A Folk Song A Day

Jon picked this up from Tim Healy of The Oxford Waits and says, “Tim performs the original C17th version of this with a skull mask over his face: pretty scary stuff. I used to have to play the recorder solo which was also pretty scary…” You’ll find a version on Spiers & Bodens Songs CD, where the notes refer to Jon having “doctored the lyrics drastically,” and the source being the Oxford University Broadside Collection. The alternate title is Shaking Of The Sheets and Mudcat suggests it’s somewhat older being C16th and is referred to in a play of around 1560. There are quite a few additional verses and the lyrics are, as suggested above, very different from the version Jon gives us here. Mainly Norfolk also covers Steeleye’s version.

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Jon again points to the Forest School camps and particularly to Daniel Jacks  for his source of this with the revelation, “I think this is the only song I have genuinely learnt ‘orally’ – Daniel and I were re-turfing a fire pit on a Welsh camp (I must have been 16 or so) and he taught me it verse by verse. Haven’t seen Daniel for a very long time but he’s a fantastically rich and laid back singer. Simon Emmerson (Afro Celts) made a few recordings of him for FSC – not sure if they’re available anywhere still.” This one is definitely a shanty and seems to have had any number of verses in varying order. I’m indebted to Reinhard at Mainly Norfolk for his research on this and the sleeve notes quoted suggest that verses could well have been improvised at the end of a voyage to suit the circumstances and air the particular grievances of the crew. I also like the suggestion that it was saved up as the last song, as singing it before the ship was all but home was tantamount to mutiny. It suggests many a salty version with no punches pulled and this link is also worthy, suggesting many unprintable verses. I couldn’t find anything more illuminating on Mudcat, so please add to this if you can.

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Of course we’re in Bellowhead territory here and Jon says, “I heard this on a Frankie Armstrong Fellside CD and couldn’t quite believe my luck – surely everyone must have had ago at it? Steeleye? Jim Moray? Eliza? But no it’s just Frankie and Bellowhead (and now me I s’pose.) Roy Palmer put the verses together and he and Frankie were both tremendously gracious about Bellowhead having a crack at it.” You’ll find Frankie’s take on Lovely On The Water and her notes offer…

“This curious and rare song with its rollicking and defiant humour, was used to make political and social comment and a variety of jokes. This version seems to date from the 1850s or early 60s, because of its reference to the campaigns against slavery in America, which were going on at that time. The text comes from a broadside and the tune sung “by an old labourer now dead,” collected by Baring-Gould in Holcombe Burnell, North Devon.”

You can read more including Bellowhead’s notes on Mainly Norfolk. I’ll say no more except that I always enjoy this as part of Bellowhead’s live set and feel privileged for getting a bit more up close and personal with it.

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Jon says,“Dave Webber introduced me to the song via a cassette from Winchester library many years ago. I put the verses together from a few versions, but mainly from Songs The Whalemen Sang. It has one of the mightiest choruses around.”  I was going too call this a stirring shanty, but it’s more accurately described as a fo’c’s’le (forecastle) song as it was sung for pleasure rather than work. This Wiki link will give you the details and even mentions this song in the definition.  A.L. Lloyd recorded a version on the Leviathan album (CD currently unavailable) and you can read about that at Mainly Norfolk here. I’ve also turned up a version by Jolly Jack, a Lancastrian trio led by the late Dave Weatherall, available on the Rolling Down To Old Maui CD on Fellside. Interestingly the notes in the booklet collated and amended by Paul Adams are very specific.

“Our title track comes from Songs The Whalemen Sung by New Englander Gale Huntington. Many young men working on the American whaling ships kept personal journals in which the recorded the voyage, made sketches, notes and copied their favourite songs. The words of this song were taken from such a journal made aboard the Atkins Adams in 1858. The noble tune [pretty much as Jon sings it] is from Chantying Aboard American Ships by F.P. Harlow. Maui is one of the Hawaiian Islands and was a meeting place for whalers… something to look forward to between trips. A ‘homeward bound’ feeling prevails after the arctic hunting season but it was likely that they were merely calling at Maui for ‘fitting out’ for the further half year in the southern oceans.”

I’m grateful to Paul and whoever uncovered that gem. I’ll add there’s some rather good Mudcatage here and you’ll note lyrical variations, more recordings and some thoughts on the tune(s).

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Now here’s a tune to put spring in your step and Jon says, “Mike Waterson’s greatest hit? Probably as far as social singing goes it is. You can’t beat the Watersons’ harmonies either – many have tried and all have failed.” You’ll find their version on the For Pence And Spicy Ale CD and again I concur with Jon, the harmonies are immaculate. A.L. Lloyds notes that the song predates the 18^th C agricultural revolution, which makes sense as it’s such and open hearted celebration. The word laylum or laylan would seem likely to be a regional corruption of lay land as in fallow land. The idea that the birds are undisturbed and therefore happy and busy singing on it makes sense, to me at least. This link will take you straight to the Mainly Norfolk page for the song and you can follow a Mudcat thread from there, although I don’t think it offers any special illumination. I’m going to have to commit this one to memory for my rambling, although probably best (in my case) as an internal tape loop, lest I be accused of disturbing the peace.  Any additional details of history and provenance will be appreciated here.

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