lyric gallows pole

gallis pole
Led Zepp III added an English folk song flavor (ala fairport convention, etc.)
some Yes-type licks
and a banjo
the Page and Plant version (live on Later with Jools Holland 1994) also goes to that folk-songy
place, with a Celtic flavor, and sthing that sounds like a fiddle its some kind of cranked handorgan? -- the shift from a ballad flavor (at the brother coming verse) to a quick dance-step is
even more pronounced in this version
See version at ca. 17:00 in Robert Plant BBC Electric Proms as a blues, with some call and
response elements in the harmony, fairly slow all the way thru?
See vid. Robert Plant The Band of Joy 5:48 the Green Version
The Maid Freed from the Gallows
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Maid Freed from the Gallows" is one of many titles of a centuries-old folk song about a
condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner. In the
collection of ballads compiled by Francis James Child in the late 19th century, it is indexed as
Child Ballad number 95; 11 variants, some fragmentary, are indexed as 95A to 95K.[1] In the
Roud Folk Song Index it is number 144. The ballad exists in a number of folkloric variants, from
many different countries, and has been remade in a variety of formats. For example, it was
recorded in 1939 as "The Gallis Pole" by folk singer Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, and - the
most famous version - in 1970 as "Gallows Pole", an arrangement of the Fred Gerlach version by
English rock band Led Zeppelin, on the album Led Zeppelin III.
Contents
1 Synopsis
2 Variants
3 Origin
4 "Gallows Pole" and the era of recorded music
4.1 Lead Belly version
4.2 Judy Collins and Bob Dylan versions
4.3 Derry Gaol/The Streets of Derry
4.4 Led Zeppelin version
4.4.1 Personnel
4.5 Other versions
5 In literature
6 In television

7 Names
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
Synopsis
There are many versions, all of which recount a similar story. A maiden (a young unmarried
woman) or man is about to be hanged (in many variants, for unknown reasons) pleads with the
hangman, or judge, to wait for the arrival of someone who may bribe him. Typically, the first
person (or people) to arrive, who may include the condemned person's parent or sibling, has
brought nothing and often has come to see them hanged. The last person to arrive, often their true
love, has brought the gold, silver, or some other valuable to save them.[1] Although the
traditional versions do not resolve the fate of the condemned one way or the other, it may be
presumed that the bribe would succeed. Depending on the version, the condemned may curse all
those who failed them.
The typical refrain is:
"Hangman, hangman, hangman / slack your rope awhile.
I think I see my father / ridin many a mile.
Father, did you bring any silver? / father, did you bring any gold,
Or did you come to see me / hangin from the gallows pole?"
"No, I didnt bring any silver, / no I didnt bring any gold.
I just come to see you / hangin from the gallows pole."
It has been suggested that the reference to "gold" may not mean actual gold for a bribe, but may
instead stand for the symbolic restoration of condemned person's honor, perhaps by proving their
innocence, honesty, or fidelity, or the maiden's virginity.[2][3] Such an interpretation would
explain why a number of the song's variations have the condemned person asking whether the
visitors have brought gold or paid the fee. In at least one version the reply is: "I haven't brought
you gold / But I have paid your fee."[4]
The song is also known as "The Prickly Bush", a title derived from the oft-used refrain lamenting
the maiden's situation by likening it to being caught in a briery bush, which prickles her heart. In
versions carrying this theme, the typical refrain may add:
O the prickly bush, the prickly bush,
It pricked my heart full sore;
If ever I get out of the prickly bush,
I'll never get in any more.
Variants

