A Folk Song A Day

This is more of a field recording as Jon is joined by brother Tom. Jon introduces it thus, “Tom and I have been singing this for years. This is a nice two-parter, although it does work better if the harmony is below the tune (as in the Hart/Prior version). Tom and I recorded this in our Mum’s garage near Newhaven hence background bird noise, and I persuaded Tom to record another whilst we were at it.” Yes we have another bonus track for you, so as well as Oats And Beans And Barley Grow, you also get (High) Barbaree.

The former is of course a play song, where actions are performed and Tim & Maddy (Jon’s credited source here) recorded it for Folk Songs of Old(e) England. Their sleeve notes (read them here on Mainly Norfolk) make somewhat more of this than I was allowing, suggesting the ritual elements contained in the rhyme. You can read more at Mudcat here or Wiki here. I’m curious about this. As a nursery rhyme it’s probably very old, but I can’t find any reference to date except for Gomme 1898. There’s certainly a lyric with what looks like old style spelling given in this thread. Any thoughts please. Beautifully sung it is though and I think this harmony works very well.

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This I think is a cracker and Jon says, “Bellamy generally opened his gigs with this one. A great song for extending your vocal range – before I learnt it I couldn’t get much above an E, but a managed to push it up to a G through this song.” A barnstorming way to start an evening I’ll warrant. As you’d expect Mainly Norfolk has the Bellamy angle covered, whilst also referring to versions by Roy Harris and Damien Barber. I like the former’s sleeve note,  “This pithy autobiography has everything: press-gang, storm, battle, bloodshed…” I think you can add philandering, Nelson and a nicely humorous twist to the retirement, ending. I’ll also link to this Mudcat thread, which has the bonus of a whole extra verse, not in Bellamy’s or Jon’s versions, but which adds some more fine detail. Should anyone fancy it, here’s  a site of Naval history to get lost in for a while. It’s easy to navigate and  read, covering everything from the press gangs, through on-board life to the Battle Of Trafalgar.

Jon has picked this one up from several sources, noting, “One of those funny words in folk songs  ‘Rigs’. The most sensible (and I guess obvious) suggestion is it relates to ‘rigging’ i.e. the sort of bare skeleton. So The Rigs Of The Time would mean the bare truth of what is going on, whilst The Rigs Of London Town would mean the deep, dark workings of the city that is in some way the real London.” The literal dictionary definition that fits here is ‘To fix fraudulently,’ that must come from he sense of pulling the strings, although there’s also the sense of ‘rigging out’ or to ‘to fit’ usually followed by ‘out’, but in this case with ‘up’, as in ‘stitch up’ as well. Anyway, this fine tune is of course on Bellowhead’s Burlesque and Mainly Norfolk has an excellent page noting other versions, recordings and a couple of updates. The latter of those from Maddy Prior particularly surprised me I must say, as I simply didn’t think that she did that. Still her explanation for doing so is modest and her verses sharp as you like. I was thinking that these are unlikely to be the only rewrites, when I came upon this Wiki page linking it to a Newfoundland song, Hard, Hard Times, although the lyrics given here more share the sentiment than actually follow the original. But..! Then on Mudcat, trying to find the origins (1829 seems earliest) I also found a post linking to this article. This is another where I’ve skimmed rather than read the detail, with the honest intent to return later, but the interest here is on page 8 in the section headed Ballads. The Mudcat thread itself contains some notable additional or different verses. Regrettably, this is one of those songs that will probably, with very good cause, continue to evolve. New times simply get new rigs.

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Jon says, “I learnt to ‘fiddle-sing’ by learning half the arrangements off Be Your Own Man by the lime-light-shunning Barry Dransfield. You can see him performing this one on the Anthony Hopkins / Mel Gibson remake of Mutiny On The Bounty.” This threw me a bit when I heard the concertina start us off. Is it just me or is the concertina a fitting accompaniment to the nautical songs? I’m thinking for its ability to roll the notes like the waves rather than in any old-sea-dog sort of a way. I was also thinking this possibly had somewhat of a Scottish lilt to it and note the earliest version here according to a Mudcat postee. This thread, also on Mudcat is illuminating and the suggestion is that the verses are somewhat prone to float in and out, which sort of made sense to me also. There are certainly a few additions offered and even somebody who seems to be collecting them all. Still, the lurch from sea to meadow and back again didn’t quite make sense to me, much as  I like the images presented. A lovely tune none the less and not surprising to see a Psalm sharing it, as this, for me anyway, also has something of the church about it. With Pete Seeger and The Kingston trio known to have performed this it clearly has a life across the Atlantic as well.

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“A great drinking song.” That’s Jon’s simple intro to this while he notes Forest School Camps as his source, which made me wonder exactly what they get up at said events! Anyway, that’s two drinking songs on the bounce. This one seems to be pretty well documented and this Wiki entry is interesting, questioning the possible association with either smugglers or the more well-to-do on account of the relative expense of brandy and rum. There are some possibly unnecessary rumblings on this Mudcat thread, but the end of it seems to nail this down to the early C19^th. With its opening request to “Come all you bold heroes…” this possibly has something of the military and perhaps the officers’ mess about it. The timing might suggest a post Napoleonic celebration, with father beneath the sea possibly at Trafalgar, with the Pax Britannica bringing in the name-checked, exotic goodies. That might also explain the stability of the song if it was a) passed down between officers (or perhaps even just the rank and file), and b) had little chance outside of those circles to go through the folk process. Well, it’s a theory of sorts. Still, charge my punch glass… Oh no! We’ve done that one already.

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