American | Australian | Beatles | Canadian | Ceilidh | Childrens' | Chinese | Dutch | English | French | German | Gospel | Irish | NZ | Norwegian | Other | Platt | Pub | Sacred Harp | Scots | Sea Songs | Tyneside | Welsh | Yorkshire |
 
John Brown's Body
Last updated: 11.10.23
Hand's up all those that have never heard "John Brown's Body"! It must be one of those songs that is known to the whole English-speaking world and even to those just starting to learn English. I certainly have known it since childhood, but the version I sing is that performed by Wilfried Drygala. I don't know where he learned it.
I well remember joining in a pub jazz session whilst on holiday in Richmond, London sometime in the mid-1990's and surprising the people around me with Wilfried's version which has six verses compared with the four-verse somewhat complicated version provided in The Story of the Jubilee Singers.
Brian Kelly and I loved wailing the "Glory, glory hallelujah! chorus, when singing in the Idle Fellows, in the quite normal manner, to us that was, of the typical demented English pub crowd, much to Wilfried's chagrin and annoyance.
  Issue Instruments Performer
       
  Midi File(s)   Sequencer(s)
audiomidi15.gif Midi Frank Petersohn
     Performer CD Title Supplier
       
cd15.gif Various Artists Revolutionary Times & Civil War flag15us.gif flag15uk.gif flag15de.gif flag15fr.gif flag15ca.gif flag15it.gif
cd15.gif Paul Robeson Ballad For Americans CD(s) & MP3 Album(s) flag15us.gif flag15uk.gif flag15de.gif flag15fr.gif flag15ca.gif flag15it.gif flag15es.gif
cd15.gif Pete Seeger American Favorite Ballads flag15us.gif flag15uk.gif flag15de.gif flag15fr.gif flag15ca.gif
cd15.gif Pete Seeger Dangerous Songs!? CD(s) & MP3 Album(s) flag15us.gif flag15uk.gif flag15de.gif flag15fr.gif flag15ca.gif
     Title Performer Composer
       
youtube15.jpg John Brown's Body (4:28) Gloria Jane