Faithful and many others singing it, but its initial popularity was undoubtedly due to Davy Graham.

A live recording from Holsteins folk club in Chicago on May 31, 1981 was published in 2007 on Tawney's CD Live at Holsteins.

On Cyril Tawney in Depth, Tawney exhaustively describes the background of his song and how he came to write it.

Other versions of Sally Free and Easy can be found on:

• Davy Graham: Folk, Blues & Beyond (1964),
• Three City Four (with Martin Carthy and Leon Rosselson): The Three City Four (1965),
• Owen Hand: Something New (1965), also included on Anthems in Eden (2006),
• The Corries on the anthology Focus on Folk (1971),
• Moira Kerr: Shadows of My Childhood (1971),
• Ian Cutler: Slaughterhouse (2000),
• Feast of Fiddles live at Folk Club, Nettlebed, March 26, 2001; on Live '01 (2002)

Jon Boden sang Sally Free and Easy as the July 22, 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Lyrics

Sally free and easy, that should be her name
Sally free and easy, that should be her name
Took a sailor's loving for a nurs'ry game

Well, the heart she gave me wasn't made of stone
No, the heart she gave me wasn't made of stone
It was sweet and hollow like a honeycomb

Think I'll wait till sunset, see the ensign down
Yes I'll wait till sunset, see the ensign down
Then I'll take the tideway to my burial ground

Sally free and easy, that should be her name
Sally free and easy, that should be her name
When my body's landed hope she dies of shame