The Unfortunate Rake

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

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. There are also several tunes named "The Unfortunate Rake".

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