Barleycorn

Back in the day when I attended the hallowed halls and underground debris known as the South Australian School of Art one of my favourite bands was Traffic.

Today was a pain in the arse day and by stumps I was in a foul mood until I got a phone call from a long time friend who also had a bad day and took out his frustrations on a cheap uke he keeps at his place of work [editors note: keep a uke at work]. This reminded him of me (?) and he called to find out what I thought of last Sundays Jake Shimabukuro gig as well as ask me some questions about setting up his lutherie workshop. He has recently got the bug to make ukeleles. We had a good long chat about music, ukes, guitars and the process of making guitars, and the tools of the trade etc. (I have been making guitars for about 30 years).

After our chat I felt a lot better and before I left my work place I took this shot of a grass bush of an unknown name that is located at the back of my office. There was a beautiful light catching the long bits which really jumped out from the dark shadows behind. I took just the one shot today hoping it wold be OK to use. At the same time Traffic's song John Barleycorn Must Die came into my head and I found I was singing it softly as I packed up and drove home a much happier chappie then I was 40 minutes earlier. The Traffic version from the album of the same name was circa 1968 (?).
An other favourite band is Jethro Tull who also produced a great version of the song.

John Barleycorn is a British folksong. The character of John Barleycorn in the song is a personification of the important cereal crop barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it, beer and whisky. In the song, John Barleycorn is represented as suffering attacks, death and indignities that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting.
Robert Burns published a version in 1782, which makes the tale somewhat mysterious and, although different from the original, it became the catalyst & model for most subsequent versions of the ballad.

Burns's version begins.
There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die.

An early English version.
There was three men come out o' the west their fortunes for to try,
And these three men made a solemn vow, John Barleycorn must die,
They ploughed, they sowed, they harrowed him in, throwed clods upon his head,
And these three men made a solemn vow, John Barleycorn was dead.

When I got home I grabbed a uke and pretended to be Steve Winwood.