In some versions, the protagonist is male. This appears to be more prevalent in the United States,
where the hanging of women was uncommon.[3]
The crime for which the protagonist faces hanging is occasionally mentioned. The woman may
be being held for ransom by pirates, or she has stolen something from her employer. Other
instances tell of her having lost a treasured golden ball[5][6] or indicate that she is being hanged
for fornication.
The most extensive version is not a song at all, but a fairy story titled "The Golden Ball",
collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales. The story focuses on the exploits of the
fianc who must recover a golden ball in order to save his love from the noose. The incident
resembles The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was.[7] Other fairy tales
in the English language, telling the story more fully, always retell some variant on the heroine's
being hanged for losing an object of gold.[8]
In the Bob Dylan song "Seven Curses", it is not the maiden who is to be hanged but her father,
for stealing a stallion. The woman offers to buy her father's freedom from the judge, who
responds: "Gold will never free your father/ the price my dear is you, instead". The maiden pays
the judge's terrible price but wakes the next morning to find that her father has been hanged,
anyway.
Origin
The song may have originated in continental Europe. Some 50 versions have been reported in
Finland,[9] where it is well known as "Lunastettava neito". It is titled "Den Bortslda" in Sweden
( "Die Losgekaufte" in German). A Lithuanian version has the maid asking relatives to ransom
her with their best animals or belongings (crown, house, crown, ring, sword, etc.). The maiden
curses her relatives who refuse to give up their property and blesses her fianc, who does ransom
her.[10]
In a Hungarian version called "Feher Anna", collected by Bla Bartk in his study The
Hungarian Folk Song, Anna's brother Lazlo is imprisoned for stealing horses. Anna sleeps with
Judge Horvat to free him but is unsuccessful in sparing his life. She then regales the judge with
13 curses.
"Cecilia" is one of the best known and more diffused songs in the Italian popular music. With no
reference to any curse, it tells a story not very different from those of "Feher Anna" and "Seven
Curses". Cecilia's husband has been condemned to be hanged, and she asks the captain how it is
possible to spare his life. The captain promise to save her husband if Cecilia sleeps with him, but
in the morning Cecilia sees from the window her man has been hanged.[11]
The song is also found in Northern Sami, titled Nieida Kajon sis, which tells a story that strongly
resembles the Lithuanian version. The maid asks her relatives (father, mother, brother, sister, and
uncle) to ransom her with their best belongings or animals (horse, cow, sword, crown, and ship).
[12]

Francis James Child found the English version "defective and distorted", in that, in most cases,
the narrative rationale had been lost and only the ransoming sequence remained. Numerous
European variants explain the reason for the ransom: the heroine has been captured by pirates.
[13] Of the texts he prints, one (95F) had "degenerated" into a children's game, while others had
survived as part of a Northern English cante-fable, The Golden Ball (or Key).[13] Child
describes additional examples from the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Russia, and Slovenia, several of
which feature a man being ransomed by a woman.[13]
The theme of delaying one's execution while awaiting rescue by relatives appears with a similar
structure in the 1697 classic fairy tale "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault[14] (translated into
English in 1729).
"Gallows Pole" and the era of recorded music
Lead Belly version
In the Shadow of the Gallows Pole, a Lead Belly album featuring the song as "The Gallis Pole".
Legendary folksinger Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, who also popularized such songs as
"Cotton Fields" and "Midnight Special", first recorded "The Gallis Pole" in the 1930s. His
haunting, shrill tenor delivers the lyrical counterpoint, and his story is punctuated with spokenword, as he "interrupts his song to discourse on its theme".[15]
Judy Collins and Bob Dylan versions
Judy Collins performed the song "Anathea" throughout 1963 (including a rendition at the 1963
Newport Folk Festival), credited to Neil Roth and Lydia Wood. It is thematically similar to the
Hungarian "Feher Anna" cited above, even to the detail of the name of the brother (Lazlo). It
appeared on her third album, Judy Collins 3, released in early 1964. Dayle Stanley's album A
Child Of Hollow Times, also released in 1964, included an uncredited version of this song ("of
Greek origin"), under the name "Ana Thea". Bob Dylan recorded a thematically similar "Seven
Curses" in 1963, during the sessions for his Freewheelin' album. The song tells a similar story,
but from the point of view of the condemned's daughter. Dylan's song has been recorded by
many artists. The definitive folk version of the song is probably that by Nic Jones recorded as
"Prickly Bush", which he performed live and is featured on the Unearthed album. The song has
also been played by Spiers & Boden, and recorded by Odetta.
Derry Gaol/The Streets of Derry
An Irish version of the song, entitled "Derry Gaol" or "The Streets of Derry" (Roud number 896
), has the young man marching through the streets of Derry "more like a commanding officer /
Than a man to die upon the gallows tree". As he mounts the gallows, his true love comes riding,
bearing a pardon from the Queen (or the King). It was first recorded by County Armagh singer
Sarah Makem on The Folk Songs of Britain, Vol. 7: Fair Game and Foul (1961), and
subsequently by Shirley Collins, Andy Irvine & Paul Brady, June Tabor, Peter Bellamy and
Spiers & Boden.[16]
Led Zeppelin version
"Gallows Pole"
Gallows Pole.png
"Gallows Pole" cover
Song by Led Zeppelin from the album Led Zeppelin III

