The song "All Around my Hat" (Roud 567, Laws P31) is of nineteenth century English origin. In an early version, dating from the 1820s, a Cockney costermonger vowed to be true to his fiancee, who had been sentenced to seven years' transportation to Australia for theft and to mourn his loss by wearing green willow sprigs in his hatband for "a twelve-month and a day," in a traditional symbol of mourning.This electric folk group took it to number 5 on the charts, with the original version interpolated with lyrics from another early 19th Century song - "Farewell He" - which turned the song into a conversation, with the original words of constancy alternating with a sermon to young girls on the inconstancy of young men. The song has the distinction of being the only Steeleye song covered by a later mainstream band.A young man is forced to leave his lover, usually to go to sea. On his return he finds her on the point of being married to another man. In some versions he goes into mourning, with the green willow as a symbol of his unhappiness (willow is considered to be a weeping tree). In other versions he reminds her of her broken promise, and she dies mysteriously. In some versions he simply contemplates his lover left behind, without actually returning to find her being married. In other versions, the young man is a street hawker who is mourning his separation from his lover who has been transported to Australia for stealing.The song has typical archetypal elements of the separated lovers, the interrupted wedding, and the inconsolable rejected lover. In the "Yellow Ribbon" variants, the adornment is a reminder of lost love, similar to Ireland's The Black Velvet Band.
Sailors are notoriously unfaithful, so this is an interesting twist, with the man being true, and the woman being inconstant.
The song "All Around my Hat" (Roud 567, Laws P31) is of nineteenth century English origin. In an early version, dating from the 1820s, a Cockney costermonger vowed to be true to his fiancee, who had been sentenced to seven years' transportation to Australia for theft and to mourn his loss by wearing green willow sprigs in his hatband for "a twelve-month and a day," in a traditional symbol of mourning.This electric folk group took it to number 5 on the charts, with the original version interpolated with lyrics from another early 19th Century song - "Farewell He" - which turned the song into a conversation, with the original words of constancy alternating with a sermon to young girls on the inconstancy of young men. The song has the distinction of being the only Steeleye song covered by a later mainstream band.A young man is forced to leave his lover, usually to go to sea. On his return he finds her on the point of being married to another man. In some versions he goes into mourning, with the green willow as a symbol of his unhappiness (willow is considered to be a weeping tree). In other versions he reminds her of her broken promise, and she dies mysteriously. In some versions he simply contemplates his lover left behind, without actually returning to find her being married. In other versions, the young man is a street hawker who is mourning his separation from his lover who has been transported to Australia for stealing.The song has typical archetypal elements of the separated lovers, the interrupted wedding, and the inconsolable rejected lover. In the "Yellow Ribbon" variants, the adornment is a reminder of lost love, similar to Ireland's The Black Velvet Band. Sailors are notoriously unfaithful, so this is an interesting twist, with the man being true, and the woman being inconstant.