Probably the best known variation of "The Gypsy Laddie", also known as "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies", "Clayton Boone", "Johnny Faa", "The Lady and the Gypsy", "Harrison Brady", "The Heartless Lady" and "Seven Yeller Gypsies," and so on. This version is especially popular in America, having been passed down from Woody Guthrie to Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. It was also recorded by The Carter Family, and, later, The New Lost City Ramblers, as "Black Jack David." Other recordings of "Black Jack Davey" include Barbara Dane, Arlo Guthrie, Steeleye Span and The Incredible String Band, though Mile Heron wrote new lyrics. A watered-down sentimentalised version, where the gypsy turns out to be a rich lord, was recorded by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem ("The Whistling Gypsy") and The Highwaymen ("The Gypsy Rover"). Of course the girl in this case does not leave a husband, but merely her father. The version I sing here, if I remember rightly, is from a book of Peggy Seeger's songs, though obviously it is very differentl from the way she sings it.

One of the best known of the ballads collected by Francis James Child, there are many variations on this song, about a girl who leaves either her father or her husband to run away with a gypsy. Wikipedia lists twenty alternate titles, including "Black Jack Davey", "Clayton Boone", "Johnny Faa", "The Lady and the Gypsy", "Harrison Brady", "The Heartless Lady" and "Seven Yeller Gypsies." In some versions the gypsy turns out to be a rich man, obviously the version known to the heroine of "The Jolly Beggar" (Child 279) who mistakenly assumes the gypsy who seduces her is a rich lord! A good example of this is a rather sentimentalised version, possibly of American origin, known as "The Gypsy Rover" or "The Whistling Gypsy". The "Gypsy Davey" variation seems to be the most recorded one, but this version has been recorded by Christy Moore, Planxty and The Waterboys.

Gypsy images with the old scottish folk song raggle taggle gypsy