Flashcards: British folk songs

"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English ballad about the Yorkshire town of Scarborough.

"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" is an English nursery rhyme, the earliest surviving version of which dates from 1731.

"Monday's Child" is one of many fortune-telling songs, popular as nursery rhymes for children.

"Maggie May" (or "Maggie Mae") is a traditional Liverpool folk song (Roud #1757) about a prostitute who robbed a "homeward bounder": a sailor coming home from a round trip.

"Whiskey in the Jar" is a well-known Irish traditional song, set in the southern mountains of Ireland, often with specific mention of counties Cork and Kerry, as well as Fenit, a village in County Kerry.

"The Battle of Evermore" is a folk duet sung by Robert Plant and Sandy Denny, featured on Led Zeppelin's untitled 1971 album.

"Little Miss Muffet" is a nursery rhyme, one of the most commonly printed in the mid-twentieth century.

"Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" is a popular English nursery rhyme.

"There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" is a popular English language nursery rhyme, with a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19132.

"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, over a ground either of the form called a romanesca; of its slight variant, the passamezzo antico; of the passamezzo antico in its verses and the romanesca in its reprise; or of the Andalusian progression in its verses and the romanesca or passamezzo antico in its reprise.

"Yankee Doodle" is a well-known Anglo-American song, the early versions of which date back to the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution (1775–83).

"Villikins and his Dinah" (Laws M31A/B, Roud 271) is a stage song which emerged in England in 1853 as a burlesque version of a traditional ballad called "William and Dinah".

"Anji" (or "Angi", "Angie" or "On gee") is an acoustic fingerstyle guitar piece composed and recorded by noted folk guitarist Davy Graham in 1961 and originally released as part of his EP debut 3/4 AD.

"Donkey Riding" is a traditional work song or sea shanty originally sung in Canada, Scotland and the Northeastern United States.

"Barbara Allen" (Child 84, Roud 54) is a traditional Scottish ballad; it later travelled to America both orally and in print, where it became a popular folk song.

"The Snows They Melt the Soonest" (Roud 3154) is a British folk song dating back at least as far as 1821.

Cariad Cywir, or Troi'r wythnos yn flwyddyn, is a Welsh folk song that focuses on somebody experiencing unrequited love, as s/he sings, "Trio'r wythnos yn flwyddyn, troi'r flwyddyn yn dairRwy'n ffaelu troi 'nghariad i siarad un gair (Turn the week to a year, turn the year into threeI can't turn my true love to speak to me)".

"Jack Monroe" (Roud 268 and Laws N7), also known as "Jack Munro," "Jackie Monroe," "Jack-A-Roe," "Jackaroe," "Jackaro," "Jackie Frazier," "Jack the Sailor," "Jack Went A-Sailing," "The Love of Polly and Jack Monroe," among other titles, is a traditional ballad of uncertain (though presumably British) origin.