As Jon says,“The King in question being the wren I believe, it’s one I learnt from Martin Carthy.” Timely indeed and fitting the wren boy tradition for today. It’s a most curious custom and one that I’ve read up on for my Advent Calendar project. I think it comes down to the fact that the wren is still active and singing in winter, like the hare in its thick seasonal fur and the evergreen holy, ivy and so forth it therefore gained a significance. Mainly Norfolk has some sleeve notes that take the line of kingly sacrifice. I note the suggestion of a substitute for the real monarch, but would love to know more about this and any reliable source of or evidence for the idea. As has been pointed out on this site already ideas of pagan ritual may well be more recent invention than genuine history. But then there’s the whole dressing up in straw disguises that all suggests something truly arcane. Still as Reinhard’s site makes clear the custom is where Steeleye derived their Please To See The King album title from. Perhaps the historians can enlighten us a little more, while I sincerely hope that any wren boys still out there are content with a symbolic bird. I’ve always liked the busy little chaps flitting around the bushes and think they are best left that way.
You can buy the December digital album now from all good download stores.
Archive for December, 2014
The King
12.26
On Christmas Day
12.25
In the words of Sir Nodrick Holder of Wulverrampton… “IT’S CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!”
Jon says, “I’m bringing a bit of fire and brimstone gravitas to proceedings… Happy Christmas by the way. No ploughing though you lot, OK?”
I say… Seasons greetings, whoever or whatever you believe in. Special wishes to our regular contributors who have helped fill in the first half of the story. Special wishes to Jon (and family and colleagues too), for great entertainment, inspiration, teaching and the gift of song. A thought spared for those for whom the wassail bowl is empty and a harsh rebuke for the knaves that make it so. But as we know, it’s the season to feast and I have slain the mighty nut to prepare for my family. I have an ambitious menu to cook, but will log in just to make sure you’re all enjoying yourselves. Finally, as we know, it’s not actually Jesus’ birthday today, so I’d like to wish Happy Birthday to Alastair Cook, who will hopefully still be tonking the kookaburra round Australia with élan, and to redress the balance Darran, a hale and hearty Australian fellow I work with. Cheers!
You can buy the December digital album now from all good download stores.
Shepherds Arise
12.24
Jon says, “This is maybe my favourite ‘folk carol’. I first learnt this from Coope, Boyes and Simpson so that myself, John Spiers and Benji Kirkpatrick could perform it at a private architects’ office party.” That sounds like a cue for a Monty Python sketch, but here we are on the eve of Christmas. Hopefully you’re all set for a good day, shopping done, food preparations started, an early finish, perhaps a tipple of something tasty on the way home, presents wrapped, a warm glow on the home front and so on. What can go wrong?
You can buy the December digital album now from all good download stores.
First Noel
12.23
What was it I was saying yesterday? Another tune to throw me completely, but I’ve realised how much I enjoy the chorus vocals. It’s good hearty communal singing that sounds thoroughly enjoyable and makes me wonder whether there’s a group near me. If I can stand close enough to someone I can copy, who knows what might happen? Mind you, the local choirs have been in the Whitgift shopping-centre. First there were men of a certain age in matching blazers and slacks: then the woman in Santa hats doing the actions, on cue, to Oops I Did It Again. For the want of an Uzi, a massacre was avoided. Instead I ran pell-mell for the shelter of M&S, only to find myself confronted by a store so chock full of seasonal gubbins that I emerged empty handed, dazed and confused. Anyway I digress… Jon says of this one, “Definitely an improvement on the original melody. Again devised by the genius collective mind of BACCApella (the tune is Young Banker.)”
You can buy the December digital album now from all good download stores.
Rudolph The Rednosed Reindeer
12.22
The surprises keep coming. Just when I was getting ready for the familiar, cheesy jolly-along, this! As Jon explains, “Possibly the finest example of ‘one song to the tune of another’ ever devised – credit must go to BACCApella (from Bacca Pipes Folk Club). Fay has sung with them for many years and I have started tagging along more recently.” Rudolph given an almost baroque, round setting to the tune Northfield from The Sacred Harp. Interestingly the Keighley Folk Club as was, was re-christened The Famous Bacca Pipes Folk Club (on account of its crossed church warden’s logo by, ‘a designer who could sing a bit called Peter Bellamy.’ You can link to the club’s history here. And as I say, the surprises keep coming.
You can buy the December digital album now from all good download stores.