Can You Rokker Romany?

DESCRIPTION: "If you jump up on my barrow, I'll take you for a ride. And maybe in the springtime you can be my bride." Can you speak Romany, play the fiddle, eat prison food, cut the wood, break a horse, sleep with a girl and make someone not Romany?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Wandsworth, according to Coughlan)
KEYWORDS: sex fiddle food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #15, p. 214, "Can You Rokra Romany?" [from Wandsworth]
George Borrow, _Romano Lavo-Lil: Word-Book of the Romany or English Gypsy Language_, 1874 (references are to the 2011? Lost Library reprint), frontispiece, "(Can you rokra Romany?)" (1 short text with translation)

RECORDINGS:
Peter Ingram, "Can You Rokker Romany?" (on Voice11)
NOTES [57 words]: The text in Voice11 translates the Romany words into English (for example, "rokker" is translated as "speak"). The description relies on that translation.
Coughlan #15 is a single verse corresponding to Ingram's second verse. For a more general discussion see Coughlan, #15-22, pp. 214-225. Coughlan #15 is the earliest of these citations. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: RcCYRRom

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2024 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.