Released
5 October 1970
Recorded
5 July 1970
Genre Folk rock, blues rock
Length
4:57
Label Atlantic Records
Writer(s)
Trad., arr. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
Producer(s) Jimmy Page
Led Zeppelin III track listing
"Out on the Tiles"
(5)
"Gallows Pole"
(6)
"Tangerine"
(7)
The "Seven Curses" plotline is followed in perhaps the most familiar version today. English band
Led Zeppelin recorded the song for their album Led Zeppelin III in 1970. The album is a shift in
style for the band towards acoustic material, influenced by a holiday Jimmy Page and Robert
Plant took to the Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in the Welsh countryside.[17] Page adapted the song from
a version by American Fred Gerlach,[17][18] included on his 1962 album Twelve-String Guitar
for Folkways Records.[19] On Led Zeppelin III the track was credited "Traditional: Arranged by
Page and Plant".
"Gallows Pole" begins as a simple acoustic guitar rhythm; mandolin is added in, then electric
bass guitar shortly afterwards, and then banjo and drums simultaneously join in. The
instrumentation builds up to a crescendo, increasing in tempo as the song progresses. The
acoustic guitar chord progression (in standard tuning) is simple with a riff based on variations of
the open A chord and the chords D and G occurring in the verse. Page played banjo, six and 12
string acoustic guitar and electric guitar (a Gibson Les Paul), while John Paul Jones played
mandolin and bass.[17][18]
Page has stated that, similar to the song "Battle of Evermore" which was included on their fourth
album, the song emerged spontaneously when he started experimenting with Jones' mandolin, an
instrument he had never before played. "I just picked it up and started moving my fingers around
until the chords sounded right, which is the same way I work on compositions when the guitar's
in different tunings."[20] It is also one of Page's favourite songs on Led Zeppelin III.[18]
Led Zeppelin would perform the song a few times live during Led Zeppelin concerts in 1971.
[17] Plant would sometimes also include lyrics in live performances of the Led Zeppelin song
"Trampled Under Foot" in 1975.
In the Led Zeppelin version of the song, despite the bribes which the hangman accepts, he still
carries out the execution.
Oh yes, you got a fine sister, she warmed my blood from cold,
She warmed my blood to boiling hot to keep you from the Gallows Pole,
Your brother brought me silver, and your sister warmed my soul,
But now I laugh and pull so hard to see you swinging on the Gallows Pole

