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Young Johnston

Date 15 February 1979
Track ID 65860
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1979.15.6

Original Tape ID

SA1979.015

Summary

In this tragic ballad, Young Johnston proposes to the Colonel that they marry each other's sisters; the Colonel refuses, insulting Johnston's sister. Johnston kills the Colonel and flees to his sister's house, where he confesses his crime. She refuses to shelter him from his pursuers and he flees to the home of his sweetheart (the Colonel's sister). She shelters him, despite his crime. He hides when his pursuers appear, but is enraged when his sweetheart [seemingly] sleeps with one of the armed men to distract them. Johnston emerges [after they have left] and stabs his sweetheart through the heart. Instantly remorseful, he begs her to live, but she is mortally wounded and dies. He takes his own life to join her in death.

Item Notes

20 verses of 4 lines; hesitation in verses 10 and 12.

'Tocher' 23 (1976) pp. 253-254
Greig-Duncan vol. 8, p. 342, no. 1929
'The Scottish Ballads' (R. Chambers, 1829) pp. 293-297
'Scotish Songs' vol. 2 (J. Ritson, 1794, 1869) pp. 521-523
'Ballads of Scotland' vol. 2 (W. E. Aytoun, 1858) pp. 107-114
'Ancient Ballads and Songs' vol. 2 (P. Buchan, 1828) pp. 20-22
'Minstrelsy Ancient & Modern' (W. Motherwell, 1827) pp. 193-200
'Traditional Ballad Airs' vol. 1 (W. Christie, 1876) pp. 156-157
'Book of Scottish Ballads' (A. Whitelaw, 1845) pp. 104-105, 257-259
'Ancient & Modern Scottish Songs' vol. 1 (D. Herd, 1869, 1973) pp. 165-166
'Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads & Songs' vol. 1 (E. Lyle, 1975) pp. 15-18

Recording Location

County - Midlothian

Parish - Edinburgh

Village/Place - Edinburgh

Language

English

Genre

Song

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R56 GD1929 C88

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good