A Folk Song A Day

Jon attributes his source as “From Silly Sisters,” also confessing that it’s “Sung with great enthusiasm around staff camp fires on Forest School Camps.”

That Silly Sisters album again, which I can happily say I now own, having found a very nice vinyl copy in Bristol for a reasonable price. I haven’t had the chance to play it yet, hardly having been at home since, but I took your collective recommendation and look forward to getting to grips with it this coming weekend with a bit of luck. I guess the song needs no explanation and Martin Carthy, Bert Lloyd and Lou Killen have all had a crack at this as well as Maddy and June and you can catch up with several of those at Mainly Norfolk. You can also start a dabble at Mudcat over here. I note that the link claiming a version dated 1638 is sadly broken although there seems to be an C18th version available in the Bodleian.

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Jon calls this a “Nice simple little courtship song this. I feel like they were probably courting before the song starts rather than a chance meeting – so similar to Brigg Fair in feel. Often used as example of the 5:4 meter in traditional song, although that doesn’t come across here.”

I can only agree with the above. There is certainly no controversy or issue to deal with here as the song is as straightforward as they come. Although having said that, you wonder at why he had to ask her what she was doing as if she’s his true love surely he’d know. Anyway it’s perhaps churlish to poke holes at a lovely little song. Mainly Norfolk covers the various recordings of this, including Tony Rose, Shirley Collins, Peter Bellamy and June Tabor. There isn’t much more to add save that it was collected by Cecil Sharp. If you search this on Mudcat it brings up lots of discussion about definitive folk songs, people’s Top 10 lists and so forth, which suggests it’s a popular one.

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Jon simply attributes this as “From Planxty. It has a beautiful melody, and there’s something about the story that rings true.”

On first glance this seems a straightforward case of a woman passed over for another with more wealth and Planxty’s notes at Mainly Norfolk associate this with the famine. That may be true, but there’s no mention either direct or indirect and there’s the slightly curious verse at the end too, which has either floated in from elsewhere, or suggests something else is going on. I came upon a Mudcat post or two confirming that with a lack of a clear reference, the famine idea seems misplaced. Also there is another song of the same title that seems to directly involve a soldier, but then that one has the more common taking advantage with no chance of marriage plotline and doesn’t share the verse. Then there was also this…

“I suspect that the singer will be glad when all soldiers return to Eire and are united with their wives. This will then relieve the singer of the burden of having had to marry “the lassie who has the land”. I read somwhere an explanation by Andy Irvine, that in Napoleonic times in Eire, it was a custom that single, young and fit men should “marry” the wives of absent soldiers, and thus ensure that the land the soldiers were leaving for the battlefield, was not allowed to fall into disrepair for lack of an able bodied male.”

That’s something else that I hadn’t come across, although it seems a little far-fetched to me and doesn’t tally with the rest of the song that definitely suggests that the lad has had his head turned and is already regretting it. If the above scenario were the case, then I would think it also common practice in England and so forth. It may be a simple lack of knowledge on my part again, but if anyone knows more please chip in. It’s another very lovely, if somewhat sad little song and a great tune.

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Jon has taken this one “From Peter Bellamy although I heard the June Tabor / Martin Simpson first, both version are fabulous. Also heard Carthy sing it recently, also brilliant, and he made the pertinent point that there aren’t many courtship ballads where the girl, having accepted the boy’s advances, then says ‘right, that’s me, best be off’.”

A nice notion that one. I’ll refer you straight to Mainly Norfolk on this one, but with an almost immediate diversion to Mudcat as well. With the latter, scroll down to Malcolm Douglas’ entry, which has some interesting links off. You’ll see from that that Eddie Butcher’s notes with Robert Burns attribution  is unlikely. There are probable fragments or lines imported from elsewhere and the suggestion of songs with similar plotlines out there. Still, whether Scottish or Irish this is a lovely song and another highlight of a cracking month.

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Jon attributes this as “From Anne Briggs, whose version is so sublime nobody else has bothered trying to record it. A great song to sing. On the odd occasion when I feel the need to do a warm up (I don’t normally  hold with ‘em really) I generally end up singing this through as an ornaments exercise apart from anything else.”

We’re at the opposite end of life’s cycle today. You’ll see that actually both Shirley Collins and Maddy Prior with Steeleye have recorded this as well and find the notes to Anne’s version at Mainly Norfolk, where Bert Lloyd suggests that this one bypassed the collectors, presumably on moral grounds. Whilst children born outside wedlock are certainly no big deal in today’s society with almost 50% in the UK (more for first children) being so, it was certainly frowned upon comparatively recently. I wonder indeed whether it may have upset the collectors more than the protagonists in the song, although the father of the young lady clearly isn’t best pleased.  I’m speculating and in need of another history lesson probably, but I’m wondering how common illegitimate children were in the days before effective contraception. I don’t suppose people were ever likely to be less inclined to have sex and there seem so many songs about the taking of or protecting of maiden status. But then there are the obvious issues of another mouth to feed and also the wedding prospects for the young lass, although unless inheritance and title is involved I am curious as to whether it was actually a big deal. It certainly became one in the C19th and C20th and I suppose there are tales of the poor wretched mothers cast out into the cold, but those seem to have a Victorian moralizing element to them. I guess what I’m asking is whether there’s a class element to such tales, or even a rural/urban dynamic? In most respects the issue is simply economics and it’s single parents and their ability to provide/burden on the state that are the headline issues today. Anyway it’s a fine song and could equally take us off into the realms of women’s fashion and the pocket stowed beneath the dress or apron to hold valuables and such like.

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