Jean Ritchie - The Raggle Taggle Gypsies (Child 200, Roud 1)
Most American versions of this ballad are called something along the lines of "Gypsy Davy", whereas "Raggle Taggle Gypsy" variants tend to be English or Irish. This recording is unfortunately only a fragment, but it bears a striking resemblance to some traditional Irish versions, such as these ones performed by Paddy Tunney and Paddy Doran:
• Seven Little Gypsies (Child 200) - Paddy T...
• Video
Ritchie also remarkably had a more typical American variant of the ballad in her repertoire, which can be heard here: • Gypsy Laddie
This recording was made by Alan Lomax in 1949. Most of the Lomax recordings are poor quality and absent from YouTube. I plan to remove as much background noise as possible and upload as many as I can. Here is a playlist with my other Jean Ritchie uploads: • Jean Ritchie - Geordie (Child 209, Roud 90)
Here is a link to my main channel, which mostly consists of informative and historical videos about traditional music and features many rare recordings: / @thefolkrevivalproject
I featured "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies" in this video, which includes two traditional recordings and two famous recordings of the song: • Phonograph to Folk Revival [PART 1/6] – a ...
I would've included Ritchie's version, but I hadn't heard it at the time I uploaded the video.
This video will not be monitized. All credit goes to Jean Ritchie, Alan Lomax and whomever currently holds to rights to this music. I uploaded this video because the music needs to be heard.
There were three gypsies a-came to my door
And downstairs a-ran this a-lady-O
One sang high and the other sang low
And the other sang bonnie bonnie biss gay-O
It was late in the night when my Lord came home
Inquiring for his a-lady-O
The servants said on every hand
He's gone with the raggle taggle gypsies-O