Archive for January, 2015

Bungay Roger


2015
01.26

Jon says, ”I am of the view that it’s better to bastardise a good dialect song than to not sing it at all. This is a bizarre Norfolk music-hall number done in full Norfolk dress by Bellamy. This is a pale imitation but good fun to sing nonetheless.”

Again somewhat self effacing from Jon and I don’t have Peter’s version at hand to compare, but as you’d expect Mainly Norfolk covers the Bellamy angle and notes that this was one of the most collected songs in East Anglia. It’s also known as Mudley Barracks as this Mudcat thread makes clear. There’s an interesting post half way down as this shares much in common in sentiment  with The Awkward Recruit, which is  of course done by Mawkin:Causley on their album of the same name. The suggestion is that this is a direct descendent, which makes sense as it’s a sort of simplified and more obviously comic take on the lot of the disgruntled soldier, although shares a desire to be back on the farm. The Awkward Recruit is much more a soldiers’ song, however, and actually ends quite heroically.
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Some Tyrant Has Stolen My True Love Away


2015
01.25

Jon Says, “A beautiful song that I listened to fairly obsessively on Eliza Carthy’s Red Rice album. I never got around to learning it so have done so now, albeit a different version. I couldn’t resist the last verse.”

This seems to relate to the war of American independence and this Mudcat thread would indicate a broadside for the mid C17th. There have, however, been several different versions of this and also different sources. It’s another that seems to have floating verses and a mixed purpose as you can see from the Steeleye version at Mainly Norfolk, where the tyrant has become a rival. Still it’s stirring stuff. I think the last verse is a much later addition.
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Two Magicians


2015
01.24

This is Child #44 and Jon says, “Paul made me learn this. It’s not a particular favourite of mine but it does have a good punchy chorus. I’m generally in favour of songs about shape-shifting but I think I prefer the Steeleye melody.”

A version of this was recorded for Hedonism, but didn’t make the cut. There are two very distinct versions being discussed here and the one that Jon sings follows on from Martin Carthy who in turn followed Bert Lloyd. Carthy credits Bert as you’ll see on Mainly Norfolk and Bert also tellingly wrote, “…the ballad dwindled away, but it seemed too good a song to remain unused, so I brushed it up and fitted a tune, and now it appears to have started a new life.” That explains the “Bide Lady bide” version. I wonder therefore whether the Steeleye recording is the version collected by Cecil Sharp referred to in this Mudcat thread. I’d agree with Jon on the melody but for the fact that one of the first records I came across when I started working for Proper was Rosie Doonan and Ben Murray’s excellent Mill Lane. It’s an underrated gem in my book that didn’t get the exposure it deserved with a cracking version of this that has rattled around my head for the last five years and more. Anyway this Wiki link is interesting too and makes it clear that the ballad had already been collected before Child. If you follow the page down there are interesting links to more on the shape shifting  mythology, worth following through if you have the time.
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I Drew My Ship


2015
01.23

You’ll probably know this from Matachin and Jon says, “We pinched this for a rather poppy Bellowhead number, from a very delicate banjo and voice version by Shirley Collins. I think it’s an American version.”

In fact it came from John Stokoe’s Songs And Ballads Of Northern England as you’ll see from the original notes on Mainly Norfolk. Shirley, June Tabor and Eliza have all done fairly similar versions of this and Bellowhead’s follows suit (a lovely arrangement), so naturally does Jon’s. Ossian and Capercaillie have also  recorded much longer versions of this, which explore the reasons for the rejections and subsequent regret. This Mudcat thread covers that and more and is interesting about the whole folk process with a section from ‘Borrowing In Celtic Music’ by Alan Moore offering particular insight. Right at the end someone points out thav this has the simple addition of ships to Cocks Are Crowing .  We’ve also had the flying fish and melting rocks before, which seems to be a Biblical reference, if only I could remember where!!

 

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John Ball


2015
01.22

Here’s one to stir the radicals, written by Sydney Carter, who apparently also gave us Lord Of The Dance and Jon says, “This was sung most nights in the Half Moon in the days when Ian Giles and myself lived upstairs. Happy days.”

The John Ball in question here is the Lollard priest who became associated with Watt Tyler’s Peasants Revolt. Chris Wood included this on his excellent Trespassers CD and he’s joined by Karine Polwart on this track. You can read about John Ball on Wiki here and note his gruesome demise, perhaps as you’d expect. The thrust of this song comes from a sermon that Ball preached to the rebels at Blackheath that included the question “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?” A link to Mudcat here is most interesting in several ways. There’s more information about the author, a Quaker apparently and that this was written on the 500 year anniversary of the Peasants Revolt. I note with great irony that the song has been removed from Mudcat at the insistence of the American copyright holders. That may be in response to Michael Flatley’s Riverdance, but seems so utterly contrary to the sentiment of this song. I am not in any way in favour of stealing music but in this case I wonder who the beneficiary is. I am, therefore, moved to suggest a mass trespass. Anyone who can should sing this out, loud and proud, but learn it quick or buy the Chris Wood CD (you should do that anyway if you can) and learn it from there, as I wonder whether we will be able to keep this track up.

 

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