Maggie May (folk song)

This article is about the traditional folk song. For the Rod Stewart song, see Maggie May.
The Liverpool Sailors' Home in Canning Place, c. 1860. The sailor is "paid off at the Home" and meets Maggie "cruising up and down" the square. In one version of the lyrics she is wearing a "crin-o-line", the bell-shaped dress worn by the woman in the foreground.[1]

"Maggie May" (or "Maggie Mae") (Roud No. 1757) is a traditional Liverpool folk song about a prostitute who robbed a "homeward bounder": a sailor coming home from a round trip.

John Manifold, in his Penguin Australian Song Book, described it as "A foc'sle song of Liverpool origin apparently, but immensely popular among seamen all over the world".[2] It became widely circulated in a skiffle version from the late 1950s.

In 1964, the composer and lyricist Lionel Bart (the creator of the musical Oliver!), used the song and its backstory as the basis of a musical set around the Liverpool Docks. The show, also called Maggie May, ran for two years in London. In 1970, a truncated version of the song performed by the Beatles was included on their album Let It Be.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference hug was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Australian Folk Songs | Maggie May". folkstream.com.