Representations of highwaymen in popular culture
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Poet Alfred Noyes made a highwayman the subject of one of his best-known poems, "The Highwayman", which Phil Ochs and later, Loreena McKennitt each molded into a song. Famous traditional songs about highwaymen include the 1840s broadsheet ballad "Whiskey in the Jar" covered by the band Metallica, the traditional song "Sovay", and other lesser known titles such as "Bold Nevison", "Gilderoy" [1], "MacPherson's Lament" [2], "Newlyn Town" and "Brennan on the Moor" [3]. The popular expression "higher than Gilderoy's kite", which is to say something is killed off in the most public way as at one time the worst criminals would be hung higher than the rest for public notice. This is derived from the lines in the ballad:
| “ | "Of Gilderoy sae fraid they were
They bound him mickle strong, Till Edenburrow they led him thair And on a gallows hong; They hong him high abone the rest, |
” |
The fictitious MacHeath (also known as 'Mack the Knife') appeared originally in The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, but is now more famous through The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, a reworking of Gay's earlier play.
Dick Turpin has been a popular figure for books and films. William Harrison Ainsworth 1834 novel Rookwood was based on the life of Dick Turpin; the 1979 film Carry On Dick starred Sid James as Turpin, and Richard O'Sullivan starred in TV series about the adventures of Turpin from 1979 into the 1980s.
Although not all highwaymen commanded their victims to "stand and deliver", or demanded "Your money or your life!", they are often popularly associated with these famous phrases. 1980s British pop group Adam and the Ants, whose "new romantic" style of dress drew on the styles of flamboyant 18th century highwaymen (among other influences), had a hit song called "Stand and Deliver".
Dennis Moore, a character from a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, does use "stand and deliver" though at first he only steals lupins.
In the Blackadder The Third episode Amy and Amiability, Blackadder becomes a highwayman in order to raise money at the suggestion of Baldrick, who idolises "The Shadow", a famed highwayman of the time.
There have been at least two prominent musical groups called "The Highwaymen": * a 1960s collegiate folk band and a 1985-2002 country music supergroup.
