The Unfortunate Rake

For the compilation album, see The Unfortunate Rake (album).
Not to be confused with The Unfortunate Lad.

The Unfortunate Rake is a ballad (Roud 2, Laws Q26),[1] which through the folk process has evolved into a large number of variants, including allegedly the country and western song "Streets of Laredo".[2]

The Roud Broadside Index contains exactly two songs with the title "The Unfortunate Rake": "Jenny Gordon or The Unfortunate Rake" from the Madden collection, and another printed in Gateshead, England, whose first line is "Attend to the tale of a wand’rer forlorn". These do not seem to be connected with the songs that came to be seen as part of an "Unfortunate Rake" cycle.[3] There are also several tunes named "The Unfortunate Rake".[4]

  1. ^ Richard Jenkins, 2019, The Unfortunate Rake’s Progress: A Case Study of the Construction of Folklore by Scholars, Folklore, 130.2,111-132
  2. ^ See Burl Ives Cowboy's Lament.
  3. ^ Richard Jenkins, op cit, pp121
  4. ^ Richard Jenkins (2019) The Unfortunate Rake’s Progress: A Case Study in the Construction of Folklore by Collectors and Scholars, Folklore, 130:2, 111-132