Bob Dylan Triumphed over Blackjack Davey - at the Performing Arts Center in Saratoga, NY , 9/4/1993

Singled out by many listeners as probably the finest jewel from Dylan's performance at SPAC in Saratoga, NY, in 1993, Blackjack Davey is an traditional ballad that has worn many other names during its long history of at least three centuries. Known variously as "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy," "The Gypsy Laddie," "Black Jack David" or "Davy," and "Seven Yellow Gypsies," the song was later sung and copyrighted by Woody Guthrie as "Gypsy Davy." That name of the song's protagonist pops up in Dylan's "Tombstone Blues," the second track on his stellar 1965 album "Highway 61 Revisited: "Gypsy Davy with a blowtorch, he burns out their camps With his faithful slave Pedro, behind him he tramps With a fantastic collection of stamps to win friends and influence his uncle." The reference is not a bad fit for the character and his role in the traditional ballad. Among the most popular titles from the Child Ballads collection of 305 traditional English and Scottish songs, anthologized and published by Francis James Child in the latter 1800s, "Blackjack Davey's" roots can be traced back to a number of older tunes which almost certainly preceded the first printed version circa 1720. That's when it was published in a collection called the Roxburghe Ballads as 'The Gypsy Loddy." It tells the same basic story as another song titled "The Gypsy Johnny Faa" which appeared in a 1740 volume of traditional lyrics, "Tea-Table Miscellany" by Allan Ramsay. Like so many of the old ballads, the details may derive from an actual occurrence. Author Nick Tosches, in his book "Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'N' Roll," claims the song retells the story of John Faa, a 17th century Scottish Gypsy outlaw who charmed noblewoman Lady Jane Hamilton into running off with him and his band of gypsies. Her husband, identified in local Scottish lore as John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassilis, led his own band of men to abduct and bring her home. But the nobleman and his posse were caught and hanged for the attempt; all the gypsies were killed except for one who escaped; and Lady Jane Hamilton paid for her perfidy with imprisonment until her death in 1642. Dylan's studio version of the song as "Blackjack Davey" (vs. the usual form of the title as "Black Jack Davy") appears in his 1992 album of traditional covers, Good as I Been to You.