> Steeleye Span > Songs > Who Told the Butcher?

Who Told the Butcher?

[Peter Knight]

This song about fly fishing was sung by Peter Knight and Gay Woods on Steeleye Span's CD Bedlam Born. “Old Brownie” is a brown trout and the “characters” mentioned in the song are standard fishing flies: Butcher, Wickham's Fancy, Teal and Black, Humpy Black, Kate McLaren and Damsel flies. Peter Knight commented in the album's sleeve notes:

I put down my fiddle when forming this riddle
Intending to please you and tease you besides
For the butcher will seek every pool, every creek
Till he finds the dark places where old Brownie hides.

Lyrics

Sorry, I can't show the lyrics here as I don't have the copyright owners' permission to publish them. But please feel free and ask me to send you the song's lyrics.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Kathy Moore for telling me about the song's background. As I don't know anything about fishing, it was a complete mystery to me.