D'ye ken John Peel (song)


"D'ye ken John Peel?" – which translates to "Do you know John Peel?" – is a famous Cumberland hunting song written around 1824 by John Woodcock Graves in celebration of his friend John Peel, an English fox hunter from the Lake District. The melody is said to be a contrafactum of a popular border rant, "Bonnie Annie." A different version, the one that endurs today, was musically adapted in 1869 by William Metcalfe, the organist and choirmaster of Carlisle Cathedral. The tune etymology has a long history that has been traced back to 1695 and attributed to adaptations – one in particular, from the 20th century, the 1939 jingle, "Pepsi-Cola Hits the Spot."

History

, who wrote it in Cumbrian dialect, tinkered with the words over the years and several versions are known. George Coward, a Carlisle bookseller who wrote under the pseudonym Sidney Gilpin, rewrote the lyrics with Graves' approval, translating them from their original broad Cumberland dialect to Anglican; and in 1866, he published them in the book, Songs and Ballads of Cumberland. Another song written by Graves mentions one of John's brothers, Askew Peel, a horsedealer who also lived in Caldbeck.
"D'ye ken John Peel?" was first sung in 1824 in Gate House in Caldbeck in John Graves’ home to the tune of the Border rant "Bonnie Annie." A different musical version was composed in 1869 by William Metcalfe, a conductor and composer – and lay clerk of Carlisle Cathedral. His arrangement – lauded as more musical than the traditional melody – became popular in London and was widely published. In 1906, the song was published in The National Song Book, but with a tune closer to Bonnie Annie – and that version is the most widely known today. English counties have no official anthem. However, "D'ye ken John Peel?" is commonly regarded as a kind of unofficial anthem of Cumberland and the region.

Etymology and other uses

British musicologist Ann Gilchrist and Canadian folklorist Edith Fowke trace the use of the tune and lyrics in other songs and poems, including:

  1. "Red House," first published in 1695 by John Playford in The Dancing Master


    1. "Where will Our Good Man Lay?
    2. "Where/Whar Wad Our Gudman/Bonny Annie Lye/Laye"
    3. "Where/Whar wad our Guidman Lie"
    4. From the 1729 opera, Polly, Act I, Scene VIII, Air 9, the song "Red House," being the same version published in The Dancing Master
  2. "Address to the Woodlark," by Robert Burns
  3. "0! What Can Make My Annie Sigh?" by John Anderson
  4. The words, "Where wad bonny Anne lye?," in the song, "The Cordial," sung to the tune "Where Should Our Goodman Ly?"
  5. English-turned-American composer Austen Herbert Croom-Johnson, born in Hereford, imported the tune, "D'ye ken John Peel," and scored it for a 1939 jingle, "Pepsi-Cola Hits the Spot" . His Chicago-born lyricist partner, Alan Bradley Kent , wrote the words.

Lyrics

Verse 1

D'ye ken John Peel with his coat so gay?‡
D'ye ken John Peel at the break o' day?
D'ye ken John Peel when he's far, far a-way.
With his hounds and his horn in the morning?
Chorus

‡Some versions, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, show the phrase as " with his coat so gray," inferring that his coat was likely made of local Herdwick wool, commonly gray. If so, the color of John Peel's coat would be in contrast to that of other huntsmen – traditionally brightly colored, often red or.

Additional verses

Verse 2

D'ye ken that bitch whose tongue was death?
D'ye ken her sons of peerless faith?
D'ye ken that fox, with his last breath
Curs’d them all as he died in the morning?
Verse 3

Yes I ken John Peel and Ruby too
Ranter and Royal and Bellman as true,*
From the drag to the chase, from the chase to the view
From a view to the death in the morning
Verse 4

And I've followed John Peel both often and far,
O'er the rasper fence and the gate and the bar,
From low Denton Holme up to Scratchmere Scar,
Where we vie for the brush in the morning
Verse 5

Then here's to John Peel with my heart and soul
Come fill – fill to him another strong bowl,
And we'll follow John Peel through fair and through foul
While we’re waked by his horn in the morning.
  • These were the real names of the hounds that Peel, in his old age, said were the very best he ever had or saw. – J.W.G.

    Alternative versions

As is common with songs often sung from memory, this has been recorded with other verses and minor differences in lyrics, such as in the third verse: "From the drag to the chase, from the chase to the view" and "From a view to a death in the morning":
Alternative verse 1

Yes, I ken John Peel and his Ruby, too!
Ranter and Ringwood, Bellman so true!
From a find to a check, from a check to a view,
From a view to a kill in the morning.
Coward's version of the last line was used for Matt Cartmill's book, A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History. The alternative version was used as a title to the short story From a View to A Kill, found in the Ian Fleming collection of short stories, For Your Eyes Only. This was in turn shortened to A View to a Kill, when applied to the fourteenth James Bond movie.
This verse was not in Coward's version:
Alternative verse 2

D'ye ken John Peel with his coat so gay?
He liv'd at Troutbeck once on a day;
Now he has gone far, away;
We shall ne'er hear his voice in the morning.

Parodies

A number of parodies also exist. On BBC radio's I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, a version parodied the British Radio DJ John Peel
1st parody

D'ye ken John Peel with his voice so grey?
He sounds as if he's far far away;
He sends you to sleep at the end of the day;
'til you're woken up by Tony Blackburn in the morning.
Another was used in the 1979 film Porridge, which saw Ronnie Barker as Fletch cheekily observe a new prison warden.
2nd parody

D'ye see yon screw with his look so vain?
With his brand new key on his brand new chain;
With a face like a ferret and a pea for a brain

Regimental marches

's creamware pitcher modelled with hunting scenes in low relief and with a handle modelled as a leaping hound, which was introduced in 1912, carried the pattern name "D'ye Ken John Peel".

Selected audio and discography

Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 3: Musical Compositions


  2. "John Peel," variations on an English tune

    Copyrights relating to Pepsi-Cola

    Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 3: Musical Compositions

    1. "D'ye ken John Peel"
    2. "Do ye ken, John Peel?"
    3. "Do ye ken, John Peel?"
    4. "Do ye ken John Peel," fox trot
    5. "Pepsi-Cola Hits the Spot"
    6. "Pepsi-Cola Radio Jingle"
    7. "Get Hep"

      1. "Pepsi-Cola Hits the Spot"

        Copyrights relating to wind ensembles

        Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 3: Musical Compositions