This gets its name because it kind of evolved from Davy Graham’s jazz-raga arrangement of ‘She Moved Through the Fair’ (memorably described by Martin Carthy as ‘a mess’). I’ve used the same arrangement (without the jazziness) as a starting point for accompanying singers, but this is a highly personalized, extemporized version that always seems to come out more North African than Indian. Anyway, I don’t think we’re in Ireland any more with this version, Toto.
I don’t suppose Martin would like this version much, either.
A setting of the poem by Rudyard Kipling. The words and a few notes are available from this page. I believe Peter Bellamy used to sing a version set to ‘The White Cockade’, which I guess would readily lend itself to a more chorus-y version. In the 70s, I remember hearing a version to a different tune sung in Berkshire that used the second verse as a chorus.
Lyrics by Alison Pittaway, with a traditional tune drastically arranged by me. And featuring the first recorded appearance of the Pelican Court Light Orchestra. The words have been published here before, but this demo is better recorded than the one with the previous version.
Backup:
He was a raggle taggle man
In raggle taggle clothes
Reaching, reaching for the stars
As he wandered down the road
Once the world was at his feet
But then it fell apart
His friends becoming strangers
Who left him in the dark
His world was all in pieces
That he couldn’t shape at last
While the wind was blowing
Through the weeds and grass
People tried to reassure him
But still he lost all hope
And looking at his life
He knew he couldn’t cope
So home alone he went alone
And all alone he died
But everyone who knew him
Now remembers him with pride
He was so beautiful inside.
Alison and I (among others) ran a folk club in London (at Jacksons Lane Community Centre, Highgate) for a while, and later on lived in the same part of Tottenham for several years. It’s only recently – when we haven’t met face-to-face in decades and now live in different counties – that we’ve started to collaborate on songs, though.
The tune is a variation on a tune that Jean Ritchie used to sing as ‘False Sir John’. I don’t know why, it just seemed to fit the words.
David Harley Words & Music 
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