> A.L. Lloyd > Songs > Cold and Raw
> June Tabor > Songs > Cold and Raw
> Nic Jones > Songs > Cold and Raw

Cold and Raw / The Maid That Sold Her Barley

[ Roud 3007 ; Ballad Index ShH60 ; trad.]

A.L. Lloyd sang Cold and Raw in 1966 on his album The Best of A.L. Lloyd, accompanied by Alf Edwards on concertina. Lloyd wrote in the album's sleeve notes:

An old song and a widespread favourite. Tom D'Urfey included a version of it in the drollery collection: Pills to Purge Melancholy, first published in 1699. Some think he wrote it himself, but that seems doubtful. It has survived in many variants and with several tunes in England, Scotland and Ireland, and turns up in the repertory of semi-nomadic non-Romany travelling folk improperly called “tinkers”, in the relatively modern form heard here.

June Tabor sang Cold and Raw in 1977 on her album Ashes and Diamonds; with Jon Gillaspie playing synthesiser and recorder and Nic Jones playing fiddle. this track was also included in 1993 on her CD Anthology, A live recording from Bath Festival on May 21, 1990 is on her box set Always, She commented in the liner notes:

It’s from an early collection of songs collected by a chap called D’Urfey from Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy and the tune is in Playford called Stingo. I liked this song because it’s the usual pretty girl and the libidinous suitor but it’s a lovely antidote to all the songs in which the rich person does get his wicked way and the poor girl probably doesn’t get the money either.

Having recorded it originally on Ashes and Diamonds I came back to it because it was such a jaunty song. This was the version that Andy Cutting and Mark Emerson came up with. It all worked so well that I think they’ve lifted the song even more than in the original version.

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd sings Cold and Raw	June Tabor sings Cold and Raw
Cold and raw the wind do blow, Bleak in the morning early; And all the fields was covered in snow And winter come severely. As I was walking on me way I met a farmer's daughter; With cherry cheek and glittering eye She made me mouth to water.	Cold and raw the North did blow, Bleak in the morning early; All the trees were hid in snow Dagl'd by winter yearly. Gentlemen riding o'er the heather Met with a farmer's daughter; Her rosy cheeks and her bonny brow They made his mouth to water.
I asked this girl where was she going Up in the morning early. She answered, to the next market town A-purpose to sell her barley. Now in me pocket, as well I knew, Half a sovereign lay squarely. I said, “Put your journey out of your mind And I bargain for your barley.	Quickly he saluted me, Meaning to shew his breeding; I bowed to him right gracefully, His courtesy exceeding. He ask'd me where I went so soon And longed to begin a parley. I told him to the next market town A-purpose to sell my barley.
Half a sovereign could buy delight And I would love you dearly If you would stay with me all night And be gone in the morning early.”	“In this purse, sweet girl,” says he, “Twenty pounds lie fairly Seek no further one to buy For I'll take all your barley. Twenty more would buy delight Your body I love so dearly, If you would lay with me all night And go home in the morning early.”
“If I should stay all night with you And we made a young kid together, Oh you'd be gone ere the nine months end And then where would I find a father?”	“If twenty pounds could buy the globe It's this I never do, sir. Or were my kin as poor as Job I wo'd not raise 'em so, sir. If I lay with you this night We'd get a young child together And you'd be gone ere the nine months end And where should I find a father?”
I said that she would be me queen And I would never wrong her, She said she knew I'd married been For seven year or longer. So now young man, no longer roam But do your business fairly, Keep your money for your wife at home And some other shall have me barley.	He told me he had married been Fourteen years and longer, Or else he'd take me for his own And tie the knot much stronger. I bade him then no further roam But manage his wedlock fairly; And keep his gold for his wife at home And some other shall have my barley.