As in the Dylan "Seven Curses" and many other renditions, the Led Zeppelin version is based on
a variant in which the convict is male. This is evident when the convict's brother addresses the
convict as "brother" rather than "sister" in the line, "Brother, I brought you some silver, yeah."
Personnel
Robert Plant: lead vocals
Jimmy Page: six and twelve string acoustic guitars, electric guitar, banjo, backing vocals
John Paul Jones: bass guitar, mandolin
John Bonham: drums
Other versions
"Gallows Pole" single released by Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
The song has been recorded by numerous other artists, including A.L. Lloyd & Ewan MacColl,
Odetta, Jean Ritchie, Almeda Riddle, Frank Proffitt, Charlie Poole, Peggy Seeger, Jimmy
Driftwood, The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Steeleye Span, the Pine Valley Cosmonauts,
Nic Jones, Uriah Heep, Tim Eriksen, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Great Big Sea, and Neil Young.
American folk singer John Jacob Niles recorded a version under the title "The Hangman" in
1940; the song was featured in the 2007 Harmony Korine film Mister Lonely.
A few lines of the song are sung by a woman strumming a guitar in a 1949 John Wayne movie,
The Fighting Kentuckian. The song is chronologically appropriate to the film, which is set in
1818.
The Smothers Brothers performed a comedy version in which the narrator is hung before he can
finish the first verse, which appeared on The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers in 1962. Jasper
Carrott repeated this version.
The Watersons recorded the song as "The Prickle Holly Bush" on their 1981 album Green Fields
and frequently included it in their live performances.
German folk metal band In Extremo has a version of this song called "Der Galgen".
Led Zeppelin members Page and Plant later recorded a version of "Gallows Pole" for their 1994
release No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded. They also released this track as a
single. The song was performed regularly on the subsequent tour and featured Nigel Eaton on
hurdy-gurdy.
In 2005, Robert Plant and his band Strange Sensation performed the song on the television show
Soundstage. The performance was released the following year on the DVD Soundstage: Robert
Plant and the Strange Sensation.
Canadian singer/songwriter Neil Young has a version named "Gallows Pole" on his 2012 album
Americana recorded with Crazy Horse.

American singer/songwriter Stephen Molyneux has a version called "Lover to Go My Bail" on

his 2013 album Called to Leave in which the true love walks onward, the protagonist hung.[21]
In literature
The Shirley Jackson novel Hangsaman (1951) takes its name from the folk song and draws on its
theme of a female protagonist seeking rescue from perilin this case of a spiritual, existential,
or psychological nature.
In television
Season 1, episode 2 of the Netflix series Bloodline closes with Tex Ritter's rendition of "Gallows
Pole", in which the male singer requests his father to bring gold and silver to save his son from
being hanged, and the father replies that he's brought both, everything he has.[22]
Names
In addition to "The Maid Freed from the Gallows", "The Prickly Bush", and the more recent
"Gallows Pole", variations of the song have been recorded or reported under more than a dozen
names.[23] These include:
"The Gallis Pole"
"The Gallows Tree" (Bert Jansch)
"The Prickilie Bush"
"Prickle-Eye Bush" (Bellowhead and Spiers and Boden)
"The Prickle-Holly Bush"[24]
"The Briery Bush"[25]
"Hangman"
"Hangman, Slacken"[4]
"Hangman, Slack on the Line"[26]
"Slack Your Rope"
"Ropeman"
"Ropeman's Ballad"
"Gallows"
"The Weary Gallows"
"Freed from the Gallows"
"Maid Saved"
"By a Lover Saved"
"Down by the Green Willow Tree"
"Girl to be Hanged for Stealing a Comb"
"Derry Gaol"
"Hold Your Hands, Old Man"[4]
"Old Rabbit, the Voodoo"
"The Golden Ball"
"Mama, Did You Bring Any Silver?"
"The Sycamore Tree"[27]
See also

