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When Fortune Turns the Wheel

[ Roud 3798 ; Ballad Index Ord180 ; trad.]

When Fortune Turns the Wheel is a song often printed as a broadside and whose popularity may also have been helped by its inclusion in John Ord's Bothy Songs and Ballads (1930).

The High Level Ranters sang Fortune Turns the Wheel in 1976 on their Topic album Ranting Lads.

Louis Killen recorded When Fortune Turns the Wheel in Winter 1977 at the Eldron Fennig Folk Museum of American Ephemera for his album Old Songs, Old Friends. He also sang it live at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival, Collessie, Fife in May 2005. This recording was included in 2006 on the festival's CD For Friendship and for Harmony (Old Songs & Bothy Ballads Vol. 2). He commented in his album's sleeve notes:

… And it was with Brian [Ballinger], and his 50-60 lb “portable” tape recorder (well, it could be carried—in a bus!) that I collected from Alan Rogerson, of Common Burn farm, near Wooler, Northumberland, a song with which I've had a love affair since 1958—When Fortune Turns the Wheel.

Ray Fisher sang When Fortune Turns the Wheel in 1982 on her Folk-Legacy album Willie's Lady.

Jon Boden sang Fortune Turns The Wheel as the final, June 23, 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Jackie Oates learned When Fortune Turns the Wheel from Louis Killen and recorded it in 2011 for her album Saturnine. She sang it at Dave and Gill Lowry's 40th Wedding Anniversary Party at Clyst St Mary Village Hall on June 12, 2010:

Lyrics

Louis Killen sings When Fortune Turns the Wheel

Come fill the cup, let's drink about, this nicht we'll merry be,
For friendship and for harmony, likewise my comrades three;
Tae meet yence mair some other nicht my secret joy reveal,
For I now mun stray so far away til fortune turns the wheel.

Nae love, nor gold, nor dress I'll take my estimate of man,
But when I meet a friend in need to stretch a helping hand;
To him I'll drink, for him I'll fecht, to him my mind reveal,
And friends we'll be, whatever way blind fortune turns the wheel.

But it's some of my pretended friends, if friends ye may them call,
They falsely turned their back on me when mine was at the wall;
Yet in a glass I'll drink their health—ye'll ken I wish them well
That someday I may pay the debt, when fortune turns the wheel.

And it's of a lovely lassie, aye, it's her I'll justly blame,
When dark misfortune frowned on me she denied she knew my name;
But friendship by remorse is past—to her I'll never kneel,
I'll sweethearts find, both true and kind, when fortune turns the wheel.

O ye dewy hills o' Caledon, likewise sweet Coquetdale,
Whaur friendship binds the firmest ties and love tells the sweetest tale;
Here's to my friends and to my foes, ye'll ken I wish them weel,
That we all may meet some other nicht when fortune turns the wheel.