8. The Barley Grain

Micho learned this song as a young child from his father. In his singing he inserts the chorus at random rather than singing it after every verse. The air of the chorus is essentially the same as the verse.

“The Pleasant Ballad of John Barleycorn” has appeared on British broadsheets since at least the early 17th century. It represents the life-cycle of the corn from planting to consumption and, by implication, birth, death and resurrection. A somewhat cruder conclusion to the song (in which the Barley Grain meets a watery end) is common in Irish tradition and is known to Micho but he prefers not to sing it.

1
There was three farmers in the North,
As they came passing by,
They swore an oath, and a mighty oath,
That the Barley Grain should die.

Chorus
With me likes, de lar a laddy,
With me likes, de lar a lee.
With me likes, de lar a laddy,
Oh, and the Barley Grain for me.

2
The frost and snow began to melt
And the dew began to fall.
And the Barley Grain stuck up his head
And soon belied them all.

3
The reaper come with his twisted hook,
He cuts me above the knee,
But he used me ten times worse than that
When he ties me like a thief.

4
The binder come with his twisted thumb,
He looks at me with a frown,
But within my middle he found a thistle
Which pulled his courage down.

5
The carman come with his big long fork,
He sticks me through the heart.
But he used me ten times worse than that
When he ties me to his cart.

6
The thresher come with his big long flail,
He turns me upside down.
But he used me ten times worse than that
When he turns me inside out.

7
He brought me to the barn
And he threw me on the floor.
He left me there a space of days
Till my head grew out the door.

8
He put me into big sack-bags,
He brought me to the well
He left me there a space of days
Till my belly began to swell.

9
He put me in to gallons
And he put me in to quarts.
He sold me to the publican
For many a hundred pounds.

10
’Bove all the falls I ever got,
The biggest fall of all:
When the drunkard drank me off the glass
And fell against the wall!