trad
Bert Lloyd wrote in 1958: “In the nineteenth century, this popular street ballad was issued over and over again on broadsheets. An older song, The Green Bed, describing the adventures of a sailor in an uncharitable boarding house, seems to be the parent of Wild Rover.” Shortly thereafter, Peggy Seeger & Ewan MacColl collected it from Sam Larner, and from their book, Luke Kelly of the Dubliners learned it. The Dubliners’ version is close to what I’ve heard sung today, and you can hear the lineage from recordings of Larner, but Larner’s version sounds a little more distant from the familiar setting.
The Dubliners: The Wild Rover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDgyPD-HCsw
I’ve been a wild rover for many’s the year and I’ve spent all my money on whiskey and beer. But now I’m returning with gold in great store and I never will play the wild rover no more Chorus And it’s no, nay, never, no, nay, never, no more will I play the wild rover no, never, no more I went into an ale-house I used to frequent and I told the landlady my money was spent. I asked her for credit, she answered me nay, Such “a custom like yours I can have any day I took from my pocket ten sovereigns bright and the landlady’s eyes opened wide with delight. She said I’d have whiskey and wines of the best and the words that she told me were only in jest. I’ll go home to my parents, confess what I’ve done, and I’ll ask them to pardon their prodigal son. And when they’ve caressed me as oft’ times before then I never will play the wild rover no more