A Folk Song A Day

Now this stirred me into life on a weary, frosty morn and Jon says, “Heard this first from the brilliant Folly Bridge (I think still available on Wild Goose). Fay then came across it again whilst researching the Huddleston collection.” I’ll have to ask Jon for clarification on Folly Bridge as I can’t find anything to help me nail that. It is of course on Fay’s excellent Looking Glass and I’ve recently posted her response to being nominated in The Folk Awards Horizon category here. Mudcat has a thread here, although the originator’s appeal for the meaning of this seems to have been ignored. I can’t think that’s particularly surprising, however, as this jolly little ditty seems utterly nonsensical to me. If you know differently please enlighten us. I can’t help but feel that with the Blacksmith in the ale house, the landlord getting drunk and the ladies being shown the hounds by the light of the moon that this is a bawdy little number, but that makes the shepherd a bit of an enigma. Still whatever it’s about, it’s good to hear Jon and Fay together on this – a  nice flourish at the end too.

This of course found its way, with a typically playful and funky arrangement onto Burlesque and Jon says, “One of a number of shanties where the influence of African song is very evident.” Burlesque suggests a “fierce debate rages over whether this is a hauling shanty or a cotton screwing shanty.” Mainly Norfolk picks up that notion and it’s interesting to the see the job of cotton screwing described as, “one of the hardest shipboard tasks,” which would have been performed by a land based crew of stevedores. The song may very well have origins around the Southern USA or with the reference to Hilo, the South American seaboard. But you’ll note that this version is akin to The Young Tradition’s recording, which by their own admission added some floating verses. The origins of Marengo or Maringo and its place in this song are less clear, although if you follow down this Mudcat thread you’ll find reference to towns in America, at least one of which was in Alabama and therefore quite possibly at the heart of cotton farming. The town was named after the Battle Of Marengo and apparently settled by French veterans, which might finally make sense of this rather odd title. The battle itself was a land battle fought by Napoleon in Italy, whith no naval action at all, so it’s unlikely to have made a direct leap aboard ship. The battle ended with an Austrian force being defeated, ending that country’s influence in Italy and substantially boosting the French Emporer’s standing. He even named a horse, later captured at Waterloo, after the action and did much else to commemorate the victory, with much post victory spinning. If that’s tweaked your curiosity, you can Wiki here. Of the song, it seems likely Royston Wood rather than Bellamy  is the originator of this version.

Jon admits, “I finally got around to learning this properly for the Nic Jones gig at Sidmouth. It was pretty scary performing this (on guitar) with Nic Jones sitting behind me and Martin Simpson to my left. I think I just about got away with it though. I have a real soft spot for songs about Napoleon.” If you missed said gig or know nothing of it, remarkably it made the main news section of The Guardian and you can link to that story here. I also found this Mudcat thread rewarding and it seems to suggest Nic at least wrote the tune for this and possibly built up the words from a fragment. He certainly seems to be the accredited source for all subsequent versions. Another little diversion can be taken, as the thread indicates Jones’ first recording was made for an album given away to subscribers of a magazine that seems to have been called Folk Review (rather than Folk Routes as the thread suggests.) You’ll see more about that recording with a link through to information about the LP on Mainly Norfolk. Folk feview was, however, was the magazine that Ian A. Anderson eventually took over and re-launched as Southern Rag, which then became Folk Roots and is now of course fRoots. That magazine was originally edited by Fred woods and the album featuring Nic’s recording was compiled by him, you can read his obituary here. There’s also some stuff on the fRoots website about the publishing history wrapped up with Ian’s musical story, which also makes interesting reading. I’d also agree that there are some cracking Napoleonic songs and this is certainly one of them.

This is from what became Melody Maker’s Folk Album Of The Year in 1977 and Jon says, “From The Transports by Peter Bellamy, sung originally by Nic Jones in what is, for me, his finest vocal performance on record. Bellamy wrote all of the songs with particular singers in mind and, in most cases, this led to some pretty remarkable vocal performances.” Bellamy’s ballad opera has since been further lauded as a high water mark of the folk revival and is based on a true story, researched by Norfolk Historian Eric Fowler. If the notes I’ve read are to be believed (despite Peter changing his story) the whole thing was written in four days. He undoubtedly wrote with specific singers in mind, something that proved a logistical nightmare to produce at the time and a significant risk for Neil Wayne and his independent Free Reed label. Many others had already turned it down as commercially unviable. I will have to investigate this properly as this is one of my favourite songs so far and having just put my hands on a copy of the Silver Edition two CD box set of The Transports, I’m rather excited by it, especially the detailed book that comes with it. I’ll chalk this up as another eye-opener from Jon. As with anything Bellamy related the first point of reference is Mainly Norfolk where you’ll find some fine detail of the various recorded versions and more. You may also like to have a look at this for some more insight.

Having stirred things a little over the past couple of days, I’ll leave this to Jon who simply says, “Today is the start of the Sheffield carol season. This is our favourite.” You may also like to have a look here for more about the local tradition..