Hey How Johnny Lad

DESCRIPTION: "Hey how, my Johnny Lad, ye're no sae kind's ye sud hae been." The singer complains that Johnny had the opportunity to meet her as her parents were away, but he never arrives. She concludes she needs a more ardent lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1351, "Hoch Hey, Johnny Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 215-216, ("Hey how Johnny lad, ye're no sae kind's ye sud hae been")
Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, preface 1838), pp. 18-19, "Och Hey! Johnnie, Lad"
Roud #7148
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(110), "Och Hey, Johnnie Lad," unknown, c. 1840
NOTES [80 words]: This is found in the fourth volume of the Scots Musical Museum, but it is not known whether it is by Burns or whether he touched it up. The NLScotland broadside is dramatically different from the SMM version.
The NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(110) version follows Tannahill in which the man explains that it was just a misunderstanding -- he was waiting in the wrong place -- and he invites her to another tryst to "seek the joys we tint yestreen." Herd agrees with the Description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BrHHJL

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