This is the title track of Keith Christmas's 1970 album Fable of the Wings. Martin Carthy sang it on Brass Monkey's 1983 eponymous debut album Brass Monkey. According to the album sleeve notes, Carthy adapted Christmas' original words to fit John Stickle's tune John Peterson's Mare. The LP was re-released in 1993 as the first half of the CD The Complete Brass Monkey.