The Child ballad "Geordie" also features a rescue from the gallows by a payment.
Max Hunter, a traveling salesman, recorded and transcribed multiple variants of the song in
Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee between 1956 and 1976.[28]
The Jeff Beck Group released "The Hangman's Knee" on Beck-Ola (1969), which draws from
the traditional ballad, which begins: "Hangman hangman/Slack your noose/slack it oh slack
it/slack it for a while".
The song "Renegade" (1979) by Styx, is a first-person narrative of a captured outlaw awaiting
execution, lamenting, "Oh mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law. Hangman
is coming down from the gallows and I don't have very long."
The song "Hallowed Be Thy Name" (1982), by English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, briefly
gives an intetpretation of life after death and describes the feelings of a condemned person just
before their execution by hanging ("'cause at five o'clock/they'll take me to the Gallows Pole").
References
Child, Francis James. "The Maid Freed from the Gallows"
. English and Scottish Popular Ballads.
"Steeleye Span - Time"
. Hourwolf.com. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
"The Prickilie Bush"
. Numachi.com. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
"Hangman, Slacken (The Maid Freed From the Gallows; Hold Your Hands, Old Man)"
. Wolf Folklore Collection. Lyon.edu. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
[1]
"More English Fairy Tales: The Golden Ball"
. Sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
Jacobs, Joseph, ed. "The Golden Ball"
More English Fairy Tales. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1894.
Tristram P. Coffin, "The Golden Ball and the Hangman's Tree" p 23-4 D. K. Wilgus, Folklore
International: essay in traditional literature, belief and custom in honor of Wayland Debs Hand,
Folklore Associates, Inc. Hatboro PA 1967
"A Peck Of Dirt - Mark Automaton"
. Waterden.net. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
[2]
Roberto Leydi. I canti popolari italiani, Mondadori, Milano, 1973
Anders Larsen, Mrrasmid birra/Om sjsamene, pages 53 and 64, Troms University
Museum, Troms 1950.
Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 346-50, Dover
Publications, New York 1965.
"Bluebeard: Folktales of types 312 and 312A"
. Pitt.edu. 2014-11-14. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
Richard Mercer Dorson, American Folklore (1959) p. 196.
Zierke, Reinhard. "The Streets of Derry / Derry Gaol / Hail a Brighter Day"
. Mainly Norfolk. Retrieved 15 April 2015.

Dave Lewis (1994), The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, Omnibus Press, ISBN
0-7119-3528-9.
"Jimmy Page discusses making Led Zeppelin III"
. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
"Twelve-String Guitar: Folk Songs and Blues Sung and Played by Fred Gerlach | Smithsonian
Folkways"
. Folkways.si.edu. 2013-03-20. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
Dave Schulps, Interview with Jimmy Page
, Trouser Press, October 1977.
"Stephen Molyneux - Called to Leave (Cassette, Album)"
. Discogs.com. 2013-06-03. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
"Bloodline Music - S1E2: "Part 2""
. TuneFind.com. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
"Folk Music Index - M to Maid N"
. ibiblio.org.
"The Maid Freed from the Gallows / The Prickly Bush / The Prickle-Holly Bush / Prickle-Eye
Bush / The Golden Ball (Roud 144; Child 95; G/D 2:248)"
. Mainlynorfolk.info. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
"The Briery Bush"
. Contemplator.com. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
The Ballad of America, John Anthony Scott pages 207-208
The Ballad of America, John Anthony Scott pages.14-15
"The Hangman - The Max Hunter Folk Song Collection - Missouri State University"
. Maxhunter.missouristate.edu. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
Further reading
Eleanor Long, "The Maid" and "The Hangman": Myth and Tradition in a Popular Ballad
(University of California Press [Folklore Studies: 21], 1971, xiii+170 pp.) ISBN 0-520-09144-2.
Eleanor Long, Child 95 "The maid freed from the gallows": a geographical-historical study.
1968.
Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song, by Chris Welch, ISBN 156025-818-7.
The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, by Dave Lewis, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.
External links
Lyrics available at Wikisource:
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Gallows Pole
The Maid Freed From the Gallows
several variants
Song facts on variants
The Maid Freed From the Gallows
, with commentary

Lyrics of this song

at MetroLyrics
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=The_Maid_Freed_from_the_Gallows&oldid=731675723"
Categories:
Year of song unknownAmerican folk songsFolk songsLead Belly songsLed Zeppelin
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