Heather Alexander - Bedlam Boys

For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam
Ten thousand miles I traveled
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes
For to save her shoes from gravel

chorus:
Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonny
For they all go bare and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money.

I went down to Satan's kitchen
For to get me food one morning
And there I got souls piping hot
All on a spit a-turning.

From the hag and hungry goblin
That into rags would rend ye
All the sprites that stand by the naked man
In the book of moons, defend ye

My staff has murdered giants
And me bag a long knife carries
For to cut mince pies from children's thighs
And feed them to the faeries.

The spirits white as lightening
Would on my travels guide me
The stars would shake and the moon would quake
Whenever they espied me

And when that Ill be mutherin
The Man in the Moon to a powder
His staff Ill break and his dog Ill shake
And therell howl no demon louder

Category:

Music

Tags:

• heather alexander
• bedlam boys
• traditional
• celtic

[yamanomiyu05]

omg i freakin love this though i started to sing it and my mom was giving me weird look when i said

My staff has murdered giants

And me bag a long knife carries

For to cut mince pies from children's thighs

And feed them to the faeries.

after that i laughed pretty hard at her

GOOD JOB KEEP IT UP!!!!!

[odinfromcentr2]

She's good at making herself sound nuts, which is an asset if the legend behind the song is true.

[kwcampbe]

Beautifully done. She has great range, not just frequency, but in feeling. Really entertaining. Thanks for sharing!!!

[franer84]

great scottish song

[retardrepellent]

@ninja1o No, he was a she, Heather Alexander was her name until recently. She/he prefers to say that Heather retired and was taken to the land of faeries (That's right, stop gaying it up with an 'i'.) and that Alec is her successor.

[GrigoriZhukov]

Tom is one of Mab's favortie lovers.

[toragar]

@Tharkun Bethlem Royal Hospital, or Bedlam, was(is?) an insane asylum in Great Britain during the pre-Industrial era. A Tom o' Bedlam was a term used to describe crazy people, whether they had been interred in the asylum or no. Bedlam Boys was a song written in the 1600s documenting the ravings of one such Tom o' Bedlam.

[Tharkun]

Yeah, S.M. Stirling is guilty of cherry-picking in the first degree here. :p

[Tharkun]

@odinfromcentr2 Wait, what's the legend behind the song?

[goldengreaser]

@ninja1o Actualy at this time and point it was a girl but she gave all rights to her "twin brother"

[goldengreaser]

Old School, literaly but so cool.

[RibbonsofSilk]

wow the things he does with his voice