> Steeleye Span > Songs > Black Jack Davy

Steeleye Span: Black Jack Davy

[Trad. arr. Hart / Prior / Knight / Johnson / Kemp]

Steeleye Span recorded this “old song of the power of lust” (Maddy Prior) for their album All Around My Hat and a second time for the CD Present to accompany the December 2002 Steeleye Span reunion tour.

A live recording from the Royal Opera Theatre in Adelaide, Australia in 1982 was released on the Australia-only LP On Tour and in 2001 on the CD Gone to Australia. Another live recording from the Beck Theatre on September 16, 1989 was released on the video A 20th Anniversary Celebration. And Steeleye Span performed this live in Salisbury on December 16, 2002; this recording can be found on The Official Bootleg.

Compare this to Fotheringay's Gypsy Davey.

Lyrics

Late last night when the squire came home
Enquiring for his lady
Some denied and some replied
She's gone with the Black Jack Davy

Go saddle to me the bonny brown steed
For the grey was never so speedy
I'll ride all day and I'll ride all night
Till I catch that Black Jack Davy

Chorus

He rode up hills and he rode down dales
Over many a wild high mountain
And they did say that saw him go
Black Jack Davy he is hunting

He rode east and he rode west
All in the morning early
Until he spied his lady fair
Cold and wet and weary

Why did you leave your house and land
Why did you leave your baby
Why did you leave your own wedded lord
To go with the Black Jack Davy

Chorus

What care I for your goose feather bed
With the sheets turned down so bravely
Well I may sleep on the cold hard ground
Along with the Black Jack Davy

Then I'll kick off my high healed shoes
Made of the Spanish leather
And I'll put on my lowland brogues
And skip it o'er the heather

Chorus