Versions
Many artists have recorded the song, including Andreas Scholl, Bradley Kincaid, Joan Baez, Mac Wiseman, Shirley Collins, Doris Day, The Everly Brothers, Roger Quilter, Texas Gladden, Nic Jones, John Travolta, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton (with Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh), Maxine Sullivan, Pete Seeger, Tom Rush, Angelo Branduardi (Italian version titled 'Piano Piano" in 1983's album Cercando l'oro and another Italian version titled "Barbriallen" in 2011's album Così è se mi pare), John Jacob Niles, Merle Travis, Bob Dylan, Martin Carthy, Colin Meloy, Michael Hurley, Art Garfunkel, Simon & Garfunkel, Burl Ives, The Grateful Dead, Dando Shaft, Eddy Arnold, Moses "Clear Rock" Platt, Sonne Hagal, Frank Turner, The New Christy Minstrels, Blackmore's Night and Jim Moray.
Johnny Cash re-wrote lyrics to this song and performed it live at Austin City Limits in 1987. The song was renamed "The Ballad of Barbara". The main theme of the song is about divorce instead of death. The main character was born and raised in a southern town, and eventually moved his way up north to possibly New York or Washington D.C. After having a lot of girls and drinks, he discovers his true love where they get married under a "lofty steeple". However, when the main character offers to take her to see his folks down south, she refuses and decides to "take the city". The main character divorces her and moves back home "much wiser now and older".
John Wesley Harding updated the song into a modern ballad about wandering and lost love as "The Red Rose and the Briar" on his album Here Comes the Groom.
Les Barker wrote the poem "Maybe Then I'll Be A Rose" as what he called a "sensible version" of the song, with the lovers seizing the day rather than waiting until death to embrace one another. It was set to music by Savourna Stevenson and recorded by June Tabor for her album Rosa Mundi; she frequently includes it in her live sets.
Read more about this topic: Barbara Allen (song)
Famous quotes containing the word versions:
“The assumption must be that those who can see value only in tradition, or versions of it, deny man’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)