Bob Dylan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxZIg9ivOgw&feature=related

THE BALLAD OF LORD RANDAL

O where ha’ you been, Lord Randal my son?
And where ha’ you been, my handsome young man?
I ha’ been at the greenwood; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’ hunting and fain wad lie down.

An’ wha met ye there, Lord Randal my son?
An’ wha met you there; my handsome young man?
O I met wi’ my true-love; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’ huntin’ an’ fain wad lie down.

And what did she give you, Lord Randal my son?
And what did she give you, my handsome young man?
Eels fried in a pan; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’ huntin’ and fain wad lie down.

And wha gat your leavins, Lord Randal my son?
And wha gat your leavins, my handsome young man?
My hawks and my hounds; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’ hunting and fain wad lie down.

And what becam of them, Lord Randal my son?
And what becam of them, my handsome young man?
They stretched their legs out an’ died; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’ huntin’ and fain wad lie down.

O I fear you are poisoned, Lord Randal my son,
I fear you are poisoned, my handsome young man,
O yes, I am poisoned; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart and I fain wad lie down.

What d’ye leave to your mother, Lord Randal my son?
What d’ye leave to your mother, my handsome young man?
Four and twenty milk kye; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart and I fain wad lie down.

What d’ye leave to your sister, Lord Randal my son?
What d’ye leave to your sister, my handsome young man?
My gold and my silver; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart an’ I fain wad lie down.

What d’ye leave to your brother, Lord Randal my son?
What d’ye leave to your brother, my handsome young man?
My houses and my lands; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart and I fain wad lie down.

What d’ye leave to your true-love, Lord Randal my son?
What d’ye leave to your true-love, my handsome young man?
I leave her hell and fire; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart and I fain wad lie down.

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A HARD RAIN'S GONNA FALL

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son ?
And where have you been my darling young one ?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue eyed son ?
And what did you see, my darling young one ?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son ?
And what did you hear, my darling young one ?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, who did you meet my blue-eyed son ?
Who did you meet, my darling young one ?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son ?
And what'll you do now my darling young one ?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are a many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my songs well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's A-Gonna-Fall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4sMSSm0x2A&feature=related

One of the oldest traditional ballads in the English language. It is though that Lord Randal might be Randolph, 6th Earl of Chester who died in 1232. He was poisoned by his wife. Langland's "Vision of Piers the Ploughman" has a reference which may be to this ballad when a character says "I ken rymes of Robin Hode and Randolf Earl of Chester". The ballad is known all over Britain and in North America, sometimes under different titles. On variant in England is "Henry my son", but the form is always of a young man who has been poisoned bequeathing his goods to his relatives, but to his "true-love" the means for retribution. There are various tunes and the one here is from England.  http://www.pteratunes.org.uk/Music/Music/Lyrics/LordRandal.html

The English fiction writer Dorothy L. Sayers used a phrase from some variants for the title Strong Poison, a murder mystery about a man apparently murdered by his lover. In the early 1960s Bob Dylan uses the song's form as an allusion in "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall". Dylan's ballad, however, utilizes the answer to spell out an apocalyptic fall of hard rain.

The nursery rhyme "Billy Boy" borrows the verse structure and the narrative format about a suitor visiting his lover, with a happier ending.

The poem is a repeated allusion in the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" by J D Salinger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Randall

I have noted before that I owned an 19^th century collection of the Bard’s plays with a long, long appendix.

And I was struck by the fact that portions of his triad covering Henry IV & Henry V came directly from Holinshed’s Chronicles.

What I mean of course, is a line by line reproduction with ‘a twist’.

The line would appear to have blatantly come from the Chronicles but a word or two would be changed to meet the Bard’s meter and message. And of course the result was genius.

I just came across the Ballad of Randal in an old text and A Hard Rain was staring me in the face.

Here was a kid who signed up for one quarter at the University, never attended classes and turned ancient script into rock and roll.

*Shakespeare's primary source for Henry IV, Part 1, as for most of his chronicle histories, was the second edition (1587) of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, which in turn drew on Edward Hall's The Union of the Two Illustrious Families of Lancaster and York.^[3] Scholars have also assumed that Shakespeare was familiar with Samuel Daniel's poem on the civil wars.