Henry's Songbook

Oh the cuckoo, she's a pretty bird, she sings as she flies
She brings us glad tidings and tells us no lies
She sucks all the pretty flowers to make her voice clear
And she never sings 'cuckoo' till the spring of the year

Oh come all you young women, take a warning by me
Never place your affection on a green-growing tree
For the roots they will wither and the branches all die
If I am forsaken I know not for why

If I am forsaken, I'll not be forsworn
For he's surely mistaken if he thinks that I'll mourn
I'll get myself for him some higher degree
And pass as light by him as he does by me

My Johnny's in the water, let him sink or let him swim
If he can live without me, I can live without him
Oh Johnny is a young boy, but still younger am I
How often he's told me he'd wed me or die

Repeat 1

As sung by Judy Mayhan

[1967:] We have suggested the majority of English songs tell a story or at least purport to. But there are also songs that are simply expressions of mood and nothing more. They are not numerous but they are confusing in their variety because they make use of a stock of symbolic or epigrammatic verses that are combined and re-combined in song after song, so that often it is hard to tell one piece from another. This stock of common-place lyrical 'floaters' [...] is relatively restricted, comprising perhaps not many more than fifty tropes in all [...]. The verses are usually concerned with love, especially love betrayed or denied, and a repertory of such verses provides a handy kit for making countless songs almost at will. [...] Fluid as the use of these floating stanzas may be, sets of them sometimes show signs of crystallizing into specific songs [like The Cuckoo].
[...] Few of these floating lyrics are datable. They are the product of some sentimental flowering of the spirit, but whether they were all produced at the same period or represent the accretion of centuries would be hard to say. (Lloyd, England 178ff)

[1979:] Ein altes englisches Lied, das in vielen Variationen in Amerika bekannt geworden ist. Songs wie On top of old smokey oder Pretty Polly gehen ganz sicher auf The Cuckoo zurück. Im alten England symbolisierte der Kuckuck den kommenden Frühling, in der amerikanischen Fassung den Patriotismus. Bekannt wurde dieses Lied durch Clarence Ashley, einen 'Oldtime'- Folksänger, durch seine Aufnahmen von 1929 [...]. The Cuckoo ist ein typisches Beispiel für den klassischen 'Oldtime' Folk-Stil. (Bursch 124)