Fairport Convention - Jack O'Rion Lyrics
Jack O'Rion was the finest fiddler ever fiddled on the stringHe could drive young ladies wild with a tune his wires would singHe could fiddle the fish out of salt water, water from a marble stoneOr milk from out a maiden's breast though baby she had noneThere he played in the castle hall and there he played them fast asleepExcept it was for the young countess who, for love, she stayed awakeSo first he played her a slow air and then he played it brisk and gayAnd oh, dear love, behind her glove, this lady she did say"Ere the day has dawned and the *****s have crowed and flapped their wings so wideIt's you must come to my chamber there and lie down by my side"So he wrapped his fiddle in a cloth of green and he stole out on his a-tip-a-toeAnd he's off back to his young boy Tom as fast as he could go"Ere the day has dawned and the *****s have crowed and flapped their wings so wideI'm bid to go to the lady's door and stretch out by her side""Lie down, lie down, my good master, here's a blanket to your handAnd I'll waken you in as good a time as any ***** in this land"Now Tom took the fiddle into his hand, he fiddled and he played for a full hourUntil he played him fast asleep; he's off to the lady's bowerAnd when he came to her chamber door, he twirled softly at the pinThe lady, true to her promise, rose up and let him inHe did not take that lady gay to bolster nor to bedBut down upon the hard cold floor right soon he had her laidAnd he did not kiss her when he came nor yet but from her he did goBut in out the lady's bedroom window, the moon like a coal did glow"Ragged are your stockings, love, and stubbly is your cheek and chinAnd tousled is that yellow hair that I saw yestereve""These stockings belong to my boy Tom, they were the first came to my handThe wind must have tousled my yellow hair and I rode over the land"Now Tom took the fiddle into his hand, he fiddled and he played so saucilyHe's off back to his master's house as fast as go could he"Wake up, wake up, oh my good master, why snore you there so loud?There's not a ***** in all this land but has clapped his wings and crowed"Jack O'Rion took the fiddle into his hand and he fiddled and he played so merrilyHe's off away to the lady's house as fast as go could heAnd when he came to the lady's door, he twirled so softly at the pinSaying "Oh, my dear, it's your true love, rise up and let me in"She said "Surely you didn't leave behind a golden brooch nor a velvet gloveOr are you returning back again to taste more of my love?"Jack O'Rion, he swore a bloody oath, by oak, by ash, by bitter thorn"Lady, I never was in your house since the day that I was born""Oh, then it was your young boy Tom that cruelly has beguiled me""Oh woe, that the blood of that ruffian boy did spring in my body"Jack O'Rion sped off to his own house, saying "Tom, my boy, come here to me"He hung him from his own gatepost, high as a willow tree
