Comments on: Dream of Napoleon

By: Diana

Diana — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 13:25:58 +0000

@Reinhard: Have you ever listened to Steve Knightley and Show of Hands? You might find you like them.

By: Diana

Diana — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:02:13 +0000

Liked this one – interesting words and a pleasant tune. Well sung.

By: Jane Ramsden

Jane Ramsden — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:19:21 +0000

PS If you click on Songs, Tunes & Videos at the top of Gavin Atkins’ weblog page, you will find other songs and singers of mainly sea-type songs. I’ve sampled Gavin Davenport’s ‘British Man of War’ – excellent! – & Gavin A’s early Aug 2011 post of John Connolly’s ‘Fiddler’s Green’, which Jon sings somewhere on here! Gavin’s blog looks good, esp if you like boats!

By: Jane Ramsden

Jane Ramsden — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:03:38 +0000

I found this rather lovely Eliza Carthy/Ratcatchers’ version on YouTube, Wath Folk Festival 2007:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKi96rV2DOM

But also a very nice unaccompanied & clearly-sung version here by one Gavin Atkins. Scroll down a bit and you’ll find it under the song’s lyrics:

http://intheboatshed.net/2008/12/08/a-dream-of-napoleon/

Apparantly, Richard Thompson recorded it on ‘The Songs Pour Down Like Silver’ (2006) which is Part 4 of the 5 CD/Book/Boxed Set entitled “RT” & not to be confused with ‘Pour Down Like Silver’ ‘cos it ain’t on that album!

By: Terry McDonald

Terry McDonald — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:30:51 +0000

August 15th – Napoleon’s birthday. Clever!

By: Tony Toole

Tony Toole — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:01:32 +0000

Steve Turner is neither forgotten nor under-rated down here on Gower! He appeared at the Gower Folk Festival last year to great acclaim (as has Jon) and is coming to the Halfpenny Folk Club on 24th October – we’re all looking forward to that.

Very much enjoying following your project Jon. Napoleon’s Dream is one of my favourites (got it from an old Topic recording which has a spoken interjection of ‘old England’ in the line ‘from the land of thy sires where they boast they are free’).

By: Christopher John Bridgman

Christopher John Bridgman — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:34:15 +0000

Re: Dave R’s comment, Steve Turner is a massively under-rated and forgotten club singer who made three LPs for Fellside and also a cassette that I can’t track down. Bonaparte’s Retreat is also known as The Warlike Lads of Russia. I learned it with a few variations from Nic Jones and it became a favourite of The Sealed Knot back in the 1970s when I was parson of Sir Marmaduke Rawdon’s Regiment (for the King but not too Papist!)

Jon, do you know another song from Steve Turner’s repertoire called The Keepers and the Drivers? It’s a great chorus song about a high Victorian hunting party and the shenanegans they get up to in the pub afterwards.

By: Jo Breeze

Jo Breeze — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:43:41 +0000

More about Dream of Napoleon from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

There are 59 records of Dream of Napoleon in the Library.

http://tinyurl.com/dreamnapoleon1

We used the Roud number to cross reference against different titles for the song. When searched on Roud No. 1538, this rises to 78 records. It was notably sung by Sam Larner from Norfolk, and is also known as ‘One Night Sad and Lonely’ or ‘Napoleon’s Dream’.

http://tinyurl.com/dreamnapoleon2

If you wish to see more detail on each record, change the ‘output’ to ‘record’ and press ‘submit query’.

There are no records of the song in the Take 6 archives.

We use the Roud index and the Take 6 online collections in the search for information on Jon’s selections.

For more information, or to carry out your own search for songs, please visit http://www.efdss.org/front/access-the-library-online/access-the-library-online/115

If you need any help accessing the library online or have any questions, please contact the VWML on 020 7485 2206 or library@efdss.org.

By: Matthew Edwards

Matthew Edwards — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:11:48 +0000

Actually Matt, Gordon Hall did record ‘The Dream of Napoleon’; its on a posthumously issued CD ‘Good Things Enough’. It is in Gordon’s inimitable style, and well worth the effort of listening to. I think the CD is still available from Veteran, or Musical Traditions. and there is also a good review by Rod Stradling at the Musical Traditions website.

I guess Gordon had a thing about Napoleonic ballads; the CD includes a 12′33″ version of ‘The Plains of Waterloo’ – not much shorter than the original battle itself!

Matthew Edwards

By: Matt Quinn

Matt Quinn — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 21:32:28 +0000

Ignore my post above about the song called ‘The Grand Conversation on Napoleon’.

Different song entirely.

Apologies.