Johnny Todd

Johnny Todd
Bob Roberts

Johnny Todd he had a notion
For to sail the ocean wide,
But he left his true love behind him
Walking by the Liverpool tide.

For a week she wept and sorrowed
Tore her hair and wrung her hands,
Till she met with another sailor
Walking by the Liverpool sand.

"O fair maid why are you weeping?
For your Johnny out at sea?
If you'll wed with me tomorrow
I will kind and constant be.

I will buy you sheets and blankets,
I'll buy you a wedding ring.
You shall have a gilded cradle
For to rock your baby in."

Johnny Todd came home from sailing,
Sailing o'er the ocean wide,
But he found that his fair and false one
Was another sailor's bride

So all you who go a-sailing,
Or to fight the foreign foe,

Do not leave your love like Johnny,
Marry her before you go.

Collected by Frank Kidson, the tune of this song became well-known in the late sixties when it was used for the TV series 'Z Cars' which featured the Liverpool police. It seems to be a sailor's adaptation of Madam will you walk? (known in a Somerset version as The Keys of Canterbury). The only other version I have recorded was Johnny Sailor, sung by children in the streets of Belfast.