A Folk Song A Day

Jon says, “The first Waterson:Carthy album is, in my view, one of the great folk records of all time. Hearing the combination of Eliza and Nancy Kerr’s fiddles with the massed Waterson vocals was a real inspirational moment for me. I’ve since got hold of Mike Waterson’s solo version which is also brilliant. I make no claims for the relative quality of my version here – it’s a pale imitation at best, but it is a great song for the pub.” Right, come on you lot! That’s three part harmony required! I think Eliza relished this on the CD and it’s telling to see how this was cleaned up by the early collectors, as they couldn’t face the thought of a seductress. Amongst the fabulous detailed Waterson’s discography Mainly Norfolk has this one covered. I’ve Mudcatted around, but other than a more racy Trooper And The Maid and a Scottish variant, found little to add, so feel free.

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Jon took this originally from the book Marrowbones first published in 1965 and reprinted by the EFDSS with additional annotation (follow this link.) Jon says, “Here’s another pretty gruesome girlfriend murdering song, more or less the same as The Cruel Knife, but with a bit more graphic violence. It’s pretty horrible really – fun to sing though.” Bellamy, Martin Carthy and John Kirkpatrick are notables who have recorded this and there’s also a version from Harry Cox that you’ll find on The Bonny Labouring Boy CD, which adds to the Norfolk provenance. Mainly Norfolk, appropriately therefore, has a good summary of the various versions and differences in the lyrics and alternate titles. You can read the various sleeve notes too, which make the point that this must be one of the commonest plotlines in folk song. The subtext of unwanted pregnancy is more explicit in some variants, so I guess there’s some cautionary morality to explain the frequency of the story line in an age before successful birth control was common place. Still it’s a rather drastic solution to the problem and a grim outcome all round.

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It’s that time of month again when we ask you to vote for your favourite track of the past month, the winner of which we will then leave up on this site as a representation for August.

We’ve selected the seven most popular songs for you to vote on below (based on page views), however if you think there’s an obvious contender for Top August Song that we’ve missed out then let us know in the comments.

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Bold Sir Rylas (read full post here).

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Nostradamus (read full post here).

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(Now) Westlin Winds (read full post here).

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Greenland Whale Fishery (read full post here).

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Oggie Man (read full post here).

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Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy (read full post here).

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Lord Randal (read full post here).

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I know I’m not giving much away when I say that this is one of 11 cuts to make Hedonism, due with us on October 4^th. Jon once again refers to the Norfolk maestro, “Bellamy’s sublime live album Won’t You Go My Way ended ‘Last one so make the most of it…’ So it seems a good way to end August (is that the end of summer technically btw?)” As to the summer question my vote would be the equinox, although arguably, meteorologically it seemed to finish when the schools broke up as far as most of the UK is concerned. Speaking of schools, as a parent (formerly concerned now mostly immune), I had to include this link for the sheer inappropriateness of it. I hasten to add, the fault probably lies with the researcher for the article rather than the ‘former voice of Madeline the ragdoll from Bagpuss,’ or at least I hope so!! Mainly Norfolk as always has the Bellamy angle covered.  Mudcat is dubious about the age and provenance of this song. Bellamy’s original notes were brief and simply refer to this and Fakenham Fair as “…straight forward good-time songs,” going on to claim they were “…both learned from Peter Bullen from Norwich who had them from his grandfather.” I see no reason to doubt this and the somewhat explicit nature may have put some of the collectors off documenting the song elsewhere, mind you that hasn’t stopped others making it to print. Still, either way, it naturally makes classic Bellowhead material for Jon to draw on here. Finally, I’ll add that trawling to the bottom one of the Mudat threads I found that the town motto of Yarmouth, Maine, is “Our latchstring always out.” The mind boggles! Perhaps you can add to this.

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We’re back to more familiar folk themes and Jon recalls, “This is Dave Burland’s track on Voices (Fellside CD). John and I played this for our first few gigs, but somehow it slipped out of the repertoire. Maybe we’ll have another go at it at some point.” Perhaps we can look forward to that on the next S & B tour, we’ll see. On a side note that Fellside CD has a lot of the songs that feature on this site and you can link directly to a Mainly Norfolk page about it here, linking to see what Reinhard has about (Bold) William Taylor here.  Interestingly the sleeve notes  on Voices refer to the song being “found in the English, Scottish, Irish and American traditions,” and to Burland’s version being collected by Cecil Sharp in Somerset. Another version was collected by Percy Grainger  in 1908 from a Joseph Taylor in Saxby-All Saints in Lincolnshire and Percy was apparently the first collector to use recording equipment. I guess we’re back to the universal theme of infidelity with another dramatic outcome. As such I’m rather taken with the alternative last verse…

If young folks in Wells or London
Were served the same as she served he,
Then young girls would all be undone,
Very scarce young men would be!

Further to that, if you Mudcat here you can also see in some variants she’s actually rewarded for her act with command of a ship!

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