The Whipping Song
(Freeborn John; Freeborn John Live; Freeborn John Box Set)

Voice - Will O' The People - The Executioner (Phil Johnstone)

I stripped his back at the prison gates
And there this journey starts.
As the sun beat down on the bloody ground
I tied him to the cart
As the sun it burned and the cartwheel it turned
And the people lined the way,
More welcome be his Cross of Christ
Than the Devil's dirty pay.

Chorus:
And I whipped him from Fleet Prison
Down through Temple Bar
Up the Strand past Charing Cross
To new Palace Yard.
A Free-born Englishman, a free-born Son,
I whipped him while the crowd sang
"Free-born John".

I heard he would not take the oath,
'Til first he'd been accused
He spoke out against the Church, the Courts
And the abuse.
At the Kings Gate some asked of me
What he had done wrong?
No crime said I
But he claims the rights of a Free-born John.

Five hundred blows, fifteen hundred stripes,
Wounds the size of tobacco pipes
And dust in his eyes.
I stood him in the pillory
And gagged him, 'til he bled,
He threw pamphlets to a waiting crowd,
And I believe a nation read.

Elizabeth's Great Gallop
(Freeborn John; Freeborn John Live; Freeborn John Box Set; Red Sky Coven Volumes 1 & 2)

Voice duet - Drunken Cavalier (Simon Friend) + Elizabeth Lilburne (Maddy Prior)

Hey! Now my sweetest bess,
For why do you ride so fast?
Stop awhile with a Cavalier,
Come sit upon the grass.
For it's been awhile, it's been awhile,
it's been awhile and Oh!
Come sit awhile with a Cavalier
And we'll watch the evening go.

I am sorry sir, no time have I
No time have I to fail,
My husband sits on point of death
Down at Oxford Jail
For it's been awhile, it's been awhile,
it's been awhile and Oh!
My husband is in Oxford Jail
And away to him I go.

But Bonny Bess no more no less
No dishonour did I think,
Stop awhile with a Cavalier
Come and have a drink.
For it's been awhile, it's been awhile,
it's been awhile and Oh!
Come sit awhile with a Cavalier
We'll take it nice and slow.

I am sorry sir, but I must ride,
My husband dies at morn'.
And here inside is our child
Waiting to be born.
For it's been awhile, it's been awhile,
it's been awhile and Oh!
My husband is in Oxford Jail
And away to him I go.

And tell me bess what sort of man
Could make you ride so fast,
As only a man in prison chains
Could let such beauty pass.
For it's been awhile, it's been awhile,
it's been awhile and Oh!
Come sit awhile with a Cavalier
My tenderness I'll show.

I bid thee sir to let me pass
I ride to Free-born John,
I ride to speak unto the king
For the father of my son.

For it's been awhile, it's been awhile,
it's been awhile and Oh!
My husband is in Oxford Jail
And away to him I go.

Oh! ride away go see your dog,
A rotting in his cell,
I'll see you in heaven lass,
When you leave him dead in hell.
For it's been awhile, it's been awhile,
it's been awhile and Oh!
I'll lay you down in clovergrass
When you're back along this road.

Ah! sir I will return,
Back along this road
And lay you down in clovergrass
My tenderness I'll show.
For it's been awhile, it's been awhile,
it's been awhile and Oh!
Since I cut the throat of a Cavalier
We'll take it nice and slow.

England's New Chains
(Freeborn John; Freeborn John Live; Freeborn John Box Set; Red Sky Coven Volumes 1 & 2; This is Modern Folk; Cooking Vinyl Sampler 7)

Voice - John Lilburne (Rev Hammer)

They call me the upstart monstrous lawyer
A mere legend of lies,
And I can pretend it was worth the war
If I cover up my eyes
And I walk in blindness, 'cross the stones
And down to Traitors Gate.
Here we go again, it's still the same
ENGLAND'S NEW CHAINS

I've been the willing soldier
And I've fought the bloody years
And I can pretend it was worth the war
If I cover up my ears
And I walk in silence, 'cross the stones
And down to Traitors Gate.
Here we go again, it's still the same
ENGLAND'S NEW CHAINS

Only time will tell who survives the fire
Only time will tell why we've been fighting all this while

I am the Free-born Englishman
I am any mother's son
I can pretend it was worth the war
If I cut out my tongue
And I walk in silence, 'cross the stones
And down to Traitors Gate.
Here we go again, it's still the same
ENGLAND'S NEW CHAINS

...and we are held faster than before!

