Uploaded by coramunroe on Mar 11, 2009
Basically, it's a song about making ale =)
Song: John Barleycorn
Artist: Steeleye Span
Album: Below the Salt
Year: 1972
Top Comments
All Comments (22)
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Who the hell was this fellow named John Barleycorn? Have he ever existed? But the legendary rock group "Traffic" created a recording named "John Barleycorn Must Die" released in 1970 :)
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In the last stanza they say exactly what John Barleycorn is, home brewed ale.
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Thanx for posting this. This album takes back to a cool March day when I was 19 and got this from the local library. I used to wear out tape copies of this on my walkman evrery 3 months.
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Ye!Russian Music!Morning
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"Basically, it's a song about making ale =)"...
Yeah... very basically.
Beyond that it has implications about life death and rebirth and the true meaning of sacrifice.
And ale, yep.
7 months ago 2
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This is a rare version of the song, but the one I'm most familiar with, as I sang it in Primary School. Brings back memories of happy times, but makes me nostalgic and sad too. Also reminds me of the fact that I thought it was about a man called John Barleycorn being mercilessly tortured, and I wondered what on earth the poor fellow had done!
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@Profedrybicki - true! As the song is an old English one, it's FAR more likely to be beer.
11 months ago 2
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@gerryhiles me :)
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@Profedrybicki oh yes, i know it's made for ale, too. but i'm pretty sure he refers to whiskey..
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rest in peace..tim hart.. thank you for your music
lindacrishanson 2 years ago 6
This is such a stunning rendition of the song.
I only heard it after knowing the Traffic version, so it took a bit of getting used to.
I know nothing about the technicals, but the recording seems unusual for its time.
Anyone know, is all the reverb on the backing vocals electronically added, or an artifact of recording in a large & very live space, such as an old church?
thx 4 any answers
smartalek1 9 months ago 3