649. John Anderson, My Jo (Robert Burns)

Today's video is a special deal - three songs for the price of one!

It is not clear how much of "The Merry Muses of Caledonia" (1799) was written by Burns, and how much was merely collected. In any case these songs were so explicit that their existence was denied for more than 100 years after his death.

When they were finally acknowledged they were banned in the UK until 1965 (and the USA until 1964). Certainly Burns transformed some of these bawdy songs into great poetry. "John Anderson, My Jo" is a good example.

I begin with the better-known sanitised version of the song, followed by the original bawdy version as collected (or possibly written) by Burns.

Finally, a bonus song - another one of the "Merry Muses of Caledonia" which is sung to the same tune as "John Anderson, My Jo".

Sorry about the bit of censorship but this is a family channel!

The lyrics (and tune) of all three songs can be found (under Scottish Songs) on my website:
http://www.raymondcrooke.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• song
• bawdy
• merry
• muses
• of
• caledonia
• scottish

[CarolInTrees]

lovely ! thank you

[raymondcrooke]

@CarolInTrees You're welcome. I'm glad you liked it.

[jossceluch]

Raymond, pure beauty at its finest.

[raymondcrooke]

Thanks for subscribing.

[markshfr1]

Hey man, thanks for putting up the different versions. Cheers!.. from the merry muses of California

[raymondcrooke]

It's always interesting to do different versions of the same song. Thanks for your comment. I don't know why it has been marked as Spam. Pressing "not spam" doesn't seem to help.

[starr522]

Stop it. Brother you casn' t sing. The song loses all concept with your version. Please understand. I don' t mean to be cruel. But I am real. Stop it. It' s embarrassing.

[raymondcrooke]

No. Haven't heard that one.

[bumchiner]

got me,eddi reader does it well too have you listned?

[Phantomsbreath]

The Anglisized version. Little longer, with a few more verses. It goes into John as an old man.