Artists
Musicians featured in this piece are:
Steve Winwood – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Chris Wood – flute
Jim Capaldi – percussion, backing vocals
Traditional English folk ballad (origins traced back to at least the 16th century), arranged by Steve Winwood. Produced by Steve Winwood & Chris Blackwell, with additional production credit to Guy Stevens, engineered by Brian Humphries and Andy Johns, recorded at Island Studios & Olympic Studios, London, spring 1970. Released as the title track of John Barleycorn Must Die (Island Records, July 1970).
The choice to record “John Barleycorn” is credited to Chris Wood, who’d heard a haunting a cappella version by the folk group The Watersons on their 1965 album Frost and Fire. Traffic’s rendition strips things back to just acoustic guitar, flute, and light percussion, with Steve Winwood‘s restrained vocal performance widely praised at the time — Rolling Stone’s Jon Carroll called it the standout track on the record.
Traffic – John Barleycorn Lyrics
There were three men came out of the West
Their fortunes for to try
And these three men made a solemn vow
John Barleycorn must die
They’ve ploughed, they’ve sown, they’ve harrowed him in
Threw clods upon his head
And these three men made a solemn vow
John Barleycorn was dead
They’ve let him lie for a very long time
Till the rains from heaven did fall
And little Sir John sprung up his head
And so amazed them all
They’ve let him stand till midsummer’s day
Till he looked both pale and wan
And little Sir John’s grown a long, long beard
And so become a man
They’ve hired men with the scythes so sharp
To cut him off at the knee
They’ve rolled him and tied him by the waist
Serving him most barbarously
They’ve hired men with the sharp pitchforks
Who pricked him to the heart
And the loader he has served him worse than that
For he’s bound him to the cart
They’ve wheeled him around and around the field
Till they came unto a barn
And there they made a solemn oath
On poor John Barleycorn
They’ve hired men with the crab-tree sticks
To cut him skin from bone
And the miller he has served him worse than that
For he’s ground him between two stones
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl
And he’s brandy in the glass
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl
Proved the strongest man at last
The huntsman, he can’t hunt the fox
Nor so loudly to blow his horn
And the tinker he can’t mend kettle nor pot
Without a little Barleycorn
To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 12 program and the full program, click here.