Bonny Besses
(Freeborn John; Freeborn John Live; Freeborn John Box Set; Cooking Vinyl Sampler 6; This is Modern Folk)

Voice - Mary Overton (Eddi Reader); Chorus - The Women of the City of London (Romney Getty is Mary Overton on the Live CD + DVD; there the Bonny Besses are Jube Walker, Jordan Whyte, Jo Dereza, Charlotte Bennett with Jane Anderson, Kirstie Newton and Jane Deady)

So at five in the morning with William Walwyn,
They dragged Honest John to the Tower.
With Thomas Prince and Richard Overton
They dragged Honest John to the Tower.

Once more high treason was the given reason,
When they dragged Honest John to the Tower.
And the women of the city rose up in disgust and pity
When they dragged Honest John to the Tower.
And the street threw up this bloody cry...

Chorus:
We are the Bonny Besses in the sea-green dresses,
And we spit on your abuse of this power.
And we say "Free Honest John from the Tower".

And Parliament said, "Women go tidy your beds!"
When they dragged Honest John to the Tower.
And Parliament said, "Some things are above Women's heads!"
When they dragged Honest John to the Tower.
And the street threw up this bloody cry...

Chorus

Forty Thousand names wanted to break those chains,
Of our four friends there in the Tower.
Forty Thousand names wanted to break those chains
When they dragged Honest John to the Tower.
And the street threw up this bloody cry...

Chorus

Speech # 2
(Freeborn John; Freeborn John Live; Freeborn John Box Set)

Voice - Oliver Cromwell (Harry S. Fulcher)

The Kingdom can not be settled so long as Lilburne is alive!

Exile
(Freeborn John; Freeborn John Live; Freeborn John Box Set)

Voice - John Lilburne (Rev Hammer)

If you're going across the sea,
To dear old London Town
Kiss the lips of my true love
They're soft as eiderdown.

Tell her if I was a thief
It's time with her I'd steal
And walk with her where once we walked
In love 'cross Finsbury Field.

I'm exiled here in Flanders now
Where it's flat as flat can be.
While she has no way to feed our kids
Away across the sea.

So if you're going overseas
To dear old London Town
Find the man that exiled me
And beat him to the ground.

Rumour and Rapture
(Justin Sullivan)
(Freeborn John Live; Freeborn John Box Set)
(Tabs)

Voice - Nehemiah Wharton - Parliament Soldier (Justin Sullivan)

We waited in our summer camps, we waited all summer long
To be paid for the bloody work we had done
I fought with General Ireton, I fought with Freeborn John
The best of men in the worst of times
I have honours to my name, I have served my God
And not that fool of a king
But when I close my eyes to dream I see pikes against the sky
I hear dying men and horses scream
And no one tells us what is happening
No one seems to know what's happening

Through those November rains, we were on the march again
To Putney with our elected men
And in the Church the leaders talked
And outside we stamped our feet against the cold and dared to hope
News from home comes slow and it is never good
The harvest poor and too few to gather
We were sent to hang two men caught stealing food
By a frozen river
And no one ever tells us what is happening
No one seems to know what's happening

They say in London town the streets are alive with talk
The Assembly of Saints to be taken down
I say let them rot in Hell - it will be God's will
To see a land that is free
Everywhere there are prophets
Everywhere there are words
All rumours and rapture
But I just long to go home, turn my face into the sun
And know Jerusalem
And no one ever tells us what is happening
No one seems to know what's happening

Seventeen Years of Sorrow
(Freeborn John; Freeborn John Live; Freeborn John Box Set; This is Folk; Folk Heartbeat II; English Folk Collection)

Voice - Elizabeth Lilburne (Maddy Prior)

Chorus:
Seventeen years of sorrow pierce my heart
Seventeen years of sorrow pierce my heart
My one regret is for the time we spent apart.
Seventeen years of sorrow pierce my heart

You said you neither love a slave nor fear a tyrant,
While all these days you've been more a slave than most.
Chained by your own ideas of Freedom.
'Til you left the ones you love the most.

You are even now as a candle
Burning out your heart to light the way.
But as you did what needed to be done
You let seventeen years of sorrow pierce my heart.

Chorus

Lilburne's Death Song
(Freeborn John; Freeborn John Live; Freeborn John Box Set)

Voice - John Lilburne (Rev Hammer)

Been in Tower, been in Newgate,
Been in Fleet, been in exile,
Been in love with you daily,
Been impatient for change.

Again and again I've been
The one to do the leaving
But now I'm asking of you Lizzy
Don't be leaving me tonight.

Where freedom's flower sat high above
Now crushed beneath the iron glove
Where fire raged within me
Sits the dying of the light.

And as time and success have changed
The honest shape of many man
My time has come for Liberty
From the last of my jails.

Chorus:
Is it the rattle of chains I hear
Or the old death rattle?
Will we fall away together
As I slip away tonight?