"Comin' Thro' the Rye" is a poem written in 1782 by Robert Burns. The words are put to the melody of the Scottish Minstrel "Common' Frae The Town". This is a variant of the tune to which Auld Lang Syne is usually sung—the melodic shape is almost identical, the differencelying in the tempo and rhythm.
Origin and meaning
G. W. Napier, in an 1876 Notes and Queries, wrote that, The protagonist, "Jenny", is not further identified, but there has been reference to a "Jenny from Dalry" and a longstanding legend in the Drakemyre suburb of the town of Dalry, North Ayrshire, holds that "comin thro' the rye" describes crossing a ford through the Rye Water at Drakemyre to the north of the town, downstream from Ryefield House and not far from the confluence of the Rye with the River Garnock. When this story appeared in the Glasgow Herald in 1867, it was soon disputed with the assertion that everyone understood the rye to be a field of rye, wet with dew, which also fits better with other stanzas that substitute "wheat" and "grain" for "rye". An alternative suggestion is that "the rye" was a long narrow cobblestone paved lane, prone to puddles of water. While the original poem is already full of sexual imagery, an alternative version makes this more explicit. It has a different chorus, referring to a phallic "staun o' staunin' graith", "kiss" is replaced by "fuck", and Jenny's "thing" in stanza four is identified as her "cunt".
Even the "cleaner" version of the Burns lyrics is quite bawdy, and it is this one, or an "Anglized" version of it, that is most commonly "covered".
''The Catcher in the Rye''
The title of the novelThe Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger comes from the poem's name. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, misinterprets a part of this poem to mean "if a body catch a body" rather than "if a body meet a body." He keeps picturing children playing in a field of rye near the edge of a cliff, and him catching them when they start to fall off.
Cover versions
The first recording of the song was made in 1912 by Marcella Sembrich.
The song was covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1956 as "Rockin' Through The Rye". Bill Haley had updated the lyrics to a more 1950's hip slang. In Sept 1956, when the record was climbing the UK charts, the single was banned by the BBC from its playlist because they felt the song went against traditional British standards. Nevertheless, the record peaked at No. 3 on the UK charts.