Lyrics to
John Barleycorn

This version of John Barleycorn was released by Traffic in 1970.

Our Traffic Songs profile has John Barleycorn lyrics from 1970 and most if not all of the lyrics by Traffic that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Traffic or about the 1970s in general.

There were three men came out of the West,
Their fortunes for to try,
And these three men made a solemn vow:
John Barleycorn must die.

They’ve ploughed, they’ve sown, they’ve harrowed him in,
Threw clods upon his head,
And these three men made a solemn vow:
John Barleycorn was dead.

They’ve let him lie for a very long time,
Till the rains from heaven did fall,
And little Sir John sprung up his head,
And so amazed them all.

They’ve let him stand till midsummer’s day,
Till he looked both pale and wan,
And little Sir John’s grown a long, long beard,
And so become a man.

They’ve hired men with the scythes so sharp,
To cut him off at the knee,
They’ve rolled him and tied him by the way,
Serving him most barbarously.

They’ve hired men with the sharp pitchforks,
Who pricked him to the heart,
And the loader he has served him worse than that,
For he’s bound him to the cart

They’ve wheeled him around and around the field,
Till they came unto a barn,
And there they made a solemn oath,
On poor John Barleycorn.

They’ve hired men with the crab-tree sticks,
To cut him skin from bone,
And the miller he has served him worse than that,
For he’s ground him between two stones.

And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl,
And he’s brandy in the glass;
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl,
Proved the strongest man at last.

The huntsman, he can’t hunt the fox,
Nor so loudly to blow his horn,
And the tinker he can’t mend kettle nor pot,
Without a little Barleycorn

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Traffic has released many songs over the years besides John Barleycorn. Traffic released songs from 1967 to 1994 spanning across albums like Mr. Fantasy, Traffic, Last Exit, John Barleycorn Must Die, Welcome To The Canteen, The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys, Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory, When The Eagle Flies, and Far From Home. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Traffic.

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About Lyrics and John Barleycorn by Traffic

The lyrics to John Barleycorn are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Traffic used when the song was created in 1970. The lyrics to John Barleycorn have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Traffic and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to John Barleycorn by Traffic. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to John Barleycorn" means the words set to the music of John Barleycorn, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Traffic. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to John Barleycorn and the lyrics to John Barleycorn are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Traffic who came here looking just for the lyrics to John Barleycorn, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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