While we cheer for our heroes and their hot new love affair, the payback is swift. Fair Eloise, we’re told, even forsakes her baby. She, the “fair Eloise,” falls so hard for Gypsy Davy that by the time her husband arrives to retrieve her, she objects, claiming she’d rather sleep on “the cold, cold ground” with her new beau (and man of the people) than live in a gilded cage with him, a stuffy old aristocrat. Stealing the lady of the manor away from her lord and spiriting her off into the “green, green trees,” the debonair kidnapper quickly converted his captive to the romantic life of the forest-dwelling outlaw. “Black Jack Davy,” was a lady killer from the deep woods hailed in song for centuries by Scottish folk singers until finding his way into the repertoires of the twentieth century folk-revivalists the New Lost City Ramblers, Bob Dylan, the Incredible String Band, Dave Alvin (of the Blasters) as well as the White Stripes and bluesman Taj Mahal.īeyond his romantic gypsy allure, Davy is an obvious symbol of class and race warfare.
Here’s the answer! An edited bit from my book A Friend of the Devil - the Glorification of the Outlaw in Song - from Robin Hood to Rap - Enjoy!!! A question I am certain that is troubling your mind these days….
